Sharing, Printing, and Searching
Many common photo-related activities
work consistently with similar features in other Metro apps, thanks to
the new system-wide capabilities in Windows 8. For example, when
viewing a photo, you can print it by accessing the Devices interface
(Winkey + K) or, more directly, the Print interface (Ctrl + P). Or you
can use the Share interface (Winkey + H) to share the photo with others
using a compatible Metro-style app, such as Mail.
There’s no way to search all sources simultaneously, though that would be very useful.
Likewise, the excellent Search functionality in
Windows 8 can be used in Photos to find particular pictures. If you
access the Search charm (Winkey + Q) while viewing a photo or from
within a particular folder, the Search pane that appears will search
only that folder. Search at the source level and it will search just
that source.
If you open the Search charm from outside the
Photos app and then select Photos from the list of apps in the Search
pane, you get a grid-based view of your Pictures library, filtered to
the search term, as shown in Figure 13.
Acquiring Photos from a Camera, Memory Card, or Other Device
If you’ve ever connected a digital
camera, a camera’s memory card, or another device (like a smartphone)
that contains pictures to Windows in the past, you know that
Microsoft’s desktop OS has long supported basic photo acquisition (or
what some people think of “downloading”) capabilities through desktop
apps like Photo Gallery. You can still do this, if you’d like. Or, you
can use the new Metro-based photo acquisition interface that’s
available through the Photos app.
When you plug in a compatible device that
contains photos, you’ll see a Metro-style notification flyover, or
“toast,” like that shown in Figure 14.
If you select this notification, you’ll see a window similar to that in Figure 15;
like the notification, this display can appear anywhere in Windows,
including Photos or other Metro-style apps, the Start screen, or the
Windows desktop.
The easiest way to find AutoPlay is to use
Windows Search: Type autoplay, select Settings, and then choose
AutoPlay from the results list.
You may want to use Photos as the default choice
when such a device is plugged into the PC, though we feel that you
should examine your choices before making such a decision. Remember
that you can always change what happens later using the AutoPlay control panel, though. So if you make a mistake, or want to change your selection later, you can do so.
For now, let’s just use Photos to manually
acquire photos from an attached camera, memory card, or other device.
To do so, launch the Photos app and then display the app bar. On the
far right side of this app bar, you’ll see an Import button. Click
this, and Photos will prompt you to choose a device, as in Figure 16.
Do so, and you’ll be presented with the full-screen interface shown in Figure 17. Here, you can determine which photos to acquire and what the folder name that contains them will be.
What you can’t do, of course, is configure other
photo acquisition options, and this is why we noted previously that you
may want to review your options first. Photos doesn’t let you name the
acquired photos to your liking (unless you happen to like the default,
which is to use awful, camera-based names). And it doesn’t let you
choose whether to delete the photos from the device once they’re
acquired. (They are not deleted.)
Click Import to acquire the photos.
When you’re done, you’re prompted to open the
folder containing the photos you just imported. This will happen in
Photos, of course, not in File Explorer on the desktop.
Put simply, the photo acquisition capabilities in
Photos are, well, basic. And if you want more control over this
process, as we do, you should consider using the free Photo Gallery
desktop application instead.
