Hi Bizzle

Ahhh yes, the old 'apply to all slides' default - annoying isn't it? I take
it you are changing the background by clicking on the templates in the
design taskpane (2003) or the themes in the design tab (2007). Instead,
right click the design/theme and select 'apply to selected slides'. Or you
can change just the background by right clicking a slide and selecting
'background' then selecting a solid fill or a fill effect (such as a
gradient). Fir more detailed instructions let us know your version.

As for the transition, you can select 'random' from the end of the list in
the transition taskpane (2003)/animations tab (2007), select 'automatically
after', change 00 to the number of seconds you want each picture to be up
for then click 'apply to all'.

Oh, and it may be too late but you can use photo album to import many
pictures at once. See here:
BATCH IMPORT images into PowerPoint
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00050.htm

Hope that helps and if you have any more questions don't forget to let us
know your version.

Lucy

PS You may want to consider using Photo Story as I believe this can then be
burned straight to dvd which may come in handy later in the project.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx