ADPC Advanced Desktop Presentation Creator

by Phill Kent

updated by Rob Wears

The ADPC program originally appeared on the volume 6 Special Disc. It
has now been modified to allow the use of high resolution mode 27 sprites. See
the section Notes on the new features for information on the changes made to this
latest version.

This program allows the creation of slideshows. A slideshow is a program
which repeatedly displays a sequence of pictures, usually with attractive
fades from one picture to the next. The application runs within the Wimp
environment, and allows a complete slideshow to be saved just like a file.
All pictures must be mode 12, 13 or 27 sprites.

Once ADPC is loaded on to the icon bar, simply click with either the left or
right mouse buttons to open the Presentation Sequence window. This is the
window where you build the required presentation.

To add a picture file, simply drag the
file from the relevant directory viewer to the required position. The full
pathname of the picture file will then be displayed in the table, and the
default fade Scroll Up is displayed in the Fade name column.

To change the fade, either click Select or Adjust on the box containing the
fade name to cycle through the fades available, or click Menu over the
window and choose the fade name from the Fade submenu.

It is possible to specify a delay such that the next fade does not occur
until a specified delay (in seconds) has elapsed. The default time is 3
seconds, although this can be altered using the keyboard. The Up and Down
arrow keys on their own move the caret up or down one position, while in
conjunction with Ctrl or Shift they move the caret to the top or bottom of
the table.

To alter the sequence in which the pictures are replayed, drag the filename
to the new position. It is also possible to insert, delete and copy entries
using options on the window's menu. When deleting, the entry over which the
menu was created will be deleted and all subsequent entries will be moved up
one place. When copying, the entry over which the menu was created will be
copied to the entry below, and all subsequent entries will be moved down one
place. When inserting, the entries beginning with the one over which the
menu was created will be moved down one place and a blank entry inserted.
When copying or inserting, if the table was full, the last entry will be
lost.

Once the sequence has been created, the demonstration can be generated. The
Create option on the icon bar menu leads to a standard Save as dialogue
box containing the default name !Demo. Saving the demonstration by either
dragging the icon or typing in a full pathname and pressing Return or
clicking on OK will result in the demonstration being created with the
specified pathname.

The icon bar menu also contains a Clear option, which clears the sequence,
as well as the usual Info and Quit options.

Notes on the new features
The module has been modified to run with mode 27 screens. This has been
achieved by increasing the memory allocation to 160K and the number of rows
to 480 (from 80K and 256 respectively). As mode 27 screens are actually 150K
in size, this allocation will cause some blank edges to appear during the
screen changes, but these don't appear on screen when the changeover has
finished and you won't notice them at all if you use a white background.

The application has been modified to allow up to 40 screens to be  used in a
presentation. In addition, the memory requirements are lower as only four
screens are loaded into main memory at any given time. Finally, as well as a
timed screen change, there is an option to allow you to step through the
screens manually using the space bar (this is the default setting). The
timed display can be reinstated by putting a REM comment in front of the
relevant lines in the Basic program !Program in the application directory.


 Copyright RISC User 1994
