I've been making and showing slideshows for 30 years, professionally or for family and friends.  I've reviewed most of the popular programs available and thought I would share my experience with slideshows of all kinds and the software that makes them here on eBay. 

First rule:  you don't want to drive a screw with a hammer, and you don't want to be making slideshows with video editing software.

Here are some of the different kinds of slideshows you may be interested in making, and the best software to use to make them.

Family Photo Slideshows

In the old days, many families took lots of slides because they were inexpensive and enjoyable to watch. Dad would pull out the slide projector and the family would ooh and aah and laugh in the dark over the picture slides of vacations, special events, and family members. If you wanted music in the background, you put a record on the stereo or a cassette tape in the cassette player.

Nowadays, with the popularity of digital photography, those old family photo slideshows have changed. All you need is a PC that can plug into your big screen TV and you can turn out the lights and enjoy an even better slideshow experience. Now, the slides can be animated and syncronized to music, and

There is no dominant software in this category - although iPhoto on the Mac comes close for those who have a Mac. On a PC, perhaps the most popular free software is PhotoStory from Microsoft. It will do the job if you're not very demanding and have time on your hands.

There are dozens of commercial software packages available that make, with varying degrees of difficulty and elegance, family photo slideshows. These include ProShow Gold from PhotoDex ($69.95), Poloroid My Memories Deluxe ($99.97), Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder ($49.95), DVD Slideshow Builder from ourpix.com ($59.95), and DVD Slideshow from ArcSoft ($49.99).

However, if you want the easiest software to learn and use, giving you the best professional-looking results in the least amount of time, then there's not much question, among experts at least, that software from muvee Technologies is the best. It's so sophisticated it makes getting pro-level results simple. You'll appreciate the power and elegance of muvee software, whether you go with muvee autoProducer 6 or muvee Reveal. (For a comparison, see "How to Decide Between muvee autoProducer 6 and muvee Reveal.")

Special Occasion Slideshows

A variation on the Family Photo Slideshow is what I call a "special occasion slideshow." The biggest difference between the two is how much people are willing to pay to get a higher quality end result. Hence, taking your photos and video to a professional begins to make sense when you want that once-in-a-lifetime slideshow for a special event, such as:

• a wedding
• a funeral or memorial tribute
• the birth of a newborn
• a reunion
• a Boy Scout Eagle Court of Honor
• a golden wedding anniversary

I'm going to share a secret that should save you a lot of money if you want to create slideshows for special occasions. I don't think the professionals who know this secret and use it to create wedding DVDs and other special occasion videos for a living would want me to tell their secret, but here goes anyway: the secret weapon of the pros is muvee software. autoProducer (or the newly released Reveal) quite simply makes video productions that look professionally done, but in a fraction of the time it takes using other software. muvee software also lets you burn a DVD or save your production for just about any way you'd want to use it.

So take advantage of the fact that muvee software exhibits that rare form of genius that makes things easy enough for beginners and good enough for professionals. Just use muvee autoProducer 6 or muvee Reveal instead of a professional.

Music Video Slideshow

Most digital cameras these days include the ability to take DVD-quality video, yet most digital camera owners never use their camera to take video, probably because they don't know what to do with the video once they've taken it.

That's a shame, because using BOTH video and photos enables you to have a far more interesting production, especially when put to music. In the MTV age, a music video combined with a slideshow makes for a compelling and very watchable video production.

I feel like I'm getting repetitious here, but I'd be doing you an injustice if I tried to spread around my recommendations just to appear judicious and fair to everyone. So let me repeat my recommendation for muvee software here. For making a music video OR a combination music video slideshow, muvee just plain outshines everyone else - or to quote Forbes magazine:"muvee has trumped them all."

Presentation Slideshows

This kind of slideshow consists of slides that are designed to persuade. A presentation slideshow typically consists of bulleted text, clip art, graphs and other graphics, animations, photos, video, occasional audio, or other multimedia elements.

The dominant software for this category is Microsoft PowerPoint, which is part of the Office suite of software. If you have a Mac, an arguably superior alternative to PowerPoint is Keynote, part of Apple's Works suite. Free alternatives include Impress, available at www.OpenOffice.org, or my favorite free software: IBM Lotus Symphony Presentations is available as part of Lotus Symphony, a free download you can get at http://symphony.lotus.com.

So no, muvee doesn't make software for presentation slideshows.  It has no support for clip art, animations, or repeated slide formatting - it's just designed for putting photos and videos to music.

Commercial Slideshows

It's getting common to see videos on TV, YouTube, and elsewhere that are really slideshows promoting real estate, vacation getaways, or anything else that can be sold visually. You'll even see slideshows shown at business or marketing meetings to boost morale and build camaraderie and teamwork.

These slide shows are very effective marketing tools when professionally done. The software used to create commercial slideshows is generally PowerPoint , muvee autoProducer 6 , muvee Reveal , or a professional video editor such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere .

Summary

Making slideshows can be a total chore or a lot of fun.  Be sure to choose the right software for the job you intend to 

For presentation slideshows, I recommend Microsoft PowerPoint if you have it already, IBM Lotus Symphony Presentations if you want a great free program, or Apple Keynote if you have a Mac. 

For family photos slideshows, special occasions, or music video slideshows, I recommend iPhoto and iMovie if you have a Mac and muvee autoProducer 6 or muvee Reveal for Windows (or a Mac running Parallels or VMWare Fusion). 

For commercial slideshows, again, I recommend muvee autoProducer 6 or muvee Reveal.  We've sold hundreds of copies of muvee software to professionals, and most of them even order additional styles to expand its capabilities and offer even more variety.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I do sell muvee software on eBay, but I don't recommend it because I sell it - I sell it because I recommend it.

If you've found this guide useful, please take a few seconds and click on the Yes button below.  I'd appreciate it.  Many thanks, and have a great time making great slideshows!