Keeping the vacation memories alive
Another way of keeping the memories alive after your vacation is to turn your computer’s desktop background into a running slide show of all your best vacation photos. That’s what I do, with the computer serving up a new photo every few minutes.
This is easy to do.
In Windows
If you have Windows as your operating system, simply create a new folder. I suggest calling it “Desktops”, but you can call it whatever will be meaningful to you.
Right-click in any open space on the desktop (i.e. not on an icon, folder or shortcut) and select “Personalize” from the menu that pops up. This may be called by slightly different names in different versions of Windows but it should be pretty self-explanatory.
Go to the section for Desktop or Wallpaper (again, depending on what version of Windows you are using). Select for it to use photos from the folder you’ve created. In the folder, hit “Select All” and set it to change every 5 minutes and to display the photos in random order.
If you don’t select random order, you may get tired of the slide show more quickly.
Unfortunately in Windows, whenever you add new photos to the folder (i.e. from another vacation) you may have to repeat this process because Windows won’t automatically add new photos to the slideshow queue.
Sailboats floating majestically around Halifax harbor, Nova Scotia.
In Mac
In Mac it’s even easier to create a slideshow on your desktop. In either iPhoto or Photos, depending which version of OS X you are using, create an album called “Desktops” (or whatever other name is meaningful to you.)
Add your best vacation photos to this album.
Go into system preferences and select “Desktop and Screen Saver” from the top row of settings. On the desktop tab, navigate to Photos then Albums then to the album you created.
Check the boxes to change the picture every five minutes and to present them in random order. Close the window and you’re done. When you add new photos to the album (i.e. from another vacation), OS X will pick them up automatically and add them into the rotation.
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