Splint

An add-in to allow Microsoft PowerPoint® to control
Kodak Ektapro® slide projectors

Version 1.0

Splint was written by David R Grigg of Rightword Enterprises (www.rightword.com.au).  You can contact me at .

Note:  This program is freeware.  You may install it and continue to use it without cost.  However, your installation and use of this program are entirely at your own risk.    Technical support is very limited!  The author takes no responsibility for any adverse consequences you may encounter (not that he can imagine any).

Note that this is not a product of the Eastman Kodak corporation.

PowerPoint® is a registered trade mark of Microsoft Corporation.
Ektapro® is a registered trademark of Eastman Kodak.


Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................... 3

Terminology............................................................................................................ 3

Requirements.......................................................................................................... 3

Installing Splint....................................................................................................... 4

Setting Up Splint as a PowerPoint® Add-In......................................................... 4

Uninstalling Splint................................................................................................... 5

Quick Start.................................................................................................................. 6

Basic Principles......................................................................................................... 7

Developing Your Own Presentation...................................................................... 8

Familiarity with Microsoft PowerPoint®.......................................................... 8

Associating Photo Slides with PowerPoint® Screens.................................. 8

Animated Builds....................................................................................................... 8

PowerPoint® Screens with no Photo Slides................................................... 9

Setting up "One PowerPoint® Screen = One Photo Slide"............................. 9

What if I Need to Include My Own Speaker Notes?......................................... 9

Setting Up Your Presentation.............................................................................. 10

Connecting the Kodak Ektapro® Projector to Your Computer............... 10

Testing Your Set-up.............................................................................................. 10

What if I Don't Have Room For Two Projection Screens?............................ 11

Running an Splint Presentation........................................................................... 12

Starting the Splint Controller......................................................................... 12

Controlling the PowerPoint® Presentation................................................. 12

Using the Mouse...................................................................................................... 12

Using the Keyboard.................................................................................................. 12

Showing a Random Photo Slide......................................................................... 13

Control Key Summary............................................................................................. 14


Introduction

Splint is a Microsoft PowerPoint® 97 or PowerPoint® 2000 add-in which allows you to link your PowerPoint® presentation to slides in a Kodak Ektapro® slide projector (model 40XX and higher).  Once you have put your presentation together you can simultaneously show your PowerPoint® screens with relevant slides from your projector.

This approach means you can use a computer-based presentation and yet still make excellent use of your legacy 35mm slides without the need to scan and digitise them.

While you are running your PowerPoint® presentation, the Splint controller appears as a narrow band at the top of the screen, and can be hidden so as not to confuse your audience.

Terminology

To avoid confusion between PowerPoint® "slides" and 35mm slides in the projector, we will generally call PowerPoint® slides "screens" and use the phrase "photo slides" to refer to 35mm slides.

Requirements

Personal computer with at 486-100MHz processor or better and 16MB of RAM or better.

Available communications serial port on computer.

Windows 95, 98 or Windows NT Workstation 4.

Microsoft PowerPoint® 97 or PowerPoint® 2000

Kodak Ektapro® projector (model 40XX or higher   -- for further information see www.kodak.com)

Serial cable (9 pin male for projector to 9 pin female or 25 pin female depending on computer's serial port).


Installing Splint

If you received Splint on a CD-ROM, insert the supplied CD-ROM into your computer's CD drive.  Otherwise, if you downloaded it, just double-click on the SETUP.EXE file and go to step 6.

The installation routine should run automatically.  If it does not, follow steps 3 & 4 below.

From the "Start" menu, choose "Run"

Type: "X:\SETUP.EXE" (replace X with your CD-Drive letter) and press the ENTER key.

Follow the instructions on screen.

You will need to restart your computer after installation.

Setting Up Splint as a PowerPoint® Add-In

The standard installation installs Splint as a permanent feature of PowerPoint® by including it as an ”Add-In”.  When you open PowerPoint® you should see an additional button on a toolbar, labelled simply ”Splint”, as in the sample screen below:

Sample Screen

Note : because of security settings under Windows NT, the automatic load of the Add-In will not work.  If you are an NT user, or if you do not see the Splint button for any other reason, the Splint add-in has not have been automatically loaded, and you will need to do the following:

  1. Open PowerPoint®.
  2. From the Tools menu, select Add-Ins.  The Add-In Manager dialog box will appear.
  3. Click on ”Add New”.
  4. You will then need to locate the Splint Add-In file.  The default location is in C:\Program Files\Rightword\Splint.

    You should see two files with the extension .PPA in this folder –

    Splint97.PPA                           for PowerPoint® 97
    Splint2000.PPA.                      for PowerPoint® 2000

    Note that you need to select the correct version to match your version of PowerPoint®.  If you choose the wrong one, Splint won’t work

    Select the appropriate .PPA file and click on OK.
  5. As you open the Splint add-in, you may see a message warning you that the ad-in contains macros which can carry viruses.  This warning is perfectly normal – the add-in does contain macros, which allow Splint to operate.  You should click on the "Enable Macros" button.  If you have Office 2000 and the security settings set to "High" you may need to temporarily relax these settings in order to carry out the install.
  6. The Add-In Manager box should now show ”Splint” with an X next to it to show that it is loaded.
  7. That’s it!  You should now see an ”Splint” button added to your menu bars.  To start the active presentation running with Splint features, all you need to do is click on this new button.
  8. Depending on your set-up, the Splint add-in may not be automatically loaded every time you start PowerPoint®.  If the Splint button is not visible when you start PowerPoint®, go through Tools / Add-Ins, highlight Splint and click on the Load button.

Uninstalling Splint

You can unload Splint as a standard PowerPoint® add-in by starting PowerPoint®, selecting "Tools" from the main menu bar, then "Add-ins".  You will see a dialog box listing all the installed add-ins.  Selected "Splint97" or "Splint2000" depending on your version of Office, and then click the "Remove" button.


Quick Start

A sample Splint presentation is included in the installation to get you started.

After installing Splint and restarting your computer, click on the Windows Start button, choose Programs, then Splint, and then "Demonstration".

Once PowerPoint® has started with the demonstration presentation, do the following:

1) Click the ”Splint” button on the toolbar.

2) If you have a Kodak Ektapro® projector connected (see later for details), a message should appear saying that the program has found the projector.  If not, a message will appear to tell you it can't find the projector.

3) If Splint is running correctly and the projector was found, a bar like this will appear at the top of the screen:

4) Click on this bar with the mouse or use the SPACE BAR or RIGHT ARROW key to move forward through the presentation.

5) Use the ESC key to exit the presentation.


Basic Principles

Splint makes associating photo slides with PowerPoint® screens very easy and flexible.

Any number of photo slides (or none) can be readily associated with a PowerPoint® screen, by embedding a special code –  Photo# – in the Speaker Notes associated with each slide.

Once the Splint controller is running, each time you move to a new PowerPoint® screen, the controller scans the Speaker Notes for the special code and moves the Ektapro® projector to the first of the associated photo slides.

Here is an example.  Let us say you have typed the following text in the Speaker Notes for a particular PowerPoint® screen:

Photo# 12, 13

When you move to this PowerPoint® screen, the Kodak Ektapro® projector will automatically go to photo slide 12 and project it.  Advancing through the presentation using the mouse or keyboard will first project the next photo slide, slide 13.  Another mouse click or keystroke will then move to the next PowerPoint® screen.

It is also possible to use animated builds in synchronisation with photo slides.  For example, on a screen with animated fly-ins of each bullet point, you can associate each bullet point with a new photo slide.

Detailed information is given later about how to use the keyboard during a presentation.


Developing Your Own Presentation

Familiarity with Microsoft PowerPoint®

These instructions assume that you are familiar with creating normal PowerPoint® presentations.  If you are not, please read the Microsoft PowerPoint® manuals and build a few sample presentations of your own before proceeding with developing an Splint presentation.

Associating Photo Slides with PowerPoint® Screens

For each PowerPoint® screen where you will also want to show photo slides on the Ektapro® projector, do the following:

While in Edit mode for the current slide, click on the "View" menu and then select "Speaker Notes".  A small text window will pop up over the slide.

Type into this window the special code Photo# (the last character is a hash key, #, usually located above the number 3 on your keyboard).  Leave a space, and then put the photo slide number you wish to show at this point, for example:

Photo# 12

If there is more than one photo slide you wish to view with the same PowerPoint® screen, list the photo slide numbers in the order you wish to display them, separated by commas, for example:

Photo# 22, 25, 10

Note that the photo slides can be in whatever order you wish, and do not have to be continuous.

Animated Builds

If you have a PowerPoint® screen which builds up the display using animation, for example, bullet points which fly on from the right each time you press the advance key, you can associate separate photo slides with each build step in exactly the same way as above.

The only point worth noting is that because Splint considers the first display of a screen (for example, with a header) as a separate animated build step, you may need to prevent a photo slide appearing with the header.  This is very easy to do.  Just specify slide ”0” as the first photo slide in the speaker notes, eg:

Photo# 0, 32, 33, 34

This will close the projector shutter when the PowerPoint® screen is first displayed, then associate photo slides 32, 33, and 34 with the first three bullet points.

Similarly, if there is a bullet point that you don’t wish to associate with a photo slide, just specify slide 0 for the step you don’t want to illustrate (alternatively, repeat the previous slide number to keep the existing photo showing during this step).

PowerPoint® Screens with no Photo Slides

If you do not include a special code in the Speaker Notes for the next slide, the last photo slide you projected will remain visible.  If you do not wish this to happen, that is, if you want the projector to show nothing, include this code in the Speaker Notes:

Black#

Setting up "One PowerPoint® Screen = One Photo Slide"

Perhaps you want to have a very simple presentation where you show exactly one photo slide for every PowerPoint® screen.  Rather than having to put "Photo# 1", "Photo# 2", "Photo# 3" into each subsequent PowerPoint® screen's Speaker Notes, you can just put the following identical code in each screen:

Match#

This tells Splint to show the photo slide of the same number as the PowerPoint® screen, eg, PowerPoint® screen 1 will show photo slide 1, etc.

What if I Need to Include My Own Speaker Notes?

You can include your own notes in Speaker Notes in the usual way.  Just ensure that the special codes are the last text in the notes.


Setting Up Your Presentation

This section discusses how to physically set up your computer and projectors in order to run an Splint presentation.

If you are projecting your PowerPoint® screens through a digital projector, set this up in the normal way first.

Connecting the Kodak Ektapro® Projector to Your Computer

Now connect one of your computer's serial ports to the Ektapro® projector with the appropriate serial cable.  The connector on the projector is a 9-pin female socket.

The connection at the computer end will depend on your computer.  Newer computers have a 9-pin male connection.  Older computers may have a 25-pin male connection (the 25-pin female connection is for the printer).

The cable thus needs to have a 9-pin male connection for the projector and either a 9-pin female or 25-pin female connection for the computer.

Here is a diagram of how this might all look when you have set it up correctly:



Testing Your Set-up

We have included a special test program with Splint which will allow you to test whether your set-up is correct and whether the Splint software is working.

From the Start Menu, choose "Programs", then "Splint" and then "Test Splint" to open the test application.  Once it is running, just follow the instructions.  The software will try both communications ports to see if it can find your Ektapro® slide projector, and if so, it will return the model name and firmware version.

If the test application will not run, you may need to re-run the Splint installation and restart your computer before trying again.

If the test application runs, but reports that it cannot find your projector, you may need to try another communications port on your computer, or there may be a problem with the cable.

What if I Don't Have Room For Two Projection Screens?

If you only have room for a single screen to project on to, you could focus both the digital projector and the Ektapro® projector onto the same screen. 

You could then design your Splint presentation to interleave PowerPoint® screens and photo slides by using all-black PowerPoint® screens whenever photo slides need to be shown. 

In other words, any PowerPoint® screen which has the Photo# code in its Speaker Notes should be blanked out, by, say using an all-black rectangle shape.


Running an Splint Presentation

Starting the Splint Controller

You should ensure that the projector is turned on and the cable connected before trying to start Splint.

Start Splint and enter slide presentation mode by clicking on the ”Splint” button on the toolbar.

If you have set up your projector correctly, Splint will locate it and a message will appear to say that the Splint controller is loaded.

You should see a bar like this appear at the top of the presentation screen:

When the control is ready to use, you will see the mouse pointer jump to the top left of the screen and turn into a double-headed arrow.

If you don't like the control bar being visible during your presentation, there are two options:

1) adjust the projector angle so that the bar falls off the top of the projection screen.

2) if you can do without mouse control, press the INSERT key to hide the bar (pressing INSERT again will return it)

Controlling the PowerPoint® Presentation

Using the Mouse

If you wish to control the PowerPoint® presentation using the mouse, or through an infra-red control which simulates the mouse (many digital projectors have these), you may do so – the left button moves forward through the presentation, the right button backwards. 

If there are multiple photo slides which associated with a particular PowerPoint® screen, each associated photo slide will be shown in turn before moving to the next PowerPoint® screen.

NOTE: to use the mouse in an Splint presentation, it is ESSENTIAL that the mouse pointer be positioned at the very top of the screen, within the Splint control bar.  When in the correct area, the mouse pointer will change shape to a double-headed arrow.  Mouse clicks when the pointer is over the PowerPoint® screen itself will not work.

Using the Keyboard

You can also control the presentation entirely using the keyboard.  Most of the usual keys you would use in a PowerPoint® presentation work the same way – the space bar and left and right arrow keys will move through your presentation, for example, and the ESC (escape) key will quit the presentation.

However, if there are multiple photo slides which associated with a particular PowerPoint® screen, each associated photo slide will be shown in turn before moving to the next PowerPoint® screen.

Showing a Random Photo Slide

You can also show any particular photo slide at any time without it having been included in the Speaker Notes if you know its slide number, in the following way:

Key in 3 digits for the number, eg 007, 023 or 135 and as soon as you have entered the third digit the projector will show the appropriate slide.

The + (plus) and – (minus or hyphen) keys will let you step forward and back from the current photo slide being shown.

Other Functions

Splint allows you to control many aspects of the projector from your computer keyboard.  For example, you can toggle STANDBY mode by using the End key, open and close the shutter, and even focus the projector lens.

A summary chart of the Splint control keys is included later.


  Control Key Summary

These keys are applicable once the Splint controller is running

Key

Function

®  (right arrow)

¯  (down arrow)

SPACE bar

Left mouse button

Advance the presentation.

If there are several photo slides associated with this screen, show the next photo slide.

Otherwise, go forward to next PowerPoint® screen (or next build step if using animated effects).

¬  (left arrow)

­   (up arrow)

Right mouse button

Go back in presentation.

If there are several photo slides associated with this screen, show the previous photo slide.

Otherwise, go back to previous PowerPoint® screen (or previous build step if using animated effects).

ESC

Close the presentation and return to PowerPoint®.

· (decimal point or full stop)

DELETE

Toggle shutter on Ektapro® projector (open or close shutter).


nnn

(3 digit number, eg 032)

Show photo slide nnn on the Ektapro® projector

+ (plus key)

Advance to next photo slide in Ektapro® projector.

- (minus key or hyphen)

Return to previous photo slide in Ektapro® projector.

END

Toggle standby mode on Ektapro® projector (turn lamp and fan on and off).

HOME

Reset Ektapro® projector (resets all settings and returns to slide 0).  Also returns to the first PowerPoint® screen.

B or R

Adjust focus backward on Ektapro® projector.

NOTE: keep your finger on this key to continue focus movement.  When you lift your finger the focus will stop.

F

Adjust focus forward on Ektapro® projector.

NOTE: keep your finger on this key to continue focus movement.  When you lift your finger the focus will stop.

INSERT

Toggles the display of the Splint control bar at the top of the screen.  Note that the bar MUST be visible to control the presentation using the mouse (or an infra-red control simulating a mouse).