Porchlight Slideshow › User's Guide
Porchlight — User's Guide
Porchlight turns your photos and music into a slideshow that plays full screen, with each photo gently fading into the next in time with the music.
- Porchlight Slideshow is where you make the slideshow.
- Porchlight Player plays it: on your computer, a TV, a projector, or someone else's computer, straight from a USB stick.
Everything happens on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded.
On Windows, use Ctrl wherever this guide says ⌘.
1. Make a slideshow
- Open Porchlight Slideshow and click New Slideshow…. Give it a name (for example "Celebrating Mom") and choose where to keep it. Porchlight makes a folder there that holds everything.
- Add photos: drag them from Finder (or File Explorer, or the Photos app) onto the window. They're copied into the slideshow's folder and added to the end. You can also click the Add photos button above the slides.
- Add music: drag songs (MP3, WAV or FLAC) onto the music list, or click + Add Song.
That's a complete slideshow. Porchlight works out how long each photo stays on screen, so the last photo ends just as the music does. The bar at the bottom of the window shows the result, for example "68 photos · 3.9 sec each".
The Intro Screen
The Intro Screen is the first thing people see: usually the name of the person or occasion. It stays up until you press Space to begin. Click Intro Screen in the list on the left to change its words, fonts and colors.
2. Arrange your photos
- Reorder: drag photos to a new place. Select several (⌘-click or Shift-click) to move them together.
- Rotate: select photos and click the rotate buttons (⌘L / ⌘R).
- Delete: select and click the trash button, or press Delete. Undo (⌘Z) brings anything back.
- Sort by date: the Sort by date button puts photos in the order they were taken. Photos with no date (scans, screenshots) keep their places.
- Photos taken with a camera or phone show the date they were taken. Hover over the date to see the file name, and the town if the photo recorded where it was taken. Open the photo to see the spot on a map.
- A Low quality badge means the photo is small and may look blurry on a big screen.
Giving one photo more (or less) time
Double-click a photo (or select it and click Edit Slide, or press Enter) to see it large. Beside it you can:
- Rename it: click its name at the top, type a new one and press Enter (Esc cancels). The file in the slideshow's folder is renamed too.
- Rotate it.
- See when, where and with which camera it was taken, if the photo records it, and the spot on a map you can move around and zoom.
- Set its Seconds on screen (with a license), as below.
- Left empty (the usual case), the photo shares the scene's music evenly with the other photos.
- Type a number and it stays up for exactly that long. The other photos share what's left of the music, so the scene still ends with its last song. The photo's tile shows its seconds, for example "12 sec".
- Click the orange reset arrow, or empty the box, to go back to sharing.
Click Done (or press Esc) to go back to the slides.
3. Words on screen: text slides
Click Add a text slide to add a slide with words, such as a poem, a quote or a title between parts of a life.
- Click any text to type. Drag the ✥ handle to move it.
- Choose the font (Playfair Display, Roboto, Dancing Script, or one of your own), size, color, bold (⌘B), italic (⌘I) and alignment.
- Add Text Box adds another separate block of words, for example a name under a heading.
- Background sets the slide's color; Seconds on screen sets how long it stays up.
Double-click a text slide to change it later.
4. Scenes: different music for different parts
A slideshow can be split into scenes, each with its own songs, for example "Growing Up", "Family", "Later Years".
- Click + Add Scene on the left. Click a scene's name to rename it.
- Drag photos onto a scene on the left to move them there.
- Drag scenes up and down to reorder them.
- To remove a scene, first remove its slides; a trash button then appears beside it.
A slideshow with only one scene just shows Slideshow.
5. Songs
Click a song to open it.
- Trim it: drag the yellow handles at either end of the waveform to choose where it starts and ends. Or click the waveform to move the playhead, then use Start Here and End Here.
- Listen: Play (or the Space bar) plays from the playhead. Play from Start and Hear the Ending let you check your trim.
- Blend into next song: songs can blend smoothly into each other (Hear the Blend to check). A trimmed song fades in and out gently.
- Drag songs to reorder them; the trash button removes one.
6. Watch it
- Preview plays the whole slideshow in the window, just as the Player will. Space pauses; the arrow keys step through slides; Esc closes it.
- In Preview, the buttons at the top right switch the screen ratio (16:9, 4:3, or the pencil, where you type a width and height such as 9:16). This changes the slideshow's Screen ratio in Settings, and Undo puts it back.
- Select a photo and click Preview from Here to check one part.
- Launch Player (in the little arrow menu beside Preview) plays it full screen in Porchlight Player.
7. Share it
Click the orange Publish button in the toolbar; Export Video is in the little arrow menu beside it.
Publish
Makes a copy that plays on another computer without installing anything.
- Choose which computers it will play on: Mac, Windows, or both. The Player is put right beside the slideshow.
- Choose Zip file (one file to email or upload) or Folder (ready to play, for example on a USB stick).
- Click Publish, choose the folder (or USB stick) to put it in, and click Open.
On the other computer, open the folder (unzip it first if it's a zip file) and double-click Porchlight Player (Mac) or Porchlight Player (Windows). The How to play.txt file inside explains the same.
Tip: to give the photos tidy names like 02-007.jpg (Scene 2, slide 7), use Rename Photos by Scene and Slide Number… in Slideshow settings before you publish.
Export Video
Makes a single video file (.mp4) to play on a TV, share, or upload.
- Size: 720p, 1080p (the usual choice, for most TVs and computers), 4K, or XGA (4:3, for older projectors).
- Format: HEVC (smaller file size) or H.264 (most compatible: plays on everything, including older Windows PCs).
8. Play it with Porchlight Player
Open Porchlight Player and choose the slideshow's folder, or drag the folder onto the Player's icon. Published copies start by themselves.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | Start the show from the Intro Screen; pause and resume |
| ← → | Step back and forward a slide |
| Tab | Move the show to the next screen (projector, TV) |
| F | Switch full screen off and on |
| I | Show the Player's version |
| Esc | Quit |
Projectors and TVs: with more than one screen connected, the Player opens on the external one. If it picks the wrong one, press Tab.
9. Slideshow settings
The gear button in the toolbar:
- Screen ratio: the shape of the screen you'll show it on (16:9 for most TVs, 4:3 for older projectors). It only changes the previews; the Player always fits the screen it's on.
- Letterbox color: the bars beside photos that don't fill the screen.
- Rename by Scene and Slide Number…: renames the photo files in the slideshow's folder, like 02-007.jpg. This can't be undone.
- Appearance: Light, Dark, or System to match your computer. This is for Porchlight Slideshow itself, in every slideshow; it doesn't change the slideshow.
10. If something's not right
"Photo not found" or "Song not found". A file was moved or renamed outside Porchlight. Click Find Missing Files… and choose the folder it's in now.
A Mac says the app "can't be opened" or is from an unidentified developer. Right-click (or Control-click) the app, choose Open, then Open again. You only need to do this once.
A Mac asks to let Porchlight "access files in your Desktop folder". Click Allow. Macs ask this for the Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders.
Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
The show is on the wrong screen. Press Tab in the Player.
A slideshow made with the old Flash slideshow player. Open its folder with Open Slideshow…; Porchlight offers to make an updated copy beside it (the original isn't changed).
Editing slideshow.yaml by hand. Switch to YAML at the top of the window; the YAML Guide there explains every setting.
Questions or problems? Write to support@porchlightslideshow.com. More at porchlightslideshow.com.