Copyright: Copyright (C) 1995-1997 Eloquent, Inc.


Contents
Using Eloquent Presenter!

  	Eloquent Presenter! Overview

  	Selecting a Talk

  	Switching between Searching and Playing

  	Exiting Eloquent Presenter!

Playing a Talk

  	Starting and Stopping a Talk

  	Adjusting the Volume and Speed

Navigating Through a Talk

  	Navigating By Slides

  	Navigating By Phrases

  	Searching Within the Transcript

  	Navigating By Highlighted Search Terms

  	Directly Positioning the Video

Searching for Talks

  	Creating a Search

  	Search String Syntax

  	Selecting a Talk

  	Jumping to Highlighted Search Terms

Customizing the Player

  	Customizing the Screen Layout

  	Choosing Among Standard Layouts

  	Hiding Windows

  	Choosing a Language

  	Customizing the Transcript Window

Copying and Pasting Text and Slides

  	Printing and E-mailing

  	Copying and Pasting Text

  	Copying and Pasting Slides

Linking to External Documents and Applications

  	Linking to External Documents

  	Linking to External Applications

  	Linking to a Web Site

For More Information

  	Customer Support

  	End User License Agreement

Dialogs

  	Search Options

  	Field Search

  	Transcript Options

  	Bookmarks

  	Add Bookmark

  	Select Slide

  	File Open

  	Select Event Source

  	End of Talk Options

  	End of Talk Options (Search)

  	Password

  	Quality

  	Quiz Question

  	Talk Info

  	Detailed Talk Info

  	Error Information Alert


Eloquent Presenter! Overview

Eloquent Presenter! lets you view Eloquent Talks that combine audio, video, presentation graphics, audio transcription, and computer-screen recordings from your desktop. Eloquent Talks can be stored on a local CD-ROM, a server on your network (which must be running the Eloquent/Server software), or even the World Wide Web.

This help document describes the standalone application version of Eloquent Presenter! but most of the information here also applies to the versions of Presenter! that run within World Wide Web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

In the standalone player, the Talks tab is visible when the player starts.  The Talks tab displays a menu page of links to Talks and other menu pages.  When you click a link associated with a Talk, the Player will switch to the Player tab and load the requested Talk.  You can return to the menu display at any time by clicking the Talks tab at the bottom of the Player window.  In the browser Players, you access Talks by clicking on hyperlinks that point to the Talks from a Talks menu page.

The Player tab displays the video, graphic slides, and audio transcription of speakers giving presentations.  It also provides a wide range of controls for navigating through Talks, including random access to any point in the Talk, navigating through slides, searching for text, adjusting the speed, and customizing the interface. In a web browser, the Player's windows appear whenever you launch a Talk from a web page.

The Search tab provides tools for finding interesting talks.  You can search for any word or phrase in the transcripts, slides, or abstracts.  You can also search for Talks given by a particular speaker or on a particular date - see  Search Options for more details.  You perform these "spanning" searches from a web page with the browser versions of the Player.  If you are in the Player, click your browser's "back" button to go back to the page with the Talks menu and the search area.


Adjusting the Volume and Speed

To set the sound volume of a talk, click on the Volume button in the player control panel. A slider will pop up. Click the slider to set the volume. To hide the slider, click the Volume button again.

To set the playback speed of a talk, click the Speed button in the player control panel. A slider with a center (100%) detent will pop up. Click the slider to set the speed. Values above the center detent will cause the talk to play back at faster-than-normal speed. Values below the detent will make the talk play back slower-than-normal. To reset the speed to 100%, drag the slider thumb until it snaps to the center detent. To hide the slider, click the Speed button again.

Note Playing back talks at speeds over 100% may cause playback problems when playing talks over a modem Internet connection or a slow network.


Selecting a Talk

To select a Talk from a menu page on the Talks tab, click the link labeled with the title of the desired Talk. Links are displayed as buttons, graphics, or underlined text.  The  mouse cursor will change to a pointing hand when positioned over a button.  From inside a web browser, click the browser's Back button to return to the Talks menu page.

To search for Talks that contain specific words or phrases, click the Search tab.  The Search tab lets you enter text and will display a list of Talks matching your request.  You can then double-click any of the listed Talks to load the talk for playing.  From a web browser, click the browser's Back button to return to the Talks search page.  Talks that match your search will be underlined as hyperlinks.  Clicking on a Talk's title will start that Talk.


Switching between Searching and Playing

The tabs at the bottom of the Player window can be used to quickly switch between playing Talks (the Player tab), navigating through predefined groupings of Talks (the Talks tab), and searching for specific words and phrases across all available Talks (the Search tab).  The browser versions of the Player don't have Tabs.  Instead, you use the browser's Back button to return from playing a Talk to the Talks menu page.


Exiting Eloquent Presenter!

To exit Eloquent Presenter!, click the close window icon (if you are using Windows 95), or double-click the system menu button (if you are using Windows 3.1) or choose Exit on the File menu.


Starting and Stopping a Talk

To start playing a Talk, click the green play button on the control panel (right facing triangle located to the left of the video slider bar), press the spacebar, click Start Playing on the Play menu, or click on the video window.

To stop playing a Talk, click the red stop button on the control panel (box located to the left of the video slider bar), press the spacebar, or click Pause on the Play menu, click on the video window.

The video slider bar to the right of the Play/Stop button can be used to move to an arbitrary location in the Talk.  You can specify the location by dragging or clicking the slider bar to the right ("fast forward") or the left ("rewind").  The navigation window will display the slide number and the position within the Talk in minutes and seconds.


Navigating By Slides

To advance the Talk to the next slide, click the blue next slide button on the control panel (located to the right of the slide and time counter), or press Page Down.

To move back to the previous slide, click the blue previous slide button on the control panel (located to the left of the slide and time counter), or press Page Up.

To quickly jump to any slide in the Talk, use your right mouse button to click anywhere in the slide window.  A popup menu listing all of the slides will be displayed, allowing you to go directly to any slide by clicking its title.

To view thumbnail images of all of the slides in the Talk, use the Select Slide dialog.  You can reach the Select Slide dialog by clicking the Options button, then choosing Goto  Or, you may use the shortcut, Ctrl-G. There will be a short initial delay as the thumbnails are generated.


Navigating By Phrases

To advance the Talk to the next phrase in the transcript, click the down arrow on the slider bar attached to the transcript, or press the down arrow key.

To move back to the previous phrase in the transcript, click the up arrow on the slider bar attached to the transcript, or press the up arrow key.


Searching Within the Transcript

To position the Talk at a particular word in the transcript or slides, click the field next to the magnifying glass on the Player control panel, and then type in the string you want to find.  Press Enter to search for the string.  To search for the next occurrence of the string, press Enter again, or click the bottom half of the Magnifying Glass button on the control panel.

To search for the previous occurrence of the string, click the top half of the Magnifying Glass button on the control panel.

You can also search across all available Talks by clicking the Search tab - see Creating a Search.


Navigating By Highlighted Search Terms

After running a search and selecting a Talk, the words in the transcript and slides that caused the Talk to be found will be highlighted.  To search for the next occurrence of a search term, press Ctrl+[Down] (Ctrl plus the down arrow key), or click the bottom half of the Magnifying Glass button on the control panel.

To search for the previous occurrence of a search term, press Ctrl+[Up] (Ctrl plus the up arrow key), or click the top half of the Magnifying Glass button on the Player control panel.


Directly Positioning the Video

To directly position the video, grab (click and hold) the video slider bar on the control panel and drag it to a new position.  You can also click anywhere on the bar, and the slider will move to that point.  The slide and time counter immediately beneath the video slider bar will indicate the slide number and time of the position you have selected.


Creating a Search

You can search for specific information across all available Talks by entering words or phrases to be found within the transcripts, slides, or abstracts.

To search for text across Talks, click the Search tab at the bottom of the Player window.  Enter the words or phrases you want to search for in the Search For field, and then click Do Search.  From a web browser, click the Back button to return to the web page with the search field.

You will then be presented with a list of Talks that match your search request sorted in order of relevance (how close the match is). Each Talk has a set of attributes that are displayed in the lower half of the window.  You can see information about each Talk by clicking on the name of the Talk in the list.

You can also specify a variety of Search Options, or use the Field Search dialog window to search for particular speaker names or Talk titles.

To start playing a Talk, select it by clicking in the list, and then click Open Talk.  Alternatively, you can double-click the Talk in the list.  From your web browser, click the underlined hyperlink to start playing the Talk.


Search String Syntax

Your search string may consist of words and phrases separated by AND, OR, or commas.  The AND and OR separators are the traditional Boolean search operators commonly available in text searching tools.  Separating your words and phrases with commas will cause the Player to find the Talks that match as many of the words and phrases as it can, and return the Talks to you sorted by how many of your words and phrases each Talk contains.

You may enter as many words and phrases as you like, and you may use parentheses to determine the order of applying the AND and OR operators.


Selecting a Talk

To start playing a Talk after running a search, select it by clicking in the list of matching Talks, and then click Open Talk. Alternatively, you can double-click the Talk in the list.


Jumping to Highlighted Search Terms

After running a search and selecting a talk, the words in the transcript or slides that caused the Talk to match your search will be highlighted.  After you have selected a Talk to play, you can skip directly to these highlighted words in the transcript or slides.  To skip to the next highlighted word, press Ctrl+[Down] (Ctrl plus the down arrow key), or click the bottom half of the Magnifying Glass button on the control panel.

To skip to the previous highlighted word, press Ctrl+[Up] (Ctrl plus the up arrow key), or click the bottom half of the Magnifying Glass button on the control panel.


Customizing the Screen Layout

You can move or resize the video, slide, and transcript windows to create your own custom screen layouts.  To move a window, grab it along the top border and drag it to a new location.  To resize a window, grab a corner or edge and drag it to shrink or expand the window.

You can also choose a Standard Screen Layout.


Choosing Among Standard Layouts

You can choose from among four standard screen layouts.  Click the Options button on the Control panel and choose Layouts Click one of the four sample layouts in the "Select a Layout" region of the dialog box.

You can also create a Custom Screen Layout.


Hiding Windows

You can hide any or all of the four windows - video, slides, transcript, and control panel - in the Player screen.  To hide a window, click Options, select Layouts, and click the desired checkboxes in the "Show Windows" region of the dialog box.  Windows may be hidden and redisplayed while a Talk is playing.


Choosing a Language

To change the language in which the transcript appears, click the Options button, select Language, and click the desired language.

Note: Many Talks contain English transcripts only.


Customizing the Transcript Window

Use the Transcript Options dialog to customize the appearance and behavior of the transcript window.

You can reach the Transcript Options dialog by clicking Layouts on the Play menu, and then clicking Transcript Options in the Choose Player Layout dialog.


Printing and E-mailing

The Player does not directly support printing and e-mailing, but allows you to copy transcript text and slides to the clipboard and paste them into your favorite desktop applications for printing or to include in a mail message.


Copying and Pasting Text

To copy text from the transcript to the clipboard, drag select the text to be copied, then click Copy Text on the Edit menu.  The selected text will be copied to the clipboard.  To select all of the text in the transcript, click Select All Text on the Edit menu.

Use the standard clipboard commands to paste the text into another desktop application, such as word processing or e-mail.


Copying and Pasting Slides

To copy a slide to the clipboard, click Copy Slide on the Edit menu.  The currently displayed slide will be copied to the clipboard.

Use the standard clipboard commands to paste the slide into another desktop application, such as word processing or e-mail.


Linking to External Documents

If the particular Talk you are viewing contains links to external documents, a Links menu will appear in the standalone Player.  If there is no Links menu, that means there are  no links present in the current Talk.

To display a linked document, click the Links menu and click on the document to be displayed.  The Player will invoke a separate desktop application, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat, to display the document. An error will be reported if the external application is not available on your machine.


Linking to External Applications

If the particular Talk you are viewing contains links to external applications, a Links menu will appear in the standalone Player.  If there is no Links menu, that means there are no links present in the current Talk.

To start an external application, click the Links menu and click the application to be invoked.  An error will be reported if the external application is not available on your machine.


Linking to a Web Site

Some Talks may have a World Wide Web site specified to provide updated information to users.  If a Web site is defined for the Talk you are viewing, Goto Website will be available on the Play menu of the standalone Player.  Click this menu item to start your Web browser and display the Web page specified by the Talk.

You will not be able to view the Web site unless a Web browser is properly installed on your computer.

For Talks that do not have a Web site defined, the Goto Website menu item will be unavailable.


Customer Support

For customer support, please contact your internal help desk, or contact Eloquent directly at (650)-294-6460.


End User License Agreement

The use of this software and content is governed by an End User License Agreement.  This Agreement is on file with you or your contracting authority and with Eloquent.  If you have any questions about your rights and responsibilities under this Agreement, please contact your contracting authority, or contact Eloquent directly at (650)-294-6460.


Search Options Dialog

Use this dialog to define how the search engine uses the strings you enter to search for Talks.  The Search Type provides three settings for interpreting the words or phrases you enter into the search window:

The Default is to treat the search string as a comma-separated list of words and phrases.  The more matches that are found, the more relevant the document will be considered.  Word case and word inflection (plurals, verb tenses, etc.) are ignored.  For example, searching for network would match network, Networks, and networking.

Exact Match will match only if the characters and case of the words in the Talk are identical to the words in the search string.  For example, searching for network would only match network.

Similarity Search treats the search string as a model sentence, and searches for Talks that are related to that model.  For example, you could copy and paste the abstract text from one Talk into the search string box to find Talks similar to the selected Talk.

Searches can be performed across any combination of the transcripts, slides, or abstracts by clicking the checkboxes in the Search section of the dialog.

You can reach the Search Options dialog by clicking the Search tab at the bottom of the standalone Player window, and then clicking Options.


Field Search Dialog

Use this dialog to search for talks based on their attributes (as opposed to based on their contents).  Any number of fields may be entered at once; all must be satisfied to match a specific Talk.

The Event, Title, Speaker, and Organization fields can be set to match partial strings (Contains) or exact matches (Equals) by clicking on the pull-down option box in front of each field.

The Date field can be set to search for Talks Before or After a specific date.

The Duration field can be set to search for Talks that are More Than or Less Than the specified number of minutes.

You can reach the Field Search dialog by clicking the Search tab at the bottom of the standalone Player window, and then clicking Field Search.


Transcript Options Dialog

Use this dialog to customize the appearance and behavior of the transcript window on the Player tab.

Use the Text radio buttons to choose one of the standard fonts for displaying the transcript. Use the Font Size box to choose a size from 12 point to 36 point.

The Background color for the transcript window can be set to either white or gray.

Use the Options checkboxes to change the scrolling and highlighting behavior of the transcript window:

Check the Single Line box to specify that only one line of text should be displayed at a time, and that the text should not scroll.  Unchecking this box will cause the transcript to display multiple scrolling lines of text.

Check the Wrap Text at Sync Points box to force lines to wrap at the points where the video is exactly synchronized with the text.  Unchecking this box will cause the Player to select a line length that fits the transcript window.

As a general rule, it is preferable to wrap text at sync points when displaying the transcript in single-line mode, and preferable to wrap text to fit the transcript window when displaying the transcript in multiple-line mode.

Check the Use Scrollbar box to specify that a scrollbar should be displayed.  Unchecking this box will hide the scrollbar.

Check the Highlight Current Line box to specify that the words in the current line of text should be highlighted in blue.

You can reach the Transcript Options dialog by clicking the Options button, selecting Layouts, and then clicking Transcript Options in the Choose Player Layout dialog.


Bookmarks Dialog

Use this dialog to manage the bookmarks you have already defined.  You can move to a specific point in a Talk by clicking on one of the Bookmarks listed and then clicking Go To Bookmark.

Bookmarks can be deleted individually by clicking on a Bookmark and then clicking Clear Bookmark.

All Bookmarks can be deleted by clicking Clear All Bookmarks.  A dialog box will appear to confirm deletion.

The Close button will return you to the Player window without switching to a Bookmark.  The Cancel button will also return you to your previous position, but will cancel the deletion of individual bookmarks.

You can reach the Bookmarks dialog by clicking Bookmarks on the File menu of the standalone Player.


Add Bookmark Dialog

Use this dialog to customize the name of a new Bookmark.  This name will appear in the Bookmarks dialog to let you return to the current location in the current Talk.  The program automatically inserts the name of the current Talk, but you can overwrite this with any text you wish.

You can reach the Add Bookmark dialog by clicking Add Bookmark on the File menu of the standalone Player.


Select Slide Dialog

Use this dialog to see a thumbnail picture of all of the slides in the current Talk.  You can move directly to any slide by clicking its thumbnail.  The slide, video, and transcript will all jump to the point in the Talk where that slide appears.

If the Talk has many slides, you can use the << and >> buttons to view pages of slide thumbnails.

To start playing at the beginning of the selected slide, click OK.

To return to your previous location without selecting a slide, click Cancel.

You can reach the Select Slide dialog by clicking the Options button, choosing Goto and clicking Select Slide.


File Open Dialog

Use this dialog to open a specific Talk.  The Talk must be accessible on a locally visible disk, such as a CD-ROM.  Talk files have names that end with the extension ".IM".

To return to your previous location without opening a new Talk, click Cancel.


Select Event Source Dialog

Use this dialog to specify where the Player should look for Talks.  The Player can play Talks stored on a server on your network that is running the Eloquent Server software package, or Talks that are stored on a local CD-ROM.  In your web browser, just click the Back button to return to the Talks menu page.

For access to Talks on a server, click Server Name.  You must fill in the network node name of the server (e.g. "Eloquent_server" or "Eloquent_server.your_company.com"), or its IP address (e.g. "204.156.145.23").  Contact your network administrator for the proper entry for this field.

For access to Talks on a local disk, click Local (CD-ROM).  You must fill in the full path of the "event file".  On most Eloquent/CDs, this path is "D:\Talks\Event.IME", but may be different for certain productions.  You can use the Search or File Find tools in the Windows File Manager or Explorer to locate the event file on CDs that do not use the standard location.

You can reach the Select Event Source dialog by clicking Select Event Source on the File menu in the standalone Player.


End of Talk Options

End of Talk Options Dialog

Use this dialog to specify what to do after a Talk finishes playing.

Start Next Talk plays the next Talk in the event containing the current Talk.

Return to Talks Browser displays the Talks tab, allowing you to select another Talk manually.

Exit closes the application entirely.

Click Cancel if you want to spend more time reviewing the current Talk.

The End of Talk Options dialog appears automatically whenever a Talk finishes playing in the standalone Player.


End of Talk Options (Search)

End of Talk Options Dialog

Use this dialog to specify what to do after a Talk opened from the Search tab finishes playing.

Open Next Talk in Search List opens the next Talk in the results list from the last search you ran.

Return to Search Window displays the Search tab, allowing you to select another Talk manually or to run a new search.

Exit closes the application entirely.

Click Cancel if you want to spend more time reviewing the current Talk.

The End of Talk Options dialog appears automatically whenever a Talk finishes playing in the standalone Player.


Password

Password Dialog

Use this dialog to specify the password that is required to open certain password-protected Talks. This dialog will automatically be presented whenever you open such a Talk.

Type the Talk's password into the edit field and click the OK button. If you typed the password correctly the Talk will open. If you enter the password incorrectly, you will be asked to enter it again. After three failed attempts, an Information box will be shown and the Talk will have to be reopened.


Quality

Quality Options Dialog

Use this dialog to help the Player determine the audio and video quality you see in the player. This is most often of use when playing talks over the World Wide Web or through an intranet. It is less important when playing talks directly from a CD-ROM disc.

To help the Player choose the right audio and video quality you answer two questions about what aspects of playback are more important to you:

Overall: Audio quality tells the player that it is most important to you to have audio that is clear and unbroken, and the quality of the video is less important.

Overall: Video quality tells the player that it is most important to you to have undistorted video, and the sound quality and continuity of the audio is less important.

Video: Video motion quality tells the player that it is important to you to maintain high quality video motion ("frame rate"), and the quality of the individual pictures is less important.

Video: Video image quality tells the player that it is important to you to obtain crisp video images and the video frame rate is less important.

The Quality dialog allows you to manually set the quality of audio, video, and graphics if you desire that level of control. To use the manual controls, click the More Options button described below.

More Options / Fewer Options expands the dialog to show more options or contracts it to show fewer options.

Video Tracks  shows a list of all available video "tracks" from which you can choose. To turn off video completely, choose the track named "-none-". Depending on the talk, you may see one other track named "Standard Video" or possibly other tracks with names including a "bitrate" in bits-per-second (bps). Tracks with higher bitrates will look better, but may not work well over modem Internet connections or slow networks.

Audio Tracks  shows a list of all the audio tracks that are available for the talk. Choose the track named "-none-" to turn off audio. Some talks may have only one other track, named "Standard Audio", but others may display tracks with bitrates specified (see Video Tracks above). Tracks with higher bitrates will sound better, but might interfere with video transmission on modem Internet connections or slow networks.

Graphics Tracks  shows a list of all the graphics tracks that are available for the talk. These may include slides and or "screen tracks" that contain computer-screen recordings. Choose the track named "-none-" to turn off graphics. Some talks may have only one other track, named "Standard Graphics", but others may display tracks with bitrates specified (see Video Tracks above). Tracks with higher bitrates will look better, but might interfere with video transmission on modem Internet connections or slow networks.

To return to the talk without making any changes, click Cancel.

To apply changes you have made in the dialog, click OK. The changes you make to the preference settings at the top of the dialog will be saved automatically.


Quiz Question

Quiz Question Dialog

Use this dialog to answer quiz questions.  Not all Talks contain quizzes. If the current talk doesn't have a quiz, this dialog won't appear.

The Quiz Question dialog appears automatically whenever a Talk containing a quiz finishes playing.  You can bring it up manually by clicking Quiz on the Play menu.


Talk Info

Talk Information Dialog

This dialog provides additional information about the current talk, such as Title, Organization, and Date.Details shows the Detailed Talk Info dialog which includes the "Talk ID" which may be needed when reporting a problem.

You can access the Talk Information Dialog by clicking Options, then Talk Info.


Detailed Talk Info

Detailed Talk Information Dialog

This dialog provides an extra level of detail beyond that of the Talk Info dialog. Specifically, it provides the "Talk ID" which may be needed when reporting a problem.

You can access the Talk Information Dialog by clicking Details button in the Talk Info dialog.


Error Information Alert

If an error occurs, you will see this message box. It provides some informative text that should help you resolve the error in question. If you need more information, click the Details >> button.

Details >> expands the dialog to provide more information about what caused the error. This extra information might be of use in resolving the error or when reporting a problem.