Hi! I am working with InfoChannel Designer, InfoChannel Content Manager and InfoChannel Player from Scala. These programs together represents one of the best Digital Signage packages for business and other purposes.
There is a problem, however. At universities and highschools some teachers are so used to work with PowerPoint, that they have problems migrating to other systems.(Even if it is really easy!) I have tried to make Scala work with PowerPoint, but there is a big problem. When the Scala player is running it takes control of the screen and the graphic drivers. If some other program is started that has a GUI the Scala player minimizes to the bottom of the screen and stays there until someone clicks on it. This is the natural behavior of the Scala player. The PowerPoint script/file is started from within Scala player´s launch command.(Like a command line utility) I therefor have made a small program that can cover up what is happening by putting a black screen in front of the Scala screen first. Then the Scala player(which goes on playing in the background even if it´s minimized) can launch the PowerPoint script and then remove the black screen in front. I now can see the PowerPoint script play. But then I have problems stopping it. I am not able to launch the black screen from within the powerpoint script, quit PowerPoint, maximize Scala and remove the black screen. So, yea, it looks terrible. I don´t know how to fix this issue and of course the best is to use the Scala program the way it is meant to be used. But if it where possible to use OpenOffice in some way to make these changes between a Scala script and an OpenOffice Impress script seamless, many would be pleased. I´m sure Microsoft is not interested in my problems, but I hope this can be of some interest for you since it would make a great difference for people working with PP and Scala today. Now we have to save all presentations as .jpg pictures to be able to import them in Scala. We also could use OpenOffice´s ability to save to .wmv but this is just too time consuming. MediaMix Bjørnar Albertsen-- ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] For additional commands send email to [email protected] with Subject: help
