PicScan 2 Manual

slide show generator/controller and thumbnail image browser for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9
web: www.imaja.com/picscan

PicScan is commercial software, $19.95, available from Imaja.
Order online with MasterCard/VISA at http://www.imaja.com/picscan/
or send a check or money order to Imaja at:

Imaja
1244 Hearst Ave. #7
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
Tel: (510) 526-4621
E-mail:
Web: http://www.imaja.com

Introduction

PicScan features an interactive slide show generator/controller and a thumbnail image browser.

Slide order can be changed during the slide show via a thumbnails window. This feature is great for live presentations where priorities can change at a moment's notice. Many Mac PowerBooks and desktop models support two monitors where one monitor is used as video output for projection or recording. The main monitor is used by PicScan to display a thumbnail browser/controller for the slide show.

Features

Thumbnail features

* Change thumbnail size from the keyboard or in preferences
* Filenames can be displayed or hidden
* Choose gray frame background or white background
* Supports many graphics file formats: PICT, JPG, TIFF, GIF, QuickTime movies and many others

Slideshow Features

* Full-screen or window slide shows
* Choose image order dynamically with Thumbnails view
* Change transition rate dynamically during slide show
* Several slide title options
* Change overlap between slides (a beautiful transparency effect)
* Dynamically change slideshow parameters all from the keyboard
* Supports lower resolutions for older slower computers
* Support for two monitors for live presentation
* Fade to black
* Pause/Play

Thumbnail and slideshow documents can be saved for later retrieval. A powerful toolbar gives easy access to key command and keyboard shortcuts. Many parameters have keyboard shortcuts for power-users.

Online hypertext documentation and Balloon Help included. PicScan is Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Mac OS 8 and System 7 compatible.

System Requirements

PicScan requires an Intel-based, PowerPC or 68K-based Mac OS computer. PicScan is a Universal application. PicScan is compatible with Mac OS X, 10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x, Mac OS 9, Mac OS 8, or System 7, and 20 MB RAM. Quicktime is required for some PicScan features.

Installation

To install PicScan from the CD-ROM, use the following steps:

1. Insert the PicScan CD-ROM into the computer.
2. Drag the CD-ROM icon to the hard disk icon. This will make a PicScan folder on the hard disk.
3. Drag the CD-ROM icon to the Trash icon. This will eject the CD-ROM.
To avoid installation problems, don't run PicScan from the CD-ROM.
4. Open the hard disk and then open the PicScan folder.

Getting Started

PicScan's main commands are in the File and Edit menus and in the floating PicScan window.

To change the parameters of a slide show, press ? while a slide show is running or choose Slideshow Setup.

Keyboard shortcuts are displayed in the menus, the floating Picscan window, and by pressing ? when a slide show is running.

Slideshow key commands

The slideshow key commands work during the operation of a slideshow, as long as the slideshow window is the frontmost window.

? displays help. Each keyword is a parameter name and can be selected with the first letter. Then use - and = for increment and decrement, or _ and + for larger increment and decrement.

Select a parameter by typing it's first letter, then change the value of the parameter with the - = _ + keys. Below are the parameters.

interval dissolve overlap scale zoom effect black filename title pause random loop volume

Some of these parameters can be changed in the Slideshow Setup dialog.

• interval : seconds for each image, including dissolve time
• dissolve : frames per dissolve. Smaller numbers mean faster dissolves. The dissolve speed per frame is dependent on the speed of the machine.
• overlap : the percentage of overlap between slide A and slide B before slide C starts to appear. Slide A still appears transparently when slide C starts to appear.
• scale : scale the image to fill the slideshow window or display it at it's natural size and proportion.
• zoom : the percentage of magnification or reduction of the image within the slideshow window. this zoom is applied after the scale parameter is applied.
• effect : the percentage chance of an image effect. The current effect available is Negative.
• black : fade to or from black.
• filename : displays the current image filename and FPS (Frames Per Second) in the upper left corner of the slideshow window.
• title : there are several title options: no title, filename, filename after dissolve, clean-filename, and clean-filename after dissolve. The clean-filename options remove the filename extension, numbers and replaces punctuation with spaces. The option for showing the filename after the dissolve lets one use a PicScan slideshow as a simple flashcard system for learning to identify images.
• pause : pauses and continues the slideshow.
• random : There are two options: alphabetical or random order.
• loop : There are two options: loop the slideshow, or end the slideshow after the last slide is displayed.
• volume : controls the volume of sound on the machine.

Some parameters, such as pause or title, change automatically when you hit the first letter. Others require that you press additional keys to change the value.

• - (dash) : decrement by 1
• = (equal) : increment by 1
• _ (underscore) : decrement by 10
• + (plus) : increment by 10

To switch in and out of full screen mode for the slideshow window, use Command-Option-F, even while the slideshow is running, or use Command + or Command - to make it larger or smaller.

To save a slideshow to a file on your computer with all of its parameters, use Save As in the File menu. The slideshow file stores only the folder location of the images, not the list of images or the images themselves.

Additional Slideshow Keyboard Commands

• home and up arrow move to the first slide in the collection.
• end and down arrow move to the last slide.
• right arrow and page down move to the next slide.
• left arrow and page up move to the previous slide.
• F1-F12 set slide bank, then pick slide by pressing 'a'..'z' next (26 images per bank)

Thumbnail Window Features

To create a new thumbnail window, choose New Thumbnails from the File menu or the PicScan button palette.

To change the thumbnail size, click and drag a rectangle in the thumbnail view.

To scale the thumbnail view, use the Larger (Command +) and Smaller (Command –) commands in the Edit menu.

To open a file from the thumbnail window, click the desired image and the file will be displayed in a new window. To scale the single-image view, use the Larger (Command +) and Smaller (Command –) commands in the Edit menu

To rename a file from the thumbnail window, Command-Click the image filename and type the new name or edit the exisiting name as desired. On Mac OS 9, the maximum filename length is 31 characters. It is recommended to keep the standard image filename extensions, such as .jpg or .gif.

Use the Thumbnail Setup command in the File menu to change other Thumbnail preferences.

To start a small slide show from the Thumbnail window, Shift-click a thumbnail and a new Slide Show window will be created. The small slide show window can be resized with Command + and Command -. The resolution of the image will fully update after the current image transition.

To save a thumbnail view to a file on your computer with all of its parameters, use Save As in the File menu. If you make changes to an open thumbnail view file, use Save in the File menu to save your changes. A thumbnail view file can be double-clicked in the Finder to automatically open PicScan and display those thumbnails as you had previously saved them. The thumbnail view file stores only the folder location of the images, not the list of images or the images themselves.

Slideshow Preferences File

The preferences for the slide show feature can be edited in the SlideShow Prefs file, a text file. They can also be changed with the SlideShow Setup command in the File menu.

Opening single image files

To open image files from the Finder, drag and drop onto the PicScan application. The Larger (Command+) and Smaller (Command-) commands in the Edit menu can also be used to scale the single image view.

Supported File Formats

If QuickTime 3.0 or later is not installed on your machine PicScan will recognize PICT Picture files and will also display the PICT preview of EPSF files.

If QuickTime 3.0 or later is installed PicScan will open the following file formats:
PICT, PICS, GIF, PhotoShop, SGIImage, BMP, JPEG, JFIF, MacPaint, TargaImage, QuickDrawGXPicture, QuickTimeImage, 3DMF

and the video and audio formats: MooV, MPG, AIFF, MP3, and others.

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PicScan™ is a trademark of Imaja.
Copyright © 2006-2014 Imaja - Greg Jalbert. All rights reserved.
www.imaja.com

Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.