Graduation is right around the corner. So are Mother's Day and Father's Day. What better way to mark these occasions than with a slide show of family memories?

A video slide show can contain photos, audio and video clips. Use recent digital photos and video. Or, digitize old family memories.

Creating a video slide show is fun and easy with the right tools. You'll find links to software and sites mentioned at www.komando.com/news.

DIGITIZE MEMORIES

First, digitize your old photos, video and audio recordings. You can scan photos and negatives with your scanner. Or, a local photo store can do the scanning for you.

Video is trickier. You'll need a video capture card for your computer. Make sure the connections match your VCR or camcorder.

Video capture cards start around $40. Pinnacle, AVerMedia and Hauppauge make them. Recording software should be included. Or, use Windows Movie Maker. Click StartAll Programs to find Movie Maker.

Do you have 8mm, Super 8 or 16mm films? Getting them into a computer can be difficult. You could do it at home, but I don't recommend it. There's bound to be someone locally. A local camera shop should be able to help.

To digitize audio, connect stereo to computer. Line-out jacks give you the best sound. Don't worry about volume settings.

Your computer should have both line-in and microphone jacks. You can use either. With the microphone jack, you must tweak the volume settings.

Your computer probably has 3.5mm mini jacks. The stereo likely uses RCA-type connections. Bridge these connections with a y-cable. Electronics stores sell them for a few dollars.

If your tape deck doesn't have line-out jacks, use the headphone jack. Instead of a y-cable, use a mini-jack to mini-jack cable. Again, this is a few dollars at a local electronics store.

The free Audacity software will record the audio. After installing Audacity, click edit preferences. Open the Audio I/O tab. Select your speakers in the playback device box. In the recording device box, select either microphone or line in.

Now, hit record in Audacity and press play on the cassette deck. When you're done, press stop in Audacity. Then, click file export as WAV. Name the file and click save.

Maybe you want to spice up the video with music or sound effects. Moby Gratis, FindSounds and SampleSwap all offer free music and sounds.

CREATE A SLIDE SHOW

Now open Windows Movie Maker. Click file import into collections. Navigate to your photos (or videos). Highlight them and click import.

Drag photos or videos from the collection to the storyboard. Order the photos and videos as you like. Rearrange them by dragging and dropping.

You can also add transitions and effects. Transitions go between scenes. For example, you can add fade-outs. Effects change the video's appearance. For example, you can add sepia tone.

To view available transitions, click view collections. Click video transitions. To insert a transition, drag it to the storyboard.

To view effects, click video effects in the collections pane. Drag and drop an effect onto a photo or video on the storyboard.

To add audio, click audio or music under import in the tasks column. Navigate to the audio, select it and click import.

Drag the audio to the photo or video where you want the music to start. The clip appears on the timeline. Click and drag the right edge to change the audio's end point.

To preview your slide show, click play on the right side of the screen. Once satisfied, click file publish movie.

In the Publish Movie Wizard, click this computer next. Name your movie. Click next. Select more settings. Select DV-AVI (NTSC). Click publish.

BURNING TO A DVD

Movie Maker can't create DVDs on its own. You'll need a DVD-authoring program. I recommend the free DVD Flick.

I recommend keeping the Movie Maker project file (file save). You'll be able to create new DVDs as needed. Or, add to the slide show in the future.