On Fri January 27 2006 2:40 pm, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
On Friday 27 January 2006 18:05, Gil Weber wrote:
Speaking only for myself, Open Office's Impress presentation program is a big disappointment and can't replace MS PowerPoint run under CrossOver Office. As I noted in a post to this list on January 1st, it seems that Impress won't allow the importing of video clips.
I did say "unless you have a lot of effects", and video would plainly count as that. On the other hand, I don't really see why it wouldn't be possible to minimise the presentation, run the video in Xine or Mplayer, and then maximise the presentation again. Monolithic apps aren't necessarily the only answer ....
Yes, Kevin, I did see your qualification about "effects." My point was only that Impress doesn't allow one to use perhaps the most powerful format for inserted materials -- videos. Note also, that I have not found a way to do what you suggest -- minimize Impress and run the video in Xine or MPlayer, and then maximize Impress and continue with the presentation. When running in slide show mode, there is no minimize button on the Impress screen. At least I have not found one. The only way I have found to get to a media player while in Impress is to hit "escape" which brings you back to the Impress editing screen. You can then view the video in a media player (I happen to use Kaffeine), but after playing the video you then have to again click on "slide show" in Impress to restart the presentation. Of course restarting Impress always brings you to slide #1, so you then have to navigate to the slide from which you want to continue. Since my presentations might include a dozen or more videos this constant restarting of Impress and having to then move to the proper slide to resume the presentation is incredibly cumbersome. Now, if you know of a way to minimize Impress from slide show mode so that it can immediately be restored back to slide show mode after playing a video in a media player, PLEASE post that to this list. It would be VERY helpful. Thanks! :o) Gil