NeoShow & NeoShow Pro 2.0 by OSCS Software Development, Inc. === OVERVIEW === Computer paint programs, such as NeoPaint from OSCS software, are capable of producing eyecatching art, text and take-offs from scanned pictures. While your work here may be printed or imported into desktop publishing programs for output, you could also be taking advantge of your computer as a platform for presenting your work. NeoShow is a simple, yet powerful means of creating attractive, onscreen presentations. NeoShow allows you to arrange PCX and GIF computer image files into a logical sequence, much like a slide show. You may even add audio for playback on an installed compatible sound card. The slide production may be set up to run automatically, or to await prompts from a presenter. You may determine how long each image is displayed and apply different special effects to make professional looking transitions and wipes between the images in your production. Aside from its obvious applications in business and group settings, NeoShow may also be used in the home to organize your artwork, produce storyboards for videos or school plays, present prescanned family photos, etc. === PLEASE REGISTER NEOSHOW === NeoShow is shareware and may be used free of charge for a trial period. If you decide to continue using NeoShow please register it. Registration entitles you to notification of future upgrades, technical support and an illustrated user's guide. Site and network licenses are also available. The cost to register the basic version of NeoShow is $35 + $5 shipping & handling ($17.50 outside the United States). NeoShow Pro allows you to compile your presentation into a stand-alone executable (.EXE) file, which may be freely distributed to end users. Registration for NeoShow Pro is $89 + 5 (shipping & handling, $17.50 outside the continental United States). We accept VISA and MasterCard. TO REGISTER NEOSHOW: Call: (503) 389-5489 (Hours: 8:00 - 5:00 PDT) Fax: (503) 388-8221 Write: OSCS Software Development, Inc. 354 NE Greenwood, Suite 108 Bend, OR 97701-4631 You may distribute unregistered copies of NeoShow freely to your friends and associates as long as you do not charge for the program, and all accompanying files are included. ORDERS FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.A.: Please make payment in US dollars. === HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS === To use NeoShow, you will need the following: - IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible computer - EGA, VGA or compatible graphics card and monitor - 640K minimum memory - A hard disk - MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.1 or later - NeoShow program disk - Microsoft, Logitech or compatible mouse - SoundBlaster or compatible sound card (optional) === INSTALLING NEOSHOW === - Boot your computer. (Turn the computer on!) - Insert the NeoShow Program disk into drive A. - At the DOS prompt (C:\), type A:\INSTALL and press the Enter key. - Follow the instructions on the screen. === CUSTOMER SERVICE === Registered users of NeoShow may obtain customer service and technical help from OSCS. If you receive a defective diskette, return it within thirty (30) days to the address below for a free replacement. If you encounter other problems, follow the steps below: - Consult the manual. - Consult documentation of any software used to produce images you are using, to be certain you are importing an image saved in a format compatible with NeoShow. - Try to duplicate the problem. - Retrace your steps to identify where, when and how the problem occurs. - Ask your dealer for help. - Contact OSCS Software Development. You may reach us by: 1. mailing your questions to OSCS Software Development, attn. Customer Services, 354 NE Greenwood Ave., Suite 108, Bend, Oregon 97701-4631 U.S.A. 2. sending a FAX message to (503) 388-8221, 3. contacting our staff via modem using our 24 hour BBS at (503) 383-7195, or 4. calling our support staff at (503) 389-5489 (weekdays 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Standard Time) Whether you call or write, please provide us with the following information to give us a complete picture of your situation. - Your NeoShow version number (this may be quickly located using the Help/About NeoShow option on the NeoShow menu). - Your registration number. - Computer brand and model. It is also important that we know the amount and type (Extended, Expanded and unused Disk) of memory on board and what memory manager you are using. - Brand and model of your video adapter, monitor, and mouse. - Operating system (DOS) version number. - A listing of the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files - Names of other software program(s) or TSR's (terminate and stay resident utilities) which you may be running along with NeoShow when you notice this problem. - A description of the problem, how and when it appeared, and how to reproduce it. === STARTING NEOSHOW === If you installed NeoShow into a directory other than C:\NEOSHOW, then substitute that name for C:\NEOSHOW below. To use NeoShow with a mouse, your mouse driver (usually MOUSE.COM) must be loaded before starting NeoShow. Please refer to your mouse's user manual for more information. At the DOS prompt (C:\), type CD\NEOSHOW and press Enter. This puts you in the NeoShow directory. Now type NEOSHOW and press Enter. === KEYBOARD OPERATION === Most command buttons and options may be accessed directly with the mouse. In addition, many commands on the command menu have one letter in their titles underlined. Select these commands by holding down the ALT key while typing the letter corresponding to the desired command. You may use the ARROW keys to move between buttons and options on the menu. A highlight, appearing as a shadowed box, surrounds the current item. Once the command you wish to use is highlighted, press the ENTER key to select or activate. At other times, you may need to select from a list of files or controls in response to a command to add a file or set an option. You may use the TAB key to jump from item to item. Here the currently active item is surrounded by highlight which appears as a dotted box. Once the desired item is highlighted, press the SPACE bar to select or change that item. === MOUSE OPERATION === Your mouse requires that Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse driver software be loaded before starting NeoShow. A a small mouse pointer (arrow) will appear on your screen if a mouse is present. Move the pointer to the desired command or option and click the left mouse button to select or activate. === SCREEN FEATURES === NeoShow's menus contain several control types used to select, enable or deactivate various features. COMMAND BUTTONS - These are buttons which activate commands or bring up submenus. To select a command option, either click the button with a mouse or hold down the Alt key and press the underlined letter in the title of the desired command. CHECK BOX - These controls appear as small boxes. Activate/deactivate this option either by holding down the ALT key and pressing the underlined letter, or by clicking inside the box with a mouse. A check mark will appear to show that the option has been selected. DROP DOWN LIST - Lists are used to allow you to choose from a large group of options, such as lists of image names. Boxes in dialogs which contain lists have a small, downward pointing arrow on a button to the right of the description. The list may be displayed by clicking on the small arrow with your mouse, or, from the keyboard, either highlighting the item using the TAB key and pressing the SPACE bar or by simultaneously pressing the ALT key and the underlined letter in the option title. The item with a dotted border around it represents the currently active item on the list. From the keyboard, use the UP/DOWN arrow keys, the PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN keys, and the HOME and END keys to move the selector highlight to the desired item, then press ENTER to choose it. You may also use the mouse to scroll through the list and select an item. Clicking the arrow buttons on the scroll bar to the right of the list will move the window one item at a time. Clicking and dragging the Scroll button up or down allows you to scroll quickly through the list. You may also scroll one page at a time by clicking the shaded area on the Scroll bar. ERROR MESSAGE - At times, you may be presented with an error message, requiring that you merely acknowledge its existence by pressing ENTER or clicking the mouse. TEXT BOX - Text boxes are used to enter information such as file names, time intervals, etc. If a dialog box contains more than one text box, press the TAB key to move to the one you want. If you have a mouse, just click within the desired text field. RADIO PUSHBUTTON - These appear as diamond shaped depressions next to a description of the option. This type of button is always found in groups. Select the option you want to use. Only one radio button per group may be selected at a time. Select the desired option by holding down the ALT key and pressing the button's underlined letter or by clicking the item with the mouse. The button will turn red (darkened on monochrome displays) to show that the option is activated. REMOTE CONTROL BUTTONS - These buttons perform the same function as those found on a tape player or VCR. Clicking on the square button in the center (or pressing the ESC key) stops the show. Clicking on the single arrow buttons (or using the arrow keys from your keyboard) steps through the show frame by frame, either forwards (arrow pointing to right) or in reverse (arrow pointing to left). The double arrow buttons fast forward or rewind through the show. The buttons displaying a double arrow with a bar advance to the end (click on arrow/bar pointing right or use the End key) or beginning (arrow/bar left or Home key) of your presentation. === COMMAND BUTTON MENU === NeoShow's menu of command buttons lies along the left side of the screen. Below are descriptions of the major commands and functions available through NeoShow's menu. - THE FILE BUTTON - Options under this command button are used to load and save your presentations, and to exit from NeoShow. New - Use this option to load a fresh storyboard screen which contains no slides. OPEN - If you have saved previous NeoShow presentations, you may load one of these using the OPEN option. The dialog below will appear to allow you to select the file name for the slide show. Note that if the desired presentation file is in a drive or directory other than the current drive/directory, you may select a new drive using the DRIVES drop down list. Directories may be selected from the DIRECTORIES box. Simply click on any subdirectory listed to go to that directory. Clicking on the folder icon which is followed by a backslash (\) will take you to the drive's root directory. Clicking on the folder icon which is followed by two periods (..) will take you to the previous directory in the tree from which the current directory has branched. See your DOS documentation for additional information on directory trees. SAVE - This option saves the storyboard with all changes you have made during your current session. If you have not named your presentation, you will be prompted to supply a name. SAVE AS - If you wish to save a new presentation, or make a copy of an existing storyboard, use this option to supply a new name. The new file name may contain up to eight valid DOS characters (valid DOS characters include A-Z, 0-9, _, ^, $, ~, !, #, %, &, -, {}, (), @, ',` with no spaces, commas, periods or backslashes in the name). NeoShow will assign a three letter extension "SHW" to your slide show filename. If you wish to store the file on a different drive or directory, precede the filename with the correct drive and path, or use the drop down list (using the small arrow button) to select the drive and directory. CLOSE - If you wish to move on to another presentation file, select this option to unload the current storyboard. BUILD - This option permits several images to be loaded onto the storyboard at once, based on a file mask you specify. If, when creating images to use in NeoShow, you assign file names containing the same characters in certain positions, you can save time in building your presentation. You may also place image files in their own subdirectory and quickly load them from that directory by using the *.* file mask. The DOS wildcard characters (* and ?) can be used to load a specific range of files. Example: "*.PCX" would load all files having the .PCX extension; "R*.GIF" will load only the files having the .GIF extension which also begin with the letter R; and "R?L.GIF" accepts files which start with the letter R, contains any other character in the second position, contains an L in the third position, and has the extension .GIF. Files will be loaded onto the storyboard in alphanumeric order. COMPILE - This option is available in NeoShow Pro, and converts a presentation and its attached images into a single EXE file which may be distributed to other users. You will be asked to supply a file name for the executable command file (1-8 valid DOS characters). You may use the small arrow button to change the drive and subdirectory in which to place the compiled file. The size of the EXE file will depend on the size and number of the images and sound files included in the presentation. You may also check the "Make Sound Files External" box if you wish to include the sound clip files on a disk separate from the presentation program EXE files. This will reduce the size of the EXE file, and may be used to keep the program to a size which will fit on the media used to transfer to other systems. In addition, one should be careful to observe any copyright restrictions on images obtained from outside sources. Some artist/photographer/publishers require that you obtain permission before distributing copies of their work. EXIT - To leave NeoShow, select this option. - THE EDIT BUTTON - The options under this command button allow you to import graphic files, and to copy, remove and select files already included. ADD SLIDE - Use this option to import PCX and GIF graphics files into your presentation. COPY SLIDE - This option will copy the currently selected (highlighted) image or images within your storyboard. The copies will be placed to the right of the original. REMOVE SLIDE - This option will remove the currently selected slide or slides from your presentation. SELECT ALL - If you wish to apply a Before or After transition or Effect, use this function to select all slides in the presentation. - THE BEFORE BUTTON - The commands under this button control events which occur before the selected slide or group of slides appear in the presentation. DO NOTHING - If this option is checked, any previous slide will remain on the screen - overwritten by the selected image. If a currently selected image is smaller than the image it replaces, the first image will be visible in the background. CLEAR SCREEN - If you use this option, the screen will be cleared of any previous image(s) before the selected slide image is displayed. Use either this or the following options if differing palettes cause undesirable colors to appear during the transition. FADE TO BLACK - Checking this option will cause any previous image to fade to a black screen before displaying the selected image. This will produce a slower and less abrupt transition than the Clear Screen option. MATCH PREVIOUS PALETTE - This option will adopt colors available from the previous image when displaying the currently selected slide. NeoShow will try to match colors as closely as possible. This may make transitions less jarring if previous slides are left on the screen (using the Do Nothing option). If a subsequent slide is instructed to Match Previous Palette, it too will use colors from the first image matched. - THE EFFECT BUTTON - The options under this command button allow you to control the transitional wipes and dissolves to be applied to the currently selected image(s). Once you have selected one of the options, you will be asked to specify Size and Delay values. Size is used to regulate the coarseness of the wipe or dissolve. A higher value produces a coarser and faster effect. A lower value produces a finer, but slower transition. The speed of the effect may be changed by using the Delay control. The higher the value here, the slower the transition. You may preview the effect by using the Debug option under the Show button. NONE - Selecting this option cancels any previously selected effect. Before and After options remain active, however. BLIND - Use this option to use the currently selected image as blinds to cover the previous slide. You have a choice of using horizontal or vertical blinds. CRUSH - This effect uses the currently selected image to crush the previous slide image either horizontally or vertically. DIAGONAL - The Diagonal options may be used to wipe the currently selected image onto the screen in the direction indicated by the arrows. DISSOLVE - When using this option, the currently selected image will gradually appear over the background (either a previous slide, or a Cleared background). EXPLODE - Depending on which Explode effect you choose, the currently selected image will either be drawn exploding from the center -outwards (option having arrows pointing out), or from the edges into the center (effect listed with arrows pointing in). FADE - Fades out from the previous slide and then fades in with the currently selected image in place. If the Clear option under the Before command button has not been selected, the previous slide will fade in as a background, along with the currently selected image. SLIDE - If you use one of these options, the currently selected image will slide onto the screen from the direction as indicated by the arrow. SPIRAL - The currently selected image may be made to spiral onto the screen from either the center outwards (option with arrows pointing out), or from the outside edge into the center (arrows pointing inwards). SPLIT - The current image will split the previous slide or background, beginning from the center of the screen. The arrow keys indicate whether the split will be vertical or horizontal. WEAVE - Sets of horizontal or vertical bars travel from opposite sides of the screen to produce this wipe. The effect thus produced is somewhat like combining the Dissolve effect with Split. WIPE - These options may be used to wipe the currently selected image onto the screen in the direction indicated by the arrows. - THE AFTER BUTTON - The commands under this button control what happens after the selected slide (or each slide in a group of selected images) appears. DO NOTHING - If this option is checked, the presentation will move immediately to the next slide. TIME DELAY - To hold the currently selected image or images are on the screen, use this option to specify how long to show the picture during your presentation. After selecting Time Delay, enter the number of minutes and seconds you wish the image kept on the screen. WAIT FOR KEY/MOUSE EVENT - If you wish to allow a presenter to determine when to move from the currently selected image to the next slide in the show, select this option. During the presentation, any keyboard or mouse click will cause NeoShow to cycle to the next image. If the presenter desires to stand back from the computer or roam around during the presentation, several devices (such as infraredkeyboards and mice) are readily available which will allow this. SHOW REMOTE CONTROL - You may use this option, along with the currently selected image, to have the Remote Control bar pop up at this point during your presentation. This is particularly handy to include at review points, at which time you may wish to fast forward or go back to a particular slide within the show. WAIT FOR SOUND TO END - This option causes the image to remain on the screen until the sound clip has finished playing. - THE SOUND BUTTON - If you have a SoundBlaster or compatible card installed in your system you will be able to play back sound effect and voice clips along with your images. If you do not have a sound card, you may still include sound files in your show, even though you will not be able to hear them on your current system. Sound files must be in the SoundBlaster VOC file format. NONE - This button turns off any sound clip for the selected images. PLAY ONCE - If a sound clip file has been attached to the selected slide frame, you may use this option to play the file one time only. PLAY UNTIL NEXT SLIDE - This option will continue to repeat the sound clip until the next slide appears. PLAY AFTER EFFECT - Normally, the sound will start playing just prior to any transition effect applied to the current slide. If you wish for the sound to start after the current slide is fully displayed, enable this option. SELECT SOUND - Use this option to import a sound clip to attach to the selected image(s). A small button will appear on the slide frame's title bar to indicate that the file is attached to that image. Pressing this button will play the sound clip. RECORD SOUND - This option appears only in the NeoShow Pro edition. If you have a Sound Blaster or compatible sound card installed in your system, you will be able to use this option to directly record and preview audio for the presentation. The Sound Recorder dialog contains a large window at the top showing the sound file length, size and filename. Below the file information, is a group of 3 buttons. The Record button starts recording sounds from your card's input. The Stop button halts recording or playback. The Play button replays the recording. At the bottom of the dialog are five additional command buttons. Load allows loading of a previously saved file and is used to preview before selecting and to determine file size and play length. Save is used to save the current sound clip as a file, for which you must provide an eight character DOS file name. The Apply button places the sound clip into the currently selected slide frames. The Done button returns you to the storyboard. The Options button brings up a dialog containing additional sound card controls. The Sample Rate control governs the accuracy of the recorded sound. The further towards the right (Max) the control is moved, the better the sound reproduction and the larger the file will be. As the control is moved towards the left (Min), sound quality may suffer, but the resulting sound file's size will be smaller. Controls for Sound Blaster Pro (or compatibles) cards include filters for low and high frequency line noise, a selection for an alternate input port, and volume controls for microphone and line-in ports on the card. - THE SHOW BUTTON - Functions listed under the Show button allow you to play, preview and set the playback mode for your presentation. PLAY - This option starts playing your presentation. Note that at any time, you may press the ESC key to stop the slide show. DEBUG - Debug Slide Show allows you to pace through your show one frame at a time without time delays. Use this option to check for color compatibility between slides, preview effects, etc. The Remote Control Bar is shown during this mode to allow you to fast forward, rewind, skip to beginning and end, etc. OPTIONS - Use this function to set the screen resolution at which your presentation will be played. If you will be showing the presentation using a lower resolution monitor or graphics board, use this feature to designate the video resolution available on the target machine. Setting this will ensure that your images appear at the same size and screen position each time the show is played. Note that higher screen resolutions will be crisper on larger monitors and overhead displays, but may be hard to see on standard sized monitors. The Continuous Slide Show box allows you to specify whether the presentation is to run in a continuous loop, or if it will have a definite beginning and end. If the box is checked, the presentation will not end at the last slide, but will automatically start again with the first slide. The Continuous Slide Show feature is useful for unattended displays - such as at trade shows, etc. - THE SETUP BUTTON - This is the place to configure NeoShow to reflect your computer system and work habits. SHOW THUMBNAILS - If this option is checked, NeoShow will display reduced size images on the storyboard to represent the images within the presentation. Choosing not to display these thumbnail sketches images will speed up many NeoShow operations, particularly on slower computer systems and computer systems having limited RAM memory available. If you do not display the thumbnails, file names for each image and a representation of each image's size will still be shown on the storyboard. The thumbnails have no effect on the images when you use Debug or play back your completed slide show. SET PREFERENCES - NeoShow allows you to change the following default settings: Swap Left and Right Mouse Buttons allows you to use the right mouse button instead of the left to select and drag items. Left handed and ambidexterous persons may find operating NeoShow with the mouse buttons switched to be more intuitive. This feature is on when this box is checked. Generate Backup Files will, if checked, enables you to recover a presentation file if the last saved version has been corrupted or contains unwanted edits. If this feature is enabled, NeoShow will make a backup file (having the .BAK extension instead of .SHW) which contains any previously saved version of your presentation. If you wish to make changes to an existing presentation which you may wish to use in the future, use the Save As function to assign a new name to your edited version. Beep When Error Occurs audibly alerts you to errors and invalid actions when this box is checked. NeoShow will attempt to use all the free Memory which is available in your system. If for some reason you need to keep NeoShow from accessing one of the types of memory available on your system, you may do so by deselecting the corresponding box. Note, however, that it is strongly recommended that you NOT limit NeoShow's access to memory. Doing this may slow down your system while working in NeoShow. In any case, NeoShow needs some memory - you should not uncheck all the Memory boxes. The Temp Directory is where NeoShow will store temporary files while it is operating. You may designate any valid directory on your system, or you may check the box below to allow NeoShow to use the directory DOS uses to write temporary files. Finally, the Default Video Mode drop down list will allow you to specify the screen resolution you wish to use when creating new presentations. This does not need to be the same as the mode used for the slide show. You may always create new presentations in another mode by setting the Video Mode for that slide show heading above). Note that the selections you will find on the Video Mode drop down list represent only those modes available for your monitor and video card which are supported by NeoShow. - THE HELP BUTTON - Use the options under the Help button to obtain information about NeoShow and your system. HELP - This function will bring up this text file in a window containing information about using NeoShow. Use the mouse and scroll bars, or your Arrow, PageUp and PageDown keys to move through the file. Exit from the Help file either by using your mouse to click on the small box with the X in the upper left corner of the Help dialog box, or by choosing the Close option from under the File command button. If you wish, the Help dialog window can remain open while you work on your presentation. SYSTEM INFO - This option brings up a dialog which shows some of the equipment which NeoShow found attached to your computer. Included are the video card type, video card chip set, available video memory, and your monitor type. ABOUT NEOSHOW - This final option contains copyright and other data concerning NeoShow. === USING THE STORYBOARD === The storyboard is the large area on the screen which is used to lay out and manipulate the images which will appear in your presentation. The storyboard appears when you load a new or existing presentation. The title of the presentation file appears in a bar at the top of the screen. A scroll bar along the right side of the storyboard allows you to move through the various slides collected in your presentation. To scroll through the items on the storyboard, use your mouse to click on the tab on the scroll bar and, while holding down the button on your mouse, drag the tab up or down through the slides in your presentation. - ARRANGING ITEMS ON THE STORYBOARD - As you add image files to your NeoShow presentation, they will appear on the storyboard. Images on the storyboard are contained within slide frames. Each slide frame is a proportional representation of the type of screen selected for the presentation (using Show/Options). If you have used Setup to tell NeoShow> not to Show Thumbnails, the space occupied by images will be represented as a light colored blank area, instead of thumbnail pictures. In the lower portion of each slide frame, the filename corresponding to that image is listed, whether or not thumbnail images are displayed. If a sound clip has been attached to the image, a small sound button will appear on the title bar to indicate this. Pressing the sound button will play the clip. The images will appear during the presentation in the same order (left to right/top to bottom) as they appear on the storyboard. Once you have loaded a set of pictures onto the storyboard, the images may be rearranged by clicking on the lower portion (i.e., the part of the frame containing the filename) of the slide frame of any image and, while holding down the mouse button, dragging the slide frame to a new location. When the frame is located at the desired spot, release the mouse button, and the image will appear at the new location. Should the new location lie up or down beyond the edge of the storyboard display, simply drag the slide frame to the top or bottom edge of the storyboard, and the scroll bar will automatically be activated. Continue to hold down the mouse button in this position until you have scrolled to the portion of the presentation in which the slide is to be relocated, then move the mouse away from the border and to the new position. Release the mouse button to drop the image. If you click on a slide using the right mouse button, a dialog box will appear which contains all the attributes you have applied to that image. Use this to fine tune positioning or to quickly edit effects and other properties of the slide. - SELECTING MULTIPLE SLIDES - You may wish to apply an action to several slides at once, such as when Deleting, Copying, applying Effects, or selecting Before/After functions. To select more than one slide, hold down the Shift key and click on each slide you wish to include. All selected slides will be highlighted. To deselect a file from a group, click a second time on that slide while still holding down the Shift key. - REPOSITIONING IMAGES - Since each slide frame contains a representation of the final presentation screen, you can see exactly where images are positioned. Images smaller than the screen size are centered when you Add them to the presentation. Small images may, however, be moved to any position within the limits of the slide frame. You may do this by clicking on the image (or the light colored fill area if Display Thumbnails is off) and holding down the mouse button while dragging the image to a new location. - EDITING SLIDE ATTRIBUTES - By clicking on a slide frame's title bar using the right mouse button, you may bring us a Slide Info dialog box. Use this to quickly make adjustments to attributes assigned to a slide frame. The image's position on the screen may also be adjusted exactly - which is handy when producing simple animations, for placing small pictures over a background image, etc. If an audio card is present, a button for previewing sound clips is at the right side of this dialog. NeoShow Pro users having a sound card will also find a microphone icon next to the sound preview button that allows direct access to Sound Recorder functions and information. - POSITIONING THE REMOTE - When you add the Remote to a slide (using the After command button), the remote panel may sometimes obscure important features in the image. While in the Debug mode, however, you may use your mouse to drag the remote panel to a less obtrusive position. It will then appear at that location during your presentation. - IMAGE SIZE - You will not be able to display whole images which are larger than the size of the monitor on which you run the presentation. Larger images will be cropped to fit the screen, which may cut out information important to your presentation. As mentioned above, the screen size is set (measured in pixel units) using the Show/Options feature. Again, any good paint program, such as NeoPaint from OSCS, will allow you to scale down larger drawings to a size which will fit onto your screen. The image of the Mona Lisa which appears when you click on the About NeoShow function is an example of a large image which was scaled down using NeoPaint. - IMAGE COLOR - If you do not have a SuperVGA graphics card and monitor supported by NeoShow, you will be limited to monochrome or 16 color displays (normal VGA also supports 256 colors in 320x200 low resolution mode). Even if your hardware will not display 256 colors, you may still import 256 color images, though these will actually appear using either 2 or 16 colors on such equipment. If you move your presentation onto a system which can support 256 colors in NeoShow, the presentation will display with all image colors displayed, regardless of the number of colors displayed on the machine on which the show was created. Sometimes the results obtained when converting a 256 color image to 2 or 16 colors will be less than satisfactory. If a monochrome or 16 color system is to be used to display the final presentation, you may wish to use a paint or image editing program to restore detail or spruce up any reduced color image(s). === COPYING THE PRESENTATION === If you decide to display your presentation on another system which is running NeoShow, you must transfer the following files: - Your slide show file. This will have the filename you assigned when you used SAVE AS to save the presentation. This file will always have the letters .SHW as the DOS extension. - Each PCX or GIF image file you used in your presentation. The names of these files may be found at the bottom of each frame contained within the storyboard. If the image files used in your presentation were loaded from a different DOS directory, NeoShow will first look for those directories on the new system. If NeoShow cannot find the image file in the same directory on the new system, it will look for the file in the directory which contains the .SHW slide show file. In most cases you should just load the image files and the .SHW file into the same DOS directory when presenting on another system. NeoShow Pro makes this process even simpler. All you need to do is run the COMPILE option under the FILE button, specify a file name, and NeoShow Pro will turn your presentation into a self contained, executable DOS program file. You may then put this program on another machine, then run it by typing the command name you specified. When creating compiled slide show programs, keep in mind that a slide show which contains many large images and long sound clips can become very large. You should make efficient use of such files (repeated use of an image or sound clip does not increase the size) to keep file size to a minimum. Additional hints on producing compact presentations may be found starting on page 41 of the User Guide. === COMMAND LINE OPTIONS === You may specify several options when starting NeoShow. An option consists of a normal slash (/) followed by an option letter followed by information about that option. Up to 4 command line options can be used at the same time. - PLAY A SLIDE SHOW - This option allows NeoShow to load and play a specified slide show file. The slide show may be interrupted by pressing the ESC key. When the slide show has completed, NeoShow will return to the DOS prompt, bypassing the interactive portion of the program. Continuous slide shows will play until the ESC key is pressed. You may wish to use this option for presentations in which you do not wish to distract your audience with the appearance of the NeoShow interface while loading and exiting. Usage: NEOSHOW [filename] Example: NEOSHOW C:\PCXFILE\SAMPLE.SHW - LOAD OVERLAY INTO EXPANDED MEMORY - NeoShow's overlay file (NEOSHOW.OVR) may be loaded into expanded memory, thus speeding up execution of some NeoShow functions. When exiting NeoShow, the overlay is removed from memory. Usage: /E Example: NEOSHOW /E - USING A VESA VIDEO CARD - NeoShow has the ability to use VESA compatible video cards. Without the /V option, Neoshow will attempt to autodetect the chipset employed by your video card. Generally, directly detecting the chipset is faster than using VESA emulation. Some VESA cards (particularly older cards) use a TSR program to achieve VESA compatibility. This technique tends to be extremely slow, and compatibility between such cards may vary widely. This option is included for compatiblity reasons, however, we cannot issue a blanket endorsement of all cards claiming VESA compatibility for the reasons stated above. Usage: /V Example: NEOSHOW /V - NETWORK SETUP FILES - Normally, NeoShow stores its setup information in the NEOSHOW.SET file in the \NEOSHOW directory. This file contains information about the default settings, such as video mode and memory usage options. in a multi-user environment with PCs of vastly different configurations, it is necessary to specify setup files for different users and/or different machine types. The /S option allows users to load NeoShow with their own personalized setup file. For example: if Cindy keeps her personal files in the \PAINT directory of her C: drive, then she might start NeoShow by typing NEOSHOW /Sc:\paint\cindy.set Usage: /S[file] Example: NEOSHOW /Sf:\users\cindy.set NOTE: If you intend to use NeoShow in a network or multiuser environment, you must obtain a site license from OSCS. - SOUND RECORDER BUFFER SIZE - The quality of the sound recording can be improved slightly by specifying a larger sound buffer size. The default size is 2 but can be expanded to any size between 2 and 15. Usage: /Bx x = buffer size 2-15 Example: NEOSHOW /B6 (C)1993 OSCS Software Development, Inc. All Rights Reserved