COOKBOOK

Digitalising of Stories

Untold Stories Project is funded by the European Commission LLP

COOKBOOK – START
Dr. Jutta Thinesse-Demel

Every community has a memory of itself.

Not a history, nor an archive, nor an authoritative record...
A living memory, an awareness of a collective identity woven of a thousand stories.
“Storytelling, so Martin Buber, is like his grandfather had done, who was paralysed. When he
was asked to tell something about his teacher, he described how the teacher began to bounce
and to dance when praying. He then started to dance and bounce likewise. From this moment
on he was healed and no longer paralysed.
True storytelling should work like this.” <Anke Schupp – professional storyteller>

Storytelling is very familiar to everybody. Normally since the first years of their lives people
are integrated into a network of stories. Up from the baby age stories are a red file from the
first moment in their lives. Stories open hearts, also minds of people and give them the
sensitivity to feel at home, to get integrated.
It gives also self-esteem because stories are always different and the storyteller is the actual

“chief of the board”.

How to become a storyteller?

Storytelling means also to speak about own stories to get relieved from problematic situations.

Disadvantaged (young) people, living outside of familiar contexts and migrants trying to get
integrated into their new home country, have the same problem: They need a key-entrance to
the society. This proposal intends to open different opportunities for educational and cultural
staff to work successfully with storytelling.

Storytelling is helpful for the teller himself. It strengthens:

 Use of free speech

 Concentration
 Treasury of words or vocabulary
 Speech faculty - language as a daedal construction – beautiful from many sides
 Confidence in themselves - deep human encounter
 Values – the world of stories is very clear, the bad is beaten by the good

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Storytelling is helpful for the audience and can capture the audience and enrich them. It
strengthens:
 Active listening
 Concentration
 Treasure of words or vocabulary by listening
 Speech faculty – hearing and getting to know a wonderful story language
 Deep human encounter
 Values – hearing of the winning good

This should be achieved by seven steps which can be trained in groups:

1st step: Lower the resistance of people to tell.

2nd step: Loosening-up exercises
3rd step: Form a sequence
4th step: Patch stories
5th step: Use given frames of stories
6th step: Ornament stories
7th step: The body gives resonance and strength

The setting of telling a story:

How do we prepare the place?

1. cleaning
2. clearing
3. creating a centre (by candle, by flowers, by objects belonging to stories)

The work:

• Everybody has a limited time to talk. No interruption!

• The first talking round: introduction
• The second talking round: the one who has the talking stick talks again without being

interrupted
• Everybody talks about a symbol which he/she has chosen

To make a story short:

• Limit of time

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 • Notice important sentences
• Repeat words or sentences with a question mark
• The economy of description is important

The potential:

• Remembrance is the centre of people’s inner world

• To hear and to see and to listen and to look at
• Listening and asking is an expressio of empathy
• One can find an individual expression
• An own style of language, even it is the foreign language
• More competition of language
• An own point of view

The benefit:

• Structure
• Authenticity
• Acceptance
• Compliment

Important steps to create a story: Hints for the storyteller:

Storytelling brings luck and happiness to the teller and can capture the audience and enrich
them.
It strengthens:
Use of free speech …

Storytelling –very easy to perform

Conclusion:

Everybody can tell a story!

It brings magic without use of charm

Charming nevertheless

7 steps to perform a story:

1. step: Lower the resistance of people to tell …

elements of a lecture by Anke Schupp (2007)

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Producing a story: Preparatory steps for digitalising

What makes a story a story?

It is not about finding a person sitting in front of us, telling us a follow-up of steps or events
alongside “This happens, then this happens and then this happens”. Usually stories describe a
desire, taking us through the action and point us specific important issues.

Educators at all levels can use Digital Storytelling in many ways, from introducing new
material to helping students learn to conduct research, synthesize large amounts of content
and gain expertise in the use of digital communication and authoring tools. It also can help
students organize these ideas as they learn to create stories for an audience, and present their
ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way:

extract out of: http://www.coe.uh.edu/digitalstorytelling/goalsobjectives.html

Storyboarding

What is a storyboard? It is a place to develop your own digital story in two dimensions:
• Logic structure (what comes after each other)
• Interaction (interaction of the story with the images)

Pay attention to the following:

• Each six-word-line takes about three seconds to speak and three seconds is about the
ideal length for any still image to appear on the screen.
• Let images speak for themselves and use words to say the rest.

for Teachers:
Appeal to the diverse learning styles of the students by using Digital Storytelling as a presentation
media
Generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" kids in our classrooms.
Capitalize on the creative talents of your own students as they begin to research and tell stories of their
own.
Publish student work on the Internet for viewing and critiquing by others.

for Students
Learn to use the Internet to research rich, deep content while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range
of content.
Develop communications skills by learning to ask questions, express opinions, construct narratives
and write for an audience.
Increase computer skills using software that combines a variety of multimedia including: text, still
images, audio, video and web publishing.

extract out of: www.storycenter.org/memvoice/pages/tutorial_1g.html>

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Educational Objectives of Digital Storytelling
• Create a digital story for use as an anticipatory set or hook for a lesson.
• Enhance current lesson plans with the use of a digital story within a unit.

• Assign student-created stories which requires students to research a topic from a

particular point of view.

Create a Digital Story:

1.: Define, Collect, Decide

Select a topic for your digital story.

Create a folder on the desktop where you can store the materials you find.
Search for image resources for your story, including: pictures, drawings, photographs, maps,
charts, etc. -Save these resources in your folder.
Try to locate audio resources such as music, speeches, interviews, and sound effects.
-Save these resources in your folder.
Try to find informational content, which might come from web sites, word processed
documents, or PowerPoint slides. -Save these resources in your folder.

Begin thinking of the purpose of your story. Are you trying to inform, convince, provoke,
question?

2.: Select, Import, Create

Select the images you would like to use for your digital story.
Select the audio you would like to use for your digital story.
Select the content and text you would like to use for your digital story.
Import images into Photo Story.
Import audio into Photo Story.
Modify number of images and/or image order, if necessary.

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3.: Decide, Write, Record, Finalize

Decide on the purpose and point of view of your digital story.

Write a script that will be used as narration in your digital story AND provides the purpose
and point of view you have chosen.
Use a computer microphone and record the narration of your script.
Import the narration into Photo Story.
Finalize your digital story by saving it as a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file.

4.: Demonstrate, Evaluate, Replicate

Show your digital story to your colleagues.

Gather feedback about how the story could be improved, expanded, and used in your
classroom.

Teach a colleague how to create their own digital story.

Congratulate yourself for a job well done!

extract out of: http://www.coe.uh.edu/digitalstorytelling/goalsobjectives.html

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7 Elements to build-up a story:

1. Point of view:

All stories are personal. Even our rather straightforward corporate report carries with it the
stamp of the author. Most of the storytellers therefore tell the story in the first-person-version,
either throughout the story or as a frame around the story. It is an invitation to hear the story
in a more personal context; the third-person-voice offer to us a more obscure distance.

2. A Dramatic question:

Coming to an important point doesn’t necessarily keep people’s attention throughout the story.
A tension has additionally to come. How can we establish a central desire in the beginning
until the end. This can be down by putting a dramatic question. If we can answer it then the
story is over.

3. Emotional Content:

We get emotionally into the subject by finding a truthful approach to emotional material like
love, sense of loss, loneliness, death. People value the courage to explore the intimate space of
emotional vulnerability.

4. The gift of your voice:

The voice tells everyone so much about who we are, both how strong we can be and how
fragile. We listen to words spoken in various inflections and go into different modes of
listening, which are also different modes of conscious interaction. In a speech we are listening
for an applause line. In a lecture, we are listening for the major points, the outline. In a story,
we are listening for an organic rhythmic pattern that allows us to float into reverie. This can
be fulfilled by speaking slowly in a conversational style.

5. The power of the soundtrack:

We have an intuitive sense of what is appropriate for a media piece. We know the stereotypes
and the results for the addressees. To use music means to have the composer’s permission to
use the music. Fortunately, numerous companies have developed copyright-free music
collections and software to assist you in designing a soundtrack that is completely your own.

6. Economy:

In our stories a process will be used named closure. This means recognizing the pattern of
information being shown or described to us in bits and pieces, and completing the pattern in
our minds.

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Storytelling with images means consciously economizing language in relationship to the
narrative that is provided by the juxtaposition of images. It is necessary to keep the story
visually rich while moving forward, with only a minimum of dialogue and number of scenes
necessary to allow us to envision the larger story.
We are generally working with projects where the images and scenes exist prior to the script,
as in the family album. So the natural approach is to make a visual narrative, to line up the
fotos on a table, and then figure out what to say about the pictures.
Economy is generally the largest problem with telling a story. Most people don’t realise that
the story can be effectively illustrated with a small number of images and videos, and a
relatively short text. Put limitations to your story!

7. Pacing:

Pacing is considered by many to be the true secret of successful storytelling. The audience can
identify quickly the rhythm of a story. Quick edits and loud music can suggest urgency,
action, excitement etc. A slow piece will suggest contemplation, romanticism, relaxation, or
simple pleasures. Changing pace – even in a short story – is very effective. Our narrative can
have starts and stops, pauses, and quick phases. Changed music tempo builds a sense of action
or release. Vitality is an essential issue. Good stories breathe. Anything that feels like a
mechanical rhythm, anything that does not allow for that pause, to let us consider what a story
has revealed, soon loses our interest. Trust your own sense of what works. Everyone moves at
his or her own pace.

based on: www.storycenter.org/memvoice/pages/tutorial_1g.html>

How to evaluate a story:

The following categories and point-system can be used during trainings to enhance the results of a
digital story and to create them a better way:

extract of: www.coe.uk.edu/digitalstorytelling/evaluation.htm

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Introduction Audacity
Recording with a microphone (directly into the computer)

In order to record you need a simple microphone (or headset) and a computer.
In order to record your voice on the computer you require adequate software. We recommend
the free program Audacity.

You should practise a little bit beforehand for the audio recording. It is best to read the text to
someone. That way it should not sound as if you were reading from a sheet of paper but as if
you were telling a story.

Depending on the computer you need to plug the microphone in at the back or at the front –
with a laptop on the side. You will find a picture of a microphone near the plug.

Then start Audacity and click on “Edit – Preferences”

It will open a new window. Then choose Audio I/O and select “2 (Stereo)”. Then press “OK”.

It is important that you do a short check to see if everything is working:

Take the microphone in your hand, press on record and read the first line of your story out.

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Your voice produces a so called wave line on the computer. Ideally it should look roughly like
the wave line in the picture above.

If your wave looks like this …

… you have the microphone too close to your mouth or you are talking too loudly. If it looks
like this …

… the microphone is too far away from your mouth or you are speaking too softly.

As soon as you know your microphone position and you know how loudly you should be
speaking, you are ready to record.

Recording
When in Audacity, click on „File – New“

It will open a new, empty window. Then click on Recording and tell your story.
Do not look at the screen while recording, because it will only confuse you. Speak slowly and
leave gaps between your sentences.
The people listening to your story should have time to match what they hear with the pictures
they can see.
When your recording is finished, click on Stop.

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In order to listen to your recording, click anywhere on the waveline with the left mouse button
and then press “Play”.

Do not forget to save your recording. To do that go to “File – Save Project As”:

There is no need to worry if you get the following warning – just click on „OK“.

Choose your folder on the computer and insert a file name. Press “Save”. You can save
several recordings of your story and then choose the best version.

Editing and saving

As soon as you have chosen a recording, click on „File – Open“ to open it:

Select the correct file. Check if the pauses at the beginning or at the end are too long. In order
to remove the pauses, click with your left mouse button on the beginning of the pause, keep it
pressed and go the end of the pause. Then release the mouse button again.

You can now click on „Edit – Delete“ or press the key „DEL“. Repeat this procedure if
necessary.
Save your work once again. Go to “File – Save Project As“, choose your folder as well as a
file name and press “Save”.

Inserting background music

Open the recording with your spoken text.

Then click on „Project – Import Audio“ choose the required music (MP3-file) and press
„Open“.

The song will then be added to your text on a new sound track.
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If the music is too loud or the text is difficult to understand you have to change the volume.

Therefore use this button to change the dB (=decibel).

0 dB is the normal volume. Beyond it will get louder, underneath it will turn down. It is best if
you check how it sounds. But watch out, the louder the sound the louder the background
noise.

You may also change the volume for defined parts. Choose the envelope tool from the toolbar
and drag the wave line. By clicking you add fade points.

When you are finished with that go to „File – Export As WAV“. Then choose your folder as
well as a file name and press “Save”.

Advice: the produced.wav-file can be inserted in the programs Moviemaker, ProShow and
Fotostory. It can not be edited further.

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 Introduction Fotostory

When you open Fotostory „Begin a new story“ is already selected. Click on “Next”.
Now you can import pictures by clicking on the button.

By using arrow keys pictures can be moved and put into the designated order in the lower bar.
By clicking on “X” you delete pictures. Your pictures might show so called black borders.
This indicates they do not have the same format as the screen. You can remove them by
clicking on “Remove black borders”.

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Pictures in portrait format might suffer too much of a cut. However, you can edit each picture
individually by selecting it in the task bar and clicking on “Edit”.
It is very important that you save your project on a regular basis, preferably each time before
clicking on “Next”. Do that by clicking on “Save Project”. This file can be opened and edited
in Fotostory at any time.

Inserting title
The next step is to insert, position and format your title as well as other texts. Select the
respective picture and write your text into the box on the right side.

Voice recording
Clicking on „Next“ will take you to the next step, where you have to record a suitable text.
For that purpose plug in your headset (headphones with microphone).

Make notes in the description field (what do you want to say?) – of course you can use a
pencil and a piece of paper as well.

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Choose a picture which you want to accompany with a text and then click on record. In order
to stop the recording, click on the stop button. By clicking on the button to the right of the
stop button you delete the recording.
It is best to do a test recording to check volume and speed. Click on preview to have a look at
what you have already achieved. A little speech bubble below a picture indicates that the
picture is accompanied by a recorded voice.
Do not forget to save your project at this point!

Adapting picture movement

At the same stage as recording your voice you can edit the movement of your pictures. As you
have already seen in the preview, your pictures move automatically. This makes your film
more dynamic. However, you can edit each picture’s movement independently – click on
„Customize Motion“ to do so.

A new window will open. Click on the little box where we placed the yellow arrow in the
image above. Now you can change the framesize by clicking on the points and adjusting them
while keeping the mouse button pressed.
If the picture on the left is larger than the one on the right you will zoom into the picture. If
the one on the right is larger than the left one you will first see the chosen detail and then
zoom out.
You can use these procedures very effectively to put emphasis on your story.

Zooming in gets the viewer closer, you reveal details and get more personal. Zooming out
effects to the contrary, it symbolises distance etc. In the preview you can directly look at your
changes.

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Here you can configure the duration of your pictures. If you have got a spoken text to a
picture the picture itself lasts at least as long as the text. Apart from that you can choose the
pictures’ durations independently.

Before you can edit the next picture you have to save the previous changes.
At this point only changes to the respective picture will be saved – not the whole project!

These buttons lead you to the next picture. Clicking on “Close” will bring you back.

In this production step you can determine transitions between pictures.

But bear in mind: sometimes less is more. Unless you really want to express something
special do not use different types of transitions. Otherwise it might look amateurish.

Choosing music
This is the next to last step in making your digital story. Now you can add your music. If you
want to use more songs it is best to start with the first picture.
Choose a picture and click on „Select Music“.
A coloured bar indicates that you have already added music. This bar also shows you if the
song is long enough for your picture slide show.

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In this case the music is too short. You have got two options to solve this problem:

1. You choose another piece of music that is long enough or

2. for the rest of your story you can choose another song. You do that by clicking on the next
picture that has not got a song added and then you have to click on “Select Music”.

You can see that each piece of music is shown in a different colour.
At this point it is important to adapt the volume. You do that by scrolling the volume control.

About the music

The music should support your story and therefore it must be selected carefully.
The used music should be instrumental as far as possible, i.e. it should not contain singing.
There are two reasons for that:
First, the lyrics might compete with your spoken text. Secondly, on the internet you can find a
lot of instrumental music you can use for your project for free.

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Finishing the digital story
Your digital story is now finished. The text has been spoken, the pictures’ movements have
been adapted, the music has been selected, the volume has been determined etc.
Now you can make a video file which you can play on every computer or simply burn on to a
CD.
But before you do that make sure you save the whole project once more.

Fotostory automatically selects „Save your story for playback on your computer“. Do not
change that. The next step is to determine where you want to save your project. Then click on
„Settings“. Here you can choose the quality you want to for your story.

We recommend one of the two highlighted settings. Click on “OK” and then on “Next”. Now
a digital story will be rendered. That might take some time depending on the number of
pictures etc. you have chosen.
That was the last production step. Your digital story is now finished. You can close the
program and watch your story.
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 Introduction to Movie Maker
Create your own movie in 3 steps

Open the program Windows Movie Maker that comes free with Windows XP Professional or
Windows XP Home Edition. First save your project: Choose “File – Save Project As…”

Choose an appropriate folder, give your project a name and press “Save”.

1. Capture Video
If you want to capture video from your own camera, you will need a computer with a
“Firewire” port (1), where you can attach your camera.

An appropriate cable should be enclosed to your camera accessories.

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After you have successfully connected the camera, press “Capture from video device”

Select „Digital device format (DV-AVI) in the Video Capture Wizard. You then may choose
between capturing the whole tape or parts of it. It is recommended to capture only the bits you
need. Watch your tape first and take notes of the time code. This way you save time and space
on your hard drive.

To capture parts of your tape, follow the steps in Moviemaker. Press Start Capture at least five
seconds before that part begins which you actually need. Otherwise the capturing may start
just a second to late and you won’t have recorded enough to ad a transition.
Repeat this step until you have all needed sequences captured.

If you’ve already stored video-files on your computer you can import them: Press “Import
Video” and choose the files you want to add. Now you will see the imported clips

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When you click on one of them, it will open in the window on the right hand side (2). With
the buttons (3) you can preview the movie files. Click on a clip and drag it down to the
timeline (4). If you have multiple clips drag them down in the order you want them to appear
in your final movie.
At this point you can also import pictures or audio/music. Press “Import Pictures” and
proceed as you did with the video clips. Click “Import Audio/Music” and select a file.
Drag the audio-file down to the timeline: Place the thumbnail image above the selected clip,
where you want your music to start (in this case the first clip). Release the mouse button when
you see a blue line in front of the clip.

After releasing the mouse Movie Maker automatically changes the View into “Timeline
View” so that you can see your audio-files beneath the video clips. Click “OK”

You can change between “Timeline View” and “Storyboard View” by clicking on the button
the yellow arrow is placed in the image above. We will work in the “Timeline View” from
now on. After you’ve placed your content in the right order, preview the piece you’ve just
created. Position the playback indicator at the beginning of the timeline and then press “Play”.
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In the next step you can edit the movie.
Don’t forget to save your work!

2. Edit Movie
Trim a clip:
Position the mouse at the end of a clip and trim it by clicking and dragging. In the window
above (6) you will see the changes immediately.

Split a clip into two clips:

Place the playback indicator at the position where you want to split a clip and click on this (7)
button. Now you can edit the two clips separately. Important: You can also split your audio
files!

Edit Audio:
First click on the audio file in your timeline and then select “Clip – Audio”. Remember that
background music should never be louder than spoken word. To adjust the audio levels click
here (8)

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Narrate Timeline:
Position the playback indicator on the timeline to an empty point on the Audio/Music track
and click here (9). Click “Start Narration” and start to speak into your microphone, click
“Stop Narration” when you’re done. After this a window will pop up and asks you to save the
narration. Click “Done”
Video Effects:
In the tasks pane (10) click “View Video Effects”. Drag a video effect (11) and drop it down
to a clip in the timeline.

Video Transitions:
In the tasks pane (10) click “View Video Transitions”. Drag a video transition and drop it in
front of a clip in the timeline.

Make Titles or Credits

In the tasks pane (10) click “Make Titles or Credits”. You can easily type in your text and
preview your Titles or Credits in the window to the right hand side. Click “Done, add … to
the movie” once you’re finished.

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3. Finish Movie
Once you have made all the changes to the movie you can save it.
Save your project once again before you finish it! Then choose one of the five listed options:

1. Save to my computer
2. Save to CD
3. Send in e-mail
4. Send to the Web
5. Send to DV Camera

In this case we choose option 1, “Save to my Computer”. First Movie Maker will ask you
where to save your movie. After you have clicked “Next” a window will appear. When you
click on “Show more choices” it will look like this:

You can either choose best quality, an exact file size or other settings. We recommend “High
quality video (PAL)”.

Click “Next” and Movie Maker will create your movie now – this will take a few minutes.

Congratulations, you have created your own movie!

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 Introduction to ProShow
Step by step video editing
1. To do a rough cut you simply put your pictures into the correct order and accompany them
with your recording. In order to see how it appears and if the pictures are appropriate you
simply have to play the film. This step should be repeated throughout the video editing
process. Only through this constant looking at your film will you be able to figure out where
your digital story needs further improvement.

2. The fine cut coordinates the details. You choose the exact duration of each picture, the
transitions and you coordinate the pictures and the sound.

3. Exporting is the last step. You are finished with your story and make it ready for
presentation – you burn your project on to a CD.

1. Rough cut
Open the program ProShow. On the left hand side you will find the „Folders List“.

This feature shows you the folder structure as it is done in “My Computer” and “Windows
Explorer”.
Choose the folder containing your pictures. They will be shown as thumbnails. If you click
one of your pictures with the left mouse button it will then be displayed in a larger format in
the preview window on the right hand side.

You can arrange your pictures into the designated order in the task bar at the bottom. A
picture’s position can be changed by clicking on it and moving it while keeping the mouse
button pressed (drag&drop). Release the mouse button when it is in its correct position.
Repeat this procedure until all pictures are in the designated order.

Rough cut: inserting sound & music

After arranging the pictures you add the soundtrack. Now you can play your story for the first
time and see how it appears. You do that by choosing your text and sound file (as previously
done with the pictures) and dragging it into the intended field in the bottom “drop background
sound” part.

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Try it out!

2. Fine cut: mixing

After having completed the rough cut you can now start working on the fine cut, i.e. you
coordinate pictures and sound. Apart from that you may choose various transition effects
between the pictures.

Settings for the fine cut: The duration of each picture should approximately be between 5 and
8 seconds and the transition period should be 1 to 3 seconds. But it is always depending on
your story and you might need different duration settings.

Furthermore you can insert various transition effects between the pictures. Click on the little
transition preview between the pictures.

A new window will open where you can choose from a large variety of transition effects. You
can also randomize your transition effects. Select all your pictures from the timeline by
pressing CTRL+A. Then click the right mouse button. Go to “Randomize -> Randomize
Transitions” and choose an effect.

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By double clicking on a picture in the slide show you can add additional motion effects. But
watch out: Too many and too divers effects may make your project look un-professional, so
do apply them reasonably.

And do not forget to watch your film in between!

3. Exporting
You have finished your digital story and produced an impressive piece of video work. Now
you only have to make it into a video file which you can play on every computer, burn on to
CD etc.

You open the program ProShow with your completed digital story. If it is already open, so
much the better! Click on the symbol “Create” in the menu bar. Click on “Create Output” and
choose from a variety of destiniations. Finally click on “Create” and then save your file.

Congratulation, your story is finished!

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 How to convert video file to FLV
Prerequisite
Flash Video Studio package available from http://www.flashvideostudio.com/. This
application should be purchased and install on your computer.

Downloading Flash Video Studio

1. go to http://www.flashvideostudio.com

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2. click on Download menu item and click on the Download button for Flash Video
Studio:

3. You will be presented with an option to Save File.

4. Save File onto your computer Desktop folder.
5. Run the file you just saved and follow installation wizard. Accept defaults.
6. Open the Flash Video Studio 2.2 Software, if the installation process has not done this
for you.
7. Follow instructions to purchase the licence.
8. Enter the licence.

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 Converting your file to Flash Video (.FLV) Format
1. Start Flash Video Studio 2.2 Software and click on Browse button to find the video
you are converting to Flash Video Format.

2. Select your video and click Open button.

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3. Go to Publish tab on the Flash Video Studio 2.2 Software.

4. On Publish tab select the Output Format of FLV File. Make a note of the default location
where the converted video will be placed, or change the location by using Browse button
next to the Path.

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5. The Flash Video Studio 2.2 Software converts your video to FLV format:

6. The Flash Video Studio 2.2 Software will advise you when conversion is completed. Click
Close button.

7. Your video has now been converted to the FLV (Flash) format.

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