Welcome to Visual Commenter - a screen utility by Paolo Marini (c) 1994

This program is freeware for Lotus employees and Lotus' users, otherwise a
small contribution will be appreciated to receive a personalized version.
Don't forget to specify your full name and e-mail address.

An on-line help will be soon available.

This Windows program lets you create 3D slides to be displayed on your screen 
following a logical order.
The slides can contain any text in any font & size and they can placed 
anywhere on the screen. Once the slides are created, they can be displayed in 
sequence or randomly selecting them from a list (popup-menu).
The slides can be then moved or their order rearranged to complete the 
slideshow.
The main purpose is to help commenting Lotus ScreenCam videos for those who 
don't have a sound card (if the *.scm file has sounds...) but it can be used 
for creating a simple on-screen text presentation.
The steps to create a slideshow are very simple, just choose Slide/Create and 
enter the description and the actual message to display. You can then 
position and size the slide which is then added to the list. While 
positioning, use the mouse or cursor keys (with the ALT key to resize). Press 
Enter or double-click on the box to close it.
While in design mode you can then edit a slide text via Edit/Slide or 
reposition it via double-clicking on it (or pressing Enter).
You can reorganize your slideshow by moving slides up&down. To do this hold 
the ALT key while dragging a slide (neat !). Sorry for the orrible icons when 
dragging but I didn't have the time to draw good ones yet.
When you are happy with it, you can run the slideshow via Mode/Show. In this 
mode the first slide will appear followed by the others when you click on it 
or press Enter. Pressing the right mouse button will popup a list of all the 
slides, letting you choose a random one (cool !).

All the menu commands have shortcuts.
A note about deleting slides: when choosing Slide/Delete it is marked as 
deleted but not removed immediately from the list so still editable; however 
deleted slides won't display in the slideshow and they will be actually 
removed when saving the file.
The slideshow may be specified on the command line and this will 
automatically load it and start the show.

This program requires the file VBRUN300.DLL 


Where you can reach the author:

Paolo Marini
4 Square Ebl
78150 Le Chesnay
F R A N C E

Notes Mail : Paolo Marini @ LotusInt @ Notes Net @ Lotus
Internet   : pmarini @ dsi.unimi.it


Version history:

Changes in v0.9.6:
- improved slide jumping feature;
- added color setting for the whole text in the slide;
- fixed a small problem when saving files in very nested directory (only
        appears in v0.9.5 whose date is Jan 95);
- SmartPos positioning;
- ScreenCap! file import (July 94 version)
- Error 59 when saving (which was just a warning, btw)

New and improved in v0.9.5:
- fixed error when creating the first slide
- fixed the bug "path not found" when reorganizing slides;
- when in show mode:
	- CTRL-Left Button now pops up the slide list (instead of right 
	  button)
	- Right Button now lets you move the slide
- Slide/Append command added since the Slide/Create one now inserts the new 
  slide in the current list position
- minor fixes

Fixes in v0.9.4
- resolved error when minimizing application;
- added some error checking for file I/O;
- fixed a problem when sizing the slide too small.

Changes in v0.9.3
- Mode/Play removed;
- correct resizing of the main window;
- minor fix in changed flag.

Changes in v0.9.2
- file format changed !!! if anyone needs to convert long slideshows, I'll 
  work on a converter...
- it is now possible to set the font and its size, together with bold and 
  italic attributes for the entire text in the box;
- correct size of the slides when in Show mode;
- minor fixes.

Fixed in v0.9.1
- error when executing slideshow for the second time without exiting program;
- problem when deleting already deleted slides;
- old slides kept in file when saving slideshow with deleted slides;
- few changes to better distinguish the two input dialog for the message 
  description and the actual message;
- error with Mode/Show when no slide in list;
- File/Exit doesn't exit...

