I have been really impressed, since version 4, with the Slide Show maker in the 'Create' section of PSE. There is a limitation, of course, and that is that the best quality slide show that a Windows PSE can make is a .WMV file - for use on WIndows Media Player. It's good, but......
While WIndows users can (or should) have Windows Media Player, Mac users wouldn't have it (an assumption, as Mac users have traditionally stuck with QuickTime. But QuickTime is also available and commonly used as a regular extra, like Shockwave, on a Windows machine. So really QuickTime is the more widespread program - everybody and his/her dog has it (I think) because you'll often come across a QT movie on the web.
So ideally, QuickTime would perhaps be the better choice if you are putting a slide show together - and if you had a slide show on a memory stick or DVD, you'd be just about certain to be able to take it to any other computer and it would run. Not so the WMV - which in any case has its own interface which is not what people want to see when viewing your masterpieces, whether they be holiday snaps or an arty sequence with music.
Question, then...... several of you have PSE running on a Mac - what are the options for saving your slide show when it's produced? I'm thinking it should be QuickTime - in which case I wish that were an option on a Windows PSE.
Same subject, slightly different question.......
This weekend I'm going to a day-long AV show. All local amateurs but, having seen it last year, it's top quality, with well-chosen music, smart transitions and captions/titles. And you don't see any Windows Media Player or QuickTime interfaces. That's because the shows are usually made on one of the 'specialist' titles, like ProShowGold or Pictures to Exe. Both of them make slide shows that are self-executing and need no further support. They run on a laptop are are displayed on a digital projector to a big screen.
It does seem a shame that Adobe won't go the whole way and let you make 'standalone' slide shows, but I'd be interested in your opinions.
While WIndows users can (or should) have Windows Media Player, Mac users wouldn't have it (an assumption, as Mac users have traditionally stuck with QuickTime. But QuickTime is also available and commonly used as a regular extra, like Shockwave, on a Windows machine. So really QuickTime is the more widespread program - everybody and his/her dog has it (I think) because you'll often come across a QT movie on the web.
So ideally, QuickTime would perhaps be the better choice if you are putting a slide show together - and if you had a slide show on a memory stick or DVD, you'd be just about certain to be able to take it to any other computer and it would run. Not so the WMV - which in any case has its own interface which is not what people want to see when viewing your masterpieces, whether they be holiday snaps or an arty sequence with music.
Question, then...... several of you have PSE running on a Mac - what are the options for saving your slide show when it's produced? I'm thinking it should be QuickTime - in which case I wish that were an option on a Windows PSE.
Same subject, slightly different question.......
This weekend I'm going to a day-long AV show. All local amateurs but, having seen it last year, it's top quality, with well-chosen music, smart transitions and captions/titles. And you don't see any Windows Media Player or QuickTime interfaces. That's because the shows are usually made on one of the 'specialist' titles, like ProShowGold or Pictures to Exe. Both of them make slide shows that are self-executing and need no further support. They run on a laptop are are displayed on a digital projector to a big screen.
It does seem a shame that Adobe won't go the whole way and let you make 'standalone' slide shows, but I'd be interested in your opinions.