Overview
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Digital Photo Slide Show is a suite of software seven different programs designed to make sharing your digital photos fun and easy. With Digital Photo Slide show, your images can be shared on your PC, on Autorun CD-ROMs, through email and over the Internet. Each of the programs is described below.
It is important for the beginner to understand that photos are stored in files on your hard disk in folders. Files and folders are used by Windows to organize the contents of your computer. Your computer has at least one hard drive named "C:". This drive has several folders and subfolders that store many types of files. The example below shows a hard disk C: with a folder named "Bob's photos". The folder "Bob's photos" contains a subfolder named "August 2002" and several files, one of which is named "DCP 0023.JPG". The folder named "Bob's photos" is contained in "C:\" which is called the root of the C: drive.
Digital photos are stored in a variety of different formats. The most common format is called Jpeg and those files end with the extension .JPG. In the example above all the photos in the folder named "Bob's photos" are Jpeg images.
Digital Photo Slide Show uses the Windows file structure to display photos in a slide show format. For example, to view the photos in "Bob's photos" all you would do is start Digital Photo Slide Show and select that folder. The photos are then displayed in a slide show, one after another with a delay and transition between each photo. Digital Photo Slide Show displays all the photos in the folder you select and all the photos in any subfolder of that that folder. In the example above, if you select "Bob's photos" the software not only displays the photos in that folder but also the photos in the subfolder named "August 2002" and any other subfolders. You can add music to your slide show simply by placing a .mp3 or .wav file with your photos. You can also add captions and specify the details about how each photo is displayed including the transition and the length of time the photo is displayed.
Digital Photo Slide Show comes with a separate screen saver program that can be used to display your photos when your computer is idle. To use the screen saver, simply go to the Settings Screen and select the folder of photos you want to display. The selected folder of photos will be displayed when the computer sits idle for a specified length of time.
One of the most popular ways to share photos is on Autorun CD-ROMs. Anyone with a PC can view your photos simply by inserting the CD-ROM into their computer. Your images will be displayed in a slide show format with all the options you specified including captions and music. There is nothing for the end-user to install on their computer. The slide show runs directly from their CD-ROM. Autorun Producer creates four files necessary to create an Autorun CD-ROM. Simply select the options you want for your CD-ROM and click the "Create" button. Then use your CD burning software to copy these files and your images to the CD. It is as simple as that.
You may want to create a slide show that can be installed on someone's PC rather than from a CD-ROM. Installation Producer takes your images and creates a single file .EXE file that can be emailed, place on a floppy disk or passed through a network. Simply execute the setup file created with Installation Producer and your slide show and screen saver will be installed automatically on that PC. The end-user can then enjoy your slide show and screen saver slide show without relying on a CD-ROM.
The Windows Desktop allows photos or images to be displayed behind the icons on the desktop. Wallpaper Slide Show automatically displays your photos as your desktop background. Simply select the folder of photos you want displayed and select how often you want the background to change. The rest is automatic.
Modern digital cameras create images with a much larger resolution than your computer screen. For example, a 3.2 megapixel image is 2160 by 1440 pixels. Most computer screens are set at 800 by 600 pixels. Thus, when a 3.2 mexapixel image is displayed on a PC, it either does not fit or needs to be resized to fit the screen. Resizing your images before you place them on a CD-ROM improves the performance of your slide show and improves the appearance of your photos. Digital Photo Resizer allows you to resize an entire folder of images in a single step. You can literally resize thousands of images with only a few keystrokes.
An increasingly popular way to share digital photos is to display them over the Internet. Web Slide Show provides a quick way to display your photos on a web site. You can create a thumbnail page of your images with links to the full size photos or an automatic slide show of your images. Simply select the folder of photos you want to display and click the "Create" button. Web Slide Show automatically resizes your images and creates .htm files that allow your images to be displayed in a web browser such as Internet Explorer.
