Aliu's Magic Lantern
Reference guide
Preferences

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• Workbench
• Directories
• Preview
• Projector
• Transitions
• Text & date
• Defaults button

Workbench default parameters:

Slide tray window height: maximum number of visible frames in the slide tray window . The best value depends on your screen's resolution: set height=4 for 640x480, height=5 for 800x600, height=6 for 1024x768.

Always use absolute path: media files paths are preferentially stored as "relative" in slide tray files. This means that their location information is recorded relatively to the slide tray file itself, whenever the media files and the slide tray file are all stored on the same disk drive. This way, the slide show is independent of the drive letter. If it is stored on a removable disk, you will be able to use it on another computer, which removable drive may have another letter. Do not check "Always use absolute path" unless you know what you are doing.

Dropping slide actions:

Dropping slide action from slide tray: dragging and dropping a picture from one frame to another will switch the pictures (option="switch"),  or will copy the first picture over the second (option="overwrite").

Dropping slide action from preview: dragging a picture from the preview window and dropping it into the slide tray  (into a non-empty frame) will insert the picture into a new frame (option="insert"), or will copy the picture over the old one (option="overwrite").

Default date:

When a new frame is created in the slide tray window , it has this date by default:

1. Current: today's date, according to your system clock
2. Constant: always use the given date
3. Repeat: take previous frame's date as default

Enable wizard at startup: a simple dialog-based wizard helps new users to build their first slide show. It pops-up every time the workbench program is run. Uncheck this option to disable it.

Slide tray files: This is the default directory for  the "Open slide tray", "Insert slide tray" and "Save slide tray" commands. Use the "Browse" button to select the directory where you will store your slide tray files.
For example: "C:\My documents\slide-shows".

Image/sound files: This is the default directory for "Open image/sound directory" command. Use the "Browse" button to select the directory where you use to store your media files.
For example: "C:\My documents\digital-camera".

Default sorting order in preview windows:

1. by name: files will be sorted by name
2. by date: files will be sorted by modification date
3. by type: files will be sorted by type (.jpg, .gif, etc)
4. direct: usual sorting order
5. reverse : reversed sorting order

Don't preview files larger than (KB): some very large image file may clog your computer's memory. This should never happen with pictures taken with a digital camera (up to 1024x768 resolution). It could happen  however with full page scanned documents. Computing a small preview picture for such huge images may take several minutes, specially if you have a "slow" CPU and less than 64 Mb of RAM. Setting this parameter to 3000 KB is sufficient for most computers.
When a picture file larger than this limit is found, a "Large file" button is displayed instead of the usual preview picture. You'll have to click over it (and possibly wait for a while) to get the preview picture.

These settings are for the projector program only.

Screen resolution:

This drop-list displays all screen resolutions available on your computer:

1. 640x480: Use this resolution only if your computer's video board does not support a higher resolution.
2. 800x600: This resolution gives the best results for most recent computers.
3. 1024x768 or higher: Very high resolutions require large amounts of video memory (8 Mb or more) and a fast processor (Pentium 600 Mhz) for smooth transitions. If you want to view large pictures and do not care much about transitions quality, try this setting.

Notice that after each available resolution, there is a numerical value indicating the color depth's "bits". The higher the color depth, the better the color rendering, but the more video memory is required. Selecting 16 bits usually gives rather good results, but you may try 24 or even 32 bits for optimal color rendering.

Graphic mode:

The standard setting is "Autodetect", because the program should be able to detect by itself the best video mode for your computer. However, in some cases, the autodetection does not work as expected, causing picture distorsions while the shows are running. The safest video mode is "GDI", but it is not as fast as "DirectX".

Autostart: if this option is unchecked, the projector will display the 1st slide of the show, and stand-by until the user starts it manually (with the remote control, or by pressing the <A> key.

Play sounds: uncheck it to mute the projector program. All sound and music files will be ignored, and the slide shows will run silently.

Always use WMP: check this option if you want all sound files to be handled by Microsoft's Windows Media Player. If uncheck, only MP3s will be played by WMP: wave and midi files will be handled by Windows legacy players.

Loop over slides: check it to have your slide shows automatically restarted after the last picture. You'll have to use the projector's remote control to interrupt them.

Loop over sound files: if this option is checked, the projector will play sound files repeatedly until some other sound file is defined later in the show. If it is unchecked, sound files will be played only once.

Disable remote control: check this option in order to prevent the remote control from popping-up during the show. It hides the mouse pointer too. It is still possible to gain manual control over the show, using the mouse's right button or the keyboard.

Show pictures:

1. Original size: pictures are displayed at their "real" size : one pixel of the picture => one pixel on screen. If most of your pictures dimensions are smaller than (or equal to) your screen's resolution, this setting will give the sharpest images. Pictures smaller than your screen will not fill it entirely however; pictures larger than your screen will be resized.
2. Full screen: pictures which do not match exactly your screen's resolution are always resized to fill the largest area. For example, 640x480 pictures will be displayed full screen. This is the best setting for most users.
3. In rectangle: use this setting if for some reason you want to display your pictures in an area smaller than your screen.

These settings are for the projector program only.

Default transition: when a new frame is created in the slide tray window , it has this transition by default.

Default delay: (seconds) when a new frame is created in the slide tray window , it has this delay by default.

Speed:

Shutter, Square, Mosaic, etc: you can adjust the speed of each transition style. Default is 50%, meaning that all transitions run at same speed. Use lower values for slower transitions, higher values for faster.

General: global speed control. Default is 50%.

These settings are for the projector program only.

Text: these settings control the way the text associated with each picture is displayed:

1. Show: check it to have the pictures text field displayed during the slide show
2. Font: select a font style, size and color
3. Background: select a background color for a better readability, or check "Transparent" to have the text written directly over the picture
4. Align: choose the alignment of the text (left/center/right)

Date: these settings control the way the date field of each picture is displayed:

1. Show: check it to have the pictures date field displayed during the slide show
2. Font: select a font style, size and color
3. Background: select a background color for a better readability, or check "Transparent" to have the date written directly over the picture
4. Align: choose the alignment of the date (left/center/right)

Blank screen background color: select a background color for text-only screens. A title (text-only) screen can be created by inserting a frame with no picture in the slide tray.

Show frame number: check this option in order to display the frame numbers during the slide show.

Click over this button to reset all preferences to their original ("factory") settings.

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