Network Support Encyclopedia 96-1/novell-nsepro-1996-1-cd2.iso/programs/win/player.txt

Text File | 1995-12-06 | 13KB | 321 lines

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 [phone].

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  [phone]