best program(s) for creating slideshow with both photos and video

[AMACL]

Hello all,

I have been trying to create a slideshow combining photos and a few videos. I think I had asked Photos to make a slideshow from my favorites, which it did but not in the right order... I gather this is a longstanding problem.

In this forum I just saw the proposed solution of Control-clicking on an album which I will try - I infer that I have to create an album first with only the photos and video clips that I want, in the right order, then create the slideshow.

I also tried using iMovie for example to trim the video clips, but there too the photos were out of order.

SO MY QUESTION : which program do you recommend I use to create this slideshow ? Photos? iMovie? something else ?
I was surprised to see some people mention PowerPoint or Keynote as a slideshow maker. I have both those programs. Would that be easier, do you think? Could I export a PPT or Keynote file into iMovie for viewing on TV via my Apple TV ?

Thanks for your help !

Ann

 

[chscag]

Hi Ann:

Actually the suggestion to use Powerpoint or Keynote is something you should consider. I'm not that familiar with Keynote (although I have a copy) but I do know that with Powerpoint you can add photos, movies, sound clips, and images. Building a slideshow with Powerpoint is easy but may require some study and practice in order to import photos and videos.

If you do not have a copy of Microsoft Office which includes Powerpoint, you can download a free copy of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers from the Mac App Store in your area. The requirement for using the new versions of those apps are that you must be running at least Mojave. (Which it appears you are.)

Give that a try and let us know.

 

[AMACL]

Hi Charles

Thanks for the encouragement.

1). the control-click trick for keeping slides in order actually worked. Thank heaven for workarounds .

2) I actually have up-to-date versions of both PowerPoint and Keynote, so that's not an issue. I decided to try Keynote since it is a native program and I thought it might talk nicely to Photos...

Result: I didn't get past the second slide (the first one was a title page) because the photos being imported from the Photos slideshow were humongous. I had asked Photos to arrange them in "magazine" style, which is how I thought I would export them too, instead of one photo per slide. It works fine in Photos slideshow but not in Keynote and I am not going to individually resize each photo to import.

I am having other issues, notably with adding audio. Have tried editing in both QuickTime and iMovie. My computer is strewed with all kinds of extraneous trial files I will have to clean up some point....
I can't even think about how to add different music at different points in the slideshow, which would be neat.

I guess it's like everything else in life : do it 10,000 times (right) and it's yours.

Ann

 

[AMACL]

And now another frustration : I decided to create several short slideshow projects relating to a longer trip. Under "My Projects" in the Photos app, the program changes the names I give to these projects so that they all (or almost all) have the same name !! Is this because I am creating them on the same date (the ones I created a while back keep their original names) ? They have different photos and videos, and the slideshows themselves are different, but I don't know which are which since the project names are identical...

 

[usagora]

And now another frustration : I decided to create several short slideshow projects relating to a longer trip. Under "My Projects" in the Photos app, the program changes the names I give to these projects so that they all (or almost all) have the same name !! Is this because I am creating them on the same date (the ones I created a while back keep their original names) ? They have different photos and videos, and the slideshows themselves are different, but I don't know which are which since the project names are identical...

I just created 2 slideshows in Photos and named them Test 1 and Test 2, respectively. They both show up on the left sidebar under My Projects with those names (not the same names), so I have no idea why it would be doing that for you. Have you tried right-clicking them in the sidebar and choosing "Rename Project"?

 

[MightyGem]

I also tried using iMovie for example to trim the video clips, but there too the photos were out of order.

You say that your photos were out of order in iMovie. How did you add them to the Timeline? If you choose them individually from the Photos option in the iMovie Sidebar, you can put them in any order that you like. You can set the duration for photos in iMovie Preferences.

I can't even think about how to add different music at different points in the slideshow, which would be neat.

Again, that's easy enough in iMovie. You can access iTunes from iMovie and drop an audio file under the Timeline.

 

[AMACL]

Hi Ann:

Actually the suggestion to use Powerpoint or Keynote is something you should consider. I'm not that familiar with Keynote (although I have a copy) but I do know that with Powerpoint you can add photos, movies, sound clips, and images. Building a slideshow with Powerpoint is easy but may require some study and practice in order to import photos and videos.

 

[AMACL]

skip to next message pls

 

[AMACL]

Hi Ann:

Actually the suggestion to use Powerpoint or Keynote is something you should consider. I'm not that familiar with Keynote (although I have a copy) but I do know that with Powerpoint you can add photos, movies, sound clips, and images. Building a slideshow with Powerpoint is easy but may require some study and practice in order to import photos and videos.

An update on one aspect of this thread : I eventually did build a Keynote presentation by resizing imported photos and videos one by one. It was easy, as you say Charles, and actually worked pretty well and I was able to put it titles and arrange the photos the way I wanted them.
For audio, I think I had to do it in iMovie, I don't remember. Or maybe I just muted the audio track I didn't want.
I exported the file as an mp4 to my iCloud documents so I could play it from my laptop (desktop computer is upstairs and TV is downstairs).
When I tried to open the file to play it with Quick Time Player, that application refused to open. It works fine on my desktop computer. What next ?

So I looked for information, and found that QT is being discontinued in the newest MacOS ? So what other program do I need to download ? I'm running Mojave at present on both machines but at some point I'll have to upgrade I suppose.

 

[usagora]

So I looked for information, and found that QT is being discontinued in the newest MacOS ? So what other program do I need to download ? I'm running Mojave at present on both machines but at some point I'll have to upgrade I suppose.

As far as I know, the current version of QuickTime (Version 10) is 64-bit and still runs in Catalina. QuickTime 7 (which was a much more powerful app) is 32-bit and therefore no longer supported in Catalina. Always mystified me why QT10 is so dumbed-down.

No idea why QuickTime (assuming Version 10) is not playing your exported mp4 file. You can try dragging it into a browser window to see if it will play in the browser. You can also try downloading VLC Media Player and see it if plays it.

Was QuickTime 10 the app that you were able to open the mp4 in on your MacBook?

 

[AMACL]

Jonathan,
Sorry for the delay in replying and thanks for your info.
Strangely, QuickTime (yes, 10) is now playing the exported file.
There is a possibility, I hate to admit, that I was trying to open the file when the latter had not yet finished exporting - I didn't realise it took so long.
Anyway, it works now and I am relieved that I don't have to download VLC Media Player, at least not just yet.

 

[usagora]

Jonathan,
Sorry for the delay in replying and thanks for your info.
Strangely, QuickTime (yes, 10) is now playing the exported file.
There is a possibility, I hate to admit, that I was trying to open the file when the latter had not yet finished exporting - I didn't realise it took so long.
Anyway, it works now and I am relieved that I don't have to download VLC Media Player, at least not just yet.

Good to hear!

 

[Slydude]

@AMACL You may be right about what happened. I've noticed before that exporting video from QuickTime can take quite some time and if the export window is hidden by other things it can be difficult to tell where you are in the process. I've made a similar mistake before.