Playing Vox Proxy presentations from a Network Drive
 

Users who play Vox Proxy presentations must have either Vox Proxy or the Vox Proxy Player installed on their individual workstations, but the presentation files can be located on a network server.
 

The most convenient way to do that is to save the presentation in "Player" format, with a PPV file extension. With the presentation open in PowerPoint, open the VP Script Writer and select File/Save presentation for VP Player. It will save a duplicate copy of your presentation file with the file extension changed from PPT to PPV (in its original location.) Save the PPV file on the server.
 
Before saving the file, however, be sure that any media or other files that you use are also saved on the server and properly addressed in your script. A nice way to do this is with variables. A common example is to use the variable &media, which normally points to the folder c:\program files\vox proxy\media. You can change the folder location by setting the variable on the first line of your script, on the first slide.
 
Say, for example, that you want to use the AT&T Natural Voices with your presentation. You can't distribute the engine to Player users, but you can generate wav files and speak using them. The option "Tools/Convert speech to wav files" on the Script Writer will convert all lines of speech to wav files and save those into your media folder. In your script, the wav files will be referenced using the &media variable. For example:

Show Paul at Center balloons=on
Say "Welcome to Vox Proxy!" "&media\paul_mike_A_slide1#1.wav"
...

All you need to do is add a Set command to redirect the &media variable to your server:
 

Set &media="\\server\presentations\media"
Show Paul at Center balloons=on
Say "Welcome to Vox Proxy!" "&media\paul_mike_A_slide1#1.wav"
...

Then copy all the wav files into the \\server\presentations\media folder (the PPV file can be anywhere) and you're ready to go. When a user opens the PPV file, Windows will launch Vox Proxy and PowerPoint and start the slide show.
 
Use the same technique for other media files like audio, video, etc. Note that, although it would be permissible to hard-code the server directory when opening a file, using a variable is much more convenient and allows you to change it in just one place.
 

Delivering presentations on the WEB
 

Most files used in a script (like media files) can be located on a web server as well as a local or intranet server. However, when locating the presentation file on the web, a special technique must be used to avoid Internet Explorer opening the PowerPoint presentation directly and bypassing Vox Proxy.

The technique is simple. You create a one-line "Script Macro" that reads as follows:
RunSlideShow "url"
where url is the full address of the presentation file. In this case, you do not need to use the PPV file. The file located on the web server can be the PPT file. The script macro file will be saved the the file extension VPM. Upload both the script macro file and the PPT file to the web and set your user link to the VPM file. When opened, It will launch PowerPoint and run the slide show.

Bear in mind that if you use any other files in the presentation, they must be addressed properly to locate them on the web. In PowerPoint, that generally means that you should locate the files in the same folder as the presentation. In Vox Proxy, some files can be addressed with a url, but some cannot. The PlayMedia command will accept a url for the file address, but the RunMacro command will not.

Example:

Click on the link below to run Vox Proxy's Tutorial on the VP Player, which is located on our web site. If you are already in PowerPoint, close it first. Then click below. When prompted by the download dialog, select "open" rather than "save". This link is to the VPM file. You may also save it so that you can examine the file yourself. It downloads and runs the PPT file located in the same server directory.

http://www.voxproxy.com/support/samples/runvppweb.vpm