Soundslides

Soundslides har blitt nærmest en bransjestandard blant presseforografer som nærmer seg det multimediale. Først og fremst på grunn av lav brukerterskel og kanskje også fordi programmet rendyrker presentasjon ved hjelp av stillbilder. Her lar det seg nemlig ikke gjøre å klippe inn sekvenser av ferdigfilmet video.

Til Soundslides finnes det en omfattende brukermanual. Denne finnes både online og som en utskriftsvennlig versjon. Utdraget nedenfor er sakset fra manualen og innholdet er beholdt på engelsk.

Soundslides lager i utgangspunktet ikke videofiler, og kan derfor ikke eksporteres til ulike videodelingstjenester direkte. En Soundslides-presentasjon kan imidlertid konverteres til video ved hjelp av en egen tjeneste.

Justere klipp

There are three main methods for adjusting the timing of your images: slider timing, in-point timing and drag-and-drop timing.

Slider timing

Slider editing is the most common method. Simply click and drag the slide markers between images to adjust the duration of the images on either side (moving the slider will cause one image to display for a longer length of time, while the other will display for a shorter length of time).

Use the slider to the upper right of the timeline if you need to magnify the timeline to make timing changes easier.

Drag-and-drop timing

Drag-and-drop timing only affects one image at a time and is extremely useful when adding an image to an existing slide show. With the "SLIDES" tab selected, click and drag the image from the thumbnail area to the timeline and drop it into place. Here's a small screencast demo of drag-and-drop timing.

In point timing

You can also enter the point in time (in seconds) that you would like an image to appear. To do this, click the "SLIDE INFO" tab, then the "DETAILS" tab. Then type the time into the "In point" text box. After entering your new in point, an "APPLY" button will appear. Click the "APPLY" button to set the new timing for the image.

Other timing options

If you'd like to spread some or all of the images evenly across the timeline, you can also choose "Spread images evenly" or "Spread remaining images evenly" from the "Tools" menu.

Lengde bestemt av lydstrekk

The length of a slide show is determined by the length of the audio track. For information on replacing the audio track, click here.

Redigere rekkefølge

Images can be re-ordered by clicking and dragging the thumbnails under the "SLIDES" tab.

Legge til og fjerne bilder

Adding imagesTo add images to an existing slide show, select the "SLIDES" tab and click "+ ADD IMAGE." The images you select will then be placed at the end of the timeline.

Removing images

To remove images from the thumbnail area of the "SLIDES" tab, click and drag the thumbnails to the Bin.

To re-insert images you have moved to the Bin, click the Bin to open it and drag the images back to the thumbnail area. Alternately, you can click the Bin to open it and then click the "RE-INSERT ALL" button to return all the images in the Bin to the thumbnail area.

Legge inn et bilde på nytt

To replace or update an image without affecting the image's timing, select the "SLIDE INFO" tab, click on the "UPDATE IMAGE" button and select the new JPG file. The new image will then be imported and placed in the same position as the old one.

Pan & zoom / Ken Burns

(Kun Soundslides Plus)When creating an audio slide show with Soundslides Plus, you can add pan and zoom movement to the individual images. These features are not available for non-audio slide shows, since both features require timing tied to an audio track.

To add movement to an image, click on the "SLIDE INFO" tab, then the "MOVEMENT" tab. You can then set the start and end positions by clicking and dragging the two thumbnail images.

To zoom on images, use the scale sliders below the images.

To move a panned and/or zoomed image from the start position to the end position or vice versa, click one of the arrows between the thumbnails.

To reset the image movement, click the "RESET MOVEMENT" button below the images.

Overganger mellom bildene

Individual transitions can be set either through the timeline or through the "SLIDE INFO" tab. This feature is only available for audio slide shows.

For more information on setting a default transition for you template, click here.

From the timeline

To change the transition of an individual image, click on the transition connector. The transition connector is below the timing mark for a particular transition.After clicking on the connector, a small "Transition" window with a drop-down menu will appear.

To change an individual transition, click on the drop-down menu and select a new transition type and transition time. There are three transition types:

Crossfade
Fade out/Fade in (example)
Straight cut (example)

If you set the pull-down menu to something other than "Use template default," you will also be able to enter a length of time for the transition.

You can set the length for the transition anywhere between 0.1 and 9.9 seconds. The default is 1 second.

Click the "Apply" button to finish changing the transition.

From the 'SLIDE INFO' tab

You can also change the type of transition for a single slide from the "DETAILS" tab under the "SLIDE INFO" tab. Changing the transition here will effect the transition immediately before the selected slide.

If you set the "Transition type" pull-down menu to something other than "Use template default," you will also be able to enter a length of time for the transition.

You can set the transition duration anywhere between 0.1 and 9.9 seconds. The default is 1 second.

Undertekster

Soundslides and Soundslides Plus will import standard IPTC caption information when importing your JPG images. If this is not desired, you can clear all of the slide show's caption data by pulling down the "Tools" menu and selecting "Clear all captions."

To edit captions or create new ones, click on the "SLIDE INFO" tab, then the "DETAILS" tab. You can now edit the caption information in the text box.

You can use the "BACK" and "NEXT" buttons to quickly move from image to image.

HTML-støtte

You can style your captions using HTML tags. Supported tags include b, i, u, font, br and a (see image below).

The "UPDATE IMAGE" button is also available on the "DETAILS" tab. For more information on this feature, click here.

In-point timing editing is also available on the "SLIDE INFO" tab. For more information on this feature, click here.

Turning the slide into a link

In addition to adding HTML links, you can also add code that will turn the slide itself into a link. This functionality was added with version 1.9.3.

By adding the following to your caption, you would make your image link to http://soundslides.com:

[clickimagelink]http://soundslides.com[/clickimagelink]

By adding the following to your caption, you would make your image link to http://soundslides.com and open the link in a new window:

[clickimagelink_new]http://soundslides.com[/clickimagelink_new]

For more options for turning the image area into a clickable link, see the page on advanced parameters.

Tittel og sluttekster

There are two metadata options available: headline and credits.

To edit the headline or credits, select the "PROJECT INFO" tab and type in the text boxes.

You can style your credits using HTML tags. Supported tags include b, i, u, font, br and a.

Supring / Lower thirds

(Soundslides Plus only)

Wikipedia defines lower thirds this way:

In the television industry (especially in North America), lower thirds refers to graphics that take up the lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third portion of the screen as the name suggests. Lower thirds are often called "supers" in the U.S. and "name straps" in the U.K.

Typically, lower thirds in audio slide shows are used to quickly identify the person speaking in the audio.

Creating a lower third

To create a lower third, click on the "AUDIO" tab, then click the "LOWER THIRDS" tab.

Click the "ADD" button to create a new lower third.

You can then click in the text boxes under "name" and "title" to edit the text.

The "in point" text box is the timeline position (in seconds) when the lower third first appears. The "duration" text box is the amount of time (in seconds) that the lower third will appear. You can click in either text box to change when and for how long a lower third appears.

To add another lower third, just click the "ADD" button again.

Video tutorial of lower third editing

For a video demonstration of lower third editing, click here.

Deleting a lower third

To remove a lower third, click it in the list to highlight, then click the "DELETE" button.

Using an alternate lower third design

Since the design of the lower thirds is contained within the "lowerthirds.swf" file, you can replace it with alternate versions.

To use an alternate design, replace the "lowerthirds.swf" file with the version below. You'll need to switch the files in the "publish_to_web" folder after exporting from Soundslides Plus.

Here is an alternate version that adds the "voice of" text in a line over the name:

Download | Example

Here is an alternate version that uses smaller fonts:

http://forums.soundslides.com/viewtopic.php?pid=8816#p8816

Here is an alternate version that autosizes and centers, which can be used for subtitles:

http://media.soundslides.com/files/lt_language_subtitles/

Erstatte lydspor

If your new audio track is shorter than the one it is replacing, any images beyond the new audio file's duration are moved to the Bin. The application will warn you before doing this, and you can cancel the move.

To replace the audio track, select the "AUDIO" tab, then the "TRACK" tab and click the "IMPORT AUDIO" button.