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Slide Stacking “Top-Down” — Orientation & Order

We show two ways to stack, organize, and orient your slides for scanning. This page covers the Top-Down method: start with the first slide at the bottom and build up so the slide on top is the last slide in your show or chapter.

Determine Front and Back of Slides

To standardize terms, the side with the manufacturer logo is the FRONT. Looking through the FRONT, text in the image will appear backwards. Looking through the BACK, text appears normal. You can mark the FRONT with an “F” if helpful. In a projector, the FRONT faces the screen; the BACK is where many people write notes.

Don’t stress about this: we ensure your final scans view correctly on TV, computer, and prints—we just need a consistent starting point.

Rotate Portrait Slides to Landscape

Any slide photographed in a vertical (portrait) orientation should be rotated to landscape in your stacks. This helps scanning go smoothly. We will rotate finals for correct on-screen viewing.

Stacking your slides from the bottom up — step 1
Stacking your slides from the bottom up — step 2
Stacking your slides from the bottom up — step 3
Stacking your slides from the bottom up — step 4
Stacking your slides from the bottom up — step 5
Top-down slide prep — method 1, step 1
Top-down slide prep — method 2, step 1
Top-down slide prep — method 2, step 2
Top-down slide prep — method 2, step 3
Top-down slide prep — method 2, step 4
Top-down slide prep — method 2, step 5

Flip slide #2 over and place it on top of slide #1 with slide #2’s bottom edge up. Continue this pattern while keeping all slides in landscape orientation within each chapter stack.

Top-down slide prep — step 7
Top-down slide prep — step 8
Top-down slide prep — step 6
Top-down slide prep — step 9
Top-down slide prep — step 10
Top-down slide prep — step 11
Top-down slide prep — step 12
Top-down slide prep — step 13

“THIS SIDE TOWARDS SCREEN” is the FRONT.

Top-down slide prep — step 14
Top-down slide prep — step 15 (front marking toward screen)
Top-down slide prep — step 17
Top-down slide prep — step 18

Storage & Numbering Tips

Waxed paper, aluminum foil, and plastic baggie boxes are great for keeping stacks organized. Use dividers and number each slide per chapter (restart at #1 for each chapter) so folders and filenames sort in order on your disk or flash drive.

Stacking from the bottom up — example 20
Stacking from the bottom up — example 22
Stacking from the bottom up — example 24
Stacking from the bottom up — example 26
Stacking from the bottom up — example 28
Stacking from the bottom up — example 29
Stacking from the bottom up — example 30
Stacking from the bottom up — example 31
Stacking from the bottom up — example 32
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