This CyberKen post explains how to use YouTube Editor to make narrated slideshows. YouTube Editor, found at www.youtube.com/editor, serves as an excellent free, cross-platform video editing resource. No matter what kind of computer students own they will be able to learn basics of video editing with YouTube Editor.
To make a narrated slideshow you will need an image track, consisting of your selection of still images to tell a story, and a narration track which is synchronized to the flow of images. Here’s how to produce each:
Preparing a slideshow video track with YouTube
To convert image files into a slideshow using YouTube:
- Visit the upload page on YouTube
- Click “Create” under “Photo Slideshow
- Upload photos from your computer, or select photos from an existing Google+ photo album, and click “Select”
- Drag and drop the photos to rearrange them. When you’re done, click “Next” and proceed to render this as a video without a soundtrack. (You will add the sound track later by following the steps below.
Recording a narration for an online slideshow
This CyberKen blog post explains how to record a narration synchronized for an online slideshow using Movie Maker:
How to Synchronize a Narration Track with Slides, Using Windows Movie Maker
(A similar process can be followed using other video editors besides Movie Maker.)
Please Note: In order to place a narration sound file into your YouTube Editor’s audio library you have to make a video with it (consisting of an image file and a sound file, because YouTube won’t recognize just a sound file alone. You can use Movie Maker, iMovie, or another video editor to make your narration video. Just use a still photo for the visual track and your recorded narration for the sound track. Render this as a .WMV or .MOV or .MP4 video and upload it to YouTube. It willl then become accessible in the YouTube Editor library. Make sure to remember what you called it, because you will have to search by the title to find it in your YouTube Editor’s audio library. From there you can drag it onto the audio track in the YouTube Editor.