Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual

Chapter 18. Creating Slideshows

Elements makes it easy to create very slick slideshows—even some with music and transitions between the images—that you can play on your computer or send to friends. The program’s Slide Show Editor lets you create really elaborate slideshows, but unfortunately for Apple fans, it’s available in only the Windows version of the program.

Note

If you’re looking for the Online Albums or Web Galleries features that were in previous versions of Elements, those aren’t included in Elements 12. You can still group photos into albums (see Albums), and if you use Revel (Using Revel) there are some options for sharing your photos there, but Elements no longer offers any templates for creating online slideshows.

If you find that the Elements’ slideshow options don’t meet your needs, here are a few alternatives: ProShow Gold from Photodex (www.photodex.com) is probably the most popular slideshow program for Windows. On a Mac, if iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD don’t work for you, FotoMagico (www.boinx.com) is the next step up. And if you don’t like Elements’ albums or don’t want to use Revel, jAlbum (www.jalbum.net) is a popular free alternative for both Mac and Windows. Also, many people create online slideshows using the photo-sharing services mentioned on A Few More Ways to Share.

If you have a Mac or if you prefer the simple life, you can quickly create a plain-vanilla PDF slideshow in about as much time as it takes to email a photo. PDF slideshows are really straightforward ...