Operating Systems prior to Windows 7 did not automatically provide the codec and system resources required to play Mpeg-2 and DVD. As of MediaGun v. 1.8, these resources are included as an optional part of the MediaGun installation.

Windows XP, 64 MB video card, Windows Media Player 9 Series, 1024 x 768 pixels screen resolution, 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent, 16-bit sound card, 512 MB of RAM, Speakers

No. All the elements of a Master List must reside in the same Resource Folder. However, the workaround is to use shortcuts. Many MediaGun users use Resource Folders which are entirely made of shortcuts! This enables you to gather elements from different folders into the same Resource Folder. And because shortcuts are very tiny files (1 KB), you don’t have to give up valuable hard drive space. Unlike most competitors, MediaGun checks that the link between a shortcut and the target file is valid and informs you if it's broken. If you can click the "RUN" button, you know you're OK.

1. Select the target file(s) that you wish to make a shortcut of.
2. With the mouse cursor on the selection, right-click.
3. Select “Copy” from the drop-down menu.
4. Open the folder where you want to create the shortcuts (MediaGun’s future Resource Folder).
5. Right-click in that folder and choose “Paste shortcut” from the drop-down menu.
6. For better readability in MediaGun, you can delete “Shorcut to” with which every shortcut name now starts.

You need to install either PowerPoint from version 2003 onwards, or the PowerPoint Viewer 2010, found at http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-powerpoint/archive/2010/05/13/powerpoint-viewer-available-for-download.aspx

Playing a PowerPoint slideshow in a SOLO Portfolio requires either any version of PowerPoint 2003 onwards or the PowerPoint Viewer 97-2000, which can be found at http://www.exponentsoftware.com/downloads1/PPointV.zip. More recent versions of the Viewer are not yet supported. We hope to address this limitation shortly. This issue does not apply to a STANDARD Portfolio or to MediaGun itself.

Please note that if PowerPoint 2000 and the PowerPoint Viewer 97-2000 are present on the same machine, MediaGun sees it as a conflict, which it is not able to solve. The solution is either to uninstall PowerPoint 2000 and use the Viewer, or to upgrade to PowerPoint 2003 or more recent.

Animations entirely based on the timeline without any nested clips are quite straightforward to handle. All you have to do is to place the following command on the frame where you want the animation to stop: fscommand("quit","");

When nested clips are used, you should reserve enough frames on the timeline of the main scenario. This will enable MediaGun to play the entire animation.

• For example, if you have 4 clips, each containing 100 frames and instructed to play one after another, you should reserve 4 x 100 frames on the main scenario timeline, i.e. 400 frames at least.
• At the end of the entire animation, a quit command is necessary.

See FAQ 06 in ReadMe File, which can be downloaded from Screenshots and Docs, in English, French and German.

The good news is that as of MediaGun 1.8, an automatic connection to the web page where any missing codec or supporting resource is available will occur. However...

1. If possible, you should opt for file formats that require no installation. These are:

• Movies: mpeg-1 or .wmv
• Text: .pdf (or .txt)
• Audio: .mp3, .wav
• Pictures: .jpg, .bmp

Such a Portfolio would only need the Windows Media Player, which is (in principle!) part of the standard Windows system anyway.

2. If you don’t know the user operating the target PC, check both boxes in the Portfolio dialog window: “A: Add Installer (System)” and “B: Add Resources (Local)”. (See “History of past versions” – Release Notes MediaGun 1.5 below).

3. Save your text files as Adobe .pdf. Make sure that your fonts are embedded in your text documents. (see FAQ 9)

This is because MediaGun does not resize them. This is to prevent performance slowdown or loss of quality.

If a picture is larger than the screen’s, or of a resolution in Dots per Inch (DPI) larger than 100, it may require 10 seconds or more to appear on the screen. This may be perfect for printing, but not for multimedia!

Say you have taken some great .tif or .jpg shots with a multi-mega-pixel digital camera. The resolution is 3200 x 2400 pixels. If you play them as they are on your XGA laptop (1024 x 768 pixels) you will only see the center of your pictures, and you will have to wait…

Another example is if you use a picture document which is meant to be printed and not to be displayed in a multimedia context. Such a file has a typical definition – or density - of 300 – 600 DPI or more. In MediaGun – or in any other software program – it may take a long time to show up on the screen, for no extra quality!

If a picture smaller than the screen is enlarged, quality degradation occurs. (pixellation and other artifacts). That’s why MediaGun does not enlarge it. Instead, a black background is displayed around the picture.

The solution is to prepare your pictures at the screen resolution – for example 1024-768 pixels, and at a definition between 72 and 96 DPI. Also, make sure that its color mode is RGB, 8bits/color.

This is probably because you did not check the option “Embed all Fonts” in the PDF Maker advanced settings of the program where the file was created – typically MS Word.

This can be ignored, according to Microsoft themselves. Just click OK and proceed. See full Microsoft documentation at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=274041

This is due to a bug in Microsoft’s Visual Basic, with which MediaGun is written! Without this bug, it would be possible to display .doc files directly in MediaGun as we do for all the other file formats. To avoid the issue, MediaGun requires the Word Viewer instead. This is admittedly not very elegant.

Also, you should not include a .doc file in a Solo Portfolio, for this will launch the Word Viewer and never give the hand back to MediaGun.

We are planning to fix this issue on the next version. For the time being, we recommend that you export your .doc files to PDF.

This new feature (v.1.8) enables you to generate ideal PDF documents so that each page exactly matches the destination screen, and gaps between pages are not seen. All you have to do is to choose the correct empty Word Template among the selection we provide, to edit it, then to convert it to PDF. The templates are found in the MediaGun folder after installation, in the folder ‘MS Word to PDF templates’.

1.Choose the template that matches the destination screen resolution, in pixels. This information is contained in the Word .doc document file name, for example ‘1920.1080.doc’ for a Full HD screen. Choose between ‘1 page’ and ‘many pages’.

2. Fill the file with your input, save, convert to PDF This will ensure that each page of the document matches the exact dimensions of the screen, and that the page separation is not visible. In a Solo Portfolio, MediaGun is able to change page automatically, by calculating the duration of each page according to its text and image content.

If you cannot find a template that matches your screen resolution, this is how you do it:

Before word 2010

1. In MS Word, go to File/Page Setup/Margins. Choose between Portrait and Landscape.

2. Choose the Paper tab

As of word 2010

1. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Orientation. Choose between Portrait and Landscape.

2. . Click on Size, choose “Custom Margins”

Finally

3. Enter the Width and Height values. Unfortunately, these are in centimetres. To convert your destination screen resolution – in pixels – to centimetres, do as follows:

• Divide the width screen resolution (in pixels) by 37.89, enter the result into the Width box.
• Divide the height screen resolution (in pixels) by 37.89, enter the result into the Height box.

If your document has more than one page, you should subtract 0.4 centimetres to the width, to allow for the vertical scrolling bar.

For example, for a multi-page 1280-800 screen resolution: (use your Windows calculator):

Width: 1280:37.89=33.782000527843758247558722618105. Copy-paste from your calculator into the Width box of Word) You now have to subtract 0.4 cm to leave space for the scrolling bar. This yields 33.382000527843758247558722618105

Height: 800:37.89=21.113750329902348904724201636316. Copy-paste into the Height box of Word

1. The physical DVD must be present.

2. If the DVD is the only element in your Master List, point MediaGun (the GET button) to its VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO file. Otherwise, make a shortcut of the ‘VIDEO_TS.IFO’ file of the DVD.(see FAQ 4 -‘How do I make a shortcut?’)

3. Paste this shortcut in the Resource Folder relative to your current Master List.

4. Add it to your Master List.

This file gives you access to chapters, to language selection, to subtitles, etc., provided they have been included by the DVD authors

WARNING: Although using the file «VIDEO_TS.IFO» to access the DVD menu is extremely practical in MediaGun itself, it is not advised to use this file in a Portfolio. The «VIDEO_TS.IFO» file does not contain any data, but merely a table of contents linked to the actual audiovisual assets. The workaround is to find and add to the Master List the actual video file (for ex. «VTS_01_4.VOB) which contains the desired contents AND CHANGE ITS EXTENSION FROM .VOB TO .MPG, before you generate the Portfolio. The File’s name can also be changed, as you will then identify it more easily.

The time during which any text file is displayed in a Solo Portfolio is determined by the amount of words (and images). For this to work for a pdf file, its copy or extraction must be allowed. This is determined at the stage of the file creation. See link below the document’s properties, as shown in Acrobat Reader.

Download : 17_Acrobat_Writer_Properties_Settings.jpg

That may happen when the Portfolio contains an element of type .exe THE ENTIRE FOLDER that contains the .exe is copied by MediaGun. This enables the .exe to find the external files it may need during the Portfolio playback.

It is therefore crucial to make sure that that folder does not contain any file you wouldn’t want to distribute! If that is the case, here is what to do to avoid any mishaps.

• Move the .exe element to a new folder.
• Put any external file it needs in the same folder, or in a sub-folder.
• Double-click on the .exe icon and check that all the links with the external files function. Re-establish them if necessary. Save.
• Quit the .exe, right-click on its icon and select “Copy”.
• Open the Resource Folder of the Master List.
• Right-click in this folder and select “Paste shortcut” (It must replace the old .exe)
• Start MediaGun and insert this new shortcut into the Master List if necessary.

• Move the external files into a folder named, for ex. “Links” placed at the root of Drive C.
(The links between the .ppt file and the external files are now broken.)
• Open the .ppt and re-establish the links with the external files.
• Save, Quit.
• Put the .ppt file or its shortcut into the Resource Folder of the MediaGun Master List.
• Generate the Portfolio
• Copy the Portfolio AND the folder “Links” onto the target PC, and put the “Links” folder at the root of drive C.

First, the .ppt file must play and exit entirely by itself: In the menu «Slide Show» / select item «Rehearse Timings». Play the entire slideshow at the rate you choose by clicking on the background of each slide. Check that you are happy with your settings by playing the .ppt automatically (F5 key) When that is the case, select menu “Slide Show” / “Set Up Show”. Set up as on link below, Save and Quit.

Download : PowerPoint_SetUp_Show_Settings.jpg

In the menu “Tools/Options”, uncheck the box “End with black slide”. In PowerPoint 2003, this is a global setting which controls all .ppt /.pps files.

This must be set up in MediaGun, prior to making the Portfolio. The setting (“Original” or “Full screen” on the MediaGun Control Bar determines the size of all videos in the Portfolio.

A variety of programs exist, and they are often shareware. We have successfully tested FLV Downloader.

Operating Systems prior to Windows 7 did not automatically provide the codec and system resources required to play Mpeg-2 and DVD. As of MediaGun v. 1.8, these resources are included as an optional part of the MediaGun installation.