John McClung asked if there’s a way to speed up and slow down slide shows in Windows 8’s photo app.
If you’re talking about the obvious app that sits where you can’t miss it on the home screen, the answer is no. Luckily, that’s not the only photo slideshow tool that comes with Windows 8. You just have to know where to find the other one.
Let’s look at both of them.
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The Modern Interface app
When you click the Photo tile on the Home screen, you get to pick from several picture libraries, including the one on your computer (which I assume is the one you want). From there, you can browse folders and zero in on the photos you wish to view.
To start the slide show, right-click anywhere on the screen and select Slide show near the lower-right corner.
Once started, you have some control over the slideshow. Pressing the space bar will pause the show. The left and right arrow keys will take you to the last or next picture, and also, oddly, stop the show. To start it again, right-click the screen and click the Slide show icon again.
But you can’t slow it down or speed it up.
The Desktop-based, Windows 7-style slideshow
You can also run a slide show in File Explorer–the Desktop environment’s version of the old Windows Explorer file manager. If you’re familiar with Windows 7’s slide show tool, you’ll have no trouble. If you’re not, here’s what to do:
Open Windows Explorer, then go to a folder with photos in it. Not sure how to do that? Right-click the folder icon on the task bar and select Pictures, then browse to the slides you want to show.
Once you’ve got the right photos, click the Manage tab. If you see two Manage tabs, click the one under the yellow Picture Tools tab. Then click the Slide Show icon in the ribbon.
Once the slideshow starts, right-click the screen for options. Along with Shuffle and Loop, you get your choice of three speeds.
As with the “Modern” app, you can pause by pressing the space bar, and use the left and right arrow keys to skip back or ahead. Only this time, the arrows keys don’t stop the slideshow, and pressing the space bar a second time will start it again.
Top photo by alexkerhead, Flickr, Creative Commons license, Attribution 2.0 Generic. Altered by Lincoln Spector.