. . . are you trying to re-invent the GIF/PNG or video-file?

Basically, what I’m getting at, is that most social-media(particularly facebook, tumblr, twitter, tiktok) do “slideshows” as video. Web-pages can do whatever-you-want by comparison, but that’s not what you asked about(can we do frames on Lemmy, pretty-please? /s), so: Powerpoint can export directly to video, Google Slides will export to PNG, and LibreOffice … well … you’ll need OBS or some other screen-recorder for video, but also, it’ll export to GIF. Same goes for album software, like Windows Photo or digiKam. Even the Gallery app that came with my phone will do it, although surprisingly, Google Photos on Android either won’t do it or is just too obtuse for me to figure it out just now.

Also, you seem to be unaware that albums can be accomplished by embedding multiple photos in the post content. You can throw a slideshow video in as your header, then put the pics that made it in the post body

(^^this part^^).

Sorry, but I don’t want you or anyone putting an album where I have no choice but to see the whole thing clogging-up my feed - even on tumblr, long posts start collapsed to a small chunk with a “See More” fold. I quite like how its done here, with a tap on a thumbnail, then a tap on the [+] for the rest.

As for how we got here … blame ActiveX and flash-embedded malware. I’m still salty at the prevalence of JavaScript in their stead.

IMHO, presentation software should have become little more than a specialized HTML/CSS, Video, or -yes-even-Album-editor long-ago. Its continued existance as-is just leads to idiots who think their presentation skills make them the second-coming, and questions like yours.

To be clear, I appreciate you asking this. Your question isn’t in any way stupid or bothersome. I had not bothered to spell-out or organize my thoughts on the matter in … maybe ever. Can’t wait to find out I’ve basically plagarized some post or comment I read forever-ago.