The Windows Way

1. Keep it simple: To make a rudimentary slide show in Windows XP, just open your My Pictures folder or any folder holding your photos. Then choose View as a slide show in the Picture Tasks list in the pane on the left side of the screen (A).

2. Change speed: The pictures in that folder display at full-screen size, one at a time; by default, they advance every 5 seconds. If you're trying to narrate a slide show and find that the images change too quickly, simply move the mouse pointer to the top-right corner of the screen and click the pause button in the controls that appear.

3. Share it on CD: To export your slide show to other XP users, put the pictures in a folder and click Copy to CD in the Picture Tasks pane (B). Next, put a disc in your CD-RW drive, and double-click the drive's icon in My Computer. In the CD Writing Tasks pane, click Write these files to CD (C). The slide show will play automatically when the disc is reinserted in a drive.

4. Play it on TV: The easiest way to play your slide show on a TV is to plug your PC into your TV set's S-Video port. Or If your camera has a video connection cable, plug the camera into your PC and copy the slide-show pictures to your camera's memory card. Then plug the camera into your TV and use the camera's playback controls.