The help documentation will be updated and improved
with customer feedback.
* Before starting, check to see if you should download
the latest index.htm
help file from the server and replace this one (version
on right top)
* Check the latest FAQ, tips and help
topics on the FORUM
About
What can I do with it now?
Here are some of its main features. It can so do much
more detailed things beside these but here is a short
summary;
Load external bitmap images such as Jpg / Gif /
Png
Load external SWF files
Load-create text effects with optional background
areas
Create texts with optional background areas
Load external FLV video files
And you can load mp3 music files (1 per slide)
- You can create slides and within those slides you
can place any number of slideitems from the 5 types
above.
- You can combine them in any sequence and order you
want.
- You can play the slides in any sequence of your choice.
What specific features can I add or activate?
- You can activate a button menu with numeric buttons
or thumbnail icons, and choose from different visuals.
- You can add a mute button and a slide progress icon
with pause option.
- You can animated all slideitem in three phases (in/stay/out)
and add filters on every phase
/help/ with index.htm and shortcut from readme.htm
/ HELP.htm
Most of the configuration of the
XML file is easy
Only a few nodes are needed to make any content work.
Don't think that the many options
you can set mean it's a lot of work, the instructions
and steps below are explained as detailed as possible
to make help you understand basic use. This help file
was written assuming you know little to nothing about
XML. You'll quickly realize when working with the XML
data that basic steps will soon become obvious and you
won't need to use help documentation much at all.
Explanation of what is what
"Slide": The banner rotator
shows and rotates a number of slides which are played
back automatically in sequence and through which the
user can browse with the menu number buttons (or thumbnails)
"SLIDEITEM (or short -> ITEM)":
Each Slide can have any number of items of the same
or different types. Items can be one of 5 types ( •
image • swf • text effect swf • text
• video ). Items can be used as many times as
you like per slide and they are stacked one on top of
each other according the way you define them in the
XML order.
"Node": Usually implies
the xml nodes <slideitem> or sometimes <slide>
nodes.
"Subnode": Usually implies
an xml node inside the <slideitem> nodes such
as <duration> <delay> <filename> <showtext>
and so on
"Attribute": Implies an
xml nodes "Attribute" which contains extra
parameters for that specific node or subnode.
Do the following short-steps to start using Presentor;
First make sure the loaded contents which will eventually
be called by the XML data are available. By default different
folders have been precreated which you are recommended
to use to place their respective contents in. They are;
/images/
/swfs/
/texteffects/
/video/
/mp3/
Once you create xml slide nodes loading contents, make
sure they call the correct file names inside the correct
folders.
Each slide ITEM is tweened in 3 PHASES,
namely an IN <intime>
and OUT <outtime> animation
tween phase, and a common duration
tween phase in between the IN and OUT phases.
To imagine
the progress, think of the "intime" as
a picture moving quickly into place from outside
the banner or scaling from nothing to full size,
then doing a long 10 seconds Ken Burns effect while
animating "duration", and finally quickly
scaling or fading out or moving out to nothing during
"outtime" as in animation below.
intime
duration
outtime
IN
START
END
OUT
In the XML file you have many many possible settings
you define and many slideitem nodes apply to the 3 different
phases
There are different types of XML node/parameters for
each slide ITEM;
in / out / duration PARAMETERS
functionality PARAMETERS
item-specific PARAMETERS
The first type have parameters to change the visual
of an item tweening the animation, the second have parameters
to define clickable areas and links and delays, and
the third can contain text-HTML format and text-backgrounds
and text-effect parameters etc.
ABOUT
AUTOMATION
It's not always necessary to define all settings for
each PHASE. Why? There are three reasons.
First of all, in the top part of the XML file you
will find a number of important XML nodes which determine
what happens if you don't define some value for a
slide ITEM property. You'll recognize them in their
nodenames they contain "isSTARTEND".
If you leave that node to "true", it means
that not-defined property nodes for IN / END / OUT
will receive the same values as the START
value of that specific property. The properties
can be positions, scaling, transparency and rotation.
In other words, the START property nodes are the most
important ones and possibly the only ones you'll need
to define. But even if you don't define the START
property nodes, there are default values as explained
in next (second) point. Detail: If END property values
also has been defined then the OUT property will take
that value instead of START value, in case its set
through automation.
Second, for alpha transparency and scale properties
you'll find an extra node which contain "is1".
Those mean that if you don't create any START property
value then START values will receive default values
of 1 (100% scale or 100% transparent). If you set
"isSTARTEND" to
false, automation will also perform this same default
value of 1 for the IN / END / OUT values.
And third, make sure an be aware that you can create
new and use precreated PRESET xml
nodes defined in your items, so that you can configure
a lot of subnode parameters for multiple items in
one go.
Priorities
F or in# / start#
/ end# / out#,
where # can be X / Y / XMOVE / YMOVE / WIDTH / HEIGHT
/ XSCALE / YSCALE
NOTICE 1: WIDTH / HEIGHT properties take precedence over
XSCALE / YSCALE properties.
You can use any and either of them on any phase of the
slide item. But, if both have been set, and both would
define the size of some slide item at a certain phase
point, it will be the WIDTH / HEIGHT property who has
final say. You can use them to hardcode define sizes at
points of phases
NOTCE 2: X/Y properties precede XMOVE / YMOVE properties.
You can use any and either of them on any phase of the
slide item. But, if both have been set, and both would
define the positions of some slide item at a certain phase
point, it will be the X / Y property who has final say.
CREATING
A FIRST SLIDE FROM SCRATCH
When you want to make sure everything works properly,
or don't feel comfortable yet working with XML, then
you can choose to start from "scratch". Or
you may simply want to keep this step-sequence as a
reference to doublecheck your actions if you're already
familiar with the XML editing. Do this;
In the xml file remove all the <slide> xml nodes
(and their contents), found after the <preset>
nodes. Be careful not to remove the final xml closing
node. i.o.w delete "only the <slide> nodes
and all their content. After removing, check the xml
file for example in a browser like firefox to check
that its structure is still OK before you start the
steps below, if it's not then it will give an error
warning.
Then do this (using an example of a text slide item)
FIRST
STEP - TO CREATE ONE SLIDE AND ONE CONTENT
Set the order node at the top of the xml file to
<order>1</order>
You'll be starting with one slide only. Notice, you
can define as much <slide> nodes as you like,
but it's the <order> node which in the end will
determine which slides will appear in your presentation.
So you don't need to delete unused <slide> xml
markup if you prefer not to (maybe for putting them
back later in the presentation)
Create a <slide nr="1"
duration="20"> </slide>
node after the last preset node
Slide items will go into this node and the slide will
run for 20 seconds before the next slide is played
(you define more slides later)
Create a <slideitem
filetype="text"> </slideitem>
inside the above slide node
And now subnodes for this text slide item can be inserted
in this <slideitem> node
Insert subnode <duration>
10 </duration> into
the slide item node
This is usually the most important subnode, the phase
after fading in and before fading out, the time it's
visible "normally" (although it can still
animate from start to end in this phase)
Insert subnode <showtext>
Place your text here </showtext>
into the slide item node
So that the slide item has actual content
! IMPORTANT ! For the other type of slides (image
/ swf / text effect / video) the subnode <filename>ImageFolderName/myImage.jpg</filename>
is required at this point
<showtext> for text items (not texteffect
items) also requires you define subnode <textfieldwidth>400</textfieldwidth>
At this point when you test the movie the text should
immediately appear. When this works correctly, you can
add visual subnodes of second step.The xml part should
look like this now;
<slide nr="1" duration="20"> <slideitem filetype="text"> <duration> 10 </duration> <showtext>Place your text here </showtext> <textfieldwidth>400</textfieldwidth> </slideitem> </slide>
SECOND
STEP - TO SET BASIC ANIMATIONS OF SLIDE ITEMS
( Subnodes are called by their
opening nodes in steps below. But of course don't
forget to add their closing nodes when adding them in
the xml)
Repeating step 1-2-3-4 as many times as needed ->
create a slideitem node for each content (image, swf,
text, etc) in this slide. Make sure that you order
them in sequence of what should appear on top of each
other. That is the stacking order, so the bottom item
first and top item last.
! IMPORTANT ! Don't confuse the above "stacking
order" with the "order of appearance"
( -> which item should appear first and which after
that and so on). The playback-moments that any item
should appear is defined by the <delay> subnode
, and not the order in which the <slideitem>
nodes are placed within node <slide>.
Check if you created the appropriate <filename>
subnode or <showtext>
subnode (plus <textfieldwidth>
for text items) for each item. Then test your movie
to see if all contents show simultaneously one on
top of the other.
Optionally choose a <preset>
subnode for this slide item. A preset can contain
a collection of any number of subnodes for an item
and you may not have to do much of the following steps
if you create multiple items of the same type and
visual.
Presets configure a slideitems subnodes but you're
free to add any other or same subnodes to that slideitem
as well. Yes, you can even add subnodes which are
also in the preset, that way those specific subnodes
from the preset will be ignored to avoid conflicts.
More importantly, it allows you to first apply one
specific preset to say 10 items and override certain
subnodes for one or two specific items if you need
to do so for some reason. (EXAMPLE: Think of having
10 images in 1 slide zoom from left to right one after
each other, and you want the first and last one to
move a bit slower then the rest... then you can make
one preset and apply it to all 10 but also add a longer
<duration> or <intime> and <outtime>
subnode to the first and last image slide item node.
They will override the preset <duration> or
<intime> and <outtime>, assuming they
were listed in the preset)
Add <delay> subnodes
to each slide item so that the contents appear in
sequential order throughout playback, see point 1
above. The delay value is the number of seconds the
item should wait before being created/animated. You
can test playback now to see if they appear in time
sequential order.
Add START and END tweening properties to create
an animation in phase 2 <duration>.
Usually you won't want to add much animation, maybe
some kind of Ken Burns effect on images and texts
and so on. Normally <duration> is the phase
where contents should be viewable without too much
animation. But you still can set them.
Among them are the following property
nodes
<startX> and <endX>
<startY> and <endY>
<startXMOVE> and <endXMOVE>
<startYMOVE> and <endYMOVE>
<startXSCALE> and <endXSCALE>
<startYSCALE> and <endYSCALE>
<startWIDTH> and <endXWIDTH>
<startHEIGHT> and <endHEIGHT>
<startALPHA> and <endALPHA>
<startROT> and <endROT>
See the Parameter section
to read which property parameter does what.
Add <intime> and
<outtime> subnodes
if you want the items to fade or move or scale IN
or OUT before/after the animation <duration>
period. The value is the number of seconds of this
IN / OUT "PHASE". These phases will only
become visual once you also set IN or OUT values for
scale/position/rotation/alpha and so on. That's the
next step
Add any of the following subnodes to set the IN
and OUT phase animations
<inX> and <inX>
<inY> and <inY>
<inXMOVE> and <inXMOVE>
<inYMOVE> and <inYMOVE>
<inXSCALE> and <inXSCALE>
<inYSCALE> and <inYSCALE>
<inWIDTH> and <inWIDTH>
<inHEIGHT> and <inHEIGHT>
<inALPHA> and <inALPHA>
<inROT> and <inROT>
See the Parameter section
to read which property parameter does what
THIRD
STEP - TO SET BASIC VISUALS OF SLIDE ITEMS
Each item's content can be placed at the center.
This has several advantages. One is that rotational
tweens happen with the actual contents middle point
at the center so they rotate around its own axis instead
of around their Left-Top point. Another is so you
can quickly align contents to the a point on the canvas
(like the center of the stage) and make any tweening
animations based upon that. You do this with subnode
<contentatcenter>true</contentatcenter>
Each item can have an IN and an OUT mask for the
IN phase 1 and OUT phase 3. This way you can make
images and other contents appear or disappear gradually
by masking. Use subnodes <inmask>2</inmask>
and <outmask>2</outmask>
for that. In and outmasks can have different values
for each item, see the parameters list for which number
represents which visual mask.
For text items,
- You can set <pixelrounded>false</pixelrounded>
so that movements and positions are rounded off to
whole pixels in case you use bitmap fonts.
- (Also for texteffect items) You can set <textbackground>
subnodes with a variety of attributes to define a
background shape for that text.
- You can define <fontMC>
to use one of the precreated font MovieClips with
different font types. You can create more of them
by duplicating those MC's and adjusting their instance
names in the .fla file.
- You can set <css>
subnode so that text can be formatted with stylesheet
from included file bannerstyles.css
- You can set <align>
subnode to set alignment of multiline texts
- Don't forget to define subnode <textfieldwidth>
for text items
You can set subnode <twiggleme>
and set its attributes values to make the item content
shake position randomly
For images you can set subnode <fill>
to make the image appear completely filled or only
filled by use of a gradient mask. This allows you
to merge two images together one on top of the other.
For text effects, you can set subnode <parameters>
with each text effect a very large number of settings
you can define
Add any additional Filter nodes for any
phase. See Filter
nodes explanation about how they work. Remember
that once a filter has been applied, there will not
be any automation performed so if you need to tween
animate filter properties from one phase to another,
you'll need to set the filter node for each phase
(IN / START / END / OUT)
FOURTH
STEP - TO SET FUNCTIONAL SUBNODES OF SLIDE ITEMS
You can set any item to have its own link with subnode
<link target="_blank">http://www.google.com</link>.
The target attribute is optional, if it's not defined
then clicking on this item will open the page in the
same browser window.
You can hide an item when the OUT phase has finished
with subnode <oncomplete_invisible>true</oncomplete_invisible>
FIFTH
STEP - SET BASE PARAMETER NODES
Check and adjust the base node <order>1,2,3,5,7,9,4,8</order>.
This node will define the slides being displayed in
the endresult in that specific order.
Make sure you set base node <clickareaalpha>
back to 0. It is only to facilitate viewing linked
slideitems in the creative process
XML Node Specifications (Parameters)
In the XML document you will find three sections
- Base parameters
- Preset nodes
- Slide nodes each with a number of slideitem nodes
Here is what they do;
Base
xml parameter nodes
order
0,1,2,3,9,5,6
Order of the slides to be used and played
showrandom
true/false
Play slides in random order
noalphaisSTARTEND
true/false
If no alpha defined, for "IN"
or "OUT", copy them from "START"
and "END". Basically
this is if you use a lot of items which don't
need to tween much transparency through IN
and OUT tweens. For example if you use a lot
of masking instead of fading in images in
your banner. See explanation
about automation
noalphais1
true/false
If no alpha defined, use value 1. By default
always for "START" values , also
for "IN", "END", and "OUT"
if "noalphaisSTARTEND" set to false,
Basically this
is if you want to show slide ITEMS most of
the time without being in some degree transparent.
Wherever you don't define a phase alpha transparency
for some slide item, transparency will be
set to 100% . If you don't set this parameter
to true, all item alpha parameters not defined
will receive a default value of 0 (unless
START/END value is defined and copied) See explanation
about automation
noscaleisSTARTEND
true/false
If no alpha defined, use value 1. By default
always for "START" values , also
for "IN", "END", and "OUT"
if "noalphaisSTARTEND" set to false,
Basically this
is if you want to show slide ITEMS most of
the time without being in some degree transparent.
Wherever you don't define a phase alpha transparency
for some slide item, transparency will be
set to 100% . If you don't set this parameter
to true, all item alpha parameters not defined
will receive a default value of 0 (unless
START/END value is defined and copied) See explanation
about automation
noscaleis1
true/false
If no scale defined, use value 1. By default
always for "START" values , also
for "IN", "END", and "OUT"
if "noscaleisSTARTEND" set to false, Basically this is
if you want to show slide ITEMS most of the
time at 100% of their size. If you don't set
this parameter to true, all item scale parameters
not defined will receive a default value of
0 (unless START/END value is defined and copied) See explanation
about automation
noposisSTARTEND
true/false
If no position defined for "IN"
or "OUT", copy them from "START"
and "END" values Basically
this is if you use a lot of items which don't
need to tween much scaling through IN and
OUT tweens. For example if you use fading-scaling-masking
to make your pictures appear or disappear
and not by moving them in or out. See explanation
about automation
maskwidth
number
Banner mask width
maskheight
number
Banner mask height
cssfile
string (default: bannerstyles.css)
Banner style sheet file
buttonmenu
true/false
Add menu buttons or not
Attributes
usethumbnails
true/false
Use Thumbnail images as menu
buttons (sequentially numbered
in folder /menuthumbs/)
automatethumbnails
true/false
If you set this to true:
Automation will look for thumbnail
filenames as method prefix
+ slidenumber + extension.
It will use the nr="X"
which you set in each <slide>
node so that you don't need to
name the thumbnail files sequentially
if you don't want to.
The only thing you DO need to
pay attention to is that you create
one single folder with one single
thumbnail image filename (less
the number) with all the same
extension.
For example, if 1,33 and 777 are
the numbers you put in node <order>,
you can create thumbnail images
with names "thumb1.gif",
"thumb33.gif", "thumb777.gif".
Then place those in any folder
you like and put the name of that
folder in attribute prefix
and also put gif in attribute
extension
If you set this to false:
Automation will extract the name
for the thumbnail from each <slide>
node's attribute thumbnail.
Doublecheck to make sure each
slide has this attribute set with
the correct path, name and extension
for that slide.
prefix
string
If automatethumbnails
set to true, the name of the thumbnail
images less their number and extension
extension
string
If automatethumbnails
set to true, the extension of
the thumbnail images.
type
number
Button type, try values (0-3)
to choose one you like
Font 0: Silkscreen ReMix E
Font 1: Arial
Font 2: Times New Roman
Font 3: Impact
align
string
(default: TC)
Menu buttons (jump to a slide)
alignment
TL = Top Left
TC = Top Center
TR = Top Right
BL = Bottom Left
BC = Bottom Center
BR = Bottom Right
spacing
number
The space between buttons
offX
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this horizontal
button position shifter
offY
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this vertical
button position shifter
extrawidth
number
Menu buttons with numbers (not
the thumbnails) widths are based
upon the width of the number text
in them, but you can increase
their widths with this parameter.
bgheight
number
Height of the menu background
area
bgcolor
hex/number
(default: 0xFFFFFF)
Menu background area color
bgalpha
number
Menu background area transparency
bgstyle
number
Menu effect style, try values
(0-4) to choose one you like
style 0: none
style 1: Glass
style 2: Glass invert
style 3: Smooth
style 4: Smooth invert
bgstylealpha
number
Alpha transparency of the menu
effect
buttonalpha
number
Button transparency normal
buttonalphaover
number
Button transparency when mouse
goes over it
menualpha
number
Menu alpha transparency when
mouse leaves the canvas area
menualphaover
number
Menu alpha transparency when
mouse enters the canvas area
menualphatrigger
String
("menu" or "canvas")
What area will the menu change
alpha transparency, either moving
with the mouse over the whole
canvas or only over the menu itself
addsidebuttons
true/false
Add < and
> shaped buttons
to the left and right for next/previous
slide functionality
sidebuttonsYpos
number
Vertical position of the <
and > shaped
buttons. If you don't set it,
it will take position of <maskheight>
/ 2, i.o.w. in the vertical center
of the area
autohidesidebuttons
true/false
Automatically hide the next/previous
shape buttons if the mouse leaves
the area
sidebuttonalpha
number
Next/previous shape buttons
transparency normal
sidebuttonalphaover
number
Next/previous shape buttons
transparency when mouse goes over
it
autonext
true/false
Automatically play next slide when slide
has reached its end (attributes duration
+ outtime)
addclock
true/false
Add a progress clock icon to the right bottom.
Attributes
align
string
(default: TC)
Clock alignment
TL = Top Left
TC = Top Center
TR = Top Right
BL = Bottom Left
BC = Bottom Center
BR = Bottom Right
offX
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this horizontal
button position shifter
offY
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this vertical
button position shifter
addmute
true/false
Add left bottom mute sound button.
Attributes
align
string
(default: TC)
Mute button alignment
TL = Top Left
TC = Top Center
TR = Top Right
BL = Bottom Left
BC = Bottom Center
BR = Bottom Right
offX
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this horizontal
button position shifter
offY
number
Slightly adjust any irregularity
in position by using this vertical
button position shifter
addpause
true/false
Add pause functionality (on click) to the
right bottom clock icon.
pausevideos
true/false
Make the videos stop as well when the pause(clock
progress) icon is clicked
fadeoutslidetime
number
Time to fade out slides when clicking the
menu buttons
default_transition_in
string
Default phase 1 transition type, (any
of Tweener
transition types)
If no transition attribute is set for a
slideitem node phase duration, this transition
value is used
Reckomended;
linear
easeOutSine
easeOutQuad
easeOutCubic
easeOutElastic
easeOutBack
easeOutBounce
default_transition_start
string
Default phase 2 transition type, (any
of Tweener
transition types)
If no transition attribute is set for a
slideitem node phase duration, this transition
value is used
Reckomended;
linear
easeInOutSine
easeInOutQuad
easeInOutCubic
easeInOutElastic
easeInOutBack
easeInOutBounce
default_transition_out
string
Default phase 3 transition type, (any
of Tweener
transition types)
If no transition attribute is set for a
slideitem node phase duration, this transition
value is used
Reckomended;
linear
easeInSine
easeInQuad
easeInCubic
easeInElastic
easeInBack
easeInBounce
pr_auto_atr_text
true/false
Short for "Preset Automate Attributes
Text"
If you leave this to true, then you can put
a <showtext> node in a <preset>
collection without actual text content but
with with attributes defined. So a slideitem
can call the attributes/layout from preset
and defne the text itself.
Why? Otherwise (if set to false) the <showtext>
defined in a slideitem would replace any <showtext>
it called from <preset>. And by that
also replacing its attributes. That would
mean it's no use defining the attributes for
<showtext> in any of the <preset>
collections and calling that <preset>
in combination with also setting the actual
text in the slideitem <showtext> node.
The slideitem <showtext> would first
kill the preset <showtext> and any of
its attributes and substitute with its own.
Since preset nodes are "fixed",
it would be no use defining the text content
of <showtext> in the preset. That needs
to be done by the slideitem <showtext>
node.
This way It's an easy method to define the
visual attributes of the <showtext>
in one or more of the <preset> collections
but without a text in them, and set the actual
text content in the <slideitem> <showtext>
node and call the visual from a preset. That's
why this parameter was added.
pr_auto_atr_textback
true/false
Short for "Preset Automate Attributes
Text Backgrounds"
Same as <pr_auto_atr_text> but for text
background slideitem nodes
pr_auto_atr_standardback
true/false
Short for "Preset Automate Attributes
Standard Backgrounds"
Same as <pr_auto_atr_text> but for standard
background slideitem nodes
clickareaalpha
number
Just to preview and correct clickable areas,
Clickable areas will show up as red rectangles
When all is correct set back to 0. This makes
it easy to doublecheck if you have set items
link correctly, they'll show up in red. Use
for example value 0.5 for 50% transparency
red coverage.
preset
and texteffectpreset xml parameter nodes
preset
nodes
Collection of nodes to be used for a slideitem.
These presets will be applied on the slideitem
before any individual nodes which have been
defined are processed.
Define preset nodes after the "Base xml
parameter nodes" and before the "Text
effect preset nodes"
PS: Slideitems also can have a <preset>
subnode, but those are the "calling"
nodes.... these <preset> nodes are the
"definition" nodes
Attributes
nr
number
number of preset by which
a slideitem can identify the
preset it should use
<parameters> node to be performed
on a text effect. These presets will be
applied on the text effect slideitem before
the "variationname" atribute and
any individual values for <parameters>
which have been defined are processed.
Define preset nodes after the "preset
nodes" and before the "slide nodes"
PS: Slideitems also can have a <texteffectpreset>
subnode, but those are the "calling"
nodes.... these <texteffectpreset>
nodes are the "definition"
nodes
Attributes
nr
number
number of preset by which
a slideitem text effect can
identify the text effect preset
it should use
One of the slides, within this node you place
the slideitem nodes
Attributes
nr
number
The number of this slide. It is not
necessarily the sequential number of
the final result (you define sequence
of appearing in base node <order>.
You also don't need to remove unused
slide nodes and don't need to have each
number existent (1,2,3,4 is not necessary,
you could create 33,26,88,55 if you
like). Just pay attention to not create
duplicate slide numbers.
duration
number
The duration in seconds which this
slide will run. The slide duration is
independent from the durations of any
of its slideitem contents.
outtime
number
Time to fade out in case you set <awaitout>
to true
fadeout
true/false
Sets whether or not a slide will fade
out to 0 alpha transparency
awaitout
true/false
Sets whether or not a new slide will
wait until the previous slide has completed
fading out, or if it should already
start right away and give a fade-from-one-slide-into-another
visual effect
roundcornermask
number
Rounded corner masking for this specific
slide (affects all of its slideitem
contents)
bgcolor
hex/number
(default: 0xFFFFFF)
Slide background area color. If you
don't define any, this slide's background
will be transparent (no color)
sound
string (for
example "mp3/mySong.mp3"
The sound/music file which will be
played during this slide. Notice that
"pausing" a slide will not
pause the music, because sound is turned/off
by the mute button.
soundfadein
true/false
Fade in the sound from volume 0 to
1at the start of the slide.
Will not be executed if two slides in
sequence have settings of the same sound
file so the music is allowed to continue
to play normally through different slides
soundfadeout
true/false
Fade out the sound from volume 1 to
0 at the end of the slide
Will not be executed if two slides in
sequence have settings of the same sound
file so the music is allowed to continue
to play normally through different slides
thumbnail
String
If node <buttonmenu> attribute
usethumbnails set to true and
automatethumbnails set to false,
you are required to set this attribute
for each slide. Put here the path and
name (plus extension) for the thumbnail
image of this slide. For example "thumbnailfolder/thumbnail7.jpg"
menutiptext
String
The text to appear on the menu tool
tip when you hover the menu button or
thumbnail
menutiptextcolor
Number (hex
color)
The color of the menu tip text
menutiptextwidth
number
The text field width of the menu tool
tip for this particular menu button
hover
menutipextraW
number
The extra area width of the menu tool
tip for this particular menu button
hover
menutipextraH
number
The extra area height of the menu
tool tip for this particular menu button
hover
Slideitem
xml node
slideitem
subnodes listed below
One of the slides, within this node you place
the slideitem nodes
Attributes
filetype
string
!!! This attribute is a
requirement for each slideitem !!! You can choose from 5 different
types:
filetype="image"
filetype="swf"
filetype="texteffect"
filetype="text"
filetype="video"
If you choose "text",
then you'll also need to set the <textfieldwidth>
subnode to make sure the textfield
where text will be placed is the size
you require it to be.
(Slideitem)
subnodes
preset
numeric comma devided array
(for example 3,5,6,8)
One or more presets to be applied on this slide
item, before any individual subnodes values are
applied. You can applie multiple <preset>
collections on a slide item by using a comma seperated
value like 1,2,3,6,7 which will apply preset 1,2,3,6
and 7 on the slide item in that specific order.
If multiple preset contain the same nodes, it's
always the last one which will remain the value.
After that, if you have also set subnodes from the
list below, these will override any values received
from the presets.
To see examples of the preset or how to construct
one, see about presets
PS: These <preset> nodes are the "calling"
nodes.... the <preset> nodes containing the
subnode collections after the base xml nodes are
the "definition" nodes
fill
number (0 = full, 1 and
2 are gradient filled horizontally from 0 to 100%
transparent)
For filetype="image"
Type of fill for an image. By default
(blank or node value 0) it's completely filled but
you can set it to 1 or 2 to make it only being filled
gradually from 0 to 100% transparency so that you
can merge images together stacking semi transparent
images on top of other images.
Parameters to be pushed to an instance of the text
effect swf. The text effect .swf will pick up these
parameters and handle them internally. You can push
parameters like letter color and spacing and font
frame and morphing options and multi-colored text
options and so on. There are literally tens and
in some cases more then a hundred parameters you
can push
description
String
For filetype="image"
You can allow images to show a description and title
when the mouse goes over it
Attributes
fontMC
number
The font MovieClip to be used by this
slide item. You can clone existing Library
MC's (font 0, font 1, font 2 etc) to
new font MC's as many times as you like,
just remember to set their instance
names and export options in their Linkage
options (right click existing "font
0" MC in Library and click Linkage,
to see what Linkage options should look
like when you create new font MC's)
backcolor
number (hex
color)
The background color of the description
area
backalpha
number
The alpha transparency of the description
area
width
number
The width of the description area
extraH
number
The extra height of the description
area (apart from calculated text area)
shiftX
number
Shift the title text horizontally
shiftY
number
Shift the title text vertically
alignbottom
boolean
Attach to bottom instead of top
title
String
For filetype="image" in case <description>
is set
You can allow images to show a description and title
when the mouse goes over it
Attributes
fontMC
number
The font MovieClip to be used by this
slide item. You can clone existing Library
MC's (font 0, font 1, font 2 etc) to
new font MC's as many times as you like,
just remember to set their instance
names and export options in their Linkage
options (right click existing "font
0" MC in Library and click Linkage,
to see what Linkage options should look
like when you create new font MC's)
shiftX
number
Shift the title text horizontally
shiftY
number
Shift the title text vertically
showtext
string
For filetype="texteffect"
For filetype="text"
Value of the to be displayed text for this slide
item. You can also use CSS formatted contents if
you like (in case you set <css> node to true)
which will use the included stylesheet file definitions.
Attributes
Xcorrection
number
For textfield behaviour, in case
you need to shift the horizontal top
position of the textfield, set this
value. .
Ycorrection
number
For textfield behaviour, in case
you need to shift the vertical top
position of the textfield, set this
value. .
intime
number
The text and text effect items
can have their own sub / internal
time to tween-animate IN. This is
performed independently from the normal
IN - START phase and you can use both
of them at the same time. You can
use this "intime" to make
a very smooth looking animating appearance
of the text or by making it appear
from behind an internal masked area
using the attributes below.
The "intime" attribute defines
the number of seconds to perform this
sub tween animation.
infade
true/false
Make the text gradually fade in
from 0 to 100% transparency
inXmove
number
Horizontal movement during "intime"
inYmove
number
Vertical movement during "intime"
inXscale
number
Horizontal scale when beginning
"intime"
inYscale
number
Vertical scale when beginning "intime"
inrotation
number
Rotation when beginning "intime"
inrotatefromcenter
true/false
Shift rotational center to text
center when beginning "intime"
Base the mask area upon clickable
area (clickable areas are calculated
from final visual end width and height
of slide items)
inmaskxpos
number
horizontal left position of mask
inmaskypos
number
vertical top position of mask
inmaskwidth
number
width of mask
inmaskheight
number
height of mask
fontMC
number
For filetype="text"
The font MovieClip to be used by this slide item.
You can clone existing Library MC's (font 0, font
1, font 2 etc) to new font MC's as many times as
you like, just remember to set their instance names
and export options in their Linkage options (right
click existing "font 0" MC in Library
and click Linkage, to see what Linkage options should
look like when you create new font MC's)
css
true/false
For filetype="text"
If set to true, the textfield will be generated
by createTextField() actionscript instead of one
of the font MovieClips, and then the stylesheet
defined in base node <cssfile>
will be applied to this textfield
align
string (default: left)
For filetype="text"
Use "center" or "right" to align
the text differently
textfieldwidthfontMC
number
For filetype="text"
The width of the textfield used to display the text.
textbackground
number
or
standardbackground
Use textbackground for filetype="text"
or "texteffect" and standardbackground
for "swf" "image" or "video"
A background area will be generated which can be
customized with its attributes to many different
visual styles and can also be given its own extra
tweened animation separate from the text tweened
animation
Attributes
roundcorner
number
Background rectangle rounded corner
amount
If you don't define this, it will
be 0
If you define <shiftTL>, <shiftTR>,
<shiftBL> or <shiftBR>,
the rounded corner will be disregarded.
color
hex/number
(default: 0xFFFFFF)
Background rectangle color
If you don't define this, it will
be black
border
number
Background rectangle border size
If you don't define this, it will
be 0
bordercolor
hex/number
(default: 0xFFFFFF)
Background rectangle border color
If you don't define this, it will
be black
alpha
number
Background rectangle alpha transparency
If you don't define this, it will
be 1
Xpos
number
Background rectangle horizontal
position.
If you don't define this, it will
be extracted from text position
Ypos
number
Background rectangle vertical position.
If you don't define this, it will
be extracted from text position
width
number
Background rectangle fixed width.
If not set, system will calculate
from content size
height
number
Background rectangle fixed height.
If not set, system will calculate
from content size
extraW
number
Background rectangle extra width
extraH
number
Background rectangle extra height
intime
number
The text and text effect items
background rectangle can have their
own sub / internal time to tween-animate
IN. This is performed independently
from the normal IN - START phase and
you can use both of them at the same
time. You can use this "intime"
to make a very smooth looking animating
appearance of the text or by making
it appear from behind an internal
masked area using the attributes below.
The "intime" attribute defines
the number of seconds to perform this
sub tween animation.
infade
true/false
Make the background rectangle gradually
fade in from 0 to 100% transparency
inXmove
number
Background rectangle horizontal
movement during "intime"
inYmove
number
Background rectangle vertical movement
during "intime"
inXscale
number
Background rectangle horizontal
scale when beginning "intime"
inYscale
number
Background rectangle vertical scale
when beginning "intime"
inrotation
number
Background rectangle rotation when
beginning "intime"
inrotatefromcenter
true/false
Shift rotational center to background
rectangle center when beginning "intime"
Shift the top left point of the
background rectangle horizontally.
Rounded corner settings will now be
ignored
shiftTR
number
Shift the top right point of the
background rectangle horizontally.
Rounded corner settings will now be
ignored
shiftBL
number
Shift the bottom left point of
the background rectangle horizontally.
Rounded corner settings will now be
ignored
shiftBR
number
Shift the bottom right point of
the background rectangle horizontally.
Rounded corner settings will now be
ignored
shiftdirection
string ("vertical")
If you set this attribute to "vertical",
then the shift positions above will
shift vertically
instead of default horizontally
filename
string
For filetype="image" (for example images/myImage.jpg)
For filetype="swf" (for example swfs/mySWF.swf)
For filetype="texteffect" (for example
texteffects/effect_dna.swf)
For filetype="video" (for example videos/myVideo.flv)
The path and name of the external file to be loaded.
addvideocontrols
true/false
For filetype="video"
You can allow videos to show progress bar and play/pause
button
Attributes
showplaybutton
true/false
Show play button
showprogressbar
true/false
Show video progress bar
x_cut
number
Cut a little of the right side
of the video-progress bar.
Why? Because the
video controlls eventually had to
be implemented outside the actual
video object, otherwise scaling /
sizing the video to user input xml
values would also rescale the accompanying
video controlls. For small video (e.g.
scaling start values of 0.25) it would
make the video controlls almost unclickable.
That's why they were later implemented
outside the video object but this
also can give unexpected behaviour
because video sizes are read in by
AS on a large number of factors including
scaling and positioning which can
result in small discrepancies in the
eventually calculated position for
the video controlls.
x_off
number
Offset/shift the video controlls
horizontally if it doesn't appear
exactly correctly placed
y_off
number
Offset/shift the video controlls
vertically if it doesn't appear exactly
correctly placed
loop
true/false
For filetype="video"
Loop video when it reaches the end
autoplay
true/false
For filetype="video"
Start/play the video automatically
delay
number
The total of seconds delay before this slideitem
starts / appears and begins animating in the slide's
playback progress
contentatcenter
true/false
Shift the slideitem content so that contents are
not placed at the left-top but to it's center/middle.
This way you can rotate slide items around their
centers and also position items and their movements
to certain points like for example stage center.
link
string (URL - WEBLINK)
Make this slide item clickable and open a web
link (URL) on click
Attributes
target
string ("_blank",
"_parent", "_top",
"_self" or custom target)
The frame or browser target in
which to open the link
internalslide
true/false
If you set this to true, you can
fill in the number of the slide to
open when this slideitem is clicked.
Basically they'll work as main menu
button clones.
pixelrounded
true/false
Round positions off to whole pixels, specifically
meant for pixelfont use.
twiggleme
true/false
Make the item content shake position randomly.
Attributes
twiggleX
number
Horizontal random movement
twiggleY
number
Vertical random movement
oncomplete_invisible
true/false
Hide the slide item when the 3rd phase (OUT) has
been completed. It's recommended you also set the
outALPHA node to 0 so that the item fades out properly
before being removed. This function makes playback
remain smooth because not only will it hide the
slide item but also remove any of its contents so
that any internal scripting will not run anymore
in the background. (method specifically added for
loaded text effects, loaded SWF files and loaded
VIDEOS)
inmask
number
outmask
number
Type of mask to be used on the slide item contents.
Specifically meant to reveal or hide images by masking
effect. <inmask> is used during phase 1 and
<outmask> is used during phase 3 (see phases
)
You can quickly vary types 4/5/6/7 with different
values for Attribute "sequence" to variate
masking visuals.
Mask types
1 = horizontal gradient from side inwards
2 = horizontal gradient from side inwards
3 = one big circle from center out
4 = multiple circles
5 = multiple rectangles
6 = multiple vertical bars
7 = multiple horizontal bars
Attributes
delay
number
Depending on the choice of the
mask this attribute can be set. Only
for masks using multiple shapes (type
4, 5 and 6). The delay value is the
amount of seconds inbetween generation
of the internal mask shapes
flipX
true/false
Invert the mask direction horizontally
flipY
true/false
Invert the mask direction vertically.
elementsize
number
Depending on the choice of the mask
this attribute can be set. Only for
masks using multiple shapes (type 4,
5 and 6). The elementsize value is the
size of the internal mask shapes.
sequence
number
If mask set to type 4/5/6/7, the sequence
of elements to be generated
0 = First to Last ( F -> L)
1 = alternate First/Last towards Center
(F/L -> C <- F/L)
2 = First/Last inwards to Center (F/L
-> C)
3 = Center outward to First/Last (C
-> F/L)
intime
number
The time in seconds of the first phase (IN to
START). See phases
Horizontal position of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
inY
number
startY
number
endY
number
outY
number
Vertical position of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
inXMOVE
number
startXMOVE
number
endXMOVE
number
Influences the horizontal position of a slide
item at a certain point of phase See phases
X takes precedence over XMOVE, see priorities
inXMOVE: the distance position moves through phase
1
startXMOVE: the distance position moves through
phase 2
endXMOVE: the distance position moves through phase
3
inYMOVE
number
startYMOVE
number
endYMOVE
number
Influences the vertical position of a slide item
at a certain point of phase See phases
Y takes precedence over YMOVE, see priorities
inYMOVE: the distance position moves through phase
1
startYXMOVE: the distance position moves through
phase 2
endYMOVE: the distance position moves through phase
3
inXSCALE
number
startXSCALE
number
endXSCALE
number
outXSCALE
number
Horizontal size (scale) of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
inYSCALE
number
startYSCALE
number
endYSCALE
number
outYSCALE
number
Vertical size (scale) of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
inWIDTH
number
startWIDTH
number
endWIDTH
number
outWIDTH
number
Horizontal size (width) of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
WIDTH takes precedence over XSCALE, see priorities
( WIDTH is not inherited from prior phase. If no
WIDTH is defined, XSCALE will automate size )
inHEIGHT
number
startHEIGHT
number
endHEIGHT
number
outHEIGHT
number
Vertical size (height) of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
HEIGHT takes precedence over YSCALE see priorities
( HEIGHT is not inherited from prior phase. If no
HEIGHT is defined, YSCALE will automate size )
inALPHA
number
startALPHA
number
endALPHA
number
outALPHA
number
Alpha transparency of a slide item at a certain
point of phase See phases
inROT
number
startROT
number
endROT
number
outROT
number
Rotation of a slide item at a certain point of
phase See phases
Filter parameters are set up just like the propertshies
(X / Y, XSCALE / YSCALE, ALPHA, etc), they come with the
"in", "start", "end" and
"out" prefixes.
Drop Shadow filter properties of a slide item
at a certain point of phase See phases.
Implement them comma seperated.
Attributes
contentonly
true/false
In case this slide item has a background
area (text or text effect) you can
choose to apply this filter on the
content (text or text effect) only
Text
effect nodes
texteffectpreset
numeric comma devided array
(for example 3,5,6,8)
One or more text effect presets to be applied
on this slide item text effect, before any individual
parameter values are applied. You can apply multiple
<texteffectpreset> collections on a slide
item text effect by using a comma seperated value
like 1,2,3,6,7 which will apply texteffectpreset
1,2,3,6 and 7 on the slide item in that specific
order. If multiple texteffectpreset contain the
same parameters, it's always the last one which
will remain the value. After that, if you have also
set parameters and values in the <parameter>
node, these will override any values received from
the presets.
To see examples of the preset or how to construct
one, see about presets
PS: These <texteffectpreset> nodes are the
"calling" nodes.... the <texteffectpreset>
nodes containing the subnode collections after the
base xml nodes are the "definition"
nodes
parameters
parameters (different
for each text effect swf)
The list of parameters to be pushed to this
specific text effect slide item. All text effects
have certain collection of standard parameters
and a collection of text effect specific parameters.
It's important you Implement them in the node
<parameters> as comma separated
on one single line (do not use linebreaks),
and without using ""
quotes around any parameters
or their values.
If you need to set or use these with a more advanced
method inside your own .fla files, you can obtain
these text effects with a Component Inspector
custom UI .fla (basically a user interface instead
of a long list of parameters).
In most cases, choosing only
a preset value is already enough to cover your
needs.
The easiest way to change or experiment with
visuals is to start by entering one of the text
effect internal variationname
attribute value. The variations are
not "final" though, if you like you
can always add any of the text effect properties
in the <parameter> node to override the
values it received from the variationname (which
themselves are actually collections of property
values). Pay
attention to copy EXACT variation name, leave
no spaces before or after the variationname
when pasting the name in the XML node inbetween
quotes.
You can also make good use of the text
effect presets option to easily
apply precreated settings. You can create text
effect presets for spacing, letter color, alignment,
and many more. You can also use them wisely
for text effect internal "filter"
setting (notice, those are not connected to
slideitem filters. You can even use both at
the same time) or "morphing" or "letters
out" visuals. You can also combine mutliple
text effect presets on one slide item (text
effect) so you can mix&match your presentation.
The standard xml file includes a number of precreated
text effect presets.
If you for example want to make the effect go
faster, you can push the appropriate parameter
to the text effect, in this case parameter letterdelay
which by default is 1, decreasing it will make
it go faster (for instance letterdelay=0.5 will
make it 2x as fast as the default effect speed)
By default you can choose these of the values
for parameter fontframe
= Times new Roman
= Arial
= Impact
See variationname and
effect specific parameters for effect:
This parameter lets you override colors and fontframe
(font type) for certain letter ranges in the effect.
It's construction is as follows
-Start with number of "letter ranges"
to override
- For each range put first letter + last letter
+ font color + font type.
Each needs to be seperated by a dot. You can
NOT leave any out otherwise sequence will not
be processed correctly.
For example if you want to make letter 33 to 44
in red and letter 55 to 66 in font "3",
you'd join these values
2 (number of ranges)
.33 (first letter of first range
.44 (last letter of first range
.0xFF0000 (color of first range)
. (blank dot since no override font for this range
is needed)
.55 (first letter of second range)
.66 (last letter of second range
. (blank dot since no override color for this
range is needed)
.3 (font frame of second range)
If you put all of these together you get;
letoverride=2.33.44.0xFF0000..55.66..3
Slide
item structure
Here are the structures of slide items in case you
need to edit source code;
Here are some tips which can help you speed up or
facilitate your work in progress
Set
<delay> temporarily to 0 (optionally
in a separate extra blank testing slide)
When you're testing to see how and where your slideitems
will appear and how they animate, you may not want
to or need to see the whole slide timeline being played
back each time. If you temporarily set <delay>
of the slideitem to 0, then it will appear right away
and you can make xml changes to positions and visuals
much faster. When it animates properly to your liking,
set the <delay> back to its proper value. If
you find it difficult to see the visual this way or
confusing, you can even consider creating an extra
testing <slide> just for the purpose of testing
visuals and make that <slide> be the first one
listed in xml <order> node. Then when the slide
animates to your liking, simply cut-paste it into
the slide where it needs to appear and set the proper
<delay> node value.
Use
(/create) presets If you use many different slideitems which
use the same xml node settings, consider creating
a <preset> for it so you won't need to do changes
on each one of them and only on the <preset>
settings. Remember that slideitems can contain multiple
<preset> settings and you can mix any number
of them together. You also still can add the same
subnode settings which are in the <preset> collection(s),
this way overriding the value it initially received
from the <preset> definition(s).
Use <contentatcenter>
Each item's content can be placed at the center. This
has several advantages. One is that rotational tweens
happen with the actual contents middle point at the
center so they rotate around its own axis instead
of around their Left-Top point. Another is so you
can quickly align contents to the a point on the canvas
(like the center of the stage) and make any tweening
animations based upon that. Using contentatcenter
can be very useful if you scale or rotate slide items
a lot.
Smart numbering <preset>s and <texteffectpreset>s
You don't have to number presets/texteffectpresets
in sequence starting from 1. You can number them any
way you want. A smart numbering can help you keep
overview clearer. One way is the way the xml does
it by default, numbering presets by slide, for example
presets for slide 4 use preset numbers 41, 42, 43
etc. And preset filters with number 101, 102, 103
etc. And general presets used by all slides with 1001,
1002, 1003 etc. The same applies for texteffectpresets.
Set most-common subnodes first
Only a few subnodes are needed to have items appear.
Set these first, 1) text and 2) for any other
1) <showtext> + <textfieldwidth>
2) <filename>
Then do the next common ones
<preset>
<delay>
<contentatcenter>
<duration> and all the <start#####>
nodes where the # represent
visual properties (check the nodelist)
And check the result, the item will appear and you
can do any visual changes from this point.
Keeping file size low
You can keep the file size low by deleting the contents
of movieclips not being used. Say for example you
only use one font MovieClip then you can delete the
others from the Library so it won't include the font
glyphs automatically.