Videonics PowerScript PS4000S, PowerScript PS4000SC Instruction Manual

®

Instruction Manual

Postscript Graphics and Character Generator

with Timebase Correction

Model PS4000S and Model PS4000SC

Part No. MANL-0739-01

®

Safety and Emissions

WARNING! To reduce the risk of fire or electrical shock, do not

expose this appliance to rain or other moisture. If you spill liquid on
the equipment, disconnect the power cord and consult authorized
personnel. Moisture can damage internal parts.

CAUTION

RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK

DO NOT OPEN

AV

WARNING ! This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio

frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with
the instruction manual might cause interference to radio
communications. It has been tested and found to comply with the
limits for a Class A computing device pursuant to Subpart B of Part
15 of the FCC Rules, which are designed to provide reasonable
protection against such interference when operated in a
commercial environment. Operation of this equipment in a
residential area is likely to cause interference, in which case the user,
at his own expense, will be required to take whatever measures
may be required to correct the interference. The use of properly
shielded cables is required to maintain compliance with the Class A
limits for radiated emissions.

CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF

ELECTRIC SHOCK, DO NOT REMOVE
COVER. NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS
INSIDE. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED
SERVICE PERSONNEL.

The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol
within an equilateral triangle is intended to
alert the user to the presence of
uninsulated “dangerous voltage” within
the product’s enclosure that might be of
sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of
electric shock to persons.

The exclamation point within an
equilateral triangle is intended to alert the
user to the presence of important
operating and maintenance (service)
instructions in the literature accompanying
the appliance.

CAUTION : For continued protection

against fire, replace only with fuses of
correct rating, as listed on rear panel.

Trademarks and Copyrights

© The Videonics logo and PowerScript are registered trademarks of
Videonics, Inc.

VIDEONICS PS-4000 PowerScript PostScript Generator Instruction
Manual, © 1996-1998. No part of this manual may be reproduced
in hard copy, electronically, or by any other means without the
expressed, written permission of Videonics, Inc.

PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. Other product and
brand names might be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

Portions copyright © 1988-1995 Aladdin Enterprises, Menlo Park,
California. All rights reserved.

Portions copyright © 1993 Soft Horizons.

The Jean Camil font is provided by Jacques Bertrand
e-mail — [e-mail] .

The Holstein and Good Dog fonts are supplied by Ethan Dunham,
Fonthead Design.
Web Site — http://www.fonthead.com/ .

Videonics PowerScript Instruction Manual designed, written, and

illustrated by Jim Rogers, Mouse Powered Productions
e-mail — [e-mail]

Disclaimers

Subject to change without notice.

The PowerScript software is based, in part, on the work of the
Independent JPEG Group.

Television screens are simulated.

This equipment has been tested with a Class A computing
device and has been found to comply with Part 15 of FCC
Rules. See Instruction Manual. Operation in a residential area
may cause unacceptable interference to radio and TV
reception requiring the operator to take whatever steps are
necessary to correct the interference.

This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class A limits for radio
noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio
Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of
Communications.

Le présent appariel numérique n’émet pas de bruits
radioélectriques dépassant les limites applicables aux appareils
numériques de la classe A prescrites dans le Règlement sur le
brouillage radiioélectrique édicté par le ministrère des
communications du Canada.

ONTENTS

C

1

2

Introducing PowerScript

PowerScript Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Checking PowerScript Package Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Identifying PowerScript Jacks and Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Using this Instruction Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Conventions Used in this Instruction Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Equipment Setups

Basic Setup Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Checking Power Voltage and Fuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Providing Power to PowerScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Determining Your Equipment Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Using PowerScript as a Stand-Alone/Live Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Using PowerScript as a Primary Input Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Using PowerScript to Feed a Switcher’s DSK (DownStream Key) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using PowerScript’s Internal Key Downstream from a Switcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Using PowerScript in a Video Production, On-Line Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Configuring PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Configuring PowerScript with a Single Monitor having Two Input Jacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Completing the Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

About Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3

PowerScript Tutorial

Lesson 1 • Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Starting PowerScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Accessing the Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Lesson 2 • Creating the Opening Page, Adding and Modifying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Naming a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Adding Objects to a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Setting Object Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Aligning Objects on a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Adding the Remaining Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Lesson 3 • Creating a Background, Saving a Page, and Playing a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Playing the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Contents

Lesson 4 • Adding the Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Creating the Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Adding Graphic Objects to the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Lesson 5 • Adding the Credits Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Creating the Credits Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Playing Back the Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Lesson 6 • Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Renumbering Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Lesson 7 • Rolling the Credits Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Creating a Roll Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Lesson 8 • Setting Page Duration and Transitions for the Opening Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Lesson 9 • Setting a Target Duration for the Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Lesson 10 • Playing Back the Project Pages with Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4

5

Working with Menus

Standard and Power Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using Power Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Working with Menus and Menu Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Sliders and Text Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Moving Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Closing Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Menu Navigation Keyboard Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Working with Objects

Objects and Page Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Placing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Geometric Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Graphic Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Clock Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Default Object Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Bounding Rectangle and Object Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Object Selection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Using the SELECT Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Working with Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Selecting and Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Object Outlines while Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Working with Graphic Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Deleting Graphic Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Changing Object Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Nudging Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Cutting, Copying, Pasting, and Clearing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Aligning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Contents

Modifying Object Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Setting Object Color (Fill) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Creating Object Drop Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Creating Object Outlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Assigning Attributes to Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Using Word Wrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Using the FONTS Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Determining Attributes Assigned to Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Deleting Fonts from a PC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

6

Using PowerScript

Starting and Stopping PowerScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Doing a System Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Working with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Saving Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using Project Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the Project/Page Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Creating New Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Copying an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Renaming an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Deleting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Opening an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Working with Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Selecting a Page to Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creating Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Renumbering and Reordering Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Saving Pages (Auto Save Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Deleting Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Working with Transitions and Page Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Using Roll and Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Dynamically Controlling Roll & Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Working with Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Style Files and Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Applying Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Creating and Changing Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Removing Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Working with Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Creating a Solid Color Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using a Video Signal as a Background (Using PowerScript’s Internal Keyer) . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using a Graphic as a Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Playing Projects and Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Page Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Pre-Rendering Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Using Play Mode and Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Using Single Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Using the Playback Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Contents

7

Advanced PowerScript Functions

Working with Hot Borders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Working with the Safe Title Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Working with GPI, Time Triggers, and Auto-Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Using GPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Using Time Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Using Auto-Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Playing a Project from a Remote Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Displaying a Graphic from a Remote Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

PowerScript Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Time & Date Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

GPI Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Display Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Video Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Studio Model Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Serial (RS-232) Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Internet Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

PC Card Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Working with Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Managing Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

PC Card Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Directory Information and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

File Information and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Working with PC Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Start Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Creating a Start Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Erasing and Formatting PC Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Using PC Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Modifying PC Cards with a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Using Graphic Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

About File Type Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

PowerScript-Provided Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

About Other Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Creating Efficient Graphic Files for Use with PowerScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Using Text in EPS Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

The Square Pixel Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Creating Transparency Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Remapping the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Contents

8

PowerScript Computer Connections

About Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Client/Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

“Sneaker Net” Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Serial Cable Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Computer Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Ethernet PC Card Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

PowerScript/Macintosh/FreePPP Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Configuring PPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Configuring the PowerScript Serial Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Establishing a Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Using PowerScript with Macintosh Fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Running the Fetch Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Creating a Fetch Shortcut to PowerScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Connecting PowerScript with IBM-Compatible Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

LAN Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Direct Connection Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Transferring a File to PowerScript from a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Closing the Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Common FTP Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

9

PowerScript Reference

PowerScript Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Align Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Background Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Clip Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Create Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Files Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Fill Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Fonts Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Graphics Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Modify Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Outline Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Project/Page Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Project Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Page Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Select Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Setup Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Time & Date Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

GPI Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Display Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Video Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Studio Model Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Serial (RS-232) Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Internet Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

PC Card Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Shadow Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Text Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Transitions Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Transition Effects Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Contents

A

B

C

D

PowerScript Fonts

Font Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Managing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Deleting Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Importing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Accented Fonts and Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Using the PowerScript Mouse and Keyboard

Mouse Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Mouse Pointer (or Cursor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Mouse Buttons and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Mouse Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

About the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Cleaning the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

PowerScript-Provided Graphic Files

Graphic Illustration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

PowerScript Test Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

PowerScript Control Keys

E

PowerScript Specifications

PowerScript Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

General Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Digital Control Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Video Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Timebase Corrector/Synchronizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Character Generator Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Roll and Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Contents

List of Tables

Table 1 Contacting Videonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Table 2 Instruction Manual Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Table 3 Menu Access Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Table 4 Menu Navigation Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Table 5 Results of Roll/Crawl Speed Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Table 6 Roll & Crawl Speed Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Table 7 PowerScript Styles by Function Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Table 8 Play Mode and Edit Mode Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Table 9 Hot Border Page Navigation Control Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Table 10 Acceptable File Type Extensions for Graphic Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Table 11 Square Pixel Factors for NTSC and PAL Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Table 12 Keyboard Remapping Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Table 13 Common FTP Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Table 14 Menu Control Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Table 15 Original PowerScript Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Table 16 Accented and Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Table 17 PowerScript Graphic Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Table 18 PowerScript Test Pattern Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Contents

List of Figures

Package Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

PowerScript Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

PowerScript Rear Panel • PS4000S and PS4000SC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Connecting Keyboard and Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

PowerScript as a Stand-Alone / Live Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

PowerScript as a Primary Input Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

PowerScript Feeding a Switcher’s DSK (DownStream Key) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using PowerScript’s Internal Key downstream from a Switcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

PowerScript in a Video Production, On-Line Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

PowerScript with a Single Monitor having Two Input Jacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Cable Types and Jacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Standard and Power Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Power Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

PowerScript Menu Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Examples of PowerScript Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Objects, Page Layers, and Stacking Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Placing Objects / CREATE Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Placing Objects / GRAPHICS Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Object Handles and Bounding Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

SELECT Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Selecting Text in a Text Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

MODIFY Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

CLIP Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

ALIGN Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

FILL Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

SHADOW Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

OUTLINE Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

TEXT Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Using Word Wrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

FONTS Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

PROJECT/PAGE Menu — Project-Related Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

PROJECT/PAGE Menu—Page-Related Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Transitions and Page Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

TRANSITIONS Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

TRANSITION EFFECTS Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Roll and Crawl Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Numeric Keypad Playback Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

SETUP Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

SETUP: DATE & TIME Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

SETUP: DISPLAY Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

SETUP: VIDEO Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

SETUP: STUDIO Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

SETUP: PC CARD Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

W

1

This symbol appears

when help is available

Introducing PowerScript

elcome to PowerScript, and thank you for buying Videonics products. Whether you’re
an experienced video producer, or just getting started, you’ll find PowerScript easy-to-use
and extremely rich in features and technology.

This instruction manual helps you get started. It takes you step-by-step through the
installation of the equipment, contains a brief tutorial that introduces you to the basic
PowerScript features and functions, provides detailed instructions for using PowerScript
for more advanced applications, and contains a reference section explaining the various
menus and their options.

In addition to this instruction manual, PowerScript provides an on-line, context-sensitive
help facility. You can access the help facility while using PowerScript. The help system
provides brief reminders for using PowerScript functions. It does not replace this instruc­tion manual, but rather complements it with brief ticklers to help you remember what a
particular function does and how to use it.

Videonics produces the highest quality products possible while also making them easy­to-use. You should be able to find out just about everything you need to know about
PowerScript in this instruction manual. However, if you have any difficulties with your
equipment, our Technical Support staff is available to assist you. The following table con­tains information for contacting Technical Support and other departments at Videonics.

Chapter 1 Introducing PowerScript

Table 1: Contacting Videonics

Location

Corporate Headquarters

Main Telephone Number

Fax Number

World Wide Web

General Information

List Servers
(See “About List Servers” below)

Customer-Extra
(See “About Customer-Extra” below)

FTP Site

USA and CANADA ONLY

Technical Support

Technical Support e-mail

Address / Phone Number / URL

Videonics, Inc.
1370 Dell Avenue
Campbell, CA 95008 USA

[phone]

[phone]

http://www.videonics.com

[e-mail]

http://www.videonics.com/
Videonics-Support.html#listserver

http://www.videonics.com/
customer-extra/PowerScript/

ftp://services.videonics.com

[phone]

[e-mail]

About List Servers

About

Customer-Extra

Videonics offers a wide range of support options including telephone, Internet e-mail, a
World Wide Web site, a standard warranty, factory service, and expanded service plans.
Support options vary in different countries. Please check with your Videonics distributor
for information about local support options.

Videonics offers several list servers for users interested in video editing and post-produc­tion. List Servers use ordinary e-mail to exchange information among subscribers. A List
Server relays all messages to all subscribers, allowing you to converse with hundreds of
others who share your interests. The Videonics-sponsored List Servers are free and only
Internet e-mail service is needed—Web or other Internet access is not required. For infor­mation, send a message with subject HELP to [e-mail] ; or visit the
Web site referenced in the table above.

The Videonics Customer Extra page is available to PowerScript owners. It contains
upgrade information, tips for using PowerScript, and downloadable accessory software
(such as software for converting graphic file formats).

2

Videonics PowerScript PowerScript Features

P

OWER

S

CRIPT

F

EATURES

PowerScript is a video C haracter G enerator ( CG ) that uses the PostScript language to
image characters and artwork on the video screen. PowerScript generates high-quality
video suitable for broadcast and high-end productions. The unit includes an internal
keyer, which allows you to combine graphic and text objects with moving video without
the need of an external mixer or switcher. PowerScript also provides a key-out signal that
you can use with external switchers.

Defined Work

Components

Graphics You can create basic graphics (such as lines, rectangles, squares, ovals, and circles) using

Objects The elements you use on-screen with PowerScript are called objects . Objects can be inde-

PowerScript uses the concept of Projects, Pages, and Objects to help manage your work. A

project is any defined collection of work—such as title credits for a video production, or

text overlays for a specific video. Every project consists of one or more pages . Pages nor­mally consist of one or more objects . One project page might contain, for example, a
movie title, another might contain a cast of characters, and yet another might contain
other movie credits. Any given page can contain hundreds of objects, and any given
project can contain numerous pages.

You can create pages that are larger than the screen on which they appear. This gives you
the ability to do rolls and crawls by scanning (or, scrolling) across the page.

the PowerScript menus. Graphics can use a full range of colors, transparency, and shadow
attributes.

If you have a computer platform, you can create EPS, PCX, JPEG, and GIF graphics using
various software applications.

Graphics can be input to PowerScript, combined with other graphics or text, and imaged
on a television screen.

Because PowerScript interprets the PostScript language, you can easily use clip art and
font collections in PowerScript productions. For detailed instructions and additional
information, see “Using Graphic Files” on page 134.

pendently positioned, deleted, altered, and managed on the screen. Types of objects
include text, basic graphics (such as rectangles and circles), imported graphic elements,
and clock elements (which show date and time).

Transitions PowerScript offers a wide variety of transitions (such as dissolves and wipes) that you can

use to artfully switch from one project page to another.

Independent or

Integrated

You can operate PowerScript as a stand-alone device, or you can integrate it with a com­puter platform. In either case, you can generate graphics and characters using Power­Script’s keyboard and/or mouse pointing device.

You can connect PowerScript to a Macintosh, Windows, UNIX, Amiga, and other com­puter platforms. The connection can be made through a serial (RS-232) connection or an
Ethernet network.

With PowerScript Communicator you can easily control as many as 10 different
PowerScript units using a PC/Windows-based software application. See the PowerScript
Communicator manual for full details.

3

Chapter 1 Introducing PowerScript

G

ETTING

S

TARTED

The PowerScript package contains the primary components you need to get started. How­ever, because there are so many different ways in which you can set up your equipment,
it isn’t practical to include all of the various cables and connectors you might need for
your particular installation.

The remainder of this section describes many important PowerScript components. Please
read the material before beginning installation.

Checking PowerScript Package Contents

Take inventory of the PowerScript package to make sure it contains the items shown in
the following illustration.

Package Contents

2 angle brackets/screws

(for rack mounting)

Power Cord

Registering Your

Purchase

Quick Reference

Your package might contain different materials, depending on the country in which you
purchased PowerScript. If anything is missing, contact the retailer from which you pur­chased PowerScript for any necessary replacements.

Please take the time to register your PowerScript purchase. This ensures that we can con­tact you when product upgrades become available or relay important news to you. You
can register on-line or use the registration card enclosed in your PowerScript package.

Note

Videonics does not sell its customer list, so your registration information remains
completely confidential at all times.

Card

Instruction

Manual

Keyboard

Keyboard
Template

PowerScript

Start Card

Mouse

On-Line Registration To register on-line, use your Web Browser to access the Videonics Customer Extra site at

the following location:

http://www.videonics.com/customer-extra/PowerScript/

When you arrive at the Customer Extra Page, locate and click the Register link. This takes
you to the On-Line Registration page where you can fill out the necessary information
and submit the form.

4

5

Videonics PowerScript Identifying PowerScript Jacks and Panels

Identifying PowerScript Jacks and Panels

Examine the PowerScript front and rear panels and compare them to the illustrations
that follow to orient yourself to the controls and jacks.

Front Panel

Rear Panel

Power Light —Lights when the unit is powered on.

Keyboard Jack —Accepts the Keytronics™ keyboard, which is included in your Power-

Script package. You can use most AT-type keyboards with PowerScript.

Serial Mouse Jack —Accepts a standard computer serial-type mouse, which is included in

your PowerScript package.

PC Card Slot —Accepts a Type I, II, or III PC Card. An identical PC Card slot is included

on the rear panel.

PC cards (sometimes called PCMCIA Cards) store fonts, graphics, projects, and other
items. You can insert two PC cards into PowerScript at the same time—but the com­bined power supply current for the two cards cannot exceed 1.5 Amps. PC cards can
be obtained from many computer hardware outlets. You might want to purchase sev­eral PC cards to store different projects and backup copies of your work.

Ethernet connections can be made using a PC Card Ethernet adapter. See Chapter 8,

PowerScript Computer Connections , for further information.

Power Connector, Switch, and Fuse —The power cord (included in your package) con-

nects to the three-prong plug. Use the toggle switch to turn PowerScript on and off. The
fuses are located behind the fuse door.

PC Card Slot —Identical to the PC Card slot on the front panel.

RS-232 Jack —Use to connect a modem or computer to PowerScript. A cable (not

included) is required to make the connection. RS-232 connection is provided via a
female, 9-pin (DB-9) jack. See “Serial Cable Connection” on page 149 for additional
information.

Component IN / Component OUT — (These connectors are available only on the Pow-

erScript Model PS4000SC.) Includes inputs and outputs in analog component format—
YUV for PAL/625 models and Y, R-Y, B-Y for NTSC/525 models. NTSC/525 models can be
set to use Betacam or MII standard levels. See “Studio Model Settings” on page 124 for
more information.

GPI Jacks (2) —Connect a GPI ( G eneral P urpose I nterface) unit to either or both of these

jacks.

Use of GPI is optional. A contact closure on these inputs triggers a project. If you are
using an external device to trigger PowerScript, connect its GPI trigger output to one
of the GPI inputs. GP1 and GP2 perform identically. See “Using GPI” on page 115 for
more information.

Sync Loop —The IN and OUT jacks are wired together so that you can form a daisy chain.

The termination switch terminates the line with 75-ohms, for use when PowerScript is at
the end of sync loop.

Use of sync loop is optional. A reference, or sync, input is provided for connection to
your studio’s time base reference (house black). A sync output is also included and
the termination can be switched. See page 123 for further instructions.

SC Phase Adjustment —The Coarse SC adjustment varies SC delay over approximately a

360 degree range in steps of 32 degrees for NTSC/525 systems and 26 degrees for PAL/625
systems. The Fine adjustment is continuously variable over a +/- 30 degree range.

Chapter 1 Introducing PowerScript

PowerScript Front Panel

PC Card Slot

Power

Light

Keyboard

Jack

Serial Mouse

Jack

(Slot A:)

PowerScript Rear Panel • PS4000S and PS4000SC

The Component IN Jacks and Component OUT Jacks are available only on the PowerScript Model PS4000SC

uu

Component IN Jacks Component OUT Jacks

PC Card Slot

(Slot B:)

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

RISK OF FIRE

REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING

1A FOR 120 VAC

.5A FOR 220 VAC

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

SYNC Loop

Video IN Jacks Preview OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

Video OUT Jacks

Power Connector

RS-232 Jack GPI Jacks (2)

Switch

Fuse Box

6

SC Phase Adjustment

Key OUT

Videonics PowerScript Identifying PowerScript Jacks and Panels

VIDEO IN Jacks —Connect a video input device (such as a VTR) to either the composite

or Y/C jack.

If you plan to use PowerScript to key titles atop video (using the internal linear
keyer), connect a video source to one of the VIDEO IN jacks—composite or Y/C.
Switching between these jacks occurs automatically. That is, if you plug a device into
the Y/C jack, PowerScript automatically disables the composite jack.

VIDEO OUT Jacks —Connect a video output device (such as a monitor or VTR) to either

the composite or Y/C jack.

The device connected to the VIDEO OUT jack displays finished pages when you play
them. The device does not normally show pages as you create them, nor does it show
menus or the mouse cursor (see PREVIEW OUT below). The exception to this is that
you can use the same monitor as your preview and Video OUT monitor, in which
case menus, the mouse cursor, and work-in-progress does appear on this device (see
“Using PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode” on page 24 for more information).

PREVIEW OUT —Connect the device you will use for previewing your work, such as a

video monitor. Use only a composite device.

All titles and graphics you create appear on the preview monitor. This monitor dis­plays the menus, mouse cursor, and work-in-progress.

KEY OUT —For downstream key use.

Use of the KEY OUT jack is optional. A monochrome key signal, provided in compos­ite video format, is used for downstream key applications in which keying is per­formed by a switcher. When using this jack, create a connection between the KEY
OUT jack and the switcher’s keying input. Character fill is carried by the Video OUT
jack. See “DSK” on page 107 for further information.

7

Chapter 1 Introducing PowerScript

U

SING

THIS

I

NSTRUCTION

M

ANUAL

This PowerScript Instruction Manual helps you use PowerScript efficiently and produc­tively. You can use it as a learning tool when you first begin using PowerScript, then sub­sequently use it as a reference source when you need to do specific procedures.

Take a moment to understand the manual’s organization. This helps you quickly find
information you want when you need it.

Table 2: Instruction Manual Organization

Chapter

Chapter 1, Introducing
PowerScript

Chapter 2, Equipment Setups

Chapter 3

Tutorial

Chapter 4

Working with Menus

Chapter 5

Working with Objects

Chapter 6

Using PowerScript

Chapter 7

Advanced PowerScript Functions

Chapter 8

PowerScript Computer
Connections

Description of Content

Describes PowerScript features, front and rear panel
components, and manual organization

Discusses basic procedures you should complete
before setting up your equipment, ways to configure
the equipment, and related information.

Contains a series of lessons designed to acquaint you
with basic PowerScript operations.

Instructions for working with the PowerScript menus
and their controls.

Explains how to work with PowerScript objects—the
basic building blocks for your productions.

Step-by-step procedures for using the most common
PowerScript features.

Procedural instructions explaining less frequently
used PowerScript functions.

Explains how to set up and use PowerScript with a
computer platform, including serial, Internet, and
Ethernet connections and functions.

Chapter 9

PowerScript Reference

Appendix A

PowerScript Fonts

Appendix B

Using the PowerScript Mouse
and Keyboard

Appendix C

PowerScript-Provided Graphic
Files

Appendix D

PowerScript Control Keys

Appendix E

PowerScript Specifications

Brief descriptions of PowerScript menus and menu
options organized by menu.

Lists and provides samples of the PostScript fonts
provided with PowerScript

Basic instructions for using the PowerScript mouse
pointing device and keyboard.

Describes the graphic files included with PowerScript.
These are illustration files and test patterns.

Listings of all PowerScript control keys. Same as the
PowerScript Quick Reference Card, but with a bit
more information.

General specifications and features for the
PowerScript models.

8

Videonics PowerScript Conventions Used in this Instruction Manual

Conventions Used in this Instruction Manual

This manual uses various conventions to help you visually identify certain types of infor­mation. Some of these conventions might not be clear to you until you begin the tutorial
lessons in a later chapter.

Special formatting identifies tips, notes, cautions, and warnings.

Tip

A tip provides suggestions and other information designed to help you use PowerScript in the
most efficient manner.

Note

A note highlights information deserving special attention.

CAUTION

A caution lets you know to proceed carefully before doing a procedure because
there is a risk of losing data or damaging your equipment.

WARNING!

A warning identifies procedures that could damage your equipment, your
data, or even yourself.

Menus

PowerScript uses menus to provide access to its features and functions. PowerScript
menus work much like restaurant menus—you select the items (or, options) you want
from the menu. However, instead of one menu, PowerScript provides you with several
different ones as a way of organizing functions. In this manual, the names of menus
appear in UPPERCASE BOLDFACE type.

PowerScript provides two different types of menus—Standard menus and Power menus.
Standard menus appear on-screen as rather large rectangles. Power menus are smaller ver­sions of the Standard menus and they normally appear at the outer edges of the screen.
Most Standard menus have a Power menu version. Due to their compact size and loca­tion, you can leave some or all of the Power menus on-screen as you work, thus provid­ing quick and easy access to PowerScript functions while consuming a minimum amount
of screen space. Most illustrations in this manual show the Standard versions of the
menus. See “Standard and Power Menus” on page 56 for details.

Restaurant menus contain names of food selections—PowerScript menus, however, con­tain names of options. In this manual, option names appear in italics. You might, for
example, encounter a phrase such as “Select the Box option in the CREATE menu.”

The phrase means you should open the CREATE menu, then select
the Box option. To select an option, you normally point to it with the
mouse pointer, then click the left-hand mouse button.

This is the Standard version of the CREATE menu—
This is the Power version.

The Standard and Power versions of the CREATE menu contain the same options.
Not every Standard menu has a Power version.

9

Chapter 1 Introducing PowerScript

Control Keys

CCtrl

Enter Keys

PowerScript control keys provide shortcuts to menus, options, and other features. For
example, to access the Copy option on the CLIP menu, you normally display the menu,
then click the option. Using control keys, you can do the same task by typing a couple of
keys on the keyboard—much more efficient and considerably faster.

You enter control keys by pressing certain keys in combination with other keys. For
example, when you press and hold down the key labeled Ctrl, then type the letter C, it is
the same as displaying the CLIP menu and clicking the Copy option.

This manual identifies control key combinations by separating the keys with the plus (+)
symbol. For example, the Ctrl and C key combination above is expressed as Ctrl+C. Sim­ilarly, a combination of three keys would be expressed as Ctrl+Shift+F1.

Some control keys do not actually include the Ctrl key—for example, entering Shift+Esc
closes all menus currently on the screen. These are still identified as control keys.

The PowerScript Quick Reference Card lists all available control keys. The keyboard
template (included in the PowerScript package) identifies most of the control keys and
can be placed directly on the keyboard for easy reference.

PowerScript also provides “key mapping” options for keyboards used in different coun­tries. For example, if you are using a German keyboard, simply select that keyboard lay­out from the PowerScript key mapping options. You can then use your keyboard in the
standard manner. See “Remapping the Keyboard” on page 144.

The PowerScript keyboard contains two separate Enter keys—one on the keypad and one
on the standard keyboard. Normally, you can use the keys interchangeably. When a dis­tinction is necessary, this instruction manual refers to the Enter key on the standard key­board as the Alpha Enter key, and refers to the Enter key on the keypad as the Numeric
Enter key.

10

Videonics PowerScript Conventions Used in this Instruction Manual

File Names and File

Type Extensions

While working with PowerScript, you work with different types of files. (Files store infor­mation and other data that PowerScript needs to operate.) PowerScript uses a standard
computer-based scheme (known as the “DOS File Naming Convention”) for naming files.

File names consist of eight characters, followed by a period, followed by a three character
file type extension. The eight character limit means you need to be creative coming up
with meaningful file names. On the other hand, you can use only pre-defined character
combinations as file type extensions because these extensions tell PowerScript what the
file contains and how to use it. This manual explains when and how to use file type
extensions. Examples of file names and extensions follow.

File Name and
Extension

CARTOONS.PRJ Identifies a project file. The name of the project is CARTOONS.

LOGO.EPS Names a graphic file. The name of the file is LOGO. The EPS file

BOX1.APS Names a special type of EPS file. The file type (APS) indicates

Description

The PRJ file type extension tells PowerScript this is a PRoJect
file.

type extension tells PowerScript this is an Encapsulated
PostScript-type file.

that the file contains transparency information which allows
parts of the image to be transparent.

GOOMBA.JPG Names a graphic file. The name of the file is GOOMBA. The JPG

file type extension tells PowerScript this is a JPEG-type graphic
file.

MOONSHOT.PLA An automatic playback file. The filename, MOONSHOT,

identifies a specific project. The PLA file type extension tells
PowerScript to automatically PLAy the project (in this case,
MOONSHOT.PRJ) when it receives the PLA file.

STARTUP.PRJ Identifies an automatic playback file. The file name, STARTUP,

identifies a special project that tells PowerScript to play the
project whenever it starts up. The PRJ file type extension, as
above, indicates this is a PRoJect file.

11

Notes

T

2

Equipment Setups

his chapter contains instructions for setting up PowerScript to work in conjunction
with other equipment—such as video monitors, VTR’s ( V ideo T ape R ecorders), VCR’s
( V ideo C assette R ecorders), mixers, and switchers. You can also include computer equip­ment in your setup. See Chapter 8, PowerScript Computer Connections , for information
about and instructions for these types of setups.

You can set up PowerScript and related equipment in many different ways. This chapter
describes the following common equipment setups—it does not attempt to describe
every possibility:

• Using PowerScript as a Stand-Alone/Live Device

• Using PowerScript as a Primary Input Device

• Using PowerScript to Feed a Switcher’s DSK (DownStream Key)

• Using PowerScript’s Internal Key Downstream from a Switcher

• Using PowerScript in a Video Production, On-Line Studio

• Using PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode

CAUTION

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

KEYBOARD SERIAL MOUSE

POWER

Front Panel Connectors

Keyboard

Mouse

Connecting Keyboard and Mouse

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

If none of the setups shown in this chapter matches yours exactly, you can derive the
proper connections by studying the examples that most closely resemble your own.

See “About Cables” on page 27 for information about various types of cables you might
use with PowerScript.

If you are experienced with video equipment and cables, you can probably set up your
equipment just by referring to the diagrams. If the diagrams don’t tell you everything
you need to know, read the accompanying text and follow the steps in the sequence
described.

If you haven’t already checked your Videonics PowerScript package to make sure you
have all the components, see “Checking PowerScript Package Contents” on page 4.

Regardless of your setup, you need to complete some preliminary steps, as explained in
the following section.

B

ASIC

S

ETUP

P

ROCEDURES

The steps you need to complete before doing anything else include:

1

Connect the keyboard and mouse to PowerScript.

2

Check power voltage and fuses.

3

Provide power to the unit.

When connecting the keyboard and mouse, always make sure the plugs and jacks

Connecting the

Keyboard

are properly aligned. DO NOT FORCE the plug into the jack or you might damage
your equipment. We recommend you use the Keytronics keyboard provided in your
package, but you can use most AT-style keyboards.

The Keytronics keyboard has a permanently attached cord with a special plug at the end.
Look at the end of the plug—it has five connector pins that correspond to the holes in
the keyboard jack on the front panel.

¨ Orient the pins on the plug to the holes in the jack, then gently push the plug into the

jack. Check to make sure you have a solid connection.

14

CAUTION

Videonics PowerScript Checking Power Voltage and Fuses

Connecting the

Mouse

The mouse also has a permanently attached cord with a different plug at the end, shaped
to ensure that the plug connects to the jack only one way.

1

Orient the holes in the plug to the pins on the jack, then gently push the plug into the
jack.

2

Once you establish a solid connection, gently tighten the two thumb screws on either
side of the plug to secure the plug to the jack. Do not overtighten—finger-tight is suffi­cient.

Checking Power Voltage and Fuses

PowerScript ships with two fuses already installed. They are either 1 Amp, 250 Volt fuses
sufficient for 120VAC operation, or 0.75 Amp 250 Volt rating for operating at 220­240VAC. Your PowerScript fuses have been installed to match the AC line voltage in the
country where you purchased the product. You can verify which fuses are installed by
examining the “Power Connector, Switch, and Fuse Box” on the rear panel. The AC line
voltage is indicated in a red box directly to the right of the On/Off switch.

If you aren’t sure whether your power source is 120 VAC or 220-240 VAC, check with
your local power company for the information. Normally, having the wrong fuses
installed only results in blown fuses—however, other damage might occur.

To change the PowerScript fuses:

1

Turn off PowerScript.

2

Locate the Power Connector, Switch, and Fuse box at the left side of the rear panel,
then detach the power cord from the rear panel. (Refer to “Identifying PowerScript
Jacks and Panels” on page 5 for the location of items.)

3

Locate the small recess directly to the right of the red window on the rear panel.

4

Use a small-tipped screwdriver to pop-open the fuse door.

5

Once the door is open, slide the red fuse carrier out of the unit.

6

Replace the fuse or fuses as required.

7

Reassemble the fuse carrier and slide it back into the unit.

8

Replace the fuse box door.

9

Re-attach the power cord.

Providing Power to PowerScript

To provide power to PowerScript:

1

Locate the power cord in the PowerScript package.

2

Attach the female end of the power cord to the three-prong jack on the rear panel.

3

Plug the male end of the power cord into an appropriate power outlet.

4

Set the power switch to the On position, then check to make sure the green power light
on the front panel lights. If the light does not come on, check your connections on the
rear panel and at the power outlet.

5

Set the power switch to the Off position to turn PowerScript off.

15

Preview Monitor Program Monitor

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

D

ETERMINING

Y

OUR

E

QUIPMENT

This section contains examples of various setups you might use with PowerScript, along
with simple variations. Study each example and determine which one most closely fits
your equipment setup. Then follow the instructions in that section to set up your equip­ment.

If you don’t feel confident about setting up your equipment, consider taking the equip­ment manuals to a local video equipment dealer and ask for their assistance.

You might need to purchase additional cables to complete the connections. Here again,
your local video equipment dealer is a good source for gathering what you need.

S

ETUP

Preview vs. Program

Monitor

The following setup examples use two terms to describe the way you use monitors with
PowerScript— Preview monitor and Program monitor.

Any type of monitor can serve as a Preview or Program monitor. The Preview monitor is
your working monitor. That is, the PowerScript interface components (such as menus)
appear on the Preview monitor. Therefore, the Preview monitor is where you compose
productions.

The Program monitor displays your production when you play it back. For example, you
might create a page of production credits, then play it back on the Program monitor.

This manual uses the following pictures to designate between Preview and Program Mon­itors where necessary.

If you have only one monitor in your setup, it can serve as both the Preview and Program
monitor. See “Using PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode” on page 24 for details.

16

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE

REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

Preview

Monitor

Program

Monitor

Video IN

Video IN

PowerScript as a Stand-Alone / Live Device

Videonics PowerScript Using PowerScript as a Stand-Alone/Live Device

U

SING

P

OWER

S

CRIPT

AS

A

S

TAND

-A

LONE

/L

IVE

D

EVICE

This setup uses PowerScript, the keyboard, and the mouse as a stand-alone device—that
is, PowerScript is not connected to any other devices (with the exception of the monitor
or monitors).

To configure PowerScript as a Stand-Alone/Live Device:

1

Connect the Preview monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear
panel.

2

Connect the Program monitor to the VIDEO OUT connector, also on the rear panel.

Turn to “Completing the Setup” on page 26 to configure PowerScript to use two separate
monitors for Preview and Program, then complete the required steps.

17

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE
REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

Program OUT

Video IN

Video IN

Video IN

VTR OUT

Video IN

Preview

Monitor

Mixer or Switcher

Program

Monitor

VTR (optional)

PowerScript as a Primary Input Device

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

U

SING

P

OWER

S

CRIPT

AS

A

P

RIMARY

I

NPUT

D

EVICE

This setup uses a Preview monitor, a Program monitor, and a mixer or switcher. If you
also connect a VTR (optional), you can create titles on moving video on the Preview
monitor, see the results on the Program monitor, and record the finished program back
out to the VTR.

18

Videonics PowerScript Using PowerScript as a Primary Input Device

To configure PowerScript as a primary input device:

1 Connect the Preview monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear

panel.

2 Connect the mixer or switcher to the VIDEO OUT connector, also on the rear panel.

Optionally, connect the Program monitor to the Program OUT connector on the mixer
or switcher.

Also optionally, connect the VTR to the VTR OUT connector on the mixer or switcher. In
a live broadcast situation, you would probably omit the VTR.

Turn to “Completing the Setup” on page 26 to configure PowerScript to use two separate
monitors for Preview and Program, then complete the required steps.

19

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

Note

USING POWERSCRIPT TO FEED A SWITCHER’S DSK (DOWNSTREAM KEY)

With this setup you can feed PowerScript’s VIDEO OUT signal to the key input of a
switcher. You can optionally connect the Program monitor to the switcher’s Video Out.

PowerScript Feeding a Switcher’s DSK (DownStream Key)

Preview Monitor

Video IN

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

RISK OF FIRE
REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

SERIAL

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

Fill IN Key IN

Switcher

Video OUT

Video IN

Some downstream keying applications require the ability to adjust chroma, horizon­tal, and key delays. PowerScript provides limited chroma delay adjustments. Addi­tional delays must be done using external delay products.

20

Program Monitor

Videonics PowerScript Using PowerScript to Feed a Switcher’s DSK (DownStream Key)

Tip

To configure PowerScript to feed a switcher’s DSK:

1 Connect the Preview monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear

panel.

2 Connect the PowerScript VIDEO OUT connector, also on the rear panel, to the Fill IN

connector on the switcher.

3 Connect the PowerScript KEY OUT connector (rear panel) to the Key IN connector on

the switcher.

Optionally, connect the Program monitor to the Video Out connector on the mixer or
switcher.

Turn to “Completing the Setup” on page 26 to configure PowerScript to use two separate
monitors for Preview and Program, then complete the required steps.

Another possible setup is to connect the PowerScript VIDEO OUT to the Switcher’s Video IN
(rather than Fill IN). With this setup you can use the main output signal as a separate source,
or send it to the Fill IN for DSK.

21

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

GPI

Device

GPI

Time

Trigger

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE

REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

GPI 3 • GPI 4

Video

Distribution

VTR

Program Monitor

Preview

Monitor

Video Feed

Video IN

Video OUT

Video IN

GPI 1 • GPI 2

Using PowerScript’s Internal Key downstream from a Switcher

USING POWERSCRIPT’S INTERNAL KEY DOWNSTREAM FROM A SWITCHER

To configure PowerScript’s Internal Key downstream from a switcher:

1 Connect the Preview monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear

panel.

2 Connect the Video Feed (such as a signal from a mixer or switcher) to the VIDEO IN

connector, also on the rear panel.

Optionally, connect the video distribution channel or the VTR to the PowerScript VIDEO
OUT connector.

Also optionally, connect the VTR to the Program Monitor.

3 If you want to use a GPI device to trigger events, connect it to the GPI 1 and/or GPI 2

connectors on the PowerScript rear panel.

22

Turn to “Completing the Setup” on page 26 to configure PowerScript to use two separate
monitors for Preview and Program, then complete the required steps.

Videonics PowerScript Using PowerScript in a Video Production, On-Line Studio

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE
REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

Preview Monitor

Mixer

VTR

Program Monitor

Video IN

Video OUT

Video IN

Source

Source

Source

Source

PowerScript in a Video Production, On-Line Studio

USING POWERSCRIPT IN A VIDEO PRODUCTION, ON-LINE STUDIO

To configure PowerScript for use in a video production, on-line studio:

1 Connect the Preview monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear

panel.

2 Connect the mixer to the VIDEO IN connector, also on the rear panel.

Optionally, connect the VTR to the VIDEO OUT connector (PowerScript rear panel).

Also optionally, connect the Program Monitor to the Video Out connector on the VTR.

Turn to “Completing the Setup” on page 26 to configure PowerScript to use two separate
monitors for Preview and Program, then complete the required steps.

23

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

Tip

Note

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE

REPLACE FUSE

AS MARKED

FUSE RATING
1A FOR 120 VAC
.5A FOR 220 VAC

Preview / Program

Monitor

Video IN

PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode

USING POWERSCRIPT IN SINGLE-MONITOR MODE

If you have only one monitor in your setup, you can set up PowerScript to use that mon­itor as both Preview and Program. See “Configuring PowerScript in Single-Monitor
Mode” below.

If the monitor has dual input jacks, you can use one jack for the Preview Monitor and the
other for the Program Monitor. When using PowerScript, use the monitor switch to tog­gle the monitor between Preview and Program. See “Configuring PowerScript with a Sin­gle Monitor having Two Input Jacks” later in this section.

Configuring PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode

Both of the following setups recommend connecting the Preview/Program Monitor to the Pow­erScript PREVIEW OUT connector. However, you can connect to the VIDEO OUT connector
rather than PREVIEW OUT. The VIDEO OUT connector provides a higher quality signal. In
either case, the Preview/Program Monitor displays the same information.

In order to create this setup, you must have a composite monitor attached to the
PREVIEW OUT connector the first time you turn on PowerScript. Thereafter, you can
set up PowerScript to work in Single-Monitor Mode, as explained herein.

24

Videonics PowerScript Configuring PowerScript with a Single Monitor having Two Input Jacks

AC INPUT
VOLTAGE
100-240 VAC
50-60 Hz

AV

PC CARD (PCMCIA)

TYPE I, II, III

SERIAL

(RS-232) GPI-1 GPI-2

Y R-Y (U) B-Y (V) Y

IN OUT TERM FINE COARSE COMPOSITE Y/C COMPOSITE Y/C OUT OUT

R-Y (U) B-Y (V)

SYNC SC PHASE VIDEO IN VIDEO OUT PREVIEW KEY

COMPONENT IN COMPONENT OUT

RISK OF FIRE
REPLACE FUSE
AS MARKED

FUSE RATING

1A FOR 120 VAC

.5A FOR 220 VAC

Preview / Program

Monitor

Video IN 1 Video IN 2

PowerScript with a Single Monitor having Two Input Jacks

To configure PowerScript in Single-Monitor Mode:

1 Connect the monitor to the PREVIEW OUT connector on the PowerScript rear panel.

2 Start PowerScript. See “Starting and Stopping PowerScript” on page 88 for instructions.

3 Enter Ctrl+Right-click to display the MAIN MENU.

4 Click the Setup option.

Setup Option

5 When the SETUP menu appears, click the Display Parameters option to display the fol-

lowing menu.

Close Box

SETUP: DISPLAY

2

(NORMAL)

1

75%100%

AUTO

Video

6 Select the single monitor option (1) in the Monitors section (as shown above).

For additional information, see “Display Parameters” on page 122.

7 Click the Close Box to close the SETUP menu.

You can use PowerScript in single-monitor mode in combination with most of the other
setups described in this chapter. Just keep in mind that the same monitor serves as both
the Preview and Program.

Configuring PowerScript with a Single Monitor having Two Input Jacks

Select Single Monitor option

To configure PowerScript to use a single monitor with dual input jacks:

1 Connect one of the monitor jacks to the PowerScript VIDEO OUT connector on the rear

panel. This connection establishes the Program Monitor.

2 Connect the other monitor jack to the PowerScript PREVIEW OUT connector, also on

the rear panel. This connection establishes the Preview Monitor.

Do the steps in the following section, “Completing the Setup”, to configure PowerScript
to use the same monitor for Preview and Program.

25

Chapter 2 Equipment Setups

COMPLETING THE SETUP

The normal, default setup is for your configuration to use two monitors—Preview and
Program. Therefore, in most circumstances you don’t need to do anything further to
complete your setup. However, if you want to confirm that your setup is correct, or if
both monitors don’t work correctly after you start PowerScript, use the following proce­dure to verify your settings.

You can perform the following setup steps when you do “Lesson 1 Getting Started” in
Chapter 3, PowerScript Tutorial. That lesson shows you how to start PowerScript and
access the MAIN MENU. In that case, you can skip steps 1 and 2, below.

To configure PowerScript to use two monitors:

1 Start PowerScript. See “Starting and Stopping PowerScript” on page 88 for instructions.

2 Enter Ctrl+Right-click to display the MAIN MENU.

3 Click the Setup option.

Setup Option

4 When the SETUP menu appears, click the Display Parameters option to display this

menu.

Close Box

SETUP: DISPLAY

2

(NORMAL)

1

75%100%

AUTO

Video

5 Select the dual monitor option (2) in the Monitors section.

For additional information, see “Display Parameters” on page 122.

6 Click the Close Box to close the SETUP menu.

Select Dual Monitor option

26

Videonics PowerScript About Cables

Y/C (S-Video) Jack BNC Jacks

BNC to RCA Adapter

Y/C Plug BNC Plug RCA Plug

Cable Types and Jacks

ABOUT CABLES

Cables typically carry the output signal from one device to the input of another device.
The signal can then be displayed or recorded on the second device. The types of cables
and jacks you might use with PowerScript include the following:

Y/C (S-Video) Jack—The PowerScript jacks that accept an S-Video connector are labeled
Y/C.

RCA Cable—Most consumer-level electronics use RCA-type jacks and cables. Most jacks
on the PowerScript rear panel are BNC video jacks. To make a connection between an
RCA cable and the BNC video jacks on PowerScript, you need a BNC to RCA Adapter.

27

Notes

T

3

PowerScript Tutorial

his tutorial acquaints you with basic PowerScript operations and procedures. It does not
cover everything PowerScript can do. We recommend you work through all of the tuto­rial lessons from beginning to end. You should be able to complete the tutorial in about
an hour or less. Once you complete the tutorial, you can easily go on to the more
advanced operations and procedures described in later chapters.

If you aren’t familiar with mouse and keyboard operations, turn to Appendix B, Using the

PowerScript Mouse and Keyboard , to learn how to use these devices. The tutorial assumes

you know how to use the mouse and keyboard.

SCENARIO

Your production company, SIGHTnSOUND, needs to produce three title screens for
an upcoming video production. You’ve been assigned the task of creating the title
screens using your new PowerScript—which you just finished unpacking and setting
up with your other equipment.

The production consists of an Opening, Title, and Credits pages.

Note

SIGHTnSOUND

SIGHTnSOUND

A

Presentation

A

Presentation

The Story of the

American Red Cross

Gimme

Shelter

Gimme

Shelter

Production Design

.....

ChristopherKIRK

Videographer

.....

JamieSTUART

Written by

.....

ErnestHEMING

Editor

.....

JackPARIS,

A.C.E.

Lighting

.....

StevenSPINBURG

Executive Producer

.....

FrancisCOPRA

Opening

Title Credits

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

L

ESSON

1

ETTING

G

S

TARTED

This lesson explains how to start PowerScript, access the MAIN MENU , and create new
projects.

Starting PowerScript

Make sure PowerScript is connected to a suitable power supply outlet.

To start PowerScript:

1

Locate the power switch on the rear panel and move it to the On position.

The green power light glows on the front panel. (If the light does not glow, you have a faulty
power connection.) After a few moments, this picture appears on the Preview monitor:

START CARD

This picture appears any time you start PowerScript without first inserting the Start Card. It’s
PowerScript’s way of telling you to insert the Start Card so it can begin work.

2

Locate the Start Card that came with the PowerScript package and insert it into the
front PC card slot.

Hold the Start Card as shown in the preceding picture—with the label up, the PowerScript
name at the top, and the Videonics name and logo at the bottom. Then gently push the card
into the slot until you meet resistance and it won’t go any further.

It takes approximately 15 to 30 seconds for PowerScript to complete the start-up procedures.
The first page of the Demo project then appears (this is because the Demo project was the last
one opened on the start card). The Demo project contains many examples of title screens
you can create with PowerScript. After completing the tutorial you might want to return to
the Demo project to see the other types of things you can do.

Normally the first page of the last project you were working with appears on the
screen when you start PowerScript.

Mouse Cursor

30

Move the mouse around a little on the desk and notice that the
mouse cursor (shown at the left) moves in unison. You use the
cursor (or, pointer) to select and work with the items you create
in this tutorial.

ALIGNMODIFYSELECT

CLIPCREATE

PROJ/PG

POWER 
MENUS

TRANS

SHADOW OUTLINEFILLTEXT

BKGND

HELP

SETUP

Ctrl

Ctrl+Right-Click displays MAIN MENU

PROJ/PG

POWER 
MENUS

TRANS

SHADOW OUTLINEFILLTEXT

BKGND

HELP

SETUP

Place the mouse pointer directly on top of the
Proj/Pg option in the MAIN MENU

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

SnS Opening

A:\ AUTO.APS
A:\ AUTO.EPS
A:\ DEMO

1.

31

Videonics PowerScript Accessing the Main Menu

Accessing the Main Menu

The MAIN MENU is the PowerScript “control center.” You access all other options
(such as Create, Clip, Text, Shadow, Fill, and so forth) from this location. You can
display the MAIN MENU at any time.

¨ Move the cursor toward the upper left corner of the screen, press and hold down the

Ctrl key, then click the Right mouse button (this is hereafter referred to as a “right­click”). The PowerScript MAIN MENU appears.

Creating a New Project

A PowerScript Project is a defined unit of work, such as the task you’ve been assigned
to create material for the SIGHTnSOUND production. A Project is comprised of one
or more Pages, such as the individual title screens you’ll be creating. You need to give
each project a name so that you can later identify it.

For this exercise, name the new project TUTORIAL. You can easily change the name
of any project whenever you want to do so.

1

Move the mouse to position the cursor immediately over the small picture (or, option)
in the MAIN MENU that is labeled Proj/Pg —near the lower right corner.

2

Click the Left mouse button—the PROJECT/PAGE menu appears.

Note

Note

Tip

Selected

Project

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

A:\ AUTO.APS
A:\ AUTO.EPS
A:\ DEMO
A:\TUTORIAL

1.

SnS

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

Hereafter, the process of pointing to an item then clicking the Left mouse button is
referred to as “selecting” or “clicking.” For example, “Select the Proj/Pg option in the

MAIN MENU ,” or “Click Proj/Pg .”

For now, we’re concerned only with the items on the left side of the menu—that is, those
items under Projects . The selected item, A: Demo , identifies the project that is currently dis­played on the screen. The A: portion of the item indicates that the project resides on the PC
card inserted in the front panel PC card slot—that is, the Start Card you inserted earlier. If
the card contained other projects, they would also appear in this list. AUTO.APS and
AUTO.EPS are automatic display graphics—they won’t be covered in this tutorial.

3

To begin creating the new project, click the New button—just below the project list. The
NEW PROJECT menu appears.

4

Click the text box just below the New Project Name option. A vertical line (called a text
cursor) appears in the box indicating you can type information in the box.

5

Type the word “TUTORIAL”—the name for the project—without the quote marks.

Don’t type quote marks throughout this tutorial unless specifically directed to do so.

The characters .PRJ appear to the right of the text box. This is a “file type extension”—it tells
PowerScript what type of file (a PR o J ect file) you are creating. PowerScript automatically
appends the file type extension, so you don’t have to enter the characters.

The A:(FRONT) option should already be selected. If not, click the radio button just to the left
of the option to select it. This identifies the PC card and slot where the new project will be
stored.

6

Click in the Comment text box to insert the text cursor, then type “SnS” (for SIGHT­nSOUND).

7

Click the New button. PowerScript takes a moment to create the new project on the PC
card.

8

Click the close box (the small box in the upper left corner of the New Project menu) to
remove the menu from the screen

You can also press the Esc key to remove the menu.

When you return to the PROJECT/PAGE menu, the new project you just created appears
in the project list. The project is selected in the list, as indicated by the gray box sur­rounding it.

32

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

A:\ AUTO.APS
A:\ AUTO.EPS
A:\ DEMO
A:\TUTORIAL

1.

SnS

This is the new, blank page that PowerScript
creates automatically whenever you create a
new project. If the page isn’t visible here,
drag the scroll box up or down to locate it.

Use the buttons and other controls in this
part of the PROJECT/PAGE menu to
renumber, create, save, and delete pages.

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 2 Creating the Opening Page, Adding and Modifying Objects

L

ESSON

2

REATING

C

THE

O

PENING

P

AGE

, A

DDING

You’re ready to create the first page for the new project and add some objects to the
page. You’ll also learn how to modify objects by setting their “attributes” and
repositioning them on the page.

Any time you create a new project, PowerScript automatically creates one blank
page. To confirm this, look at the right side of the PROJECT/PAGE menu and you see
a page with the number 1 .

AND

M

ODIFYING

O

BJECTS

Naming a Page

You can use the new default page as the first one for the new project. (In a later
lesson you’ll learn how to add more pages to the project.) However, the page does
not currently have a name, so add a name (or, comment) for later reference.

1

With the page selected in the page list, click in the Comment text box just above the list
to insert the text cursor.

2

Type “Opening” then press Alpha Enter. The text you entered becomes both the com­ment for and the name of the page.

PowerScript keeps track of pages by their numbers, not by their name or comment. Page
names and comments help you identify pages.

33

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

Note

SIGHTnSOUND

SIGHTnSOUND

A

Presentation

A

Presentation

Oval Object Option

Move Handle

Skew Handle Resize Handle

Rotate Handle

Bounding Rectangle

The oval object is not a
perfect circle, which is
due to the fact that the
screen proportions of
television monitors are
not one-to-one. See
following note.

Adding Objects to a Page

The Opening page consists of several oval (or, circle) objects, a box object, and three
text objects.

1

Click the Create option on the MAIN MENU to display the CREATE menu.

34

MODIFY

a

a

a

2

When the CREATE menu appears, click the Oval object option, then click the menu close
box to remove the menu.

A new oval object appears at the center of the page. A rectangle (called the bounding rectan-

gle ) surrounds the object. Small squares with symbols inside (called object handles) appear

at each corner of the bounding rectangle.

The object handles provide a way to manipulate an object. Along with the bounding rectan­gle, they also provide a visual indication that the object is currently “selected.” In order to
work with an object (such as moving, rotating, or changing its attributes), you must first
select it.

100

110

100

%

On an NTSC unit, to make an oval a perfect circle, display the MODIFY menu
(Ctrl+F7). Then enter 110 in the Horizontal Scale text box and 100 in the Vertical
Scale. On a PAL unit, leave Horizontal Scale at 100 and set Vertical Scale to 109. Then,

a

close the MODIFY menu.

3 Click in any open area of the page away from the oval object you just created. This

“deselects” the object, and its bounding rectangle and object handles disappear. Click

the object once more to display its bounding rectangle and handles.

Videonics PowerScript Setting Object Attributes

FILL

HUE

SATURATION

BRIGHTNESS

OPACITY

100
100

50

100

Fill On/Off

Slider Knobs

Text Boxes

4 Click the Resize handle and drag down and to the right. Release the mouse button

when the oval object is about twice its original size and as near to a perfect circle as you
can make it.

5 Click the Move handle and drag the oval object about one-third of the way down from

the top-left corner of the screen.

Compare your page to the one shown at the left.

Make sure the oval object is selected before continuing with the following steps.

Setting Object Attributes

1 Click the Fill option on the MAIN MENU to display the FILL menu.

Page Clipboard

Copy

Paste

The FILL menu determines the object’s color and opacity (or, transparency). You can approx­imate colors using the slider knobs for each of the values—but to create precise values, it’s
best to enter them in the text boxes.

2 Click inside the Hue text box and enter “100” to specify the color red.
3 Using the same procedure, enter “100” in the Saturation text box, and “70” in the

Brightness text box. Leave the Opacity text box set to 100.

4 In order for the fill attribute you’ve specified to appear with the object, you must select

the Fill On/Off option—that is, the box must contain an X. If the box does not contain
an X, click the box to select the option—otherwise, leave it as is.

5 Close the FILL menu.

You now have a red circle on the page. In the following steps, you create the “bull’s-eye
target” by copying, pasting, resizing, and setting the fill color for the other elements of the
target.

6 With the oval object still selected, press and hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard, type the

letter C (for Copy), then release both keys.

You have just used control keys as a shortcut. PowerScript provides many different control key
combinations that you can use to display menus, select menu options, and so forth, rather
than having to display a menu and click an option every time. In this particular case, the
control key you entered (hereafter expressed as Ctrl+C, or whatever combination applies) is
the same as displaying the CLIP menu and selecting the Copy option. From here on in this
tutorial, we normally use control keys rather than the menus and options for the sake of effi­ciency. For a complete list of control key combinations, see the PowerScript Quick Reference
Card.

The Copy option you just executed places a duplicate of the selected object (the oval) on the
PowerScript clipboard—a temporary area in memory. The original object remains on the
page, and the clipboard now contains a copy of the object.

7 Deselect the oval object on the page (by clicking in any open area of the page), then

enter Ctrl+V (for Paste).

The Ctrl+V control key executes the Paste option—which places the current contents of the
clipboard on the page. You now have two oval objects on the page (one directly on top of the
other) with the one you just pasted currently selected. You can now change the size and fill
color of the new object.

35

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

75

%

a

a

MODIFY

Enter 75 in the Uniform Scale text box. This
decreases the object’s size to 75% of its
current dimensions.

ALIGN

Ctrl+Alt+C and Ctrl+Alt+M are shortcut control keys for the

Align Center and Align Middle options on the ALIGN menu,
respectively.

8 Enter Ctrl+F3 (the F3 key is located at the top of the keyboard) to display the FILL menu.
9 Using the procedure you learned earlier, set the following values for the object’s fill

attributes: Hue=0, Saturation=0, Brightness=100, Opacity=100.

The new oval object now has a white fill color.

10 Enter Ctrl+F7 to display the MODIFY menu, then…

11 Close the MODIFY menu.

The page now contains two oval objects—a large object with a red fill color, and a smaller
object with a white fill color. This page needs four separate oval objects to form the bull’s-eye
target; so you need to create two more oval objects. You can do this using the same basic
steps you used to create the second oval object.

12 Enter Ctrl+C to copy the second oval object to the clipboard.
13 Deselect the current object, then enter Ctrl+V to paste the clipboard contents to the

page.

14 Set the fill color for the new object to the same as the original oval object—Hue=100,

Saturation=100, Brightness=70, Opacity=100.

When you want to find out the fill attributes of an existing object (such as the original oval
object), select that object then display the FILL menu. When the menu appears, the text
boxes show the object’s fill attribute values.

15 Modify the size of the new object to 65% of its original size.
16 Repeat the four preceding steps to create the fourth and final object. Set its fill color to

white and resize it to 50% of its original dimensions.

Compare your page with the one shown at the left.

Aligning Objects on a Page

Chances are that the four oval objects you just created to form the bull’s-eye target
are evenly aligned with one another. Just to make sure they are aligned, however, do
the following steps.

1 Enter Ctrl+A to select all objects on the page.
2 Enter Ctrl+Alt+C to align all objects horizontally on their centers.

Note that this is a slightly different control key combination—it involves pressing and hold­ing both the Ctrl key and Alt key while typing the letter C.

3 Enter Ctrl+Alt+M to align the objects vertically on their centers.

36

Videonics PowerScript Adding the Remaining Objects

Adding the Remaining Objects

To complete this first page, you must add a box object and three text objects.

1 Enter Ctrl+B to add a box object to the page. The object appears at the center of the

page and PowerScript displays its bounding rectangle and object handles.

2 Click and drag the box object’s resize handle to make the box about one-half the height

of the bull’s-eye target, and about three-quarters the width of the page (or, screen).

3 Drag the box object upward toward the top of the screen so that its bottom is slightly

above the bottom of the largest oval object in the bull’s-eye target.

This step ensures that when you use the Align option in a later step the two objects align at
the lowest point of the large oval object. Compare your page to the one shown at the left.

4 Hold down the Shift key and select the largest of the bull’s-eye target oval objects.

Holding down the Shift key lets you select more than one object at a time (this is called
Shift-Clicking). Both the box object and the largest oval object should be selected. Make
sure you selected the largest oval object and not one of the smaller ones.

5 Enter Ctrl+Shift+B to align the large oval object and the new box object at their bot-

toms.

6 Shift-click the large oval object to deselect it. This leaves only the box object selected.

Shift-clicking can be used to deselect objects as well as select them.

7 Set the fill color for the box object to the same attributes as the large oval object—

Hue=100, Saturation=100, Brightness=70, and Opacity=100.

8 Enter Ctrl+Shift+F. This executes the Send to Back option (found in the SELECT menu)

and moves the box object “behind” all of the objects that comprise the bull’s-eye tar­get.

Every object you place on a page occupies a separate layer. The first object occupies the first
(or, back-most) layer. All subsequent objects occupy layers on top of or in front of the previous
layer or layers. Therefore, an object on one layer might cover all or part of an object on a pre­vious layer. You’ve used this feature to cause the box object to appear as though it is part of
the bull’s-eye target because all of the objects comprising the bull’s-eye are in front of the box
object.

Once again, compare your page to the one shown at the left.

9 Enter Ctrl+T to add a new text object to the page. The new object appears at the center

of the page and because it does not yet contain any characters, it is extremely narrow.
The object handles, however, let you know the object is there.

10 Type “SIGHTnSOUND”.

As you type, the text object expands and the individual characters appear. If you make a mis­take while typing, press the Backspace key to erase as many characters as necessary, then con­tinue typing.

11 Place the mouse pointer to the left of the first capital letter “S” in the text object, then

drag to the right all the way to the end of the text string.

Note that what we are
doing here is selecting the
text characters within the
text object.

SIGHTnSOUND

Click here Drag to here and release

You have selected all characters in the text object. Selecting individual text characters works a
little differently from selecting a complete object. It gives you the ability to apply attributes
to one or more characters that comprise a complete text string. You could have, for example,

(If you don’t understand the
term “drag,” read Appendix B,

Using the PowerScript Mouse and
Keyboard.)

37

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

FONTS

DELETECOPY

Bookwoman-DemiSH

A: Bookwoman-DemiItalSH
R Bookwoman-DemiSH
A: Bookwoman-LightItalSH
A: Bookwoman-LightSH
R Courier-BoldObliqueSH
R Courier-BoldSH
R Courier-ObliqueSH
R Courier-SH
R Forefront-BookObliqueSH
R Forefront-BookSH
R Forefront-DemiObliqueSH

Locate the Bookwoman-DemiSH
font in the list and click the font
name to select it.

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

50

0

0

Bookwoman-DemiSH

Character Size

Line Spacing

Character Spacing

Justification

Left
Center
Right

SHADOW

%

100

44

Shadow Displacement

Shadow Opacity

Shadow On/Off

selected only the word SIGHT in the text object by stopping at the end of the capital letter
“T”. For this exercise you’re going to make changes to all of the characters, so you need to
select the entire text string.

As you drag, PowerScript highlights each character to indicate it is selected. The highlighting
might be difficult to detect, but if you look closely you can tell that all of the letters have
been selected.

Tip

To easily select all characters in a text object, enter Ctrl+A.

12 Enter Ctrl+Shift+F1 to display the FONTS menu, then…

When you select a font name in the FONTS menu, PowerScript immediately changes the
selected text characters to that font. This instant feedback helps you locate the desired font.

13 Close the FONTS menu.
14 Enter Ctrl+F3 to display the FILL menu.
15 Set the fill color for the text characters to white (Hue=0, Saturation=0, Brightness=100,

Opacity=100), then close the FILL menu.

16 Enter Ctrl+F1 to display the TEXT menu.

17 Enter “50” in the Character Size text box. Set Line Spacing and Character Spacing to 0

(zero) if they aren’t already set to that value. Select the Center Justification option.

18 Close the TEXT menu.

38

19 Enter Ctrl+F2 to display the SHADOW menu and create a drop shadow for the text.

Videonics PowerScript Adding the Remaining Objects

SIGHTnSOUND

SIGHTnSOUND

A

Presentation

A

Presentation

For quick, easy alignment, select all three text objects, then
enter Ctrl+Alt+C to align them at their horizontal centers.

20 Use the two text boxes to set Shadow Displacement to 4. Set Shadow Opacity to 100.

Select the Shadow On/Off option to display the shadow. Close the SHADOW menu.

You need to create two more text objects to complete the Opening page. Use what you’ve
learned up to this point to create the two text objects (Ctrl+T). Assign the following
attributes to these objects:

Attribute Attribute Values Menu

Font Style Heavenetica TEXT (Ctrl+F1)

Font Size 25 TEXT (Ctrl+F1)

Justification Center TEXT (Ctrl+F1)

Fill Color White:

FILL (Ctrl+F3)

Hue=0
Saturation=0
Brightness=100
Opacity=100

Drop Shadow Displacement=2 pixels

SHADOW (Ctrl+F2)

Opacity=100

Use the object handles to position the two objects approximately as shown here.

Tip

Congratulations! You’ve just created your first PowerScript page. If it doesn’t look exactly
like the one shown above, don’t worry too much about it. However, you should have
been able to create all of the object attribute settings—including fill colors, shadows,
fonts, layer positioning, and so forth. If you had any trouble with these concepts, re-trace
your steps against the instructions so that you are sure you understand how to create and
modify objects.

39

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

HUE

SATURATION

BRIGHTNESS

30
50

25

BACKGROUND

Background On/Off

LESSON 3

REATING A BACKGROUND, SAVING A PAGE, AND PLAYING A PAGE

C

When you want the objects on a page to play against a solid background, you need
to specify the background color and activate the background option.

1 Enter Ctrl+F9 to display the BACKGROUND menu.

2 Select the Background On/Off option.

When you select the Background On/Off option, the page appears with a solid color back-
ground during playback. When you deselect the option, the background is omitted and the
page can play over an incoming video signal, if present. You’ll learn more about this when
you create and roll the Credits page in a later lesson.

3 Set the following values for the background fill color: Hue=30, Saturation=50, Bright-

ness=50. These values produce a medium blue background.

4 Close the BACKGROUND menu.

Normally, the background appears only when you play the page, so you won’t see it when
you close the menu. However, if you’ve configured PowerScript to operate in Single-Monitor
mode, the background does appear.

5 Enter Ctrl+F12 to display the PROJECT/PAGES menu.
6 Click the Save button near the lower-right corner of the menu (or enter Ctrl+S), then

close the PROJECT/PAGES menu.

PowerScript continually and automatically saves your work as you go. So, although it isn’t
absolutely necessary, get in the habit of saving pages periodically.

Playing the Page

1 Locate the Scroll Lock key on the keyboard and press it once.

Scroll

Lock

Enter

40

To the right of the Scroll Lock key is an LED indicator that now glows green. This means
Scroll Lock is engaged. If the LED is not lit, press Scroll Lock again to engage it.

When the Scroll Lock LED is lit, PowerScript is in Play Mode—ready to play pages. When the
LED is not lit, PowerScript is in Edit Mode—ready to create and modify pages.

2 Press the Numeric Enter key.

There is a momentary delay while PowerScript prepares the page for playback. The page then
appears on the screen and remains there until you specifically remove it.

3 Press Scroll Lock to disengage Play Mode.
4 Press either Enter key to return to Edit Mode and display the page.

If you press Esc (rather than the Enter key), PowerScript removes the page from the screen
and returns you to Edit Mode. The difference here is that after pressing Esc, the screen is
empty.

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 4 Adding the Title Page

The Story of the

American Red Cross

Gimme

Shelter

Gimme

Shelter

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

1. Opening

SnS

A: AUTOAPS
A: AUTOEPS
A: DEMO
A: TUTORIAL

Opening

Note that TUTORIAL is the selected
project, and Opening is the selected
page.

This button inserts a new blank page
at the end of the page list.

LESSON 4

DDING THE TITLE PAGE

A

You can now create the second page in the production—the Title page. The main
difference between the Opening and Title pages is that the latter contains a couple
of EPS graphic files—the cloud and the umbrella.

The instructions in this lesson explain how to create a new page and add the EPS
graphics and the geometric object (the red cross). You should be able to create the
text objects on your own using the skills acquired in the preceding lessons.

Creating the Title Page

1 Display the PROJECT/PAGES menu (Ctrl+F12).

2 Click the New:End button (or enter Ctrl+N) to create a new, blank page at the end of the

project. The new page appears below the Opening page. It is automatically assigned
the page number 1.1. (You’ll learn more about page numbering later in this tutorial.)

3 Click in the Comment text box above the pages list, type “Title”, then click in any open

area of the menu.

4 Close the PROJECTS/PAGES menu.

41

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

GRAPHICS

DELETERENAME

COPY

XYZZY

A: ARROW4.EPS
A: ARROW5.EPS
A: ARROW6.EPS
A: ARROW7.EPS
A: BOX1.APS
A: BOX2.APS
A: BOXX3.EPS
A: CC.EPS
A: CCSYMBOL.EPS
A: CHECK1.EPS
A: CIRCLE2.APS
A: CIRCLE3.APS
A: CIRCLE4.APS
A: CLOUDGRY.EPS
A: CLOUDWT.EPS
A: FLARE.EIPS

Locate the CLOUDWT.EPS file in the list and
click the name to select that file.

Place Graphic button

%

%

a

a

a

a

a

a

MODIFY

60

135

Enter 135 in the Uniform Scale text box to increase the size
of the umbrella.

Enter 60 in the Rotate text box to rotate the umbrella 60˚ in
a clockwise direction.

(If you wanted to rotate the object in a counter-clockwise
direction, you would enter a negative value, such as -60.)

Select Object Visibility option—this option must be selected in
order for the object to appear on the page.

Adding Graphic Objects to the Page

PowerScript comes with an assortment of graphic files you can use in any project.
They are stored on the PowerScript Start Card.

1 Enter Ctrl+E to display the GRAPHICS menu, then…

2 Select the CLOUDWT.EPS file and click the Place Graphic button. The graphic object

appears at the center of the page, just like any other object.

3 Scroll down toward the bottom of the list, locate the UMBRELLA.EPS file, select the file,

then click Place Graphic again to place that object on the page.

4 Close the GRAPHICS menu.
5 With only the UMBRELLA.EPS object selected, enter Ctrl+F7 to display the MODIFY

menu, then…

42

Videonics PowerScript Adding Graphic Objects to the Page

Note

%

%

a

a

a

a

a

a

MODIFY

0

100

275

160

0

Enter 275 in the Horizontal Scale text box and
160 in the Vertical Scale text box.

Select Object Visibility option

6 Leave the MODIFY menu open, deselect the umbrella object, then select the cloud

object. Enter the values shown below in the MODIFY menu to change the size of the
cloud.

7 Arrange the umbrella and cloud objects similar to the page shown at the left. Then

you’re ready to create the Red Cross logo.

8 Enter Ctrl+B to create a box object.
9 Display the FILL menu and set the object attributes to: Hue=100, Saturation=100, Bright-

ness=75, and Opacity=100. Close the FILL menu when finished.

Dragging to select objects

The scaling values mentioned in the following steps might not be correct for your
particular television monitor, depending on resolution. Basically, the objective is to
create two objects of equal proportions to form a red cross. You might need to substi­tute different scaling values to create a red cross of the size and scale you need.

10 In the MODIFY menu, set the object’s Horizontal Scale to 50 and its Vertical Scale to 25.
11 With the box object still selected, enter Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard.
12 Deselect the box object and enter Ctrl+V to paste a copy of the object on the page.
13 With the object copy selected, go to the MODIFY menu and enter a rotation value of 90

in the Rotate text box. Close the MODIFY menu when finished.

14 Position the mouse pointer in an open area of the page, slightly above and to the left of

the two box objects. Then drag down and to the right—as you drag, notice the rectan­gle formed by the mouse movement.

15 When the rectangle encloses or touches both objects, release the mouse button.

This illustrates another way of selecting multiple objects (in addition to the Shift-Click
method discussed earlier). When you use this method, PowerScript selects any object the
rectangle touches as you drag. If you select more objects than you want, you can re-drag the
rectangle, or Shift-click those objects you do not want in the selection to deselect them.

16 Enter Ctrl+Alt+C, then enter Ctrl+Alt+M. This aligns both objects at their horizontal and

vertical centers.

If the two objects do not appear to be aligned correctly, select one or the other of the objects,
then press the arrow keys to nudge the object left, right, up, or down in increments of one­pixel (which is one video scan line).

17 When you’re satisfied that the objects form a good Red Cross, move them down to the

lower-right part of the page.

18 Enter Ctrl+F9 to display the BACKGROUND menu and set the background to the same

as that for the Title page—Hue=30, Saturation=50, Brightness=50. Select the Background
Attribute Option, then close the BACKGROUND menu.

19 Create a new Text object and enter “Gimme Shelter.”

43

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

50

0

0

Bookwoman-DemiSH

Word Wrap option

Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter

Gimme

Shelter

The Word Wrap handle appears when
you activate the Word Wrap option.

When you drag the Word Wrap handle, a vertical bar
appears to track your position in the Text object.

Release the mouse button and PowerScript resizes the Text
object and makes all words fit within the new size you specified
by dragging and releasing the Word Wrap handle.

20 Select the text string you just entered (Gimme Shelter) and assign it the VAG Rounded-

Black font with a white fill color and a small drop shadow.

21 Deselect the text in the Text object, then click to object to select it (object handles

should appear on the four corners of the object’s bounding rectangle).

22 Display the TEXT menu (Ctrl+F1), select the Word Wrap option, then close the menu.

23 Look at the Text object and note that a Word Wrap handle appears on the right side of

the bounding rectangle. Drag the handle to the left and a vertical bar appears. When
the bar is located atop the “h” in the word Shelter, release the mouse button.

24 Now, work on your own for a few minutes and create the Text object for the subtitle,

“The Story of the American Red Cross.” You can use the Word Wrap feature to make the
subtitle appear on two separate lines, or press the Alpha Enter key while typing the text
to force a line break wherever you want it to occur. Use your creativity and experiment
with some of the other options to learn what they do and how to use them. When
you’re ready to move on to the next lesson, save your page (Ctrl+S) when you finish
working on it.

44

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 5 Adding the Credits Page

Production Design

.....

ChristopherKIRK

Videographer

.....

JamieSTUART

Written by

.....

ErnestHEMING

Editor

.....

JackPARIS,

A.C.E.

Lighting

.....

StevenSPINBURG

Executive Producer

.....

FrancisCOPRA

The text object for the Credits page actually contains
more job descriptions and names than shown here. The
text object extends beyond the bottom of the screen.
This allows you to roll the credits up the page. You’ll learn
how to do this in a later lesson.

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

1. Opening

SnS

A: AUTOAPS
A: AUTOEPS
A: DEMO
A: TUTORIAL

Opening

LESSON 5

DDING THE CREDITS PAGE

A

The Credits page is fairly simple because it contains only one object—a text object
listing the job titles and names of those individuals who participated in the video
production. However, the text object uses a variety of font styles, sizes, and line
spacing to achieve the desired effect.

Creating the Credits Page

1 Display the PROJECT/PAGES menu (Ctrl+F12).

2 Click the New:End button to add a new page at the end of the project.
3 Enter the name “Credits” in the Comment text box to name this page then close the

menu.

4 Enter Ctrl+T to add a text object to the page.
5 Type the credit information into the text object as follows (as indicated, press Return at

the end of each line, except the last one):

6 Select all of the text in the text object.

Production Design … ChristopherKIRK <Return>
Videographer … JamieSTUART <Return>
Written by … ErnestHEMING <Return>
Editor … JackPARIS, A.C.E <Return>
Lighting … SteveSPINBURG <Return>
Executive Producer … FrancisCOPRA <Return>
Produced by … MojoROSENTHAL <Return>
Directed by … KellieTHURGOOD

45

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

25
35

0

Bookwoman-DemiSH

Font Size

Line Spacing

Justification Left

Production Design … ChristorKIRK

Videographer … JamieSTUART

Written by … ErnestHEMING

Editor … JackPARIS, A.C.E

Lighting … SteveSPINBURG

Executive Producer … FrancisCOPRA

Produced by … MojoROSENTHAL

Directed by … KellieTHURGOOD

PowerScript pages can be larger than the screen
on which they appear. When a page is larger than
the screen, use Hot Borders to access the parts of
the page that lie beyond the screen edges.

Hot Borders is a toggle-type feature—you can
alternately turn it off and on by entering its
assigned control key—Ctrl+Shift+G.

In an earlier lesson, you learned how to select all text in a text object by dragging across all of
the characters. An easier way to do this is to enter Ctrl+A (the Select All option).

7 Display the TEXT menu (Ctrl+F1).

8 Set the Font Size=25, Justification=Left, and Line Spacing=35.

When you set the Line Spacing to such a high value, several of the lines in the text object dis­appear from the page. The text is still there, it has just been pushed below the bottom of the
screen.

9 Enter Ctrl+Shift+G to engage the PowerScript Hot Borders feature.

Hot Borders allow you to access parts of the page that extend beyond the edges of the screen.
In this particular case, it gives you a way to access those lines of text that just disappeared
from the screen.

10 Drag the mouse pointer down to the bottom edge of the screen, then continue drag-

ging. If necessary, pick the mouse up, move it forward, place it back on its surface, then
continue dragging.

As you drag beyond the screen edges, the area of the page below the screen’s bottom edge
scrolls into view. Continue this dragging action until those lines of text that previously dis­appeared come back onto the screen. The top lines in the object move off the top of the
screen.

Dragging around the screen when Hot Borders is engaged can get you disoriented. To reposi­tion the screen to its center, enter Alt+Home.

11 Drag across the first job title (Production Design) in the text object to select it.
12 Display the FONTS menu (Ctrl+Shift+F1) and change the font to Heavenetica-BoldSH.
13 Display the TEXT menu (Ctrl+F1) and set the Font Size to 15.

If this were an actual production job, you would probably select all of the other job titles
(one-by-one) and assign them the same attributes that you just assigned to the Production
Design job title. It’s a fair amount of work, but the results are often worth the effort. Whether
or not you choose to make those changes as part of this tutorial is up to you.

In addition, you might want to select each person’s last name in the text object and set the
font style to bold to create better separation between first and last name. Again, it’s a design
decision that is entirely up to you.

14 Return to the PROJECT/PAGES menu and save this page.

46

Videonics PowerScript Playing Back the Pages

Playing Back the Pages

You’ve created all pages for the project. You can now playback the pages to see how
they look, and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

To playback the pages:

1 On the keypad, press the 1 key, then press Numeric Enter.

This is a simple way to navigate between pages in a project. In this case, typing 1 tells Power­Script that you want to return to the first page—pressing Enter instructs PowerScript to exe­cute the command.

2 Press the Scroll Lock key to engage Play Mode. The Scroll Lock LED should be lit.
3 Press the Numeric Enter key. There is a momentary delay, then the Opening page

appears on screen, with its designated background color.

4 When you are ready to go on to the Title page, press the Numeric Plus (+) key, then

press Numeric Enter again.

It is necessary to press Enter to go to the next page because (by default) each new page you
create is set for infinite duration—which means it remains on-screen for an infinite amount of
time. Later, you’ll learn how to set a different page duration to control the length of time a
page remains on-screen before giving way to the next page.

5 Press the Numeric Plus (+) key then Numeric Enter one more time to display the last

page—the Credits page.

6 When you’re finished playing the pages, press Scroll Lock, then press Alpha Enter.

LESSON 6

ANAGING PROJECTS

M

You spent a fair amount of time in the preceding lessons creating the pages for a
project. In the next series of lessons you make significant modifications to those
pages. As you learned earlier, PowerScript saves your work as you go. This is a
safeguard to protect your work, but it can also be a detriment if you don’t take the
necessary, simple precautions, as explained below.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: When you plan to make extensive changes to an existing
project, you should first create a copy of that project and make the changes to the dupli­cate. This way, if you happen to make changes with which you aren’t happy, you can eas­ily go back to the original project, duplicate it again, and start over. If after making the
modifications you are satisfied with them, delete the original project and, if desired,
rename the duplicate project to the same name as the original one. Similarly, if you are
going to make changes to a single page in a project, you can make a duplicate of that
page, make the changes, then discard the original page. The key point here is always
back up your work before making extensive changes.

47

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

1. Opening

1.1 Title

1.2 Credits

SnS

A: AUTOAPS
A: AUTOEPS
A: DEMO
A: TUTORIAL

Opening

See “Renumbering Pages”below

1

To make a copy of the original project:

1 Display the PROJECT/PAGES menu (Ctrl+F12) and select the project you want to copy

(TUTORIAL) in the Projects list.

2 Click the Copy button just below the Projects list. The COPY PROJECT menu appears.

(This menu is just like the one you see when creating a new project.)

3 Indicate which PC card (FRONT or BACK) you want to use to store the project; enter a

name for the project copy; optionally, enter a Comment; then click the Copy button.

PowerScript creates the copy and its name appears in the Projects list. Select the project name
in the list and note that it contains the same pages with the same names and numbers as the
originals.

Renumbering Pages

Recall from an earlier lesson that you learned how to navigate to other pages in a
project by entering their numbers on the keypad and pressing the Enter key. In the
PROJECT/PAGES menu (above), the pages are currently numbered 1, 1.1, and 1.2.
Just to make navigation a little easier, you can renumber the pages so that they have
whole integers.

To renumber the pages in a project:

¨ Make sure the project whose pages you want to renumber is selected in the Projects list,

then click the Renumber All button.

PowerScript renumbers the pages 1, 2, and 3.

48

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 7 Rolling the Credits Page

CHANGE PG. #

COMMENT

COMMENT

PROJECT/PAGE

PROJECTS PAGES

CUT COPY PASTE

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

DELETERENAME

COPYNEW

XYZZY

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

1
2

RENUMBER­ALL

DELETE

1. Opening

1.1 Title

1.2 Credits

SnS

A: AUTOAPS
A: AUTOEPS
A: DEMO
A: TUTORIAL
A: TUTORIAL copy

Opening

SEC

FR.

+

+

TRANSITIONS

SET TRANSN SECS FRAMES

+

SECS FRAMES

A C

B

DURATION:

ACTUAL

SPEED:

(SEC.)

TARGET

START STOP

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

PLAY

40

010

12 10

0

615

Roll and Crawl Options

LESSON 7

OLLING THE CREDITS PAGE

R

This lesson shows how to perform a roll transition to scroll the text object on the
Credits page from the bottom to the top of the screen.

Recall that the Credits page contains one text object that extends off the bottom edge of
the screen. Furthermore, unless you changed it, the Credits page does not have a back­ground—that is, the Background On/Off option in the BACKGROUND menu is deselected.
Here’s why:

It’s a fairly common practice to roll the credits at the end of the production. It is also com­mon practice to roll the credits over the closing, live-video scenes. If you connect a video
source (such as a VTR) to PowerScript’s VIDEO IN connector, the video signal plays behind
the rolling credits as long as the page does not have a background. We won’t cover this pro­cedure in this tutorial, but it is discussed in other chapters.

1 Display the PROJECT/PAGES menu (Ctrl+F12), select the project copy you just made in

the Projects list, then select the Credits page in the Pages list.

2 Press Esc to close the PROJECT/PAGES menu.

Pressing Esc instructs PowerScript to close the top-most menu on the screen. Entering
Shift+Esc closes all open menus.

Creating a Roll Transition

1 Enter Ctrl+F10 to display the TRANSITIONS menu.

2 Set the Roll and Crawl options as shown above—Roll Up, Start Middle of Page, End Top of

3 Close the TRANSITIONS menu.

Page, Speed 10.

49

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

SEC

FR.

+

+

TRANSITIONS

SET TRANSN SECS FRAMES

+

SECS FRAMES

A C

B

DURATION:

ACTUAL

SPEED:

(SEC.)

TARGET

START STOP

SAVE

AUTO-SAVE

PLAY

20

510

12 10

0

20

Page Duration

Transition IN
and
Transition OUT

4 Press the Scroll Lock key to engage Play Mode, then press the Numeric Enter key.

There is a slight delay while PowerScript prepares the page and transition. After a moment or
two the Credits text object begins rolling up from the bottom of the screen.

When the Credits page finishes playing, PowerScript automatically loops back to the begin­ning of the project and begins to display the first page (the Opening page). When this occurs,
press Scroll Lock to disengage Play Mode, then press Alpha Enter to engage Edit Mode.

(To stop the project following a credit roll, insert a blank page following the credits page and
set it to infinite duration. You’ll learn more about page duration in the next lesson.)

5 On the keypad, press 3, then Numeric Enter to display the Credits page.
6 When you’re satisfied with the way the page plays, display the PROJECT/PAGES menu

and save the page.

LESSON 8

ETTING PAGE DURATION AND TRANSITIONS FOR THE OPENING PAGE

S

1 On the keypad, press 1, then press Numeric Enter to display the Opening page, ready

for editing.

2 Display the TRANSITIONS menu (Ctrl+F10).

3 Select the Page Duration option, set the Seconds text box value to 5, and set the Frames

text box value to zero.

By selecting the Page Duration option and entering a value, you are telling PowerScript to dis­play this page for a specific period of time—5 seconds.

4 In the Transition IN and Transition OUT text boxes, enter 2 for the Seconds values, and

enter zero for the Frames values.

These values specify how long the transition plays when the page enters the screen (Transi­tion IN) and when it exits the screen (Transition OUT).

Transition IN + Page Duration + Transition OUT determines how long the page occupies the

screen. In this case, that is 9 seconds (2+5+2=9).

50

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 8 Setting Page Duration and Transitions for the Opening Page

SECONDS

FRAMES

+

CUT

FADE

WIPE

SLIDE

PATH

ABC

BB

BB

B

SAVE

TRANSITION EFFECTS

SELECT

SELECT

SELECT

SELECT

SELECT

PLAY AUTO-SAVE

22
00

This menu gives you access to the more interesting
and creative transitions available with PowerScript.

This menu (like the TRANSITIONS menu above)
has Transition IN and Transition OUT text boxes.
These are merely duplicates of one another. If you
change the value or values in one menu, they also
change automatically in the other menu.

5 Click the Set Transitions button at the bottom of the menu to display the TRANSISTION

EFFECTS menu, or enter Ctrl+Shift+F10.

Use the column on the left to specify a Transition IN effect. Use the right column for the
Transition OUT effect. The two columns are identical with the exception of the Path option
for Transition IN effects.

6 Select the Path option in the left-hand column, then click the Select button to its imme-

diate left. The PATH menu appears showing the available path options.

7 Select the smooth bouncing path option (shown at left) then close the path menu.
8 Select the Fade option in the right-hand column (for the Transition OUT).
9 Set the Seconds and Frames text boxes to 2 and zero, respectively, for both the Transi-

tion IN and Transition OUT durations.

10 Enter Shift+Esc to close all open menus.

You have specified how long the page is to remain on the screen while playing (5 sec­onds), specified a Transition IN and its duration (a smooth bouncing path for 2 seconds),
and specified a Transition OUT and its duration (a fade occurring over a two second
period).

51

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

DURATION:

ACTUAL

SPEED:

(SEC.)

TARGET

START STOP

5

810

Select this option to crawl the
page from right-to-left

Select these options to start the crawl from off-screen, and
stop the crawl when the page is centered on the screen.

Options button

NEXT HIGHER OPTIMUM SPEED
NEXT LOWER OPTIMUM SPEED
NEXT HIGHER ACCEPTABLE SPEED
NEXT LOWER ACCEPTABLE SPEED

ROLL/CRAWL OPTIONS

LESSON 9

ETTING A TARGET DURATION FOR THE TITLE PAGE

S

In this lesson you do essentially the same steps for the Title page that you did for the
Opening page in the preceding lesson, but use some different options for controlling
page duration and crawling the page across the screen. For this exercise, assume you
have 8 seconds in which to play the Title Page.

1 On the keypad, press 2 (the number assigned to the Title page), then press Numeric

Enter to display the Title page.

2 Enter Ctrl+F10 to display the TRANSITIONS menu.

You’ll work with the Roll and Crawl options to crawl the page from right-to-left. You want to
start the crawl from off the screen, and stop the crawl when the page is centered on-screen.

3 As stated above, you have only 8 seconds in which to play this page. So, enter 8 in the

Target text field, adjacent to the Duration (Sec) label.

This tells PowerScript that you want to attempt to have this page play within the allowed
amount of time (8 seconds).

4 Click the Options button to display the ROLL & CRAWL OPTIONS menu.

Depending on the video scan rate available for your equipment, PowerScript might or might
not be able to precisely meet your stated Target Duration of, in this case, 8 seconds. The ROLL
& CRAWL OPTIONS menu lets you select from four different algorithms (or, calculation
methods) that PowerScript can use to try and meet your target.

5 Select the Next Higher Optimum Speed option.

When you return to the TRANSITIONS menu, note the value that PowerScript places in the
Actual text box. The example shown earlier in this section indicates an Actual value of 10 sec-
onds. This is the duration that PowerScript has calculated that it can crawl this page based on
your selection in the ROLL & CRAWL OPTIONS menu and the video scan rate available for
your equipment. (The value you see displayed for Actual might be different from what is
shown in the example.)

If the Actual value meets your stated Target value, then you don’t need to do anything else.
However, for this exercise assume you aren’t satisfied with the Actual value that PowerScript
calculated and you want to try some other options.

52

6 Click the Options button again to re-display the ROLL & CRAWL OPTIONS menu.

Videonics PowerScript Lesson 10 Playing Back the Project Pages with Transitions

Note

7 Select one of the other options—such as Next Lower Optimum Speed—then close the

menu.

When you return to the TRANSITIONS menu this time, you should see a different value in
the Actual text box. This is because PowerScript uses a different algorithm to derive the new
value.

8 Repeat the two preceding steps two more times and select, in turn, the other options in

the ROLL & CRAWL OPTIONS menu—that is, Next Higher Acceptable Speed and Next
Lower Acceptable Speed.

Once again, each time you return to the TRANSITIONS menu, note that the Actual value is
most likely different in each case.

The difference between Optimum and Acceptable speeds is important. Optimum speeds
normally produce smooth motion, but might not be able to meet your target as closely as
you require. Acceptable speeds might result in choppy or jerky motion, but are more likely to
meet your required target speed. So, you have to make the choice between the two categories
based on your needs. The only way to do this effectively is try all of the options and play the
page to see what results you are able to attain. There are a few other adjustments you can
make to try and meet your target duration if necessary. See “Using Roll and Crawl”beginning
on page 99 for additional information.

9 Once you’re satisfied with the Actual duration that PowerScript calculates for the Title

page, close the TRANSITIONS menu and go on to the next lesson.

When using the Roll & Crawl options, you can set either the transition Speed or tran­sition Duration. Whichever one you set last takes precedence. That is, if you set the
transition Speed using that option then close the TRANSITIONS menu, PowerScript
uses your speed setting—conversely, if you set a transition Duration then close the
menu, PowerScript uses your duration settings.

LESSON 10

LAYING BACK THE PROJECT PAGES WITH TRANSITIONS

P

Now check out the work done so far. Playback all pages in the project to see the
effects of the page durations and transitions.

1 On the keypad, press 1 (the number assigned to the Opening page), then press

Numeric Enter to display the Opening page.

2 Press the Scroll Lock key to engage Play Mode. The Scroll Lock LED indicator on the key-

board should be lit.

3 Press Numeric Enter again.

Sit back and watch PowerScript play the three pages in sequence—complete with
assigned page durations and transitions. After playing the last page in the project
(the Credits page), PowerScript automatically loops back to the beginning and starts
playing the pages again.

To stop the playback:

1 Press the Scroll Lock key to disengage Play Mode.
2 Press the Alpha Enter key to stop playback.

The page that was playing appears on the screen and you are operating in Edit Mode.

53

Chapter 3 PowerScript Tutorial

SUMMARY

This completes the tutorial lessons. You’ve learned much of what you need to know to
create professional, sophisticated title pages with PowerScript. However, we’ve touched
on just a few of the many PowerScript features in this tutorial. Refer to the remaining
chapters and appendixes of the manual to learn more.

To play the entire tutorial project from beginning to end:

1 Press the Scroll Lock key to disengage Play Mode.
2 On the keypad, press 1, then press Numeric Enter to go back to the Opening page.
3 Press the Scroll Lock key again to engage Play Mode.
4 Press Numeric Enter.

When you’re finished watching the tutorial run, press the Scroll Lock key, then press
Alpha Enter.

You might want to delete one or both of the Tutorials from your PowerScript Start Card.
Although the Tutorials are not very large, they do take up space that you might want to
use for other projects. The Start Card has a limited amount of space available. So, unless
you have other PC cards available, you should remove at least one of the Tutorials.

To delete a project:

1 Display the PROJECT/PAGES menu (Ctrl+F12).
2 Select the project you want to delete in the Projects list.
3 Click the Delete button below the Projects list.
4 Repeat the two preceding steps to delete the other copy of the Tutorial project, if that is

what you want to do.

54

T

4

Working with Menus

he PowerScript menus give you access to all PowerScript functions. Learning to work
with the menus properly helps you work with PowerScript easily and efficiently.

This chapter does not contain descriptions of the menus. For those descriptions, see the
other chapters that follow, or see Chapter 9, PowerScript Reference .

PowerScript provides two sets of menus, Standard Menus and Power Menus. You’ll read
more about them in the next section. For basic access to the menus, use the following
methods.

Tip

GRAPHICS

DELETERENAME

COPY

XYZZY

A: ARROW1.EPS
A: ARROW2.EPS
A: ARROW3.EPS
A: ARROW4.EPS
A: ARROW5.EPS
A: ARROW6.EPS
A: ARROW7.EPS
A: BOX1.APS
A: BOX2.APS
A: BOXX3.EPS
A: CC.EPS
A: CCSYMBOL.EPS
A: CHECK1.EPS
A: CIRCLE2.APS
A: CIRCLE3.APS
A: CIRCLE4.APS

%

%

a

a

a

a

a

a

MODIFY

100

220

50

0

0

ALIGNMODIFYSELECT

CLIPCREATE

ANIMATE

PROJ/PG

POWER
MENUS

TRANS

SHADOW OUTLINEFILLTEXT

BKGND

HELP

SETUP

ON

BKGD

H

SBO

100 100 100

0

ON

FILL

H

SBO

ON

LINE

50 1

100 50 100

10

10

100

Holstein

50

Standard menus occupy a fair amount of
screen space. They reduce the amount of
space available for creating and editing
pages. They are self-explanatory and give you
access to all menu options.

Power menus occupy less screen space,
giving you more space on-screen for creating
and editing pages. Some Power menus do
not contain all of the options available in the
Standard menus, and most of the identifying
labels in the Power menus have been
abbreviated or omitted.

Standard Menus Power Menus

Standard and Power Menus

Chapter 4 Working with Menus

Table 3: Menu Access Keys

S

TANDARD

AND

Action

Toggle all menus on and off

Display Main Menu

Display Power Menus

Method

Right-Click

Ctrl+Right-Click

Shift+Right-Click

Display Main Menu and Power Menus Ctrl+Shift+Right-Click

Close all Standard menus, leave Power

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Esc

menus on screen

P

OWER

M

ENUS

PowerScript provides two separate sets of menus— Standard menus and Power menus.
The Power menus are smaller, revised versions of the Standard menus. They occupy less

real estate on the screen than the Standard menus. This gives you more space in which to

create pages while providing quick and easy access to the menus and most of their
options.

Using Power Menus

56

The illustration on the opposite page shows the available Power menus.

If you are using a standard television set as your Preview monitor, you will probably want to
use the Standard menus because the Power menus might be too difficult to see.

You can place Power menus anywhere on the screen. Normally, you place them outside
the Safe Title Area (which is a part of the screen you normally don’t use). See “Working
with the Safe Title Area” on page 115 for more information.

Most Power menus contain this button. Click the button to display the Standard
version of the Power menu.

ON

BKGD

H

SBO

100 100 100

0

ON

FILL

MAIN

MENU

H

SBO

ON

LINE

50 1

100 50 100

10

10

100

Holstein

50

Align Background Shadow Main Main On/Off

Create

Text

Fill

Line

Power Menus

POWER
MENUS

HELP

SETUP

Power Menus Button

Videonics PowerScript Using Power Menus

You can display both the Standard and Power menus on-screen at the same time,
although doing so unnecessarily consumes screen space.

To display the Power menus:

¨ Enter Shift+Right-click , or click the Power Menus button in the MAIN MENU .

When you use the control keys to display a menu (such as Ctrl+F1 ), PowerScript always
displays the Standard menu, not the Power menu.

57

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

50

0

0

GoodDogPlain

Heavenetica

24

The TEXT menu uses all
of the menu controls
described above.

Deselected

Selected

List Button

Text Box and

Slider Control

Slider Buttons

Radio Buttons

Menu Close Box

Check Boxes

PowerScript Menu Controls

Chapter 4 Working with Menus

W

ORKING

WITH

M

ENUS

AND

M

ENU

C

ONTROLS

Most PowerScript menus contain one or more of the controls shown below.

List Button —Click the arrowhead to display a list of items from which to choose.

Text Box and Slider Control —The two controls work together. Enter a value in the text

box and the slider moves accordingly: drag the slider and the value in the text box
changes accordingly.

To enter a value in a text box, click inside the box. The current value goes away and the
text cursor appears inside the text box. Enter the value you want to assign by typing it on
the keyboard. If the Num Lock key is engaged, press Numeric Enter , or click anywhere
outside the text box to apply the value to the selected object or objects.

Slider Buttons —Slider controls have a small button at each end. Clicking the button

moves the slider one unit to the left or right, depending on which is clicked.

Radio Buttons —Similar to the buttons on older car radios. Click (or, push) one button

and all of the others automatically turn off (or become deselected ). A set of radio buttons
always contains two or more buttons.

Check Boxes —Click to place an X in a check box to turn the option On—that is, to select

the option. Click again to turn the option Off—that is, to deselect the option. You can
select and deselect check boxes in any combination.

58

Tip

HUE

33

FILL

On/Off check box

50=Cyan

0 & 100=Red

82=Yellow

61=Green 32=Blue

12=Magenta

Hue values specify colors on the color
wheel. For example, the hue value 22
results in a hue midway between
magenta and blue: the hue value 41
produces a color midway between blue
and cyan: and so forth.

Videonics PowerScript Sliders and Text Values

A

A

Some menus (such as FILL ) contain an On/Off check box located just to the right of
the Menu Close Box. Select the check box to turn the menu options On—that is, to
display them on the screen. De select the check box to turn the menu options Off—
that is, to suppress their display.

Menu Close Box —Appears in the upper left corner of all PowerScript menus. Click the

close box to remove the menu from the screen.

Sliders and Text Values

The FILL , OUTLINE , and BACKGROUND menus contain sliders and text boxes for set­ting hue, saturation, and brightness. FILL and OUTLINE also contain controls for opac­ity.

Hue

Saturation

Brightness

Text boxes provide a convenient way to ensure that colors match from one page or object
to another.

Hue values range from zero to 100. Numbers specify relative colors on the color wheel, as

shown here:

Saturation value of zero results in no color saturation—producing black, white, or

shades of gray. A value of 100 produces full-strength color—such as scarlet red or bright
green.

Brightness value of zero produces black. A value of 100 produces the brightest possible

color at whatever saturation level you specify.

To produce black, set Brightness to zero—Hue and Saturation are irrelevant in this case. To
produce white, set Saturation to zero and Brightness to 100. To produce gray, set Saturation
to zero, Brightness to whatever level of gray you desire—for example, a Brightness value of 50
produces a medium gray.

59

Tip

SHADOW

%

10 10

100

The menu title bar is a handy way to
drag menus to different locations.

Chapter 4 Working with Menus

Opacity

Moving Menus

The Opacity value (sometimes referred to as transparency ) ranges from zero (no opacity:
therefore transparent and invisible) to 100 (fully opaque).

Decreasing an object’s opacity makes it more transparent—its color range diminishes. That is,
as in nature, fewer color variations result as the object becomes more transparent. At very low
opacity settings (below 25%), most color “washes out” and the object takes on shades of
gray. If you require precise colors, use opacity levels above 75%.

Menus share the Preview monitor screen with objects, and they occupy the top-most
layer of the screen. A menu might therefore obscure objects on the page. You can freely
move menus and place them anywhere on the screen.

¨ To move a menu, drag it by any non-active area of the menu.

PowerScript remembers menu positions. Each time you display a menu it appears at the
same position as the last time you used it, even after powering-down. PowerScript stores
the menu positions on the start card, so if you or someone else uses a different card,
menu positions might be different.

Closing Menus

All menus have a close box in the upper-left corner. Click the close box to close the menu
and remove it from the screen.

To close only the front-most menu (when you have multiple menus open), press the key­board Esc key. To close all open menus, press Shift+Esc.

60

Videonics PowerScript Menu Navigation Keyboard Controls

MENU NAVIGATION KEYBOARD CONTROLS

PowerScript provides a wide assortment of keyboard key-combinations you can use to
move around inside menus and make selections. These are in addition to the more com­mon navigation methods with a mouse, as described earlier in this chapter.

Keyboard navigation keys give you the ability to:

• Use PowerScript menus without having to grab the mouse.

• Control menu functions using a Telnet application from a remote computer.

The following table lists available keyboard key-combinations and their functions.

Table 4: Menu Navigation Keys

Key Combination Result

CONTROLS FOR NAVIGATING MENUS

Ctrl+Tab Highlights next control in the menu.

Ctrl+Shift+Tab Highlights previous control in the menu.

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Tab Highlights first control in menu.

Ctrl+Enter

(Use either Enter key)

CONTROLS FOR NAVIGATING SCROLLABLE LISTS
(Cursor must be positioned inside scrolling list)

Ctrl+Up Arrow Moves up one line in list. That is, selects the item (if

Ctrl+Down Arrow Moves down one line in the list. That is, selects the item (if

Shift+Ctrl+Up Arrow Scrolls up ten lines in the scrollable list.

Shift+Ctrl+Down
Arrow

CONTROLS FOR MENU CHECK BOXES (Check Box must be selected)

Ctrl+Enter

(Use either Enter key)

Ctrl+Up Arrow Selects (checks) the option, regardless of its current state.

Performs a mouse click on the highlighted menu control.
Acts exactly as though you had clicked on the control.

present) immediately above the current item.

present) immediately below the current item.

Scrolls down ten lines in the scrollable list.

Toggles check box setting. That is, if check box is selected
(checked), this key combination deselects (unchecks) it,
and vice versa.

Ctrl+Down Arrow Deselects (unchecks) the option, regardless of its current

EXAMPLE: To change the value in a text box, enter Ctrl+Tab as many times as necessary

to move to the text box. PowerScript highlights each menu control, in turn, as you move
through them. When the text box you want is highlighted, enter the value you want on
the keyboard, then press Alpha Enter.

state.

61

Notes

O

5

Working with Objects

bjects represent the basic building blocks for creating PowerScript pages—that is, to cre-

ate a page, place one or more objects on the page.

Objects can be of several types, including:

• Geometric Objects—lines, boxes, and ovals

• Text Object— one or more characters in a string of text

• Graphic Object—a separate graphic file stored on a PC Card

• Clock Object—an easy way to display the current date and time

Whenever you place objects on a page, each one remains an individual, independent
entity. You can therefore change an object’s characteristics (known as object attributes )
without disturbing other objects on the page. For example, you might have a yellow text
object sitting atop a dark blue box, then decide the box should be dark green. Select the
box and change its fill color (an attribute) from dark blue to dark green.

Note

4

23:20

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New
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Text Object with Drop Shadow Graphic Object

Oval Object

Rescaled Text Object Rotated Box Objects

Clock Object

Examples of PowerScript Objects

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

If this doesn’t seem like a particularly important feature, think about it this way: if
you weren’t able to select the box object and work with it individually, you would
have to carefully paint around all of the text characters to change the background
from blue to green—a tedious and time-consuming process.

Once you place an object on a page, you can manipulate the object in many different
ways. In addition to changing its attributes, you can move an object, change its size,
rotate it, change its color, add a drop shadow, and so forth.

64

Note

First Layer

Second Layer

Third Layer

Fourth Layer

Objects, Page Layers, and Stacking Order

Press † to cycle through the
objects from top-to-bottom.

Press ß+† to cycle through the
objects from bottom-to-top.

Videonics PowerScript Objects and Page Layers

O

BJECTS

AND

P

AGE

L

AYERS

Every object on a page occupies its own layer . Think of layers as transparent sheets laid
atop one another with an object on each sheet. Depending on how you position the
sheets (or layers) relative to one another might cause one object to partially or com­pletely cover another.

The illustration above shows a page containing four objects, and the resulting image
from two different object arrangements. On the left, the objects appear in their original
order, with Layer 1 being the bottom-most (the first object created) and Layer 4 being the
top-most (the last object created). The illustration on the right shows what happens
when you change the order of the objects—the text object “A” becomes the top-most
object; the rectangle object moves to the layer below the text object; the circle and line
objects occupy the bottom layers, respectively.

As you can see, the stacking order of objects on a page has a great deal to do with the
final appearance of the page. PowerScript provides you with an easy way to change the
objects stacking order (see “Using the SELECT Menu” on page 70). Before concerning
yourself with changing the stacking order, however, you need to know how to place and
select objects.

Stacking objects one atop another can make it difficult to select objects buried
beneath the top layer or layers. PowerScript provides a way to simplify this task. By
pressing the Tab key, you can cycle through the objects from top-to-bottom: by
pressing Shift+Tab , you can cycle through from bottom-to-top.

65

Create Text Object / Ctrl+T

Create Line Object / Ctrl+L

Create Box Object / Ctrl+B

Create Oval Object / Ctrl+O

Place Graphic Object / Ctrl+E

Create Clock Object / Ctrl+K

Placing Objects / CREATE Menu

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

P

LACING

O

BJECTS

You use the same basic procedure to place any object. However, each type of object has a
slightly different method due to its individual requirements.

The basic procedure for placing any object is as follows:

1

Click the Create option on the MAIN MENU to display the CREATE menu (as a shortcut
for placing an object, enter the Ctrl key combination indicated below).

What happens next depends on the type of object you create. However, in all cases the
object eventually appears with a bounding rectangle and object handles (described later in
this chapter).

Geometric Objects

When you create a geometric object (line, box, or oval) the object automatically appears
as a pre-defined shape at the center of the screen. It’s that simple—you can now work
with the object in whatever way you require.

Text Objects

When you create a text object, it is initially empty—that is, it does not contain any char­acters. The object, however, appears at the center of the screen ready for you to enter
whatever text you want it to contain.

To learn about entering text, setting text attributes, using word wrap, and so forth, see
“Working with Text Objects”beginning on page 70.

Graphic Objects

To create a graphic object you must first select the one you want to place on the page.
When you click the Graphic option (or enter Ctrl+E ), the GRAPHIC menu appears.

To place a graphic object on a page:

PowerScript comes with an assortment of graphic files provided by Videonics. They are
located in the EPS directory on the PowerScript Start Card. For a list and description of
the files, see Appendix C, PowerScript-Provided Graphic Files .

2

Click the type of object you want to create on the CREATE menu.

1

Click the name of the file you want in the Graphic Files List (this selects the file).

2

Click the Place Graphic button. The object appears at the center of the page.

66

GRAPHICS

DELETERENAME

COPY

XYZZY

A: ARROW1.EPS
A: ARROW2.EPS
A: ARROW3.EPS
A: ARROW4.EPS
A: ARROW5.EPS
A: ARROW6.EPS
A: ARROW7.EPS
A: BOX1.APS
A: BOX2.APS
A: BOXX3.EPS
A: CC.EPS
A: CCSYMBOL.EPS
A: CHECK1.EPS
A: CIRCLE2.APS
A: CIRCLE3.APS
A: CIRCLE4.APS

Graphic Files List

This list shows all graphic files available on all

PC cards inserted in the PowerScript PC Card

slots. The types of files you might find listed

here include EPS, APS, PCX, JPG, and GIF.

Place Graphic Button

Indicates which PC Card holds the graphic

file—A: indicates the front slot, B: indicates

the rear slot.

Selected Graphic File

Placing Objects / GRAPHICS Menu

Videonics PowerScript Clock Objects

Clock Objects

Default Object Attributes

To learn about ways you can work with graphic files (such as moving, rotating, and resiz­ing them), see “Working with Graphic Objects”beginning on page 72.

Placing a clock object is similar to placing a text object except that the object is not ini­tially empty—it contains the date and/or time in the format you specify (see “Time &
Date Setup” on page 121).

You cannot edit the content of a clock object—the information is fixed. You can, how­ever, change a clock object’s attributes (font style, font size, fill color, and so forth).

Newly created objects receive their attributes based on what was selected when the object
is created.

• If no other objects are selected, the new object receives the attributes from the last
object created or edited. For example, if you change an oval from blue to green,
deselect all objects (as explained in the next section), then create a new box, the
box receives a green fill color.

• If you want the new object to inherit the attributes of an existing object, select that
object, then create the new one. If you select multiple objects, the new object
inherits the attributes from the object that occupies the top-most layer of the
group.

67

4

23:20

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New
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4

23:20

New
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New
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4

23:20

New
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New
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4

23:20

New
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New
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One Object Selected Two Objects Selected

All Objects Selected No Objects Selected

Selecting Objects

Object

In addition to the handles
shown here, a Word Wrap
handle appears when you
activate the Word Wrap feature.
See “Using Word Wrap” on
page 82.

Bounding Rectangle

Move Handle Rotate Handle

Skew Handle Resize Handle

Selected Object

Object Handles and Bounding Rectangle

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

S

ELECTING

O

BJECTS

Before you can modify an object, you must first select it. You can easily select one object,
multiple objects, or all objects on a page. You can also easily de select one, several, or all
objects on a page.

Bounding Rectangle and Object Handles

When you select an object or objects, PowerScript displays a bounding rectangle around
the object with object handles at each of the four corners.

68

The bounding rectangle completely surrounds the selected object or objects and serves as
a visual aid to help you identify selected objects. The object handles provide a way to
manipulate the selected object or objects.

Videonics PowerScript Object Selection Methods

Move

Move Handle —Click and drag to move the object to a different location. With the

exception of a text object, you can also click and drag within the object’s bounding
rectangle, which is sometimes easier than dragging the Move handle. Also see “Nudg-

Rotate

ing Objects” on page 75 to learn how to move objects in small, precise increments.

Rotate Handle —Click and drag to rotate the object around its center point. The posi-

Skew

tion of the object handles change when you rotate an object. For example, if you
rotate an object 180˚, the Rotate handle subsequently appears in the lower left corner

Resize

of the object, rather than its normal, upper-right corner position.

Skew Handle —Click and drag to slant the object from its center point.

Resize Handle —Click and drag to make the object larger or smaller, or to distort its

aspect ratio (or, perspective).

Use the object handles when precision adjustments aren’t critical to your work. When
you need to do precise rotating, skewing, or resizing objects, use the options in the MOD-

IFY menu (see “Changing Object Orientation” on page 74).

Object Selection Methods

The simplest way to select a single object is to click on it. This displays the object’s
bounding rectangle and object handles. When you first place or create a new object on a
page, PowerScript automatically selects it for you.

You can select multiple objects in two different ways:

Dragging to select an

object or objects

• Shift+Click —Select the first object, then hold down the Shift key while clicking
the other objects.

• Drag —Position the mouse pointer in an unoccupied area of the page, above and to
the left of the first object you want to select, then drag a rectangle around the other
objects. Release the mouse button when the rectangle encloses or touches all of the
objects. PowerScript displays the bounding rectangle (in red) of any object you
touch while dragging.

To select all objects on the page, display the SELECT menu ( Ctrl+F5 ) and choose the
Select All option, or enter Ctrl+A. You can also use the Shift+Click or Drag method to
select all objects on a page.

Sometimes you’ll find it necessary to deselect one or more selected objects.

• To deselect all objects on the page, click in any open area of the page, or enter
Ctrl+Shift+A.

• To deselect one or more objects from a group selection, Shift+Click the objects you
want to deselect.

When objects overlap on their layers, it might be difficult to select those that are behind
others. You can use the To Back and To Front options on the SELECT menu (see below) to
rearrange the layers, or temporarily move an object to the clipboard using the Cut option
on the CLIP menu.

When you stack objects one atop another and they overlap, use the following method to
cycle through the objects to select the one you want.

• Press Tab to cycle through the objects from top-to-bottom, relative to their stacking
order.

• Press Shift+Tab to cycle through the objects from bottom-to-top, relative to their
stacking order.

69

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Tip

ALL

TO
FRONT

TO
BACK

SELECT

Select all objects on page / Ctrl+A

Move selected object(s) to front layer of page / Ctrl+F

Move selected object(s) to back layer of page / Ctrl+Shift+F

SELECT Menu

Using the SELECT Menu

The SELECT menu provides options for selecting objects and for changing the stacking
order of layers on a page. To display the SELECT menu, click the Select option on the
MAIN MENU, or enter Ctrl+F5.

WORKING WITH TEXT OBJECTS

As soon as you create a new text object you might want to type at least one character into the
object, if only as a place holder. This is because the object is so narrow that it can be difficult
to come back later and select it for entering final text. You can, of course, type the entire con­tents when the object first appears, if you are ready to do so.

While typing, the text cursor (described in the next section) moves inside the text object
to mark your position. Use the keyboard arrow keys to reposition the cursor at any time,
or click in the object where you want the cursor to be.

Characters you type always appear at the current text cursor location—that is, they do
not overwrite the existing text. However, if you first select some of the text before typing
(as explained below), the new characters replace the selected ones.

You can change text attributes on the fly—that is, while you type. For example, assume
that when you begin entering text it receives default attributes of Heavenetica font, 36
point, yellow fill color. After typing a few characters, change the attributes to Temps font,
24 point, blue fill color. When you continue typing, the text uses the new attributes.

Word Wrap, a feature you can turn on or off, automatically breaks lines of text in a text
object by fitting the lines to the size of the object. If you prefer, you can force line end­ings by typing the Alpha Enter key where you want a line to break. See “Using Word
Wrap” on page 82 for more information.

You can enter special and accented characters while typing or editing. See “Accented
Fonts and Special Characters” on page 197 for more information.

Selecting and Editing Text

When you want to modify an existing text object by moving, rotating, skewing, or resiz-

70

ing it, use the object handles (as described on page 68) or the MODIFY menu (described
on page 74).

Videonics PowerScript Object Outlines while Editing

Tip

Stockholm, Sweden

Click here

Text Cursor

…Drag to here… Release

Selecting Text in a Text Object

When you want to edit the text object content or change its attributes, you must first
select the characters you want to change, or insert the text cursor at the proper location.

To select text in an existing text object:

1 Select the text object if it isn’t already selected.

2 Place the mouse pointer to the immediate left of the first character you want to select

(inside of the text object’s bounding rectangle).

3 Drag right to select the other characters you want to select. (You can also click and drag

from right to left if you want.)

4 Release the mouse button.

To select all characters in a selected text object, enter Ctrl+A (Select All).

PowerScript highlights the selected text by enclosing it in a gray rectangle. (If the page
background color does not provide sufficient contrast, the gray selection rectangle might
be hard to see.) If you didn’t select the text you intended to, just repeat the procedure.

PowerScript also automatically moves the text cursor to the point where you released the
mouse button.

If you begin typing at this point, whatever you enter replaces the selected text. To remove
the selected text do any of the following:

• Press the Backspace key.

• Choose the Clear option from the CLIP menu (Ctrl+Shift+F6).

• Enter Ctrl+Shift+X.

Pressing Backspace when no text is selected removes the character that precedes the text
cursor.

To insert new characters in an existing text object:

1 Select the text object if it isn’t already selected.

2 Click inside the text object at the point where you want to insert new characters. The

text cursor appears at that location.

3 Type the characters you want to add.

Object Outlines while Editing

To improve clarity and speed, PowerScript temporarily converts all other objects and
menus on a page to simple outlines when you edit a text object. The objects reappear
when you deselect the text object. You can also make the other objects reappear by right­clicking.

71

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Tip

WORKING WITH GRAPHIC OBJECTS

After placing a graphic object on a page, you can modify the object in the following
ways:

Move Resize Rotate
Skew Opacity Animate

You cannot modify a graphic object’s:

Fill color Outline
Shadow Attributes Embedded Text

In addition to the graphic files provided with PowerScript, you can obtain or create other
graphics. To do so, you need the proper tools, as explained below.

Purchase clip art libraries of graphics from various sources. To use them with Power­Script, you need a way to move them from their original media onto a PC Card that
you can insert in PowerScript. Some laptop-type computers can read and store infor­mation on PC cards. Another way is to create a connection between your computer
platform and PowerScript. You can then copy the files from the computer to Power­Script.

Create graphic files if you have a computer platform and the necessary software
application—such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Macromedia FreeHand, and oth­ers. Here again, you need a way to move the files from the computer to PowerScript.
Also keep in mind that graphic object performance (that is, the speed with which
objects can be drawn on the screen) depends on how the object is initially created.

Also see “Using Graphic Files” on page 134 for information about file types and creating
your own graphic files to use with PowerScript.

Deleting Graphic Files

You can remove one or more of the graphic files from a Start Card if you decide you don’t
need them any longer.

Be aware of the difference between deleting a graphic object from a page and deleting a
graphic file from a Start Card.

To delete a graphic object from a page:

Videonics PowerScript Communicator software greatly simplifies the process of moving files
back and forth between PowerScript and a computer platform. See the PowerScript Communi­cator documentation for additional information.

1 Select the object on the page.

2 Display the SELECT menu (Ctrl+F5) and click the Clear option, or enter Ctrl+Shift+X.

72

Videonics PowerScript Deleting Graphic Files

WARNING!

To delete a graphic file from a PC Card:

Deleting a graphic file from a start card permanently removes the file. If you
want to use the file at some later time, copy it to a different PC Card as a
backup before deleting it. To copy the file you need to establish a link
between PowerScript and a computer (see Chapter 8, PowerScript Computer
Connections).

1 Display the CREATE menu (Ctrl+Shift+F5) and click the EPS option, or enter Ctrl+E, to

display the EPS menu—as described earlier in this section.

2 Select the graphic file you want to delete in the Graphic File List.

3 Click the Delete button.

You can also use the FILES menu to delete files from a PC Card. See “Working with Files
and Directories” on page 126 for further instructions.

After clicking Delete, PowerScript asks you to confirm that you really want to delete the
file. The file is not deleted until you confirm that is what you want to do.

If you delete a graphic file from a PC Card, then display a PowerScript page that origi­nally contained that graphic, the object doesn’t appear on the page.

73

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Note

%

%

a

a

a

a

a

a

MODIFY

100

220

50

0

0

Object Visibility Option / Ctrl+Shift+F7

Uniform Scale Option

Horizontal Size Option

Vertical Size Option

Rotation Option

Skew Option

MODIFY Menu

CHANGING OBJECT ORIENTATION

This section explains how to modify objects by moving, skewing, rotating, and resizing
them. For information about changing an object’s appearance, see “Modifying Object
Attributes” on page 77.

In addition to the methods described in this section, you can use an object’s handles to
move, skew, rotate, and resize objects. See “Bounding Rectangle and Object Handles” on
page 68.

Modifying bit-map objects (such as PCX, GIF, JPEG, and some EPS graphics) can
result in image distortion. This is particularly noticeable when increasing object scale
and rotating an object.

To modify an object or objects:

1 Select the object or objects you want to modify, if not already selected.

2 Click the Modify option on the MAIN MENU to display the MODIFY menu, or enter

Ctrl+F7.

3 Select the Object Visibility Option (Ctrl+Shift+F7) to make the object visible—deselect to

make the object invisible.

Invisible objects retain all of their originally assigned attributes. Making an object invisi­ble is a handy way to hide an object while working on one that overlaps it. Changing an
object’s visibility is also a useful animation technique.

4 The Uniform Scale Option makes the object larger or smaller while retaining its original

aspect ratio (or, perspective). Enter a percentage value in the text box. A value greater
than 100 increases the size—a value from zero to 99 reduces the size.

74

Videonics PowerScript Nudging Objects

Tip

5 The Horizontal Size Option stretches the object only on its horizontal (X) axis. The values

represent pixels.

6 The Vertical Size Option works exactly like the Horizontal Scale Option excepts that it

stretches the object along its vertical (Y) axis. The values represent pixels (or, video scan
lines).

7 The Rotation Option rotates the object around its center point. Positive values (in

degrees) rotate the object clockwise—negative values rotate counterclockwise.

8 The Skew Option slants the object from its center point. Positive values (in percentage)

slant the object to the left—negative values slant to the right.

When modifying graphic objects, use Ctrl+Shift+F7 to display only the object’s outline rather
than the object itself. This increases PowerScript’s “redraw” performance so you can work
faster. When you finish making modifications, enter Ctrl+Shift+F7 again to display the object
in its modified state.

Nudging Objects

To move (or, nudge) an object in small, precise increments, use the keyboard arrow keys.
Each press of a key moves the object one pixel (the size of a video scan line) in the desig­nated direction. To move the object in 10-pixel increments, hold down the Shift key
while pressing an arrow key.

75

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

CUT

COPY

PASTE

CLEAR

UNDO

CLIP

Only the CUT, COPY, and PASTE options work in
conjunction with the clipboard

Removes the selected object(s) from the page
Does NOT place them on the clipboard

Reverses the last action you performed

CLIP Menu

CUTTING, COPYING, PASTING, AND CLEARING OBJECTS

PowerScript provides a temporary holding area (called the clipboard) where you can store
objects. The clipboard is temporary because whenever you place an object on the clip­board, that object completely replaces the current clipboard contents. Furthermore,
when you turn off PowerScript, it discards the clipboard contents.

You access the clipboard through the CLIP menu. To display the CLIP menu, click the

Clip option on the MAIN MENU, or enter Ctrl+Shift+F6.

Cut (Ctrl+X)—Removes the currently selected object or objects from the page and places

them on the clipboard. The new objects replace the current clipboard contents, if any.

Copy (Ctrl+C)—Places a duplicate of the currently selected object or objects on the clip-
board. The original object(s) remain on the page. The copied objects replace the current
clipboard contents, if any.

Paste (Ctrl+V)—Places a copy of the current clipboard contents at the center of the cur-
rent page. The clipboard contents remain unchanged.

Clear (Ctrl+Shift+X)—Removes the currently selected object or objects from the page but
does NOT place them on the clipboard.

Undo (Ctrl+Z)—Reverses your last action. You can undo most changes to an object’s posi-
tion, orientation (such as rotate and scale), and object attributes. You cannot undo
changes to Projects or Pages, such as deleting a page.

76

Videonics PowerScript Aligning Objects

Tip

ALIGN

Align Tops / Ctrl+Alt+T

Align Left / Ctrl+Alt+L

Align Center / Ctrl+Alt+C

Align Right / Ctrl+Alt+R

Align Bottoms / Ctrl+Alt+B

Align Middle / Ctrl+Alt+M

ALIGN Menu

ALIGNING OBJECTS

Aligning objects on a page gives the page a professional, polished appearance.

To align objects:

1 Select two or more objects to align, if not already selected.

2 Click the Align option on the MAIN MENU to display the ALIGN menu, or enter

Ctrl+F8.

MODIFYING OBJECT ATTRIBUTES

Attribute Options As with most PowerScript functions, you assign object attributes by working with menus.

3 Select the alignment option or options you want in the ALIGN menu.

You can combine different alignment options. For example, select Align Center, then Align
Middle to align the objects directly on top of one another: select Align Right, then Align
Bottoms to align the objects at their bottom, right corner.

Object attributes determine how an object appears on-screen. They include color, opacity
(or, transparency), and drop shadow. This section explains how to assign attributes to
objects. (For information about moving, rotating, skewing, and resizing objects, see
“Changing Object Orientation” on page 74.)

PowerScript provides a Styles feature that lets you apply attributes to an object using only a
single key stroke or key combination. See “Working with Styles” on page 102 for details and
further instructions.

This section begins by explaining the basic procedures for setting an object’s color (or,
fill), opacity, drop shadow, and outline. It also contains subsections devoted to changing
attributes for text and graphic objects because they have attributes that other objects do
not.

The FILL, SHADOW, and OUTLINE menus contain option check boxes in the upper left
corner, next to the menu close box. You must select the option when you want the object
to display the attributes you specify—deselect the check box to suppress display of the
assigned attributes.

Other Menu Controls Most of the menus also contain special, common controls for controlling such factors as

Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. For descriptions of these controls, see “Working with
Menus and Menu Controls” on page 58.

77

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Tip

Tip

HUE

SATURATION

BRIGHTNESS

OPACITY

33

100

0

100

FILL

Fill On/Off

Current Fill Selection

FILL Menu

Setting Object Color (Fill)

To specify the color and fill for an object or objects:

1 Select the object or objects with which you want to work, if not already selected.

2 Click the Fill option on the MAIN MENU to display the FILL menu, or enter Ctrl+F3.

3 Select the Fill On/Off option to make the object’s fill visible. Deselect the option to make

the object’s fill invisible.

4 Set the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values for the object’s fill color. Use the slider

knobs and/or slider buttons for approximate settings—use the text boxes for precise
color values.

When you want to assure that two or more objects have exactly the same fill color, enter
the same values in the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness text boxes for each object.

5 Set the object’s fill Opacity. Use the slider knob for approximate settings—use the text

boxes for precise values.

Here again, when you want to assure that two or more objects have exactly the same fill
opacity, enter the same values in the Opacity text box for each object.

For more specific information about Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and Opacity, see “Slid­ers and Text Values” on page 59.

Creating Object Drop Shadows

PowerScript drop shadows always appear behind the object they shadow. You can control
the distance (or, displacement) between the object and its drop shadow, and also control
the shadow’s opacity.

Drop shadows can be more than a nice effect for some text objects—specifically, those that are
white or have a light fill color. When lightly colored text appears as an overlay on video, the
characters might be difficult to see due to their tendency to “wash out” around the edges. This
might also occur if there is very little contrast between the text and a solid colored back­ground. Drop shadows give the text better definition, making it much easier to read.

You cannot assign shadow attributes to placed graphic objects. If you create a graphic that
has embedded text or other elements, create the drop shadow (if necessary) in the original file.

78

Videonics PowerScript Creating Object Drop Shadows

Note

Tip

SHADOW

%

10 10

100

Shadow On/Off

Shadow Offset

Shadow Opacity

SHADOW Menu

Drop shadows increase object display time. For example, when you add a drop
shadow to a text object, it takes longer to display that object. You can use the pre­rendering option (see “Pre-Rendering Pages” on page 108) to speed up page playback.

To create a drop shadow:

1 Select the object or objects you want to shadow, if not already selected.

If you are creating a drop shadow for a text object, you must select the individual char­acters in the object and not the text object itself. See “Selecting and Editing Text” on
page 70. However, if you want to shadow all text in the object, you can select the
object then enter Ctrl+A to select all of the text.

2 Click the Shadow option on the MAIN MENU to display the SHADOW menu, or enter

Ctrl+F2.

3 Select the Shadow On/Off option to make the object’s shadow visible. Deselect to turn

the drop shadow off.

4 Specify the Shadow Offset values by entering values in the text boxes. The first value

determines the offset to the right or left of the object (positive values set the shadow to
the right—negative values set the shadow to the left). The second value controls offset
below or above the object (positive values set the shadow below the object—negative
values set the shadow above the object).

5 Specify the Shadow Opacity. Use the slider knob for approximate values—enter a per-

centage value in the text box for precise values.

When you want to assure that two or more objects have exactly the same shadow
attributes, enter the same values in the Shadow Opacity and/or Shadow Offset text
boxes.

For more specific information about Opacity, see “Opacity” on page 60.

If you want an object’s shadow to appear to completely enclose the object, create an outline
for the object rather than using a shadow. See the following section.

79

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Note

Note

HUE

SATURATION

BRIGHTNESS

OPACITY

OUTLINE

33

100

0

100

2

Outline On/Off

Outline Width

Outline Preview

OUTLINE Menu

Creating Object Outlines

Outlines create a border around an object. They are useful for providing an object with
good screen definition if the object has a tendency to wash out on the screen.

Outlines (like drop shadows) increase object display time. For example, when you
add an outline to a text object, it takes longer to display that object. Likewise, if you
add both a drop shadow and outline to a text object, it takes still longer to display
the object. You can use the pre-rendering option (see “Pre-Rendering Pages” on
page 108) to speed up page playback.

To specify an outline for an object or objects:

1 Select the object or objects you want to outline, if not already selected.

2 Click the Outline option on the MAIN MENU to display the OUTLINE menu, or enter

Ctrl+F4.

3 Select the Outline On/Off option to make the object’s outline visible. Deselect the option

4 Set the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values for the object’s outline color. Use the slider

5 Set the object’s outline Opacity. Use the slider knob for approximate settings—use the

6 Enter a value in the Outline Width text box to specify the width (or, weight) of the out-

For more specific information about Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and Opacity, see “Slid­ers and Text Values” on page 59.

to make the outline invisible.

knobs for approximate settings—use the text boxes for precise color values.

When you want to assure that two or more objects have exactly the same outline color,
enter the same values in the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness text boxes for each object.

text boxes for precise values.

Here again, when you want to assure that two or more objects have exactly the same
outline opacity, enter the same values in the Opacity text box for each object.

line.

Outline Width also applies to underlined text. That is, if you underline a string of
text then outline the text, the underline has the same width as the text outline.

80

Videonics PowerScript Assigning Attributes to Text Objects

Note

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

50

0

0

GoodDogPlain

Font

Font Size

Line Spacing

Character Spacing

Justification

Underlining

Word Wrap

TEXT Menu

Assigning Attributes to Text Objects

You can assign fill, shadow, and outline attributes to text objects, as described in the pre­ceding sections. In addition, you can assign the following attributes to text objects:

Font StyleFont SizeLine Spacing
Character SpacingJustificationUnderlining

To assign any of the above attributes to a text object, you must first select the object.
This is distinctly different from assigning fill, shadow, and outline attributes to text—
in which case, as described in the preceding sections, you must select the text charac­ters within the text object rather than the object itself.

To assign unique, text object attributes:

1 Select the text object or objects with which you want to work, if not already selected.

2 Click the Text option on the MAIN MENU to display the TEXT menu, or enter Ctrl+F1.

3 To assign a font to the text object, click the t symbol just to the left of the Font text

box, or enter Ctrl+Shift+F1. See “Using the FONTS Menu” later in this section for fur­ther instructions.

4 Specify the Font Size you want. Use the slider knob to set approximate sizes—enter a

value in the text box for precise sizes.

PowerScript font sizes are specified in video scan lines. A character of 480 scan lines fills
an entire NTSC-format television screen; a character 580 scan lines fills a PAL-format
screen. Font sizes less than about 10 scan lines might not be readable on the screen,
even though PowerScript allows you to specify a font size as little as four scan lines.

The maximum value you can enter in the Font Size text box is 100. If you want to make
the font larger than that, use the text object handles to increase the size.

Font height is specified by the designer when creating the font, so sizes can vary from
one font to another. When mixing different fonts, you might need to adjust font size
using the text object handles or the Font Size text box.

5 Specify the Line Spacing you want. Use the slider knob to set approximate spacing—

enter a value in the text box for precise spacing.

Line spacing controls vertical spacing between lines. A value of zero spaces lines at their
normal distance. Values greater than zero increase the distance between lines. (Typeset­ters use the term leading [pronounced “ledding”] with regard to line spacing. In this
context, it measures the distance from one text baseline to the next.)

81

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Note

Drag the Word Wrap Handle left or
right to change the size of the Text
Object. PowerScript automatically
adjusts the vertical size of the
object and makes all lines fit
correctly.

Now is the time for all good
men to come to the aid of
the party. The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy
dogs.

Now is the time
for all good men to
come to the aid of
the party. The
quick brown fox
jumps over the
lazy dogs.

Original Text Object

Adjusted Text Object

with Word Wrap Activated

When you select a Text Object
with the Word Wrap feature
activated, the Word Wrap Handle
appears at the right side of the
object.

Word Wrap

Handle

Using Word Wrap

6 Specify the Character Spacing you want (this is often referred to as kerning). Use the

slider knob to set approximate spacing—enter a value in the text box for precise spac­ing.

Character spacing controls horizontal spacing between characters. Use low values to
bring characters closer together—use higher values to spread them farther apart. You
cannot enter a value less than zero.

7 Select a Justification option to align the text in the object to the Left (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L),

Center (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C), or Right (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R), respectively. The option applies
to all text within the object, even if only a portion of the text is selected.

8 Select the Underlining option (Ctrl+U) to underline the text characters (also see the fol-

lowing Note). PowerScript uses a fixed line width, color, spacing, and so forth for this
option. If you want more flexibility, use a line object rather than this option.

You can assign Font Size, Character Spacing, and Underlining to an entire object, or to
specific characters within the object. If you specify these attributes for an entire text
object, it applies to all characters in the object. If you select only specific characters
within the text object, the attributes apply only to those characters. If you insert the
text cursor between two characters, character spacing applies only between the two
(no effect on underlining).

Using Word Wrap

Word Wrap instructs PowerScript to automatically adjust line lengths when you change
the size of a text object. For example, suppose you create a text object that is too wide for
the area you want it to occupy on the page. If you rescale the object to fit, the size of the
characters also scale, thereby changing character height and/or width and, possibly, dis­torting the characters. With word wrap activated, however, the characters retain their
original size and simply readjust the line endings and text object size so that the text fits
perfectly within the object, no matter what size you make it.

To activate word wrap, select the Word Wrap option in the TEXT menu. To deactivate
word wrap, deselect the option.

82

Videonics PowerScript Using Word Wrap

To use word wrap:

1 Select the text object you want to change.

2 Display the TEXT menu and select the Word Wrap option.

3 Drag the Word Wrap handle left or right. As you drag, the Word Wrap bar (perpendicu-

lar to the text baseline) tracks mouse movement.

Word Wrap Handle

4 When the Word Wrap bar is at the width you want for the text object, release the mouse

button. PowerScript adjusts the object size and re-wraps the text characters to fit within
the new dimensions.

When using Word Wrap, the following conditions apply:

• When you activate the Word Wrap option, the Word Wrap handle appears at the
right side of the text object you select. The handle does not appear when you select
more than one text object.

• Words split only at spaces. That is, if you release the Word Wrap bar in the middle
of a word, that word is not split into two segments.

• If you want to keep two or more words on the same line at all times, separate them
with a non-breaking space. Word Wrap never breaks a line at a non-breaking space.
To enter a non-breaking space, type Alt+Spacebar.

• If you move the Word Wrap handle to the extreme left side of a text object then
release the mouse button, PowerScript automatically sets the width of the text
object equal to the width of the longest word in the object. This occurs because, as
stated earlier, Word Wrap never breaks a word onto separate lines.

• You can toggle Word Wrap on and off using the key combination Ctrl+W.

83

Chapter 5 Working with Objects

Using the FONTS Menu

The FONTS menu appears when you click the t symbol in the TEXT menu, or enter
Ctrl+Shift+F1.

FONTS Menu

FONTS

A: Bookwoman-DemiItalSH
R Bookwoman-DemiSH

“A:” indicates that
the font is on the PC
Card in the front
slot. “B:” indicates it
is on the card in the
rear slot. “R”
indicates it is a ROM­resident font.

A: Bookwoman-LightItalSH
A: Bookwoman-LightSH
R Courier-BoldObliqueSH
R Courier-BoldSH
R Courier-ObliqueSH
R Courier-SH
R Forefront-BookObliqueSH
R Forefront-BookSH
R Forefront-DemiObliqueSH

Available Fonts List

Current Font Selection

Bookwoman-LightSH

DELETECOPY

Available Fonts List—This list shows the names of all fonts that are currently available.
PowerScript examines all currently inserted PC cards for font-type files when it creates
this list. PowerScript also displays the names of ROM-resident fonts in this list and pre­cedes the names with the letter R to let you know it is a ROM font and, therefore, you
cannot delete it.

Current Font Selection—If a text object is selected when you display the FONTS menu, the
name of the font assigned to the text object appears in this location. See “Determining
Attributes Assigned to Text Objects”in the following section.

See Appendix A, PowerScript Fonts, for a list and samples of the fonts included with Power­Script.

To assign a font style attribute to a text object:

1 Select some or all of the characters in the text object, depending on which ones you

want to change. To select all characters, enter Ctrl+A.

2 Press Ctrl+Shift+F1 to display the FONTS menu.

3 Select the font you want in the Available Fonts List.

If the font you want to select does not appear in the list, use the scroll bar at the right
side of the list to move it up or down until the font you want appears.

When you select a font in the Available Fonts List, PowerScript immediately applies the
font to the text selection. You do not have to close the FONTS menu in order to see
how the font looks. Drag the FONTS menu to a different location if it hides the text
object. If you don’t like the font you’ve selected, simply select a different one.

84

Videonics PowerScript Determining Attributes Assigned to Text Objects

WARNING!

FONTS

DELETECOPY

Bookwoman-LightSH

A: Bookwoman-DemiItalSH
R Bookwoman-DemiSH
A: Bookwoman-LightItalSH
A: Bookwoman-LightSH
R Courier-BoldObliqueSH
R Courier-BoldSH
R Courier-ObliqueSH
R Courier-SH
R Forefront-BookObliqueSH
R Forefront-BookSH
R Forefront-DemiObliqueSH

A

TEXT

WORD
WRAP

50

0

0

GoodDogPlain

Holstein

50

Determining Attributes Assigned to Text Objects

When you select all or part of the characters within a text object, PowerScript shows you
which attributes have been assigned to those characters. The information appears in the
TEXT menu, FONTS menu, and the TEXT power menu.

When you select characters that have different attributes assigned to them, the menus
display the attributes for the first selected character in the object.

Deleting Fonts from a PC Card

To delete a font from a PC Card:

When you delete a font from a PC Card, that font will no longer be available.
Before deleting a font, consider placing a copy of it on a separate PC Card.
You need a connection between PowerScript and a computer to save a copy
of the file. See Chapter 8, PowerScript Computer Connections, for further infor­mation.

1 Select the font you want to delete in the Available Fonts List.

2 Click the Delete button.

When you click the Delete button, PowerScript asks you to confirm that you want to
remove the font file. PowerScript does not delete the font until you confirm that this
is what you want to do.

For more information about fonts (including which fonts are included with PowerScript
and how to import other PostScript fonts), see Appendix A, PowerScript Fonts.

85

Notes

T

6

Using PowerScript

his chapter contains step-by-step instructions for PowerScript procedures and func-

tions. The primary topics include:

• Starting and Stopping PowerScript

• Working with Projects

• Working with Pages

• Using Transitions and Page Duration

• Working with Styles

• Working with Backgrounds

• Playing Projects and Pages

Note

START CARD

If you don’t insert the Start Card before
turning on the power switch, this
picture appears on the screen (after a
few moments) prompting you to insert
the Start Card

Chapter 6 Using PowerScript

S

TARTING

AND

S

TOPPING

P

OWER

S

CRIPT

While using PowerScript:

• Do not connect or disconnect the mouse or keyboard while PowerScript is running.

• You can safely leave the Start Card in the card slot when powering down.

• Enter Ctrl+S to save your work before turning PowerScript off.

To start PowerScript:

1

Insert the PowerScript Start Card in the PC Card slot on the front panel.

2

Turn on the power switch, located on the PowerScript rear panel.

It normally takes about 15 to 30 seconds for PowerScript to power up all the way.

To stop PowerScript:

Doing a System Reset

It is a rare occurrence, but if PowerScript ceases to function during normal operation,
enter Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reset (that is, restart) PowerScript. If this fails to restart Power­Script, turn the power switch off, wait a few moments, then turn on the power switch
again.

If you are using an Ethernet adapter with PowerScript, you must insert the Power­Script Start Card in the front slot and the Ethernet adapter in the rear slot—other­wise, PowerScript will not start. For more information regarding the use of Ethernet
adapters, see Chapter 8, PowerScript Computer Connections .

1

Enter Ctrl+S to save your work, or display the PROJECT/PAGE menu and click the Save
option.

2

Turn off the power switch.

88

WARNING!

Tip

Videonics PowerScript Working with Projects

W

ORKING

WITH

P

ROJECTS

A PowerScript Project helps organize your work. A project can be as simple as creating a
text title for a video movie, or it might be as complex as creating many different compo­nents for a full-scale production—such as an animated text title, scrolling film credits,
graphics of maps and diagrams, and so forth.

A Project File is actually a
directory on a PC Card.

Saving Projects

When you begin work on a new project, you first create a new project file (see Warning,
below). You normally store (or, save) a project file on a PC Card. This allows you to open
the project file (by selecting it from the PC Card), modify the project (by making addi­tions, changes, and deletions), then store the updated project file for future use.

PowerScript saves your projects as you work. Although a Save option is avail­able to save your work whenever you want, it is important to understand
that even if you do not use the Save option, PowerScript, nonetheless, saves
your work as you go. Therefore, when you want to experiment with changes
to an existing project without changing the original, make a copy of the
original and work only on the copy. This preserves the original project while
also allowing you to introduce whatever changes you might want to test. If,
after making changes to the copy you want to retain them, delete the origi­nal project from the PC Card and rename the copy to the name of the origi­nal. See “Copying an Existing Project”later in this section.

Another way to prevent changes to existing projects and pages is to “lock” them. See
“Working with Files and Directories”beginning on page 126 for more information about
this function.

Using Project Names

When you store a project file on a PC Card, you must assign the project a name. The
name identifies the project.

Project names must conform to a computer-based, DOS naming convention. That is, the
name cannot contain more than 8 characters—so you need to be a little imaginative
coming up with easily recognizable names.

When you store a project on a PC Card, PowerScript automatically adds a period ( . ) and a
three-character file type ( PRJ ) to the name you provide. For example, if you name a
project BIRTHDAY , PowerScript stores it on the PC Card under the name BIRTH-

DAY.PRJ . You do not have to enter the PRJ file type extension when entering the project

name.

If you are working on a rather large and/or complex project, consider purchasing a new PC
Card for storing the project and all of the associated material that goes with it. For smaller, less
complex projects, you might want to store several different projects on the same PC Card, or
use PowerScript Communicator to store projects on a personal computer or a network.

A project name must be unique on any given PC Card—you cannot have two projects
with the same name on the same PC Card.

89

90

Chapter 6 Using PowerScript

Using the Project/Page Menu

You do all project functions from within the PROJECT/PAGE menu (shown below).
Project functions appear on the left side of the menu.

PROJECT/PAGE Menu — Project-Related Options

PROJECT/PAGE

Project Comment

Available Projects List

PROJECTS PAGES

COMMENT

COMMENT

Project Function
Buttons

CHANGE PG. #

CUT COPY PASTE

COPYNEW

XYZZY

DELETERENAME

NEW: ABOVE NEW: BELOW NEW: END

1
2

RENUMBER
ALL

DELETE

AUTO-SAVE

SAVE

Page-related Options

See page 93.

To access the PROJECT/PAGE menu:

1

If the MAIN MENU is not visible on the screen, enter Ctrl+Right-click to display it. (You
might have to enter the control key twice if the menus are hidden.)

2

Click the Proj/Pg option to display the PROJECT/PAGE menu, or enter Ctrl+F12 .

The Available Projects List shows all projects available on the PC cards currently inserted
in the front and/or rear slots. The slot identifier A: precedes the names of those projects
available on the card in the front, and B: precedes those in the rear slot

When you select a project in the Available Projects List , the comment associated with that
project (if any) appears in the Comment text box.

The remainder of this section explains the use of the Project Function Buttons .