How to Make a Photo Slideshow in 5 Easy Steps

Step 1 – Choosing Your Images

The first step to creating a photo slideshow for your blog is to choose your images. Whether you choose photos you have taken yourself, or source images from the web is up to you.

If you are sourcing your images on the web it is important to know where to look. A lot of photos online are subject to copyright restrictions so you must make sure you only choose images which are free to use. Websites like Free Digital Photos offer images you may use on your blog, or you can undertake an advanced search of Google images, making sure to search for images that are labeled for commercial reuse.

If you are using your own photographs and wish to use them as they are, you must upload them to the web. There are many free file hosting services online such as Photobucket or Picasa. Signing up for an account for both of these services is free and it only takes a few minutes to set up. They also have simple, step-by-step instructions on how to upload photos. If you wish to edit your photos, hold off from this step for now.

Step 2 – Editing Your Images

If you wish to edit your photographs you can do so using programs like Paint or Photoshop, if you know how to use them. If you are new to photo editing, a good place to start is with a web based program.

A good program to use due to it's simplicity and ease is Picnik. Picnik allows users to upload and edit photos for free, without even having to sign up for a membership.

Here you can crop and resize your photographs, add special effects, borders and text. For example, you can upload your photo of you and your Valentine, add a heart-shaped border and some text saying what ever you wish. All in a few simple steps. You can then save your picture and start again with the next photo. What you do with your images in Picnik is up to you.

Once you have edited your photos it is time to upload them as explained in step 1.

Step 3 – Putting Together Your Photo Slideshow

Once your images are uploaded and ready, it's time to put together your slideshow. There are various software programs and websites where you can put a slideshow together, but the easiest to use is the slideshow wizard hosted by BarleyFitz Design.

BarleyFitz has created a form that requires users to fill in information which is then converted to the correct HTML, which creates the slideshow. You will need to fill in some basic information such as the image web address of where it is hosted .

If you wish your photo to link to a specific page on your blog, or other website, you can also put in a link address. This means when people click on your image you can have it direct them to another page. This is a great idea if you wish to use your photo slideshow to present your favourite blog posts or other websites you may own.

Users are also given the option to choose slideshow speed, the ability to shuffle the slideshow, different types of slide transitions (if you are using Internet Explorer), and the option to add controls to the slideshow such as stop, previous, next etc. for their blog readers to use.

You can also change the photo sequence of your slideshow once you have added all of your images, so you can make sure everything is in the correct order.

The only downside to the BarleyFitz Slideshow is you are unable to save your slideshow, so it is important you finish it in one sitting. You can not go back later and add more slides, you will need to start again from scratch each time. If you are confident with editing HTML you can edit it yourself at a later date, to add and remove images.

Once you are done adding your images, all you need to do is click the 'Generate HTML' button and the HTML for your slideshow will appear in a text box for you to copy and paste into your blog.

Step 4 – Pasting Your Slideshow HTML into Your Blog

If you are using Blogger as your blogging platform, adding HTML is easy. If you wish to put your slideshow in your sidebar, you can do so by adding a widget to your blog. Choose the HTML widget and paste in your slideshow HTML. It's that simple.

If you are using Wordpress.org you can also add your HTML as a widget. If you are using another web host or hosting your own site, you will need to read any instructions available to learn how to add widgets or HTML.

Slideshows can also be placed in individual posts, just paste the HTML in the HTML box of the post and save.

Step 5 – Save Your Slideshow HTML

It is also important to remember to save your slideshow HTML in a word document. This is a good idea so you don't lose your HTML if something goes wrong, and you won't have to start over as you can just copy and paste it again.

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