Making Full-Blown Slide Shows

Earlier in the book, we looked at how to create a simple slide show from selected photos in the Organizer, but if you really want to create a slide show masterpiece, this is where you come.

Step One

Once you've clicked on the Create button (in the Organizer or Editor window) and the Creation Setup dialog appears, in the list of Creation types on the left, click on Slide Show, and then click the OK button.

Step Two

This brings up the Slide Show Preferences dialog, where you choose how you want your slide show set up. For example, at the top you choose how many seconds each slide will appear onscreen. Below that you choose the transition between slides (will it be a soft dissolve or a quick cut between photos), and how long your transition will last. A popular transition effect is called Pan & Zoom (which slowly moves [pans] your images across the screen), and to turn this on, select the checkbox for Apply Pan & Zoom to All Slides.

Step Three

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Once you click OK, the Slide Show Editor appears, and this is where you'll create your magic (okay, "magic" is probably pushing it a bit, but this is where you'll "do your stuff"). If you selected photos in the Organizer (or Editor) before you clicked the Create button, these photos will appear in the Slide Show Editor's Photo Bin at the bottom, as shown here (which means you can skip Step 4). If not, you'll notice a blank gray screen is staring at you. It's waiting for you to choose which images will appear in your slide show, so click on the Add Media button at the top of the window, select Photos and Videos from Organizer (or Folder), then navigate to the photos you want to use in your slide show.

Step Four

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If you choose to add photos from the Organizer, the Add Photos window will appear. This is where you choose which photos you want to add to your slide show. Note: If you selected photos in the Organizer before you clicked Create's Slide Show option, you can skip this step, because photos will already be imported into your slide showyou'll only use Add Photos if either (a) you don't have any photos in your slide show, or (b) you want to add another photo (or more) to your existing slide show. Click the checkbox beside each photo you want in your slide show, then click the Add Selected Photos button at the bottom of the window and click Done.

Step Five

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To see a quick sample of what your slide show looks like at this point (before you start customizing it), click the Play button beneath the main preview window. You'll see a slide show of your imported photos in the order they were imported, with whichever transitions you chose in the Slide Show Preferences dialog. To stop, click the Pause button (which appears where the Play button used to be). If you're not thrilled with your slide show, it's probably because you're only seeing the default slide show. The slides aren't in order; there's no background music; you haven't customized the slide show your way. Well, that's about to change, because it's time to tweak your slide show.

Step Six

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The first thing to do is put the slides in the order you want them. To do that, just click on a thumbnail in the Photo Bin at the bottom of the dialog and drag it where you want it (the slides play from left to right, so if you want a particular slide to be first, drag that slide all the way to the left). As you drag slides around in the Photo Bin, you'll see a bar indicating where the slide will appear when you release the mouse button.

Step Seven

With the slides in order, take a look directly beneath your photo thumbnails in the Photo Bin. You'll see "5 sec." That's telling you that this slide will stay onscreen for 5 seconds. If you want it onscreen for a shorter amount of time, just click directly on that number and a contextual menu of duration times will appear. If you want to apply a particular duration to all your slides (for example, you want them all to appear onscreen for 3 seconds), after you choose 3 sec for one slide, click on the time again for that slide and choose Set All Slides to 3 sec.

Step Eight

Finally, the fun partchoosing your transitions. You can go with the one you originally chose in the Slide Show Preferences, or you can choose a new one. To do that, click directly on the little right-facing triangle that appears to the right of the square transition box (which is between your slides in the Photo Bin). This brings up a pop-up menu of transitionsjust choose the one you want and it changes only that transition between those two slides. If you want that transition applied to all your slides, choose Apply to All at the top of the pop-up transition menu. (By the way, if you have no transition between slides, the international symbol for "No!" [a circle with a slash through it] will appear between your slides instead, but you can change that by clicking on the right-facing triangle next to it and choosing a transition from the pop-up list.)

Step Nine

If you want to change the duration of one (or more) of your transitions, click on the transition, then in the Properties panel (on the right side of the Slide Show Editor window), change the Transition time (which is measured in seconds) from the pop-up menu (or choose Custom and type in how long you want your transition to be).

Step Ten

Okay, what's even cooler than transitions? Pan & Zoom (in fact, you can have transitions and Pan & Zoom). Pan & Zoom brings movement to your slides, and this movement makes your slide show feel less static, as the photos move slowly left to right, top to bottom, while they slowly zoom in and out. That's why this effect is so popular. If you clicked the Apply Pan & Zoom to All Slides checkbox in the Slide Show Preferences (when you first opened your slide show), then all you have to do to edit a Pan & Zoom is click on a slide and the Pan & Zoom controls will appear in the Properties panel on the right side of the dialog.

Step Eleven

If you didn't turn on Pan & Zoom for all slides from the start, it's easy to turn it on. Just click on the slide you want to apply it to, and then in the Properties panel turn on the checkbox for Enable Pan & Zoom. (Needless to say, to turn off the Pan & Zoom for any slide, just click on the slide and turn off the Enable Pan & Zoom checkbox in the Properties panel. I know, I said "needless to say," but then I said it anyway. It's a personality disorder.)

Step Twelve

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Once you've got Pan & Zoom turned on, you can tweak it three very distinct ways: (1) When you turn on Pan & Zoom, a green rectangle appears in the preview window, and the word "Start" appears in the bottom-right corner. You can reposition the location and size of this green square (shown here) to where you'd like the panning and zooming to start. In the Properties panel, if you click on the End thumbnail, you can position the panning end point by moving (and/or resizing) the red square. (2) You can swap the positions of these squares by using the three little buttons between the Start and End thumbnails in the Properties panel. (3) You can add an additional Pan & Zoom, which essentially duplicates your slide, and lets you add another Pan & Zoom segment, so you could have your photo pan from left to right, then in the second segment, zoom from large to small. To do this, click on the Add Another Pan & Zoom to This Slide checkbox at the bottom of the Properties panel.

Step Thirteen

Now, on to adding titles: If you want to add a title to the beginning of your slide show, click on the first slide in the Photo Bin, and then click the Add Text button at the top of the Slide Show Editor. This brings up the Edit Text dialog, in which you enter your text. As you begin typing, your text appears onscreen.

Step Fourteen

Once you click OK in the Edit Text dialog, you can reposition your text by just clicking-and-dragging it where you want it. You can also now choose which font, size, style, opacity, and color you want for your text (and a host of other type tweaks) in the Properties panel on the right side of the dialog. If you need to edit your text, just click on the Edit Text button in the Properties panel or change your font, style, etc., in the bottom of the panel.

Step Fifteen

If you want your title to appear over a blank slide, rather than over a photo, you can create your title over a blank background by clicking the Add Blank Slide button at the top of the window. This creates an empty black slide. Now you can either click the Add Text button to create the text that will appear over your black slide, or you click on the Text icon in the Extras panel (on the top right of the window), which reveals a list of pre-designed type treatments, including text with shadows (which are about impossible to see over a black background, by the way).

Step Sixteen

If you want to change the color of your blank slide (from the default black color), you can do that by clicking on the blank slide (in the Photo Bin), and then in the Properties panel you'll see a black color swatch named "Background Color." Click on it to bring up the Color Picker dialog, where you can choose a different color. Once you've chosen a new color, click OK, and your currently selected slide's color will be changed.

Step Seventeen

All right, the slides are in order, the transitions have been chosen, and the titles have been created. Now, for the finishing touchmusic. To add some background music to your slide show, click on the gray bar directly beneath the Photo Bin with the words "Click Here to Add Audio to Your Slide Show." This brings up a dialog prompting you to choose your audio file. You can browse for your own music files or choose from a list of music files in Elements' sample catalog. When you find a song you like, click on its name in the list, and then click the Open button.

Step Eighteen

Now it's time to preview the finished slide show. Click the Preview button in the top-right corner of the Slide Show Editor, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the "magic." If, while watching your preview, you see something you want to change, just click on the Edit Slide Show button that appears to the right of the Preview button.

Step Nineteen

When the show is tweaked to perfection (or your personal satisfaction, whichever comes first), it's time to output it into its final form. Click on the Output button on the left side of the Slide Show Editor to bring up the Output options. Now you just click to choose what you want to do with your final show: save it, burn it to CD (or DVD), email your slide show to a friend (in which case, you'll choose either to create a PDF or a very compressed movie), you can post it online, or watch it on TV. This part's up to you, my now accomplished slide show producer.