Aliu's Magic Lantern
How to store a slide show in a Zip file

goto Aliu's Magic Lantern website

It is easy to store a slide show in a zip file and e-mail it to your friends.
Just follow the 4 steps below.

	Make a new "SlideShow" folder in your hard disk
	Copy your slide tray file (e.g. "Slide tray Magic1.aml") and all corresponding picture and sound files into the "SlideShow" folder. Warning: this will work only if your original slide tray file was created in the same folder as the corresponding picture and sound files. If it was created in a different folder, read the "dealing with multiple media folders" paragraph below.
	Zip the "SlideShow" folder and e-mail the resulting zip file to your friends.
	Ask your friends to download AML to view your show ( from http://www.aliu.com/aml/download.html ), or send them the AML's installation package in a separate message. They will run the Projector by double clicking its icon ; and they will start the show with the on-screen remote control.

Dealing with multiple media folders:

We wrote in step #2 above that it was mandatory to have created the slide tray file in the same folder as the media files. It was to keep things simple for the majority of users. In fact, the only real requirement is that the slide tray must have been created on the same drive (or network server) as the media files.

So, if you keep your media and slide tray files in separate folders (on the same drive), you can also store them in a zip file. Just keep this is mind: in the slide tray file, the path of each media file (picture or sound) is recorded as "relative" to the slide tray's original folder. This means that you'll have to duplicate your original directory tree "SlideShow" folder.

MP3 warning:

Playing MP3 requires much more processing power than playing wave or midi files. Older computers cannot handle both MP3 and AML image transitions. If you plan to send your slideshows to other people, keep in mind that their computers may much slower than yours, and that MP3 music may not play correctly on their hardware. So you'd better use wave files: they work for everybody.

Text fonts compatibility:

Do not choose a font that may not be on another computer, since a default font will be used if a unusual font was chosen in Preferences. A standard Windows font like "Times new Roman" or "Arial" is best to use if sending a slideshow to others.

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