Sharing photos with Powerpoint, by Kim Komando

I remember a few folks wanting to put together Powerpoint presentations with pictures, and today's Kim Komando's newsletter had the following article in it. Thought you might enjoy the tip!

THE WEEKLY COLUMN: PowerPoint makes sharing photos easy

Want to share holiday photos with family and friends? If you have Microsoft Office, it includes PowerPoint. And that's all you need to create a cool slide show on CD or for the Web.

Before you begin, move the picture files you want to include in a slide show into one folder. That will help keep things organized. Here are a couple ways to create a slide show in PowerPoint

1. THE EASY WAY. If you only want to display pictures with captions, use the photo album creator. PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 include this feature. PowerPoint 2000 owners can download it from Microsoft http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/CD010225941033.aspx

Start PowerPoint and click Insert>>Picture>>New Photo Album. This opens the Photo Album dialog box.

Click File/Disk and navigate to the picture files on your hard drive. Select the files and click Insert. If you want to scan pictures or transfer some from your digital camera, click the Camera/Scanner button.

Next to Picture Layout, choose one, two or four pictures per slide, with or without titles. There is a fit-to-slide layout as well. Select a framing option to make your pictures stand out. Layout, captions and frames apply across the entire slide show.

To change the order of the pictures, click the picture's file name.
Move the selected picture up or down using the arrow keys.

Once you have everything arranged, click Create. The file names are automatically inserted as the captions. To change that, click on the caption box.

When done, click File>>Save As. In Save As Type, click the down arrow and select PowerPoint Show.

2. MORE ADVANCED. This is more complicated, but it allows you to add sound clips and transitions to your slide show.

In PowerPoint 2003, click File>>New. On the right, choose Blank Presentation.

The Content and Content and Text layouts are the most flexible. They allow you to insert pictures, media clips and clip art. Get creative.
If there's a birthday picture, insert a sound clip that plays a few bars of "Happy Birthday!"

If you have a microphone that plugs into your computer, you can add commentary. Click Slide Show>>Record Narration and click OK. Speak into the microphone. Click on the screen to advance to the next slide.

Only one sound can play at a time, so your narration will override other audio. When slides require no narration, right-click them and select Pause Narration. To change back, right-click and select Resume Narration.

To really jazz things up, include animations and transitions between slides. These can be inserted from the Slide Show menu.

When done, click File>>Save As. In Save As Type, select PowerPoint Show.

3. SHARE YOUR WORK. To burn a CD in PowerPoint 2003, click File>>Package for CD. Follow the prompts. A copy of PowerPoint 2003 Viewer will be included automatically. Recipients can use it to play your slide show if they do not have PowerPoint.

Older versions of PowerPoint have a similar feature, called Pack and Go. Click File>>Pack and Go and follow the prompts.

You also can publish your presentation to the Web. Open your slide show. Click File>>Save as Web Page, then Publish. You can set it to publish specific slides and to support different browser versions.
After choosing your options, select Publish.

Picture, audio and video files can be huge. So I would use this option only if you have a few pictures and not much else.

There are obviously other alternatives to PowerPoint. Some do a better job of creating and sharing slide shows. But none are likely to be easier. And it's nice to know that you probably already own the tools you need to get the job done.


http://komando.com