Time-line-based presentation software spices up a traditional electronic slide show
Shelley Cryan
Multimedia. It's the buzzword of the nineties. With cheaper, faster computers widely available, people who give presentations are often looking to incorporate the latest flashy elements into their shows: movies, sounds, and animations.
These elements can, of course, be used in top traditional slide-presentation programs. Programs such as Aldus Persuasion and Microsoft PowerPoint let you show slide presentations on your computer screen, complete with fancy slide transitions and some or all of these multimedia elements. There is a glitzier alternative, however.
I look here at programs that offer the added element of time. That is, they allow you not only to select a wide range of media formats to inco
rporate into your presentation, but also to define exactly when all this activity will occur. Picture this: The introductory scene of a presentation shows a title sliding into place; then colorful ellipses bounce around and reshape until they land behind the title. A sound track plays in the background throughout the scene, muted when an electronic narrator reads the title just as it appears on-screen. The final action shows a corporate logo rolling into place in the bottom left corner, and then the presentation date fades into the lower right corner. The scene ends by dissolving, bit by bit, into the next scene.
That's multimedia presentation, as executed by the programs in this roundup: Super Show and Tell from Ask Me Multimedia Center (Windows), Q/Media for Windows from Q/Media Software, Vividus's Cinemation (Mac), Macromedia's Action (Windows and Mac), and Gold Disk's Astound (Windows and Mac). I've limited the selection to programs aimed at the general business presenter rather than the multimedia
jockey, so I've left out analyses of the more complex and pricier programs, such as Macromedia Director and Passport Producer Pro.
Breaking with Tradition
With the added factor of time, multimedia presentation programs give you more to juggle than you would have in a traditional slide-making program. But the payoff for some extra complexity can be substantial: With multimedia presentation programs, you've got more control over your show, so you can create stunning, memorable presentations.
Most multimedia programs also let you create simple animations, so you can show graphical elements flying around your screen along a path you define. All but one in this group (Q/Media) let you incorporate a bit of interactivity into your presentations, too. This is handy when you want to branch off into different topics at will during a presentation, where you press a button and the presentation jumps to a predefined slide. Other types of interactive controls let you play back movies and pause the present
ation.
All this time-based activity, animation, and interactivity requires a computer's processing power during playback. This sharply diverges from the traditional slidemaking programs, which, besides running on a computer, can output to 35mm slides and overheads. You'll also give up the superior text-handling capabilities of the traditional slidemakers if you opt for a multimedia presentation program. Traditional slidemakers offer an outliner, which makes it easy to create lots of text-based slides and perform such functions as spelling checking and find-and-replace.
Of course, every rule has an exception, and Astound fills that role among multimedia presenters. It hedges its bets by providing features of both traditional and multimedia presenters.
But to get this combination, you're not limited to Astound. Many of the multimedia presenters let you import static slide presentations, so you can use the features of both types of program. It's often not as convenient as Astound's all-in-on
e approach, but it can be a valuable option. If you've already created several traditional slide presentations that you now want to jazz up, or if you depend on particular features of a favorite program, you won't have to give those up.
The Feature Mix
Which features are most important? Ease of use is a key issue. To maximize the creative and persuasive impact of your work, you must be able to focus on content rather than production. Conveniences like templates and master pages, which streamline formatting by acting as overall design guides, are vital.
Also critical are support for a variety of import formats, interactive controls, animation capabilities, and a decent scheme for managing time-based events. For polished presentations, look for a good selection of transition effects. You'll also want at least basic tools for creating and editing various types of media, such as drawing tools, rudimentary sound editors, and graph generators. Don't expect full-blown features in this area; for a fu
ll set of such tools, you can turn to a dedicated third-party program like Adobe Illustrator or DeltaPoint's DeltaGraph Pro. But it saves time and memory to have a few basics in your presentation program.
All the programs discussed here include a free run-time player that lets others view your presentation if they don't have the source application. But because you can't be sure that everyone has the proper hardware and software drivers to run a multimedia program accurately, wide distribution is still tricky. It's critical to have the option, however, and each of these programs passed this test.
The write-ups that follow focus on the criteria I've discussed, with special emphasis on each program's approach. For a quick comparison of capabilities, check out the features table on page 194.
Super Show and Tell
SST Features
By the time you read this, version 1.1 of Super Show and Tell will be available. According to Ask Me Multimedia Center, new functionality will include the followi
ng:
-- Enhanced branching: Jump to a specific slide position within another slide set.
-- Bring Forward/Push Behind: Reposition media elements to appear behind or on top of other media elements.
-- Show multiple AVI files on the same screen and control playing time.
-- Additional file formats: WMF, CGM, Kodak Photo CD.
-- 25 new transitional effects.
-- Print handouts.
Super Show and Tell, by Ask Me Multimedia Center, targets the true computer neophyte and defines one end of the ease-of-use spectrum. To achieve this distinction, SST has cut out a lot of the features and flexibility that you can find in other programs. You may outgrow it or be disappointed if you plan to create presentations frequently. Yet fewer features means less to learn, so if you're looking for a capable, basic multimedia presentation tool and a short learning curve, you'll be happy with SST.
SST is anchored by a unique, streamlined interface. Unlike the other programs, SST packs everything into a sin
gle window: scene preview (which shows the scene you're working on), navigation controls, media editors, and thumbnail sketches of other scenes in the presentation. This all-in-one approach makes it easy to find what you're looking for, and it's instantly obvious if a feature isn't available.
For real out-of-the-box productivity, templates would quickly give scenes a consistent look. Unfortunately, however, SST doesn't support templates or master slides. You'll need to create each scene from scratch.
To create a scene, you select the background in the preview scene area and turn to the media editor to apply a few overall attributes. Gradient or patterned backgrounds aren't an option; you're limited to a single-color background, or you can place an image in the center. You can "tile" the background image to create a wallpaper effect.
To add a background sound track, you use the media editor again. SST supports WAV and MIDI files, but the package doesn't include much clip media (e.g., sou
nd, graphics, and movies). The alternative is to use third-party sources.
Adding objects that come and go over time is straightforward. You click on the media button to add text, imported images, sound, and movies. You select the draw option under the media button to create your own objects with SST's rudimentary drawing capabilities (you are limited to lines, rectangles, and ellipses). Again, you use the media editor to apply attributes like text formatting and colors. Any object can become an interactive button, jumping the presentation to a specified slide or calling up and running another SST presentation.
With your objects set, it's time to add action, such as motion, or dynamic changes to size, color, or font. This, too, is simple. Select the object, click on the action button, and make the appropriate modifications. To show text moving in from off-screen, for example, you first drag the text block beyond the bottom left corner of the preview screen. With the block still selected, you clic
k on the action button and select move. Finally, you drag the text block to where you want it to end up, and SST fills in the in-between motion.
You can specify how long it takes to complete the move or any other action, and you can specify when such activities will occur. Yet the way SST manages and synchronizes time-based events is probably the one area where the attempt at simplification doesn't make things easier. There's no bar-style time line. Instead, there's a playlist, which lists actions in a scene in the order in which they occur, along with the amount of time the activity will take. Under this structure, it takes more than a glance to see exactly what is supposed to happen, and it's difficult to figure out how to change the timing of events.
Q/Media for Windows
At $99, Q/Media is the least expensive program of the bunch. But instead of offering limited capabilities like SST, Q/Media focuses on a few areas and fully implements these targeted functions.
Q/Media lacks animat
ion tools and interactivity. Without interactive capabilities, you can't branch to different topics in a presentation. However, Q/Media is rich in transition effects, import formats, time management, and fine control over presentation elements. It rivals its higher-priced competition in many of these areas.
Like most of the programs in this category, Q/Media is based on the familiar slide metaphor. Each slide is a scene that can be filled with sound, movies, graphics, and text. You start by defining the slide/ scene size, background, and so forth. To do this, you click on the scene info button on the handy toolbar. Unfortunately, it can take a long time for the dialog box to appear; with my 33-MHz 386 PC, sluggishness cropped up fairly often.
Q/Media offers an impressive array of scene-format options. You can set a custom stage size for each scene, as well as fix its position on the computer screen. Scene background options include patterns, wallpaper, full-screen graphic, and gradient. Q/Media
even allows you to customize how the rest of the screen will look if a presentation doesn't fill it entirely. There are 19 different slide transition effects to choose among.
This plethora of choices extends to adding transitional elements--sound, images, text, or movies--to the scene as well. You can set any color in bit maps to be transparent, and you can set up third-party editors to launch automatically from within Q/Media when you double-click on an object.
With no animation tools, you need to rely on Q/Media's object transition effects to add the feeling of movement. These object transition effects are the same as the slide transition effects. So, for example, text could appear on-screen from behind thin venetian blinds.
Time-based events are managed with Q/Media's bar-style time line. Although it is not as flexible as Action's time line, it still provides a convenient way to stage the coming and going of disparate media elements.
Q/Media has announced a CD-ROM version. For
$149, you get Q/Media 1.2 for Windows along with a 500-MB clip- media library.
Cinemation
Cinemation, by Vividus, takes an entirely different approach to multimedia presentations. Instead of working with slides or scenes, you work with frames in a filmstrip. This distinction is striking. With a filmstrip, you see every step of every movement. If a graphic bounces across the screen, pauses, and bounces back the other way, it may span 100 frames, each one successively showing the graphic a little further along its path.
This filmstrip approach is certainly different, but it's fairly easy to work with. The biggest drawback is that it's harder to set action durations, since you're dealing with frame quantities rather than the more familiar time quantities. The benefit is that you get easier, better animation.
Imagine a presentation scene that shows a movie, followed by four text boxes sliding into view accompanied by sound effects. When a viewer clicks on any one of the text boxes, the p
resentation branches to the corresponding topic. Cinemation lets you create a relatively complex slide like this.
First, you open a design template, complete with background gradient and text and graphics placeholders. Then you add text and graphics where the placeholders are and adjust their placement. Next, you import the movie and place it next to the bullet points. Cinemation automatically adds frames to the presentation filmstrip to accommodate the movie's animation. Testing playback is simple using the VCR-like controls.
Cinemation really shines when defining motion. It offers four alternatives: You can apply an AutoMotion template, which attaches predefined movements to objects in your frame; you can define a beginning and an end position and ask Cinemation to fill in the motion between them; you can draw animations frame by frame; or you can drag objects around and record the activity.
If you choose to drag-and-record, Cinemation automatically adds frames to accommodate each objec
t's movements and automatically loops the QuickTime movie so it will continue to play while the bullets, markers, and text are moving into place. It also automatically copies all the graphical objects to any new frames that it creates.
Adding sound is easy, too. You select the frame during which a sound should play, click on the sound tool, and then select a sound file from the dialog box that pops up. Cinemation supplies an ample collection of sample sounds.
Cinemation's interactive controls include the basics: You can define buttons that, when pressed, jump the presentation to a specified frame in the filmstrip or jump to a different movie altogether. You can define a transition effect to occur when the scene changes. And you can set up pauses.
One of Cinemation's greatest capabilities is that it can import entire Aldus Persuasion and Microsoft PowerPoint files with a single command. Each slide in the presentation becomes a separate frame, to which you can add motion or interactive butt
ons.
In all, Cinemation is a powerful tool with an unconventional yet effective approach.
New Features
As this review went to press, Macromedia announced Action 3.0 for Windows. According to the company, some of the new features will include the following:
-- a new outliner
-- text-formatting controls (e.g., ruler, tabs, and text alignment)
-- a spelling checker
-- OLE 2 support
-- a larger selection of templates with motion and effects built in
-- expanded format support, including QuickTime for Windows, Photo CD, and direct import of GIF, TIF, and PCX
With a bar-style time line, standard interactivity controls, and a collection of animation options, Macromedia's Action packs all the major features of a multimedia presentation program into a solid performer. Action offers a slew of conveniences to streamline production. Templates, a content list, and a scene sorter all help you create your presentation rather painlessly. Action features excellent intuitive too
ls for manipulating and animating objects. One of the first multimedia presentation packages is still a sound choice.
Action's presentations are collections of scenes that structurally resemble slides. A collection of templates is provided, or you can create and save your own. And you can choose among gradients, patterns, and images for a custom background.
Action's media creators aren't as extensive as Astound's; in particular, Action lacks sound and movie editors. But its charting capabilities will save you from constant reliance on a third-party grapher. The charting features are available only in the Windows version, which is ahead of the Mac verson on several features.
The drawing tools are standard, as are the controls over interactivity. You set buttons to jump to a specified scene, replay the current scene, and pause.
As you'd expect given the program's name, Action's strong suit is its options for adding actions to objects such as text, graphics, and movies. You can apply
transitions and motions to an object for when it enters or exits a scene and set custom durations for those actions. The large selection of transition effects includes ones that will reveal an object in a checkerboard pattern or from the outside in.
Action offers several options for object entry and exit motion. You can make the object swoop in from any side or corner of the scene, or you can define start and end placement and Action will fill in the movement. Action's Path Editor also lets you customize movement. You combine dragging and mouse-clicking to define straight path segments along which the object will move.
You can apply a third type of action--a light effect--to occur when an object isn't moving or in transition. A light effect such as a sparkle or shimmer can add interest to an object and, for example, help to highlight particular bulleted text.
Action's time management controls are centered around its bar-style time line, where each object in a scene is represented by a bar
. The longer the bar, the longer an object remains in the scene. As in other programs, you can move or resize these bars to alter an object's entry/exit time and duration. VCR-like controls help you navigate through a presentation while editing. A particularly handy feature is the compressed-view option, which shows all the elements that will appear over time in the scene. This view is useful for aligning objects relative to one another.
Although Action is available in both Mac and Windows versions, the two aren't compatible, so presentations created in one version can't be opened in the other.
Astound
Not only does Gold Disk's Astound offer the requisite multimedia presentation features--time-based events, animation, and interactivity--but, unique to this category, it also includes features found only in top traditional presentation packages: an outliner, complete with some text-handling features, as well as the ability to output to 35mm slides. Astound's interface incorporates the traditi
onal slide, outline, and slide sorter views, in addition to a time-line view. This makes learning the program a snap for anyone familiar with traditional presentation programs. Astound pulls all this together into a slick, well-designed program.
But don't trash your traditional slidemaker yet. Astound's outliner isn't as full-featured as PowerPoint's or Persuasion's. You can't import text or see text formats in outline view. It also lacks the seamless navigational aids of top slidemakers.
Yet Astound's outliner is still a welcome feature. It helps you organize your thoughts as you prepare a presentation, and it gives you a good overview of all your slides as you edit your work. And never turn down a spelling checker.
Like other packages, Astound lets you apply templates to quickly standardize a design. A healthy supply of templates is included for 35mm slides, 13- and 9-inch screens, overheads, and PowerBooks.
Astound offers a wide assortment of media creators and editors. Its draw
ing tools are better than average for the group, and its graphing capabilities are fairly sophisticated. Astound's sound and movie editors are particularly full-featured and, for many users, will virtually eliminate the need for third-party editors.
Another strong area is the selection of transition effects. Astound offers 22 scene transitions, with nine customizing effects for most, leaving no shortage of creative permutations. But what's truly notable are the choices for object transitions. You can set entrance and exit text transitions that make text drop letter by letter, for example, or you can customize how an object rotates into or out of a scene.
Astound offers the standard interactive controls, and its bar-style time line is quite capable. You animate objects by defining paths along which they travel.
The package comes bundled with a CD-ROM filled with over 1300 pieces of clip media. The library includes graphics, backgrounds, sound effects, music, digital video clips, and animat
ed actors. It's the largest set of bundled clip media in the category.
Be forewarned that, with all these features, Astound is not for the faint of hardware. Despite the manufacturer's listed minimum recommendations, you'll really need 4 MB of application RAM and at least a Mac IIcx to take advantage of Astound's feature set and to better your chances for smooth playback. And make some room on your hard drive for the generous assortment of clip media supplied with this package.
I looked at the Macintosh version in depth for this roundup; the final Windows version came too late to be included. However, the beta of the Windows version seems to perform much like the Macintosh version, and Gold Disk claims cross-platform compatibility--something unique to this category. Either way, Astound is a winner.
The Wrap
With the varying approaches of multimedia presentation software, the question is not "which is the best program?" but "which is the best program for me?" Consider your needs careful
ly before plunging ahead, and then match your needs with the appropriate offering.
Each program takes a different slant on how best to create stunning presentations, and each of the packages reviewed here does an admirable job of meeting its goals. For quick, basic presentations, Super Show and Tell is a good choice. Q/Media is the budget choice, limited to linear presentations without animation. For the best in animation, Cinemation is your program. Astound and Action are the top all-around, full-featured alternatives, with Astound offering a broader base of features than its chief rival.
The Facts
Ask Me Multimedia Center
(Super Show and Tell 1.0)
7100 Northland Cir., Suite 401
Minneapolis, MN 55428
(612) 531-0603
fax: (612) 531-0645
Gold Disk, Inc.
(Astound 1.01 for the Mac,
Astound 1.5 for Windows)
3350 Scott Blvd., Building 14
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(800) 982-9888
(408) 982-0200
fax: (408) 982-0298
Macromedia
(Action 1.01.4 for the Mac,
Ac
tion 2.5.1 for Windows)
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(800) 288-4797
(415) 252-2000
fax: (415) 626-0554
Q/Media Software Corp.
(Q/Media for Windows 1.2)
312 East Fifth Ave.
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5T 1H4
(604) 879-1190
fax: (604) 879-0214
Vividus Corp.
(Cinemation 1.1)
378 Cambridge Ave., Suite I
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(415) 321-2221
fax: (415) 321-2282
Illustration: Super Show and Tell is anchored by a unique, streamlined interface. SST packs everything into a single window: scene preview (which shows the scene you're working on), navigation controls, media editors, and thumbnail sketches of other scenes in the presentation. If you're looking for a capable, basic multimedia presentation tool with a short learning curve, you'll be happy with SST.
Illustration: Like most of the programs in this category, Q/Media for Windows is based on the familiar slide metaphor. Each slide is a scene that can be filled with sound, movies, graphics,
and text. At $99, Q/Media is the least expensive program of the bunch. It lacks animation tools and interactivity, but it's rich in transition effects, import formats, time management, and fine control over presentation elements.
Illustration: Vividus's Cinemation takes an entirely different approach to multimedia presentations. Instead of working with slides or scenes, you work with frames in a filmstrip. The biggest drawback: It's harder to set action durations, since you're dealing with frame quantities rather than the more familiar time quantities. The benefit: easier, better animation. In all, Cinemation is a powerful tool with an unconventional yet effective approach.
Illustration: Macromedia's Action offers a slew of conveniences to streamline production. Templates, a content list, and a scene sorter all help you create your presentation painlessly. With a bar-style time line, standard interactivity controls, and a collection of animation options, Action packs al
l the major features of a multimedia presentation program into a solid performer.
Illustration: Gold Disk's Astound not only offers the requisite multimedia presentation features but also includes features found only in top traditional presentation packages. This makes learning the program a snap for anyone who's familiar with traditional presentation programs. Astound pulls all this together into a slick, well-designed program.
Illustration: With its all-in-one-window approach, SST is a snap to learn. The scene preview is your main work area. You modify elements with SST's media editor. By selecting objects and clicking on the action button, you can add effects such as motion or dynamic changes to size, color, or font.
Illustration: Despite its low price, Q/Media offers excellent control for managing time-based events. Although Q/Media's bar-style time line is not as flexible as Action's time line, it still provides a convenient way to stage the com
ing and going of disparate media elements. VCR-like controls help you navigate through a presentation.
Illustration: Cinemation treats presentations as a series of frames in a filmstrip, so you see every step of every movement. You can navigate through your presentation by clicking on frames in the filmstrip window.
Illustration: Action's time management controls are centered around its bar-style time line, where each object in a scene is represented by a bar. The longer the bar, the longer an object remains in the scene. As in other programs, you can move or resize the bars to alter an object's entry/exit time and duration.
Illustration: Astound does double duty as a slide-making program as well as a multimedia presentation program. Its time line helps you synchronize the media elements that make up your presentation.
Table: KEY FEATURES OF TIME-LINE-BASED PRESENTATION SOFTWARE (This table is not available electronically. Please
see April, 1994, issue.)
Shelley Cryan runs a consulting business in Tarrytown, New York, that helps companies incorporate computer-based technologies. She holds an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from the University of Chicago. You can contact her on CompuServe at 71232.3673, on the Internet at 71232.3673 @compuserve.com, or on BIX c/o "editors."
Multimedia Presentations
