ScanSoft Kai’s Power SHOW User Manual

User Guide

for Windows® and Macintosh

Trademarks

ScanSoft and the ScanSoft logo are trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. Kai’s Power SHOW is a trademark and QUICKSHOW! is a registered trademark of ScanSoft, Inc.

Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Incorporated. Windows and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Sound Ideas is a trademark of Sound Ideas (A Division of the Brian Nimens Corporation Limited). Outside In



Viewer Technology



1992–1999 Inso Corporation. All rights reserved. All other product names mentioned in the manual and other documentation are used for identiﬁcation purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Registered and unregistered trademarks used herein are the exclusive property of their respective holders. ScanSoft,

Inc. makes no claim to any such marks, nor willingly or knowingly misused or misapplied such marks.

This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. Program ©1998–1999 ScanSoft, Inc., including the look and feel of the product. Kai’s Power SHOW User Guide ©1998–1999 ScanSoft, Inc. No part of this guide may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of ScanSoft, Inc.

Notice

Before using this software or reading this user guide, make sure you have read, understood and agreed to the software license agreement displayed on screen during the software installation process.

The sound clips used in Kai’s Power SHOW are part of Sound Ideas’ General 6000 Series. For more information on The General or Sound Ideas’ prominent family of additional products, please contact Sound Ideas at (905) 886-5000, or on the Web at www.sound-ideas.com. Sound Ideas is a Division of the Brian Nimens Corporation Limited.

9 Centennial Drive Peabody, MA 01960

SuperGOO User Guide

Contents

iii

Table of Contents

Welcome to SHOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Key Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

About This User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vi

Technical Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vi

Video Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Chapter 1 Installation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Installing Kai’s Power SHOW . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Windows Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Macintosh Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Installation Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2 Kai’s Power SHOW Basics

. . . . 10

How SHOW Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Launching SHOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Creating a New Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Opening a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Working in a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Displaying Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Using Memory Dots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Moving Between Rooms . . . . . . . . . . 13

Working with Show Content . . . . . . . . . . 13

Selecting Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Viewing File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Arranging Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Arranging Content on the Desktop . 14 Arranging Content in the

Sequencer and Nano Sequencer . . . . 14

Undoing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Redoing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Playing a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Quitting SHOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 3 Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial

. . . 17

Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Lesson 1: Importing Files in the

IN Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Creating a QUICKSHOW! . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Lesson 1: Creating a

QUICKSHOW! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Lesson 2: Editing a

QUICKSHOW! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Sorting Images in the SORT Room . . . . . 20

Lesson 1: Sorting Pictures on the

Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Lesson 2: Loading files into the

Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Enhancing Slides in the EDIT Room . . . . 24

Lesson 1: Choosing a Slide to

Enhance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Lesson 2: Special Effect

Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Lesson 3: Setting Up Transition

Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Lesson 1: Adding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Lesson 2: Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Lesson 3: Changing Text Attributes . 27

Lesson 4: Adding a Background . . . . 28

Lesson 5: Adding Text Effects . . . . . . 28

Using Sound Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Lesson 1: Attaching Sound Clips . . . 29

Playing Shows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Lesson 1: Using the Projector Icon . 30

Saving Your Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Lesson 1: Saving Shows . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Distributing Your Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Lesson 1: Preparing a Show for

Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Lesson 2: Distributing a Show . . . . . 32

Lesson 2: Saving SHOW Slides . . . . . 33

Printing a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Lesson 1: Setting Up a Page . . . . . . . 34

Deleting Thumbnails from the SORT

Room Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Setting Thumbnail Size . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Adding Content to a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Using the Sequence Floatoid . . . . . . . 46

Using the Sequence Cursor . . . . . . . . 46

Sequencing Content in a Show . . . . . . . . . 47

Using the Sequencer Menu . . . . . . . . 48

Using the Nano Sequencer . . . . . . . . 48

Playing a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 6 The EDIT Room

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

How the EDIT Room Works . . . . . . . . . . . 50

What Are Transitions? . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Working in the EDIT Room . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Current Frame Window . . . . . . . . . . 51

In and Out Transition Windows . . . 51

Working with Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Selecting Frames to Edit . . . . . . . . . . 51

Copying-and-Pasting Slides . . . . . . . 52

Flipping Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Adding a Slide Display Time to a

Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Adding Transitions to a Show . . . . . . . . . . 53

Using the Transition Dialogs . . . . . . 53

Applying transitions to multiple

frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Using Transition Presets . . . . . . . . . . 54

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Adding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Adding Backgrounds to Slides . . . . . 57

Animating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Text fx Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Adding Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Loading Sound Clips into SHOW . . 60

Using Sound Fx Presets . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Playing Soundtracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Playing a Show in the EDIT Room . . . . . . 61

Chapter 7 The OUT Room

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Outputting Your Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Selecting Slides for Output . . . . . . . . 62

Saving a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Save Show vs. Save Project . . . . . . . . 63

Saving a SHOW Project . . . . . . . . . . 63

Saving a Finished Show File . . . . . . . 64

Distributing a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

The SHOW Player Software . . . . . . . 65

Distributing the SHOW Player

Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Macintosh and Windows SHOW

Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Saving a SHOW Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Saving as HTML Pages . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Recording Shows to Videotape . . . . . 67

AVI or QuickTime Output . . . . . . . . 67

Printing a Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Setting Up a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Printing a Single Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Printing a Show as Individual

Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Congratulations! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Chapter 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

. . . . . . . . . . . 69

Welcome

Key Features

Kai’s Power SHOW offers the following powerful, basic features:

• Innovative interface and efﬁcient workﬂow

• QUICKSHOW!’s “Simple Sentence Control”

• Versatile import ﬁle format support

• Works great with cameras and scanners

• Video and sound clip import

• PC PowerPoint slide import

• Sophisticated sequencing controls

• Powerful special effect transitions

• TV-like text effects

• Extensive sound effect library

• Extensive slide background presets

• Included SHOW Player software

• Flexible output options including: computer monitor, projector, printer, and the Web

• Works great with other popular products

About This User Guide

This User Guide provides the information you need to use SHOW effectively. It will help you learn the application and serve as a reference as you attempt more sophisticated procedures.

This User Guide assumes you are already familiar with basic Windows or Macintosh concepts—menus, dialogs, and mouse operations such as clicking-and-dragging. If you need more information on these subjects, or on the Windows Desktop, or Macintosh Finder, please refer to the Microsoft Windows User’s Guide or the Macintosh User’s Manual, respectively.

Conventions

This user guide is for both Windows and Macintosh users. By convention, Macintosh commands precede Windows commands in the text. For example, Command/Ctrl+I is equivalent to the Macintosh Command-I and the Windows Ctrl+I. For simplicity, the term folder refers to directories as well as folders. The SHOW interface for both platforms is identical, unless otherwise speciﬁed.

Technical Tips

SHOW can perform truly wonderful real-time special effect transitions, text effects, and previews. To perform at this peak level, SHOW requires an adequate amount of computer power to look its best. If you notice that transitions or animations look “jerky,” if the colors look strange, or if you simply want to ensure that you are getting the most from the application, then this section is for you.

Even more than computer performance, our tests indicate that setting up your video card properly can have the most positive impact on SHOW performance. This section talks about two important setup factors and how you might enhance them to ensure efﬁciency.

Video Drivers

It is very important to obtain the latest video drivers from your manufacturer.

Upgrading drivers is usually free, and generally provides a speed boost and bug ﬁxes as well.

Video Settings

Modern video cards give you a “color depth” choice. This color depth is the number of bits to use for each screen pixel.

Generally, the more bits per pixel, the better the quality, and the slower the speed. However, that's not always the case, and the only way to ﬁnd out for sure is to test the available options. To perform a test, make one of the following changes after closing SHOW. Then reopen SHOW and use the same transition each time. Choose the video setting that makes the transitions look the most ﬂuid.

Welcome

vii

Choosing the display resolution will not affect your performance signiﬁcantly. However, running presentations at a lower resolution makes the show larger and more visually appealing.

Excellent

Installation

To install Kai’s Power SHOW:

If necessary, launch Windows (95 or NT 4).

SHOW will not install in Windows NT 3.5.1 or Windows 3.X.

Insert the SHOW CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

The installer and all related files reside in the root directory of the SHOW CD-ROM.

If you’re using Windows NT 4 or Windows 95, choose Start menu>

Run .

Type the letter corresponding to your CD-ROM drive, followed by :\setup (for example, type d:\setup if using the D drive) and click the OK button.

Follow the displayed prompts.

Macintosh Installation

System Requirements

• Power Macintosh

• MacOS 7.5.5 or Later

• 16 MB Free RAM

• 16- or 24-Bit Video

• 50 MB Free Hard Drive Space

• CD-ROM Drive

Installation

To install Kai’s Power SHOW:

Insert the SHOW CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.

Double-click the SHOW CD-ROM icon on the desktop.

Double-click the SHOW Installer icon to begin installation.

Installation 9

If this happens, try quitting other applications or allocating LESS memory to SHOW to give the System extra breathing space. To reduce SHOW’s memory, select the application icon, choose File menu>

Get Info and allocate slightly less

RAM in “Preferred Size.”

• On a Macintosh, allocating more available RAM to SHOW allows it to run faster and handle larger ﬁles more efﬁciently.

If you must use relatively large files, increase the RAM available to SHOW. To increase the available RAM, select the application icon, choose File

menu> Get Info , and allocate more

RAM in “Preferred Size.”

Before diving into SHOW, here are a few basic procedures you should know.

Launching SHOW

You’ll notice when you launch SHOW, that it takes over your entire screen, even hiding the Windows or Macintosh menu bar. You can access the menu bar while in SHOW by moving the cursor to the top-right or top-left corner of a room.

To display the system menu:

✤

Move the cursor to the top-right or top-left corner of the room.

To use Keyboard Shortcuts:

✤

Many actions can be performed using keyboard shortcuts. Refer to

“Keyboard Shortcuts” on page 69

for a listing of Kai’s Power SHOW keyboard shortcuts.

Creating a New Show

There are two ways of creating a new presentation in SHOW. You can use the QUICKSHOW! automated feature or you can create a show from scratch.

If you use QUICKSHOW!, creating a new show is as simple as choosing from statement presets that identify ﬁles, determine slide sequence, pick which transitions to apply, and even decide what audio to play. Simple sentence controls help you quickly create a custom show. Refer to “The QUICKSHOW! Feature”

on page 36 for more on using this feature.

You can tweak your “quick” show or create more complex presentations using the controls in SHOW’s SORT and EDIT Rooms. There, you sequence content and add transitions, animated text, and sound to each frame. The process of creating a show is a matter of sorting and selecting ﬁles into the Sequencer; assigning transitions, text, and sound effects; then saving, sharing, or printing your show.

Kai’s Power SHOW Basics 11

• The Save Project option lets you save a show in-progress. Save Project creates a project ﬁle (.shw) and a folder. These contain information about where ﬁles are located on your hard drive, about transitions, and even about presets. Save Project does not copy ﬁles or prepare your show for distribution.

• The Save Show option lets you save and share your ﬁnished show. It collects and optimizes all ﬁles in your show, then copies them into a folder that you can move or share. Save Show creates a show ﬁle (.sas) containing information about how to reconstruct the show.

When you open a project or show, SHOW gathers all the content in the show and places it in the Sequencer and Nano Sequencer where it is ready for immediate edit or playback.

To open a previously saved project or show:

Make sure you’re in the IN Room.

Move the cursor over the Open Show label, then click the Open an Existing Show button.

In the dialog that appears, locate the ﬁle you want and open it.

Working in a Room

There are several basic operations that are common to all rooms. The following sections provide procedures for basic operations in any SHOW room.

Displaying Controls

To keep the main working area of a room uncluttered, many of SHOW’s controls fade or minimize in size when not in use.

Faded controls re-appear when you move the cursor over them, and then slowly fade away when the cursor moves away.

The seven main buttons in the IN Room are examples of fading controls.

The Global Menu

You can access several SHOW shortcuts, such as New, Open, and Save commands, Printer Settings, Undo, and Quit, from the Global menu. This menu appears in all four rooms.

To display the Global menu:

Click the Kai’s Power SHOW label in the top-left corner of each room, or Control-click or right-click anywhere on the screen.

Using Memory Dots

Several of the controls in SHOW contain memory dots. Memory dots store user-deﬁnable presets and control settings, so that you can quickly and easily use those settings at a later time.

Memory dots are saved with SHOW project or show ﬁles, so your settings are available the next time you open the project or show. Most memory dots come preloaded.

Use memory dots to set and activate: Simple Sentence Control scripts in the IN Room, thumbnail positions on the desktop in the SORT Room, and “Five Favorites” effect options in the EDIT Room. These dots serve different purposes in different procedures, but they all behave the same.

To activate a saved setting:

✤

Click a full memory dot.

Use the Global menu to access several shortcut features.

Use memory dots to preset and control settings.

Kai’s Power SHOW Basics 13

Working with Show Content

A show is made up of a series of frames that can be digital photos, pictures, business slides, or video clips. Here are basic procedures to use when working with content.

Selecting Thumbnails

The content you import into SHOW appears as thumbnails on the IN Room and SORT Room desktops. When you move between the IN and SORT Rooms, thumbnail icons remain on the desktop.

Import a single ﬁle and it appears as a single thumbnail. A folder of ﬁles displays as a pile of thumbnails.

You can select thumbnails individually or in groups in the SORT Room. Once selected, thumbnails can be moved, sequenced, or deleted.

A selected thumbnail has a highlight around it.

To select a thumbnail:

✤

Click the thumbnail.

To select a group of thumbnails:

✤

Drag an area around the ﬁles you want to select or hold down the Shift key and click each ﬁle you want to include in the selection.

To add to a selection:

✤

Hold down the Shift key and click the ﬁle you want to add to the selection.

When a thumbnail is selected, a highlight appears around it.

“Selecting

for more

To hide ﬁle names on thumbnails:

✤

Go to the Global menu or Control-click or right-click anywhere on the screen. Choose Hide File Names.

Arranging Content

Content can be arranged differently depending on which room you are in. When you’re in the SORT Room, content is arranged by dragging thumbnails on the desktop.

In the SORT and EDIT Rooms, content within the Sequencer can be arranged by dragging a frame within the Sequencer. This changes the show’s frame order.

Arranging Content on the Desktop

Just as you would with a stack of photos in the real world, you can arrange thumbnails into logical piles on SHOW’s desktop. You can have all the photos of people in one pile, all the photos of landscapes in another pile, and so on.

Arranging Content in the Sequencer and Nano Sequencer

The Sequencer and Nano Sequencer, which appear at the bottom of the SORT and EDIT rooms, display all the content (frames) currently in your show.

You can use these “ﬁlmstrip” controls to keep track of the items in your show and to re-arrange the order of your show contents.

Items are added to the Sequencer in the SORT Room. Once an item is in the Sequencer, it also appears in the Nano Sequencer. Refer to “Adding Content to a

Show” on page 46 for more information.

Once an item appears as a frame in the show, you change its position in the show by clicking-and-dragging its frame to a different location in either sequencer.

The best method of sequencing the frames in your show is to select them in the proper order when first adding them to the Sequencer, using the Sequence Floatoid or the Select control’s Sequence cursor in the SORT

Use the Sequencer and Nano Sequencer to keep track of all the frames in your show.

Kai’s Power SHOW Basics 15

To scroll the Sequencer:

✤

Click the scroll arrow on the left or right end of the Sequencer, or keep dragging a frame to access a destination not currently displayed.

✤

You can also access frames not currently displayed in the Sequencer by clicking-and-dragging the Nano Sequencer’s blue Current Frame Indicator. This tool also determines the current frame in your show or a new frame insertion point.

Undoing Operations

SHOW’s undo feature lets you reverse the last action you performed. You can undo an operation by using the Global menu, or by pressing Command/Ctrl-Z.

To undo the last operation:

✤

Select Undo in the Global menu or Control-click or right-click and choose Undo from the pop-up menu.

Press Command/Ctrl-Z.

Redoing Operations

You can reverse your last undo using the Redo command. When you undo a command, the pop-up menu indicates which action was undone. For example, if you used undo to reverse a deletion, the Redo text reads “Redo Delete.”

To redo an operation:

✤

Select Redo in the Global menu or Control-click or right-click and choose Redo from the pop-up menu.

Click the arrows on the right end of the Sequencer to scroll forward through the show, or the left arrow to scroll backward.

To stop and exit a show:

✤

Press ESC.

Quitting SHOW

You can close SHOW from any of the four rooms using the Global or pop-up menu.

To close SHOW:

Select Quit SHOW in the Global menu.

Control-click or right-click and choose Quit SHOW from the pop-up menu.

If you have any changes you want to save, click Yes, otherwise click No.

There are also several options for saving projects and shows. Saving operations are done in the OUT Room. Refer to “Saving

a Show” on page 62 for more

information.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial

Getting Started

The ﬁrst thing you need to do to start the tutorial is to launch SHOW and import some images.

To launch SHOW:

✤

Double-click the SHOW icon on the desktop, or select it from among the programs in the Start menu.

The IN Room appears. This is where you begin creating your show.

Lesson 1: Importing Files in the IN Room

This lesson walks you through the process of importing your photos, pictures, business slides, and video clips into SHOW.

Each of the seven IN Room labels: Open Show, File, Folder, QUICKSHOW!, TWAIN, Capture, and Add Show identiﬁes a different SHOW input option.

As you move the cursor over each label, a button appears that describes each input option in greater detail. As you move the cursor to the next label, the last button gently fades away.

The IN Room is where you can import source ﬁles you’ll use to create a show.

Now that you have some source photos, you can create a show.

Creating a QUICKSHOW!

The lessons in this section will teach you how to create a quick show in a few easy steps using the photos you imported in the IN Room and the Create a QUICKSHOW! dialog.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial, you’ve learned how to import photos into SHOW. The folder of photos you imported will be used to create a show. To ﬁnd out more about QUICKSHOW!, refer to “The QUICKSHOW! Feature” on page 36.

Lesson 1: Creating a QUICKSHOW!

To help you create presentations quickly and easily, SHOW provides a powerful feature called QUICKSHOW!, which uses a Simple Sentence Control system to automate the show-creation process.

When you move the cursor over the QUICKSHOW! label, the Create A QUICKSHOW! button appears. Click it and a dialog appears that displays several basic statements. These describe how a new show will be created. To change how the show is created, simply change one of the statements.

To create a QUICKSHOW!:

1. Move the cursor over the

QUICKSHOW! label in the IN Room, then click the “Create a QUICKSHOW!” button.

Files imported into SHOW appear as thumbnails on the desktop.

Use the Create a QUICKSHOW! button to open the QUICKSHOW! dialog.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 19

7. Click the sixth statement, then click

and enter the SORT Room after playing.

Now that you’ve set up your Simple Sentence Control (SSC) script, you can save it for later use with different source ﬁles.

To save an SSC Script:

✤ Click on an empty memory dot in the

lower-left corner of the Create a QUICKSHOW! dialog.

You’re now ready to execute your SSC script.

To execute an SSC Script:

1. Click the “Do It!” button. SHOW

automatically executes the script and immediately plays your custom show.

You can cancel out of the Create a QUICKSHOW! dialog without executing it. Just click outside the dialog.

Lesson 2: Editing a QUICKSHOW!

Since the last statement in your SSC script was and enter the SORT Room after playing, the SORT Room appears when the show ﬁnishes playing. The SORT Room lets you rearrange the sequence of slides in your quick show, or if you’re creating a presentation from scratch without QUICKSHOW!, the SORT Room is where you’ll initially sort, select, and sequence your IN Room content.

This is how your ﬁnished sentences read.

Click a memory dot to save an SSC script for later use.

Click the Do It! button to execute your script.

Sorting Images in the SORT Room

The SORT Room helps you to sort, select, and sequence the content you imported in the IN Room. The SORT Room provides two main controls: the Sort control and the Select control.

The Sort control allows you to quickly sort your thumbnails using several basic criteria. The Select control provides the ability to select, deselect, group, or add content on the desktop to your show using simple mouse clicks and custom cursors.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial, you’ve learned how to import photos and pictures into SHOW using the IN Room, and how to quickly create shows using the QUICKSHOW! feature. In this section you’ll use the Sort control to sort the folder of photos you imported in the IN Room. Refer to

“Sort Control” on

page 42

and

“Sorting Content” on

page 43

for more on these controls.

Lesson 1: Sorting Pictures on the Desktop

In this lesson, you’ll sort through the Travel Photos you imported in the IN Room.

Before you begin your work in the SORT Room, ﬁrst empty the Sequencer “ﬁlmstrip” of the QUICKSHOW! frames.

To empty the Sequencer:

Click the Sequencer menu in the top-left corner of the Sequencer.

Choose:

Select > All Frames

Click the Sequencer menu again.

This time, choose:

Select > Delete

This is what the SORT Room looks like when you ﬁrst enter.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 21

2. Click on the largest “eye icon,” which now appears in the lower-left corner of the SORT Room, just above the Sequencer. This is the Size control.

Click twice more on this icon to increase thumbnail size many times (or on the smallest to do the opposite). The middle size control returns the thumbnails to their default size.

Now you can better see thumbnail details to sort and select speciﬁc photos for your show.

To sort thumbnail icons:

1. With all the thumbnails highlighted, move the cursor over the Sort label in the upper-left corner.

The Sort control appears.

2. Click the Sort control to display the six Sort buttons.

3. Click the Width button.

Use the Size control to set the size of thumbnails on the desktop.

The Sort control in its minimized state.

The Sort buttons let you perform sorts using different criteria.

In this lesson you’ll add the sorted photos to the Sequencer using the Sequence Floatoid and the Select cursor.

To add thumbnails to the Sequencer using the Sequence Floatoid:

1. Drag a bounding box around a few of the thumbnails on the desktop. The Sequence Floatoid appears.

2. Click the Sequence Floatoid to load all of the selected thumbnails into the Sequencer.

Remember, the Floatoid loads all the selected thumbnails into the Sequencer. If you don’t want to load a specific thumbnail, deselect it first.

The Sequence Floatoid loads content in order, from left to right and from top to bottom. You can also add content to the Sequencer using the Sort control’s Sequence cursor.

To add photos to the Sequencer using the Sequence cursor:

1. Move your cursor over the Select label. The Select control appears.

2. Click the Select control. The Select buttons appear.

Select thumbnails and the Sequence Floatoid appears.

The Select control in its minimized state.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 23

4. Click a photo on the desktop.

The photo’s thumbnail turns gray to indicate that the photo has been added to the Sequencer. Note that the blue Current Frame Indicator on the Nano Sequencer determines the insertion point of the new frame. Click-and-drag the indicator to change the insertion point.

5. Click another thumbnail.

6. Click another thumbnail.

7. Continue adding thumbnails. The

order in which you click them determines their order in the Sequencer.

8. Click the Standard button to turn off the Sequence cursor.

To edit the order of frames in the Sequencer:

1. Click-hold the cursor over Frame 4 and drag it to the Frame 6 position. Release the mouse button when the border between Frames 6 and 7 is highlighted.

The original Sequencer frames shift to fill the gap left behind by the departed frame.

2. Drag the blue Current Frame Indicator in the Nano Sequencer to a new position. A different segment of frames now appears in the Sequencer.

The Sequencer and Nano Sequencer correspond and contain all show frames. However, the Nano Sequencer provides a broader view of the show with less frame detail. The Sequencer displays a segment of the show’s content and order with greater frame detail.

3. Click-hold Frame 10 and drag it to the Frame 13 position. Release the mouse button when the border between Frames 13 and 14 is highlighted.

Click a thumbnail to add it to your show.

The Sequencer shows the order of photos you added to your show.

Lesson 1: Choosing a Slide to Enhance

The EDIT Room helps you enhance slides using special effects. To begin using the features in this room, you’ll need to learn how to select a slide to work on.

To move to the EDIT Room:

✤ Click the EDIT label at the top of the

SORT Room.

The sequence you created in the SORT Room also appears in the EDIT Room’s Sequencer and Nano Sequencer.

To choose a frame from the Sequencer:

✤ Click a frame in the Sequencer to

make it the current frame. Note the blue highlight around it.

You can also drag the Current Frame Indicator on the Nano Sequencer to set the current frame. The current frame is the frame selected to receive an In or Out Transition, animated text effect, or sound effect.

If the frame you want is not visible, scroll the Sequencer using the left or right arrow on the Sequencer, or move the Current Frame Indicator on the Nano Sequencer.

The current frame appears in the Current Frame Window in the center of the room. Its preceding frame appears in the In Transition window and its following frame appears in the Out Transition Windows.

Click any frame to make it the current frame.

Sequential frames appear in the three main windows of the EDIT Room.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 25

To choose an In Transition:

1. Click the In Transitions label above the In Transition window. The In Transition dialog appears.

2. Click-and-drag the Scroll button to view the Transition menu. Release the mouse button when the Page Curl transition appears.

Drag the Scroll button up sharply to increase the speed of the scrolling menu or down to decrease speed.

3. Click the Page Curl name in the list.

A real-time preview of the Page Curl transition appears in the In Transition Preview window. Click on the window itself to see the preview again.

You don’t need to wait for the transition preview to end before you select another one.

4. Drag the Speed control toward the tortoise to decrease the relative transition speed.

Drag toward the rabbit to increase the speed.

Use the In Transition dialog to choose an In Transition for the current frame.

When you select a transition from the Transition menu, a preview appears in the Preview window.

Use the Speed control to increase/decrease the speed of the transition.

In this lesson you’ll store a transition as one of the Five Favorites presets. (Sound fx and Text fx Five Favorites work the same way.)

To set up a Five Favorites preset:

1. While within the Transition dialog, OPT/Alt-click a Five Favorites button to clear any preset value.

2. Select a transition, then click the empty dot to store it.

Working with Text

SHOW lets you add text to your slides in one of two ways: using the static text templates, or using animated text effects. Templates set how your text is arranged. Once you’ve selected a template, you can easily replace the default text with your own.

You cannot add text to a video clip.

You can also add text using the Five Favorites. These presets contain pre-formatted text that you can quickly apply to any slide. Like the Transition Five Favorites, you can replace these presets with your own favorites.

The lessons in this section will teach you how to add and edit text, add a background for your text, and apply animated text effects.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial, you’ve learned how to import, sort, and sequence content. You’ve also learned how to apply transitions to individual frames. In this next section, you’ll learn how to add text and text effects to your slides. Before you get started, you may want to refer to “Adding Text” on page 55.

Use the Five Favorites to store your ﬁve most used In and Out Transitions.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 27

To edit text:

1. While within the Text fx dialog Preview window, click a text string to select it. The string also appears in the Text Entry box at the bottom of the dialog.

2. Drag over the text in the Text Entry box to select it, and type some text.

The new text replaces the default text as you type.

3. Click Done to accept the change and close the dialog.

If you want to edit multiple strings, repeat steps 1 and 2.

4. Select a text string you do not want, then hit the Delete key on the keyboard.

Lesson 3: Changing Text Attributes

The Text fx dialog provides several controls for changing the attributes of the text you applied to your slide. You can change everything from font size to alignment.

To change the color of text:

1. In the Preview window, click a text string to select it.

2. Click the Font Color label, and drag over the color you want to apply. Release the mouse button to apply the color.

The Text fx dialog.

You can type over the text in the Text fx dialog just as you would in most text editor applications.

2. Click the Wild & Fun category button (far-right at the bottom of the Background dialog box). The background previews change to display all the Wild & Fun backgrounds.

The name of each preset appears as you move the cursor over it.

3. Click the Wild Mosaic background.

4. The new background appears in the

Text fx dialog’s Preview window.

Lesson 5: Adding Text Effects

Text effects are animations that you assign to text strings. There are a wide variety of effects you can create using SHOW’s text

effects. The best way to ﬁnd the most appropriate effect is to apply them to your text and see what happens.

• Click to select, then delete all text strings on your current slide.

• Click the Randomize control “dice icon” to see random text effects. Click anywhere to stop and select the current preset one.

To apply an In text effect:

1. Click the fx In menu and choose Pinch.

2. This effect animates in the Preview window. Since you had no text string selected, a quote was used.

3. Click to select the quote text string.

4. Edit the text using the Text Entry box.

5. Click the Projector icon to preview

your custom animated message.

It’s possible to assign an In and an Out text effect to the same text string if you really want to get fancy. You can also click the Fade button to add a fade variation to the text effect.

The Backgrounds dialog shows you previews of all the background presets available in SHOW.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 29

Editing SHOW Slides

If your marketing messages or fun text needs change over time, it is possible to edit SHOW text slides later.

To edit an individual slide, you need to save it as a SHOW Slide in the OUT Room. Then you can load the slide using the In Room’s Add a Picture, Movie, or SHOW Slide button. Refer to Appendix , “Distributing Your Show” for more on saving slides.

To edit a whole show of SHOW Slides, use the IN Room’s Open an Existing Show button, which opens the show and places it into the Sequencer.

Using Sound Clips

You can also add sound effects to your show. You can play a sound clip during the entire show, or only when a speciﬁc slide appears.

The lessons in this section will teach you how attach a sound clip to a slide.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial you’ve learned how to import, sort, and sequence content. You’ve also learned how to add transitions and text effects to your slides in the EDIT

Room. In this next section, you’ll learn how to use the EDIT Room to add sound to your show. Refer to “Adding Sound” on page 59 for more information.

Lesson 1: Attaching Sound Clips

In this lesson you’ll learn how to attach a sound clip to a speciﬁc slide.

To attach a sound clip to a slide:

1. In the EDIT Room, click to select any frame in the Sequencer.

The frame appears in the Current Frame window.

2. Click on the Sound fx label above the Current Frame window. The Sound fx dialog appears.

Use the Sound fx dialog to preview and attach a sound clip to a slide.

you’ll learn how to preview or play your show. Refer to “Playing a Show” on page 48 for more information.

Lesson 1: Using the Projector Icon

The Projector icon, located on the Sequencer, lets you play a show. The Current Frame Indicator or the corresponding blue frame in the Sequencer indicates where the show will start.

In this lesson, you’ll set up the playback of a portion of your show.

To play a show:

1. In the Nano Sequencer, drag the Current Frame Indicator to the frame you want to begin with.

2. Click the Sequencer menu on the left side of the Sequencer, then choose

Settings> Click to Advance.

3. Click the Projector icon on the right

side of the Sequencer to play your show.

4. Click the mouse button to advance the slides.

5. Click ESC to return to the EDIT Room after your last slide.

Saving Your Show

Once you’re ﬁnished creating your show, you can save or print it. You can even export it as static Web pages. The OUT Room contains all the tools you’ll need to easily save, share, or print your show.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial you’ve learned how to import, sort, sequence, edit, and play your show. In this next section, you’ll learn how to save the show for future editing or to be distributed. Refer to “Saving a Show” on page 62 for more on outputting your show.

Use the Current Frame Indicator to set the show’s start point.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 31

If you change your file location structure later, the .shw project file will not find your original content.

2. Move the cursor over the Save Project label, then click the Save the Show Project with File Links button.

The Save dialog appears.

3. Enter SHOWProject.shw in the ﬁlename ﬁeld and set a location for the show. The default location is the “My SHOW Files” folder.

SHOW attaches the .shw extension for you.

4. Click Save. SHOW creates a project ﬁle with links to the pictures, transitions, and sound clips you used to create the presentation and a modiﬁed content folder.

Distributing Your Show

You can distribute your show to other users, regardless of whether or not they have a copy of Kai’s Power SHOW. The SHOW Player software (included for both PC and Macintosh) can be used to play a show on other computers, even if they don’t have an installed copy of SHOW.

The lessons in this section will teach you how to prepare a show for distribution and how to distribute it using E-mail.

The Story So Far

So far in this tutorial you’ve learned how to import, sort, sequence, edit, and play your show. You’ve also learned how to save your show for future editing. In this next section, you’ll learn how to save your show for distribution.

Lesson 1: Preparing a Show for Distribution

If you want to distribute your show to someone else or move your show ﬁles to another location on your computer, you need to use the Save Show option, which copies the ﬁles used in the show into a “media” folder, located next to the .sas show ﬁle. Keeping and moving these two ﬁles together ensures that the show ﬁle

Use the Save the Show Project with File Links button to save your show as a project.

The Show Settings dialog appears.

2. Click the Click to Advance label, then click the OK button. The Save dialog appears.

With this setting enabled, the first slide is displayed until you click the mouse button. Each subsequent click of the mouse button advances the show to the next frame.

3. Enter SHOWOutput.sas in the ﬁlename ﬁeld, and set a location for the show.

4. Click Save.

SHOW creates an .sas show file, and also copies the files used in the show into a folder located next to the .sas file. The new folder has the same name as the .sas file with the word “media” added.

This way, you can move your collected show files to a different location on your hard drive, or your entire show to another computer and use SHOW or the SHOW Player to play it as long as the .sas file is kept beside the folder.

Lesson 2: Distributing a Show

Now that your show’s been saved, you can move it to any location on your system, or E-mail it to another user. When you’re moving a show, you need to copy both the .sas show ﬁle and its associated folder. You also need to include the PC or Mac SHOW Player Installer if the recipient doesn’t own SHOW.

In this lesson you’ll learn how to E-mail and play your show remotely.

To distribute a show using E-mail:

1. Make sure your show is saved using the Collect and Optimize the Entire Show button.

2. Locate the .sas project ﬁle, and its associated content folder. The folder has “media” appended to the show’s name.

Use the Show Settings dialog to set how your saved show will run.

Kai’s Power SHOW Tutorial 33

3. When the install is complete, double-click the SHOW Player program icon or select Start menu> Programs> SHOW Player.

The Open dialog appears.

4. Locate the name of the desired .sas project ﬁle and click Open.

Remember, to successfully use the player, you must have both the .sas show file and its associated media folder.

The show will begin to run on a black background. If the recipient has the SHOW application, they can also edit the show.

Lesson 2: Saving SHOW Slides

It is possible to save an animated text slide that you create in the EDIT Room as an individual SHOW slide (.shp) so that you can open and use it in other SHOW projects. For example, you might want to create an animated introduction slide to be used in all of your sales presentations.

This lesson teaches you to save an animated SHOW Slide.

To save an animated SHOW Slide:

1. Use the scroll arrow under the Output Preview window until you ﬁnd a slide in your show containing animated text.

If you click-and-drag on the Output Preview itself, a small Nano Output Preview appears in the Output Preview window. This smaller display keeps pace with the cursor movements and allows you to see which slides you are passing over in real-time. When you stop dragging, the slide in the smaller Nano Output Preview fills the entire Output Preview.

Use the Output Preview to select the slide you want to save or print.

Lesson 1: Setting Up a Page

The Page Setup dialog lets you control how slides are printed on a page. You can use the dialog to set up a kind of contact sheet used by photographers, where all the slides in your show are printed as thumbnail images. You could also print large pictures to distribute your presentation at a business meeting.

Besides setting up page layout, the dialog also lets you print slide numbers and ﬁle names along with your slides. This might be helpful if you’re using the printouts as storyboards.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to setup a page and print.

To print a show:

1. Move the cursor over the Page Setup label in the OUT Room, then click the Print Setup button.

Your printer settings dialog appears.

2. Choose the settings you want to use for your printer, then click Print.

The Page Setup dialog appears.

3. Click the 2x2 button to print two slides per line on the page.

The page changes to show you how your printed page will look.

4. Click Print.

Congratulations. You have completed the SHOW tutorial. You are now ready to use SHOW creatively and productively. However, please read the remainder of this User Guide to ensure that you take full advantage of all that SHOW has to offer. It contains expanded explanations of all terms and processes mentioned here.

The Page Setup dialog.

The IN Room 35

Pictures, photos, and business slides appear as small thumbnail icons. Video clips also appear as thumbnails, but have a small ﬁlmstrip icon in the top-right corner of their thumbnail to differentiate them.

An existing SHOW presentation opened in SHOW using the Add Show option appears as a unique “ﬁlmstrip” icon. Each thumbnail’s ﬁle name appears when you pass the cursor over it and pause.

Content imported as a single ﬁle appears as an individual thumbnail. Content imported as a folder appears as a pile of thumbnails.

Piles are an easy way for you to see the organization of ﬁles at a glance. Viewing the piles on your desktop is like listing the folders in the Window’s Explorer or the Macintosh Finder. The piles on the SHOW desktop act like transparent folders. With piles, you have all the advantages of ﬁles stored in a single location (like a folder), while still being able to see what you’re working with.

Refer to “Arranging Thumbnails” on page 43 for more on using piles in the SORT Room.

Different types of content have different thumbnail icons.

• Add an existing SHOW project ﬁle (.shw) or show ﬁle (.sas) to the current show.

The QUICKSHOW! Feature

The QUICKSHOW! feature lets you create an entire presentation with just a few simple clicks. It’s one of SHOW’s most convenient features.

When you activate the QUICKSHOW! feature, a dialog appears displaying sentences containing several statements. These statements make up the Simple Sentence Control (SSC) script. Each statement describes the options that will be used to create your show. For example:

“Create a QUICKSHOW! with all files, sequence them as loaded, and use random transitions. Click to advance, play CD track #1, and loop to the beginning.”

To change how your show is created, you simply change one of the statements. For example, if you want to change which photos are used in the show, change the statement “with all ﬁles” to “with only selected ﬁles.”

Each statement has several options. Click on a statement to see the available options. You can save your favorite QUICKSHOW! scripts using the memory dots in the bottom-left corner of the dialog.

Use the IN Room to open, add, and import files into SHOW.

Use the IN Room’s QUICKSHOW! dialog to create an entire show in seconds.

The IN Room 37

To use a saved SSC script:

✤ Click a ﬁlled memory dot, then click

the Do It! button.

Importing Show Content

The main purpose of the IN Room is to import the content you’ll need to create your show. The IN Room lets you import digital photos, pictures, business slides, and video clips. You can also load pictures from a digital camera or scanner.

Show content is imported using the feature buttons displayed along the bottom of the IN Room.

Importing Photos and Pictures

SHOW can import photos and pictures, separately or as folders. You can import pictures in a wide variety of standard formats including: TIFF, BMP, PICT, JPG, FPX, and PSD.

To import a single ﬁle:

1. Move the cursor over the File label, then click the Add a Picture, Movie or SHOW Slide button.

2. Locate the ﬁle you want, then click Open. The ﬁle thumbnail appears on the IN Room desktop.

To import a folder of ﬁles:

1. Move the cursor over the Folder label, then click the Add a Folder of Files button.

Use the File option to import a single ﬁle.

Use the Folder option to import a folder of ﬁles.

You cannot import an individual PowerPoint slide in its native .ppt format. You have to import an entire presentation as individual slides, unless you’re importing them as JPEGs saved in PC PowerPoint 97.

Interpreting PowerPoint, as with any other proprietary ﬁle format, is not easy. You might notice that some of your slides do not display the same in SHOW as they do in PowerPoint.

In particular, the third-party ﬁlter used in SHOW currently supports only 2-color gradients and does not support text drop shadows.

Also, when placing text on an object or within a region on a slide, vertical text alignment is not always identical.

Most graphs and charts display accurately, as do most text characters. Left-justiﬁed bullet text also translates correctly most of the time. You should keep these tips in mind when creating PowerPoint slides to ensure the best playback results within SHOW.

To import PowerPoint slides on the PC:

1. Move the cursor over the File label, then click the Add a Picture, Movie or SHOW Slide button. The Open dialog appears.

2. Locate the name of your PowerPoint slide presentation (.ppt).

3. Click Open to load the slides onto SHOW’s IN Room desktop as a group of thumbnails.

Tips for Importing PowerPoint Slides

If you use PC PowerPoint 97 (version 8.0), you have the option of saving a PowerPoint slide or the entire presentation as a JPEG or series of JPEG ﬁles.

Once your slide(s) are in JPG format, you can simply import them into SHOW using the Add a Picture, Movie or SHOW Slide button, or the Add a Folder of Files button within the IN Room.

Use the File option to import a PowerPoint presentation (as slides without transitions).

The IN Room 39

Loading Content from Digital Input Devices

You can scan images directly into SHOW or load them from a digital camera using the TWAIN Interface.

Using an application interface called TWAIN, SHOW interacts directly with most scanners and digital cameras. Using TWAIN features, you can control how an image is loaded.

The features available in the TWAIN dialog depend on the scanner connected to your computer.

To scan pictures directly into SHOW:

1. Move the cursor over the TWAIN label, then click the Load Pictures from a Digital Input Device button. Then choose Select TWAIN Source from the pop-up menu. The Select Source dialog appears.

2. Choose your scanner, then click OK.

3. Click the Load Pictures from a Digital

Input Device button again, then choose Set Destination for Acquires and Imports from the pop-up. The Set Destination dialog appears.

4. Choose a location for your scanned images. The default is the Images Auto-acquired folder in the SHOW application folder.

5. Click the Save File as Type pop-up, then choose a ﬁle format for your scanned ﬁles.

6. Click the Load Pictures from a Digital Input Device button again, then choose TWAIN Acquire from the pop-up. The TWAIN dialog appears.

7. Use the dialog controls to scan an image into SHOW.

Capturing Content Using Plug-ins

SHOW lets you use a variety of import and capture plug-ins, which support Photoshop’s plug-in standard, to acquire images from a variety of sources.

Use the TWAIN option to scan images into SHOW.

5. Click the Import via Plug-Ins button again, then choose your plug-in from the list.

6. Use the plug-in controls to scan or load your picture.

Adding Shows

You can add an existing SHOW project or show to the current show using the Add Show option. When you add a show, it appears as a unique show thumbnail on the desktop just like any other piece of content.

To add a show to the current show:

1. Move the cursor over the Add Show label, then click the Add a Show to the Current One button.

2. Locate the folder containing the show or project you want (.sas or .shw), then click Open. (The default folder into which your projects and shows

are saved is the “My SHOW Files” folder.

A filmstrip icon representing the show appears on the desktop.

Adding a show and opening a show is not the same. When you open a show, the slides in the show are automatically loaded into the Sequencer and Nano Sequencer, which replaces the existing show. When you add a show, it appears as a piece of content that can be inserted into the current show.

Deleting Thumbnails from the IN Room Desktop

If you import too many ﬁles or change your mind about a show’s content, you can easily delete thumbnails from the IN Room desktop. When you delete a thumbnail, it disappears from the desktop, but the original ﬁle remains unchanged on your hard drive.

To delete thumbnails from the desktop:

1. Select the thumbnail or group of thumbnails.

2. Press the delete key.

Use the Add a Show to the Current One button to load an existing show to the IN Room desktop.

The SORT Room 41

thumbnails. By arranging thumbnails into piles, and then laying them out around the desktop, you can see how your show will take shape.

The sorting process works just like it would in the real world. If someone gave you a huge stack of photos and said “make me a show,” you’d probably drop all the photos onto a desk and start pulling out pictures that were somehow related. Then, you’d group the photos together on different parts of the desk.

This is the same process that’s mimicked in the SORT Room. You place a bunch of photos (in this case thumbnails) onto a desktop, then pull out pictures that are related and group them together into piles.

Once you have all your piles set up, you can start pulling out speciﬁc pictures or photos to create the pile that will eventually make up your show.

Selecting Content

The other purpose of the SORT Room is to add content to your show. The Select control is designed to help you accomplish this task.

The Sequencer gives you a representation of all the frames in your show. The Select control’s Sequence cursor lets you add ﬁles on your desktop to the Sequencer.

The Sequence cursor lets you visually order all the frames in the show. You determine the sequence of your show by the order in which you click thumbnails. As you click each thumbnail, it’s added to the show.

You can also use the Sequence Floatoid, which appears when you highlight thumbnails on the desktop, to load them into the Sequencer.

It is recommended that you select thumbnails into the Sequencer in proper order when ﬁrst adding them. You can, however, use click-and-drag editing to correct show sequencing later.

Sort Control

The Sort control lets you set criteria for sorting the thumbnails on the desktop.

Select Control

As its name suggests, the Select control is used mainly to select thumbnails. Each button on the control alters the behavior of the cursor, by allowing it to perform different tasks. The cursor can select, delete, group, or add clicked thumbnails to the Sequencer.

Sequencer

The Sequencer contains all of the show’s content and order, with frame detail. However, it displays only a segment of the frames at once. Each frame in the Sequencer represents a slide in the show.

Use the criteria buttons on the Sort control to sort the thumbnails on the desktop.

Use the buttons on the Select control to change the behavior of the cursor.

The Sequencer displays show content.

The SORT Room 43

To perform a sort:

1. Select the thumbnails you want to sort.

2. Click the Sort control. A series of buttons appear.

3. Click the criteria button you want to use. The thumbnails are rearranged.

Option/Alt-click inverts the sort order.

4. Click the Sequence Floatoid which maintains sort order as the sorted ﬁles are quickly loaded into the Sequencer.

Working with Thumbnails

Thumbnails visually represent the ﬁles you imported in the IN Room. The SORT Room offers several features and controls that let you sort, select, and size thumbnails.

Arranging Thumbnails

All the content you can use to create a show are displayed as thumbnails on the desktop of the SORT Room.

Pictures imported separately appear as single thumbnails. Pictures imported in folders appear as thumbnail piles. You can move the thumbnails and organize them into separate piles. For example, you can create a pile of landscape pictures or a pile of party photos.

Click the Sort control to display criteria buttons.

Imported content appears as thumbnail piles.

The memory dots at the bottom of the Sort control let you save the position of all the thumbnails.

Since performing a sort re-arranges thumbnails on the desktop, you’ll probably want to save thumbnail positions before you sort again.

Memory dots are saved with your project or show file.

To save the position of thumbnails on the desktop:

1. Arrange the thumbnails the way you want them.

2. Click an empty memory dot at the bottom of the Sort control to save the arrangement.

Option/Alt-click a memory dot to clear it.

Selecting Thumbnails

The Standard, or default, cursor lets you select individual thumbnails or groups of thumbnails. You can also use the Add or Subtract cursors to add or remove thumbnails from a selection.

To select thumbnails:

1. Make sure the Standard button is active.

2. Click the thumbnail you want to select.

To select a group of thumbnails:

1. Drag an area around all the thumbnails you want to select.

To add thumbnails to a selection:

1. Click the Select control. A series of buttons appears.

2. Click the Add button.

The Sort control’s memory dots save and recall thumbnail positions.

The Standard button.

The SORT Room 45

Deleting Thumbnails from the SORT Room Desktop

The Select control lets you change the behavior of the cursor so that every time you click a thumbnail, it’s deleted from the desktop.

When you delete a thumbnail, it disappears from the desktop, but the original ﬁle remains unchanged on your hard drive.

To delete a thumbnail from the desktop:

1. Click the Select control. A series of buttons appears.

2. Click the Delete button.

3. Click the thumbnails you want to

delete.

4. Click the Standard button to reset the cursor.

Command/Ctrl-Z or the Undo command lets you undo a mistake, with one level of undo. Refer to “Undoing Operations” on page 15 for more on Undo.

Setting Thumbnail Size

You can adjust the size of thumbnails on the desktop to make it easier to see them, or, if you have a lot of content, you can resize thumbnails to reduce clutter.

To set thumbnail size:

✤ Select a single thumbnail or a group

of thumbnails.

✤ Click the smallest size control to

reduce thumbnail size. Click again to reduce thumbnail size further.

✤ Click the largest size control to

increase thumbnail size. Click again to increase thumbnail size further.

✤ Click the middle size control to set

thumbnails to default size.

Use the Size control to set the size of thumbnails on the desktop.

To add thumbnails to the Sequencer using the Floatoid:

1. Select a group of thumbnails on the desktop. The Sequence Floatoid automatically appears.

2. Click the Floatoid. The selected thumbnails are added to the Sequencer.

If there are already frames in the Sequencer, the new thumbnails are inserted at the position of the Current Frame Indicator.

Using the Sequence Cursor

The Select control lets you adjust the behavior of the cursor so that every time you click a thumbnail, it is added to the Sequencer. Thumbnails are added in the order you click them. The ﬁrst thumbnail you click is added to the ﬁrst available frame of the show, and so on.

The Sort control’s Sequence cursor lets you visually sequence the content on our desktop. As you click a thumbnail, it’s added to the Sequencer, and grayed out on the desktop. This helps you determine which thumbnails are part of the current show and which are not.

Since adding content this way is so visual, it is important to have an adequate number of thumbnails on the desktop sorted into usable piles.

If all the frames in the Sequencer are full, it automatically scrolls to reveal an additional frame when you click another thumbnail.

When you select one or more thumbnails, the Sequence Floatoid automatically appears.

Items added to the Sequencer also appear in the Nano Sequencer.

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In order to provide bigger frames showing more detail, the Sequencer displays only a subset of frames in the show. Since you’re seeing only part of the show at once, the Sequencer provides indicators to help you keep track of frame order:

• The number of each frame within the shows appears at the top of the frame.

• The numbers on the left and right side of the Sequencer let you know how many frames precede the ﬁrst visible frame in the Sequencer, and how many follow the last visible frame. For example, if you’re viewing Frame 7 through 11 of a 20 frame show, the right number will read 9, and the number on the left end of the Sequencer will read 6.

You can also use the Pre-Frame and Post-Frame Indicator arrows on each end of the Sequencer to scroll through all the frames in your show.

Video clips in a Sequencer frame are identiﬁed by a “ﬁlmstrip” icon. Sound clips attached to a Sequencer frame are identiﬁed by a “musical note” icon on the frame.

To re-arrange frames in the Sequencer:

1. Click-and-hold the mouse button with the cursor over the desired frame in the Sequencer.

2. Drag the frame to a new position. As you drag, borders between frames are highlighted. These highlighted borders indicate where your frame will be inserted. Release the mouse button when the border where you want your frame placed is highlighted. If you drag past either end of the Sequencer, it automatically scrolls.

Note: If you try to drop a frame exactly on top of another frame (i.e., if a border is not highlighted), the frame you are moving returns to its original location.

To scroll the Sequencer:

✤ Click or click-hold the Post-Frame

Indicator arrow located on the right side of the Sequencer to scroll forward.

✤ Click or click-hold the Pre-Frame

Indicator arrow on the left side to scroll backward.

As you add content to the Sequencer, the indicator moves to show where content was added. You can move the indicator to add content to a different part of the show. New frames are inserted before the position of the Current Frame Indicator. For example, if you place the indicator at Frame 12, frames you add appear directly before Frame 12. When adding content to create a new show, the indicator is always at the left end of the Sequencer.

You can also click-and-drag frames in the Nano Sequencer to re-arrange them, just like you would in the Sequencer.

To re-arrange frames in the Nano Sequencer:

1. Click-and-drag the mouse button while the cursor is over a frame in the Nano Sequencer.

2. Drag the frame to a new position in the show and release the mouse button when the cursor is at the desired insertion point.

To reposition the Current Frame Indicator:

✤ Drag the Current Frame Indicator to a

new location.

Playing a Show

Once you’ve added the content and sequenced the frames in your show, you can play your show to see how it’s developing.

The Projector icon in the SORT and EDIT Rooms plays all the frames currently in the Sequencer starting at the position of the Current Frame Indicator.

Show playback can be controlled using the keyboard. The Playback Shortcuts dialog displays all the available keyboard commands you can use.

Use the Projector icon to play your show.

The Playback Shortcuts dialog.

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To playback a show:

✤ Click the Projector icon in the

top-right corner of the Sequencer.

✤ When the show reaches its last frame,

hit the escape key to return to the SORT or EDIT Room.

When you have selected and sequenced your content, it is time to move to the EDIT Room. There, you can bring your photo show or business presentation to life with exciting real-time effects and sounds.

There are four steps involved in editing or enhancing a slide:

• Add an In Transition. The In Transition is the effect that appears before the current frame.

• Add an Out Transition. The Out Transition is the effect that appears after the current frame.

• Apply text effects. This can mean anything from adding blocks of static text to a business slide, to creating animated messages on family photos.

• Add a sound clip. A sound clip can include a voice annotation or a sound effect (.wav) that plays when the slide appears. An audio CD can be played in the background, too.

What Are Transitions?

Transitions are the animated special effects inserted between frames. When your show plays, the transitions ﬁll the gaps between one slide and the next. A

transition can be used to create speciﬁc effects in a show, for example, one slide melting into another.

In a show, all slides (except the ﬁrst and perhaps the last) have an In and an Out transition. In Transitions lead into the current frame. Out Transitions follow the current frame into the next. Hence, frame 1’s Out Transition is frame 2’s In Transition.

The EDIT Room lets you choose from a wide variety and number of transition effects. Using the features in this room, you can preview a transition, while adding it to any slide in your show quickly and easily.

Working in the EDIT Room

The EDIT Room has three main working windows:

• The Current Frame window

• The In Transition window

• The Out Transition window

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In and Out Transition Windows

The Transition windows show you what the In or Out and current frames look like when an In or Out Transition is applied.

You can click on either window to see a quick preview of the transition effect currently applied to the frame.

Working with Frames

Before you can start editing frames, you need to know how to select them. In addition to selecting frames, there are several other operations you can perform on frames that will enhance their look. The Sequencer menu provides several

options that let you select, copy and paste, or ﬂip frames.

Selecting Frames to Edit

You can select a frame individually by clicking it in the Sequencer, or in groups using the Sequencer menu.

An individual frame can also be selected by dragging the Current Frame Indicator in the Nano Sequencer. The frame under the indicator is the currently selected frame.

Use the In Transition Windows to preview the current transition.

Use the Out Transition Windows to preview the current transition.

The Sequencer pop-up menu.

The Current Frame Indicator

To copy-and-paste a slide:

1. Click a frame in the Sequencer.

2. Click the Sequencer menu, and

choose Copy > Slide.

Choose Sound or Transition to copy the sound clip or transition effect from the selected frame.

3. Click the frame where you want to paste the contents.

4. Click the Sequencer menu, then choose Paste Slide.

Flipping Frames

You can ﬂip frames horizontally or vertically in the Sequencer. Flipping lets you adjust images; especially those imported from scanners and digital cameras.

To ﬂip a frame:

1. Click a frame in the Sequencer.

2. Click the Sequencer menu, then choose Flip > Vertical or Flip > Horizontal.

Adding a Slide Display Time to a Show

A show can have a uniform delay associated with each slide. This delay extends the time that each slide is visible in the show. This extra delay time is in addition to the time it takes to load the slide.

Although transition speeds can vary between slides, slide display time must be uniform. If variable display time is required, choose the Click to Advance option.

To add a uniform preset delay to a show:

✤ Click the Sequencer menu, then

choose Settings > and the relative delay you want.

(You can also select Click to Advance or Loop.)

To set a precise delay to a show:

✤ Click the Sequencer menu, then

choose Settings > and drag the slider at the bottom of the menu.

Drag right to increase the delay, and left to decrease it.

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possible to add transition effects to each of the frames in your show without ever having to exit the dialog.

When you select a transition, it’s automatically applied to the frame. You don’t have to click an OK button, or any other button, to apply the transition. This makes it even easier to apply transitions.

You can apply a transition effect to each of the frames in your presentation just by pressing the arrow keys and clicking transitions. When complete, click the Done button to exit the dialog.

Remember that frame 1’s Out Transition is frame 2’s In Transition. You need only select all In or all Out transitions to account for all necessary transitions in a show.

To display the Transition dialogs:

✤ Click either the In Transition or Out

Transition label.

To view random transitions:

✤ From within the Transition dialog,

click the Randomize control “dice icon.” SHOW plays random transitions. Click anywhere to stop and select the current one.

To select a transition:

✤ Click one of the transitions in the

menu. You can also scroll the list using the scroll button, or type a letter to be taken to the corresponding section of the menu.

To set the transition’s speed:

✤ Adjust the position of the Speed

control slider. Drag right to increase the transition’s speed, or left to decrease it.

The In Transition dialog.

Using Transition Presets

The ﬁve buttons beside the In and Out Transitions labels are the Five Favorites presets. These buttons can store your most commonly used transition effects. They’re a handy way of quickly accessing your favorite transitions without having to enter the Transition dialogs. The Five Favorites come pre-loaded, but it is easy to add your favorites.

To apply a transition using a preset:

1. Click to select a frame in the Sequencer.

2. Click one of the In Transition Five Favorites buttons. A real-time preview of the transition is displayed in the In Transition window.

To save a transition as a new preset:

1. While within the Transition dialog, OPT-click a Five Favorites button to clear the preset value.

2. In the Transition menu, select the transition you want to use.

3. Click the empty Five Favorites button to store the new favorite transition.

Working with Text

Text effects in SHOW are controlled using the Text fx dialog. This dialog lets you add and edit text, add backgrounds, and apply text animations to a slide.

To display the Text fx dialog:

✤ Click the Text fx label next to the Text

fx Five Favorites buttons.

✤ Make sure the Current Frame

Indicator is pointing to the frame you want to add text to, before you enter the text fx dialog. If you want to create

Use the Text fx dialog to add new text, and set up text animation effects on photos and slides.

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Many of these templates contain text formatted with a heading, a subheading and several bullet points. So you can quickly set up the text on your slide by simply clicking a button.

The Template dialog displays previews of all 20 available templates.

To add a text template to a slide:

1. Click the Template button. The Template dialog appears.

2. Click on the desired template preview to load that template.

The template’s preset text strings appear in the Preview window and in the Text Entry box.

Editing Text

Once the template is applied to the slide, you can replace the preset text strings with your own text, using the Text Entry box at the bottom of the dialog. If the template contains several text strings, just click on each to load them into the Text Entry box for fast editing. You can then alter text appearance by using the Text Attribute Controls to the right, if necessary.

These controls let you change font color, change font size, change font style, or place text on the slide with speciﬁc relative positioning.

The Template dialog.

Use the Template button to add pre-formatted text to your slide (photo or background).

Use the attributes pop-up menus to edit the text’s size, color, alignment, and transparency.

To change the font type:

1. Click a text string to select it. A highlight appears around the text.

2. Click the Font label, then choose a font from the pop-up menu.

The pop-up menu displays all of your system fonts.

To change the font size: