Any Plans for Content Slide formatting?

I have been trying to like the Powerpoint options for use with Proclaim, but none seem workable on a regular basis. It seems like something doesn't work right from one presentation to another.

At the same time I really like the "signals" for Bible verses when you make content slides and would prefer to toss Powerpoint linking and use Proclaim directly for sermon slides (I suspect you at Proclaim would like that too). QUESTION: Is there any plan to add some "basic" local formatting options, like font size & color, underline, setting paragraphs, line spacing, etc., that most all programs have, so we can make nice looking, easy to read slides that aren't so super basic? I would be so happy.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Peter June

Making the switch from PowerPoint to Proclaim can sometimes be a confusing process. In PowerPoint you add and format text directly on a slide; in Proclaim, adding and formatting text all happens off the slide:

There are a couple of informational articles you might find useful while you make the transition from PowerPoint:

How Proclaim's Smart Media works
Using font style templates
Underlining text
Fading in text (similar to PowerPoint's text animation)

David Saylor

Ok, I'm taking that as a "No" you are not going to add some more basic formatting functions.

Sorry I just don't think you are being realistic. Take this very simple (not pretty) slide. Can you give me a reasonable solution in Proclaim. Skip the background image along the bottom. I'm more interested in:

Ability to display fonts in different sizes on the same slide panel.
Ability to set the paragraph formatting so it's easy to read when words wrap.
Ability to spread out paragraphs to fill the slide nicely.
Colors of fonts differing is also good. (more than the emphasis function)

I can't do anything like that in Proclaim - maybe you can help me.

Peter June

We're planning on improving custom text fields, in particular to support multi-line, wrapping text. You can add a custom text field right above the slide view:

Custom text fields with more formatting options (bulleting, numbering, multiple lines) are on our list to improve.

[quote]Ability to display fonts in different sizes on the same slide panel.

Adding custom text fields should work. For each different font style you'll need a separate text field.

[quote]Ability to set the paragraph formatting so it's easy to read when words wrap.

Which formatting options were you interested in? Most service items (e.g. content) will automatically wrap text in the main text field. Song service items won't do so (preserving the formatting of the lines in a song is of greater importance than wrapping the text). Could you provide an example of a slide where you feel the text wrapping isn't what you'd like?

[quote]Ability to spread out paragraphs to fill the slide nicely.

The line height option might be handy here. Other options like "Align vertically/horizontally" or Left/Right/Center text might be useful to complement the line height:

[quote]Colors of fonts differing is also good. (more than the emphasis function)

Once custom text fields are more, well, customizable, it will make it easier to include different font colors on a slide. Although you can't have different colors (other than emphasis) in the same text field right now, it is possible to use an additional text box (as in the second screenshot on this post) with a different font color, size, etc.

Jordan Sjodin

Hey David, we do want to add more support for customizing your slides.

Ability to display fonts in different sizes on the same slide panel.

Ability to set the paragraph formatting so it's easy to read when words wrap.

Ability to spread out paragraphs to fill the slide nicely.

Colors of fonts differing is also good. (more than the emphasis function)

All of those are things we have talked about recently.

Here is what I just made with existing Proclaim:

Our custom text fields don't support wrapping at the moment, but it is something we want to support. So in the above you will see that I had to add two fields for the title.

As for the outline, I used our numbered list which does provide good wrapping, however when using the indent button, we don't change the outline to letters. This is also something we should add. For now I just indented and typed the lettering myself.

So yes, we can make something similar in Proclaim, but there are some areas for improvement and we are looking into them.

David Saylor

Thank you again! I kept working on it too. A few other issues with the system you are espousing:

1. If you have any more information for a "next" slide, you're sunk. Because all the custom fields remain on all the slides in that slide sequence. You have to begin another content slide for each one. Meaning formatting everything all over again.

2. In trying to do that next slide I noticed that you cannot put a "page break" in a numbered list. If you do the numbering starts at "1" again.

3. Using these drop down fields in this way is pretty archaic. You have to line them up manually both vertically and horizontally.

All in all working through an entire manuscript like this would be frustrating. I'm going to give it a try this week. But honestly it feel like I'm stepping back 25 years in computing technology.

Blessings.