I used PowerPoint...simple, but it did what I wanted. I know you can add music, but since I had live musicians they just played during the slideshow. As for music, I've always liked Louis and Ella.
I can't get Powerpoint to do music. I insert it, but it never plays. Picasa doesn't have a music feature for its slideshow ... at least, not that I have found.
To play the music in powerpoint, click on the slide you want and go to Insert-->Movies and Sounds-->Sound from file. Select your song. It needs to be in .wav file. You can rip songs from CDs in to MP3 format and then convert them to .wav.
Then right click on the little sound icon that appears and select "Custom Animation." On the "Multimedia settings" tab in the box that appears, click "Play Using Animation Order"." Then where it says "white playing" select "continue slideshow." Where it says "stop playing" enter a number in the # of slides box. I usually figure out the length of the song, divide it by how long I want each image to remain on screen and use that number. My guess is usually right within a frame or two, which you can tweak when watching a test version. On the "order and timing" tab, tell it whether you want it to start "on mouse click" or "automatically." If you're only doing one song's worth of photos, it's a lot easier. If you're doing more than one song, then on the frame after the one that this song ends on, you'd repeat this process. You can drag the litte icon off the frame in to the grey area.
Then go up to Tools-->Options and select the "general" tab. Where it says "link sounds with file size greater than ___ kb" enter in the largest number you can (usually 999kb).
Then you'll have to watch the show and tweak it to make sure songs start and stop when you want. If you just want the show to loops, go to slideshow--"set up slide show" and select the option for link.
The tricky part is exporting everything. I've never gotten the pack n go feature to work well. What I suggest (and I should have mentioned this at the beginning), is creating the show and saving it in a folder on your desktop. Save the show and all the songs in that same folder. Then when you're done, drag the whole folder on to a CD or jump drive. Then drag that folder on to the desktop of whatever computer you will be using to play this. Open the folder, open the slideshow, and play it from there. The reason for this is that then the path to the songs is identical to what it was on your computer. (Ie desktop\slideshow\song.wav) and it won't realize you've moved computers. Powerpoint isn't smart enough to find a song if the path is different on the playing computer than it was on the computer that created the show and inserted the song. (so playing it from a cd or jump drive directly may not work-I've had mixed success this way (depending on the version) but the dragging it to the desktop way has always worked for me. At the very least make sure everything is playing from with in a folder with the same name as your original). Hope I make sense-computer jargon is NOT my thing, but I have done a ton of these slideshows this year!
Good luck and let me know if I did something wrong or you want me to clarify. Shoot me a bubbs as I know you're short on time and I don't want to forget to check back in here.
7 comments:
I used PowerPoint...simple, but it did what I wanted. I know you can add music, but since I had live musicians they just played during the slideshow. As for music, I've always liked Louis and Ella.
How bout "At Last" by Lou Rawls
Powerpoint should do your slideshow. Adding music can be tricky-let me know if you need help.
If you don't have powerpoint, I think picassa (google's free program-www.picassa.com) does it too, though I've never used that feature
also, www.openoffice.com have a free program that is similar to powerpoint
oops...www.openoffice.org
I can't get Powerpoint to do music. I insert it, but it never plays. Picasa doesn't have a music feature for its slideshow ... at least, not that I have found.
Regarding music, I'm looking for a bulk of music. I need it for the Reception.
To play the music in powerpoint, click on the slide you want and go to Insert-->Movies and Sounds-->Sound from file. Select your song. It needs to be in .wav file. You can rip songs from CDs in to MP3 format and then convert them to .wav.
Then right click on the little sound icon that appears and select "Custom Animation." On the "Multimedia settings" tab in the box that appears, click "Play Using Animation Order"." Then where it says "white playing" select "continue slideshow." Where it says "stop playing" enter a number in the # of slides box. I usually figure out the length of the song, divide it by how long I want each image to remain on screen and use that number. My guess is usually right within a frame or two, which you can tweak when watching a test version. On the "order and timing" tab, tell it whether you want it to start "on mouse click" or "automatically." If you're only doing one song's worth of photos, it's a lot easier. If you're doing more than one song, then on the frame after the one that this song ends on, you'd repeat this process. You can drag the litte icon off the frame in to the grey area.
Then go up to Tools-->Options and select the "general" tab. Where it says "link sounds with file size greater than ___ kb" enter in the largest number you can (usually 999kb).
Then you'll have to watch the show and tweak it to make sure songs start and stop when you want. If you just want the show to loops, go to slideshow--"set up slide show" and select the option for link.
The tricky part is exporting everything. I've never gotten the pack n go feature to work well. What I suggest (and I should have mentioned this at the beginning), is creating the show and saving it in a folder on your desktop. Save the show and all the songs in that same folder. Then when you're done, drag the whole folder on to a CD or jump drive. Then drag that folder on to the desktop of whatever computer you will be using to play this. Open the folder, open the slideshow, and play it from there. The reason for this is that then the path to the songs is identical to what it was on your computer. (Ie desktop\slideshow\song.wav) and it won't realize you've moved computers. Powerpoint isn't smart enough to find a song if the path is different on the playing computer than it was on the computer that created the show and inserted the song. (so playing it from a cd or jump drive directly may not work-I've had mixed success this way (depending on the version) but the dragging it to the desktop way has always worked for me. At the very least make sure everything is playing from with in a folder with the same name as your original). Hope I make sense-computer jargon is NOT my thing, but I have done a ton of these slideshows this year!
Good luck and let me know if I did something wrong or you want me to clarify. Shoot me a bubbs as I know you're short on time and I don't want to forget to check back in here.
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