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HyperSlide
AutoCAD Based Presentation System
Version 1.0
May 5, 1991
User's Guide and Reference Manual
Copyright (C) 1991
John Intorcio
335 Washington Street, Suite 178
Woburn, MA 01801
Help make Shareware work.
Please read and abide by the license agreement contained herein.
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Profes-
sionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for
you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP
member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP
Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the
ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve
message via CompuServe mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536
Table of Contents
Licensing and Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
I. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
II. Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
III. Using the Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Presentation Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Presentation Engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Presentation Compiler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Self Propelled Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Presentation Dump. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
IV. Mouse Emulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
V. Revision History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Licensing and Registration
Full registration, a program disk containing the latest version of this
program, and a license to distribute Self Propelled Presentations are avail-
able from the address below for a $50 ShareWare fee.
John Intorcio
335 Washington Street, Suite 178
Woburn, MA 01801
Users of HyperSlide must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "HyperSlide is
supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied,
including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of
fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct
or consequential, which may result from the use of HyperSlide."
HyperSlide is a "Shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user
for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not
give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user
supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality
software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find
that you are using HyperSlide and continue to use HyperSlide after a 30 day
trial period, you must make a registration payment of $50 to John Intorcio at
the above address. The $50 registration fee will license one copy for use on
any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a
book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people
and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as
there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used
at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the
same time.
Registered and unregistered users of HyperSlide may distribute the HyperSlide
Presentation Engine (HYPERSLD.EXE) with their presentations without restric-
tion provided that no fee is charged for it or any accompanying software.
Self propelled demonstrations may be distributed ONLY by registered users of
HyperSlide. It is unlawful to distribute self propelled presentations without
first registering your copy of HyperSlide. Extended or modified distribution
licenses are available from John Intorcio.
Commercial users of HyperSlide must register and pay for their copies of
HyperSlide within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-
License arrangements may be made by contacting John Intorcio.
You are encouraged to pass a copy of HyperSlide along to your friends for
evaluation. Please be sure to distribute the entire package including the
utilities and documentation files. Also, please encourage them to register
their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will
receive a copy of the latest version of the HyperSlide system. Upon registra-
tion users will receive a laser printed manual, will become eligible for
telephone support, and will be notified by U.S. Mail of future updates should
they occur. Registered users of obsolete versions may upgrade to the current
version of HyperSlide by sending a $5 handling charge to the address above.
In return they will receive a program disk with the latest version of Hyper-
Slide without the delay screens in the Presentation Designer and the Presenta-
tion Engine.
HyperSlide is a trademark of John Intorcio.
AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc.
Turbo C is a trademark of Borland International, Inc.
I. Introduction
HyperSlide is a program to create interactive presentations based on graphic
images and programmed control sequences. HyperSlide 1.0 bases its graphic
images on AutoCAD's slide file format. You must create slide (.SLD) files
from AutoCAD using the MSLIDE command in order to user HyperSlide.
HyperSlide and the HyperSlide Presentation Designer use the graphics mode of
your computer. Both support Hercules, CGA, EGA, and VGA displays. Both
programs will work on SVGA cards but only at standard VGA resolutions. A
presentation created on one of the supported displays will work on any of
them.
II. Installation
HyperSlide arrives as a single executable file, HYPSLD.EXE. Create a new
directory on your hard disk called HYPSLD by typing the following DOS command:
MD \HYPSLD
Make this the default directory by typing:
CD \HYPSLD
Copy the HyperSlide system from the floppy drive by typing:
COPY A:HYPSLD.EXE
Upon execution this file expands to create the following files:
HYPERPD.EXE
This is the Presentation Designer. This program is used to create or
edit a HyperSlide presentation (.HSL file).
HYPERPD.HLP
This is the help file for the Presentation Designer.
HYPERSLD.EXE
This is the presentation system itself or the "player". This is the
application used to execute a HyperSlide presentation (.HSL file).
HYPERDMP.EXE
This is a utility that can be used to create a text dump of a HyperSlide
presentation (.HSL file).
HYPERCOM.EXE
This is the HyperSlide compiler that can be used to create a compiled
HyperSlide presentation (.HSL file). Compiled presentations combine all
images and controls into a single file for ease of distribution.
Compiled files may be edited using the presentation designer but will be
saved in standard (uncompiled) format.
HYPEREXE.EXE
This is a utility that can be used to create Self Propelled Presenta-
tions. These presentations are .EXE files that include the HyperSlide
Presentation Engine as well as all of the control information and
images. (Self Propelled Presentations may be distributed ONLY by
registered users of HyperSlide.)
HYPSLD.DOC
This documentation file.
DEMO.HSL
A demonstration HyperSlide Presentation.
DEMO.EXE
The above demonstration HyperSlide Presentation after being processed by
the Self Propelled Presentation utility. This is a Self Propelled
HyperSlide Presentation. Note that unregistered user of HyperSlide are
forbidden to distribute Self Propelled Presentations.
READ.ME
Up to date licensing and release information.
III. Using the Programs
A good way to get a brief introduction to HyperSlide is to try out the
demonstration presentation. You can do this by typing DEMO at the DOS prompt
while in the \HYPSLD directory. DEMO.EXE is an example of a Self Propelled
HyperSlide Presentation. All of the executable code, the images, and the
controls are stored in a single .EXE file.
Using the presentation should prove simple. Use the mouse to move the arrow
over one of the controls and press the left mouse button to activate the
control. That's the essence of HyperSlide.
You'll also find DEMO.HSL in the \HYPSLD directory. This is the same presen-
tation before being made into a Self Propelled version.
There are five main programs that comprise the HyperSlide system. Let's look
at each of them:
The Presentation Designer
The presentation is the most complex component of HyperSlide. You can
alleviate some of the complexity by taking advantage of the context
sensitive help - you can press the F1 key at any time for a helpful
screen. This is the program with which presentations are conceived and
realized.
Presentations consist of "Slides" or images, and links between them or
"Controls".
A good way to start building a presentation is to bring in all of the
slide files that you will be working with and then to add controls to
the slides which link them together. That way, as you add links that
tie to other slides, they'll be available in the menu.
Start the Presentation Designer by typing:
HYPERPD
If you were editing an existing presentation, you could start the
Presentation Designer with the Presentation name specified on the
command line as such:
HYPERPD DEMO
You can create a new presentation by selecting "New..." from the File
menu. From the File menu, you can also "Open..." an existing presenta-
tion, "Close" the currently open presentation, Use the "Save as..."
option to save the current presentation under another name, or "Save" to
disk the current presentation. You may also "Test" a presentation from
this menu.
Now use the Slide menu to add new slides. Select the "New..." option
from this menu and choose slides from your disk to add to the presenta-
tion. From this same menu, you can also "Delete" a slide from your
presentation. (You might note that once you get a presentation de-
signed, slides will be "linked" together. If you try to delete a slide
which is linked to another, you'll be given a warning. If you delete
the slide anyway, you'll end up with an invalid presentation file until
you delete the link.) Also on the Slide menu is a "View" option which
display an image of the selected slide and show the positions of any
Control Areas associated with the slide.
Use the "First..." selection from the Slide menu to specify which slide
will be the first displayed when the presentation is executed. A
presentation will not work properly if the "First" slide has not been
specified.
You can now specify "Controls" which reside with each of the slides in
your presentation - when a slide is displayed on the screen its controls
become active. Select a slide to work with using the "Select..." option
from the Slide menu. Form the Control menu, choose "New...". You'll
first be prompted for the type of control you wish to add. Press the F1
key to get the Help system to give you an up to date run down of the
available control types. Select a control type.
The Current control types are as follows:
Link to Another Slide...
When this type of control is chosen, a slide to link to is chosen
and then a position for the control. When the user clicks the
mouse button in the control area the screen is cleared and the
chosen slide is displayed on the screen and it's controls are made
active. This is referred to as a "Jump" control.
Overlay Another Slide...
When this type of control is chosen, a slide to link to is chosen
and then a position for the control. When the user clicks the
mouse button in the control area the chosen slide is displayed on
the screen, overlaying the current slide, and it's controls are
made active. This is referred to as an "Overlay" control.
Link to Previous Slide...
When this type of control is chosen, a position for the control is
specified. When the user clicks the mouse button in the control
area the screen is cleared and the previously displayed slide is
again displayed on the screen and it's controls are made active.
HyperSlide maintains a stack of the previous 16 images displayed
on the screen. Thus, a "Previous" button can retrace 16 jumps.
Link to an External Program...
When this type of control is chosen, a DOS command string is
entered and then a position for the control. When the user clicks
the mouse in the control area, the specified DOS command string is
executed and operation returns to the same slide.
Link to an External Program and Pause...
This control is similar to the above. When this type of control
is chosen, a DOS command string is entered and then a position for
the control. When the user clicks the mouse in the control area,
the specified DOS command string is executed, the program pauses
until the user strikes a key, and operation returns to the same
slide.
Link to DOS Shell
This control is similar to the above. When this type of control
is chosen, a position for the control is specified. When the user
clicks the mouse in the control area, a DOS child process is
spawned and the user is at the command prompt. The user may
return to HyperSlide by typing "EXIT" but until that time is free
to execute any DOS commands.
Timed Link...
When this type of control is chosen, a time delay is specified and
then a slide to link to. When a slide is displayed which contains
this type of control, after the delay period has passed, the
specified slide is displayed and its controls are made active.
You cannot put a timed control on a slide that already has other
controls on it nor can you put other controls on a slide that has
a timed control.
Timed Overlay...
This control is essentially the same as the above. When this type
of control is chosen, a time delay is specified and then a slide
to link to. When a slide is displayed which contains this type of
control, after the delay period has passed, the specified slide is
overlaid and its controls are made active.
You cannot put a timed control on a slide that already has other
controls on it nor can you put other controls on a slide that has
a timed control.
Link to Program Exit
When this type of control is chosen, a position for the control is
specified. When the user clicks the mouse button in the control
area, HyperSlide terminates.
Depending on the control type selected, you may be asked to specify a
time delay, another slide to link to, or a position for the control.
Time delays are entered in seconds and may include fractions.
Control position are specified graphically. An image of the slide is
presented on the screen with al colors displayed as a single color (red)
to make the controls easier to see. Yellow boxes indicate other control
on the current slide and are labeled as such. A white box is shown in
the center of the image. This box represents the "Control Area" related
to the control - this is the box in which the user must click to
activate this control. You can reposition the Control Area by placing
the mouse cursor in the center of the box, depressing the left mouse
button, moving the box to the desired position, and then releasing the
mouse button. Similarly, the box can be resized by placing the mouse
cursor inside one of the four corner "handles" on the box, depressing
the left mouse button, dragging the corner to the desired position, and
releasing the button. Once you moved the Control Area to the desired
location, the Enter key will return you to the main menu and the box's
position will be stored.
Keep in mind that a Control Area does not have to correspond to a
traditional "button". For example, you might display a slide of a
floorplan in which of each of the "rooms" is a Control Area. Clicking
in a room might bring up a detail of the furniture layout for that room.
You can implement traditional Hyper Text within HyperSlide by making
specific words or phrases correspond to Control Areas.
A special note on control order. For controls which require a mouse
click, Control Areas may overlap. If they do, whichever control is
listed first takes precedence - use the "Select..." option from the
Control menu to check the order. You can use this fact by making the
last control on a slide cover the entire slide. This becomes the
"default" control when the user clicks in a spot that is not within any
other control.
At any time during your design session you can go back to the Slide menu
to select another slide to work with or to add or delete slides from
your presentation. There is no significance to the order in which the
slides are added.
Once you've specified the position of the controls, you're ready to save
your presentation. Select "Save" from the File menu to update the file
on disk or "Save as..." to save the file under another name.
If you'd like, you can test your presentation from within the Presenta-
tion Designer by using the "Test" option from the File menu. The test
mode is just like the actual presentation mode with one exception: you
can exit a presentation by pressing the Esc key. This function is
provided to avoid being trapped within a presentation with no exit.
Keep in mind that your users won't have this luxury - they will not be
able to exit a presentation by pressing Esc or Ctrl-C or anything else
other than a Control Area that you have defined as being linked to
program exit.
You'll exit the Presentation Designer using the "Quit" option. If
you've made any changes that have not yet be written to disk, you'll be
given an opportunity to do see before exiting the program.
The Presentation Engine
The presentation engine is used by starting it with the name of the
presentation on the command line. For example, to execute a presenta-
tion called "demo", use the following command to start the player:
HYPERSLD DEMO
The player works on CGA, EGA, VGA or Hercules compatible displays and
works with Microsoft compatible mice. If no mouse is found on the
system, a mouse is emulated. See the section "Mouse Emulation" for more
information on the keys used to emulate a mouse.
The Presentation Compiler
When distributing a presentation, it's nice to be able to distribute a
single file. The Presentation Compiler combines the presentation file
and all necessary image files into a single "Compiled Presentation
File".
Compiled Presentation Files can be edited just like uncompiled files
except that they will be saved in uncompiled format. That's important
to remember if you don't have backup copies of your slide files.
The Presentation Compiler is executed by specifying both the name of the
uncompiled file and a name for the compiled file on the command line.
For example, to compile the presentation file called "Razzle" and name
the compiled file "Dazzle", execute the following command:
HYPERCOM RAZZLE DAZZLE
If you do not specify a name for the compiled file on the command line,
the original .HSL file will be overwritten with the compiled .HSL file.
Self Propelled Presentations
One step beyond a compiled presentations is a self propelled presenta-
tion. A self propelled presentation combines everything necessary for
the show into a single .EXE file. You can make a self propelled
demonstration by using the HYPEREXE program and specifying the name of
your presentation file and the name of the .EXE file on the command
line. For example, to make a self propelled presentation called
"DemoIt" out of a presentation file called "Razzle",you'd type the
following:
HYPEREXE RAZZLE DEMOIT
Note that the HYPEREXE utility expects to be able to find HYPERSLD.EXE
in the same directory as HYPEREXE.EXE. Also, if you do not specify a
name for the executable file, it defaults to the name of the .HSL file.
The Presentation Dump
Sometimes it's nice to see a summary of the contents of a presentation
file. The Presentation Dump utility provides this. To see a summary of
a presentation file, simple specify the name of the presentation on the
command line. For example, to see a dump of the presentation file
called "Demo", type:
HYPERDMP DEMO
It's possible that you'd like to see a listing of your presentation in a
file. You can do that by redirecting the program's output. For
example, to get the same listings created above in a file called
DEMO.LIS, just do the following:
HYPERDMP DEMO > DEMO.LIS
If you'd rather get a listing of your presentation on your printer, you
can do that to! If your printer is attached to LPT1: just type:
HYPERDMP DEMO > LPT1:
IV. Mouse Emulation
If there is no mouse on the system you are using, the keypad is used to
emulate the mouse.
The arrow keys do what you'd expect moving the mouse cursor up, down, left,
and right. The Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End keys move the cursor diagonally.
The Ins and Del keys emulate the left and right buttons of the mouse, respec-
tively.
You can use the gray + and - keys to change the amount that the mouse cursor
moves each time you hit one of the motion keys.
V. Revision History
Version 1.0 - May 5, 1991
*First public release.