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#1 2009-01-15 13:39:50

**_DMMC_**

Removing Nav and Playback

Is there a way using Adobe Presenter to remove side navigation bar AND playback bar that appears across the bottom (after unchecking the Show Sidebar)???  We'd like to have all the navigation within the ppt slide.  Thank you.

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#2 2009-01-16 19:49:43

**_peterryce_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Yes, you can remove both. You can remove the side navigation bar by simply unchecking the "Enable Mode Switching" and the "Show Sidebar" options in the Theme Editor. To remove the playbar is a bit more work and involves making a change to the "vconfig.xml" file found in the "data" folder of the published presentation. You simply change the <uishow name="playbar" value="true">. If you change the "true" to "false" so that it reads <uishow name="playbar" value="false"> then you will not have any playbar. 

Here's a little (silent) recording that shows me making the change and launching a presentation so that you can see what the results look like.

http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/p93699219/

Enjoy,

Peter.reteP

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#3 2009-01-21 16:13:40

**_DMMC_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Thanks!  Any ideas why my feedback only (for quiz) is blurry after publishing - rest of slides/content appear fine?

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#4 2009-01-29 02:54:13

**_lego_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

You may want to try this:
Under Presentation Settings, there is a quality tab. Under the quality settings for Connect Pro, verify that the image quality is set to high.

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#5 2009-01-29 10:02:52

**_DMMC_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

It is set to high.  Images are fine.  Question text is fine.  Only the feedback boxes are blurry after being published.

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#6 2009-08-13 16:23:32

**_jcharland001_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

If you go the route of removing the out-of-box navigation functionality, does anyone know how to go about controlling the audio?

creating buttons that hyperlink between slides isn't an issue, but how does one control that audio in this scenario (pausing a slide).

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#7 2009-08-15 21:33:31

**_robva65_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

DMMC,

In addition to Peter's response, there is one other nifty solution that you might want to explore--IF it makes sense to you.

Rather than having to deal w/ the vconfig.xml file (which is only really an option post-publishing), you can also use Flash to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.  Of course, this means you'll need to create an object in Flash and add some actionscript to it, but it's really not that hard at all.

Here's how:

Go into Flash and create a small stage size, like 18 x 18 pixels.  Don't worry about creating any artwork, because you won't be using any!

Instead, on the very first frame of Layer 1 (which you'll see in the timeline), click that empty keyframe and hit F9 (or Windows -> Actions).

When the Action panel appears, add the following line of code:

this.onEnterFrame = function () {
     _root.m_controlBar.m_scrubBar._visible= 0;
}

Save your FLA (name it whatever you want) and create a swf file out of it by either publishing your flash file (File -> Publish) or hitting Control / Enter on your keyboard.

Then, back in PowerPoint, using Presenter's Insert Flash option, place the swf on the first slide of your PPT deck.  If you save and publish the PPT file, the playback bar, along with the scrubber button ojbect, will be completely eliminated!

On a related note, because Presenter outputs the various files targeting Flash Player versions 8/9, it's best to code everything using Flash Player 8 with Actionscript 2.0 as the coding base while working in Flash.

One nice artifact of working this way is that you completely eliminate the need to constantly update the vconfig.xml file if you find yourself in a situation where you have to republish your content....even a couple of times can be a pain---I've had clients make changes well after our initial delivery.  But having the flash object on the first slide totally mitigates any need to mess around with other files after republishing decks.

And to jcharland001's question about controlling audio, the code block I've suggested above will keep both the Audio and Attachment buttons INTACT DURING A PRESENTATION.

Rob

www.robrode.com/yabb/

Last edited by **_robva65_** (2009-08-15 21:35:49)

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#8 2009-08-27 13:52:05

**_jcharland001_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Hi Rob,

I tried to do this flash app to remove the scrubber and for some reason it didn't work.
I put it on a new slide (as the first slide) as well as my first slide of content.

I also published to my local computer and to the Adobe Connect Pro servers and neither worked.

Any idea why?

Also, what I really would like to do is not remove the scrubber, but to remove the next and back buttons on the playbar.

I used the code:

this.onEnterFrame = function () {
_root.m_controlBar.m_slideNextBtn._visible= 0;
_root.m_controlBar.m_slideBackBtn._visible= 0;

}

But this didnt work either.

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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#9 2009-08-27 14:27:14

**_robva65_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

JC,

Man, I hate it when that happens!

Just so I'm clear on what you attempted to do....are you sure you published the flash file using an earlier version of the Flash Player?  If you tried to target version 9, it's not going to work at all.

Also in the interest of total disclosure, I just took the EXACT same code you wrote above (which is completely valid by the way!) and created a test file in Flash.  I made sure that I set the Player version to 6 (just for kicks) and took the resulting swf into a ppt deck on teh first slide.  Published from PPT and the Back/Next buttons were eliminated.  I can provide proof/test file if you want.

Give that a shot and let me know if you run into any additional problems.

Rob

Visit my Presenter forum at:
www.robrode.com/yabb/

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#10 2009-08-27 15:25:13

**_jcharland001_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Rob, much appreciated!!  We've gotten it to work now :-)

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#11 2009-08-27 15:31:24

**_robva65_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Outstanding!

Yeah, most of the time, its usually related to flash player versions....

And by the way...if you need the buttons (or anything else you've killed off) to reappear, all you have to do is make a new flash file and change the values from "false" to "true" or from 0 to 1.  Either way should work.

Insert the new swf on the slide you need the elements to reappear on, and you should be on your way!

Rob

www.robrode.com/yabb/

Last edited by **_robva65_** (2009-08-27 15:32:24)

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#12 2009-08-28 14:28:17

**_jcharland001_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Hi Rob,

Quick question - I've made the Play button and the Previous and Next buttons invisible with the code you provided.

What I noticed is that with the Play button disabled, it kind of blends into the play bar.
With the previous and next buttons they are kind of grey and matted rather than the striped background of the play bar.

Any idea how to make the background of those buttons the same as when making the play button invisible?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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#13 2009-08-28 15:19:16

**_robva65_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

JC,

What you'd have to do is modify the Actionscript in the following way:

this.onEnterFrame = function () {
    _root.m_controlBar.m_slideNextBtn._visible= 0;
    _root.m_controlBar.m_slideBackBtn._visible= 0;
    _root.m_controlBar.m_slideBackBtnBG._visible = 0;
    _root.m_controlBar.m_slideNextBtnBG._visible = 0;

}

Thanks for alerting me to the problem you ran into...I've just updated my log of coding so I can keep track of all this stuff.

Anyway, give that a shot and let me know how it goes!

Rob

Visit my Presenter forum:
http://www.robrode.com/yabb/

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#14 2009-09-10 11:20:40

**_jcharland001_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Hi Rob,

I'm trying to make the scrub bar appear and disappear on certain slides (i.e. Scrub bar invisible on slide 1, scrub bar visible on slide 2).

If I navigate back to slide 1 (no scrub) from slide 2 (scrub) - the scrub bar is there.

I'm also finding that if you put the swf on slide 2 to reappear - it doesnt reappear until slide 3.

Any help you could provide would be great!

Also just to note - I'm not doing the navigation through the presenter << and >> buttons. I have created custom buttons on the slide that link to next and previous slides within the presentation....not sure if this is causing the problem.

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#15 2009-09-10 12:51:09

**_robva65_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

JC,

What you're experiencing is an "artifact" that I like to call "persistence".  What it basically means is this: if you have a flash file that is set up to control [i]something[\i], that level of control will persist as you move throughout a presentation...no matter what slide you move to...or from!

I'm glad you shared more info about what you're doing in your PPT deck.  What I'd be inlcined to recommend is that you forgo the Presenter playbar altogether; this way you won't run into some of the issues you've been experiencing.  By using your own PPT-based buttons (like a <Back or Next> type of button), then those can be used to functionalize your presentation, but the drawback is that they need to be hyperlinked to each next/previous slide in your deck manually.  Very tedious work for sure.

One other thing to POSSIBLY investigate:

instead of using the "_visible" property of the scrubBar component, try setting its alpha property to 0 (which, visually, is the exact same thing as killing the visible property) so it looks like this:

this.onEnterFrame = function () {
     _root.m_controlBar.m_scrubBar._alpha= 0;
}

My fear is that if you take this approach, the flash swf will still behave as a "persistant" object, but again, it might be worth taking a look.

Rob

http://www.robrode.com/yabb/

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#16 2011-06-24 02:59:35

**_k9williams_**

Re: Removing Nav and Playback

Rob, do you know what the code would be to display the side panel and auto advance the slides. We are experiencing some very inconsistent issues since our upgarde to version 8 with presentations sometimes displaying the side panel and auto advancing as they should and sometimes not. We are thinking it may be possible to write into each slide a swf file which would send the command on each slide to display the sidebar and auto advnace to overwrite whatever issue we are facing with inconsistent playback.

Can you help?
Thanks
Kevan

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