While the right hand of MS is pushing the use of "home server" technology etal, the elbow seems to think that most consumers/prosumers keep all their photos on local drives. [Albeit that I "ditto" all the other "complaints" of AutoCollage's selection/output limitations,] To have to copy any photos back onto a user's local drive is not only a time-consuming chore, it just seems so "yesterday" to only allow selection from local drives.
Right now, I'd say it's a fun tool to use to produce a quick collage to send to families/friends who aren't really fussy/picky about which photos etc., but if you care whether this research project continues, it's important to not only listen to, but also include what many users now consider taken-for-granted can do's/features.
That's my input [for now]!
... WuJo
Hi WuJo,
Thanks for trying the Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008 application and taking the time to provide your feedback to our team.
We will definitely consider this and all other customer feedback for future updates and releases.
Alisson.Sol
I agree with the need to be able to access network drives. I have several years of photos that I have on a server and it would be really nice to be able to access the photos from there.
Joel WZ
As an aside, some of the reasons why network folders weren't supported in v. 1.0 are discussed in the thread http://community.research.microsoft.com/forums/t/1842.aspx. When networks are well-behaved, it's a relatively easy feature to support. It's the corner cases which make it difficult.
thanks for your feedback!