Web DevCenter: Easy QuickTime Slide Shows with Adobe GoLive 6

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Easy QuickTime Slide Shows with Adobe GoLive 6

Edited by Derrick Story
06/21/2002

GoLive 6 includes an impressive QuickTime Web video editor and one of its hidden features is the ability to easily create QuickTime slide shows. The movie at the right is a simple example and it's only about 60Kb! Follow the step-by-step instructions below and have fun!

1. Select Files->New Special->QuickTime Movie... and enter the dimensions of the QuickTime movie you want to create.

New QuickTime Movie

2. Select Movie->Show Timeline Editor to reveal the QuickTime Timeline window.

Screen shot.

3. Find the Picture Track Object in the QuickTime section of the Objects Palette.

Picture Track Object

4. Drag the Picture Track objects from the Objects palette to the left side of the Timeline window.

5. Select the Picture Track on the left side of the Timeline window and look at the Slideshow section of the Inspector palette. Use these options to control how long each image is visible and which transition effect, if any, you want to use.

QuickTime Transition Effect

6. Now switch to the Images section of the Inspector and prepare to import your still images. Before you press the Import button you have a few settings to check. GoLive will scale down images that are larger than your movie dimensions so make sure the "Images Constrain Proportion" option is checked. If any of your images are not the same proportions or orientation as your movie you may get a matting effect, which can be controlled by setting the Background Color option now.

Import Images

7. Click the Import button and select the images you want in the slide show. Because GoLive uses QuickTime technology you can include images in many different formats (layered Photoshop, GIF, JPEG, PNG, Pict, BMP, Targa, and TIFF), resolutions, and dimensions. You can even combine images from multiple folders and hard drives. When you are ready, click the Done button.

Add Files

8. The next dialog box prompts you to compress the images for the movie. Because the slide show consists of still images I suggest using the Photo JPEG compressor as your preferred quality setting. Click OK and GoLive will import, compress, and sequence your images with a transition if you have chosen one.

QuickTime Compression Settings

9. When the movie is finished your Timeline window will look something like the one below. To further customize your movie, double-click any of the A/B transition icons in the Timeline window to insert a different transition.

Image here Screen shot -- click for full-size view.

10. When you are ready to save the movie do not use the export commands because that would render each individual frame and cause the movie to have a much larger file size than necessary. Instead, just save the movie with the Files>Save As... command so it uses the native QuickTime transitions and minimizes the file size. Below are two examples of this slide show technique.

With Transitions (256kb)

No Transitions (92kb)

To learn more about Adobe GoLive 6, visit Adobe's GoLive product page. If you want to learn more power user tricks, visit Adobe's Expert Center (Registration required).