Common Workspace Elements
The three Workspaces share several common elements that will always be there
for you, regardless of the Workspace you have chosen.
The Menu Bar
In the upper-left corner of the workspace, you will find the Menu
Bar. The Menu Bar is a standard feature found
in almost all Windows applications. Here you can access almost every feature
within ProShow using the categories shown. We’ll discuss what all these features
do later in this manual, but for now, let’s take a look at the types of things
you’ll find in the main menu. Each category contains a certain set of
options:
File contains
all of the options related to your show files and their management. Here is
where you will find options to create new shows, save shows, create and save
Projects, import content from Social Media Services, the ProShow Remote App or import
shows from ProShow Web.
Edit contains options
for changing aspects of your show. You will find tools like copy & paste,
undo & redo, combining slides, copy settings as well as the Preferences for
ProShow.
Show gives you quick
access to the tools which impact your whole show. From here you can open the
Show Options window and set a show title, show background, manage your
soundtrack and quickly add content to placeholders used by templates and Slide
Styles. You'll also find Play/Pause/Stop and Full Screen options for playing
shows in the Preview window.
Slide is
much like the show menu, as it gives you quick access to your Slide
Options window. Additionally you can add/remove slides, flag slides,
navigate between slides and apply effects to slides from here.
Audio contains all of
your sound tools. Here you can open your soundtrack options for your show, add
new music to your show from CD, match beats to slide timing with the Record
Slide Timing feature, and perform a Quick Sync of your show and
music.
Tools is where you'll go to
manage your effects, manage Media Sources, manage your
Show Templates, access the ProShow Remote options, create new effects, revert to backups,
collect show files or find any files that may be missing when you open a
show.
Publish features all of
the output options available once you are ready to publish and share your
shows. From here you can go directly to the options to Upload to YouTube or
Facebook, Create a DVD or Blu-ray, or export a show to a device using the
ProShow Remote app.
Window is where
all of your options to view/hide menus, toolbars, and window arrangements are
found. This is also where you can save and restore window layouts.
Help is where you can open
the built-in help guide, enter your registration information, contact support
and check for upgrades.
As you can see, there’s quite a bit to be found in the Menu Bar. In
fact, we have summed up quite a few of the features of ProShow in just that
overview. Just remember that while there’s a lot of information there, you only
need to use the menu bar as it helps you.
The Toolbar
Beneath the menu bar is a bar that contains a series of icons. This is your
Tool bar. The Toolbar is designed to give you quick access to the features
that you’re likely to use over and over again.
While the Toolbar does appear in each Workspace, most of the options
that appear in the Toolbar are different for each Workspace. The
Toolbar changes as you select a new Workspace and is optimized to give
you access to the tools you'll most likely need for that specific part of the
show creation process.
A little later in this chapter we'll cover all of the Toolbar options
for each Workspace.
The Workspace Selector
In the top right corner you'll find the Workspace Selector. Simply click the text to change to a
different Workspace. The current Workspace will always be highlighted.
You can also switch between Workspaces using the keyboard. With the CTRL key
held down, press the TAB key to cycle through the Workspaces.
The Information Bar
Just beneath the toolbar is a small, but important, section called the Information Bar. Here you
can see the name of the show you’re working on, as well as how many slides are
currently in the show, and how many audio tracks are in the show. You'll also
see the length of those elements to get a quick, at-a-glance summary of exactly
what makes up your show.
When you are working with multiple shows in a project, this area will contain
tabs which allow you to switch between shows with ease.
By default, you’ll notice that the title in the Information Bar for a
new show is always "ProShow Slideshow". You can change that quickly by
double-clicking on the title and making changes to your Show
Settings.
The Slide List
The Slide List is the
bar at the bottom of each Workspace where your slide thumbnails are displayed.
From here you can change the order of slides, adjust timing or even change your
transition effects.
The Slide List is numbered from left to right, just like you would
read. When you create new slides, they appear at number 1, on the far left, and
increase in number as you add more slides. Playing the show starts at the
beginning of the Slide List and plays your slides in order from left to
right. Creating a show is just a process of sequentially creating the slides you
want to see in the Slide List. For now, don’t worry about actually
creating slides. We’ll cover that in another chapter.
The Soundtrack Bar
The Soundtrack Bar appears just beneath the slide list, and is
labeled “Soundtrack”. This is where you can drag and drop audio files to
add them into your show soundtrack. It’s also where those audio files will
appear to indicate that you have music in your show’s soundtrack. Double-click
any track in the Soundtrack Bar to adjust its options.
Music that appears in the soundtrack list is shown as a waveform. It’s a
histogram of the audio, making it easy to see where the music ebbs and swells as
it plays during your show. To get a better look at the waveform, press the Tab
key or click on the Slide List and Timeline tabs that appear at the top of the Slide
List.
As you add multiple tracks, the waveforms will alternate in color: green,
blue, green, blue etc. If any of your slides feature a slide sound (such as a
voice-over or sound effect), those sounds alternate in color as red, yellow,
red, yellow, etc.
The Preview Window
The Preview is where you can
see enlarged versions of your images and slides as you select them in the
Build Workspace. Additionally, this is where your show is displayed when
you play back and watch your show as you build it. During playback, what you
see in the workspace Preview is what your audience will see once you
publish and share your show.
Just beneath the main display area of the Preview window, you will see
playback controls for your show. The Play button starts playing the
preview of your show. During playback this will change to a Pause
button, allowing you to temporarily stop the playback. Stop will end
the preview playback. The Advance Left and Right arrow buttons allow you
to go the next or previous slide while previewing your show, or jump to the
beginning or end of your show.
The final icon you'll see is the Full Screen Playback icon. Notice that the arrows will point
outward if Full Screen Playback is not selected (outward, meaning you can make
it bigger). When the arrows point inward, that indicates that Full Screen
Playback is active (inward, meaning you can make the preview smaller).
Full Screen Playback of a Show
-
Make sure you have at least one slide in your show.
-
Click the Full Screen Playback icon beneath the Preview window
or...
-
Right-click on the Preview window.
-
Click on Full Screen Playback to toggle it on.
To exit Full Screen Playback, just press ESC on your keyboard.
If you want to turn off full screen playback, simply repeat the steps above.
Next to the playback control buttons, you’ll also see two numbers. The
number to the left of the "/" is the spot in your show that is currently visible
in the Preview. It’s accurate down to 1/100th of a second. To
the right of the "/" is the total length of your show.
On the bottom right-hand side of the Preview you'll see even more
information about your slides as they become
visible in the Preview including:
-
Number of the slide currently visible in the Preview
-
Total number of slides in your show
-
Slide Style used by slide currently in the Preview (when applied)
-
Number of layers in the slide currently visible in the Preview
-
Number of slides selected in the Slide List
-
Total length of the selected slide(s).
-
Transition effect for the slide currently visible in the Preview
Above the controls, you'll also see a slider bar. In addition to being a
visual representation of where you are in your show, it can also be used to
control playback. Simply click and drag the slider to scrub backwards and
forwards through your show.
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