PALMEDIA Player version 2.1 Copyright 1996, Lee Moon. All rights reserved. PALMEDIA Player Documentation Version 2.1 5/4/96 The PALMEDIA Player package allows you to view images on your Newton MessagePad. This package combines and extends the capabilities of my previously released Newton Slide Show and Newton Movie Player. PALMEDIA Player runs on Newton OS 2.0 MessagePads only. Features of PALMEDIA Player include: * Automatic playback mode with user selectable pauses between images. * Manual viewing mode for moving forward or backwards through the images. * User selectable transition special effects.* Movie mode for animation playback. * Uses images imported (via 3rd party shareware) from a Macintosh or Windows PC. * Uses images created with NewtPaint from Landware, Inc. * Uses sound imported (via 3rd party shareware) from a Macintosh. * Can be used as a "Helper Application" for Newt's Cape. * Auto-detection of soups containing images. * Drag an image from PALMEDIA Player onto the Notepad for routing (beam, fax, print, email). * Pop-up palette with image name display and a rotate button (for changing the screen orientation). This version of PALMEDIA Player is a shareware ($10) application for displaying still images and movies on Newton MessagePads running Newton OS 2.0. Requirements: 1) A Newton MessagePad using Newton OS 2.0 with at least 120K-150K free (either internal or memory card) for PALMEDIA Player, Slurpee, and any soup tools. PALMEDIA Player by itself requires 29K of memory. 2) A Macintosh or Windows computer with appropriate communications software and a Newton serial cable. Or, if using a Macintosh, PALMEDIA Image Transfer, a HyperCard stack to use instead of a communications program. PALMEDIA Image Transfer is much easier than using and configuring most communications programs (and it's freeware!) 3) Slurpee 1.8 (recommended) or higher installed on the Newton. 4) A soup management tool installed on the Newton (not absolutely required, but recommended as a safety net for removing unwanted images). 5) Though not strictly necessary, a graphics program capable of saving files in 1-bit (Black and White) GIF or PICT formats installed on the Macintosh or Windows computer. 6) Newt's Cape Graphic Converter installed on the Macintosh or Windows computer. -or- If you wish to create and view graphics entirely on the Newton, a Newton MessagePad using Newton OS 2.0 with at least 150K free (either internal or memory card) for PALMEDIA Player and NewtPaint instead of the requirements listed above. *** NOTICE *** Slurpee and Newt's Cape Graphic Converter are shareware packages by Steve Weyer and Greg Simon. Please be sure to pay your shareware fees! Without their software, you wouldn't be able to import images into PALMEDIA Player. Here's the URL for more information regarding Slurpee and Newt's Cape: http://www.netaxs.com/~weyer/newton/newtscape.html Using PALMEDIA Player: 1) Install the PALMEDIA Player application (PMPlay.pkg) using traditional means. 2) Launch PALMEDIA Player via the PMPlay2.1 icon in Extras. A screen will appear while PALMEDIA Player locates images stored on the Newton. In a few seconds, this screen will disappear and the main screen will open. 3) Tap the "Play" button to start (autoplay) the slide show. The "Play" button toggles to a "Stop" button while the slide show plays. Tapping the "Stop" button halts the show and toggles back to a "Play" button. 4) The "Slow" button indicates the delay time between images is 5 seconds. The "Slow" button toggles to a "Fast" button, setting the delay time to 1 second. Tap the "Fast" button to switch to "Movie" mode. This mode configures PALMEDIA Player for animation playback. Tapping the "Movie" button switches back to "Slow" mode. 5) Tapping the up scroll arrow displays the previous image, while tapping the down scroll arrow displays the next one. Note that a running slide show or animation will be stopped when using the arrow buttons. To resume autoplay, tap the Play button again.Tap the overview button to open/close the floating palette. You'll see the current image name displayed here and a "Rotate" button. Tap "Rotate" to switch between landscape and portrait screen orientations. Note that the palette always closes during movie playback (for maximum playback speed). 6) Tapping the "Pop" button will open a list of all the available special effects transitions. You may use this button during autoplay or in manual mode. Note that the "Pop" transition essentially displays (pops) the next image without any special effects. While in Movie mode, the special effects button will disappear. 7) The button next to the close box is the Soup chooser button. Tapping it switches between all the Newton soups which contain images. If PALMEDIA Player can't find any images, "no images" will be displayed instead of a soup name. Note that this button is hidden during autoplay (you can't change image soups during playback), but reappears when either the stop, up, or down buttons are tapped. 8) Tapping the "i" button pops up an information screen. 9) Tap anywhere on the currently displayed image and drag it to the side of the screen. The image will be placed in the Newton clipboard. You can then paste the image into the Notepad. 10) To remove PALMEDIA Player from your MessagePad, simply use the normal Remove Software methods. 11) To import images, use the 3rd party shareware application "Slurpee 1.8" (older versions will work) along with "Newt's Cape Graphic Converter" (see the following Notes section for more information) and a communications program (such as Zterm or PALMEDIA Image Transfer). Please note that Slurpee runs on the Newton, while NC Graphic Converter runs on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. See the Slurpee release notes for more details. 12) To remove the image and sound soup entries, use a soup management application such as TrashPak (RemoveIt!), StewPot, BitSound, etc. Notes on this version of PALMEDIA Player: * The player looks for Newton soups containing graphics. One soup, called "Bitmaps" contains all of the images transferred from the desktop to the Newton via Slurpee. Another soup, called "NewtPaint" contains all of the images created with NewtPaint. You'll need to put (or create) images in a soup before PALMEDIA Player becomes useful (otherwise, you're stuck looking at the built-in title picture). While not necessary, it is recommended that your images be no larger than 234 pixels across by 290 pixels down for portrait screen orientation or 314 pixels across by 210 pixels down for landscape screen orientation. Images larger than these sizes will be clipped to fit the display area. PALMEDIA Player currently restricts you to a maximum of 300 images in a soup. Also, you may have no more than 10 different soups which contain images. * NewtPaint owners can create their own graphics and then switch to PALMEDIA Player for viewing as a slide show or a movie. NewtPaint and PALMEDIA Player can be used for making cel animations. * You may transfer a sound file into a soup called "pmSndTrk" which will enable audio playback. Note that this sound plays only once (when autoplay is started). Also note that the player will just search for the first entry in "pmSndTrk", all other sound files are ignored. In order to hear any soundtrack, open Extras > Prefs > Sound and turn on "Action sound effects." Also adjust the volume to a comfortable level. * To use PALMEDIA Player as a Newt's Cape helper application, add a similar line to your HTML document: Touch Here to run PALMEDIA Player. Make sure PALMEDIA Player and your images are already loaded. The resulting Newt's Cape book will locate PALMEDIA Player and run it once you tap on the "Touch Here" hyperlink. This will allow you to run a slideshow or animation directly from a Newt's Cape generated Newton Book! Future enhancements: 1) Add some sort of scripting to let the user choose the time delay and transition effect for every image (i.e., display image 1 for 2 seconds with the dissolve transition, display image 2 for 5 seconds with the confetti transition,...) 2) Create more special effects (and weed out the boring ones!) 3) Add better sound playback support. 4) Create built-in Help. 5) Revise this documentation for better explanations on importing graphics via Slurpee, creating animation frames from Mac and PC, and various hints and tips for using all the tools. 6) Enhance drag and drop feature. For further information, questions, or comments you may contact me via the following: AOL: LeeMoon (LeeMoon@aol.com) CompuServe: 76641,3317 URL: http://members.aol.com/LeeMoon/ If you decide to register PALMEDIA Player, please send $10 (cash or check) to: Lee Moon 2914 W. Neptune St. Tampa, FL 33629 I may set up a Compuserve software registration number later. I'd like to thank all the folks who have used Newton Movie Player, Newton Slide Show, and PALMEDIA Player versions 1.0 and 2.0. Thanks for trying PALMEDIA Player version 2.1! Lee Moon