New Home for Clearpoint Presentations

I have moved this blog to its own site to provide you with a more complete resource.

Please visit http://clearpointpresentations.com/ to get the latest information and tips on making a better presentation.

Thanks.

Quicktime playback in MediaShout

MediaShout is capable of playing .mov h.264 and mpeg4 as long as the Quicktime alternative is installed. There have been many updates to the QTA but the one I prefer to use and send to clients is Version 1.81.

Ideally, installing one codec pack to cover all file types that are MediaShout friendly would be best. This is why I often recommend the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack found in the Instaling Codecs pdf that is sent out to every user needing codec related fixes. The pdf specifies selecting Profile #5 from the Select Components window of the installation. This is because Profile #5 includes the QTA all in one install. With the K-Lite Mega Codec pack properly installed you should be able to play video files with the extensions .avi .mpg (1&2) .wmv .mov h.264 .m4v .mp4.

Those of you who are creating content on a Mac or can render to an mov file with your editing software will find h.264 and the Sorensen 3 codec to be the best option for quality and playability in MediaShout, especially with the KLMC installed.

ShoutWriter Vs. TED

I thought I would address the issue of Text cues in MediaShout because of the number of calls taken recently about ShoutWriter. There are still a few users who do all of their Text cues using ShoutWriter instead of Ted. I personally have used it only a handful of times and only then because I needed bullet points.

ShoutWriter has not changed since the completion of Version 2.5 and is a carry-over into V3. Ted, which was not available in V2.5 allows you to type directly into the text box and see exactly how your cue is going to look in relation to the background image and position on the screen. This becomes especially important when your background media contains focus features that you would not want covered with text. You can still highlight portions of text and change the font, color, size and alignment.

My biggest issue with using Ted is the lack of support for bullet points. Text copied from ShoutWriter or Word does not retain formatting. The bullet points are removed or replaced by hollow squares in the place of the intended bullet design. One alternative is to manually type a symbol into the the field that would act as a bullet point, such as a -, *, >,~

Many churches are still inserting PowerPoint presentations for the pastor's sermon outlines and announcements. This is perfectly understandable, especially when you have a pastor that has been doin his sermons in PowerPoint for years.

Another option to both Ted and ShoutWriter is to create a Word Doc, .rtf, or .txt file and setup your page to be 6" high by 8" wide. This will give you the same aspect ration as your 4:3 display screen.

Perhaps the most common reason users are still utilizing Shoutwriter instead of Ted is so that they can save those text files and use them again later. Well, you can still do that in Ted.

• The first way to preserve a Text cue with embedded text rather than text from a file is to drag the Text Cue into Boxer and save that Boxer script.
• The Second way to preserve your text is to select the text cue then click on the Edit menu. Choose Convert > Export to RTF file. This will allow you to save the entire Text cue and its sub-cues to an RTF file that you can access and use again at a later time.

If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them.

Bugs and Such

First an apology for the silence between posts. I want to talk about something that effects everyone who uses a computer, BUGS. Simply put, bugs are the the things within an applications programming code that cause problems or errors.

The inspiration for this post came as I updated my web browser to the latest version. The browser automatically opened to a page listing the "fixes" and feature add-ons.

That's when I realized that the famous children's book was right."everybody poops!"

When I get calls about bugs or errors within MediaShout I sometimes get the sense that the caller has never had an issue with an application before, and that's when I wonder how long they have been using computers.
As I read the list of fixes that Flock instituted in their latest version updates, I felt pretty good. Then, I had a pop-up announce that my updates were ready to be installed from Microsoft. These updates are sent out because something needs to be fixed or changed. Some programs do a better job of releasing software then others but regardless of how much beta testing was done, once it hits the public there will always be somebody who finds the variable that was never tested.

MediaShout Recently released the update to Version 3.5 and I have not had to deal with many bug related issues. The few that I have dealt with have already been fixed by a build that is now available in Beta on the User Forums.

So here are some things to think about when you encounter a bug.

1. Did it behave this way before I updated?
2. What other changes have been made on my pc recently that may be involved?
3. Can I reproduce the issue?
4. What information can I gather about the issue that would be helpful to tech support?
1. OS
2. App Version and Build Typically found under Help>About
   
3. Can it be reproduced.

So although software bugs can be an aggravation, gather the info you need and contact Tech Support or check the FAQ or User Forums for answers. There's a good chance that you could help solve the issue with the detail you can give.

Later,