MS Photo Story An Easy Way to Create a Digital Storybook Pam Sokolowski ESBOCES Model Schools psokolow@esboces.org
Photo Story, a free software application from Microsoft, is a user friendly program that guides the user step by step through the creation of a digital storybook or slideshow presentation. Options offered to the user are narration, text, transitions, and special effects including the Ken Burns effect which add to the overall look of the finished product. To open Photo Story, click on the icon that is located on the desk top or search in Start then All Programs in the lower left hand corner of your computer. To begin, choose Begin a new story on the Welcome to Photo Story 3 for Windows page. Then click on Next. Import Your Pictures 1. On the Import and arrange your pictures page, click Import Pictures. 2. Find your flash drive and then the folder in which your pictures are located. 3. Select one or more pictures by clicking on them, holding the Control key and clicking on them if you are choosing more than one picture. Then click OK. This button will become active once the pictures are selected.
Now that we have some pictures to work with, we can begin to format the pictures, add motion and effects, add music, and finally view our finished story. We work together through the first picture and then you will have time later in the session to add and format more pictures for your photo story. Choose your first picture by clicking on it once. Now you are ready to format or change the appearance of your picture in a step by step manor. First, if you want Photo Story to remove black borders from your pictures by automatically cropping them, click the Remove black borders button. 4. If you want to enhance the appearance of a picture, click on the following buttons at the bottom of the picture preview area: Correct Color Levels Correct Red Eye Rotate Counterclockwise Rotate Clockwise Crop using the button 4. To change the order of the pictures in the film strip, click a picture, and then drag it to a new location. 5. To delete any of the pictures you imported, click the picture, and then click the Delete button or press the DELETE key. 6. Click Next to add titles or captions to your slides. (If you want to return to the previous page, click Back.) ** Throughout this process, periodically click on the Save Project button to save your project as a workable Photo Story Project file that can be reedited.*** *** In addition, all editing, adding effects, cropping etc can be done by right clicking on the picture and choosing the function you desire.***
Adding titles and effects to your pictures 1. On the Add a title to your pictures page, click a picture, and then type the title. 2. To change the font, click the Select Font button, and then select the font type, style, size, effects, color, and script you want to use. 3. To change the horizontal alignment of the text, click the Align Left button, Center Horizontally button, or Align Right button. 4. To move the title up or down on the page, click the Align Top button, Center Vertically button, or Align Bottom button. By default, the title appears in the center of the picture. As you make changes, you can view them in the preview area on the left side of the page. 5. In addition, you can change the location of the text on the page by moving the text within the box as well. 6. You change the effect on the image (black and white/sepia, etc) by selecting the dropdown menu below the image. 7. Click Next. Customizing motion and selecting transitions Photo Story can determine the panning and zooming effects automatically, or you can choose to control these effects manually in the Customize Motion dialog box. You can with the Motion and Duration Tab:
Select a Transition 1. On the Narrate your pictures and customize motion page, click the picture for which you want to select a transition, and then click Customize Motion. 2. Click the Transition tab. 3. If you choose, select the Start current picture using a transition check box. 4. In the Transitions box, click a transition. 5. If you want to specify the number of seconds the transition will be displayed when your story is played, select the Number of seconds to display the transition option, and then type or select the number of seconds you want the transition to display. Note that the number of seconds that the transition displays between two pictures cannot be more than the shorter display time of one of the two pictures. Give the Picture Special Effects 6. On the Motion and Duration tab, you can specify the number of seconds that a picture is displayed when your story is played. 7. Select the start and end position of the picture by clicking on the picture and changing its starting or ending size. This will give your presentation the Ken Burns effect. 8. To preview your story with the panning and zooming effects and transitions, click Preview 9. Click Save to save the motion and duration changes you made. 10. The settings you specify in this dialog box only apply to the selected picture. 11. When you are done selecting motion and transition for that picture in your story, click Close.
To narrate your pictures 1. To begin recording narration for a picture, click the picture, click the Record Narration button, and then begin speaking into your microphone. Photo Story captures the narration individually for each picture and displays the length of the narration for the picture on the right side of the Delete Narration button. You can record up to five minutes of narration for each picture. 2. Preview your narration and transitions and motion for that slide by hitting the preview button. This will preview everything that you have done thus far. 3. If you are happy with the narration, you are done. If not, delete the narration by clicking on the Delete Narration (the backwards curved arrow) button. You can then record the narration again. Preview it when you are finished to make sure you are happy with your recording. Now that we have walked through the entire first image, go to your next slide by selecting it in the timeline and then use the back button to get back to the photo editing panel and repeat the photo editing, titles and effects, motions/transitions, and narration steps to your remaining images. When you are finished, we will add music to our creation and wrap it up. To add music to your story 1. On the Add background music page, click a picture. 2. Click Select Music. 3. In the Open dialog box, locate the music you want to add, and then click Open. The music file can be in Windows Media Audio (WMA), MP3, or WAV format. This music must be royalty free/copyright compliant to be used.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have selected all the music that you want to play with your story. 5. If you do not have any music to select, choose the Create Music button and select the style and kind of music you would like to add to your story. 6. You can choose different kinds of music for different pictures by clicking on individual pictures and selecting your music. 7. Click Preview to play your story. Your entire story will play, starting at the selected picture, complete with the narration, title pages, and any background music you added. 8. If you need to adjust the volume of a piece of background music in your story, select the anchor image, and then move the Volume slider on the Add background music page. For example, if you narrated your pictures, you will want to move the slider toward Low to decrease the music volume so your voice can be heard clearly over the background music. 9. Click Next to complete your project. To save your story 1. On the Save your story page, click on Save Project one last time. This saves your story where ever you choose as a (*.wp3) file which will allow you to edit it in Photo Story later. 2. Next click on an activity that is appropriate for your story, most times this will be Save your story for playback on your computer. 3. In the File name section, click on Browse to locate a specific folder on your flash drive to put your story in. This may be your picture folder. This file will be saved in a wmv format. 4. On the Save your story page, click Next to create your story video.
To view your stories After you create a story, on the Completing Photo Story 3 for Windows page, click View your story. In addition, you can resave your story by clicking on Save Project. To go back later and edit and existing project, go to your saved Photo Story Project file (a.wp3 file) and double click on the file. As long as you have Photo Story 3 on your computer, the file will open in Photo Story. Make sure you save the new file is saved as a Photo Story file (*.wp3) so that you can edit that as well in the future.. Key to some of the symbols seen in MS Photo Story: ***This manual is a compilation of the work form Kristyna Acerno, Kathy Galgano, Pam Sokolowski and Linda Gordon. ***