Tips

Slideshows can include thousands of images

Before iDVD 6, each slideshow was limited to 99 images. iDVD 6 lets you add thousands of photos to a single slideshow—up to 9801 to be exact.

Add a slideshow directly to your menu

You can also drag a group of photos or an album directly to the menu to create a slideshow for your project. Just be sure you don’t drop your photos into a theme drop zone by mistake.

Changing your slideshow

You can add or delete images from your slideshow. You can also rearrange the order of your pictures by dragging them around in the slideshow editor. To delete a photo, select it, then press the Delete key. To remove an audio clip, drag it out of the audio well.

Changing how long slideshow images appear onscreen

In the slideshow editor, open the Slide Duration pop-up menu to see the settings available for your slideshow. You can set the slides to stay onscreen for a specific amount of time or to use manual navigation to advance between slides. You can even set the slideshow to match the duration of the audio clip you added by selecting "Fit to Audio."

Using photo albums and slideshows created in iPhoto

iDVD recognizes and accepts albums created in iPhoto. iDVD supports iPhoto slideshows too, indirectly. To use an iPhoto slideshow, create it in iPhoto, then share it using the iPhoto Send to iDVD menu option. The iPhoto slideshow will be added to the open menu of an existing iDVD project or to a new project if iDVD is not open. It’s important to note that iPhoto slideshows are sent to iDVD with all timing and transitions intact, so you cannot manually control those settings. It may be easiest to think of iPhoto slideshows as acting like movies once they’re added to an iDVD project, since you can’t modify the iPhoto slideshow from within the iDVD project.

Setting your slideshow to play automatically on insertion

DVDs are often used in environments where they play continuously over extended periods of time. For example, a DVD might be used to show product information on a television screen at a store. You can easily set up your slideshow to loop until someone clicks a menu button on the DVD player’s remote control. Use map view to set your slideshow to play automatically when the DVD is inserted. Then select the slideshow and choose Loop Slideshow from the Advanced menu. You might even have several slideshows on a DVD, each set to loop, so you can choose which slideshow will play on insertion, depending on your needs.

Choosing whether to set your pictures to display within the TV Safe Area

Because the outer portion of DVD video may not be visible on some televisions, iDVD automatically sizes pictures down to fit within an area known as the TV Safe Area. On televisions capable of displaying images beyond the TV Safe Area, the image will simply appear centered on a black background. To prevent iDVD from scaling the image down, go to iDVD Preferences, choose Slideshow, and make sure the "Always scale slide to TV Safe area" option is not selected.

Including the slideshow images on the DVD

Photos that you include in a slideshow are converted to video on your DVD, so they can be viewed on your television. Because of this, your audience can’t open or edit the photos from the slideshow on their computers. If you want to provide the original slideshow image files on the DVD, select "Add original photos to DVD-ROM contents" in the slideshow window. This way, your audience can watch your DVD on television and copy your photos to their computers.

Steps

Create a slideshow set to music

1. From the lower left corner of iDVD, click the Add button and select Add Slideshow. This will insert a slideshow placeholder button on your menu with the name My Slideshow.
2. Click the slideshow placeholder button, and type a new name.
3. Double-click the slideshow placeholder button to open the slideshow editor.
4. Click the Media button to open the iLife Media Browser.
5. Click the Photos button to view your iPhoto library.
6. To add a group of photos to your slideshow, select multiple photos and drag them into the slideshow editor. You can also drag albums into the slideshow editor.
7. Click Audio to access your iTunes library.
8. Drag a song from your iTunes library to the Audio well.
9. From the Slide Duration pop-up menu, select a slide duration time.
10. From the Transition pop-up menu, choose a transition style.
11. Click the Preview button to see your slideshow in action. Click Exit in the movie controller to exit preview mode.
12. Click Return to access the main menu.