Let’s say you have a Haiku Deck you’d like to narrate, or add audio to, or automate entirely. Maybe you’d like to share it — audio and timing included — in a way where people can enjoy it on a mobile device, a computer, a PS4 or an AppleTV.

Making a video out of your Haiku Deck would arguably be the best course of action: you could add audio, video, timing, narration, etc. and share easily with websites like YouTube and Vimeo by uploading your final product. Sound complicated? Don’t worry! It’s actually pretty easy, and we’re going to show you how to do it with iMovie.

The app: iMovie by Apple

iMovie Screenshot

iMovie is the video editing component of Apple’s iLife suite, which is chock full of powerful but easy-to-use creative software. iLife actually comes with Macs – so you probably won’t have to buy iMovie; it should be on your computer already if you have a Mac.

Using iMovie, you can do a number of things, from making your own music videos to creating ‘movie trailers’ out of home videos you shot with your iPhone. It’s pretty simple to pick up, fun to use, and great at helping you making things that wow people!

The possibilities:

  • Add audio
  • Add timing
  • Add transitions
  • Add video
  • Narrate
  • Share on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

The requirements:

  • Haiku Deck
  • A Mac
  • PowerPoint or Keynote (don’t have either? We’ll go over a workaround. Read on!)
  • iMovie (all versions are compatible, but these steps are for the newest version)

App mashup example:

In order to demonstrate some of the ways you can work with your Haiku Decks in iMovie, I threw this video together pretty quickly this afternoon using my laptop, iMovie, Haiku Deck (Web App), Keynote (to convert my slides to images), and Quicktime (to capture video screenshots demonstrating within iMovie):

See the original deck and photo credits here, and check out Koop on YouTube if you like the song in the video above!

For another example of a Haiku Deck and iMovie mashup, you could check out this video we made for Haiku Deck Guru Susan Spellman-Cann: Living Aware, Living Empowered, Living Informed: Messages of Inspiration, Hope, and Wellness

Using it with Haiku Deck

  1. Export your Haiku Deck to PowerPoint / Keynote file.
  2. Open the file in PowerPoint or Keynote. (If you have trouble, check out this article. If you don’t have Keynote or PowerPoint, email support@haikudeck.com – we’re happy to convert a few Haiku Decks you’d like to do this with.)
  3. Save your slides as images. (PowerPoint: File – Save As…, choose JPEG in the drop-down list.  Keynote: File – Export – Images.)
  4. Open iMovie (it should be in the Applications folder in Finder).
  5. Choose File – Import Media from the menu bar. Find and select your exported slides, choose (or create) an event to keep your slides in, then import.
  6. Start a New Movie from the File menu. At the prompt, choose no theme, and make sure to save it to the same event you imported your slides to (for ease).
  7. Choose your event on the left. You’re ready to go: let’s turn this Haiku Deck into a video!

iMovie Overlay

Edit your video

Drag and drop your slides from the top of the screen to the timeline at the bottom. Refer to the screenshot above to learn where to adjust the timing, cropping, and content within your video (click the image to view it larger).

Tips:

  • When adjusting cropping, leave the bottom strip of Creative Commons license information. Using any photographs found in our image search without including those credits would violate the terms of use for the photos, and would be unfair to the photographers whose work is being used.
  • You can add music from your iTunes library very easily, but be forewarned that if you upload it to YouTube, your video may have ads added by YouTube under contract with the record company that owns your video’s soundtrack. Alternatively, YouTube may give you a message indicating you are not allowed to upload that content.
  • Want to make your own music? Check out Garageband, which comes with your Mac, and allows you to use pre-built loops to make your own copyright-free music. Online resources from Apple will help you get started – you don’t have to be a musician, just willing to try something fun and new!
  • You can add additional images or videos by repeating step 5 above to import the media into your project.

Share your creation proudly

This part is super easy: just click the share button (square with an arrow pointing out of it on the top toolbar) and choose your destination (YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, etc.). iMovie will walk you into signing in when appropriate, and will export and upload your video right to your account!

Then, you should Tweet us at @haikudeck – we’d love to see what you come up with!