MasterSlide Presentation Software Manual

 

 

ByteMe Software

Kevin Smith, Constantinos Neophytou, Daniel Kozikowski, Jarvis Yu, Robert Caplan

 

Usage of Program:

 

            This program allows you to create graphical slide presentations. Presentations are saved in a common file format, which allows MasterSlide to open presentations created in other software using the same file format.  When you first start the program, the Editor appears with a blank presentation. From here, you can create and manage slides, and also create and manage objects on the slides, or view your presentation through the presenter.

 

 

Slide Editor:

 

            The Slide Editor is where you are able to make new presentations containing new slides which contain shapes and text. There are several menus, a command toolbar, a text toolbar, and a shapes toolbar. In the center, a drawing area (representing the slide) draws and displays shapes and text.

 

            All commands are accessible through the menus. Most commands are also accessible as icons on the toolbars or via hot-keys. However, you may also input commands via a command line which is can be enabled through a menu.

 

            Above the drawing area there is a small status bar that shows the (x, y) coordinates in units of the mouse pointer and the Mode the editor is currently in. The Mode represents the action that will be executed by the mouse when the user clicks on the drawing area.  Below the drawing area there is a status bar that displays the ID number of the object the mouse pointer is currently above, the slide number currently displayed, the ID number of the current slide, and the total number of slides.

 

            The following is a list of all the commands with their hotkeys and whether or not they are on a toolbar.

 

            MasterSlide Presentation editor allows the user to modify the default buttons used for the program. By creating a file in the home directory called .MSbuttonpath the user can specify a path in which all the required buttons are located. If the file does not exist or if the first line of the file is blank, the program will automatically default to the built-in icons.

            To replace the buttons: go to

http://www.cneophytou.com/MasterSlide/buttons/

and copy the entire contents of the directory in a local directory. Make sure you include the file ".confirmpath"; that is the file that will be used by the program to authenticate the directory. You can replace any of the png's with your own images, and as long as you maintain the format and filenames the program will startup and use your custom images.

 

 

File Management:

 

File/New   C-n:

            Creates a new presentation. If your current presentation is not saved, you will be asked if you wish to save it first.

 

 

File/Open,  C-o:

            Displays a dialog box to select a file to open. If your current presentation is not saved, you will be asked if you wish to save it first.

 

 

File/Save,  C-s:

            Saves your presentation. If you have not specified a filename, you will be prompted for one.

 

 

File/Save As:

            Prompts you to provide a filename to save the presentation.

 

 

File/Exit,  C-q:

            Exits the program. If your current presentation is not saved, you will be asked if you wish to save it first.

 

 

 

Creating/Managing Objects and slides:

 

General:

            To create a new object, you have 6 options: Line, Empty Box, Filled Box, Empty Oval, Filled Oval and Text. Options like Line weight and filled/non-filled for shapes, as well as the font face, font size and font style/weight for text, all have to be preset through the toolbars before the creation of the object because they cannot be altered through the GUI. (They can however be altered through the Command Line). Also the color that is used is the color set in the color dialog box. There is no indication of the current color visible on the toolbar for the beta release.

 

 

Creating Lines:

            Insert/Shapes/Line, or . Mode: Line should appear on the status bar. Set the weight of the line using the spin box, and select a color for the line through the color selector (optional). Then just drag the line on the canvas.

 

 

Creating Boxes:

            Insert/Shapes/Box, or . Mode: Box should appear on the status bar. Set the weight of the line using the spin box, and select a color for the box through the color selector (optional). Then drag an empty box on the canvas. To draw a filled box, click on the Create Filled Box button  instead and proceed as above.

 

 

Creating Ovals:

            Insert/Shapes/Oval, or . Mode: Oval should appear on the status bar. Set the weight of the line using the spin box, and select a color for the oval through the color selector (optional). Then drag an empty oval on the canvas. To draw a filled oval, click on the Create Filled Oval button  instead and proceed as above.

 

 

Creating Text:

            Insert/Text, or  . Mode: Text should appear on the status bar. Set the font face, style and size of the font through either the font selector, or using the drop down menu and toggle buttons  or  on the toolbar, and select a color for the text through the color selector (optional). Then click on the drawing area, and a pop-up window will appear, asking for the text to enter. The point clicked will be the upper left point of the text.

 

 

 

Managing Objects:

            Edit/Undo   C-z:

                        Select this command to undo the previous command.  A maximum of 20 commands can be undone.  Undo will work for both commands done through the interpreter and changes made through the interface.

 

 

            Edit/Redo  C-y:

                        Select this command to repeat the last undone command, though if a command is implemented after the last undo, that command cannot be redone.

 

 

            Edit/ Delete  C-d:

                        Sets the mode to delete any objects clicked on.

 

 

            Edit/Cut  C-x:

                        Sets the mode to cut any objects clicked on.  This deletes the object but moves it to the clipboard so it can be copied.  Only one object can be on the clipboard at a time and adding another object will remove the previous one.

 

 

            Edit/Copy  C-c:

                        Sets the mode to copy any objects clicked on.  This keeps the object intact but moves it to the clipboard so it can be copied.

 

 

            Edit/Paste  C-v:

                        Will paste on the canvas the last object placed in the clipboard.

 

 

            Edit/Move  C-m:

                        Allows the user to drag objects around the slide

 

 

            Edit/Resize  C-r:

                        Resize an object by clicking on one of its drag point and moving the mouse.  Drag points for lines are the endpoints, for boxes, the corners and for ovals, the flattest parts of the oval (uppermost, bottommost, leftmost and rightmost points).  The mouse pointer will change when it is above an object that may be moved or resized.

 

 

            Edit/Apply Weight  :

                        Select this option and then click on an object to set the weight (outline thickness) of a shape to the current weight.  To set the current weight use the spin box on the objects toolbar.

 

 

            Style/Change Color :

                        Clicking on an object will set it's color to the currently selected working color in the color selection dialog.  Clicking on the border of non-text objects sets the border color and clicking inside the object will set the fill color if the object is filled.  Clicking directly on text will change the text color while clicking on the box bordering text will change the fill color only if the text is filled.

 

 

            Style/Toggle Fill  :

                        Selecting this option and then clicking an object changes a filled object to unfilled, or an unfilled object to filled.

 

 

            Style/Select Font :

                        Brings up a font selection box with a larger selection of fonts available than those in the font selection dropdown box.

 

 

            Style/Select Color :

                        Sets the current working color.

 

 

            NOTE: Object selection occurs only on the visible part of objects. clicking in the middle of a non-filled box will not grab that box.

 

 

            Edit Text :

                        When in this mode, clicking on a text object will bring up the text selection box that will set the properties of the clicked text after the OK button is clicked.  The font, style, size and actual text can be changed in this way.

 

 

 

 

Managing slides:

            Edit/Delete Slide  :

                        Will delete the current slide and all of it's containing objects. Does not allow you to delete the last slide.

 

 

            Insert/Slide :

                        Inserts a new slide after the current one.

           

 

            View/ First  C-f, Previous  , Next  , Last  C-l:

                        Goes to the specified slide.

 

 

            View/Jump To Slide, or  C-j:

                        Pops up a dialog box that asks the user for a slide number, and jumps to that slide number (if it exists).

 

 

            View/Fix canvas ratio:

                        By default, the drawing area display is 100 units by 100 units, and objects are stretched/skewed as the window is resized, maintaining the 100 by 100 display.  Selecting the fix canvas ratio option sets whichever side (horizontal or vertical) of the screen is longer to 100 units, and the other side is clipped off at the correct ratio.

           

 

 

 

Switching to the Presenter view:

            View/Play, F5 or  will immediately open up the presenter and display the first slide of the presentation.

 

 

 

Toolbar Management:

            View/Toolbars:

                        Through this menu you can change which toolbars are visible. The ordering of the toolbars is always the same, however note that doing this changes the size of your drawing area. It is automatically resized to 100x100 units, but since it is most likely not square, the longest side will be 100 units and the rest will be clipped either upward or to the right. The presenter is always square and the entire slide is visible.

 

                        The toolbars that can be opened or closed are:

                        - Main Toolbar

                                    The toolbar containing functions to save, load, undo and redo,

                                    delete, cut copy and paste, start the presenter, and quit.

                        - Font Toolbar

                                    The toolbar that allows the basic properties of text to be changed

                                    and contains buttons to create and modify text.

                        - Object Toolbar

                                    The toolbar that contains buttons to create non-text objects and

                                    buttons to modify the properties of objects.

                        - Command Line

                                    This opens a box that allows the user to enter commands manually.

 

 

 

Other Items of Note:

∙                    Due to problems with the graphics library, sometimes the buttons will become erased.  If this occurs, the user can use the keyboard shortcut C-a to refresh the toolbars.

∙                    MasterSlide Presentation Software maintains a detailed autosave file. If the software crashes or exits abnormally, an autosave file called .#MSautosave# will be present. When the software is restarted, this file will be detected and you will be asked if you wish to reload it.

 

 

 

 

Slide Presenter:

 

            The Slide Presenter feature is able to present and traverse through slide presentations on a square display larger than the editor view, with no menu or toolbars.  There are several commands for playing and traversing through a presentation, some of which include keyboard shortcuts.

 

∙                    Previous slide - Press the left mouse button to go back to preceding slide in the presentation (unless first slide of the presentation is currently displayed) -Keyboard shortcut - Click left Arrow.

 

∙                    Next slide - Press the right mouse button to advance to the next slide in the presentation (unless the last slide of the presentation is currently displayed) -Keyboard shortcut - click right Arrow, or the [Enter]/[Spacebar] bottons

 

∙                    First - Press the up arrow on the keyboard to go directly to the to first slide in the presentation. Keyboard shortcut - press  Up arrow

 

∙                    Last - Press the down arrow on the keyboard to go directly to the last slide in the presentation. Keyboard shortcut - press Down arrow

 

∙                    Jump - Move directly to slide of a given number - Keyboard shortcut - press j to  bring up dialogue box to move to a specific slide

 

∙                    Exit - exits presenter, goes to editor featuring current slide - Keyboard shortcut - Hit escape [Esc] button

 

∙                    Open - loads a new slide presentation, closing and saving the current one - Keyboard shortcut - Press 'o' button

 

 

 

 

 

Syntax for the Command Line

            The command line can be used for greater control over the presentation to those who are willing to spend more time to learn and used manual commands.  Furthermore, these are the commands in which the files are saved, so users are able to manually change output files for loading.  Negative values are not allowed anywhere but in the rmove command.  Contained here are the basic commands and the syntax for their use.

 

 

create

            syntax: create <object-type> id <id number>

Creates an object of the object-type with the specified id number.  The possible object-types are box, oval, text, line, and slide.  If the object created is a slide, the syntactic sugar:

create slide id <id number> with <id1> <id2> ....

This creates a slide and binds objects with id1, id2, etc. to that slide.  If anything but a slide is created, there is additional syntactic sugar:

create <object-type> id <id number> <parameter name1> <parameter type 1> \

<parameter 1> <parameter name2> <parameter type 2> <parameter 2>

This is the same as the basic create plus

set <parameter name 1> of <id number> to <parameter type 1> <parameter 1>

This can be done for as many parameters as needed.  Objects and slides created in this way are not added to the presentation but instead wait for an add or present command to bind them to be displayed.

 

 

 

add

            syntax: add <object id> to <slide id>

Binds an object of the given id to the slide of the given id.  This object will now be displayed on that slide.

 

 

remove

            syntax: remove <object id> from <slide id>

The opposite of add; this takes the object away from the slide but does not delete it.

 

 

delete

            syntax: delete <id number>

Deletes an object or slide with the given id number.  If a slide is deleted, all of the objects associated with it are also removed from memory.

 

 

copy

            syntax: copy <slide 1 id> to <slide 2 id>

Copies all of the objects on slide 1 to slide 2.  Both id numbers must point to existing slides for this command to work.

 

 

present

            syntax: present <slide 1 id> <slide 2 id> ... <slide n id>

Makes the order of the slides in the presentation to be slide 1, slide 2, all the way to slide n.  Any bad ids given will cause this command to not work.  Any slides that are created but not in the presentation are still there in case you plan on presenting them again.

 

 

set

            syntax: set <parameter name> of <id number> to <parameter type> <parameter>

Sets a certain parameter of an object with a given id to another value.  The valid parameter names and parameter types (including the parameters that go with them) are defined below.

 

 

move

            syntax: move <id number> to pt <new point>

Moves the object with id number to the new point

 

 

rmove

            syntax: rmove <id number> by <amount>

Moves the id by a given amount, where the amount can be written as a point is.

 

 

 

Valid Parameter Names

 

Parameter Name

Parameter Type

Box

Oval

Line

Text

color

rgb

x

x

x

x

fill

rgb

x

x

 

x

filled

bool

x

x

 

x

topleft

pt

x

x

 

 

bottomright

pt

x

x

 

 

start

pt

 

 

x

 

end

pt

 

 

x

 

position

pt

 

 

 

x

weight

int

x

x

x

 

weight

str

 

 

 

x

size

int

 

 

 

x

style

str

 

 

 

x

face

str

 

 

 

x

text

str

 

 

 

x

 

 

 

 

Parameter Types

 

str - A line of text.  The valid parameters vary depending on where they are used:

            weight: 'bold'

            style: 'italic'

             face: Any valid font name

            text: Anything

If weight or style are set to anything but valid values (all lowercase), there are cleared.  If a bad face is given, it defaults to Sans.

 

pt - A point on the slide.  The syntax for point is:

<x pos> <x unit type> <y pos> <y unit type>

<x pos> and <y pos> can be floating numerals, and the valid unit types are:

            u - units, which range from 0 to 100 on the slide

            cm - centimeters, measured as centimeters on the screen.

            in - inches, measured as inches on the screen

 

int - an integer.  This must be positive.

 

rgb - a color value.  This consists of three integers from 0 to 255 in a row, consisting of the red value, the green value, and the blue value.

 

bool - a Boolean value, either true or false or 0 or 1.