Creating Photo Slideshows with Kizoa.com (Please note that the Union does not endorse kizoa.com or any third party service. This article is for informational purposes only.) Kizoa.com allows you to make photo slideshows that offer custom effects and transitions, while giving users the ability to thumb through images themselves. Here are the instructions for getting started:

To use Kizoa, you’ll need to set up a free account. Do this by going to the Kizoa website, and clicking on the “Join Now” button.

Fill out the form that comes up, and then confirm your registration.

Once you login, you will be brought to the Kizoa dashboard screen. It features five tabs: Upload, My Photos, Slideshow Maker, My Slideshows, and My Account. Upload is where you can upload photos.

My Photos is a collection of photos that you previously uploaded.

Slideshow Maker is where you make the slideshow.

My Slideshows stores all slideshows that you’ve made.

My Account gives you account information, and the option to upgrade to Kizoa’s Premium Edition.

To get started, you’ll need to create an album. You can do this on the bottom left-hand corner of the upload page, by selecting “New.”

Once the album is created, go to the yellow button on the bottom that says “Select photos on your computer.”

After the photos are successfully uploaded to your album, the Kizoa Assistant will ask what you’d like to do next. While you’re welcome to use the Assistant to help you, in this tutorial we are going to uncheck “Keep using the Kizoa Assistant,” and select “Continue.”

Now moving on to the My Photos tab, you should see all of the images you just added to your album.

On the bottom, you’re given a number of options, including Edit, which lets you use Kizoa’s own photo editing program.

On the bottom left, you have the choice of adding more photos, or creating a “Slideshow in 3 clicks.” While more customization can be done by going to the Slideshow Maker, you can make a perfectly nice and very quick slideshow using this option.

Within “3 Clicks,” you’ll be asked which transitions you want to use. “Random” will use a variety of different ones, and “Fade” will fade between every picture. You can also choose to have “No Transition.”

You will now be taken directly to the Slideshow Maker page. On the right-hand side, click on “Play slideshow” to view the slideshow, and then go to “Save” to save it.

After titling and saving your slideshow, you will be brought to the My Slideshows page. At the bottom of the screen, select “Add to Blog,” and then where it says “HTML Code to add this slideshow to your blog or website,” press the “Copy” button.

For RJ Web Builder websites, paste this code into the HTML editor of a content program (or into an HTML program for xStandard users). Now the slideshow should appear on your site. To create a more customized slide show, go to the Slideshow Maker tab. On the Photos page, drag the photos you want in the slideshow to the film on the bottom. Each slide says “Drag your photo here.” If you want there to be more slides, just click on the plus sign.

Once you’ve added all of your photos, go the other tabs, and start customizing the slideshow. There are a number of options: Transitions gives you almost two dozen choices for transitioning from picture to picture. To add a transition, drag it down to the small box next to the photo.

Effects adds flash overlays onto your slideshow. Drag your desired effect over the photo, and a preview will appear. If you want to keep the effect, select “Create” in the bottom right-hand corner. Otherwise, click on “No effects.”

Text allows you to add captions to your photos, and there are a number of choices for how the text is displayed. As with other options, you can add a text effect to a slide by dragging it down. You’ll then be able to see a preview, and also customize the text, and its look and feel. You can add the text itself, the font, size, color, and position on the screen. And as before, if you want to keep the text, select “Create” in the bottom right-hand corner. Otherwise, click on “No effects.”

Animations is somewhat similar to Effects. It also adds dynamic flash animations to your slideshow. Again, you need to drag and drop them onto the desired photo.

Music allows you to add music to your slideshow. Drag and drop a song to any photo, and it will play continuously, as the slideshow loops. If users don’t want to hear it, they can choose to mute the song. If you’d like to add your own music, and you have copyright permission to add it, you can upload it to the slideshow by pressing the “Upload my music” button.

Settings allows you to change the image display time, transition speed, and slideshow background color.

Just like with the “3 Click” slideshow, within the Slideshow Maker, you can preview what you’ve done by going to “Play Slideshow,” and then you need to select “Save” to save it. After titling and saving your slideshow, you will be brought to the My Slideshows page. At the bottom of the screen, select “Add to Blog,” and then where it says “HTML Code to add this slideshow to your blog or website,” press the “Copy” button.

For RJ Web Builder websites, paste this code into the HTML editor of a content program (or into an HTML program for xStandard users). That’s it! Now the slideshow should appear on your site.