Summary: Change the Slide Only view controls by adding code to the published files.
Difficulty: Medium
Change The Layout Of The Slide Only View
Ever use the Slide Only view in Presenter ’09? Ever wanted your users to go forward and backwards in Slide Only view?
Well, as it stands, you can’t.
But, since the latest update to Presenter ’09, you can add some code to have new controls to the Slide Only view. We call these Floating Controls as they float on top of the presentation. Have a look at what you can change.
Here is the regular Slide Only view.
And here is the Floating Slide Only view.
Notice the extra controls?
How do you do it?
- First publish your presentation. The settings you need to make are done AFTER you publish.
- Open the published files.
- Open the data folder.
- Open playerproperties.xml in Notepad.
- Do a search for </browsersettings> in the text.
- After </browsersettings>, insert the following code.
<floatcontrols> <enabled>true</enabled> <left>10000</left> <top>10000</top> <inneralpha>100</inneralpha> <outeralpha>100</outeralpha> </floatcontrols>
- Save the file and launch the presentation (don’t republish!)
All the slides in Slide Only view in your presentation will now have floating controls.
Demo
Here is a simple demo with the floating controls:
Notes
How do I upgrade?
- Already have Studio ’09 installed? Get this update by going to Help -> Check for Updates.
- Don’t have Studio ’09 installed? Download a free 30-day trial now.
- Older Customers: Learn how to upgrade to Studio ’09.
Enjoy!
Hey Dave
Thanks … this was so timely I was just setting up a new presentation and thinking to myself I wish I could do this … and viola problem resolved … now if we could just save our work in .mp4 or .mov format :))
Warmest wishes
Shelley
Lovely!
Usually I create Next/Back buttons in PPT (as PNGs) and use Actions.
(P.S. The EXIT button doesn’t work with Firefox. Any way to fix that?)
Hi Jenise,
Yes, the Exit button in Firefox can be a bit of a pain and I noticed the same when testing my demo before uploading. It is all to do with restrictions in Firefox. One way to workaround the problem is to use the Launch button feature in Presenter. You could probably embed it on a web page or in an email. Here is an example. You’ll notice now that when the presentation launches in a new window in Firefox, you can close it with the Exit button. Go to Player Templates -> Other to launch the presentation in a new window.
Regards
Dave,
This is great. I will certainly be using this.
Robert
Well done Dave another great example to help us look professional!
Thanks
Hi Dave,
We currently have only upgrade 3. We haven’t tested upgrades 4 or 5 yet with our LMS. Do you know if these floating controls work with upgrade 3? We gave it a try but it seems to keep putting the presentatio back to the standard view.
Thoughts?
Bronwen
Hi Dave,
This looks pretty good. As you know, Alice and I have been working on a few things at Oilennium HQ.
I have come up with a way to embed our own custom buttons and functions etc. into any of the Interactions. This is a good way for us to keep navigation consistency between the presenter slides (PowerPoint only) and engage interactions. It also allows us to have our stuff full screen and loose the standard Articulate navigation controls altogether.
In fact, what I’ve done is written some custom functions to actually detect the different types of interactions and place navigation buttons accordingly within certain movie clips I won’t mention on here ;)
Would you be interested in sharing some of your knowledge with me as i’m sure we could both bounce some pretty cool ideas and techniques between each other?
If you put the PPT nav shapes onto the slide they work fine. If you try to put them into the Master slide they do not work.
The problem with modifying code after publication is that it is one more thing to keep track of if you have to republish. Adding the shapes or making custom images and hyperlinking is a better solution. It is a simple copy and paste once you place them on the first slide.
Hi Rhonda,
Yes it is true that modifying published files does have its drawbacks. I guess it depends on how much you need or want a feature.
When you say that PPT nav shapes do not work in the Master slide, I not quite sure I know what you mean. You can add an action button to the Master slide which goes to the next slide, and when published this will work on all your slides. Similarly you can add a shape to a Masterslide, hyperlink to another slide, and again, if you use that Masterslide in all your slides, the hyperlink will work when published with Presenter ’09.
I agree that using your own navigation system on the slide can be the best solution.
Regards
Hi Dave,
I just saw this and tried it out, it works!
However, any branching that I set for prev/next button in slide properties, it wont work.
but it works fine in slide with sidebar view mode.
any thought on this?
Dave;
I just tried this and it seem that the function is there but the buttons are not visible. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Tim
Hi Tim, What browser are you using?
Hi Dave,
Thanks. Love the blog.
Had a bug with this one: I used this for several courses, recently one using a branching scenario. When I used the forward button from the standard or slide only player views (or used the shortcuts), I advanced along the branching as intended. When I used the Floating control forward, I moved to the next slide ignoring the branching. Has this ever happened to you? What did I do? Thanks!
Is there any way The attachment tab could also be part of the floating player?
Hi David, the floating player only works for the Slide Only view which effectively hides the Attachments tab so no, it is not possible. One alternative would be to ‘create’ an attachment tab on the slide itself, and have it link to your attachments via a hyperlink.