Windows Live Photo Gallery is a great tool for editing, enhancing, organizing and sharing pictures. Most of the time the program does just what I want without selecting any options. So much so that I don’t even think about other settings. Maybe that is how it is with you. Here are a couple of ways to make organizing pictures a little easier.
After I have imported pictures from my camera I like to go through them, deleting the bad ones, and converting the ones I wish to share into JPG format. Oh, you are new at this? OK, a quick refresher:
Plug in the camera, AutoPlay comes up, select Import pictures and videos using Windows Live Photo Gallery.
There will be a number of options – a new folder is created and the pictures are transferred to that folder. WLPG opens and you are ready to go. I like to double-click on the first one so it is displayed big. If I don’t want to keep it there is the 
in the bottom toolbar to delete the picture. If I like the picture I make a copy in JPG format. That is File – Make a copy… – set Save as type: to JPG and give the picture a new name, although I usually accept the default.
Then a make a new folder forthe originals. I drag the originals to the new folder. This is where the default settings don’t work out so well. By default WLPG shows the pictures in the selected folder as well as the sub-folders. So the picture does not leave the main viewing pane. Besides, the thumbnail pictures do not show the file name, so it is hard to select the ones I want. Here is what it looks like:
So here is what to do:
Right-click on the folder name (not the sub-folder). The menu offers some options, the last one is
Select without subfolders. Click that.
Next right-click in the main pane top area.
Then select Thumbnails with file name. Now you may want to reduce the size of the thumbnails so you can see more of the pictures. You can use the slider control in the lower right.
Now you can identify the pictures easily. Select one, or more of the ones you want to move and just drag then to the sub-folder name.
I then edit the remaining pictures. That may include cropping, adjusting exposure and color, straightening the picture. Whatever I think it takes to make them into masterpieces.
Of course, I want to share them, so I select
Publish – Online album… Then the folder they should go into. And off they go.
Want to see my handiwork? Click on Photos above, then select the Springtime in the South folder. Or go directly to the slide show.
You may not think they are masterpieces – but, hey, some of us are just proud to get any pictures at all.
