Macintosh computer with 13 “ or large monitor, 4 megs free ram, and system 6.0.5. Recommended at least 8 bit color, system 7.1
What is Slide Presenter?
Slide Presenter is a program created with Macromedia Director 4.0. It allows the user to import PICT files, arrange them, and present them in any order. Additional features allow you to overdraw using a colored chalk tool. This overdraw does not effect the picture below, and can be erased with the press of a button. Slide presentations can be set up, and saved for later use. The primary purpose for this program is for using your Macintosh computer as a replacement for a slide projector. The overdraw feature is very useful for circling, or marking specific points on a slide.
Other uses would be for creating picture portfolios, or cataloging PICT files on your system. Slide Presenter integrates the PICT files you select into itself, allowing you to save all your pictures in one convenient file (however, you cannot extract them back out of that file). That one file is easily portable between computers so you can share your pictures with others without having to juggle several separate files. Slide Presenter can also be used to proof pictures to potential clients. If you are contracted to do a series of 24-bit pictures for someone, you could deliver proofs as an 8-bit Slide Presenter file - this allows your client to quickly and easily thumb through your pictures without actually giving them the files.
Creating a presentation:
ADDING SLIDES TO THE SLIDE LIST:
-The Slide List is the list of PICT files you will choose from when making your presentation. Files added to the Slide list become a permanent part of the slide show.
-Start Slide Projector by double clicking on its icon.
-When the “Setup” screen appears (has a “Slide List”, “Slide Order” ... etc field), click on the “Add Slide button”. A standard file dialog box will appear. Only PICT files will be visible, which is the only file type you may import.
-Double Click on the file you want to import - or click once, and choose “open”
-The picture you chose will be added to the “Slide List” box.
NOTE: IF YOU RECIEVE A MESSAGE THAT YOU CANNOT ADD A SLIDE TO THE SLIDE LIST BECAUSE OF AN ERROR (MAY BE OUT OF MEMORY) - then save your presentation and load it back in - as you add the files to the Slide List, they are stored in memory. When you save the file, you transfer them from memory to disk. When you reload them, you will have them available from the disk and you will have freed up the memory to add more.
ADDING SLIDES TO THE SLIDE ORDER:
-The Slide Order field contains the order in which your pictures will be shown - first at the top to the last at the bottom.
-Click on a Slide name in the “Slide List” field - it will highlight, and the “Add>>” button will appear.
-Click on the “Add>>” button and the highlighted slide will be added to the bottom of the Slide Order.
-Continue this process until all the slides you want to show have been added.
-You can add the same slide more then once, and in any order.
-To add all the slides in the Slide list in the order they appear, click on the top line of the Slide List box. All entries will become highlighted. Click on the “Add>>” button and all of them will be added to the Slide order.
MOVING SLIDES IN THE SLIDE ORDER:
-If you determine that you have a slide out of order. Then use the “Move” button to move it.
-Click on the slide that is out of order - it will highlight
-Click on the “Move” button
-Click on the slide that you want to come AFTER the one you are moving.
-The slide you are moving will be inserted BEFORE the one you click on, and the list will be updated to reflect the move.
DELETING SLIDES FROM THE SLIDE ORDER
-Click on the slide in the slide order you wish to delete - it will highlight.
-Click on the “Delete” button. - the slide will delete, and the list will update to reflect the change.
-To delete all the slides in the Slide Order, either click on the “Delete All” button,
or click on the top line of the “Slide Order” field - all the entries will highlight - click on the “Delete” key.
DELETING SLIDES FROM THE SLIDE LIST
-Click on the slide in the Slide List you wish to delete
-Click on the "Delete" button
-The slide will be deleted, and all occurrences of it in the "Slide Order will also be removed.
-The Slide List, and Slide Order fields will update to reflect the changes.
-To delete all the slides in the Slide List, click on the top line of the Slide list field. All entries in the field will become highlighted. Then click on the "Delete" button. All the slides in the slide list, and slide order will be deleted.
PREVIEWING SLIDES
-Slides can be previewed in the “Preview Box”
-Click on the “Preview” check box - an “x” will appear in the box.
-When the “x” is in the box, any slide you click on in the “Slide List” or “Slide Order” fields will appear in the preview box.
-Turn the preview off by clicking on the “Preview” check box again - the “x” will disappear from the box.
SAVING YOUR SLIDE SHOW
-Type a name using 31 or fewer characters long in the “Slide Show Title” box.
-This will be the filename of your saved presentation so you’ll have to follow the rules of naming Mac files.
-Click on the “Save” button - Slide Presenter will save the file.
-NOTE 1: This is a forced save - if you’re overwriting a file, you will not be asked if you want to replace the copy which is already saved. If you make changes to an existing presentation (one you loaded from disk), we strongly recommend changing the Side Show Title before saving to prevent changing the original.
-NOTE 2: All the pictures that were imported are now part of the file. This has the benefit of portability - no matter where you put the file (transfer from a desktop machine to a portable), the pictures go with it. It does however, have the disadvantage of making the files very large. We therefore recommend the use of 8-bit color. This strikes a happy medium between file size and picture quality.
LOADING A PREVIOUSLY MADE SHOW
-Click on the “Load” button
-A standard file dialog box will appear
-Locate the show you want to load
-Either double click on it, or click on it once and chose “Open”
-The show will load, and the “Slide List”, “Slide Order”, and "Slide Show Title" boxes will be updated appropriately.
PLAYING YOUR SLIDE SHOW
-Click on the “Play” button.
-The screen will change, and the first slide in the “Slide Order” will be displayed.
-In the top left is your Tool Pallet, in the lower right corner is a “Forward” button.
-To go through you slides, click on the arrow buttons in the lower corners (You can do so using any tool - pointer, chalk, or hand). On the first slide, the left (back) button disappears, and on the last slide the right (forward) button disappears. You can also go forward or back by using the right and left arrow keys on your keyboard.
-For more control lets examine the tool palette from top to bottom.
“Hide” button - hides the pallet to give a full screen view. To make the pallet reappear, click in the top right corner (where the “Hide” button was). The keyboard equivalent is the SPACE bar.
Pointer button - The default button. Click on the slide to go forward one slide. This tool can be selected by clicking on it, or by pressing the “p” key.
Chalk button - Click on this button, and the cursor becomes colored chalk. The color is defined by the color pallet below the tool pallet. To use it, click on the slide and drag. The slower you drag, the smoother your drawing will appear. The chalk tool can also be selected with the “c” key. Colors are selected by clicking on them in the pallet or with their corresponding keys.
“n” - Black
“w” - White
“b” - Blue
“r” - Red
“g” - Green
TO ERASE what you draw, press the DELETE key on your keyboard.
Hand button - Click on this button, and the cursor becomes a hand. If you click on the current picture and drag - it will move with the mouse. This is convenient for pictures that are too large to be seen on a 13” monitor - or 640 x 480 projection panel. This tool can also be selected with the “h” key.
Play From Disk button - Clicking on this button will bring up the open file dialog box. You can select a PICT file which will temporarily replace the current slide on your screen. This is handy if you forgot a slide, or if someone asks a question, and you have a picture on your disk, but not in the presentation, that would be useful. Clicking on the forward button, will go to the next slide in your presentation, the back to the previous. To return to the slide you replaced with the file from disk, you will need to go forward a slide, and then back, or back one slide and then forward one. The keyboard equivalent is “d”.
Return button - click on this button to return to the slide setup screen. You can also use the RETURN or ESC keys on your keyboard.
Skip button - doesn’t do anything yet - future versions will allow you to select any slide in your slide list, and skip directly to it. Keyboard equivalent is “s”
Color Buttons - see their use in the “Chalk button” description above.
Keyboard Summary:
“p” - selects Pointer tool
“c” - selects Chalk tool
“h” - selects Hand tool
“d” - activates Play From Disk
RETURN or ESC - returns to Slide Show Setup screen
DELETE - clears hand drawing from screen
SPACE - Toggles the tool pallet on and off
“n” - selects Black chalk color
‘b’ - selects Blue chalk color
‘w’ - selects White chalk color
“r” - selects Red chalk color
“g” - selects Green chalk color
LEFT ARROW - Back one slide
RIGHT ARROW - Forward one Slide
<COMMAND> - . - Quits Slide Presenter
TIPS FOR BEST RESULTS:
-Import all your PICTs at the color depth you intend to show them. Slide Presenter imports the PICT files at the color depth that your monitor is set at in the monitors control panel. As an example, if you import the pictures in 16-bit mode then two things happen if you later show them on a machine set at a lower bit depth. First, the pictures will look terrible - and that’s no good. Second, all those 16 bit pictures are taking up a ton of disk space unnecessarily. By importing them at the bit depth you intend to show them at, your pictures will look better and only use the space necessary.
*Pictures shown at a higher bit depth then they were imported (eg.. 8-bit pictures shown on a 16-bit computer) at will not show any loss in quality.
-If you plan on using the chalk tool in your presentation, it’s best to use a minimum of 8-bit color depth. Lower bit depths do not contain the colors on the buttons, and the chalk tool will not work properly. If you use less then 8-bit color, then use the pen tool ahead of time to memorize which colors produce the desired results.
-Give Slide Presenter as much memory as you can. The number of slides you can import is dependent upon the amount of memory you have allocated to Slide Presenter. The majority of the 4 megs allocated to Slide Presenter is required to run the program, leaving only a small amount for loading a slides. Any extra memory you can give Slide Presenter will be used for storage of your slides.
IF YOU RECIEVE A MESSAGE THAT YOU CANNOT ADD A SLIDE TO THE SLIDE LIST BECAUSE OF AN ERROR (MAY BE OUT OF MEMORY) - then save your presentation and load it back in - as you load the PICT files, they are stored in memory. When you save the file, you transfer them from memory to disk. When you reload them, you will have them available from the disk and you will have freed up the memory to add more.
CONDITIONS OF USE
Slide Presenter 1.0 is Shareware (it is not FREE!)
You may use it for 10 days, if you decide to keep it
please send $25.00 (U.S. dollars) as a registration fee to:
Atomik Multimedia
P.O. Box 21616
Cleveland, OH 44121-0616
In return, we will send you a disk containing the latest version of Slide Presenter.
Don’t forget to register - we need your support for further development.
Also, is you have any comments, questions, or suggestions - please send them to the
