Smideo

Presentations and slideshows can greatly improve your chances of making a proper first impression. These can be created using a large variety of specialized applications such as Smideo. It lets you make use of media files from your hard disk drive or over the Internet and assemble them into a unique presentation video.

The application starts off with several guidelines that give you a glimpse of what can be accomplished and how. Imputing a name for your project is the first step you need to take. In order to start assembling media files into a presentation, you need to select desired files.

You are able to use some of the most commonly used audio, video and picture formats from your hard disk drive, download a video from YouTube or image from Flickr, on even record activity on your screen.

An integrated option lets you trim any inserted video or have it chopped into multiple parts. However, the lack of a preview section considerably reduces precision. Further down the way to the finish line, you are required to select, this time from imported media files, which items to use and in what order.

Options are shallow, with a preview section only displaying the selected picture or video, while customization is limited to adding text with random animations and how long until the next item pops up.

The last step lets you enhance the presentation with sound. Limitations are found here too, with images and audio layers separated in a timeline view, but no possibility to drag any of them around for more precision. When you are happy with configurations, you need to set an output directory, as well as video resolution and effects, which you can only choose two presets that lack an example of how they work.

Smideo is nothing more than a good idea wrapped in a pretty package. The interface is easy to use and guides you every step of the way, with a modern and fresh look about it. However, available features leave something more to be desired, most steps requiring little on your behalf and shallow personalization possibilities.