The Aldus Persuasion Player

Disclaimer of warranty
THIS PRODUCT, ITS USE, OPERATION AND SUPPORT IS 
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 
EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT 
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY 
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT 
SHALL ALDUS CORPORATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES 
INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY MONETARY LOSS OR 
OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING 
OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH PROGRAM. REVERSE 
ENGINEERING OF THIS PRODUCT IS PROHIBITED.

Obtaining the Persuasion Player

The Aldus Persuasion Player is provided free to 
registered users of Aldus Persuasion for the Macintosh 
and of Aldus Persuasion for Windows, versions 2.1 or 
later, and may be legally distributed with Aldus 
Persuasion slide shows when this ReadMe file is 
included.  If you are a registered Persuasion 2.1 user, 
you can order a copy of  the Persuasion Player 1.0 for 
the Macintosh by calling (206) 628-2320.

About the Persuasion Player

The Aldus Persuasion Player allows you to view an Aldus 
Persuasion presentation on any DOS-based computer that 
has a VGA or EGA monitor, regardless of whether or not 
Persuasion itself is on the computer. For instance, you 
can use the Persuasion Player to show a sales 
presentation to outside sales staff or deliver a message 
about your company to prospective customers. With the 
Persuasion Player, you can give a quick, impressive 
on-screen presentation and skip the process of producing 
overheads or 35mm slides altogether.

You can transfer slide show files from your PC to a 
Macintosh and then view them using the Persuasion Player 
for the Macintosh. (Conversely, slide show files exported 
from Persuasion for the Macintosh can be viewed with the 
Persuasion Player for DOS-based computers.)  

Persuasion Player files are bitmapped images saved at 
640 by 480 screen resolution with 256 colors.  For optimum 
performance, play back the files on machines that can 
support that resolution, such as a PC with an SVGA card 
or a Macintosh with a 13-inch color monitor.  For best 
results on a PC, we recommend that you have a 386 processor 
with at least 1 MB of RAM. For best results on a Macintosh, 
we recommend that you have a Macintosh II with at least 
1 MB of RAM. The Aldus Persuasion Player will operate 
using other configurations, but the slide show may not look 
as good as when it was created. 

All slides exported in .GIF format for use with the 
Persuasion Player are formatted for a 640 by 480 
screen resolution. Exporting files when your monitor 
is of higher resolution may produce unexpected results. 
For example, if you export a file and your display is 800 
by 600, when you view the file on a monitor whose 
resolution is 640 by 480, you will see the figures 
clustered in the center of the slide. For this reason, 
we recommend you choose a setup option of US Letter 
(or any other option except Display) in your 
"Slide setup... " dialog box. Or you could change 
your monitor resolution to 640 by 480 using the 
Windows Setup control panel.  Alternately, you 
could set a custom page size, 6.4 inches by 4.8 inches 
is recommended.

Exported .GIF files are only capable of handling 8 bit 
color. If you have 16 or 24 bit or higher color capability 
in your monitor, images will be converted to 8 bit files 
when exported. You can minimize color anomalies by 
importing images whose colors are supported in the 
Persuasion palette. Because of the translation to 8 bit 
color, your export may take longer when you are in 16 
or 24 bit mode. To avoid these problems, set your monitor 
to operate in 8 bit color mode when you plan to export to 
Persuasion slide show files.


To create a Persuasion Player slide show file:

1.  Open the Persuasion presentation that you want to show 
using the Persuasion Player. 
You may want to choose "Slide show" to review it before 
exporting it. Changes must be made in the original Persuasion 
file.
2.  Choose "Slide show..." from the File menu, select the 
settings you want for your exported slide show, and then 
click "Save."
3.  Go to Slide view or to Slide sorter view.  In Slide 
sorter view, you can select the slides you want. However 
if you have slide numbers on your slides that you want to 
export, you should go to Slide view.  Slide numbers export
as a pound (#) sign when exporting from Slide sorter view.
4.  Choose "Export..." from the File menu.
5.  For "Directories," click a directory on your hard drive
in which you want to store the slide show file. Exporting
to a networked server is not recommended because data may
be lost.
6.  For "Name," type your slide show filename.
7.  For "Export data source," select the option you want.
8.  Select "Persuasion slide show" in the "File format" list 
box, and then click "OK."

Because Persuasion generates a complete screen image for 
each layer of your presentation, it's a good idea to allow 
plenty of time and disk space when exporting a presentation 
with multiple layers.

The transition effects and delay between slides and layers 
that you specified in the Persuasion "Slide show" dialog box 
will be saved with your file. Refer to the Aldus Persuasion 
User Manual for more information on these settings. 

Running the Persuasion Player

To ensure that the Persuasion Player file runs as you expect, 
it's a good idea to play the Player (.GIF) file before you 
give your presentation. Once the Player file is exported from 
Persuasion, you cannot make any changes to the content
of the file, although you can adjust the slide show settings 
using a combination of switches typed at the command line. 
The Persuasion Player file size and export time will vary
depending on the slide contents. Slides containing imported 
graphics or multiple layers will take longer and create a 
larger file.

Note:  The Persuasion Player cannot play .GIF files exported 
from other programs.

Aldus Persuasion Player Pocket Guide 
(Print this file for a handy reference guide.)

To run the Aldus Persuasion Player:

1.  Copy the slide show file with the .GIF extension into 
the same directory as the Persuasion Player.

2.  At the DOS prompt, change to the directory containing 
the Persuasion Player and the slide show file (.GIF).  
If you are not in the directory containing the  slide show 
file, you must enter the full pathname for the file.  

(If you have put the Player in your DOS path,
you can type your commands at the DOS prompt.)

3.  Type 

	player filename.gif 
 
You can enter more than one filename with a space between
each, if you wish.

4.  To regulate the playing of the slide show, type one 
or more of these switches one space after player, separated 
by a space and a slash, and before the filename.  
For example, to play a presentation so that the slides 
automatically display in succession, starting over again 
when finished, type 

	player /a /r filename.gif.

Type this switch	To do this

/a			Advance the slide show automatically 
			according to the time settings in the 
			"Slide show" dialog box (in Persuasion).

/r			Repeat the presentation. 

/R			Prevent repetition of the presentation.

Note:  If the /r or /R switches are not used, then the 
presentation will repeat or not repeat depending on the 
settings selected in the "Slide show" dialog box in 
Persuasion and saved with your presentation.

/m			Allow you to advance the slides using 
			the keyboard or the mouse.  See the 
			table on how to manually operate a 
			slide show at the end of these 
			instructions.

/d[f]			Increase or decrease the time set 
			in the "Slide show" dialog box 
			(in Persuasion)by the multiple you 
			type here.  For example, if you 
			type /d2, the time between slides 
			and between layers will be double 
			the amounts specified in "Delay 
			between slide" and the "Delay 
			between layers" in the Slide 
			show dialog box (in Persuasion).

/v			Use this switch if you get a message 
			while attempting to run a slide show 
			that the Player cannot identify your 
			video card.  Retype the command line 
			for the player, including this switch.

/e			Use this switch if you get the message 
			that the Player cannot identify your 
			video card and you have tried typing 
			/v at the command line and it does 
			not work.  Then reboot and use the 
			/e switch at the command line.

/c			Use this switch if you are dissatisfied 
			with the way the colors appear in your 
			slide show.  Persuasion substitutes 
			the best colors it can in translating 
			the slide show.  If you are dissatisfied 
			with the colors, try the /c switch, 
			which causes a fixed color palette of 
			16 colors to be used.

/s			Allows all of the information on your 
			slide to be shown on-screen.  If your 
			slide is trimmed in any way, use this 
			switch to scale the slide to the screen.  
			This may slow down your presentation.

/x			(Note: Use lowercase x.) Helps to resolve 
			memory conflicts within expanded memory.

/X			(Note: Use uppercase X.) Helps to resolve 
			memory conflicts within the basic 640K 
			of memory. If you type both /x and /X in 
			the command line, no transition effects 
			can be shown.

5.  After you have typed the command line, press Enter to start 
the slide show. 

6.  To quit the slide show and return to the main window, press 
Esc.  Press F1 to get Help.


Running a slide show using key and mouse commands

The mouse driver must be installed from DOS to use the mouse 
commands to run the slide show. To find out if your mouse 
driver is installed for DOS, type mouse at the prompt. If the 
mouse is not installed, refer to your mouse documentation for 
installing it from DOS.

The following table explains how to move through a slide show:

To					Do this
Display the next slide			Press Up arrow or 
					click the mouse 
Display the previous slide		Press Down arrow or 
					double-click the mouse
Go to a specific slide			Type the slide number 
					(on the main keypad, 
					not the numeric keypad), 
					and then press Enter 
Stop or resume a slide show that is 	Press spacebar
automatically advancing
Toggle the cursor (mouse) on or off	Press A
Toggle the blank screen on or off	Press B or , (comma)
Display the Help screen			Press F1
Exit from the slide show		Press Esc
Display or hide the Control palette	Press Ctrl + W
Display the Title selection menu	Press and hold right 
					mouse button

Using the Slide-title menu and the Control palette

You can also navigate through a slide show by using the 
slide-title menu or by using the control buttons you can 
display on-screen.  Hold down the right mouse button to 
display a menu of the slide titles in your presentation, 
(the titles will take a few seconds to display), and then 
drag to choose the title of the slide you want to go to.  
When you release the mouse button, the slide you chose will 
be displayed.  Press Ctrl + W to make the control buttons 
appear on the screen during the slide show.  The following 
table lists the control buttons you can click to move to 
various places in your slide show.  

The Control buttons resemble the buttons on a VCR. From left
to right, these are their functions:

o  Go to the beginning of the presentation
o  Go back one slide
o  Stop
o  Play
o  Go forward one slide
o  Go to the end of the presentation


Transferring slide show files
You can use a file transfer utility, such as Apple File 
Exchange, to transfer your Persuasion for Windows slide 
show file to the Macintosh.  Consult the documentation 
accompanying the software for instructions.  
Note: When transferring files, make sure you select binary 
to binary translation, not Mac binary.  To make sure you've 
selected the correct option, check the files sizes; they 
should be the same.  

Aldus customer support
Support for the Aldus Persuasion Player is available to 
registered Aldus Persuasion users only. Refer to Aldus 
Persuasion Getting Started for specific support policies 
and contact information. 

We are interested in any comments or suggestions you have 
regarding this product. Please send them to:

Aldus Persuasion Program Manager
411 First Avenue South
Seattle, Washington  98104
FAX  (206) 343-4240
