Importing and arranging your pictures
If you are creating a new video story, first select the pictures you want to use. You can import pictures from your computer, a network folder, or an MSN® Groups Web site. For each story, you can import up to 300 pictures, which can be files with .bmp, .dib, .eps, .gif, .jhif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .pcd, .pcx, .png, .psd, .rle, .tga, and .tif file name extensions.
After you import your pictures, you can arrange them on the Photo Story film strip in the order you want them to be displayed. Then you can use the editing tools to edit, enhance, rotate, and crop your pictures.
To import and arrange your pictures
- On the Import and arrange your pictures page, click Import Pictures.
- In the File Browser dialog box, do one of the following:
- On the All Files tab, click the folder in which your pictures are located. Select one or more pictures, and then click OK.
- Click the MSN Groups tab. If required, sign in by using your Microsoft .NET Passport. Locate the MSN Groups Web site that contains your pictures, and then click OK. For more information about using MSN Groups, see Importing pictures from MSN Groups.
Your pictures appear in the film strip at the bottom of the page. If you import more pictures, Photo Story adds them at the end of the film strip.
If you want Photo Story to remove black borders from your pictures by automatically cropping them, click the Remove black borders button
.
The button is available if Photo Story detects that some pictures in your story do not have a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is the relation of the width to the height of the picture.
- After you click the Remove black borders button, Photo Story displays each picture with the black border removed in the Removing Black Borders dialog box. Do one of the following:
- If you want to use the automatically cropped picture shown in the After box in your story, click Yes.
- If you want to crop the picture differently, in the Before box, drag a handle of the rectangle to the area of the picture that you want to appear, and then click Yes.
- If you want to use all the automatically cropped pictures without previewing them first, click Yes to All.
- If you do not want to use the cropped picture shown in the After box and you want to move to the next picture in your story, click No.
- To view the pictures in the film strip, use the scroll bar located below the strip.
- To view your pictures individually in the picture preview area, click a picture in the film strip, or click the Previous Picture button
or the Next Picture button
.
- If you want to enhance the appearance of a picture, click on the following buttons at the bottom of the picture preview area:
- Correct Color Levels

- Correct Red Eye

- Rotate Counterclockwise

- Rotate Clockwise

- To make additional changes such as correcting contrast or adding an effect to your picture, click the Edit button, and then do one of the following in the Edit Pictures dialog box:
- To correct contrast, click the Auto Fix tab, and then in the Correct Contrast box, click On.
- To add an effect that changes the appearance of your picture such as Water Color or Black and White, click the Add Effect tab, and then click an effect.
When you are done editing your pictures, click Save to save the changes made to your pictures, and then click Close to exit the Edit Pictures dialog box.
- On the Import and arrange your pictures page, to change the order of the pictures in the film strip, click a picture, and then drag it to a new location.
Photo Story marks the currently selected picture on the film strip with a dark border. If you drag the picture to a location that is already occupied by another picture, Photo Story inserts the picture you are dragging after the location if you are dragging the picture to the right and before the location if you are dragging the picture to the left.
- To delete any of the pictures you imported, click the picture, and then click the Delete button
or press the DELETE key.
Photo Story also deletes any narration, and anything else associated with the picture. Music is deleted from the story only if the picture is the anchor image for the music.
- Click Next.
If you want to return to the previous page, click Back.
Notes
- Rather than clicking Import Pictures, you can open the folder where your pictures are located, click the pictures you want to import, and then drag them to the Import and arrange your pictures page. You cannot, however, drag picture files with the following file name extensions to the Import and arrange your pictures page: .tga, .psd, .eps, .pcd, and .pcx. You must click the Import Pictures button to import those files.
- You can also import pictures from your Digital Image Library if Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 is installed on your computer and you have opened the Digital Image Library. To import pictures from your Digital Image Library, in the File Browser dialog box, click the Digital Image Library tab.
- You can select and move only one picture at a time in the film strip. In addition to dragging a picture to a new location, you can click a picture, and move it by clicking either the Move Forward button
or the Move Back button
on the right side of the film strip.
- If you do not want to use any of the edits made to a picture while using the Edit Pictures dialog box, click the Reset button to restore the appearance of the original picture. Note that clicking the Reset button discards all edits of the selected picture made on all of the tabs in the Edit Pictures dialog box.
- You can edit all of the pictures in your story before closing the Edit Pictures dialog box by clicking the Go to Next Picture button
or the Go to Previous Picture button
, editing and saving the picture, and then going to the next or previous picture.
- If you return to the Import and arrange your pictures page after editing, narrating, or adding a title or music for the pictures, pictures with enhancements appear dimmed in the film strip. Symbols that represent the enhancements made to a picture appear underneath the picture in the film strip. Pictures with narration or customized motion also show the length of time a picture will be displayed when the final story is played.
- You can save a project for your story at any time while working on the story by clicking the Save Project button. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the project. You must save a project for your story to be able to edit it later. Projects created by using Photo Story 3 for Windows must use a .wp3 file name extension. Otherwise, Photo Story will not be able to open the file. By default, the project for your story is saved in your My Videos folder.
Related topics
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