Overview
With Apimac Slideshow you can create slideshow presentations that can be distributed as freestanding applications for either Mac or Windows which can be freely distributed in any media (zip, CD, DVD, etc.). These freestanding slideshow presentations are so easy to use that can be launched by just a simple double-click. Freestanding slideshow presentations created with registered copies of the program can be freely distributed through any media in unlimited quantities, without paying any royalty fees.
Creating a freestanding slideshow presentation to distribute to Mac and Windows users is really easy, follow this simple guide:
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Add some files to your slideshow, customize your slideshow with your preferred choices then click on the “Share” label at the top right of Apimac Slideshow’s main window and select the platform target.
- Click at the “Create” button, at the prompt choose a location for freestanding slideshow, then press “Save”.
The standalone presentation for Mac is an application that already contains all the file required for the presentation, so just copy on a media (CD-ROM, DVD, USB Card etc) this file.
The standalone presentation for Windows is a folder that contains the .exe application and a resource folder that contains all the files required for the presentation, so just copy on a media (CD-ROM, DVD, USB Card etc) this folder.
Running the slideshow in DVD players hooked to TV’s results in messages like “Improper Disk” or “Insert a Different Disk” or “Cannot Play this Disk”
In order to play a freestanding slideshow presentation on a DVD, it should be reproduced from a computer – take into account that a freestanding slideshow presentation is still a program application. As far as we know, external DVD players have no built-in features to run computer programs, so freestanding slideshow presentations created by Apimac Slideshow should be reproduced from a computer (no matter if it is saved to a hard disk or burned to a CD/DVD).
If Apple iDVD is installed on your computer, you can use the option “iDVD Project” in the “Share” panel of the program to export the slideshow to iDVD, then you could burn a DVD which plays in a DVD player.
Has Slideshow a “self executing” feature?
Apimac Slideshow hasn’t such feature. Mac OS X does not support AutoStart, in
consequence, the programs cannot do anything about it. On the Windows side, Apimac Slideshow does not support the Autorun function either. Some experts user could want to edit Autorun.inf (the file that contains commands for Windows to run when the disk is inserted), in this case we would suggest them to check the Microsoft KnowledgeBase to learn more about this question.
Optimization
Best file images to use in presentations
The first thing to realize about Apimac Slideshow is that it is not an imaging program (like Photoshop), prepared to deal with huge files – it was designed to visualize files, as a Web browser.
Thus, the best approach is to use images with the right DPI: a 300 DPI image is good for printing on paper, but a monitor/projector does not take advantage of such quantity of pixels – as far as I know, these devices can only display an image at 72 or 96 DPI. Further, it is safer not to import images bigger than 1600 x 1200 pixels (if it is smaller, then match the maximum resolution of the target monitor) at 72 dpi in a RGB color space (any other color space is a waste of storage space and process time). The size of a file with these properties should be around 5500 KB – if it is smaller, it will be rendered faster and better (which is especially welcome for soundtracks). Probably Apimac Slideshow does its best with images saved as JPG. As you may know, the point in using JPEG is to make use of its built-in capacity to provide smaller files without losing almost details, when this feature is used appropriately – a must for automatic presentations with a tight schedule. And this seems to be the common use for Apimac Slideshow.
These are the safer file specs that Apimac Slideshow requires and, further, files will be rendered faster and better.
Avoiding audio glitches on soundtracks
Soundtracks are audio files in such a way that they are played in the foreground while other files are opened and then rendered, this can result in a processor time consuming task that, with some systems, can provocate some glitches on soundtracks. This can mostly affect portables. In this situation can be important to take into consideration the notes stated in the “Best file images to use in presentations” of this manual.
Also, some audio file are very large and playing them can result in an important processor time consuming task, what’s more, take into account that some audio file formats are not supported, as .M4A, .AAC, and in general MPEG-4, in Windows PC (as stated on the documentation of the program), so we recommend to use just .MP3 formatted files (you can convert between the said format files with iTunes).
Another approach to avoid audio glitches on soundtracks is to deselect the Fade between files option. The Fade between files feature is a processor time consuming task that with some systems can provocate some glitches on soundtracks. Note that under Windows the fade effect works only with some kind of graphic hardware and relative driver installed and it fades the screen of only about 50% on Windows XP (as stated on the documentation of the program).
Also for some particular presentations using the ‘Half size’ option rather than ‘Fill screen’ can make the difference.
Troubleshooting
Apimac Slideshow don’t show IPTC Caption for some images
We discovered a bug in Apimac Slideshow 7 that prevents it to show the IPTC Caption when this is the only IPTC filled of the image. We are working to fix it as soon as possible. Currently the only know workaround is to add something in the Headline field of the image with a third party application.
I get the following error message when run a stand alone show: ‘The file or folder named “PartOfName#36B3” was not found’. The show runs ok if I locate the folder, but the path is not saved.
The problem occurs with a stand alone slideshow, not when a slideshow is run from within Apimac Slideshow. The work around is to avoid long names for the data folder.
Some of my images don’t keep the vertical or orizontal orientation when displayed in Slideshow.
Some applications (for example Apple Preview) doesn’t really rotate images but, instead they use a virtual rotation to preserve image quality. This mean, that when they apply a rotation, that image is not really modified and Slideshow simply show it as it is. Virtual rotation is an EXIF parameter and you can see it in Slideshow looking at the EXIF info. Please be sure that the images are really rotate using an image editor (for example Photoshop) before to use it in Slideshow.
I have had Apimac Slideshow program on my Mac for several years. Now I am having trouble making a standalone presentation because it won’t produce a data folder.
Current version of Slideshow don’t produce Data folder for Mac presentations because includes the needed files directly on the freestanding slideshow presentation. The data folder is necessary only for Windows presentations.
Including the Resources folder along the freestanding slideshow
Problems pop up if the Windows standalone cannot locate the Resources folder (which contains all the files needed to run the presentation in a computer different than the one you are using and it has to be located at the same location of the freestanding slideshow presentation), in these situations could appear a “An Unknown Runtime Exception Has Occurred” message, so be sure to always distribute the freestanding slideshow presentation for Windows along the Resources folder. Hence, it is neither recommended to move files off the Resources folder, since Apimac Slideshow will fail to locate them. Besides, do not rename the files located in the Resources folder nor the folder itself.
I’m using Slideshow and created my first show on both Mac and PC I get the following when I try and play it: “Nil Object Assignment”.
This error can be reconducted to various problems, for example the picture to show could be too big or unavailable. It’s genereally good idea to test the show during the authoring process prior to create a CD. The best we can suggest is to try recreating the show adding images in group of 5-10 and then test at every step. As a general rule, avoid as much as possibleto use pictures too big. Using scaled down pictures helps the show to run more fluently.
I have just start using the program and I have no iDVD Project to select.
If Apple iDVD is not installed on your computer, the option “iDVD Project” in the “Share” panel of the program is disabled.