Executable Slide Shows

To create a CD with your slide show, send it via e-mail, you should generate a special output slide show from your slide show project. The program will pack the image and sound files you've included to the slide show into one standalone executable file that can be run on another PC computer.

To generate an executable output slide show

1. Create a new slide show project or open an existing one.
2. Select the Tools menu and click Executable.

3. On the General tab, select a base folder where you want to save your output slide shows. Select the Create in subfolder checkbox if you want the program to save the output slide show files in a subfolder inside the selected base folder.

   Under Output type, select Single executable file item.

4. Select the Create Autorun.inf file checkbox to generate the file for creating CDs that play automatically. Click here to read more info on Autorun.inf files.

5. On the Images tab, select the Resize slide images checkbox if you want the program to make slide images smaller.

   If your source images have a resolution (in pixels) larger than the one you indicate in the New size selector, MySlideShow will resize them. Smaller images will be kept in their original sizes.

6. Click on the Start button.
7. After the creation process is completed, click on the Explore button to open the folder that the output slide show was created in. To test the generated output slide show, double-click on the .exe file.

Notes

• To select a base folder, click on the small button at the right of the edit box. Using the Browse for Folder dialog you can select a folder in the folder tree or create a new one.
• By default MySlideShow makes the output slide show subfolder and executable file names the same as your source slide show project.
• The program doesn't change your source image files. Resizing of your output slide images may help to produce faster and smaller output slide shows.
• To check the pixel resolution of your images, select an image file in the File List or Slide List and look at the Status Bar.
• When the program resize slide images, it saves them in JPEG format.
• The program can also create a screen saver or an output slide show that consists of a set of files and folders. To do that, on the General tab, under the Output type, select Screen saver file or Set of files. You can create a screen saver by the Tools menu / Screen Saver item. By default, the program will place it to the Windows System folder where screen savers are located. Then you can open Display Properties and select your screen saver from the list. Another way to install a screen saver is to right-click on its file name in Windows Explorer, then click Install.

Creating a CD disk

To burn a CD with the output slide show, select the Tools menu and click Autorun CD. This feature is available only on computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later. If you're running another Windows version or want to burn a Autorun CD or DVD disc manually, just copy (burn) the output slide show (.exe) file and Autorun.inf to a blank CD or DVD disc using your CD/DVD burning software.

Share .exe slide shows via web

The best way to share your slide shows (.exe and video files) is to upload them to a website and send download links in e-mails. You can attach output executable files (packed as .zip archives) to e-mail messages. However output .exe slide shows are usually large for e-mailing and many e-mail servers remove or block such e-mails.

Autorun.inf file

If you select the Create Autorun.inf file checkbox, the program generates an Autorun.inf file in the destination folder. This file allows CDs to play automatically when they are inserted into a CD-ROM drive. If you examine other software CDs that you have you will find that many of them have an Autorun.inf file in their root (top level) folder. Typically these Autorun.inf files run a setup or installation program when they are inserted. In our case, however, the Autorun.inf file will start the slide show you've just created!

Note
On some computers the autorun CD play (AutoPlay) option may have been disabled by the user.

Here is a sample of an Autorun.inf:

[autorun]
Open=MyShow1.exe
Icon=MyShow1.exe,0

This tells Windows to run "MyShow1.exe".