Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows® XP Media Center®

Media Card Adapters

If your Media Center PC does not include any slots for reading memory cards, never

fear. Various external adapters are available (see Figure 17.6), most of which plug

conveniently into a USB port on your PC and allow instant access to a wide selection

of memory-card formats.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 17.6

External card

readers provide

an inexpensive

way to expand

your PC’s reper-

toire when it

comes to accept-

ing removable

memory devices.

Getting Your Photos into Media Center

Typically, plugging in your camera or a media card will produce the same result:

opening a pop-up window that offers you various action choices (see Figure 17.7).

This gives you a variety of ways to access your photos and make them available to

your Media Center’s software applications.

FIGURE 17.7

This pop-up win-

dow allows you

to choose which

action to take

when a camera

or removable

memory card is

recognized by

the Media

Center PC.

These are the choices:

■ Copy Pictures to a Folder on My Computer

Using Microsoft Scanner and Camera

Wizard

■ View a Slideshow of Images Using Windows

Picture and Fax Viewer

■ Print the Pictures Using Photo Printing

Wizard

■ Open and Edit the Pictures Using Microsoft

Picture It! Photo 7.0

■ View Pictures in Media Center Using Media

Center

■ Open Folder to View Files Using Windows

Explorer

■ Take No Action

To open your photos directly using Media Center’s

My Pictures interface, select the Using Media Center

option.

Now you’re looking at the photos stored in your

camera or on your removable media card using

the Media Center My Pictures interface (see

Figure 17.8). You have several options at your

disposal for viewing, sorting, and navigating to

other places where My Pictures typically looks

for photos.

Storing Your Photos

We’ll go into detail about the cool things you

can do with your photos using the My Pictures

interface in subsequent chapters. First let’s talk

about something you can’t do while using My

Pictures: store your photos. If you ever want to

view these photos in My Pictures a second time,

you will need to store them in a file folder where

My Pictures will look for them. There are two to

chose from: the My Pictures folder and the Shared Pictures folder. (The Other Media

tab will look for photos stored on removable media.)

CHAPTER 17 IMPORTING AND STORING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS

235

The option to open and

edit pictures using

Microsoft Picture It! appears only

if you have downloaded the free

software from Microsoft’s Web

site. Details on using the photo

editing application are discussed in

Chapter 20, “Customizing the My

Pictures Experience with Microsoft

Picture It!”

tip

Many digital cameras auto-

matically format removable

media cards using a file

structure that you may not

recognize when Media

Center initially opens and

allows you to view the

contents of the card. If you at first

see a file folder as opposed to

your actual photos, try double-

clicking on the folder until you

find where the pictures are stored.

The idea behind these two default folders for use

with the My Pictures interface is that each user

on the Media Center System has her own My

Pictures folder that only she can access, and she

can choose to share pictures with other users by

storing them in the Shared Pictures folder.

The easiest way to store your photos in one of

these folders for later viewing in Media Center’s

My Pictures interface is to go back to where you

attached the camera or inserted your media

card. This time, instead of choosing the option to

open them using Media Center, choose the

option Copy Pictures to a Folder on My Computer

Using Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard.

Using the Scanner and Camera Wizard

When the Scanner and Camera Wizard launches, it will display an opening screen

to advise you of its purpose. Click Next to view a catalog of your photos (see Figure

17.9). Now place a check mark next to the photos you want to transfer.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER

FIGURE 17.8

Selecting the

View Pictures in

Media Center

Using Media

Center option is

the quickest way

to open your

photos using the

My Pictures

interface.

tip

The selection screen in the

Scanner and Camera Wizard

also shows you buttons to

rotate photos 90 degrees to

the right or left, or to view

the properties of a particular

image.