Sliding Panels Slideshow in iPhoto Makes Magic in Seconds

I only recently upgraded to iLife '09 after seeing how inexpensive it is on Amazon (see ad to left). The thing I look forward to the most in all the iLife upgrades are the new themes for the slideshows,  movies, books and calendars. I think one of the things that really separate Mac users from PC users is that Mac users produce these photo and movie records with ease.

Which brings us to my new Favorite Thing: Sliding Panels iPhoto Slideshow. This slideshow template is part of the general iLife '09 trend, which is using motion graphics for more visual interest. And the best part is it takes just a few clicks. See below for an example of this template.



All you have to do to make your own is start with an Album in iPhoto '09 that already has the title you desire. Mine was Napa Valley Trip '09. Next, click the slideshow button at the bottom.



It should just start playing a slideshow. If iPhoto has picked a different template, click the 2 slides icon (Themes), and select the Sliding Panels theme. The only change I made was to the music. I clicked the Music symbol and selected the Endless Summer loop rather than the stock one that comes with this template. There are 6 loops to choose from in the Theme Music section, but you can also bring in any music from your iTunes library.

There is also 5 other slideshow themes and additional settings you can fiddle with, including fit slideshow to music if you choose a song rather than a loop. If you like what you've got set up, just check the use setting as default check box as a way to make all your slideshows a one-click creation.

I confess to one other refinement I made: I grouped the photos in my album in groups of similar subjects so they look good together in the slideshow. But I also found with other subjects just having them sorted by time/date worked well too.

Do you have any favorites in iLife '09? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Your Comments:

How can I export that slideshow to video file?

 Mark
 09/10/2009  at  03:09 PM

Mark, go to to File>Export… and go all the way to the right and click Slideshow. then just choose your size.

 chris Kerins
 09/10/2009  at  03:52 PM

Thanks, Chris. I guess I was blind or something...

 Mark
 09/24/2009  at  01:28 PM

Hi Chris
Thanks for this!
I have some questions.


1. How can you show 'captions' when using the 'Sliding Panel' Theme? I'd like to show some descriptions of each photos when using the 'Sliding panel' theme.

2. What is 'grouping' you mentioned? Can I group photos so that the photos that are only relevant to each other can appear on the same slide/at the same time?

Thanks!

 Hye
 06/02/2010  at  11:34 PM

Hye, Sorry to not have good answers.

1: Captions aren't an option for Sliding Panels
2: I just play with the order of photos in the album to get the grouping. You can't dial it in the way one would like to.

 Chris Kerins
 06/04/2010  at  08:43 AM

Chris, I am not at all enamored with this program. I find the inability to play more than one song with the slideshow frustrating, and I detest the DVD program's requirement for one of their childish themes, with no obvious option to go theme-less. By going into garage band and stitching multiple songs together before naming it, one can create music to more or less match the slideshow. Swapping this for the set music will give you the music and length you want. I haven't explored captions as they were unnecessary to my project. If you expand the DVD map, the first drop zone is auto play. Drop your show here for a themeless play. In my case, my music was 10 sec too long, allowing the show to loop to the first 2 pics. (the event sponsors) When I played the disc, these two were cut, and the auto-selected theme played without pix, but with the full sound track. (bummer) This was my first experience with iDVD or slideshow. If I do this again, I will be forced to purchase better software. Note: I am using version 8, but noticed no difference with 9.

 Charlie
 06/12/2010  at  10:03 PM

Charlie, to play multiple musics for the slideshow, I just selected multiple songs from the list with Command Key. Or.. Am I doing it wrong?

 Hye
 06/13/2010  at  08:58 PM

You can caption photos by clicking the text slide icon in the lower right (next to the "themes" icon.

 Beeblebrox
 04/26/2012  at  10:58 AM