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Create using Soundslides

SoundslidesSoundslides is a rapid production tool for still image and audio web presentations. On Soundslides.com External link the tag line is “ridiculously simple storytelling!” The presentations that it creates are basically photo essays – images with captions – and optional audio, which can either be a voice narration or a background soundtrack. Below are two examples of digital stories created by Soundslides.

Now that your learners have their script, storyboard, images and voiceovers, it is time to put them together using Soundslides software.

Note:

  • Soundslides is only available for Windows XP (or higher) and Mac OS X 10.3+.

  • The fully functional demo version of Soundslides is free.

  • You must have images and audio to use Soundslides. It doesn’t make plain photo galleries at this time.

Help:

  • There is a comprehensive and easy-to-follow user manual (downloaded from the web).

  • On the Soundslides site there is an active forum External link where you can ask questions and read past discussions. Discussion topics include: Troubleshooting, General discussion, Advanced topics and Share your work.

INSTRUCTION: For the educator

  1. Install Soundslides

Copy Soundslides to your computer. Double-click the file and install Soundslides on your PC/Mac.

  1. Start Soundslides

Click on the Soundslides icon on the desktop (or via the program menu) to start the program. Because you are using a free, unregistered version, you need to click on “Later” on the opening screen.

  1. Install LAME (optional)

An optional step is to install LAME, the free open-source audio application that encodes AIFF and WAV files into MP3 files before these are imported into Soundslides. This allows you to work with uncompressed audio formats, e.g. WAV (for PC) and AIFF (for Mac), when using Soundslides. If you don't install LAME it just means that your sound files must me in MP3 format. To install it:

Click on “NEW: Create a project”

Name your project project[your name] and save it in your project folder.

The LAME installation dialog appears immediately after creating a NEW project. Simply follow the prompts from Soundslides. More information on installing LAME.

Soundslides Create Project

INSTRUCTION: Tell the learners

  1. Start Soundslides

Click on the Soundslides icon on the desktop (or via the program menu) to start the program. Because you are using a free, unregistered version, you need to click on “Later” on the opening screen.

  1. Create a new project

Click on “NEW: Create a project”

Name your project project[your name] and save it in your project folder.

  1. Add images

Click on JPG and select your images folder. The great thing about Soundslides is that you just select the folder where all of your images are stored and it adds every one. You don't have to add each image individually.

Another great thing about Soundslides is that it will import any image size, and will resize the images to fit the size of the final slide show automatically. It is important not to use images that are too small though – this is covered in Images.

Reminder:

Your images must be JPG files and have a .jpg file extension. They must not be Progressive JPGs.

  1. Add sound

Click on SND and select your audio voiceover file, which should be in your audio folder.

Note:

  • Audio files must be 16bit, have a sample rate of 44.1khz or 22.05khz. Both platforms (PC and Mac) can import MP3 files encoded to 32kbps, 48kbps, 56kbps, 64kbps, 128kbps, 160kbps or 256kbps. If you use Audacity to record your audio, it defaults to these required settings.

  • If LAME is installed, Soundslides can import uncompressed audio formats: WAV files for PC and AIFF files for Mac.

  1. Edit your digital story

With your images and audio imported, you are now ready to build your digital story in the main Soundslides editing window. Note that both the audio and the images have to be imported before the editing window will appear.

Soundslides edit window

Getting oriented in the editing window:

At any time you can:

Note:

  • The length of your slide show is completely dependent on the length of the audio. If your audio track is 60 seconds long, then you will have a 60 second audio slide show.

  1. Adjust images and timing

You should first make sure that your images are all in the correct order. In the top right, the SLIDES tab should be selected so that you see all of your image thumbnails. Click and drag the thumbnail images, dropping them before or after other images so that they are in the right order. The order of the images in the time line is adjusted accordingly.

At first all of your images are spread are out evenly across the time line. So the first thing you want to do is adjust the timing of your images with your voiceover, e.g. so that when you talk about your house, the image of your house is displayed. Click the play button below the time line to view the slide show and then adjust the image displays accordingly by clicking and dragging the slide marker between images to adjust the duration of the two images.

  1. Add, remove and replace images

To add an image select the SLIDES tab and click ADD IMAGE. By default it is added to the end of the list of images. You can drag-and-drop it from the SLIDES tab onto the time line.

To remove an image, click and drag it into the OUT folder (which is like a recycle bin). If you want bring the image back, click the OUT folder and select the image you want to re-use.

The best way to replace an image is to double-click its thumbnail in the SLIDES tab. The SLIDE INFO tab will be selected for that image. Click on UPDATE IMAGE and select the new one you want to use. The image will be replaced without changing any of the timing settings.

  1. Add captions

For each image you can add a caption (like a sub-title). Select the SLIDE INFO tab. The image that is showing the preview area is the one that you caption by filling in the white text box on the right. Use the BACK and NEXT buttons to easily move through the list of images.

  1. Add a title and credits

To add a title and credits to your slide show, select the PROJECT INFO tab and fill in the text boxes.

Soundslides Project Info tab

  1. Open an existing project

You might have saved your slide show and need to work on it some other time. To open an existing Soundslides project:

1. Launch Soundslides

2. Click the "OLD" button

3. Select the Project folder for a Soundslide slide show that you created earlier.

Soundslides Old Project window

Note: The existing Project folder should contain several files and including, "data.txt". Select the project folder, not the individual files.

  1. Publish your slide show

If you want to publish your slide show on the web, then you first need to click EXPORT.

Soundslides then automatically compiles all the files necessary to publish your slide show and copies those files into a new folder named publish_to_web. This folder automatically opens.

The publish_to_web folder is the one that you need to copy to your web server.

Note: a Soundslides slide show is not just one single flash (SWF) file. It is actually a collection of files and folders. All of these are contained in the publish_to_web folder, which is created inside the project folder.

If you would like to publish your story on the Digital Hero Book website, or email it to someone, it is best to zip the publish_to_web folder into one file.

In Windows the easiest way to do this is RIGHT-CLICK on the publish_to_web folder and select Send to > Compressed (Zipped) Folder. To be safe, rename the .zip file to include your name, e.g. publish_to_webSteveVosloo.zip.