Smoothie SlideShows Smoothie SlideShows are a convenient way to produce presentations with Smoothie. They are created in Smoothie’s batch mode from a scrapbook or folder filled with PICT files that you have exported from a presentation application. Smoothie SlideShows are applications, that is, you run them from the Finder as you would any other application. Smoothie SlideShows also contain all the slides for a presentation in the application file. This means there is no need for separate application and data files. You can distribute Smoothie SlideShows without worrying about licensing a player program and you can be assured that anyone with a color Macintosh computer will be able to view your presentation. Running a Smoothie SlideShow You launch a Smoothie SlideShow just like any other application, by double-clicking on it in the Finder or by selecting it and choosing Open from the Finder File menu. Once you launch a Smoothie SlideShow, a modal dialog box will appear.   From this dialog box, you can do four things: start the SlideShow, set options, get help, or quit. • Note: The informational text that you entered when the Smoothie SlideShow was created is displayed in this main dialog box. This information cannot be modified after the creation of a Smoothie SlideShow. Smoothie SlideShow options You can access the Options dialog box by clicking the Options button in the main dialog box. This brings up a dialog box like the one you see here.   The Options dialog box lets you run a Smoothie SlideShow in either of two ways: manually or automatically. Manual Advance When using this option (which is the default selection), you advance the slides either by clicking the mouse or by pressing the right arrow key, the return key, or the enter key. Automatic Advance The Automatic Advance automatically advances to the next slide after a set amount of time has passed. This time can be specified to the nearest second. Using automatic advance allows you to have your Macintosh computer display a series of pictures without manual intervention. Help Clicking the help button in the main dialog box brings up the Help dialog box (below).   This screen provides information on how to operate the Smoothie SlideShow. This can be important if you give out a Smoothie SlideShow to people who do not own Smoothie and may not have access to this document. Operating a Smoothie SlideShow From the main dialog box, a Smoothie SlideShow is started by clicking the Run button or pressing the return or enter keys. This will clear the main screen and display the first slide. Controlling a SlideShow in manual mode When you run a Smoothie SlideShow in manual mode you control it from the keyboard or by using the mouse. • To advance to the next slide either click the mouse or press the right arrow, Return, or Enter key • To go back to the previous slide press the left arrow key • To exit the SlideShow and return to the main dialog box press the Q or the Esc key or both the Command key and the Period key (.) Controlling a SlideShow in automatic mode When you are running a Smoothie SlideShow in automatic mode it cycles through all the slides, showing each one for the specified period of time. This will continue until you actively stop it. • You stop a Smoothie SlideShow running in automatic mode by pressing the Q or the Esc key or by clicking the mouse button • You can pause a Smoothie SlideShow running in automatic mode by pressing the Space key; resume by pressing the Space key again System Requirements Smoothie SlideShows can be run on any color Macintosh computer running System 6.02 or later (they do not require System 7). If they are run on a Macintosh computer that does not have color QuickDraw (such as a Macintosh Classic), an alert is displayed and the Smoothie SlideShow will quit. If a Smoothie SlideShow was prepared using a QuickTime image compressor a similar check is made. If QuickTime is not installed or if the QuickTime compressor needed to decompress the images is not available, an alert is displayed and the SlideShow will quit. Memory Usage When a Smoothie SlideShow is created it is assigned a suggested memory size of almost 1.5 megabytes. This setting allows the application to create an off-screen buffer that can accommodate a 640x480 standard 13” monitor at 24 bits per pixel. If you are using 8 bits per pixel (256 colors), changing the memory partition to 500K works just as well. You change the Smoothie SlideShow’s memory partition size by clicking once on the Smoothie SlideShow file’s icon in the Finder to highlight it, selecting Get Info from the File menu, then typing a new value in the current value area. You can safely use as little as 50K for a Smoothie SlideShow. In this case it will not allocate an off-screen buffer and performance will suffer as a result. Please do not attempt to run a Smoothie SlideShow with less than 50K of memory. Using QuickTime image compressors Smoothie SlideShows can often grow quite large in size. This happens because each slide is stored as a bitmap rather than as the object picture used by most presentation programs. One excellent way to reduce the size of your Smoothie SlideShows is to use QuickTime image compression (See the “Smoothie and QuickTime” chapter of this user’s guide for details on how to use this from the settings dialog box). QuickTime image compressors can often reduce the size of a Smoothie SlideShow to one-tenth the size of the uncompressed version. The best results can often be achieved by using the graphics compressor. This restricts you to 256 colors, but by using dithering, 256-color pictures can give excellent results. • Note: When using QuickTime image compressors with Smoothie SlideShows, QuickTime must be installed on the Macintosh computer used to run the Smoothie SlideShows. If you attempt to run a Smoothie SlideShow that uses QuickTime compression without having QuickTime installed, it will put up an alert informing you that QuickTime is required and then it will quit.