PSE 3 lost some of the slideshow capabilities of PSA 2. Most noticeable is the ability to attach misic to a PDF slideshow. Is that what you’re after?
The way to work around this is quite straightforward. Create the PDF slideshow in Organizer. The open it with Adobe Reader 7 [the latest version – download for free if you don’t have it]. It has a button [can’t remember what it’s called – Picture tasks?] which enables you to craee a slideshow from a PDF, adding music etc.
Colin,
I am also wondering about Captions. I think they were supported in PSA 2 for PDF slideshows and are not in PSE 3.
Barb O
You are right. You can only do captions in PSE 3.0 in the custom slideshow mode – which will only save to wmv – not pdf. I do appreciate all of your input. I tried adding the music in adobe reader to a slideshow I had created in PSE 3.0 in standard mode. Still no captions but I did get the music. However, it just loops the music until the end of the slideshow and then abruptly ends, unlike Elements where it will fit the music nicely to the slideshow – but won’t save to a pdf. Seems there is no perfect solution for slideshows with music and captions using PSE 3.0. Thanks again for the benefit of your expertise.
Sheri,
What WMV options did you try for the Custom Slideshow and approximately how many slides do you have in the slideshow?
Barb O
Sheri,
Are you still following this thread?
A couple of points –
1) The Elements 3 Editor Process Multiple files can make a copy of your photo file and superimpose the caption on the photo. Then you can input this copy of the photo file with the caption to the Slideshow process.
Elements where it will fit the music nicely to the slideshow
2) I think that the fit the music to the slideshow is new in Elements 3 Custom Slideshow. I don’t think that Album 2 had that function; I think that Album 2 was the same as you experienced with Reader. I did not use music very often so I am not sure.
Barb O
Barb O – thanks for the continued input. My brother fit his music to his slideshow using Album 2. That’s what I’m looking into buying now – and only using Elements 3.0 for the very infrequent editing I might do. Even then – Elements 3.0 is such a processing hog (on my pentium 4 2.4mghz) – I’ll have to really want to edit a photo before being willing to utilize that feature.( I sure am sorry I didn’t research these forums before spending the bucks on Elements 3.0. I think Album 2.0 is really all I needed.
My brother fit his music to his slideshow using Album 2.
Sherri,
I am curious about this. I still have Album 2 installed but as I said I did not usually use music on my slideshows. So I will ask you how to fit the music to the slideshow on Album 2?
Elements 3 runs fine on my P4 2.4 machine. It takes awhile when it starts, but then I leave it running while working with photos and the response is fine. Maybe RAM is a factor for you. I have 1 G which I upgraded to last year when I was editing large scanned files with Elements 2.
I have just been fiddling with a Custom Slideshow tonight. I am using Custom in this case because I plan to burn it to a DVD for playing on family TVs. I will use the DVD authoring software that cam with my DVD burner for the finishing parts.
Barb O
Good info, Barb O. I only have 256 RAM. That must be my problem. Hmm – did you upgrade the RAM yourself? How big a job is that?
I’ll find out about fitting the music to slideshow with Album 2 from my brother. He uses Elements 2.0 with Album 2.0 and I’m pretty sure he said it was Album that he used to actually make the slideshows. I’ll confirm and get back to you.
Hello Sheri,
Firstly, the fitting of music to pdf slideshows in Album 2 was, as Barb O suggests, never a ‘supported’ feature that I ever found out about – and I used to create a few of them for family & friends because they liked them so much. It is possible to ‘stitch’ together two or more tracks to avoid any single piece of music repeating itself over and over, but I don’t ever recall being able to set individual slide transitions so that they coincided with the music.
Almost definitely the reason Photoshop Elements 3 is running slowly is down to the amount of RAM that you have. I had 256Mb, both PSE2 & PSA2 seemed happy with this, but when I installed PSE3 my machine crawled along. I’m certainly no technical wizard, but I found it easy enough to install more RAM. It simply involved me opening up my machine to inspect its innards, checking that I had a spare ‘slot’ available for a RAM module. Identifying the type that I needed, going out to buy it and then plugging it into the slot. Nothing else needed! Just put the cover back on and switch on. There are plenty of websites out there with photographs of what you can expect to see. I would suggest you start with the website of the manufacturer of your PC and typing in ‘RAM Upgrade’ into their search engine. You will find that Windows runs a whole lot more quickly and smoothly too. Incidentally, I bought a 512 MB RAM module.
If the timings of the slide transitions to music is more important to you than the capability to modify the images themselves, then you may find the PSE3 isn’t quite the product for you. Lots of people in here have made postings saying that ProShow Gold is their preferred choice. I don’t have it myself (and nor do I work for them) so you may need to perform further research. On the other hand, if you need a great photo organiser with an unparallelled capability to tweak or modify those images, then you could not have bought better! Keep with it, there is so much in this product to keep you entertained for a long time to come.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the advice. Looks like I’ll be researching the price of additional RAM. Thanks also for the ProShow Gold tip. I’ll check it out.
Barb O – just confirmed with my brother about the fitting slideshows to music with Album 2.0. You and Mark are correct – it doesn’t "fit" the slideshow to the music – just plays the music in a loop until the final slide is seen. Thanks for the correction. Guess at this point I’m considering keeping PSE 3.0 for the organizing and editing features, upgrading my RAM by adding a 512 MB module so that I can use PSE 3.0 without losing my mind, and possibly buying an OEM version of Album 2.0 to produce my slideshows. So much to learn.
Sheri
Couple of comments:
Firstly, if you are planning to get some other software for making slideshows, it might be sensible to look at something that is dedicated to the task. PSA/PSE only do it as a sideline. My personal favourite is from <
http://www.wnsoft.com> but there are loads out there.
Second, in many, many cases OEM software is another name for pirated software. Not always, but it is used as an excuse for badly packaged copies.
Interesting info on the "OEM" market. Did not know that. As to PicturestoExe – I did download the trial version – and it is slick. The feature from Album 2.0 that I personally find so valuable and cannot seem to find in any other ap is the ability to create a slideshow with music and save it to a pdf file. This pdf file is then suitable for emailing (meaning under 10meg) while still containing more than 10 slides with music. And, perhaps most importantly, when the receiver downloads and opens the file from their email, it fills their entire screen with excellent quality images. They don’t have to go to another website – or download a viewer (assuming they have Adobe reader) or use a magnifying glass to see the images on their screen. I have been so impressed with the slideshows that my brother has sent me using his Album 2.0 for this reason. Granted they lack the flexibility of all the fancy transitions that something like PicturestoExe provides – but I’m more interested in great quality images set to music that I can still email.
You have a valid point though regarding the number of other slide show presentation aps out there. Perhaps I will keep looking a bit before purchasing.
