Add captions and create a slide show.

[BML]

At the moment I have the following on my computer gathered over the last year or so and I have not really looked at any of them except to download photographs from my digital camera.

Adobe PhotShop Elements 2.0 Which I find complicated

Serif PhotoPlus 10 Which I find complicated

Serif Album Plus 4 Which I find complicated

OLYMPUS Master Used to download my wife’s photographs

Canon PhotoRecord Application. Used to download my photographs

Canon Digital Camera File Viewer Utility I don’t know where this came from.

Canoscan Used for scanning

I do not want anything fancy because at the moment I am at the stage where if a photograph is duff I dump it. All I want to do is to find the best softwear to apply captions to photographs, create a slide show and then place them on a DVD. Can you help?

[Rhys]

You need a Mac. No PC software that I have found thus far actually works well - if it works at all - for making dvds or vcds. Classic example - on my new laptop (I was given a Compaq Presario v2000 widescreen) there's a copy of Sonic's dvd writing software. I made a vCD with it and while the photos looked pretty good, the transcoding of the AVI and quicktime video clips was jerky with grotty sound reproduction. It induced jerks and audio problems that simply do not exist in the original AVI/Quicktime clips. Also... no way will it write a full CD. It'll write at most half a CD before complaining the CD is full.

Moral - get a Mac.

[JTL]

To follow up on what Rhys has said, I have yet to find any software that does this to my satisfaction. Everything that I've tried is buggy or just plain doesn't work...

I'm still not buying a Mac, though!

[Rhys]

To follow up on what Rhys has said, I have yet to find any software that does this to my satisfaction. Everything that I've tried is buggy or just plain doesn't work...

I'm still not buying a Mac, though!

Given that there's a demand for this kind of software, it's amazing that nobody is satisfying it!

[TWD]

I use Photodex Proshow Gold 2.6. and I am immensely happy with it.

It isn't cracked up to be the easiest to work with, but you can actually create slideshows easily at first. Then the program grows with you as you want to introduce more panache as you get more skilled.

To create a slideshow, just

1. Open the program, drag the pictures into the window.

2. Ctrl+A to select all the pictures.

3. Go to Slide/Randomize Transitions to select a different one every time.

4. Doubleclick an image to bring up the options box where you can select length, caption, etc.

5. Go to Create/Create DVD to burn your DVD.

Vastly easier than buying an Macintosh. I'm a graphic designer and I've gotten very tired of that the "Buy A Mac" nonsolution. Fortunately it is no longer as popular as it once was. And that's for very good reason as Macs are far more costly with lower performance overall to name only one.

[Rhys]

Macs are far more costly with lower performance overall to name only one.

Macs do cost more but you get more on them than you do on a PC. If you had all the stuff on a Mac put onto a PC, you'd be paying the same.

Regarding performance, I feel that without the audience having an adequate understanding of the problems and dangers of the way Windows is designed, it's hard to explain how the Mac approach is more robust. Let's just say that the Mac system is considerably more robust than Windows. Having said that, Windows is much more available due to market forces. Note market forces do not always lean in favour of the better product. Why exactly do we still use piston engines in cars - ah... market forces and manufacturer inertia!

[sparky]

You might want to try Photo Story 3. It has nice motion effects and some transitions. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...y/default.mspx

Best of all. it's FREE!

[orangelad]

I completely agree with TWD above - PhotoDex ProShow Gold is fantastic. It's not incredibly complex and I actually find it to be quite easy to use. I had my mother up and running on it in no time.

[britkev]

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Nero Vision Express does exactly this