How can I create a looping slideshow with individual slide timing?

[Doctor Q]

I've been tasked with creating a slideshow that will run unattended in a loop on a large display at a conference.

What software should I use to create the slideshow? What software should I use to play it repeatedly?

Here are my requirements:

1. I'll be creating about 100 slides.
2. Each slide will have a mixture of photos, graphics, and text, so I'd like to create them with a program that has layout features like those in Keynote and Pages.
3. Each slide needs to have its own individual display time. A slide with only a photo should be on-screen for only a few seconds (so people don't get bored), while a text-heavy slide needs to be on-screen for noticeably longer (so people have time to read the text).
4. The slideshow playback should repeat (loop) until stopped manually.

Below is a 3-slide sample illustrating the idea.

Keynote and Photos don't allow individual timing per slide. I could cheat by repeating the same slide multiple times in a row when I want it to display for longer, but I don't see a way to suppress the inter-slide transitions.

In theory, I could create each slide in Pages, export it as an image, import it into iMovie as a still, and set its duration. Then, once all slides were assembled into a movie, I could export it and play it, with the Loop feature enabled, with Quicktime Player. If I wanted to change one of the slides, I'd have to re-edit it in Pages and then replace its section within the movie. Possible but awkward.

Are there better choices for doing this task, and could Automator or scripting help in some way?

 

[Nermal]

Keynote and Photos don't allow individual timing per slide.

Keynote does.

On each slide, go to "Animate", set Start Transition to "Automatically" and put a time. The time is specific to the chosen slide.

 

[Doctor Q]

That's great news. It means that I can use Keynotes for all of the lemur slides. Thanks!

 

[Herbert123]

On a side note: test your setup before the conference! Create as many dummy slides as you expect to have for the final slideshow with varying duration settings for each slide, and perform a test run. Allow it to run for at least 4 hours on the actual machine that you intend to use.

From my own experience with conference presentations/slideshows and museum kiosks: never expect anything to run or behave as it should. Always test, test, test.

Also: have a backup solution, just in case things go horribly wrong during the conference. Or the laptop in question decides to break down on that very morning during setup.

 

[Doctor Q]

Testing is a very good idea. I plan to test, using the actual slideshow, a day ahead of time.

I'll also have a flash drive copy in case of a computer change, a PowerPoint export of the Keynote file, a copy in iCloud, and perhaps a copy as a QuickTime movie.

It's also wise to make sure that the device that's driving the display is plugged in or has much more than enough battery charge for the time required.