Part 2 of the Tutorial, Adding Sound, VCR and Pre loader

Adding Music

We decided we wanted the music to loop while the Menu was visible. Selecting Pause would have also paused the sound track.

Here is how the music was added to the Menu. The Slide Sound Tab is shown to the left.

1. Select the Sound Tab
2. Check the Include Slide sound box
3. Click on the green Plus symbol in the Sound Files panel to add the sound file.
4. Browse to and select the music file.
5. Select Play till end of slide.

We selected our song decided we wanted a 20 second sound loop.

We then selected the Show tab and set the Show Time to 20 seconds.

We now have a Menu with a 20 second sound loop.

We now wanted to add music to each topic in the Gallery. We wanted the music to automatically revert to the Gallery sound track if we went back to it or if the topic show completed and ended back at the Menu.

Here is how we do this:

1. Select the first slide in a topic
2. Select the Sound Tab
3. Check the Include Slide sound box
4. Click on the green Plus symbol in the Sound Files panel to add the sound file.
5. Browse to and select the music file.
6. Select Play until the Next Slide Sound
7. Repeat for each topic

Selecting Play until the Next Slide Sound now automatically switches the sound track when a new segment is encountered.

We now have an interactive Gallery with five soundtracks.

Now lets put on the finishing touches, VCR controls and a Pre loader.

Adding the VCR control

Adding the VCR control is very easy. The control provide the viewer with the ability to stop and start the show and to advance slides forward and back ward (skipping to the beginning and end are also options but not applicable here.

The VCR controls let the user explore the Gallery at there own pace and is very important feature.

Here is how the VCR control is built and added:

1. Select Slide Show Properties
2. Select the Web Tab
3. Click on the VCR box in the VCR panel
4. We now select the appearance and location attributes of the VCR control, Style determines the button shapes, Position, Size and Color; determine where in the image, how big and what color the buttons will be. Our example chose Bottom, Medium and Blue.
5. The Choose Button panel is used to select which VCR buttons will appear. In this example we selected Previous and Next. Pause is always provided.

One more step..

 

 

Adding a Pre loader

A Pre loader downloads a portion of the show before it begins. This creates a buffer to guarantee a smooth show on slow web connections. It is not used in other meia.

The pre loader can also be use to add a message screen before a show begins, such as credits, commercial information or instructions.

Here is how the preloader is created and added.

1. Select Slide Show Properties
2. Select the Preload tab
3. Click on the Preload Slide Show box
4. The Slide Show Title page (Slide Show Properties Title tab) contains the message to be shown while the show is loading. Select the Show Title box will enable this.
5. The Pre load type is then selected (adaptive)
6. The attributes of the progress are then selected. This includes, size color, position, and whether the percentage text is shown.
7. The Font panel selects the attributes of the font used to show percentages.

The image above shows the Preload panel and all the settings.

We have now completed our interactive gallery and are ready to publish it.

Publishing the Gallery

Even though this looks like four separate slide shows it is only file. Publishing it is very easy.

Save your project, go to File, select Publish select you Publish method and follow the prompts.

The next Tutorial shows how a similar show is made using five separate linked movie files, one for the menu four separate slide shows.

Click her for the next Tutorial on Working with Multiple Linked Shows.