Building Slides for Presentation

The end result of creating a presentation is to create the public presentation file. The public file can be created in one of two formats:

SlideGen Presentation - this is a proprietary presentation format. It can be presented directly from within SlideGen, or by using the separately installed SlideGen Viewer software. The SlideGen Viewer can be installed on as many computers as you like, and is freely available for download by anyone from the SlideGen website. A SlideGenPresentation does not use Microsoft PowerPoint.
Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - for use in PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer, available from Microsoft.

To create the presentation, from the main window select the menu option Go | Build Slides, or click on the Build Slides button in the toolbar (third button from the right), or press F9. You will see the Build Slides dialog appear.

First choose which type of presentation you want to create. The fields for the remainder of the dialog depends on this choice.

SlideGen Presentation

If you choose to build a SlideGen presentation, you will see the following options appear:

Options

The formatting of the slides is governed by a set of "Layout Options". Select the Layout Options to use from the drop down list. To create a new set of Layout Options, select the entry in the list that says "Select this item to create new Layout Options". You will then get a dialog which allows you to create new Layout Options. Upon clicking OK on this dialog, the new Layout Options will be selected in the Build Slides dialog. To edit the selected Layout Options, select the Edit Options button to the right of the drop-down list. See the help on SlideGen Presentation Options for more detail on specifying Layout Options.

If you wish to add a blank slide before and after each song, select the checkbox "Create a Blank Slide before and after each song".

If you wish to add a separate Title Slide at the beginning of each song (showing the song title, folder information and copyright details). select the checkbox "Create a Title Slide for each song. The layout of the title slide is determined as follows - the Song Title appears further down the screen when compared to a standard slide, but using the same font as that defined in the SlideGen Presentation Options. The folder name and number is based on the Slide Text font, but is displayed at two thirds of the size. The remainder of the text (author and copyright information) is also based on the Slide Text font, but is displayed at half of the font size.

If you wish to Print a Slide Listing report, then select the checkbox to "Show a Slide Listing Report before generating presentation". The report will be displayed after you select OK. You will need to close the report before the presentation itself is created.

How to Create?

After generating the presentation you can open and use it immediately, or you can save it directly to a file. If you choose to save it to file, then you need to specify the file name. You can use the "..." button to use the Save As dialog.

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation

NOTE: In order to create a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation you must have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer.

If you choose to build a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, you will see the following options appear:

Options

The formatting of the slides is governed by a Microsoft PowerPoint Template - this is a special PowerPoint file created in PowerPoint and saved as a "template". It has a file extension of ".pot" or ".potx" depending on the version of Microsoft PowerPoint used. Some standard templates are included with SlideGen, and one of these will be selected by default the first time you use the Build Slides dialog.

Standard templates are included for both standard 4:3 aspect ratio and 16:9 Wide aspect ratio. Most versions of PowerPoint resepect these ratio sizes. But if you find that you are using a template that is designed for one ratio, but the generated file is being saved in a different ratio, you can force the use of the desired ratio using the "Aspect Ratio" dropdown box. Available selections are "Default", "Force to 4:3 (standard)" and "Force to 16:9 (widescreen)".

You should also specify how many lines of lyrics you would like displayed on each slide, in the "No. of Lines per Slide" edit box. If you want a blank slide to be created before and after each song, select the checkbox "Create Blank Slide before and after each song". If you want a separate title slide to be created before each song, select the checkbox "Create a Title Slide for each song". The layout of the title slide is determined by the Title Slide master in the PowerPoint template.

If you wish to Print a Slide Listing report, then select the checkbox to "Show a Slide Listing Report after generating presentation". The report will be displayed after you select OK and the PowerPoint presentation is finished being built.

How to Create?

You have four options for creating the Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation:

Generate and then Save To File - this creates one PowerPoint presentation containing all songs, and saves it to the nominated file. You must specify the file name in the edit box to the right when you select this option
Generate for each song and Save to Folder - this creates a separate PowerPoint presentation for each song, and then saves all of these presentations to the nominated folder. Each PowerPoint file is named according to the song title. You must specify the folder in the edit box to the right when you select this option.
Generate and then open in Microsoft PowerPoint - this creates one PowerPoint presentation containing all songs, and then launches Microsoft PowerPoint and leaves the file open, ready for use.
Generate and then automatically show Microsoft PowerPoint presentation - this creates one PowerPoint presentation containing all songs, and then launches Microsoft PowerPoint and immediately starts the Slide Show process from within PowerPoint.