E-Cards are easier than ever
CRESWELL- E-cards, or "electronic cards," have continued to grow in popularity along with email as an easy and convenient way to stay in touch with family and friends over a long distance. E-cards are usually free to send, with a simple click of the Send button. The only draw back is the occasional advertisement or banner ad attached to the card. Today we will discuss a more convenient and simpler way to create and send your personalized card.
Robert Bolanos
All Things Computing
PO Box 916
Creswell, OR 97426
541.556.7564
www.atcsite.com
Imagine creating a slide show from photos of your wife and family. Each slide covering your years together from courtship, your wedding, birth of your kids and beyond. You have Kenny Rogers “Through the Years” playing in the background softly. The last slide ends with a shot of you and your wife together at your favorite romantic spot with the caption,” Love you always, thanks for many wonderful years”.
Are you crying yet? Sound impressive? You can create one easily as well using Microsoft’s Windows Photos Story 3 available as a free download.
Step 1: Collect your content
Begin by creating a folder in your My Documents folder or on the Desktop where you will save all the components of your slide show, including photos, music, video clips and Word documents (perhaps containing a special poem or note).
Windows XP users have folders that store media and other files. Open Windows Explorer (by right-clicking the Start menu and choosing Explore). There you will see the My Music, My Videos, My Pictures and My Documents folders. Drag and drop the desired files from those folders into your newly created project folder.
Step 2: Assemble your e-card
As I mentioned earlier, there are dozens of e-card sites on the Internet. But for ease of use, elimination of ads or banners and ability to create a project without having to be online Windows Photo Story is hard to beat. In just a few moments, you will have created your first slide show.
Once you install and launch the program you can choose to Begin a New Story, Edit a Story or Play a Story. Choose Begin a New Story and click Next. From here the process is pretty straightforward, starting with importing photos. To import photos, choose the folder your photos reside in. Once imported, you can edit each photo, add special filters and choose the order in which they appear. You can also add special pan, zoom and transition sequences for a more professional look.
You can also add captions or notes and edit the text's font, size, color and location.
If your computer has a microphone, you can record personalized messages for the photos by clicking the Record button. You can also add music from your personal files, downloads, CDs, or by using any of the generic melodies included in the Photo Story 3 library.
Preview and save your "card," or click the back button to make changes.
Step 3: Sending your card
When you've finished creating your slide show you can choose one of several options to send it.Photo Story 3 offers a few sending options, including the ability to copy the video file to a Pocket PC enables phone, PDA or Portable Media Center device. But chances are you will prefer to send the card via e-mail or access it on a CD or DVD. You can email the card from within Photo Story 3, and the e-card attachment will be compressed to reduce long download times and can be easily played back on Windows Media Player.
If you want to view the card on your own computer or burn it to a CD or DVD for viewing on another PC, save the e-card to a folder on your hard drive.
If your recipient doesn't have a computer, the CD or DVD slide show can be played on most home and PC DVD players. To create this you'll need an optional video CD/DVD creation tool like Nero Express, Roxio or Sonic available for less than $25 online.
Photo Story is a simple to use tool and best of all its free to download. Personalized cards and notes are always a great gift and multimedia e-cards are a popular choice. Now you can make you own and share them as you choose. Enjoy.
CRESWELL- E-cards, or "electronic cards," have continued to grow in popularity along with email as an easy and convenient way to stay in touch with family and friends over a long distance. E-cards are usually free to send, with a simple click of the Send button. The only draw back is the occasional advertisement or banner ad attached to the card. Today we will discuss a more convenient and simpler way to create and send your personalized card.
Robert Bolanos
All Things Computing
PO Box 916
Creswell, OR 97426
541.556.7564
www.atcsite.com
Imagine creating a slide show from photos of your wife and family. Each slide covering your years together from courtship, your wedding, birth of your kids and beyond. You have Kenny Rogers “Through the Years” playing in the background softly. The last slide ends with a shot of you and your wife together at your favorite romantic spot with the caption,” Love you always, thanks for many wonderful years”.
Are you crying yet? Sound impressive? You can create one easily as well using Microsoft’s Windows Photos Story 3 available as a free download.
Step 1: Collect your content
Begin by creating a folder in your My Documents folder or on the Desktop where you will save all the components of your slide show, including photos, music, video clips and Word documents (perhaps containing a special poem or note).
Windows XP users have folders that store media and other files. Open Windows Explorer (by right-clicking the Start menu and choosing Explore). There you will see the My Music, My Videos, My Pictures and My Documents folders. Drag and drop the desired files from those folders into your newly created project folder.
Step 2: Assemble your e-card
As I mentioned earlier, there are dozens of e-card sites on the Internet. But for ease of use, elimination of ads or banners and ability to create a project without having to be online Windows Photo Story is hard to beat. In just a few moments, you will have created your first slide show.
Once you install and launch the program you can choose to Begin a New Story, Edit a Story or Play a Story. Choose Begin a New Story and click Next. From here the process is pretty straightforward, starting with importing photos. To import photos, choose the folder your photos reside in. Once imported, you can edit each photo, add special filters and choose the order in which they appear. You can also add special pan, zoom and transition sequences for a more professional look.
You can also add captions or notes and edit the text's font, size, color and location.
If your computer has a microphone, you can record personalized messages for the photos by clicking the Record button. You can also add music from your personal files, downloads, CDs, or by using any of the generic melodies included in the Photo Story 3 library.
Preview and save your "card," or click the back button to make changes.
Step 3: Sending your card
When you've finished creating your slide show you can choose one of several options to send it.Photo Story 3 offers a few sending options, including the ability to copy the video file to a Pocket PC enables phone, PDA or Portable Media Center device. But chances are you will prefer to send the card via e-mail or access it on a CD or DVD. You can email the card from within Photo Story 3, and the e-card attachment will be compressed to reduce long download times and can be easily played back on Windows Media Player.
If you want to view the card on your own computer or burn it to a CD or DVD for viewing on another PC, save the e-card to a folder on your hard drive.
If your recipient doesn't have a computer, the CD or DVD slide show can be played on most home and PC DVD players. To create this you'll need an optional video CD/DVD creation tool like Nero Express, Roxio or Sonic available for less than $25 online.
Photo Story is a simple to use tool and best of all its free to download. Personalized cards and notes are always a great gift and multimedia e-cards are a popular choice. Now you can make you own and share them as you choose. Enjoy.
