PresentIt is a simple but powerful program that makes multi-media style presentations painless and straightforeward. It has already been used to give highly effective presentations to international audiences and can also be used as a utility program to quickly "preview" QuickTime movies and PICT image files by dragging them onto the program. The program will currently display presentations consisting of both PICT and Quicktime movies on most Macintosh computers and generates dedicated color palettes for images displayed in an 8 bit color enviornment. This feature ensures that images being displayed from the current series of notebook computers look as good as possible. Please register your copy of PresentIt after using the program 30 times. Registered users get a version without shareware reminders, discounts on and direct notification of program updates and technical support. A registered version can be obtained for $35.00 (US) from:
Mac-Solutions
Attn. Eric Shelden
3140 Pittsview Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
or by contacting Eric Shelden on the internet at:
shelden@rust.net
LEGAL STUFF: This software is licensed to you, for your own use. This is copyrighted software. You are not obtaining title to the software or any copyright rights. You may not sublicense, rent, lease, modify, translate, convert to other programming languages, decompile, or disassemble this software for any purpose. If you wish to distribute the shareware version of this program in a compilation of similar programs you may do so without obtaining additional permission and charge a nominal fee for the distribution cost, provided that this documentation accompanies any copy of the program. You may make copies of this software as you need for back-up purposes and may use this program on more than one computer.
THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ALL SUCH WARRANTIES ARE EXPRESSLY AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED. NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH SOFTWARE EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EVER EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LICENSE TO USE THE SOFTWARE, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE CLAIM. THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE.
Installation:
To install PresentIt, place the "PresentItPrefs" file in the "Preferences" folder found within the "System Folder" on your hard-disk. The program will not run without this file.
Using PresentIt:
PresentIt uses a "drag and drop" strategy for generating presentations. To start a presentation, place the files you wish to present in a folder and select "by Name" under the Finder's "View" menu. Then just select all the files you wish to display and drop them onto the program icon together. Drag Present will display the files alphabetically, in the order that the files are listed by the Macintosh file system when listing files by NAME. To specify the alphabetized order of presentation files, I normally add numerical designations (01,02,03...,99) to the beginning of each file name. Once within your presentation, move from one file to the next use command '>' to move foreward and command '<' to move backward (see command summary below).
System Requirements
PresentIt requires System 7.0 or later and a QuickTime extension. It will run native on both 6800 and PowerPC computers and on computers supporting 8,16 and 32 bit depth displays.
Program Limitations:
The number of files which can be dropped onto PresentIt at one time is limited by the Macintosh OS and available memmory. Under system 7.5 I have dropped as many as 128 files on PresentIt without encountering problems.
PresentIt Preferences:
To adjust the default behavior of PresentIt, open the program by double-clicking on the program icon (rather than dropping image or movie files on it). Select "Preferences" under the File menu. You will be presented with a dialog box allowing you to change some behavior of Movie files. Options are:
1) Load Into Ram
Movies are automatically loaded into RAM if sufficient memmory is
available, insuring smoothest playback. If insufficient RAM is available,
a movie will be played from disk as normal.
2) Play Every Frame
Forces movies to play every movie frame. NOTE! When this option is chosen
movie sound-tracks are disabled!
3) Loop Movies
Forces movies to loop until the next file is chosen or the movie is halted
by a double-click.
4) Warn before quitting.
A dialog box appears before the program quits to ensure against accidental
termination of the presentation.
Default behavior of Movies:
1) Movies are started by double clicking on any part of the movie image or
by using the movie control bar if displayed.
2) Clicking on the movie badge will display the movie control bar.
Commands:
Command '.' advances to the next presentation element, unless the last element is
already being displayed.
Command ',' returns to the previous presentation element, unless the first
element is currently being displayed.
Command 'H' hides the movie controll bar, if currently displayed.
Command 'Q' Quits the presentation.
Please bring any comments or problems you may have regarding the program to my attention by sending e-mail to "shelden@rust.net".
