I have hundreds of pictures in several folders on an external hard drive that I wanted to turn into a slideshow. I'm doing my music separately using selections from youtube in the background, so I just wanted something that would meet my criteria for a good visual.
- It has to allow me to order my pictures by folder name. This is because I had labeled each folder by year, and I wanted the similar pictures within each folder to stay together by name as well.
- It has to allow some control over transition from one picture to the next. I like "fade."
After trying a few freebies, and a few built-in Windows tools, I finally figured out that Powerpoint 2010 will do what I want.
- Open Powerpoint 2010
- Click insert
- Click photo album
- Click new photo album
- Click file/disk
- Open folders until you reach the first set of pictures
- Use ctrl-A to select any or all the pictures in the first folder
- Click insert
- Click file/disk again
- Continue to select and add pictures
- When done selecting, click picture layout
- Click create and wait patiently if you have a lot of pictures
- On the left side, use ctrl-A to select all the pictures
- Click transitions
- Click fade
- While in transitions, under advance slide, change the number from 0.00 to 5.00 and check the box that says "after."
- Click design, then background styles, then black
- Click file
- Click save
- To show the slide show, click slide show, then click from beginning