My father-in-law recently passed away and although I didn't always have the words to say to my husband and his family, I offered to create a slide show for his memorial service. It felt good because it was something I could do for them in such a time of sadness.

Initially, I tried to do the slide show in Adobe Premiere Elements because of the integration with Photoshop Elements, which is what I use for my photo management. Unfortunately, it ran so slow that it was impossible to work with and not having a background with video editing software, the program was not intuitive for me. So I returned to ProShow Gold, the software I had used before to create a 50th anniversary slide show for my parents last year.

Working in ProShow Gold was familiar and I was able to get the slide show together in the short amount of time that I had. The memorial slide show for my father-in-law turned out wonderful and so many people who attended the service expressed how touched they were by it. And it also gave the family a keepsake to watch and remember all the good times they had with their loved one.

But slide shows don't have to be reserved for those mile-stone moments in our lives. ProShow makes it easy enough to commemorate every day events such as birthdays, holidays, and vacations. With Mother's Day around the corner, Photodex, the publisher of ProShow Gold has published an article of Ten Tips for Making the Perfect Mother's Day Slide Show. Actually, these tips are practical no matter what occasion your slide show is for.

And, I'll let you in on a little secret… these shows are much easier to create than they look. The great thing about ProShow Gold is that it is simple enough to learn quickly, yet also offers a lot of sophistication for when you are ready to take your slide shows to another level. With ProShow Gold, you can add transitions, music, and pan and zoom effects that will make your slide shows much more dynamic and engaging than the boring old slide shows you may remember. So the next time you are looking for a unique gift idea, consider a slide show. If ProShow is not to your liking, there is other slide show software you can try.

• ProShow Gold Review
• More Software to Create Slide Shows