Use the Slideshow Maker to Create Photo or Video Presentations

If you’re old enough to remember (or a fan of the retro) you may recall why a “slideshow” is called a “slideshow.”

Cast your mind back for a moment: You’re a captive dinner guest in a suburban living room, or a high school student in a science lab classroom. The lights go down, a projector powers up with a hum, and a ray of light beams across the room, revealing thousands of dust particles hanging in the air. In a big square of light on the wall, pictures appear one after another—a vacation is retraveled through photos, or the lifecycle of a frog is explained. It’s a literal show of slides. 

Thankfully these days creating and sharing a slideshow is waaaaaaay easier. And you can even include video and text—how advanced is that?! We’ll show you how to use our slideshow maker tools to create captivating, professional presentations that you’ll be proud to share—no projector required. 

Quick steps for making a slideshow

1. Choose a blank canvas size and open in the editor.

2. Add your photos and/or video, or make a collage.

3. Click the "Pages" icon to add additional pages to your slideshow.

4. Repeat step two, keeping in mind that each "slide" or page will show for the length of the video (if you used video on that page).

5. When finished, export your slideshow in the format of your choosing (see below for more info).

Using the slideshow maker tools, step-by-step

Here’s a little secret: The main tool you’ll use to create your slideshow is just a little “Pages” icon in the PicMonkey editor. Add multiple pages to your project and then output as either one continuous video, a PDF, or as individual image files depending on how you plan to share your slideshow. Let’s get started!

1. Choose a blank canvas size to start

Browse the blank canvas selection to find one that is sized right for your needs. The canvas size you choose will also be the size of all of the additional pages (slides) you add to your project because you cannot have different canvas sizes within a multipage document. 

Tips on choosing a blank canvas size for your slideshow design:

• If you want to create a multi-image Instagram Story, choose the blank Instagram Story canvas. 

• If you want to create a business presentation that will work with PowerPoint or Google Slides, then choose the Presentation blank canvas.

• If you’re creating a slideshow that will ultimately be output as a single video, you can choose one of the video blanks—2K QHD, 4k UHDTV, 1080 HD, Vertical Full HD, etc…

2. Add your photos and/or video, text & graphics

You can create a mix of video and still images for your slideshow, or choose to display only text or graphics on a page—you do you! The limit of pages you can add to a multipage file is 30, so mix it up to tell your visual story. Add text and a logo over video, and play with animation, too, to make these elements move on the page—a great way to keep visual interest. 

3. Click "Pages" to add additional pages to your slideshow

When you add another page you can either duplicate your current page, or add a new one. Duplicating your current page is a great choice if you want to keep the same formatting across all your slides—say, your logo in the same place on each slide, or the text to remain in the same spot throughout the slideshow.

4. Continue creating your slideshow with additional pages

Add additional pages to your slideshow in the form of still images, videos, just text, or even just your logo. Keep in mind that each slide will display for the length of the video element it contains. 

• Example 1: If your slide contains a :05 second video and a :20 second video, the slide will display for :20 seconds. 

• Example 2: If your slide contains an animated GIF graphic, it will display for the default amount of time which is :06 seconds. 

• Example 3: If your slide contains an animated GIF and a :04 second video, the slide will display for :04 seconds. 

Pro tip: Make one of your slideshow pages a collage! Select Collage from the top toolbar and put together a collection of photos, videos, textures, and color. 

5. Export your slideshow in the right format

When you're finished assembling your slideshow, output your multipage project as a single video/gif file (think: looping slideshows), or you can output your multipage project as individual videos (think: Instagram Story slides containing video/gifs that you'll need to upload one-by-one to Insta).

1. Download as a single MP4/GIF: This will create a "movie" out of your pages, they will move from one to the next like a movie. Each page of your slideshow will show for six seconds if the page contains still (not moving) images. If the page contains video, however, the page will show for the length of the video.

2. Download as a multiple MP4/GIF: Choosing this option will output your project as individual GIFs or MP4s contained within a ZIP file. This is ideal for outputting Instagram story pages since each page of a story must be a separate file.

Export a slideshow with still images

If you wanna create a slideshow with 100% still images you can also output your project as any of the five available file formats. Keep in mind, though, that downloading it as a video means that each page (a.k.a. slide) will display for six seconds as the video plays. 

Presenting your downloaded slideshow with manual controls—in Powerpoint, or Google Slides, or from your photo album—gives you the ability to adjust the speed, and to reverse or skip, so we recommend downloading a collection of still images as a PDF, PNG, or JPG. 

• Download as a JPG or PNG: Each image will save individually as a ZIP file in the order of the pages you created. To open a ZIP file and access your pics, just double-click the ZIP file. Or, keep it compressed as a ZIP to email. 

• Download as a PDF: Your images will save one per page and be viewable with a PDF-viewer like Preview, Acrobat, or any web browser. (Downloading as a PDF is only available to Pro Subscribers)

Learn more about outputting your multipage projects as various file types: Adding Multiple Pages to a Project