TECH SPOTLIGHT

Slideshow software has power, sophistication, ease of use

Special to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - 03/13/2014 -  FotoMagico 4 is laid out well for easy navigation, and powerful tools along the side make it easy to add special effects to each slide
Special to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - 03/13/2014 - FotoMagico 4 is laid out well for easy navigation, and powerful tools along the side make it easy to add special effects to each slide

A big presentation, a bit of a panic and some welcome advice led me to a jewel of a program. Naturally, I have to share it with you.

Recently, I had to make a big presentation on photography to a room full of photographers - no pressure there, right? I decided to start by displaying some of my photos related to the topics in my talk. I had to build this on my Mac while my PC awaits repairs.

I figured I could do just fine with iPhoto or iMovie, the programs included in Mac software. Unfortunately, both programs kept compressing the files so they looked dull and pixelated. Faced with showing dull, bad-quality photos to a room full of photographers, cue the panic.

After a few inquiries about slideshow software, I eventually found my way to the jewel - Boinx FotoMagico 4.

I used version 4.4, the latest. This version is compatible with the newest Mac operating software, OS X Mavericks. It also adds features like faster exporting of slideshows and the ability to create separate clips by hitting the C key during playback.

Let’s start from the beginning. FotoMagico is slideshow and presentation software. It’s both easy and incredibly powerful. Usually, you either get easy, or you get powerful. This gives you both.

FotoMagico can combine photos, video, sound and titles into one slideshow. That’s the standard stuff. It also can do video masks, split-screens and picture-in-picture images. That’s not so standard.

The software has a nice layout that’s easy to navigate. The slideshow screen is large, so it’s easy to get a sense of how the slideshow will look when finished. A bar across the bottom shows the storyboard, which displays the media included. If you want to get more detail, you can switch to a timeline view with one click. This allows you to edit transitions and time on each photo or video clip, as well as edit any music.

Music can be added by dragging it to the bar underneath the photos or videos. The music volume can be adjusted, so it’s easy to make songs fade in and out or transition from one piece to another.

One issue I had with other software was getting the transitions to match the music. However, doing that was incredibly easy in FotoMagico using what may be my favorite feature, called the Marker.

I would watch the slideshow with the music I had added. When I got to a beat where I wanted the slide to transition to the next one, I just had to hit the M key on my keyboard. FotoMagico automatically adjusts the slides so the transition hits the beat perfectly. I could always go back and adjust later if I wanted. I used to spend hourstrying to get the transitions exactly right. I got the entire slideshow done in FotoMagico in less than 30 minutes. Aaaahhh ….

FotoMagico has another small feature that can be a big help. It has what’s called blank slide.

Basically, it’s a spacer you can put between slides that shows nothing. It allowed me to put a bit of space between the topics, which was good, because the music track would pause when going from one topic’s soundtrack to the next. With blank slides, I could put in a fade at the end of one topic, then put in a blank slide, then put another fade. This gave me a fade-out, a pause and a fade-in to the next part, giving the presentation a more professional look.

It was then I discovered the fun things this software could do.

My slideshow covered two topics, both of which I wanted to introduce at the beginning.

FotoMagico allowed me to move from one topic’s photo to the other with a title over the top of both, all in one slide. I also could create a title slide with custom fonts, transitions and backgrounds, or use one of the themes provided in the software. I could even put one slide into another for a picture-in-picture effect. Screen controls on the right made it easy to add special effects.

Admittedly, FotoMagico has a few issues. It did crash on me, though it did a good job of saving in the background while I work so I didn’t lose much when it did. It also can recover files pretty easily if it does crash. I couldn’t re-create it, so I can’t say for sure the crash was the fault of FotoMagico or my sometimes-testy Mac. Still, even one crash can slow things down.

The only other gripe is a minor one: I wish it had a few more themes and transitions than what comes with the software. But, at least what it did have worked well and was easy to customize.

The crash was annoying, but I made it through the rest of the slideshow creation with no problem. The software was much easier to use than I expected, given how powerful it is. The special effects are a great extra, and it takes no time to pick up how to build slides, adjust timing and create notes and titles to fill in the blanks.

It certainly helped me out of a sticky situation, and it helped make my presentation get off to an impressive start.

Whew!

Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at mljones72@me.com.

Where it’s @

FotoMagico 4 requires Mac OS 10.7.4 or later. It is not available for Windows. The product now retails for $99 after a recent price cut. More information is available at boinx.com.

Business, Pages 22 on 03/17/2014

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