Neil Lucock

neil@nlucock.freeserve.co.uk

Krishna Tateneni

tateneni@pluto.njcc.com

Brad Hards

bradh@frogmouth.net

Danny Allen

danny@dannyallen.co.uk

Anne-Marie Mahfouf

annemarie.mahfouf@free.fr

This chapter describes how to perform some common tasks in &kpresenter;. Turn an existing presentation into standard HTML pages with accompanying navigation aids. First, either make a new presentation, or open an existing one. Then, click on FileCreate HTML Slideshow... File menu option to Create HTML Slideshow... File menu option to Create HTML Slideshow... A dialog box asks if you want to use a previously saved configuration: Previous configuration dialog Previous configuration dialog Click No if this is the first time that you have used this feature, or if you want to alter specific options. The Yes option allows you to use details that you have previously entered for your HTML slideshow, so that you can quickly create the slideshow without needing to adjust the options. You will then get a dialog box asking for a few details: Fill in the details for your HTML slideshow Fill in the details for your HTML slideshow Fill in each field (the dialog takes the informations from &kcontrol; if they exist) and ensure that the path details are correct, as this is where &kpresenter; will save your new HTML files and pictures. Click on the Next when you are done. If the path you select at this stage does not exist, &kpresenter; will ask if you would like to create it. Now you can configure the specific HTML options: Fill in additional details for your HTML slideshow Fill in additional details for your HTML slideshow Here, the encoding and format details can be changed, along with the zoom level of the slides. For example, if you originally designed your slides to display full screen on a 1280 x 1024 resolution screen, you could scale the slides to 50% to enable them to be easily viewed in a much smaller web browser window. In most cases, the defaults will be fine, and you can safely press the Next to continue to the next page. Now you can customize the colors of the web pages: Setting up the display style for your HTML slideshow Setting up the display style for your HTML slideshow When &kpresenter; creates the web pages for you, the text colors for the navigation aids will follow whatever you set here. To change any of these colors, click the colored bar next to the corresponding text label. The colors used in your actual slides will be unchanged. Choose colors that are complementary to the contents of your presentation. The Next button presents a dialog box that allows you to change the name used on the HTML page for each slide: Setting the slide names Setting the slide names If your presentation was intended to be displayed in an unattended manner (&ie; automatic advance to next slide, &etc;), you can also make your HTML presentation counterpart exhibit the same behavior: Unattended presentations Unattended presentations Here, you can force the slide to advance to the next after a specified amount of time, and also make the presentation return to the start once it reaches the end. Now it is time to actually produce your HTML presentation, the progress of which is shown in this dialog box: Saving your configuration Saving your configuration Finally, you can save the configuration you have just used before you close the dialog box by pressing the Save Configuration... button. What we now have are the newly-produced html/ and pics/ folders, created where we earlier set the path: The newly created HTML slideshow folders The newly created HTML slideshow folders There is also an index.html file to launch your web slideshow. You can see how it works by using your file manager or web browser to open the index.html file. Click where prompted, and the first slide of your presentation is displayed. It will now behave as a &kpresenter; slideshow. Each click on the arrow icons take you to the next or previous slide. To get back to the start of the slideshow click on the slide icon. To share your presentation with the world, transfer the newly-produced files to a network-accessible location (&ie; webspace), remembering to keep the directory structure intact. Some Sony projectors have the ability to run a presentation directly from a Memory Stick, without needing to connect a computer up to the projector. &kpresenter; can export presentations to the format required by these projectors, and this tutorial will show you how to export your presentation. Each exported slideshow consists of a series of image files (one for each slide in the original presentation, plus two title slides) and an index file. They are created in a fairly complex directory structure that allows more than one presentation to be stored on a single memory stick. A simple example is shown below, consisting of two presentations. Memory Stick directory structure If the presentation that you want to export is not already open, go to FileOpen... and select the presentation that you want to export. Now, select the File menu and choose Create Memory Stick Slideshow.... The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow... menu selection. The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow... menu selection. This will bring up the Create Memory Stick Slideshow dialog. The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow dialog. The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow dialog. The Path is the directory in which your presentation will be exported to as directories (DCIM and MSSONY, see the directory structure diagram above) will be created. If you are able to, you may wish to export directly to the Memory Stick, in which case you would enter the location of the medium here. The Title is used for both the name of the index file, and as a text label on the title slide. Note that this title does not affect the titles on any of the normal presentation slides - the title slide is visible using the Sony projector setup prior to starting the actual presentation display. Select the Set Colors option to expand the dialog: The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow dialog (extended). The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow dialog (extended). These two color selectors are only used for the title slide. It can be useful to change the title slides to make the presentations easier to identify when working on the projector, though it is perfectly safe to leave them as default. You can then press the OK button to proceed with the actual export process. Your presentation will now be exported into the correct format, with the following dialog informing you of the progress of this process: The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow progress dialog. The &kpresenter; Create Memory Stick Slideshow progress dialog. When the export is complete, you can select the Done button, and the dialog will close. If you did not export the slideshow directly onto a Memory Stick, you will need to copy the correct files onto the Memory Stick before you can utilise the projector. As noted above, you need to copy over the correct directories and files starting at DCIM and MSSONY into the "root", or / of the Memory Stick. It is critical that the directory structure is maintained, and you may find it easier to copy the whole of DCIM and MSSONY directories. If necessary, you can safely rename the index file (which is Slideshow.SPP by default), however you cannot rename the slide images, nor can you change the name of these directories, as these are encoded into the index file. It is very easy to add new templates to &kpresenter;'s library. If you have made a presentation in a style that you would like to use again, you can save it as a template. This tutorial will show how we can make a new template and save it. Open &kpresenter; and create a new document. To add a little sparkle to the blank slide, we can change the slide background - do this by either going to Format > Slide Background..., or by selecting the same item from the &RMB; menu: The &kpresenter; Slide Background dialog. The &kpresenter; Slide Background dialog. We want the background to look attractive, so let's add a background gradient by using the drop-down menu, and then selecting the gradient colors by clicking the colored boxes. Of course, you may choose to use an image as a background by clicking the Picture tab: feel free to experiment, but keep it beautiful! Choosing a slide background Choosing a slide background The page should now have the background you desire. Create a text box, and type a heading for your slide: Adding a Heading to the new template Adding a Heading to the new template When you are happy with your template, go to File Template Manager: FileTemplate Manager FileTemplate Manager This dialog box allows you to select where you would like your template to be saved: Saving the new template Saving the new template I highly recommend that you save the template in the Screen Presentations group. You may call it whatever you wish, in this case, my template is named Tutorial_Template. Once you are happy with the settings, press OK to add your custom template to the template collection. You can now close the document you have been working on (there is no need to save it). The next time you are presented with the startup dialog, your very own template will be available to select! Your new template in the &kpresenter; startup dialog. Your new template in the &kpresenter; startup dialog.