Here is the
first screen I see upon opening PhotoDVD.It is straightforward with not many bells
and whistles to get confused with.
To add pictures
or a file of pictures I simply click on
and a browser will help locate the pictures to be added
to slideshow.Pictures can also be imported by the “drag
and drop” manner. It is nice to have the option
of either technique.As I’ve experienced, PhotoDVD supports
large list of various picture formats.
Once my pictures
have been added, a preview of the picture selected is shown
in the box on the right hand side of the screen.Below
that a bar showing the space the slideshow will take up
on a DVD and the display time of each picture in seconds
which can be increased or decreased.The order of the pictures can be changed
by using the blue arrows or delete completely by highlighting
a picture number on and clicking on the red “X”.
By clicking
on the magnifying glass more editing option become available:
On the right
side of the screen I can change the animation and transition
factors or I can leave them as is.In
the past I have found the default settings pleasant to
the eye and the best compromise for my pictures and viewing
preference.
Underneath
the preview of my picture I have various new editing tools:
picture rotation, displaying my picture in black and white,
focus points, and the option to add subtitles.
I like the
fact that by clicking both or either
I have the option to hide the animation options on the
right side of the screen as well as the subtitles on
the bottom half of the screen.
By sliding
the mouse over each one of these icons a script appears
telling me what each icon is represents.This
always seems to reassure me, so that I do not feel obligated
to click and then see what happens, in fear of not being
able to undo the manipulation I just have done.
Not only can
I add upt to three tracks of
subtitles here I can also change their font, size, color,
etc by clicking on the three dots found to the right of
the text entry bar (. . .).
The best part
of this window is that I can go back and forth between
pictures of my slideshow by using the blue arrows (separated
by the icons) to facilitate the adding of subtitles to
each one of my pictures.
The last editing
feature worth mentioning here is the option of using focus
points.To do so all I have to do is click once
on the icon
and then click once on the specific detail
of my picture I want to be highlighted (after slideshow is compiled I can notice
how these selected spots on my pictures are zoomed in on adding a rather classy
effect to each picture).
I found after
going through my pictures that not all of them merit a
focus point, but when I do add one the effect is a great
special touch.
A little trick,
well thought of by the programmers, to go from picture
to picture adding focus points is that you do not have
to click a spot for a focus point and then come back down
to one of the blue arrows to change pictures, simply click
double click where you want the focus point to appear and
the following picture will come onto the window.This
saves a lot of time and back and forth motion that tiring
and redundant.
Now having
finished my additional editing I close that window and
come back to the original PhotoDVD window
and click on the “Next” button.
Ohhh,
the phone just rang I am late for an appointment instead
of leaving the computer on.I
found that under the file menu I can save my project.I
just will and turn off my computer. . . .
With that
appointment done and over with I simply turned back on
my computer and opened PhotoDVD, clicked on File “open project” and
selected the slideshow project I was working on.
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and a browser will help locate the pictures to be added
to slideshow.
I have the option to hide the animation options on the
right side of the screen as well as the subtitles on
the bottom half of the screen.
