I have been using windows Photo story 3 for for slideshow projects for many years in XP & Vista...it is great software in my opinion...& Free...but it is only available in 4.3 format. I have found several programs that do use 16.9 format but don't have the features of Photo Story 3.
Can anybody recommend software i could purchase that would be as good as Photo Story 3....???

I would recommend either Microsoft Office 2010 Powerpoint (free 60 day trial available): Try Office 2010 - Microsoft Office or the totally free OpenOffice www.openoffice.org (I can't remember the name of the PowerPoint equivalent, but it has one) and see if they work for you. I'd actually get both to check out and it will cost you nothing (and if you're OK with OpenOffice, it won't ever cost you anything).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!