All About Newspapers

Creating high quality audio slideshow online with minimal effort

Soundslides is the easiest way to get a high quality audio slideshow online with minimal effort. Mentioning why it is so, Kevin Slimp pointed out the features of the latest version of Soundslides for a ride around the block.

Brighter days ahead

I’m seeing good things of late. People are starting to come out to conventions and training sessions again. Newspapers tell me they’re starting to refill positions that were cut last year. There’s an air of confidence in the industry, be it ever so slight, that gives me sincere hope for our future. Why? Let’s ponder over.

One of the changes I’ve noticed most is the dissipation of gloom that seemed to pervade our industry just a few months ago. It’s like we woke from a bad dream to find that things aren’t really as bad as we thought they were. Sure there have been some scary months. And there will be more to come. But I think most of us have decided we’re going to be around for a while, so we might as well get things in order.

The atmosphere at recent conferences in Saskatoon and Chicago was almost - dare I say - giddy. When newspaper people gather, they’re laughing again.

We’re starting to give serious thought to questions about the future of newspapers. Maybe news won’t be printed on paper in a few years, as my friend Ken Blum has stated. Then again, maybe it will. He and I can continue to fight that battle over lunch the next time we’re together. The fact remains that we as an industry are finally realizing we control our own fate to a large degree, and it looks like we’re ready to begin steering our own course once again.

Admittedly, I’ve not been immune to the feelings of gloom. As newspapers worried, conference attendance declined. Three of my booked events at conferences were cancelled this year, a first for me. Less newspapers were calling for on-site consulting and training. But just as the mood seemed to change among our papers, the phone (well, e-mail) began to ring again. Over the past few days, several state, regional, national and even a couple of international associations have called to book sessions at conferences in 2010.

Sure, we’re not out of the woods. But I see the clearing. And after the past couple of years, I’m going to allow myself to enjoy that for a while.

irst, some background information. Joe Weiss - whose resume includes stints as interactive producer at The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC, director of photography at The Herald-Sun in Durham, NC, and multimedia producer at MSNBC.com - first began creating audio slideshows in 1992. Working in Flash, Weiss would go through the painstaking process of creating audio slideshows. Over time, he created a utility that automated much of the Flash programming. It took more than two years, but Soundslides was born in 1995. At first, Soundslides was Mac compatible only, but recent versions are available on both the Mac and PC platforms.

In nutshell, Soundslides is a simple application allowing one to take photos and audio and put them together into a Flash slideshow that can be placed on your newspaper website. Soundslides doesn’t edit photos or create audio. It simply takes folders of photos and mp3 (audio) files and merges them together with excellent results.

After opening Soundslides for the first time, I created my first audio slideshow in less than twenty minutes. And that included creating the audio for the slideshow.

As mentioned, Soundslides doesn’t edit photos or audio, so that’s done in advance. Audio can come from any source that can be converted to mp3, a popular digital audio format. This includes most audio that would be recorded from a digital audio recorder or recorded on a computer. It’s important to remember that the length of the audio slideshow is determined by the length of audio.

Using the software couldn’t be much simpler. Upon starting the application, the user is instructed to select a folder. JPEG (photo) files in the designated folder are distributed throughout the slideshow. Next the user is prompted to select a sound (mp3) file. In a matter of seconds, Soundslides imports the audio and opens the slideshow.

At this point, the user could simply export the audio slideshow and upload the resulting folder of files to a website. However, there’s a lot more that can be done in Soundslides. Timing can be altered to allow more time for some photos and less for others. Templates can be selected with different background colours, fonts and layout options. Photos can be moved, added and deleted. After all changes have been made, the audio slideshow never changes. Once you’re happy with your results, click on the ‘Export’ button and a folder of files is created that can be uploaded ‘as is’ to a website. After creating a link on a web page, the resulting audio slideshow will appear on its own page in your internet browser.

For users wishing to build a slideshow directly onto a web page, Soundslides provides a method for creating custom code that can be used on most websites. Mine worked perfectly. To see the results, visit kevinslimp.com and watch the slideshow on the right sidebar.

Soundslides comes in two flavours. The $39 (US) version does everything I’ve described. Soundslides Plus ($69) adds: pan and zoom (aka “ken burns” effect), the ability to use lower thirds, full-screen playback mode, and the ability to create slideshows without audio. Sure, you could create audio slideshows in iMovie, Vegas or another video editing application. But it’s so much easier in Soundslides. For more information, visit soundslides.com.