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Discover fun Free Stuff & have fun giving new products, services and coupons a try! Updated March 2, 2008. Related info--- HOME :: Latest News :: Free Stuff :: Free Photo Prints :: Free Stuff!Reviews of "free online slide show" websitesOn this page, you'll find a list of free slide show-making websites. Most have a number of features you can add to your shows...for example, music, special effects, fancy frames, and "Ken Burns Effect" movie-style slide show effects (which make still pictures seem more life-like) If you don't need to make a slide show, here's something else that you might enjoy. Do you like fun, animated emoticons? In the Google Widget to your right, you'll see a "free emoticon of the day" (and a cute new emoticon really IS displayed every day!) If you have a web page on which you'd like to add the free, animated emoticon, simply press the "get it" button, and you'll find the html coding you need to add the emoticon to your My Space page, your blog, your website, etc. Free Online Slide Shows--Many features are available to give your photos a great-looking presentation!
Of course, you can purchase your own slide-making software...but you don't have to. There are good places where you can make free slide shows online! What's the catch? Advertisements! You can make a slide show for free---but you still can't get "something for nothing." Your finished slide show will include a link back to the website where you made your show...along with an offer for your friends or other readers to come & make their own shows. That way, the host website can make more money (by placing ads on their pages or by selling premium services.) It's a fair trade for getting the free slide show. (Still, you'll want to pick a slide show website that has the least intrusive advertising on your show as possible. You want your friends' & readers' focus to be on YOUR pics...not THE COMPANY'S ads!) In the slide show of Disneyland attractions to your left, you can see an example of the self-promoting ads placed at the bottom of a free slide show. RockYou's ads are reasonably-sized, as you can see. But some company's ads are larger. When you make a show, you'll have to decide if you like a particular style well enough to use it despite the advertising it has stuck to it. Having to display advertising is one reason why people buy their own slideshow-making software...which will make your slide shows with NO advertising on them. Despite the advertising you'll end up displaying, it's certainly simple to make a free online slide show! And there are other advantages over using your own software, too. You'll be able to have the latest graphics & music to add to your slide shows. And, by using more than one free slide show service, you'll be able to expand the number of skins (picture frames) & themes your online digital slide show can have. Features common to free slide show websites: Most websites offer the following features--- 1.) Ability to label and edit photos Examples of "Ken Burns Effect" slide shows
If you'd like to see still other examples of "moving" slideshows, you may check out 2 more Ken Burns Effect shows I've made---on either the Knott's Berry Farm's Fiesta Village themed area or the "Camp Snoopy at Knotts Berry Farm" pages of this website. Both of these two slideshows use the "Geometric" style at RockYou.com Why is a movie-like slideshow called the "Ken Burns Effect" style? Ken Burns is a famous documentary maker. He talks about subjects (like the American Civil War in the 1860's) which happened before there were movie projectors. To make the photographs he places in his documentaries more interesting to viewers, he zooms in on one part of the photo as he films it; then glides across the photograph to focus on another face or figure within it. While he didn't invent this technique, he's one of the most famous film makers to use it. If you'd like to make a movie-like "Ken Burns" slideshow, you should check out the various styles at the websites mentioned in the "Reviews" section below. Every slideshow website offers one or more "Ken Burns Effect" styles (or soon will!) They're fun, and they make a good way to add variety for your family, friends or readers. Reviews of Free Slide ShowsRead reviews of several popular free slideshow websites!The next section of this page contains reviews of several popular slideshow websites. The following info is strictly my own opinion & experiences in trying out different free slideshow sites. (My website uses so many slide shows, that I've used a number of different websites in building them.) Browse through & pick your favorite! You'll have tons of fun making your own slide shows---so why not give it a try! On this page, we'll talk about the following free slide show websites: 1.) www.Photobucket.com This website uses slides from the first 5 slide shows on the list, so we'll talk about those first. The first 3 on the list can give you continuously running slide shows. The next 2 on the list make slide shows which stop after 1 round (and leave behind company advertising.) And the last 2 on the list were difficult to figure out, so I don't know whether their shows run continuously or stop. Photobucket.com---easy to use; large slides shows are a specialtyMany people already use the popular website www.Photobucket.com to store and share their digital photos. If you've already got pics stored on the Photobucket website, it's easy to make a show using their slide show-generating software. Like the other companies, they have a variety of slide presentation styles from which you may choose. They also have some official Disney frames (skins) you might enjoy...including a cool "Pirates of the Caribbean" frame, a "Little Einsteins" frame, and a "Ratatouille" movie frame...where the transition from picture to picture is done by a cartoon rat! If you're looking to create a slide show with BIG pictures, the Photobucket shows may interest you. The following Hollywood Bowl slide show that I made via Photobucket is large...BUT I only used the "medium" size that they offer! To see several of the Photobucket slide shows "in action," here are links to several of them that I've made: 1.) Hollywood Bowl concert venue Review of www.Photobucket.com slide show--- The "pro's:" Easy to use; No annoying ads; VERY family friendly (no sleazy ads or slide show frames featuring half-dressed singers, etc); the pictures stay continuously running on your blog or web page (unlike some shows which stop after 1 round); and the Photobucket logo/advertising is small. Loading time is pretty quick. These slide shows are dependable; I trust them enough to use a slide show I made on Photobucket on this website's home page! Cons: Uploading the photos for your slide show is a two-part process. First you upload pics to your Photobucket picture album. Then, as a separate step, you create the slide show. (It's pretty easy, but its easier still to use a service where you just start making the slide show without uploading anything first.) Another con is that sometimes the shows skip photos. This usually happens the first time through the pictures (then the problem corrects itself the 2nd time around.) Would you like to try making a Photobucket.com slide show? You can use the following link to reach the www.Photobucket.com website. RockYou.com lets you make professional-looking slide shows---Free!Make free slide shows at RockYou.com--- If you'd like to make a free online slideshow from your own digital pics, another good website to use is RockYou.com. You'll get to have a choice of skins & themes for your slide show. You'll get to add special effects (like captions, glitter, clip art, etc.) You'll get to choose the way you have your slides presented. And, it's easy to do!In addition to making free slide shows, there are other free things you can make on the Rock You website...like talking avatars, pre-recorded messages, and games you can paste onto your web page, blog or website. "Cons:" Just because I like their shows doesn't mean that RockYou.com is perfect. Their home page is so slow to load that you MIGHT fall asleep waiting for it; solve the problem by bookmarking your "my stuff" page and heading right to it. Home page changes from time to time & currently features a very sleazy look which will offend any woman with family or feminist values; again, solve the problem by bookmarking your "my stuff" page & skipping the home page. Ads abound on this site...but at least you can ignore them. Sometimes after creating your slide show at RockYou.com, the site quits working without warning & the window you're using simply closes up; you just have to make the slide show all over again! (This never affects finished slide shows...only the one you're creating at that moment.) Firefox users may have a problem with RockYou.com (I always use Internet Explorer because the bulk uploading option doesn't even appear on my screen when using Firefox.) But, despite the "cons" of Rock You, the finished product is "what counts," and there's no denying that RockYou creates good slide shows. To see samples of RockYou.com slide shows at work, you can view the following pages of this website (but there are many more pages on this site where you can find them): 1.) Los Angeles Zoo page Would you like to make a free RockYou slide show? You can scope out their website at www.RockYou.com. FlipTrack.com---easy to use; different looks & effectsYou can also make free slide shows at www.FlipTrack.com. Using Flip Track is easy...and very similar to using Rock You. Simply head to the website, upload photos, arrange them, add more pics or delete some. Then, add your slide show speed, special effects & music---and voila---you're up & running. Slide shows run continuously if you don't add any music at all, or stop (if you add a "silent" sound track. I haven't added music, so I can't say what happens if you add a song.) "Pro's:" Simple registration; easy to use; Flip Track's home page loads much more quickly than RockYou.com; users aren't bombarded with ads (yet, anyway!) Plus, if you choose to make a slide show that stops running after one round through the photos, your Flip Track show will stop on one of YOUR pictures...NOT on an ad for the company!"Con's:" Some slide show styles have a jerky movement as each photo comes onto the page (other styles don't have that problem.) Examples of FlipTrack.com slide show: (1.) You may see a slide show I made using Flip Track's "smoke" style on the "Attractions at SeaWorld" page of this website. (This show has photos of the Cirque de la Mer acrobatic show at SeaWorld San Diego.) (2.) To see an example of a The Jackpot, a unique, spinning "slot machine" style slide show, check out the free Flip Track show I made on the Downtown Disney Build A Bear Store page of this website. (If teddy bears don't interest you, then you'd probably rather see the Jackpot style in action on the Six Flags Magic Mountain Hours of Operation page of this site. You'll find smoke, fire & stuntmen in pics of the Batman Begins stunt show at the Magic Mountain theme park. (3.) To see an example of Flip Track's "billboard" style slide show can be seen on the Downtown Disney Rainforest Cafe & ESPN Zone page (about 1/2 way down the page.) This is a slideshow of ESPN Zone restaurant pics at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Would you like to try making a FlipTrack slide show? You may use the following link to check out the www.fliptrack.com website. OneTrueMedia.com offers the popular "limo slide show!"With a OneTrueMedia.com slide show, you can choose a background that's really a movie. The movie plays for a short while, then zooms in on your picture; the movie plays awhile, then pauses to zoom in on another one of your pictures. YOUR photos blend in seamlessly with THEIR backgrounds, and really LOOK like they're a part of the movie! The popular "Limo" slide show! For example, in the One True Media movie background called "Night," you see a white stretch limo cruising around the city. The camera zooms in as the limo's back window rolls down...and what should appear but YOUR PICTURE in the back window of the limousine! Next, the limo roams the nighttime streets...and the next time the camera zooms in, it's focused upon a billboard---bearing another one of your pictures. Note: The Limo show is actually a MONTAGE, not a slide show. So, if you're having a hard time finding it, check the "montage" section, not the slide show section of their website. If you're looking for The Limo show at One True Media, there are 2 ways you can do it: (1) use their pre-made mongage called NIGHT; or (2) build your montage picture by picture. To build your montage picture by picture, first, upload your slides using the One True Media's photo uploader. Then, select the individual scenes for each picture (face in limo window; face on billboard; face in rearview mirror, etc) by looking under the "effects" tab; then select "Night." (Not all of your pictures need to be from the Limo montage if you build it picture by picture. In the Limo slideshow of Knott's Scary Farm Creatures to your left, you may notice that I've mixed in some settings from the "Haunted House" category along with the limo settings.) Last, add your "transitions," like dripping blood, TV static, or scary Halloween clown dolls. And, voila---you have a slide show montage like nobody else in the world! What if you're stumped for ideas? You can watch a number of other people's montages---without even signing up for this free service. You're sure to see a clue that'll get your creative juices flowing! If you like making slide shows, One True Media is a fun place to do some experimenting. It's not quick (at first) to build a slide show there...simply because there are so many options to explore. But, even though I just like to quickly "build & go," I had so much fun exploring at One True Media.com that I didn't mind spending some extra time there. Maybe you'll have as much fun playing around as I did! Would you like to try making a free OneTrueMedia movie-style slide show? If you're using their shows for "personal use" and the finished look doesn't bother you, you'll enjoy the fun you have making them. You may use the following link to visit the www.OneTrueMedia.com website. Slide.com free slide shows are easy to makeMake a free slide show at Slide.com--- Slide.com is an easy slideshow service to use. (It was the first free slide show website I ever tried & gave me a very positive first-time experience.) You create an account, then simply get busy building your slide show. You choose from a number of different skins & themes. You pick how you want your slides to be shown...for example, do you want one photo to "fade" into the next? Plus, do you want an overlay of snow, glitter, flower petals, etc swirling on top of your pics? There are so many choices! Then, there's the subject of music for your free slide show. You can choose from a plump list of songs in many different genres for your slide show. You benefit from getting a free slide show which has music you like...but you also have a drawback: the tracks you pick may have that song's video playing in a small window over your own slide show while it's running! Of course, that will partially block your slide show. Plus, your readers have the choice of clicking to watch the full music video...instead of finishing YOUR slide show like you want them to do! You can see examples of three different Slide.com free slide shows on this website. Two of them use the "Christmas Snowman" skin. The 3rd slide show has a pastel-colored border. You'll find the Slide.com shows on these pages of this site: 1.) Knotts Berry Farm Christmas Events page Review of www.Slide.com-- "Pro's:" Easy to use; many different skins (picture frames) and special effects; lots of music in a number of genres; you don't have to upload any photos first---just start building. "Cons:" The biggest con is Slide.com's annoying ads for itself. With a free slide show, you EXPECT your finished show to have a link back to the company's website...but with Slide.com, the ads are very noticeable. Another down side is that the slide show stops after one round; your friends or readers have to punch a button before the slide show will re-start. (A big black box fills the spot where your slides were; how ugly!) And worse: when the slide show's finished, it asks for your friends' email addresses. How embarassing is that! That's the biggest reason I quit making Slide.com shows for this website; I don't want the readers to think I'm asking them for their email addresses. And, I don't want the Slide.com website to have the readers' email addresses because I can't be sure the company won't start sending ads to the readers. But despite the drawbacks, you'll still like your finished slide shows. Would you like to make a free Slide.com slide show yourself? You may use the following link to check out the www.Slide.com website. Smilebox.com---free slide shows that are perfect for parents!At Smilebox.com, you can make free slide shows and online photo albums minus the glitter. At Smilebox.com you can make slide shows which will appeal to those who want to show nice, clear photos of their kids, homes, vacations, pets, etc...without glitter swirling, flowers flitting across the faces, nor miniature music videos vying for your guest's attention. In other words, if you want to add glitz & attract a crowd to your My Space page...then Smilebox may not be your first choice. But, if you want to present your personal photos in a clean, neat, non-distracting way (surrounded by a beautiful border), SmileBox.com's offerings will be what you're seeking. SmileBox.com continually introduces new slide show styles. If you don't like their choices this week, come back again NEXT week. You'll probably find more! (Unlike other services who make additions every couple of months.) You can email your slide show (or put it onto your blog or web page) for free; but there are paid options (ad-free) as well. It's not as easy to make as the RockYou.com slide show, but there are a "jillion" different looks that you can give them. You can email them just like ecards...and include a note to your recipient, too. A Smilebox Rep speaks: This company was very responsive with my questions, and sent an email right away when I asked "What features come free with Smilebox, and what features are strictly for extra-fee "premium" members only?" Laura from Smilebox clarifies: "Anyone can use Smilebox for free. It doesn’t cost a thing to set up an account with their email and password. The designs for free accounts are in "basic" mode which means your usage is a bit limited. Free users can’t print pages from creations; playback is on a smaller screen with an advertisement at the bottom; and users have just 3 songs per each design from which to choose (instead of having the ability to access the larger music library or uploading their own song). To make all the designs in our catalog premium, then users can choose to pay $4.99 month-to-month or $39.99 annually. "Premium" means you and the recipient can print, playback is fullscreen without ads, and you have a lot more music choices. So again, everyone can use Smilebox.com for free or they can pay just a little more to do a little more. They can even pay by the design and make one free premium album or card for just $1.99 -$2.99 without obligation to join. That design is theirs to own and reuse as often as they like!" Review of Smilebox.com's slide shows-- "Pro's:" The large number of beautiful borders, albums & ecards from which you may choose is the biggest strength of SmileBox. At first, it's annoying to have to look through so many different styles before you begin to build; but, in the long run, having many choices works out to be a good thing. Giant slide shows (which fill the entire computer screen) are a specialty. "Con's: Before you can start using SmileBox, you have to download their software; then their software puts all of your photos into it. (Why do they think people want that? Why would I want all of my hundreds of pics uploaded when I only want to use a FEW for my slide show? But, this is NOT the only company to do this, as you'll see if you keep reading this page.) Another downside: styles are separated by theme, but they're not separated into categories (ecards, slide shows, photo albums, etc.) You won't know which borders are for slide shows & which are simply picture frames without "mousing over" each one. Plus, the free cards (almost all styles are free) will show a great many ads on the side of each show when you send them as ecards. If you'd like to see the cute designs at Smilebox.com, you may use the following link to head to the www.SmileBox.com website. DotPhoto.com offers free slide showsDotPhoto.com is another site offering free slide shows. I can't show you what they look like, though, because I found the website's slideshow-building process to be so complicated that I never got my show up & running. (Note: I recently received an email from them announcing that they've improved their photo uploading system...and also that they've added new styles featuring the Ken Burns Effect "movie-style" slide shows.) But even if it becomes easier to make the slide shows, the problem still exists that part of the process of signing up involves downloading their own DotPhoto software. Just like Smilebox, all of your pictures get put into this program before you can even start building. Who would like the DotPhoto.com slide shows? DotPhoto.com has been in business for a long time as a photo developing, photo storage and photo sharing website. Therefore, many people have already invested the time into installing their software & learning how to use it. If you're one of the many people who already use DotPhoto as your photo-sharing website, you'll be very glad that the company has added the slideshow-making option. To try out a DotPhoto.com free slide show, you may use the following link to view the www.DotPhoto.com website. Picasa.com offers free slide showsPicasa.com makes slide shows, too. However, the process involves downloading the Picasa software, then waiting for it to gather up all your photos. Like Smilebox & DotPhoto, you don't just get to upload the few photos you'd like in the show & then be done with it. "Pro's" of Picasa albums & slide shows: Picasa's website is scrupulously clean and family-oriented. The slide show is good-quality. "Con's:" Picasa has a very limited choice of slide show styles at present. The style I made showed the photos on a black background (I prefer a clear background so that pictures look like they're directly on my website's blue-colored page.) The slide show quit running after one round (so that users would have to press a button to see it again. I prefer a continuously running slideshow because a halted slideshow looks ugly.) To me, Picasa bears watching and may flower into a better service than it is today. For now, it seems best suited for those who already use Picasa for photo sharing & storage (and already have the software uploaded, in other words.) Group Projects: Make a freeTribbit.com "celebration" page!Collaborate with friends to put together a multi-media scrapbook-style e-"card"Surprise a friend for his/her birthday, graduation, wedding or other occasion! There's a fairly new website called Tribbit.com where you can get together with friends and relatives to make attractive web pages which PAY TRIBUTE to a mutual friend. (Hence the name, TRIB-it...) This website describes itself as being "Shutterfly, Hallmark, and My Space all rolled into one."How does it work? First, think of an occasion you want to celebrate (a friend's birthday, new baby, class reunion, anniversary, retirement, promotion, etc.) Second, you choose an appropriate web page background from Tribbit's selection of attractive themed backgrounds. Third, you add words, photos, videos...or even record voice greetings...giving in your own words and pics your special memories of the person being celebrated. Fourth, you get other friends, relatives, classmates and/or co-workers to also leave their special memories of the person being honored. Then, last of all...SURPRISE your friend! Send him or her a link to the special commemorative web page and...voila! You have a happy friend. Price: completely free. This is not a free trial period, and there's nothing to buy. To me it looks like a very good offer; I don't notice any annoying ads at the site nor does this website try to push you into buying something. You may use the following link to reach www.tribbit.com website.
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