Content overview

• Hot keys
• Import formats and suitable media
• Error message "Error accessing file: xxx.lsd"
• Error message "Microsoft Office PowerPoint has encountered a problem and needs to close."
• Audio device can not be set
• Uncompressed codecs
• Error message - audio device
• Display of special characters
• Use of special fonts
• Objects have wrong position/size
• Problems under Windows 2000 without Service Pack or with Service Pack 1
• Integration of multimedia elements
• Problems with fonts
• Fill color of Smart Board tools is always identical with line color
• Configuration changes not adopted until renewed activation of a tool

Most of the available hot keys in the LECTURNITY Assistant are mentioned in the tool tips or after the corresponding menu items.

Other hot keys are not obvious at all. They are described below. It has to be mentioned that some hot keys have different effects depending on the state of the LECTURNITY Assistant. Especially activated text (the text cursor is visible) blocks some hot keys because they are overlayed with the functionality for text editors.

If no text is activated, one can navigate as follows:

• Go to the previous page (resp. fade out the last fade-in): Page up, cursor left.
• Go to the next page (resp. fade in the next fade-in): Page down, cursor right.

More hot keys are available for:

• Pausing the recording: Pause key
• Leaving the full screen mode: Escape

During Screengrabbing recording all default hot keys are deactivated. Only the Escape key offers one functionality:

• Leaving the annotation mode: Escape.
  
  • This key is important when the presentation bar of the LECTURNITY Assistant is part of the recording area and the buttons on it cannot be activated.

Additional functionalities with hot keys can be defined by the user himself:

• Start/Stop Screengrabbing recording.
• Reduce/Restore the LECTURNITY Assistant (only the Presentation Bar is
• visible).
• Minimize/Restore the LECTURNITY Assistant (icon in the task bar).

These funtionalities can be set as follows:

1. Select the menu entry "Screengrabbing..." in the menu "Extras".
   
   Figure 1: Menu entry "Screengrabbing"
   
   
2. Select tab "Hotkeys".
   
   Figure 2: Defining Hot Keys
   
   
3. Enter the desired hot keys and press "OK".

The hot keys are predefined for every new project.

Creating slides in the LECTURNITY Assistant is possible, but in most cases not practicable. Other programs, such as PowerPoint, have been especially developed for slide creation. They offer manifold possibilities of creating high-quality presentations within short time. In most cases, a collection of presentations already exists which can be re-used in a modified form. Furthermore, the familiarization with a new program is not necessary. Since PowerPoint is the most common program for presentation creation, a special export filter has been designed for it. It allows the user for creating a document of his PowerPoint presentation which can be used for the presentation and recording in the LECTURNITY Assistant. The export can be effectuated from PowerPoint as well as from the LECTURNITY Assistant. In both cases, a LECTURNITY Source Document will be created. The objects (text, images and graphic objectes) are retained.

If one wants to use neither the LECTURNITY Assistant nor PowerPoint for slide creation, then this is currently possible by using images. Proceed as follows:

1. Create images (GIF, JPEG, BMP oder WMF) of the slides of the used program.
2. Open the LECTURNITY Assistant.
3. Create an empty source document.
4. Create a new page.
5. If necessary, adapt the page size to the size of the images.
6. Insert an image into this page.
7. Repeat step 4 and 6 until all images are inserted.

This procedure is certainly not as convenient as the PowerPoint import, and information in form of text or keywords can get lost. However, with the help of the LECTURNITY Assistant you can insert keywords for every slide so that one can search for them during later use.

Please note some rules for the creation of images:

• Choose a resolution that is similar to that resolution which is to be used for the replay of the recording. Any scaling leads to quality losses.
• Select the image format in such a way that the relation of quality and data rate is sensible.
  
  • A GIF-image only only consists of 250 colors. The GIF-format usually produces small images which can have a coarse grained aspect in case of photorealistic content.
  • The JPEG-format means a loss of quality after compression, but is sensible for photorealistic images.
  • The BMP-format saves the images uncompressed and produce a large amount of data.
  • The WMF-format can either contain a vector graphic or a pixel graphic. For pixel graphics, the same applies as for images in the BMP-format. If the WMF-file contains vector graphics, then these will be displayed as such in the LECTURNITY Assistant. There is hardly a quality loss when scaling. Since the LECTURNITY Player cannot display WMF-images, they will be converted into PNGs after the recording. This format is pixel-based, that means the advantages of the vector format get lost.

In the following, the procedure how to import slides as images into the LECTURNITY Assistant will be described exemplarily with the PDF-format. First of all, you need a program with the help of which single images can be created from a PDF-file. There are numerous of such programs which differ from price and quality, e. g. Adobe® Acrobat®. The platform on which the conversion is executed also plays a role.

First of all, load the PDF-document into the selected program and convert slide by slide into one image file respectively. Before the conversion figure out the size of the image. E. g., if the PDF-document contains pages in standard A4 panel format (page relation 1:1,41) and if you assume that most computer provide a resolution of 1280 x 1024, the size of the image should not exceed 594 x 842 pixels. After the conversion of all slides into images, start the LECTURNITY Assistant and create a new document.

 Figure 3: Create new document

Insert a new page into it.

Figure 4: Create new slide

In order to neither get white frames around the images nor to cut them, the page size should be adapted to the size of the images.

Figure 5: Page setup

Figure 6: Insert page parameters

You may choose between DIN A4, LETTER and user-defined. In user-defined, any desired image size can be inserted in pixels. Now, everything is prepared for loading in the first image.

 
Figure 7: Insert image

Once an image is selected and inserted, with one click the mouse pointer is automatically placed in the upper left corner of the image. You can move the image to any position on the page. As you press any key or the mouse key, the image is fixed.

Figure 8: Document with inserted image

Continue as stated above with the following images. The settings of the current page are adapted when creating a new page.

The procedure for other programs or file formats, such as Framemaker, LaTeX or HTML, only differs in the creation of images.

Question:

When importing a PowerPoint file into the Assistant an error message "Error accessing file: xxx.lsd" appears. What is the cause for this error message?

This error message can be caused by the program "Office Live Add-In", an additional tool for the Office package. If this tool is installed then the Assistant is unable to find the executable program of PowerPoint.

The PowerPoint import into the Assistant works in that case that PowerPoint is already opened and is running with the Assistant at the same time.

Solution:

It is recommended not to use "Office Live Add-In" together with LECTURNITY.

Question:

Which problem can cause the error message "Microsoft Office PowerPoint has encountered a problem and needs to close." when importing a PowerPoint file into the Assistant? However, the PowerPoint import is finished successfully.

This error message can be caused if the program "Windows Live Essentials" is running on a system where LECTURNITY is installed.

Solution:

It is recommended not to use "Windows Live Essentials" together with LECTURNITY.

At the beginning the Assistant automatically selects an audio device for audio recording. The user has the possibility of changing this audio device in the audio/video settings. If the selected audio device is not suitable for audio recording, the following error message appears:

Figure 9: error message: audio device

This problem particularly occurs with the use of laptops since the integrated modem might also be registered as an audio device. If the modem is the first entry in the list of audio devices, it is selected as the standard device when opening the LECTURNITY Assistant. The error message appears when a new project is created. In other cases the error message appears when the user wants to change to this incorrect audio device in the audio/video settings.

Solution:

Select a working audio device in the audio/video settings.

If a preset codec is not found when opening or creating a project, then the first codec in the codec list will be chosen as the active one. This codec usually creates uncompressed video resp. Screengrabbing files. In most cases, this should be avoided since this will result in very large video files.

Solution:

Select a codec that is suitable for the respective data type.

You may find further help in Recommended Codecs.

Question:

Why does the following error message sometimes appear when I start the LECTURNITY Assistant?

Figure 10: Error initializing audio hardware

The most likely reason for this error message is that the LECTURNITY Assistant is already opened. Several LECTURNITY Assistants may be active at the same time, but only with the first one a recording can be made. This problem does not occur on Windows XP.

Question:

Why are some characters available in PowerPoint not displayed in the LECTURNITY Assistant?

If a PowerPoint document contains characters which are not part of the standard ASCII characters, they are exported as images. To retain the best quality for the display in the Assistant the image format WMF (PowerPoint 2000) resp. EMF (PowerPoint 2002) is used. The export of WMF files in PowerPoint 2000 does not always work properly. It might happen that some characters cannot be displayed or they are replaced by other characters, e.g. the question mark. This problem should not occur when using PowerPoint 2002 (alias PowerPoint XP).

Question:

Why does the display of fonts in the LECTURNITY Assistant differ from the display in PowerPoint?

Fonts can be embedded into PowerPoint documents. These fonts are used for the display in PowerPoint, but they are not installed. For this reason the LECTURNITY Assistant cannot use these fonts for the display. Text is displayed in a standard font.

A detailed description of this problem and how it can be avoided can be found in Problems with fonts.

Question:

Why are some autoforms from PowerPoint displayed distortedly and/or at the wrong position in the LECTURNITY Assistant?

Some AutoShapes from PowerPoint can not be displayed by the objects of the LECTURNITY Assistant. These AutoShapes are exported as images. During the conversion from AutoShape into image it can happen that the position and/or size is miscalculated. This effect is intensified when the object is distorted or rotated in PowerPoint.

During video or Screengrabbing recordings, on computers with the following configuration

• Windows 2000 with Service Pack 1 or lower,
• VIA Chip set,
• Pentium III,

it can happen that the system crashes after 5-15 seconds.

The high-resolution system clock used for Screengrabbing and video recordings is set back by the system every 4-5 seconds.

Solution:

Install the latest Service Pack for Windows 2000 (e.g. Service Pack 3).

If you want to integrate already existing multimedia elements such as video or audio into your recording directly, some preparation and a little manual work is necessary:

• Video: You can record videos with the help of the Screengrabbing functionality of the Assistant. Proceed as follows: as usual, the presentation is held and recorded with the help of the LECTURNITY Assistant. Once you get to the point the film is to be shown, you display it with the help of another program (e. g. Windows Media Player) and record it with the Screengrabbing functionality of the LECTURNITY Assistant. In order to guarantee a smooth process it is advisable to load the film into the respective program and pause it before the beginning of the presentation. For the Screengrabbing recording only the respective area or window has to be selected and the film started.
  
  

Please note here that the hardware acceleration is turned off (possibility 2) and a codec appropriate for this purpose is set for the Screengrabbing recording.

• Audio: The integration of audio should be tested in any case before the recording starts as here problems with the involved hardware (soundcard) occur rather often. As with the integration of a video, a separate program for the replay of the audio file is required. This separate replay can be started at the adequate point of time during the recording. However, many soundcards unfortunately support the simultaneous replay and recording only to a very unsatisfying extent or not at all. In such a case it is not possible to proceed as suggested.
  
  

Hint:

The LECTURNITY Editor supports the later change of recordings. Especially audios and videos can be inserted and post-edited here. So please resort to this possibility if the effort during the presentation seems too high to you or if one of the described procedures does not work.

Question:

Why is my text displayed in a different font in the LECTURNITY Assistant or LECTURNITY Player as in PowerPoint?

For the display of text every TrueType font installed on your system can be used. Problems may occur if different computers are used for the creation of the slides, for the recording of the presentation and for the editing of the recording.

The fonts used in a document must be installed on every system handling this document. If, for example, different computers are used for the creation of the LSD file (PowerPoint export) and for the presentation, it can happen that on the computer used for the presentation some fonts are missing. If a font is used for the creation that is not installed on the computer used for the presentation, an error message appears. The text is then displayed in a standard font.

Example: The following examples show the effect of a missing font. In case of using a "normal" font, e.g. "Courier New", the content of the text is maintained. Using a special font, e.g. a symbol font, the content is falsified and information gets lost.

Figure 11: Text displayed with "Courier New" and with standard font.

Figure 12: Text displayed with "Webdings" and with standard font.

The absence of font files on a system also affects the processing of a document in the LECTURNITY Publisher and thus the replay of the recording in the LECTURNITY Player or via web document:

• Replay via web document (Streaming Media):
  All used fonts must be installed on the system used for the creation of the web documents with the LECTURNITY Publisher. If this is not the case, similar display problems occur as in the LECTURNITY Assistant. If a web document is created successfully, the replay in a web-browser is possible without further problems.
• Replay with the LECTURNITY Player:
  With the LECTURNITY Publisher you have the possibility of embedding the fonts used in your document into a LPD document: in the dialog "Additional settings" (after "Bandwidth selection") you can activate the option "Embed fonts" in "Conversion options". Now all information and files needed for the display of text is stored in the LPD file and it can be replayed without further problems. If this option is not activated, the fonts applied in the documents must be installed on every computer which is used for the replay of these documents.

Since version 9.0 of the SMART Board software you can choose different colors for line and fill style for an object. If you then specify different line and fill colors in the configuration dialog of the SMART Board software and then use such an object with the LECTURNITY Assistant the fill color will erroneously match the color of the line.

If you change the configuration for the active SMART Board tool (e.g. a SMART Board pen) these new settings are only adopted in the Assistant after this tool has been re-activated (e.g. putting the pen down and picking it up again).