Slide shows are an extremely popular way to share digital photos because they replicate the old-time experience of gathering around a 35mm slide projector and gazing at images on a portable screen – only now you can watch your slides while sitting in front of your television or computer display.
Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system comes with all the tools a person needs to create, play, and save a serviceable (though admittedly somewhat pedestrian) slide show. If Windows’ meagre tools leave you longing for more bells and whistles to tinker with, however, we’ll show you how to put together a pull-out-all-the-stops slide show – one that includes transitions, captions, sound tracks, and other effects – using Roxio’s Easy Media Creator 7, a program you may already use for burning CDs.
The Windows Way
1. Keep it simple: To make a rudimentary slide show in Windows XP, just open your My Pictures folder or any folder holding your photos. Then choose View as a slide show in the Picture Tasks list in the pane on the left side of the screen (A).
2. Change speed: The pictures in that folder display at full-screen size, one at a time; by default, they advance every 5 seconds. If you’re trying to narrate a slide show and find that the images change too quickly, simply move the mouse pointer to the top-right corner of the screen and click the pause button in the controls that appear.
3. Share it on CD: To export your slide show to other XP users, put the pictures in a folder and click Copy to CD in the Picture Tasks pane (B). Next, put a disc in your CD-RW drive, and double-click the drive’s icon in My Computer. In the CD Writing Tasks pane, click Write these files to CD (C). The slide show will play automatically when the disc is reinserted in a drive.
4. Play it on TV: The easiest way to play your slide show on a TV is to plug your PC into your TV set’s S-Video port. Or If your camera has a video connection cable, plug the camera into your PC and copy the slide-show pictures to your camera’s memory card. Then plug the camera into your TV and use the camera’s playback controls.
Spice it up with Roxio
1. Add pictures and video: Open Easy Media Creator 7 and click Create slideshow. To choose content for your slide show, select the folder holding the pictures you want to use and drag the images to the Storyline at the bottom of the Media Selector screen. Roxio lets you add video clips as well as pictures to your slide show, so feel free to drag any one of those short videos that your camera records into your slide show the same way you would add a still shot.
2. Apply a sound track: To add an MP3, WMA, or other digital music file to your slide show, drag the track to a space between pictures in the Storyline. Note that if you place the file on a particular picture, your music will play only while that photo is being shown.
3. Add titles and captions: To pick a text style, click the text icon on the Media Selector toolbar. Drag your choice of style to a slide in the Storyline to open the Text Editor. Enter your text, click the Path tab, and use its controls to make text fade in or out, or fly around. To add a caption to a screen, click the text lock in the top-left corner of the Text Editor, and then position the text where you want it to go.
4. Finish with transitions: Click Easy Media Creator 7’s transitions button to find dozens of effects you can drag from the Media Selector to the transition icons between pictures in the Storyline. Double-click any transition in the Storyline to change its duration.
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