Arnold, I am not an artist or especially talented. It is amazingly simple with the tools that come with windows.
I don't know which software package it came with but I am using windows live movie maker. It either came with Microsoft office or windows live essentials.
It has built in templates and all you do is select one then point , click, drag and drop and in a little while you are finished. Its a great way to put together a slideshow without a lot of trouble and conversions between different formats. It will even publish it to your website for you. Try it, you will be surprised about how easy it is. (and best of all it is FREE)
Here, follow this link and it will teach you everything you need to know.
http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=otherOK I have deflated my big head and now my ego is back to normal size. Here are some more things that are helpful.
It helps to have a youtube account (also free) because you will need a place to publish your work when you are finished.
There are otherplaces on the web that allow you to store your photos for free.
http://imageshack.us[/url]
An audio ripper so you can find and save your favorite audio tracks. I use Audials 8. It will capture the audio stream from your sound card as you are playing it. So anything you can hear on your speakers it can capture.
A photo editor is not required but is nice to have for cropping photos and deleting areas of the photo that are not interesting. Photo quality is not so important for closeups but when cropping landscapes you will loose quality as you "zoom" in. I set my camera to the highest possible resolution.
When online QQ video chatt I am always randomly taking snapshots of Fiona. I get some really funny shots that way. (it is also good documentation for the USCIS).
TAKE LOTS AND LOTS of photos. You will throw away 90% but the ones left are really jewels.
Keep spare batteries fully charged available.
Keep a spare memory card available.
If you have any secrets or pointers, this thread is a good a place as any to share them with the rest of us.