Saving Your Story

One of the most important steps in producing your story is choosing how the world will see it.  Fortunately, Photo Story makes this a straight-forward process for most uses.  However, you need to understand what each "Activity" really means for the quality of your output.  The most obvious separation that Photo Story draws is the intended device. 

Save your story for playback on your computer.

Every profile from every activity on your computer is available in the Settings dialog box. If you intend to play your story on your computer, in the Settings dialog box, select the profile that is recommended for your computer. If you select a profile that requires a computer that is more powerful than your computer, a message may be displayed indicating that Photo Story cannot create the story. Try closing other programs and free up space on your hard disk. If the problem persists, try selecting another profile.

If you intend to save your story on your computer, and then create a Video CD (VCD) or a DVD, in the Settings dialog box, select the profile that is recommended for your VCD or DVD player. Then import the story into another VCD or DVD authoring program that supports WMV files and burn the story onto a CD or DVD.

If you intend to save your story on your computer, and then attach it to an e-mail message or copy it to a portable device, we recommend that you choose another activity that is optimized for these tasks in the Activities list instead.

Send the story in an e-mail message.

If possible, Photo Story compresses your story to be one megabyte (MB) or less because some e-mail service providers do not allow users to send files that are larger than 1 MB. However, you can select a profile that results in a story that is more than 1 MB. After Photo Story builds your story, on the Completing Photo Story 3 for Windows page, click Continue to e-mail your story. If your e-mail program is configured, Photo Story opens an e-mail message in which your story is attached. If your e-mail program is not configured, you can save your story by clicking Save your story on the Completing Photo Story 3 for Windows page, and then send the story in an e-mail message after you configure your e-mail program.

Save your story for playback on a Pocket PC with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

Photo Story builds your story using a profile that is appropriate for your Pocket PC with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile installed. Photo Story saves the story to the location on your computer that you specified. You must use another program to copy the story from this location to your Pocket PC.

You can play the story built for this activity on a Pocket PC that has Windows Media Player 10 Mobile installed.

If you want to play your stories on portable devices that do not have Windows Media Player 10 Mobile installed, you can use Microsoft Windows Movie Maker to import your story, and then save it by using the Windows Movie Maker Pocket PC profile.

Save your story for playback on a Smartphone with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

Photo Story builds your story using a profile that is appropriate for your device, and then saves the story to the location on your computer that you specified. You must use another program to copy the story to your Smartphone.

Save your story for playback on a Portable Media Center.

Photo Story builds your story using a profile that is appropriate for your device, and then saves the story to the location on your computer that you specified. You must use another program to copy the story to your Portable Media Center.