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2) S.F. Examiner MacQuality 85
3) MACazine 85
5) MacGuide 87
Slide
Show Magician
Unusual graphics program for creating slide-show presentations on the Mac
Slide Show Magician is a multifaceted graphics program that allows you to
create high-quality slide shows for education, training, business or entertainment.
The program simulates audiovisual slide shows by displaying MacPaint and MacDraw
(PICT) documents in any sequence you want. Possible uses include: office in-house
presentations, sales promotion shows, training presentations, unattended promotional
shows and home entertainment.
Any presentations using Slide Show Magician are built up frame-by frame by
importing any MacPaint or MacDraw images via the Edit Master utility screen.
You select and click on the various frames or pictures you want from the catalog
that appears. Things can get a little tricky at this point since Slide Show
Magician doesn't give you any audio signal telling you the picture you've
selected has been included after double clicking on it. This may be a minor
point, but the first time I used the program I added the same picture three
times before figuring out what was going on. A picture/frame import signal
would be a nice option to have, in my opinion.
The maximum number of frames in a show depends on whether you're using a Mac
512 or Mac Plus, and the amount of available memory. A second disk drive or
hard disk is recommended to store picture files. Long shows with many pictures
too large to be loaded into Slide Show Magician can be broken down into two
or three smaller shows, linked together to run as one presentation. This is
very useful for creating unattended shows where you just turn on the Mac and
let it go.
Slide Show Magician automatically looks to the upper left corner of a MacPaint
page for a picture to use. To help with placement, a Graph Format picture
frame is provided to make sure pictures are the right width and height and
properly placed on the screen. This frame can be copied over a MacPaint file
giving guidelines to show sizing necessary for
Once you have selected the pictures, the program returns you to the Edit master screen where you can view all the pictures in the show and start making creative changes. A mini-view box on the left side of the screen previews the picture to which you are adding special effects, buttons, pointers, text or sound. Only one picture can be viewed at a time, and only a small portion of that picture is shown. To view the entire frame you select the Demo Frame option. It would be ideal to have both vertical and horizontal scroll bars on the mini-view box to move the picture around. Perhaps a feature for the next release?
With Slide Show Magician you have many options to customize and create interesting transitions from one screen to another. There is a multitude of wipes or special effects that "wipe off' one image before displaying another on the Mac screen. These wipes include: arrowheads, window shades, checkerboard, jaws, Venetian blinds and fades. As a professional photographer, I appreciate the ability to display pictures or photos in a creative way. Slide Show Magician gives you so many display controls that it's hard to use all of them in one show. You can only use one wipe per frame. You can adjust the wipe speed and the time the picture remains on the screen. Picture duration time ranges from two seconds to 10 minutes.
All specifications for each frame, picture, special effect, text or sound are stored in the show's script, which you can play back using the program's Projector application. Slide Show Magician can also run automatically, a handy feature that initiates the program as soon as you insert the disk into the Mac.
Interactive presentations that include multiple choices and frame branching are also possible via use of the GoTo Button utility. This feature is useful in designing training and educational shows in which you want the user to make choices that cause information to appear on subsequent screens. You can design other types of control buttons using the Buttons master screen. To control these GoTo buttons or control buttons, you can call up various size and style pointers using the Pointers master screen.
You can also
include text and subliminal messages in any frame by using Slide Show Magician's
own Text feature or by using MacPaint and saving your text as a paint file.
MacWrite can also be used when screen dumps are saved as paint files.
If all these slide-show design and control options aren't enough for you,
you can also add both digitized natural sound and Macintalk files. For $129.95,
Magnum Software offers a sound "smart" cable that attaches to a
cassette recorder and a software-based sound editor. Magnum also offers a
package of three disks of canned sound effects that can be added to Slide
Show Magician presentations. You can add up to seven different natural or
Macintalk sound files to each frame or picture.
With all the features and options Slide Show Magician has to offer, it's easy
to make professional looking audiovisual shows. I highly recommend Slide Show
Magician if you need to create a Macintosh slide presentation.
Most outstanding feature: Program allows amazing number of
creative options to design audiovisual electronic slide shows.
Least liked feature: Difficult to tell when pictures have
been imported into show. Mini-view box needs scroll bars to let you move around
picture.
In summary: This is an unusual and good graphics program.
If you ever want to turn your Macintosh into a slide projector, I highly recommend
Slide Show Magician. - Bruce Bisping
Magnum Software. Version 1.3 BB.
Works with current models of Macintosh 512, 512 E, Plus, SE and XL or Lisa
with Macworks. List Price: $59.95. Copy protected; requires insertion of key
disk at startup when working from hard disk.
To contact us send eMail. ScottMcTyre@MCFIII.COM
