COMPUTERS AND YOUTUBE AND PROBLEMS

Although I’m not very knowledgeable about computers or electronics, I can learn. My biggest problem is getting the person teaching me a new skill to slow down…to tell me…literally…every single thing I need to do. In the past I’ve learned how to connect and operate numerous complicated TV/DVD/VCR/satellite systems, and over the years I’ve increased my computer abilities considerable. Realize that when I say ‘considerably’ that doesn’t really mean a lot, since I started out with ZERO knowledge. Instruction manuals would say “do this then do that” and the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about didn’t even matter since these manuals always ASSUME that you inherently know that you have to complete 17 steps before you even get to their starting point.

And so my learning curve has been quite low, with small accomplishments being celebrated with excitement and pride, and problems met with a mix of frustration and anger. Sometimes I think the whole computer world is somehow plotting to keep people like me, people with minimum of knowledge, on the outside looking in. The worst times for me are when something works one day, then suddenly refuses to work the next. Of course I always assume that I’m the problem, that I’ve done something, hit the wrong key, missed a step in the process or that the computer gods are simply choosing to make my life a living hell for their own entertainment.

Several months ago I learned how to make a slideshow out of still pictures, using Windows Moviemaker. Although it was a long, slow and painful process, I eventually put together a slideshow of our house for sale. I was able to zoom in and pull back from the pictures, adding a sense of movement. I even added a soundtrack, an Italian song to set the mood. I tweaked and rearranged until I was satisfied with the finished product, and I prepared to upload it to YOUTUBE.

And then I made the fatal mistake: I deleted the previous slideshow I had on YOUTUBE. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but when my new and improved slideshow failed to upload, I knew I’d made a big mistake!

Eventually I was able to load the new slideshow, complete with soundtrack onto a different video website, REVVER. If you go to the blog where I’ve written about the house for sale, the video you’ll see there is the one that’s on Revver. Somehow their site was able to upload my video, while all YOUTUBE
would tell me was the my file ‘failed to convert”....Whatever that meant. If you want to see the new and improved version you can see it HERE.

Today, for some reason, and after numerous failed attempts, I searched the YouTube site for some answers, and I found a help page that seemed to be just what I needed. I copied and pasted the instructions so that I could print them out, ensuring that I wouldn’t skip a step or get confused. Here are those instructions:

“How do I make a video out of JPEG images?

Here are a few steps to convert JPEG images into videos by using Windows Movie Maker.
1. From your desktop, click the "Start" button.
2. Select "Run".
3. Type: moviemk and click the "OK" button.
4. Drag or import the image files to the "Collection Window".
5. Drag the file down to the "Time Line" pane at the bottom.
6. Edit the images until they appear the way you prefer.
7. At the top, select "File" and "Save Movie File".
8. Under the movie selection select "The Web".
9. Click the "Next" button.
10. Name the movie and click the "Next" button.
11. Click the "Show more choices" link
12. If you'd like to use our Single File Uploader, make sure your video is under 100MB. If your file's between 100MB and 1GB, you'll have to use the YouTube Uploader.

Once you've completed these steps, your movie will be ready to be uploaded to YouTube!”


Okay, it all sounded so simple and straightforward, so I began the process. I decided to keep this slideshow simple, mainly because I didn’t want to invest a lot of time and hope in a process that seemed doomed to failure, based on past experiences. Once the slideshow was ready I started on step #7, then step #8, and so on. And then I got to step #11, and I clicked on “More Choices”. But then….what??? The choices had been limited to connection speeds, and the “more” choices offered 2 additional lists of items that didn’t make any sense to me, choices that I won’t even bother list here, but trust me, the choices were many, and confusing, and as you can see from the YouTube instructions, they didn’t bother to tell me what choice I should make, or why. AARRGGHH!!!!

Why do they do this? Why can’t instructions just cover EVERYTHING from start to finish without all the mystery??? If you’re a computer whiz then yes, you could probably skip the first ten items, but for someone like me who needs all the help and reassurance they can get, would it really be so hard to include ALL THE STEPS??!!??

But there is one tiny piece of good news is all of this! Amazingly, the slideshow that I made did somehow manage to get saved correctly and to actually be posted on YouTube!!! Although it’s a simpler, silent slideshow, maybe for someone interested in our house they won’t mind the lack of glitz, even though I AM quite proud of the REVVER VERSION. The new, less improved YouTube version is posted below.

YOUTUBE SLIDESHOW OF OUR HOUSE FOR SALE