Powerpoint advice

[donheff]

There seems to be a wealth of expertise here so I figure why not look for advice on a Powerpoint deck. I haven't used Powerpoint for almost two decades and I was never proficient. But I have a copy that came with the MS365 subscription I got to get 1T of space and automatically back up my files. I realized that I could use it to automate a nice slide show from my recent trip to Antarctica but I am not finding references about what I want to do.

So far, I have made some nice slide titles for various stops on the trip. After each title I want to fade in a number of photos, varying from a few to a dozen. I can figure out how to add one photo per slide and fade them in and out but that will quickly become a PITA. I am pretty sure there is a way to use animation to have several photos fade in and out of a single slide but I can't figure it out. If I insert several photos they all show up in a stack. I would like photo 1 to fade in then fade out, photo 2 to then fade in and fade out, and so on. After the photos associated with that slide finish, the title slide for the next stop would transition through and then it would move on to the next set of photos.

Any PP gurus out there know how to do that? Or do I need to stick with separate slides for each photo?

 

[Dash man]

Microsoft has pretty good tutorials on their website.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...training-40e8c930-cb0b-40d8-82c4-bd53d3398787

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Hmmmmm. I used PPT a lot when working and I always used the one-picture to each slide method that you don't like. I hope someone can prove me wrong, but I'm not sure there is a better method.

Are you an Apple Mac user? I would use iMovie to make such a "presentation". Perhaps Microsoft has a competitive movie making app.

 

[pb4uski]

It's been a long time since I've used PowerPoint in the way you described, but I think what you want to do is have a particular transition between slides and then periodically intervene so it's different between sections. Something like that anyway.

 

[donheff]

Actually, it isn't much trouble doing it slide by slide for each photo. I generated a test video which seems OK. Any suggestions for sound tracks for a slideshow of Antarctica photos?

 

[NgineER]

I would caution against using powerpoint for a slideshow of pictures. Your file size will easily get huge and too large to manage, unless you link the pictures. There are better solutions out there, and even some free ones for making a video slideshow of your pictures.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Actually, it isn't much trouble doing it slide by slide for each photo. I generated a test video which seems OK. Any suggestions for sound tracks for a slideshow of Antarctica photos?

Foreigner: Cold as Ice
Frozen: Let It Go
Vanilla Ice: Ice ice Baby

 

[donheff]

Foreigner: Cold as Ice
Frozen: Let It Go
Vanilla Ice: Ice ice Baby

Good names. For now I'm going with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

 

[jollystomper]

On each slide, you can set "animations" for each element on that slide - which one comes in first (or simultaneously), how much time to wait (or driven by keyboard/mouse interaction), type of animations, etc.

Transitions are for going from slide to slide.

Check the Microsoft site (or YouTube or an internet search) for "Powerpoint animations" tutorials.

 

[donheff]

On each slide, you can set "animations" for each element on that slide - which one comes in first (or simultaneously), how much time to wait (or driven by keyboard/mouse interaction), type of animations, etc.

Transitions are for going from slide to slide.

Check the Microsoft site (or YouTube or an internet search) for "Powerpoint animations" tutorials.

Thanks Jollystomper. I found the animations section and am having a frustrating go at it. Half the time I can't get the order correct, half the time it freezes, and none of the tutorials that I read do a good job of step by step instructions for what I want to do. I may try Youtube - those tutorials can be great. But my ADD is driving me toward accepting the old school single slide per photo approach and calling it a day.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I'd make the soundtrack some sort of Americana instrumental/bluegrass with a wide open feel. This song immediately came to my mind:

Mostly I just wanted to post to say how happy this post made me as I have not touched PPT since my FIRE date!

 

[camfused]

Are you an Apple Mac user? I would use iMovie to make such a "presentation". Perhaps Microsoft has a competitive movie making app.

Listen to the pirate. Using PP is the wrong approach, in my opinion. Use a tool that is designed for what you are trying to do.

 

[ERD50]

.... Any suggestions for sound tracks for a slideshow of Antarctica photos?

For a little (very little?) levity, you could play "I'm Sitting On Top of the World", and flip a slide upside down?

-ERD50

 

[SnowballCamper]

I haven't used Prezi, but I've seen several presentations in its format and they are very slick...much better than power point. This is likely the tool for what you want. They're on the new software model of subscription services at prezi.com and maybe they have a subscription that comes with support to get a walk through of what you want?

In PP I'd stick with one photo per slide and use the transitions tool to get the fade effect.

 

[donheff]

I quickly got sick of PowerPoint so I took the advice of others here to get an app that fits the job. I hate searching for good free apps these days because you get pages of clickbait, apps with BS adds, malware, and other horrors. So I asked ChatGPS if it knew of some safe, simple, and effective opensource alternatives. It gave me several possibilities and I have installed and am happy with OpenShot Video Editor. Easy slide shows, great for editing various video clips and incorporating them, good YouTube turorials, etc.

Bye, bye PPX.

 

[ERD50]

I quickly got sick of PowerPoint so I took the advice of others here to get an app that fits the job. I hate searching for good free apps these days because you get pages of clickbait, apps with BS adds, malware, and other horrors. So I asked ChatGPS if it knew of some safe, simple, and effective opensource alternatives. It gave me several possibilities and I have installed and am happy with OpenShot Video Editor. Easy slide shows, great for editing various video clips and incorporating them, good YouTube turorials, etc.

Bye, bye PPX.

That's probably a good, solid choice. I think I played with that a few years back.

What I like about it, it has been around a while, it is open source AND cross-platform (Win,Mac and Linux - and ChromeOS!). That's a great combo in my book (like Audacity sound editing program, open and cross-platform).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenShot (14 years ago!) and seems to get regular updates.

You won't get any malware with that (at least extremely unlikely), as long as you download it from the source.

Oh, your url was a bit mangled, here it is:

https://www.openshot.org/

I try to remember to open links in my post in a private window to check them, but of course I often forget, but it's a good check.

-ERD50

 

[donheff]

That's probably a good, solid choice. I think I played with that a few years back.

What I like about it, it has been around a while, it is open source AND cross-platform (Win,Mac and Linux - and ChromeOS!). That's a great combo in my book (like Audacity sound editing program, open and cross-platform).

Yes, I have Audacity as well. I have Linux on an old beater laptop but I'm not going to try video editing on that one so I will just stick with the Windows version.

Oh, your url was a bit mangled, here it is:

https://www.openshot.org/

I try to remember to open links in my post in a private window to check them, but of course I often forget, but it's a good check.

-ERD50

That's odd. It appears to lead to the same address. Must have some hidden characters or something. I will try to remember to test links in the future.

 

[ERD50]

...

That's odd. It appears to lead to the same address. Must have some hidden characters or something. I will try to remember to test links in the future.

I was curious, here's yours (I'll try the code box to not alter it, still had to strip the leading from it): [CODE] "http://https://www.openshot.org/"]OpenShot Video Editor. [/CODE]

here's my test using the link icon and selecting "test" text in my post:

"https://www.openshot.org/"]test[/URL]

The added "http://" might be from the default setting when you open the link dialog. And maybe some browsers figure it out and strip the extra stuff?

-ERD50