(mgp-users 00012) Re: Time-based advance of mgp pages?

["Walter D. Harris" <harrisw@harrel.com>]

On 11-Jul-98 Jun-ichiro itojun Itoh wrote:
>       I meant that, you might want to use your foils for automatic
>       demonstrations, as well as presentations, without modifying the
>       *.mgp file.
>       If you use "%pause 5" like things, your mgp file will be only for
>       demonstrations (not usable for standard presentation).
> 
>       I believe Adobe Persuasion has auto-demo mode for this.
>       (I know almost nothing about M$ PowerPoint)

Oh, I see.  That is an interesting idea.  

I think most automatic demonstrations will not be needed as standard
presentations, since they are different applications.  However, if "%duration"
is in the defaults, then it is only  necessary to change one line to convert
between demonstrations and standard presentations, at least with respect to the
pauses at the ends of pages.  The effect on the other pauses needs some thought.

On the other hand, since MGP dumps its html images in ".gif" format with numeric
suffixes, it does seem possible as you suggest to sequence through the images
automatically.  "xv" has an auto-demo mode, for example.  That offers a fixed
delay between images and does repeat automatically. 

I tried this,  however I ran into another problem.  I get the message,
"unsupported screen depth; bailing out", from xwintoppm.  We are using  8 bpp
displays and the private color map option.  With this problem, I cannot create
html foils.

As you indicate, other presentation products do address these issues.  I know
that Corel Presentations 7 (part of WordPerfect Suite) can sequence through
slides automatically.  We already have a few demonstrations running using it,
under M$ Windows.  I am trying to retire those in favor of MagicPoint and Linux.

Corel's product allows the user to set both a transition type (fade, wipe, etc)
for each slide and an "Advance" property.  "Advance" can be "Manually" or "Time
Delay".  The latter is similar to the "%duration" property I have proposed. 
The transition properties can be applied to a single slide or to a group of
slides.  Corel also allows associating sounds with each slide transition.

Best wishes,

Walter