Create a family photo gallery

If you frequently share photos with others, you know that e-mailing photos can quickly become a chore and will fill up the inboxes of the people you send them to in no time. Happily, there's an easier way to share photos with others: create an online photo gallery.

Creating an online photo gallery is fairly easy to do, and it will allow your family and friends to view your pictures at any time that is convenient for them. The Web has many online photo gallery options, such as MSN Spaces, Flickr, Shutterfly, and MyFamily.com. Let's take a look at MSN Spaces to see an example of how to set up an online gallery.

Set up a space at MSN Spaces

To set up a family photo gallery at MSN Spaces, follow these steps:

1.	Open Internet Explorer, and visit MSN Spaces at http://spaces.msn.com/.
2.	Click Sign Up.
3.	If prompted, log in with your .NET Passport. If you don't have a .NET Passport, click Get one now, and follow the prompts that appear.
4.	On the Create your space page, type a title for your space, create a unique URL, choose your time zone, read the Spaces Service Agreement, and then (if you accept) select the I accept the Spaces Service Agreement check box. Then click Create your space.
5.	On the Congratulations page, specify who can see your space by clicking Change Permissions.
6.	On the Permissions page, click one of the three options: • Public. Click this option if you want everyone on the Internet to be able to see your pictures. • Messenger. Click this option if you use MSN Messenger to chat with your family and you want everyone on your MSN Messenger Allow list to be able to see your pictures. • Private. Click this option if you want to specify who can view your pictures. Then, from your MSN Address Book, select the names of the people you want to be able to visit your photo album.
7.	Click Save to view your new space.

How to create a family photo album at MSN Spaces

Once you have set up a free space at MSN Spaces, you can create a family photo album and upload your pictures by following these steps.

1.	On your MSN Spaces Web page, under Photo album, click Create.
2.	In the Album title box, type a name for your album, such as "Our Family Pictures."
3.	Click Add photos.
4.	The first time you upload pictures, you will be prompted to install the MSN Photo Upload Control. Click Install Now.
5.	If the installation does not begin, look for the Internet Explorer Information bar at the top of the window. Click the Information bar, and then click Install ActiveX Control.
6.	When prompted, click Install.
7.	In the left pane, click the folder containing your family photos. In the right pane, select each picture you want to publish in your family photo album by clicking the upper-left corner of the picture to add a check mark. If you want to publish all the pictures in the folder, click Select All.
8.	When you have selected your pictures, click Upload Now. Your computer will send the pictures to MSN Spaces.
9.	If you want to add pictures from different folders, click Add photos, and then repeat steps 7 and 8. When you are done adding pictures, click Save and Close.

Now your family pictures are available for anyone to view.

With your family photo album ready, all you have to do is send the link to your friends and family. At the top of the MSN Spaces page, click Tell a Friend to send the link in an e-mail message to your friends and family.

Viewing your photos in MSN Spaces

By default, your pictures appear in the upper-right corner of your space. To view a larger slideshow, click your photo album, and then click the View Full-Sized Photos button.

When the slideshow appears, move your mouse over the pictures to view the slideshow controls. You can click the buttons to start or stop the slideshow or to manually view different photos.

Other online photo gallery options

Here's a preview of three other online photo gallery services that are similar to MSN Spaces.

Flickr

Flickr is a photo-sharing community. Like similar sites, Flickr lets you share pictures with your family, friends, or the entire Internet.

Flickr also has unique features that set it apart from these other sites. You can add notes to pictures, which is a great way to introduce your family to your friends. When you add notes, your family members can move their pointers over a picture and see everyone's names.

Private group photo pools allow anyone in your family to add pictures to a group. That's a great way to collect everyone's pictures after an event such as a wedding or a family reunion. Because the groups are private, only people you've invited can see the pictures.

Free Flickr accounts are limited in the number of pictures you can share, but you can pay a small annual fee to share an unlimited number of pictures.

Shutterfly

Shutterfly lets you share pictures with your family for free, and makes it easy for anyone to have prints delivered to their home. This is perfect if you have a hard time remembering to send pictures to your family. Finally your parents will have all the pictures of their grandchildren they could ever want, and you won't have to lift a finger.

Just upload your pictures using the drag-and-drop interface, and then click Share online to send an invitation to your family members. They'll receive an e-mail with a link to view and order your pictures.

MyFamily.com

MyFamily.com allows you to share pictures, news, recipes, opinions, and more with your family. While the other sites allow you to create a personal photo album that you can share with your family, MyFamily.com is a true family photo album, because any family member can upload their own pictures.

MyFamily.com's capabilities extend far beyond sharing pictures. For example, you can keep a calendar with important family events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and sporting events. You can even schedule online conversations so that everyone in the family can meet online at a scheduled time and chat live. A free, 30-day trial to MyFamily.com is available; however, you will need to pay a recurring fee after the trial has expired.

Find the online photo gallery that works best for your needs and start sharing your photos around the world!

Tony Northrup is a writer, Internet engineer, and digital photography enthusiast. Tony has a decade of experience making networks and servers connected to the Internet run smoothly. He has authored and co-authored eight books about using Windows and has written dozens of articles about Internet technologies. When he's not on his deck writing, he toys with home-automation technologies and takes pictures for display in a Web photo album. He lives in the Boston area with his wife Erica and cat Sammy. You can learn more about Tony by visiting his Web site at http://www.northrup.org.

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