Flash Slide Show Maker

by Geetesh Bajaj, December 4th 2006

Introduction
Working with Flash Slide Show Maker
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

Sharing pictures is a great way to show visual content like digicam pictures -- these pictures can be sent as e-mail attachments, photo albums, slide shows, etc. Or you could use Flash Slide Show Maker, a free software that creates Flash based photo slide shows with ease.

Flash Slide Show Maker provides several pre-built templates and built-in transition effects -- it even allows you to add sound to your slide show.

A simple interface enables you to create slide shows even if you have no Flash skills. And it is a freeware product --- download it from their site...

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Working with Flash Slide Show Maker

Assuming that you have downloaded the installer from the link given above. Run the setup routine and follow the instructions. You'll end up with a Flash Slide Show Maker program group in your Windows Start menu (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Flash Slide Show Maker Start menu Group

Follow these steps to use Flash Slide Show Maker:

1. Go to your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs | Flash Slide Show Maker | Flash Slide Show Maker (see Figure 1 above)
   
   
2. This opens Flash Slide Show Maker Interface -- choose the Create New Project option (see Figure 2).
   
   
   Figure 2: Create a new project
   
   
3. This opens the screen that you can see in Figure 3. Here you can add pictures.
   
   
   Figure 3: Add pictures (photo)
   
   This bring up the Open window. Browse to choose your pictures and click Open.
   
   
4. This will add the selected pictures -- you can now see them as thumbnails (see Figure 4). Click the thumbnail to activate other buttons.
   
   
   Figure 4: Added Photo
   
   
5. Choose Delete to remove a picture, the other two buttons allows you to rotate the selected images clock-wise and counterclock-wise. View Photo opens the Edit dialog box, as shown in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Edit
   
   

   This window shows the title and description of the picture, and allows you to apply a transition effect. Use the navigation button to go to the next picture, and make edits as required. Click OK. Also, you might want to change the URL here -- this is the URL that opens in your browser whenever a viewer clicks the picture.

6. This will take back you to the interface as shown in Figure 4 (see earlier on this page). Click the Next button to go to the subsequent window of the interface (see Figure 6).
   
   
   Figure 6: Flash Slide Show Maker
   
   This window has following options:
   
   
   1. Flash Options allows to add an album title, set the dimensions of the Flash SWF output file, background color, frame rate, transition duration, etc. The More Options button provides advanced settings for Flash.
      
      
   2. Theme has in-built themes which add interest to the slide show. Decorate the photo allows to apply animated elements to the slide show, such as lines, snowflakes, etc.
      
      
   3. Background Music for Slide Show enables you to add a sound file from your system, or an audio CD to the slide show.
      
      
7. Once all the options are selected, click the Next button to see the interface window shown in Figure 7.
   
   
   Figure 7: Output Options
   
   This window has three output options:
   
   
   • Flash SWF file,
   • Flash SWF file within a CD or a DVD, and
   • Flash SWF file which can be uploaded straight way to the SkyAlbum.com.
     
     
8. Choose the first option and click Next. This brings up the final window of the interface, as shown in Figure 8. Here you can select the output folder, and give names to the Flash output and HTML container files.
   
   
   Figure 8: Output Settings
   
   Thereafter, click the large Publish Now button. Publishing may take a while.

The published output includes a last screen that mentions that this slide show was created by Flash Slideshow Maker -- there's a Professional version of this program that allows you to disable this screen.

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Pricing and Support

The basic version is freeware, and is advertiser supported to some extent -- there's a screen in the output that provides a link to the program site. The Professional version, which allows you to disable this screen costs $29.95 and can be purchased online.

Support is through an online FAQ and a forum.

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Conclusion

For what it does, Flash Slide Show Maker is a great program -- it's simple to use, and the basic version costs nothing.

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