2004-05 - Tutorial Home > Tutorial 5

Resources


RealMedia

Resources:

Audio compression software: RealProducer Basic
(download)

Documentation on how to create and merge your "events file":

Recipe:

  1. Create RealMedia (rm) file from uncompressed wav file (with Audacity you must first export to wav)
  2. Prepare your "events log" in the format reflected in this sample
  3. Use the editor that comes with RealProducer to merge the "events file" into the RealMedia file
  4. Play to be sure the links fire properly
  5. Upload to site


Windows Media Encoder

Resources:

Audio compression software: Windows Media Encoder
(download)

Documentation on how to encode and enter your timed events:

Recipe:

  1. Encode the Windows Media (wma) from uncompressed wav file (with Audacity you must first export to wav)
  2. Load the wma file in the Windows Media File Editor (comes with the encoder, see documentation for its location and use)
  3. Add URL commands using the editor (see documentation)
  4. For commands to work, the Windows Media Player's security settings must be set to accept script commands (see documentation)
  5. Play to be sure the links fire properly
  6. Upload to site


Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint

Resources:

Audio compression software: Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint (download)

Documentation on how to encode, add pages to the timeline, and create a table of contents:

Recipe:

  1. Load the wav file into Microsoft Producer
  2. Select a template (with linked Web pages try "Standard Audio - Resizable HTML")
  3. Add the URLs for the pages you want to link to the presentation via the File pull down menu's "Add Web Link" option
  4. Drag the added Web pages to their proper place on the timeline (note that you can zoom in to get greater precision of timing and can with a selected page fine-tune the start time and duration with a right-button mouse click)
  5. Add a table of contents (which allows the user to go straight to a particular portion of the presentation)
  6. Play to be sure everything works properly
  7. Select "publish your presentation" from the File pull down menu
  8. Upload the resulting folder and files to site


MP3

Resources:

Audio compression software: Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) introduced in unit 3 of this tutorial can export to MP3; however, for that capability you must download an add-in, the LAME encoder library (download).

Recipe:

  1. Export your audio file to MP3


SMIL 2.0

Resources:

Software: I know of no free WYSIWYG SMIL editor. The GRiNS Pro Editor, costing $595, is available on a free 7-day trial (information and download). You can, however, edit a SMIL file in any text editor. Feel free to download [right button click and save] the file used in the sample presentation and adapt it to yours.

Documentation on SMIL:

Recipe:

  1. Load the sample SMIL file into a text editor
  2. Substitute the name of your mp3 file for "sample.mp3"
  3. Substitute the URLs on your "events log" for those listed in the sample file, adding additional lines or removing lines from those in the "text" area list
  4. Edit the begin and end times for each of the URLs on your list (Note: The begin time for the next item should be at least .1 second later than the end time for the prior one.)
  5. Save your revised SMIL file
  6. Upload it and the companion MP3 file to the same directory


HTML+Time

Resources:

Software: I know of no free WYSIWYG HTML+Time editor. In fact, my favority HTML editor (Dreamweaver MX) makes a hash of HTML+Time files. You can, however, edit an HTML+Time file in a straight text editor. Feel free to download [right button click and save] the file used in the sample presentation and adapt it to yours.

Documentation on HTML+Time:

Recipe:

  1. Load the sample HTML+Time file into a text editor
  2. Substitute the name of your mp3 file for "mp3/sample.mp3"
  3. Edit the text of the page including the URLs that will allow the user to go the pages to which you refer
  4. Edit the begin and end times for each of the bullet points on your page (Note: The begin time for the next item should be at least .1 second later than the end time for the prior one.)
  5. Save your revised HTML+Time file
  6. Upload it and the companion MP3 file to the same directory