Adjusting Timing in the Timeline

This section describes how to adjust slide durations, audio fade-ins/fade-outs, audio volume and sync images to audio.

Adjusting Duration Manually

The Timeline view displays slides as a rectangular bar the width being proportional to the slide duration. The longer the duration, the wider the rectangular bar. Where a slide overlaps with the next slide, a “stair step” shape is displayed. This stair step is called a Transition Interval. The middle of the Transition Interval displays as an icon that indicates the type of transition. When you drag the lower half of the vertical edge (A), you adjust the duration of the slide. When you drag the upper half of the vertical edge (B), you adjust the transition duration.

To adjust durations in the Timeline:

Working with Audio in the Timeline

The Timeline displays audio waveforms, which helps to visually sync your slideshow with your audio. In addition, you can precisely and easily sync audio by using audio markers directly in the Timeline.

You can change audio fade-ins or fade-outs by dragging the left or right edges of audio in the Timeline view to change the fade-in or fade-out offsets, change the length of the audio item, and adjust the volume.

By default, the audio fade-ins and fade-outs are determined automatically - depending on the chosen visual transition between slides. To use custom fade-ins or fade-outs, either drag the left or right edges of the audio, or deselect the Automatic checkbox in the Audio Options Inspector and use the offset and duration sliders.

The following example shows the Timeline view displaying an audio waveform in a music track with red vertical lines indicating audio markers, and some voiceover (with waveforms) in the narration track selected with the volume envelope displayed (yellow line with the dots).

To adjust the audio fade-in and fade-out and adjusting volume:

Syncing with the Audio Waveform and Adding Audio Markers

The audio waveform in the Timeline view displays a sample plot of the volume (amplitude) of an audio file. Waveforms display for all audio tracks (music, effects, narration) in the Timeline.

This visual representation of the audio waveform allows you to locate certain points of a song (effect or narration) by identifying big amplitudes (louder sounds) or low amplitudes (softer sounds). You can then match slide durations to beats in the audio. For example, you might want to start a title at a certain point when the audio increases in volume. The waveform helps you to visually pinpoint the exact location. As you locate and sync these locations in the waveform, you can add an audio marker to indicate a specific location.

You can add an audio marker by right-clicking in the waveform and selecting Audio Marker > Add from the context menu or by pressing the M key in the Timeline while the slideshow is playing. An audio marker in the Timeline is indicated by a thin red vertical line.
For more information see Audio Markers.

To sync your audio:

Audio Markers

Audio markers are used to synchronize slide transitions with the beat of the music or with certain parts of recorded narration. Authoring of audio markers has been moved from the Audio Options Inspector to the Timeline view. Creating and editing audio markers requires the following steps:

With audio markers you can synchronize slide transitions with the beat of your music. If audio markers are placed fairly close together, exact timing cannot be guaranteed. FotoMagico needs to load media files for the next slide before it can proceed to this slide. If an audio marker was missed in the process, the transition to the next slide will occur when another audio marker is passed.

This limitation only applies to a live presentation. When exporting your slideshow to a QuickTime movie, the exact timing is always respected.

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