Most of the functionality of Sync-O-Matic is described in this section. The following section documents the remaining features.
The main screen for Syncomat is a series of buttons which are enabled based on what you can possibly do next.
In this screen, the only buttons are New Lecture and Open Lecture. The menu options File | New Lecture and File | Open Lecture do the same thing as these buttons. In general, there is a menu option which corresponds to each button. The menu options are enabled and disabled as you perform various tasks.
So, to continue with this tutorial, press New Lecture.
Given that this is the first time you have executed the program, the directory
C:\My Documents\lectures\ won't exist so you will be asked to create it.
If you are on NT or want to store all of your lectures somewhere else, feel free to say "No" to this prompt. You will be able to put the lectures anywhere you want in the next dialog.
But in general, say yes to this to this prompt.
This is the standard directory selection dialog used throughout Sync-O-Matic. Sometimes the
New Dir button is enabled and sometimes it is disabled when you are not expected to be creating directories.
In this case, we need a separate directory for each lecture. The convention we will use in this example is to make each lecture a subdirectory of C:\My Documents\lectures\", so press New Dir.
Enter the directory name
C:\My Documents\lectures\test\ - the lecture name will be test.
Now the directory is created, so you can select the directory and press OK.
Once the New Lecture process is complete, you will notice that the Select PowerPoint button has been enabled. This pattern of new buttons becoming enabled as each step is successfully completed will continue throughout Syncomat.
Press Select PowerPoint.
Navigate through the directory structure and select a PowerPoint file to be used for this lecture.
This message appears because the PowerPoint file has four slides and the directory has no GIFs. That is because we just created the empty directory.
Now we have a newly enabled button to allow us to convert the PowerPoint file to a series of GIF images.
First, make sure to select the proper image size - 300x400 is a good choice. Then press the
Convert PPT to GIFs.
The conversion will show its progress on the status bar at the bottom of the screen. It should step through each slide, converting it to a GIF and finding the title of the slide.
Once it is complete the Record Lecture button will be enabled. If you want, you can use the + and - buttons to look at thumbnails of the slides.
The next step in the tutorial is to record a lecture, so press the Record Lecture button.
This screen is essentially the RealProducer as built-into Syncomat. Many of the buttons and controls are similar to RealProducer. This is the point, where your testing of RealProducer, video and audio will pay off. If your video or audio is improperly configured Syncomat cannot compensate at this screen.
If you have too much trouble with this screen, exit Syncomat and try to debug the audio and video using RealProducer and even the Sound Recorder application included with Windows.
First, check the bandwidth you want and whether or not you want video. If you select video, additional controls will appear in the dialog.
For this tutorial, we use video, so enable the checkbox.
When the video options appear, you need to select the driver from the pick list and then press Setup.
You may need to figure out the proper driver using some trial and error. In general, avoid the "WDM" drivers as your first try.
If things don't work, you may even have to exit Syncomat and restart.
Once the right drivers are selected, press Setup. Now all of the device drivers are initialized - this process might take 30 seconds to complete.
After setup completes, the most important thing is to see the preview video on the left screen. If the preview video is not there, you may have your camera/capture card installed improperly or have chosen the wrong driver.
Three new buttons are also now available. These buttons allow you to adjust the video settings, using them you may or may not be able to fix non-working video.
Each of these dialogs is different based on the camera or video capture device.
We will look at each in turn.
To adjust audio, use the volume control icon in the system tray. See the
Installing and Testing RealProducer documentation for details on properly setting the audio levels.
Video Source generally deals with adjustments available on the camera and if the capture hardware has multiple sources (S-Video or composite) you can select them here. Often if you see an all-blue or all-black screen and you are using a video capture card (not a camera) the
problem is with the source.
Video Format generally deals with the size of the image.
Often video capture device drivers have the ability to compress data inside the device driver. Because Real has its own (very slick and sophisticated) compression, if Real is given compressed data, it must uncompress the data and then recompress the data again. This causes a significant performance penalty and a significant loss of quality. So don't use any form of compression.
Some drivers cannot provide uncompressed data (ATI All-In-Wonder Pro). It is not the end of the world, but it is a good reason to buy a WinTV capture card instead.
Once things are setup, you can press Next. While you are recording your lecture this screen will still be visible but not moveable, so before you press Next, make sure to move the screen where you want it.
In general is it not necessary to use the Source, Format, or Compression buttons. Usually the defaults are just fine.
Now we are ready to start the lecture.
This screen may be resized as necessary and moved around.
When you are ready to lecture, press +.
Now you are recording. Press the + key to advance to the next slide as necessary.
The first few times, you should keep an eye on the recording screen. Make sure that the video is appearing on both sides and make sure that you are recording audio and the levels are correct.
At the end of the last slide, the recording will be completed and the windows will go away.
The Upload to Repository and the Publish Lecture buttons are available.
In this tutorial, we will push the Publish Lecture.
Syncomat will produce a directory full of files with a web lecture suitable for play off the local disk. The naming convention is to create a subdirectory called synccd as a subdirectory of the main lecture directory.
This naming convention can be altered in Options | Preferences.
In this tutorial, we just accept the default and press Yes.
This dialog allows us to select and/or create the directory for the local-disk files.
In this tutorial, we simply accept the default and press OK.
Syncomat will initially empty this directory out and re-build all of the files. It is a good idea to look closely at this prompt before pressing OK.
The publishing process will take some time, depending on the amount of slides, audio, and video in the lecture.
The publishing process will update the status bar at the bottom of the screen as it progresses. This process may raise error dialogs or other dialogs as it processes the data.
When things have completed successfully, the status window says "All Done".
The Test button becomes enabled. Pressing this will launch a web browser viewing the index.htm file from the local disk directory.
Once the testing is complete, you can press the Publish to the Web button.
Note:
For a number of technical details, the same files cannot be used on the local disk and the web. The files in synccd will only play off the local disk - if they are uploaded to a web server, they will not work.
The files will be stored in the local directory on the hard disk for uploading to the web. The convention in general is to create a subdirectory called syncweb within the lecture directory.
It is possible to store this material in any directory. It is even possible to use a network mounted drive to put the files directly on the server as part of the publish process. The default convention is determined in Option | Preferences.
On the web, the files must contain the URL where they will be stored. If you enter the wrong URL, the files will not work from the web server.
Again, the progress will be shown in the status bar. This process may take some time depending on the amount of material involved.
When the process completes, the next step to upload to the web (unless you used a network drive).
This dialog is the automated upload process for Syncomat. it essentially does an MPUT to the directory you select on the server.
First, enter the host, account, and password, and press Login and you will be logged into the server.
You are logged into your home directory on the server and the contents of the home directory are listed.
We will navigate to the web subdirectory by double-clicking on web in the directory list. You can also use the Change Dir button.
We now are going to create a subdirectory called test so
press the Make Dir button.
Add "test" to the directory name and press OK.
Now that we are in the new directory, press Upload Files.
As the file uploading progresses, the status bar gives an indication of what is being done.
When the upload completes, the contents of the new directory are listed. to exit this dialog, press Close.
After uploading, you should test the version of the lecture now stored on the server by pressing Test.
Congratulations.
This documents much of the interface of Sync-O-Matic. Some of the more subtle features are discussed in the next section.