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Welcome back to the podcast!
This week’s edition: Photo Album Slide Shows in PowerPoint
The problem: Too many pictures to insert into a presentation one at a time.
The Solution (for PowerPoint 2002 – 2007):
Inserting images into a slide presentation is not really a problem. It’s easy: just use the Insert menu (or Insert tab in PowerPoint 2007), select the option for picture, browse to the file, click on it, select Insert. So what’s so hard about this? Now you create another slide, repeat the process, then start the third slide, and so on. This method isn’t too bad unless you’re trying to create a slide show that will consist of more than 10 images.
The problem for most people is time. How many photos could you do in an hour if you worked non-stop? That’s assuming that you don’t still need to add your transitions, animations, and text on the slides. Now think about trying to create a photo presentation to show off your vacation pictures from this year’s trip to the beach. How many digital pictures did you take?
In my family, I have become the unofficial photographer. I take a ton of images, and my primary duty after vacations or family gatherings is to create some sort of slide show to play later on, or to burn onto a DVD.
I like using PowerPoint so I can quickly add captions, borders, background colors, combine images together, etc… What’s the hardest part? Getting all the images inserted into PowerPoint. If you find yourself in the same dilemma, try doing the following.
Step 1: Pick out the best photos
When you have over 500 to choose from, you probably won’t want to use them all. So create a new folder on your desktop and make copies of the ones you want to use. This way, you haven’t separated your original images from their group. Besides, when you’re separated from your herd, there is a greater chance that someone will remove you permanently (AKA “delete” you).
Step 2: Create a blank presentation
After you create that blank presentation, decide your theme. Themes are important, whether your pictures are from a wedding, vacation, family reunion, office party, or just the latest cat pictures you want to work into a LOL show for your friends. You should decide what background image or color to use and choose a font style. Remember: it’s more engaging for your viewers if you work around a theme.
Step 3: Insert all the pictures
Prior to PowerPoint 2002, you would have been stuck inserting pictures one at a time or writing a macro (PowerPoint VBA = not so fun). Now there is actually a feature to do this. The only issue is that you have to know it exists and where to find it. I don’t think I am really unique in my desire to insert a bunch of images, each on their own slides, so I have placed a link to the written instructions for this on the blog entry for this week’s podcast.
Step 4: Organize your photos
Organizing your photos so they are grouped in meaningful ways helps keep your audience focused and doesn’t leave them wondering why some pictures are with others. Once you decide on your grouping method, add title slides at the beginning and actually explain in a few words what this group is. For instance:
- Our Day at the Beach
- Eating Lobster with Nanna
- My LOL Cats
Now moving your slides into the right group will be a snap. Simply drag your slide into the position after the title for its group using the Slide Sorter. You may find in this phase that some pictures really belong together on one slide as a collage. No problem! Just use Cut and Paste to move those images onto one slide and delete the blank ones.
Step 5: Add embellishments
In this step, you can start adding your slide transitions, animations, captions, and borders to make your image look better or more meaningful. You might also consider cropping your photos to highlight what you consider the most important portion. Adding music or sound can also help in spicing up a slide show.
In future episodes, we will show you how to add music to your presentations and create a DVD presentation.
If you’re looking for ways to enhance your presentation, try checking out this week’s recommended eTraining class, Top 10 Tips for Working with PowerPoint. I’ve created a link to the schedule for this class, which you can find in this week’s blog, located at www.productiveUpodcast.com.
Well, that’s all for this week’s podcast. Stop by next week to learn more about adding sound and music to your presentation.
If you like our podcast (and I know you do!), why not stop by iTunes and write your review, or send us a comment on Twitter @productiveUcast.
Thanks for stopping by!
Links:
- Copy and Paste
- Inserting Slides Using Photo Album Feature
- Moving Slides in Slide Sorter
- Cut and Paste
- Adding Slide Transitions
- Cropping Images in PowerPoint
- eTraining Class: Top 10 Tips for Working with PowerPoint
