Transferring completed slideshow from older Elements software

Question

I own Elements 5.0, and for the first time created a 38 minute slideshow. I have found I like the software and am thinking of upgrading because I learned that my slideshow is captive within 5.0 and I am unable to make a dvd of it. I have downloaded a free trial of the Elements 11.0 & Premier Elements 11.0 to see if it is worth paying for an upgrade. I would like to burn my slideshow to a dvd to prove to myself that the upgrade is worth the price and that in fact I can share the creations I make. I don't want to make this slideshow all over again in the new software - it took literally days to make. I understand that it will have some watermark until I purchase the newer software, I just want to make sure I can transfer my slideshow between Elements versions first before buying.
This is what happens: I can't seem to transfer the slideshow from 5.0 to 11.0 premier. How do I do this? In the 5.0 organizer I go to the file menu and chose 'open creation'. I choose the creation and hit 'ok'. The slideshow editor opens with my 38" slideshow there. The 'output' button does not have a choice of Elements Premier. I have tried 'saving as a fil' (choice of movie file, .wmv, or pdf file). I have saved a pdf file of the slideshow to my desktop but there is no sound and the fading and special effects between slides is lost. I have tried saving the movie file to my desktop but the resulting movie file is empty and just black when clicked on. When I choose 'burn to a disc' the software just abruptly closes. If I choose the Edit button in the slideshow editor the software also abruptly closes. Clicking the Edit button in the Organizer does not close the program, but most of the choices are grayed out and if I choose the 'go to full edit' choice, I get a message 'unable to connect to the editor application'. Plus in the Organizer my slideshow is not visible, so it seems I have to be using the slideshow editor and not the organizer to move the slideshow file.
I have also opened the Premier Elements 11.0 and tried to import the file from 5.0, but it doesn't seem like Premier sees it or I don't know how to tell it what to look for. I have all the softwares saved as icons on my desktop - probably from my writing you can tell I am not very computer savvy.
I am stumped. Shouldn't there be a way to move a slideshow from 5.0 to 11.0 without having to do it all over again? There would be no way to create that long a slideshow exactly the same way. I am tearing my hair out over this - can anyone help? Thank you very much!

Answer 1

Actually, it might not have been, but after trying so many things – I am not sure how it actually worked. Somehow I save the slideshow to the organizer, where my pictures were, and then from there I was able to use the edit tab once I selected the slideshow – and chose ‘output as wmv file’ which then let me save it into my videos folder on the hard drive. From there I could burn it to a dvd. Prior to that I was trying to work out of the slide show editor itself because the actual slideshow was only located there and that is where when I clicked on the edit button the program shut down, and the output button had no premier elements choice. To move it to the organizer I think in the slide show editor I went under ‘file’ and chose ‘save as’ and saved it to the organizer. Once I did that I followed what I wrote above. Beforehand I was trying only to make a copy out of the editor and not the organizer. So this was something new I just tried.
Editor/organizer – so complicated between the 2 for a first time user trying to push out a high school team’s slideshow for their party – having done nothing of the sort before and finding this old 5.0 elements software on a shelf here at home which I had bought years ago and never used.
So also – what I had read about needing elements premier to burn to a dvd must not be true, since I ended up doing this all through 5.0 – unless having the trial version of 11.0 elements and premier downloaded onto my computer allowed it to happen somehow.
**Do you know if there is a lot that has changed between 5.0 and 11.0 which would make it worth paying $120 to upgrade to 11.0 + premier?, since now I have figured out how to create a dvd out of 5.0 without having premier (unless it is the presence of the trial on my computer that is allowing me to do this, which will go away and then I will be stuck again...)
Thank you again,
Laurie