Introduction

Download picShow With Tunes 1.0

INTRODUCTION

As we release our newest application I would like to share with you some of the background information behind the creation of the picShow With Tunes 1.0. You see I am one of those people that when we travel we take tons of photos and when we come back home we want to re-live the recent adventure. When friends visit us we want to share with them the most recent events that they missed (junior's goal at the end of the 1st half, last Sunday). And what could be better then doing it with the pictures scrolling in the background. So I started to look a tool that would fit the bill. I remembered that when my friend gave me a CD with his pictures, a couple years back, my first question was "How am I going to view them?". This was when the operating system was Windows 95 and it had nothing that would allow you to even view the pictures. But I thought "This is 2011, we came a long way...". Yes we did and there is plenty of tools/applications that would let us view our pictures. Some of them are build into the operating system, some come with our cameras and some we can download and use for free. Yet, every time we watched the photos scrolling on my laptop screen I couldn't help myself but think "I wish there was music playing in the background.", "I wish that picture was rotated, so we wouldn't have to twist our necks to see it better.", "I wish I could pause this one, I have a story that goes with it.". Finally I gave up the search for that "perfect instant slide show" and decided to write one myself. So you see the picShow With Tunes was created to make me happy, and it did. But when it was finished we looked at it and decided to take an extra step (it actually was a mile) and make into a commercial product for everybody. So without further ado here it is your instant slide show app picShow With Tunes 1.0. Once you setup your options it takes two clicks (yes we counted) to start your slide show of your most recent photos from your camera. It will automatically rotate portrait pictures and play your favorite music (mp3 - one or the more, or a Windows Media Player play list). Pause it briefly with just move of the mouse or indefinitely if you take the mouse over the control bar.

For the full list of the features see the next post or go to the web page picShow With Tunes 1.0. Creating this little gadget was the most fun many of us had in a long time and we hope that you will enjoy using it as much as we did creating it. 

Happy viewing from all of us at Custom DataWorks Inc.

To download a free 30 day trial go to picShow With Tunes at Custom DataWorks webpage.

picShow With Tunes 1.0 in action by BurnWorld.com on YouTube. (If you can please watch this video in full screen HD mode)

Features And Review

FEATURES

Our picShow With Tunes had been designed with two main goals, "make it simple" and "enrich the viewing experience".
To achieve this we included the following features.

• Remember User Settings When user changes any of the settings the app will store them as the last used options and the next time the application is started the last used options are used as the defaults. Settings being saved are: Show Tool-Tips; Source Device (Removable Media ; Hard Drive ; CD/DVD); Include Sub-Folders; Show Photo Taken Date; Auto-Rotate Photos; Background Music Selection.

• Select Default Picture Source If most of the time you use the same location as your picture source you can select that location as default and you will never need to browse for the same folder again. 
• Filter Your Selection By Photo Taken Date Using the embedded 'Taken Date' picture information you can select: a Start Date (photos taken after the selected date); an End Date (photos taken before the selected date); Date Range (photos taken between the Start Date and the End Date). Also from from the context menu (right button click) you can access three predefined date filters: "Today", "This Week" or "This Month" to show only the most recent photos. 
• Select Background Music Select your favorite music to play during your slide show. Browse and select any supported sound files (mp3 or a Windows Media Player playlist - wpl). If you select multiple files or a playlist you will be able to skip a music track without stopping your slide show. 
• Pause Your Slide Show Pause the slide show for a brief moment by simply moving your mouse, if the mouse remains stationary the slide show will resume unless the mouse is over the navigation bar on the bottom of the screen. Pause the slide show indefinitely (if you need a beer or a cookie from the kitchen) by moving your mouse and positioning it over the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of your slide show screen. 
• Mute/Unmute Background Music Mute the playback by clicking the mute button on the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of the screen without stopping the slide show. 
• Change Sound Volume Using the controls on the navigation/tool bar adjust the music playback volume without leaving stopping your slide show.   
• Skip Music Track If you selected multiple music tracks or a playlist you can skip to the next track by clicking the Next Track button on the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of the screen without stopping your slide show.  
• Skip 5/10/20 Photos Fast forward by 5, 10 or 20 photos with a single click on one of the fast forward buttons located on the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of the slide show screen.  
• Go Back 5/10/20 Photos Rewind by 5, 10 or 20 photos with a single click on one of the rewind buttons located on the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of the slide show screen. 
• Restart From The First Slide Rewind the slide show to the slide #1 with a single click on the restart button located on the navigation/tool bar on the bottom of the slide show screen.

picShow With Tunes 1.0 in action by BurnWorld.com on YouTube. (If you can please watch this video in full screen HD mode)

Create Your Custom Music play list for your slideshows.

Download picShow With Tunes 1.0

Today I would like to show you how to add Microsoft Media Player's play list to your slideshow in picShow With Tunes 1.0. To avoid listening to the same music over and over the best way to add background music for your slideshows in my opinion is to create a play list with Windows Media Player. Because the picShow With Tunes when playing the music shuffles the list and plays the songs in a random order, it is best to create a list with relatively large number of tracks and if possible you should try to select tracks with the same 'mood'. You can create multiple play lists for different slideshow types.

To create the list, open the Windows Media Player.From the available list of tracks select the tracks that you want to include in your play list. Drag the selected tracks to the play list on the "Play" tab of the Windows Media Player. After you add all desired tracks save and name your play list.

Now you are ready to add the play list as your music source for the slideshows. Open the picShow With Tunes.

Under "Select Background Music" click on the Browse button (. . .) and select the list you created (Windows Media Player lists are saved with the default file extension .wpl).

Now every time you start picShow With Tunes and start the slideshow your list will play (in random order).

Enjoy your slides

To download a free 30 day trial go to picShow With Tunes at Custom DataWorks webpage.