Voice Thread tutorial:

1) Register on the site (www.voicethread.com)
Click on "sign in or register" on top of the Voice Thread logo on the upper right hand side of the main page. Once the dialog box comes up, next to where it says, "Not registered yet?" click on "register." Enter your email address and a password that is meaningful to you, one that you will remember! You do not have to confirm your account to start using the system.

2) Go to the "create" tab at the top of the page (upper left hand side)
You will see three buttons: upload, comment, and share. You do have to begin your Voice Thread in this order, but you can go back and change things later.

3) Upload photos to your Voice Thread story
Click on the "Upload" button. Choose an option: upload from your computer, from your Flickr (a photosharing site) page, facebook page (though facebook will likely be blocked on a school Internet filter), from your previously uploaded Voice Thread media (which you don't have yet, as a new user), or directly from a URL (if you find a picture that you like on the web, or have another online photo storage site, like Picasa). If you have photos on a flash drive, attach it to the computer you are working on, and choose, "from my computer."

Browse photos and upload at least 5 to Voice Thread, which you can do all at once. Once they are online, you will see a thumbnail-sized version of your photo on the main space of your desktop. Each photo is now its own slide.

4) Order & Organize Your Slides
To give each photo a title and description, highlight it (it will turn yellow) and click on, "add a title and description" button on the top left.If you want to delete, replace, or rotate any of the photos, highlight the photo, and it will also appear on the bottom left hand side of the screen. The options will appear.

The order in which these thumbnails appear is the order in which they will appear in your slide show. To reorder the slides, highlight them, then drag where they need to be. Once your order is correct, you are ready to move on to the next step. Click on the first slide to highlight it, and click on the "comment" button on the left hand side (under the upload button).

5) Commenting on your Slides
You have several ways to comment: text, voice (with an external microphone), web cam, or phone. To view tutorials about how to set up your mic, click here for Mac and here for PC.

You may be prompted to add your own avatar, a photo to represent you. It doesn't have to literally be a picture of you. You do not have to do this to move forward.

Decide how you will comment on your slides. You can vary your methods, using text in one slide and voice in another, or use a combination of both. Click on the phone icon to use a cell phone to record commentary. Click on the little video camera icon to connect with a web cam, the record button to record voice, and the type button to enter text. Follow the instructions for your chosen method. You can always re-record your voice or re-enter text at any time.

To use more than one method of commenting on a slide, just complete one method, save it, and start another without moving ahead to the next slide. To move forward to comment on the next slide, click on the arrow button.

The slide will automatically be timed along with your commentary, so you do not have to worry about timings--it matches your comment/s.

6) Sharing your Story
When you are finished commenting on all your slides, click on #3, "Share."

Since you are new to Voice Thread, you likely do not have friends yet. Therefore, make decisions about how public you wish to make your story. Do you want it to be public on the web and added to the browse section of Voice Thread? Do you want others to be able to comment on it? Decide what works best for you, and change accordingly.

7) Further Options
Click on the "Options" button to see choices about how your Voice Thread will appear. Some choices may not be open to you if you are not a pro user.

If you want to pay to export this Voice Thread to a movie file you can download and play without an Internet connection, choose "Export." If you have a blog or another online presence, and you want to add your Voice Thread to that page, choose "Embed."

8) Deleting & Editing a Voice Thread
To delete your thread, click on the "delete thread" button on the top-center of the page.

To edit your Voice Thread, go to the "My Voice" tab. Find the Voice Thread story you wish to edit, and click on it. It will appear full-screen. In the top-left corner, is a little menu button with a wheel on it. Click on it, and three options appear: Edit, Share, and Embed. Choose "Edit." You will return to the main editing window and the three choices appear again: upload, comment, share.

9) Help!
For more help, click on the help button on the top right hand side of the screen. There's an FAQ page which is very helpful, a tutorial page which contains Voice Thread stories about using certain aspects of the site, and a forum page where the public can post questions and help each other solve problems. You can post a question there, or search through questions and answers that others have posted.

10) Voice Threads on Advanced Features
The Doodling Tool
Multiple Identities
Groups and Tags