JoeA said:
So how about a quick review of the program. Is it easy to use?
What it is:
Powerpoint plus sort of program.
What it does:
- Slideshows with music and / or sound effects. (wav or midi iirc, no mp3s)
- Within a slide you can have numerous graphics appearing and disappearting
according to either a user-defined timeline, or clickable 'hot spots' (see
below)
- Allows for animations, i.e. graphics can move about on a slide following
"paths" that are user defined. Flying elements can be fixed graphics (e.g.
jpg's) or animations (avi's but not animated gifs). For example, my
Halloween e-cards featured flying ghosts and pumpkins.
- Allows for clickable "hot spots" on a slide. User clicks the spot to cause
some other event such as advancing the slide, etc. In one Christmas card, I
prompted the user to click the snowman. Presto, suddenly there is snow
drifting downward. I prompted them to click the fireplace, the stockings
appear. Click the Christmas tree, the lights come on -- that sort of thing.
- Can create self-executing shows or ones that can be viewed with an
installed viewer
Limitations:
- Editing the time line is a three step process which can be a pain, i.e.
you can't view your changes unless you exit the timeline, run it in preview
mode then return to time line (via two steps) to modify if required. Not a
huge deal though.
- Limited number of slides allowed in free version. I don't think this is
explicitly stated in the documentation. I ran into it accidentally while
putting together a long show and the notice came up. I forget the limit (10
slides?) but it was never an issue with me. In theory you could put together
an entire show using just one slide and all your graphics but the editing
could get hairy as you'd have to keep track of all the visible and invisible
elements on the one page, their timings and relative order.
I quite like this program. I used it to compose e-cards that were always
well received. (I had secret hopes that one of my cards might even fan out
across the Internet. In some of them, I put secret Easter eggs as a type of
copyright on them.) I don't use it anymore as most people don't like getting
exe files (understandably).
I wouldn't use it for straight up slideshow-with-music shows as there are
easier ways to do that but for interactivity with the viewer it's a great
program.
M
Yea! here's how:
Thanks for the feedback.