A great viewing option in Album is the instant slide show. You can select the photos in your catalog and with a single command create a slide show that launches and plays on-screen. Each image in the slide show appears individually, gradually fades to black after a few seconds and then transitions into the next image. When the last image in the instant slide show is displayed, Album automatically closes the slide show and returns you to the Album application window.
Creating an instant slide show is a nice way to preview a folder or even a whole catalog of images. It is also helpful if you want to do a dry run of a slide show you ultimately plan on constructing and exporting as a PDF with the Creations Wizard. You also can control the pace of slide shows using the on-screen controls.
Viewing photos as a slide show
Follow these steps to view photos as a slide show:
1. Select your desired photos in the Photo Well.
2. Choose View --> Slideshow.
You also can click the Slideshow button in the Shortcuts bar, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Choose Slideshow from the View menu or use the Shortcuts bar.
You temporarily leave Album, and the slide show launches and takes over your screen, as shown in Figure 2. The show transitions through the chosen images automatically. Or you can use the on-screen controls to nudge the show along:
• You can pause the show by pressing the Stop button.
• If you don't see any controls, move your mouse to bring them to life. If the controls are not an aesthetically pleasing part of your presentation, you can close them by clicking the X in the top left corner of the controls.
• The slide show ends automatically; however to end it prematurely, press the Esc key.
 | If you're not happy with the timing, transitions, or background of the default settings for the slide show, you can change the slide show preferences (see the next section, "Setting instant slide show preferences"). |
Figure 2: Instant slide shows are a great way to preview your images.
Setting instant slide show preferences
If the default instant slide show settings aren't exactly to your liking, you can customize them by choosing new options in the Preferences dialog box. You can even jazz up your show by adding some background music. And if want your cat or dog to be entertained when you leave the room to do something else, you can set the show to repeat over and over and over . . .
Here's how to set your slide show preferences:
1. Choose Edit --> Preferences.
2. Select Slideshow from the list of on the left side of the dialog box, shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Use the Slideshow Preferences dialog box to customize your slide show.
3. Choose settings for the following options:
• Background Music: Choose an audio clip to play during your slide show. Select Play Audio Captions to play any captions that you have attached to the images in your slide show.
• Transition: Select how the photos transition from one to the other in the slide show.
| • Just a note of advice: Don't mix too many styles. Transitions are wonderful, but too much of a good thing has a tendency to make those of us with weak stomachs nauseated. |
• Page Duration: Select the length of time that each photo stays on the screen. You can choose 2, 5, or 10 seconds from the pop-up menu or you can enter your own custom time duration.
• Include Play Controls: Choose this option to include the on-screen controls when you run your slide show.
• Allow Video to Resize: Select this option to allow video clips to resize to fill your screen. Be careful, however. If your image is small, allowing it to resize may result in a less-than-desirable screen quality.
• Include Captions: Choose this setting to include any captions you have attached to the images in your slide show.
• Pause on Start/Manual Advance: Select this option to pause the slide show when it starts so you can use the on-screen controls to run through the slide show instead of allowing it to run automatically.
• Repeat Slideshow: Choose this option to put your slide show on a loop — have it repeat after it's made a run-through. The slide show will repeat (and repeat, and repeat) until you tell it to stop.
4. When you're finished, click OK to close the dialog box.
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