Snippets provide a whole new way to create complex slideshows with pre-built reusable components. Using these components saves a lot of time over manually composing the same slideshow. Snippets come in a variety of categories:

• Intros
• Titles
• Splitscreens
• Stories
• Music
• Credits

Snippets are displayed in the Snippets Browser in the Sidebar. Click on the Snippets icon in the toolbar to reveal the browser. A snippet may consist of just a single slide, or it may be a whole slideshow, or anything in between. To use a snippet, simply drag it from the browser to the Storyboard. Some snippets contain gray placeholder images with a dashed outline. Replace those placeholders by dragging your own images or movies on top of these placeholders.

The snippets in the Intros and Titles categories are mostly used at the beginning of a slideshow or at the start of a new chapter. Some title snippets need to be customized after being dragged to the Storyboard. In this case, simply double click the title in the Stage to edit the text.

Splitscreen snippets come in a variety of flavors and let you display more that one image or movie per slide. This is especially useful when working with portrait orientation images, which are traditionally not a good fit for (horizontal) slideshows.

Drag a splitscreen snippet to the Storyboard or the Stage, then switch to the Images Browser, and drag your own images to the Stage to replace the placeholders.

Story snippets are short slideshows about a particular activity, e.g. a sightseeing day, a day at the beach, or a day at the museum. Using these story snippets, you can quickly create a rough draft for your slideshow, which can then be customized. Imagine you want to create a slideshow about a recent vacation:

• Start by dragging Intro snippets of your choice to the Storyboard.
• Then drag in the “Exposition”, “Sightseeing”, “Museum”, and “Beach” snippets.
• Finally add the “Rolling Credits” from the Credits snippets.
• You now have a rough structure for your slideshow. Play the slideshow and take a look at the placeholder images and the story they tell.
• If you find that parts of this story are not appropriate for your own vacation, then delete those slides.
• Now switch to the Images Browser and start dragging your own images onto the placeholder to replace them.
• If the pre-built story is missing something essential for your own vacation memories, then just insert your own images at the appropriate location.

FotoMagico ships snippets with royalty free music, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Music snippets are grouped into categories by mood: “Cheerful”, “Melancholic”, “Relaxing”, “Dramatic”, “Mysterious”, etc. Some songs may appear in multiple categories. Image you want to create a slideshow about a kids birthday party. In this case you probably pick music from the “Cheerful” category, while “melancholic” is more appropriate for a tribute slideshow about a departed relative.

Music snippet can be used in two different ways. Either first drag a music snippet to the Storyboard, and then drag images into the Storyboard above the music - or first drag your images into the Storyboard (and arrange them in the correct order, and then drag a music snippet below your images. Both ways of working are equally supported.

Credits snippets are mostly text based. Some snippets are ready for use, while others may require that you double-click and edit the text.

A basic set of snippets is shipped with FotoMagico. Additional snippets are available for download from the Boinx Software website. The Snippets Browser shows an icon labeled “Get More…” after the last snippet. Clicking on this icon also links to the download page on our website. Follow these instructions to install additional snippets:

• Click on a download link
• Once the download has completed, open the “Downloads” folder in the Finder
• Locate the downloaded file with the .fmsnippet extension and double click it.
• FotoMagico automatically installs the snippets in the correct location

Professional photographers (e.g. wedding photographers) might find themselves in the situation where they have to create very similar slideshows over and over again, often in a very short amount of time. In this situation it may be helpful to create you own snippet.

Create a typical slideshow with images, titles, and music. Make sure that this slideshow is gerneric enough to be highly reusable. Then right-click each image and select Is Placeholder from the File submenu of the context menu.

Finally select the Save Snippet… command from the File menu and chose an approriate name for your snippet. The new snippet will appear under “My Snippets” in the browser.