Building a Web Site For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Compressing Files

Windows Movie Maker is a quick and painless way to familiarize yourself with the various factors that affect file size and the ways these factors can create a good or bad Web experience for your visitors. A full exploration of video preparation is outside the scope of this book, so if you’re interested in delving more deeply into working with Web video, check out Digital Video For Dummies, 4th Edition, by Keith Underdahl (Wiley Publishing).

To experiment with various settings and see how they affect file size, follow these steps:

1.	In Windows Movie Maker, select a movie by clicking its icon. (See Figure 9-2.) Figure 9-2. Choosing a movie in Windows Movie Maker. [View full size image]
2.	Click the Save to My Computer link on the left side of the screen. The Save Movie Wizard appears, shown in Figure 9-3. Figure 9-3. The Save Movie Wizard guides you through the process. [View full size image]
3.	Enter a filename for your movie in the first text box.
4.	If you don’t want to save your videos in the My Videos folder, the default setting in the second text box, click the Browse button and choose a different location.
5.	Click the Next button. On the next page, the default setting Best Quality for Playback on My Computer is selected, as shown in Figure 9-4. Figure ...