How to Scan Photos for a Slideshow

By Kara Page

Scan your old photos to make them into a slideshow
i piles de photos 1 image by thierry planche from Fotolia.com

Creating a slideshow with photos of vacations or special events is a great way to share those memories with family and friends. While it's easy to include pictures taken with a digital camera in your slideshow, you may also have hard copy photos that you wish to include, which you can add to your slideshow with a scanner.

Use the USB cord to connect your scanner to your computer by plugging either end to the USB ports in both devices. Power on your computer and scanner.

Go to "Start," then click "My Computer." A list of drives currently using the USB ports will appear, including your scanner. Right-click on your scanner's tab, then click "Scan." You can choose which program to use to scan your photos, with Camera Wizard and Microsoft Scanner being the most common.

Choose the type of scan you want according to whether you have color or black and white pictures. Place the first photo in your scanner face-down and close the lid.

Click "Preview" to see your picture. In this window you can crop your picture if necessary by clicking and dragging the dashed lines in or out.

Click "Next" and name your photo. Be sure to save the picture as a JPG file. Save the image in a new folder just for your slideshow photos. Click "Finish," then repeat the process with your remaining photos.

Open Movie Maker or your slideshow creation program of choice (Movie Maker comes with most PCs. See the download link in Resources if you don't have it). Go to "Pictures" and find the folder you created with your scanned photos, then click "Import."

Click and drag your photos around the slideshow timeline in the order you want them displayed. Click "Text" to add captions and labels to each photo if you wish. Right-click each photo and enter the number of seconds you want it displayed. If the time will be the same for all photos, click "Apply to All."

Go to "File," "Save As," name your photo slideshow, then click "Save."

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