INSTALL AND CONFIGURE
WINDOWS LIVE PHOTO GALLERY
To get Windows Live Photo Gallery,
go to the Microsoft Live website (get.
live.com) and click the Get Windows
Live button at the bottom of the page. By
default, all Windows Live products except
Family Safety for Windows Live OneCare are
preselected. If you want only WLPG, uncheck
the other options and click Install.
Download the application to your desk-
top and double-click it to fi re up WLPG (Vista
users will also need to provide administrator-
level credentials if User Account Control
is enabled.) The installer will display the
programs you selected and off er a fi nal
chance to install any applications you might
have neglected to check the fi rst time around.
Choose what you need, then sit back and re-
lax while Photo Gallery and supporting tools
are downloaded and installed.
WLPG might ask if it should open vari-
ous types of image fi les. If you want to set
it as the default photo-opening program for
your PC, click Yes to continue. On Windows
Vista, WLPG displays all the videos it fi nds
in the current user’s Videos folder and the
Public Videos folder. On Windows XP, WLPG
displays the videos in the current user’s My
Videos and Shared Videos folders.
To work with videos stored in other
folders (such as videos made with Windows
Media Center), click File, select the “Include
a folder in the gallery” option, and browse
to the folder you want to add to the gallery,
such as Public\Recorded TV. Click OK aft er
highlighting the folder. Click OK to close the
“This folder has been added to the gallery”
dialog. Repeat as needed to add folders on
local or network drives.
ADD TAGS AND SEARCH
BY TAGS
Tags are key words that describe a
video or group of videos. They pro-
vide an eff ective means of video
organization and searchability. To create
a tag in WLPG, click the Create a New Tag
link in the left pane and type in the name
of the tag. Repeat the process for each new
tag you want to create. Use tags to indicate
subject, location, format—any identifi er
that would be useful.
You can apply your tags to any video
(or still image) in your collection by select-
ing the fi le and dragging it from the center
pane to the tag of your choice in the left
pane. Property tagname appears when
you’re holding videos over a tag as a confi r-
mation that, yes, this is the tag you want to
add to the videos. Release the mouse, and
the tag is applied to the selected video clip
or photo. You can add multiple tags to any
video clip (or photo).
You also add tags to a video clip by
right-clicking the clip and selecting Add
Tags from the context menu. Add Tags
fulfills the same role as the Create a New
Tag option. Any tags you’ve already cre-
ated for the clip will auto-populate in the
text box; simply enter a new tag to join
the ones you already created.
Once you’ve tagged your video clips,
it’s easy to fi nd the clips you want by select-
ing the related tags—expand the tag menu
in the left pane and click the tag you’re
interested in. Only videos (or photos) with
the matching tag will be shown.1
2