8.4. Network-Based Library Sharing and Portable Device Syncing
You can also share your photos with other
Windows–based PCs on your home network, and with compatible devices
like the Xbox 360. You can also synchronize photos with a compatible
portable device. However, these features are actually exposed through
Windows Media Player, not Windows Live Photo Gallery.
8.5. Sharing with E-mail
If you'd like to send a picture or group of pictures
to friends or others, you can use the built-in e-mail sharing
capabilities of Photo Gallery. As always, select the pictures you'd
like to send first, and then click the E-mail button in the toolbar.
The Attach Files dialog, shown in Figure 54,
will appear. Here, you can choose how or whether to resize your images
for transit, which is likely a good idea, as many of today's digital
photos are quite large. Several picture size options are available,
including Smaller (640 × 480), Small (800 × 600), Medium (1024 × 768,
which is the default), Large (1280 × 1024), and Original Size. As you
select a size, the total estimated size will change so you can gauge
whether you're sending too many pictures at once.
After your selection, click Attach and a new e-mail message will appear in Windows Live Mail or whatever e-mail application you've specified as the default.
8.6. Sharing on the Web: Services Integration
As you might expect of a Windows Live application,
Windows Live Photo Gallery offers unique integration points with other
Windows Live online services, especially Windows Live Photos,
Microsoft's photo-sharing service. Perhaps more impressive, it also
offers some integration with non-Microsoft online services. It's time
to examine this integration.
We previously discussed that Windows Live Photo
Gallery allows you to log on to your Windows Live ID account using a
handy Sign in link in the upper-right corner of the application. This
is entirely optional (as are the other Windows Live integration
features), but if you do use a Windows Live ID, you might find it
convenient to automatically log on each time you use Windows Live Photo
Gallery. Doing so will give you access to the other services with which
this application integrates, meaning you won't have to manually log on
later.
Most of the integration points are accessible via
the Publish toolbar button. From here, you can publish photos online in
the following ways:
Online album:
Any selected photo(s) will be published to Microsoft's Windows Live
Photos service and added to an existing album or a new album. As shown
in Figure 55,
you can choose the upload size of the pictures (Original, Large, and
Medium) in addition to the album in which they will be placed.
Group album:
Any selected photo(s) will be published to Windows Live Groups, a
Microsoft online service for groups of individuals who share similar
hobbies or interests.
Event album: Any selected photo(s) will be published to Windows Live Events, Microsoft's events service.
Soapbox on MSN video: Any selected video(s) will be published to MSN Soapbox, Microsoft's answer to YouTube (http://soapbox.msn.com).
The Publish wizard that appears lets you provide a title, a
description, and up to five tags, and then select category and
permission levels.
More Services:
If you haven't bought into the Microsoft ecosystem, this will be the
most interesting option because it's the gateway to non-Microsoft
services. Only one service, the Flickr photo-sharing site, is available
off the bat, but you can download add-ons that make Windows Live Photo
Gallery compatible with a variety of non-Microsoft online services,
including such popular sites as Facebook (photos), YouTube (videos),
SmugMug (photos), Google Picasa Web Albums (photos) and others. To see
what's available, click Publish => More Services => Add a plug-in.
