The Aldus Persuasion Player Disclaimer of warranty THIS PRODUCT, ITS USE, OPERATION AND SUPPORT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ALDUS CORPORATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY MONETARY LOSS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH PROGRAM. REVERSE ENGINEERING OF THIS PRODUCT IS PROHIBITED. Obtaining the Persuasion Player The Aldus Persuasion Player is provided free to registered users of Aldus Persuasion for the Macintosh and of Aldus Persuasion for Windows, versions 2.1 or later, and may be legally distributed with Aldus Persuasion slide shows when this ReadMe file is included. If you are a registered Persuasion 2.1 user, you can order a copy of the Persuasion Player 1.0 for the Macintosh by calling (206) 628-2320. About the Persuasion Player The Aldus Persuasion Player allows you to view an Aldus Persuasion presentation on any DOS-based computer that has a VGA or EGA monitor, regardless of whether or not Persuasion itself is on the computer. For instance, you can use the Persuasion Player to show a sales presentation to outside sales staff or deliver a message about your company to prospective customers. With the Persuasion Player, you can give a quick, impressive on-screen presentation and skip the process of producing overheads or 35mm slides altogether. You can transfer slide show files from your PC to a Macintosh and then view them using the Persuasion Player for the Macintosh. (Conversely, slide show files exported from Persuasion for the Macintosh can be viewed with the Persuasion Player for DOS-based computers.) Persuasion Player files are bitmapped images saved at 640 by 480 screen resolution with 256 colours. For optimum performance, play back the files on machines that can support that resolution, such as a PC with an SVGA card or a Macintosh with a 13-inch colour monitor. For best results on a PC, we recommend that you have a 386 processor with at least 1 MB of RAM. For best results on a Macintosh, we recommend that you have a Macintosh II with at least 1 MB of RAM. The Aldus Persuasion Player will operate using other configurations, but the slide show may not look as good as when it was created. All slides exported in .GIF format for use with the Persuasion Player are formatted for a 640 by 480 screen resolution. Exporting files when your monitor is of higher resolution may produce unexpected results. For example, if you export a file and your display is 800 by 600, when you view the file on a monitor whose resolution is 640 by 480, you will see the figures clustered in the centre of the slide. For this reason, we recommend you choose a setup option of US Letter (or any other option except Display) in your "Slide setup... " dialog box. Or you could change your monitor resolution to 640 by 480 using the Windows Setup control panel. Alternately, you could set a custom page size, 162.6mm by 121.9mm is recommended. Exported .GIF files are only capable of handling 8 bit colour. If you have 16 or 24 bit or higher colour capability in your monitor, images will be converted to 8 bit files when exported. You can minimise colour anomalies by importing images whose colours are supported in the Persuasion palette. Because of the translation to 8 bit colour, your export may take longer when you are in 16 or 24 bit mode. To avoid these problems, set your monitor to operate in 8 bit colour mode when you plan to export to Persuasion slide show files. To create a Persuasion Player slide show file: 1. Open the Persuasion presentation that you want to show using the Persuasion Player. You may want to choose "Slide show" to review it before exporting it. Changes must be made in the original Persuasion file. 2. Choose "Slide show..." from the File menu, select the settings you want for your exported slide show, and then click "Save." 3. Go to Slide view or to Slide sorter view. In Slide sorter view, you can select the slides you want. However if you have slide numbers on your slides that you want to export, you should go to Slide view. Slide numbers export as a pound (#) sign when exporting from Slide sorter view. 4. Choose "Export..." from the File menu. 5. For "Directories," click a directory on your hard drive in which you want to store the slide show file. Exporting to a networked server is not recommended because data may be lost. 6. For "Name," type your slide show filename. 7. For "Export data source," select the option you want. 8. Select "Persuasion slide show" in the "File format" list box, and then click "OK." Because Persuasion generates a complete screen image for each layer of your presentation, it's a good idea to allow plenty of time and disk space when exporting a presentation with multiple layers. The transition effects and delay between slides and layers that you specified in the Persuasion "Slide show" dialog box will be saved with your file. Refer to the Aldus Persuasion User Manual for more information on these settings. Running the Persuasion Player To ensure that the Persuasion Player file runs as you expect, it's a good idea to play the Player (.GIF) file before you give your presentation. Once the Player file is exported from Persuasion, you cannot make any changes to the content of the file, although you can adjust the slide show settings using a combination of switches typed at the command line. The Persuasion Player file size and export time will vary depending on the slide contents. Slides containing imported graphics or multiple layers will take longer and create a larger file. Note: The Persuasion Player cannot play .GIF files exported from other programs. Aldus Persuasion Player Pocket Guide (Print this file for a handy reference guide.) To run the Aldus Persuasion Player: 1. Copy the slide show file with the .GIF extension into the same directory as the Persuasion Player. 2. At the DOS prompt, change to the directory containing the Persuasion Player and the slide show file (.GIF). If you are not in the directory containing the slide show file, you must enter the full pathname for the file. (If you have put the Player in your DOS path,you can type your commands at the DOS prompt.) 3. Type player filename.gif You can enter more than one filename with a space between each, if you wish. 4. To regulate the playing of the slide show, type one or more of these switches one space after player, separated by a space and a slash, and before the filename. For example, to play a presentation so that the slides automatically display in succession, starting over again when finished, type player /a /r filename.gif. Type this switch To do this /a Advance the slide show automatically according to the time settings in the "Slide show" dialog box (in Persuasion). /r Repeat the presentation. /R Prevent repetition of the presentation. Note: If the /r or /R switches are not used, then the presentation will repeat or not repeat depending on the settings selected in the "Slide show" dialog box in Persuasion and saved with your presentation. /m Allow you to advance the slides using the keyboard or the mouse. See the table on how to manually operate a slide show at the end of these instructions. /d[f] Increase or decrease the time set in the "Slide show" dialog box (in Persuasion)by the multiple you type here. For example, if you type /d2, the time between slides and between layers will be double the amounts specified in "Delay between slide" and the "Delay between layers" in the Slide show dialog box (in Persuasion). /v Use this switch if you get a message while attempting to run a slide show that the Player cannot identify your video card. Retype the command line for the player, including this switch. /e Use this switch if you get the message that the Player cannot identify your video card and you have tried typing /v at the command line and it does not work. Then reboot and use the /e switch at the command line. /c Use this switch if you are dissatisfied with the way the colours appear in your slide show. Persuasion substitutes the best colours it can in translating the slide show. If you are dissatisfied with the colours, try the /c switch, which causes a fixed colour palette of 16 colours to be used. /s Allows all of the information on your slide to be shown on-screen. If your slide is trimmed in any way, use this switch to scale the slide to the screen. This may slow down your presentation. /x (Note: Use lowercase x.) Helps to resolve memory conflicts within expanded memory. /X (Note: Use uppercase X.) Helps to resolve memory conflicts within the basic 640K of memory. If you type both /x and /X in the command line, no transition effects can be shown. 5. After you have typed the command line, press Enter to start the slide show. 6. To quit the slide show and return to the main window, press Esc. Press F1 to get Help. Running a slide show using key and mouse commands The mouse driver must be installed from DOS to use the mouse commands to run the slide show. To find out if your mouse driver is installed for DOS, type mouse at the prompt. If the mouse is not installed, refer to your mouse documentation for installing it from DOS. The following table explains how to move through a slide show: To Do this Display the next slide Press Up arrow or click the mouse Display the previous slide Press Down arrow or double-click the mouse Go to a specific slide Type the slide number (on the main keypad, not the numeric keypad), and then press Enter Stop or resume a slide show that is Press spacebar automatically advancing Toggle the cursor (mouse) on or off Press A Toggle the blank screen on or off Press B or , (comma) Display the Help screen Press F1 Exit from the slide show Press Esc Display or hide the Control palette Press Ctrl + W Display the Title selection menu Press and hold right mouse button Using the Slide-title menu and the Control palette You can also navigate through a slide show by using the slide-title menu or by using the control buttons you can display on-screen. Hold down the right mouse button to display a menu of the slide titles in your presentation, (the titles will take a few seconds to display), and then drag to choose the title of the slide you want to go to. When you release the mouse button, the slide you chose will be displayed. Press Ctrl + W to make the control buttons appear on the screen during the slide show. The following table lists the control buttons you can click to move to various places in your slide show. The Control buttons resemble the buttons on a VCR. From left to right, these are their functions: o Go to the beginning of the presentation o Go back one slide o Stop o Play o Go forward one slide o Go to the end of the presentation Transferring slide show files You can use a file transfer utility, such as Apple File Exchange, to transfer your Persuasion for Windows slide show file to the Macintosh. Consult the documentation accompanying the software for instructions. Note: When transferring files, make sure you select binary to binary translation, not Mac binary. To make sure you've selected the correct option, check the files sizes; they should be the same. Aldus customer support Support for the Aldus Persuasion Player is available to registered Aldus Persuasion users only. Refer to Aldus Persuasion Getting Started for specific support policies and contact information. We are interested in any comments or suggestions you have regarding this product. Please send them to: Aldus Persuasion Program Manager 411 First Avenue South Seattle, Washington 98104 United States FAX (206) 343-4240