Section 9.2. Option-Click Slideshows | iLife 05: The Missing Manual

9.2. Option-Click Slideshows

There's mercifully little to learn about instantaneous slideshowsthe ones that begin when you Option-click the Play button beneath the Source list. The slideshow begins automatically and instantaneously, leaving nothing for you to do but sit back and enjoy the show. (All right, truth be told, you can have some involvement, as described later in this chapter.) Finish the show by clicking the mouse.

9.2.1. Which Photos

Among the virtues of this slideshow type is the freedom you have to choose which pictures you want to see. For example:

If no photos are selected, iPhoto exhibits all the pictures currently in the photo-viewing area, starting with the first photo in the album, book, or Photo Library.

Most people, most of the time, want to turn one album into a slideshow. That's easy: Just click the album before starting the slideshow. It can be any album you've created, a smart album, the Last Roll album, or one of iPhoto's built-in monthly yearly albums. As long as no individual pictures are selected, iPhoto will reveal all the pictures in the album currently open .

Tip: For the first time, iPhoto 5 lets you create an Option-click or instant slideshow from multiple albums. That is, you can select more than one album simultaneously (by -clicking them); then, when you click Play, iPhoto creates a slideshow from all of their merged contents, in order.
If one photo is selected , iPhoto uses that picture as its starting point for the show, ignoring any that come before it. Of course, if you've got the slideshow set to loop continuously, iPhoto will eventually circle back to display the first photo in the window.
If you've selected more than one picture, iPhoto includes only those pictures.

Tip: If a slideshow icon (described momentarily) is highlighted in the Source list, you don't need the Option key to begin a slideshow immediately. Use the Option key only if an album or a batch of photos are selected.

9.2.2. Photo Order

iPhoto displays your pictures in the same order you see them in the photo-viewing area. In other words, to rearrange your slides, drag the thumbnails around within their album. Just remember that you can't drag pictures around in the Photo Library, a smart album, the Last 12 Months collection, or the Last Roll folderonly within a photo album.

Note: If iPhoto appears to be shamelessly disregarding the order of your photos when running a slideshow, it's probably because you've got the "Present slides in random order" option turned on in the Slideshow dialog box, as described in the following section.