What’s New in Vox Proxy Version 2

 

Version 2 of Vox Proxy contains new characters, new features to enhance script-writing productivity, new features for multimedia and training applications, enhanced support for the new AT&T Labs’ Natural Voices Text-To-Speech engine, new commands to facilitate data exchange, new features for CD Prep, and enhanced Player features.

 

New Characters
Enhanced Support for AT&T Labs’ Natural Voices TTS engine
New Features To Enhance Script-Writing Productivity
New Multimedia and Training Features
Data Exchange Features
CD Prep Features
Miscellaneous New Features
Enhanced Player Features
List of New Script Commands

 

 

New Characters

 

Ten new characters have been introduced in Version 2.:

 

Noah

Scientist

Waxy

Max

Louis

Chromedome

Ben

Brooke

 

 

Debra

Gus

 

 

 

 

Enhanced Support for AT&T Labs’ Natural Voices TTS engine

 

Version 2 contains three enhancements specifically designed to make it easier to use AT&T Labs’ Natural Voices Test-To-Speech engine.

Character properties, a new feature described in more detail below, enables you to assign an AT&T voice (or any other voice) as the default for a character, so you don’t have to explicitly use the TTSEngine command each time you show the character.

SayWav command. The SayWav command wizard has been enhanced to allow you to create a wav file directly from speech text using any AT&T Natural Voices voice that you have installed. This feature can be useful for building a CD containing wav files using Natural Voices, since you are not permitted to redistribute the AT&T Natural Voices TTS engine. This feature works only for the AT&T Natural Voices TTS engine.

Convert text to wav files. An automatic conversion program which converts all speech for a specified character throughout the entire presentation to wav files using any selected voice from AT&T Natural Voices.  This is another useful tool for preparing CDs with CD Prep that use Natural Voices as wav files.

 

New Features To Enhance Script-Writing Productivity

 

Power Scripting Menu. If you right-click in the script edit window of the Script Writer, you now see a comprehensive, context-sensitive cascading menu of options.  This menu can take the place of the entire Wizard form, significantly speeding your script-writing. Further, since it’s context-sensitive, you can get quick help displays for the commands you’re using.

 

The menu appears similar to the following:

. 

The menu includes:

·          All available script commands. Selecting a command will display the appropriate wizard form for that command.

·          A list of all available animations for the character that is active at the cursor location.

·          All available characters. If you select a character already used in your script, it will just insert the character’s name. For characters not yet in your script, it will display the “New Character” wizard.

·          Variables, along with their contents. This includes all pre-defined variables, like &date and &month, as well as user-defined variables.

·          Speech tags, such as Emphasize, Monotone, and Whisper.

·          Help for the script command that is on the line at the cursor.

Find-and Replace. A find-and-replace form is available in the Script Writer. You can access it either from the Edit menu or by pressing Control-F.  Find and replace features will work on a selected slide or globally for the entire presentation.

Resizable Script Writer. The Script Writer form is now resizable, allowing you to more easily view wider or longer scripts.  Just hold the mouse over an edge or the lower-right corner of the form and drag it to the size you like.

Command Wizard Help and context-sensitive help.  All script command wizard forms now respond to the F1 key with help for that command.  Right-clicking on any line in your script will produce a menu containing help for the script command on that line.

 

New Multimedia and Training Features

 

Timers.  Timers are now available for all media players.  Custom timers are available for any purpose.  The WaitFor command, previously used only to wait for a specified character, has been enhanced to allow the script to wait for any of the timers. An example would be using a timer to allow characters to narrate a movie played with the PlayMedia command.  After starting the movie, you can synchronize a character’s speech and animations with the movie using the script command: WaitFor MediaTime (#sec) or WaitFor MediaEnd.  Included in the new timers is a slide timer, allowing you to WaitFor SlideTime (#sec), and a show timer – WaitFor ShowTime (#sec).

Play Macromedia Flash Movies.  A new script command, PlayFlash, and wizard allows you to play multiple flash movies during your slide show. The flash movies can be set to close automatically when done; to close after a specified length of time; or on demand using a CloseFlash command.  A timer is available to synchronize your script with the flash movie.  The wizard allows you to size and drag the Flash windows on your PowerPoint slide.

Display Excel Spread Sheets.  A new script command, ShowExcel, is available to display a Microsoft Excel spread sheet during the slide show.  This feature requires that the user have Microsoft Excel installed on his/her computer.  The worksheet window can be resized and dragged into position on the slide.  Visible Excel toolbars are optional.  You can allow users to edit and save the worksheet or to open it as read-only.  A wizard is available in “Miscellaneous commands”.  A timer is started automatically when the Excel window is opened.

Display Microsoft Word documents.  A new script command, ShowWord, allows you to display Word documents during the slide show.  Other features similar to those in the ShowExcel command are provided.  A timer is started automatically when the Word window is opened.

Force Media on top.  A new option is available for the PlayMedia command to force it to appear on top of the visible slide show window. This is to fix a change in Windows which can display the media window underneath the slide show window, effectively making it invisible.

Change Media Volume While Playing. The new script command MediaVolume allows you to adjust the audio volume while media is playing. This can be particularly useful to turn down the music volume before a character starts talking. MediaVolume also supports a variable-length fade for the volume change.

Close Media Command.  The new CloseMedia command allows you to stop playing a media file and close the optional window. With Version 2, media files or windows are persistent across multiple slides. Previously, the media file would close automatically when the slide changed. The CloseMedia command can also be used in conjunction with WaitFor MediaTime to turn off a media file after a specified length of time, or to synchronize with other character script requirements.

 

Data Exchange Features

Read Excel data.

The Set command, which is used to assign data into a user-defined variable, has been enhanced to allow you to get the data from a specified cell in an Excel worksheet.  A new  ReadExcel wizard has been provided, which will automatically format and insert the appropriate Set command.

 

Write Excel data.

A new script command, WriteExcel, allows you to write the contents of a user-defined variable into a specified cell in an Excel worksheet.  This feature will allow you to record the answers to questions presented using the ListBox or ListenFor commands, and, used with the ReadExcel feature, greatly enhances the use of scripts to manage PowerPoint-based questionnaires or quizzes.

 

Read File

A new script command, ReadFile, allows you to read data from a text file and assign the data to a user-defined variable.  This command is similar to ReadExcel, except that the data is read from a structured “ini-style” file containing sections, keys, and values.  A wizard form is available to set up the command.

 

WriteFile

Similar to WriteExcel, this command allows you to write the contents of a user-defined variable into an “ini-style” text file.

 

Write text to a slide shape

A new script command, WriteShapeText, allows you to write text data onto a slide during the slide show.  This feature can be used with the new Read commands (see above), to display data obtained from a file or worksheet.

 

CD Prep Features

 

CD Diagnostics

A new menu item, Diagnose CD, is available on the tools menu of the CD Prep wizard. This diagnostic program will examine a CD written using CD Prep, to determine if it should run correctly and, if not, what may be missing.

 

Optional Author and Info buttons

The Author and Info buttons are now optional. If you choose to use them, you may also specify the button captions.

 

Optional text on “Continue” box

You may now edit or re-enter the text that will be displayed to the end user when the CD first starts.

 

Automatic creation of “vps” script file

If CD Prep detects, during the final file creation process, that a “vps” file does not exist for the slide show, it will prompt you and offer to create it.  The “vps” file is needed for CDs played with PowerPoint 97 or the PowerPoint Viewer.

 

Support for “temp” files

On the files page of the CD Prep wizard, you may specify a list of files that will be copied to the user’s “windows temp” folder while the CD plays.  These files will be deleted from the user’s hard drive when the slide show ends.  A companion variable, &tempdir, can be used in your script to determine the location of these files.  This feature is useful for speeding up access to files such as media files during the slide show.  If such files are stored and accessed only from the CD, reading them can take a significant amount of time while the CD “spins back up” during the show.

 

PowerPoint “frame” eliminated during startup

When playing a CD created with CD Prep in Version 1, PowerPoint would open up as an empty “frame”, load the presentation file, and then start the slide show.  With Version 2, the slide show starts directly without any visible PowerPoint frame.

 

Miscellaneous New Features

 

Randomly-Selected Character Animations

 

You may now enter several animations on a single line and specify that the character should play only one of them, selected at random.  This is accomplished by separating the commands with the “split style” character “|”, also called the vertical bar.  Previously, you could use this same character with the Say command to specify several phrases, one of which is to be spoken.  These features can be useful in a self-narrated slide show that frequently returns to a common “menu” slide.  It allows you to avoid having the characters always say or do exactly the same things at such times.

 

Dual Monitor Support

 

A new DualMonitor script command allows you to properly display characters in a dual-monitor configuration.  It requires that the monitors both be set at the same resolution.  The dual monitor support affects the display of characters, bitmaps, backgrounds, flash movies, media player, Excel, and Word windows.

 

Character Properties

 

The Character Gallery now contains a “properties” button, which allows you to specify default properties for each character.  Properties include size, speech balloons, balloon fonts and font size, language, TTS engine, voice speed, pitch of voice (not supported for AT&T Natural Voices), idle animations (on/off), and sound effects (on/off).  These properties save your having to specify them each time you show a character.

 

New Variables

 

The following new variables are available for use in your scripts. They are all case-sensitive.

&tempdir

Contains the path to the “temp” folder on the user’s computer. For use in CD Prep scripts To locate files temporarily copied to the user’s hard drive.  Does NOT end with a back-slash.

 

&SlideNumber

Contains the number of the currently displayed slide.

 

&DiskDrive

Contains the drive letter of the user’s default drive and a colon.  Used with CD Prep disks to determine the drive from which the CD is playing.

 

&winfolder

Contains the path to the user’s windows folder. Does NOT end with a back-slash.

 

&pptpath

Contains the path to the currently-active PowerPoint presentation. Does NOT end with a back-slash.

 

Embedded Local Variables And Pronunciation Dictionary

 

Variables and pronunciation dictionary items that you have designated to apply to “this presentation” only are now embedded in the PPT file.  Previously, the system created a special “hidden slide” containing that data.

 

Enhanced Player Features

 

The free Vox Proxy “Player” software has been enhanced to make it easier for users to play slide shows created with Vox Proxy.  Previously, the user would have to manually turn Vox Proxy on by opening PowerPoint, clicking on the Vox Proxy menu, and selecting “Play Vox Proxy with slide shows”.  Then he/she would manually start the slide show.

 

In Version 2, the Script Writer contains a new file menu item called “Save presentation for VP Player”.  Selecting this option will save a copy of your presentation file with the file extension “ppv” rather than “ppt”.  You then distribute this file to the end user.  When a user with the VP Player installed opens this file in Windows, whether it is from Windows Explorer, an E-mail attachment, or on a web page, Windows will automatically start Vox Proxy, which will open PowerPoint and play the slide show.

 

Files saved in this way are identical to the PPT file in every way except the file extension.  You can still open this file in PowerPoint, even though you have to select “all files” from the PowerPoint “open file” dialog box (or it won’t be shown).  In fact, you can create the PPV file manually by simply copying the PPT file and renaming it with the “PPV” extension.

 

 

List of New Script Commands

 

CloseExcel

CloseFlash

CloseMedia

CloseWord

DualMonitor

MediaVolume

PlayFlash

ReadExcel

ReadFile

ShowExcel

ShowWord

StartTimer

WriteExcel

WriteFile

WriteShapeText