Microsoft Photo Story - First outing

Another training session, another piece of software introduced. This time it's Microsoft Photo Story, which comes included with Microsoft Office 2007*, and appears to be freely available to download from here.

The program is a bit like Windows Movie Maker (which I trialled here), except you're limited to using photos rather than video clips. It's basically a whizzbang slideshow maker- you can set slide timings, transition effects, you can zoom into certain parts of your photos, or zoom out from other bits, and then set it all to a soundtrack. The software even includes the facility to record a narrative soundtrack directly via your microphone, as well as a nifty little soundtrack creator: you tell it what instrument you want, select a mood and a tempo, and it'll generate some possibilities for background music. Whilst more limited than Movie Maker, its limitations seem, in my limited experience, to make the program a little easier to use. I certainly found it easier to time the slides to the soundtrack with Photo Story than I did with Movie Maker.

Anyway, enough waffle and on with the show. As before, this video does not exactly stretch the facilities of the software, the resources of the computer, or even the imagination of the creator. It is simply the result of my first tinker with Photo Story, and is intended to give anyone who wants one a glimpse into the basic concept of the program.

Comments and links to your own Photo Story efforts would be gratefully received!



* Which you won't be buying anyway if you've read this post.