My girlfriend needs help creating pic slideshow in Powerpoint

[jvang125]

ok my girlfriend's family is having a family reunion and they will be playing a slideshow of pictures throughout the years within their family. my girlfriend is in charge of the slideshow but she's not too knowledgable in computers so she wants me help her out.

from the top of my head, the program i'm thinking of using is powerpoint which is readily available and quite easy to use. the slides will contain only pictures with no text. inserting pictures on the slides i know how to do but i can't figure out how to embed a sound file (mp3 song) to the slides so that it will play in the background as the slides are being shown. powerpoint allows me to insert a sound file but it only plays for the slide that it was inserted into so thus when you click on the next slide, the song stops playing. is there any way to allow the mp3 file to play through all the slides and not be interrupted?

or am i going in the wrong direction here by trying to use powerpoint to do this? anyone have any suggestion on any other programs i can use? i also thought of using MS moviemaker and the results are pretty good but my girlfriend commented that her family may want to pause for a random amount of time on each picture to discuss it so a continuously running video probably isnt a good idea.

 

[SuepaFly]

You can get a free specialty program here:

linkie

It may actually suit your needs better.

 

[BennyD]

or you could just play the mp3 in winamp while showing the slideshow

 

[deran]

use Ulead pictureshow and make a VCD with songs. Just pause when ou want to.


easy to use.

 

[applesseed]

Very simple!

I did almost exact project for my brother's wedding. The only thing is, Powerpoint allows you to use *.mp3 file if you're going to "show" the slides on that computer, like a notebook computer. If you're going to create that slideshow with *.mp3 file, and burn them on a CD, play it on a different computer, it's not going to work. You're going to have to rip the *.mp3 to a *.wav file. I use CDex.

Playing the music as the picture transits, start with the first slide you want the music to start playing (i.e. the second slide). This is done in Powerpoint 2000.

Go to Insert > Movies and Sounds > Sound From File
Choose a song, either a *.wav or *.mp3 (I'm not sure what other Powerpoint supports, but I know these two)
A message will pop up whether you want it to play the music automatically or when you click on the icon, the music starts.
Assuming you're going Automatically, click YES.
The sound icon is highlighted (8 handles), I normally drag it to bottom left corner. You may plalce it wherever.
If you're right handed, you'd right-click on the mouse button to get the menu, and you'd want Custom Animation.
By default, the Multimedia Settings tab should be active, if not, click on that tab
Do the following bubble-in:
While Playing: Continue slide show
Stop Playing: put in number of slides you want to play. The song will keep playing as the slide goes on to
another. It will stop at a specific slide number.

You're set... all done. I used this book PowerPoint 98/2000 by Rebecca Bridges Altman as my
guide.


I have also used Windows Media Player 9 before. It was just pictures, which allowed me to transit and play sound in the background. I used the full screen. If you happen to have WinXP, get WMPlayer 9, Go to Tools > Downloads > Visualizations or click here. Download Picture Viz I.


Hope these helps.

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If you're going to pause slides... go manually. In other words, clicking the spacebar or mouse button to move on to the next slide. The music is going to keep playing. I don't know any other programs would pause the slide and music at the same time except running the Picture Viz I.