Display Options (Feature Request)

Let me start off by saying I love Proclaim. We've been using OpenSong for years, but needing to switch between programs throughout the service was never a smooth operation, not to get into other difficulties we had.

So, we've been using Proclaim since it debuted, and here are a few of my problems/suggestions that I haven't seen anywhere else on the forum yet.

1. The Mac client is still crashing on us. I think this is probably due to our old Mac Mini running USB -> Video more than Proclaim, but it has been frustrating. We may have to try and budget in a PC purchase. In my testing, I haven't had any issues with the PC version, but I still can't get a video to complete start to finish on our Mac client.

2. Presenter view. While I find the "whole slide" view side scrolling on the bottom aesthetically pleasing, it uses a lot of screen real estate. OpenSong frustrated us with a small windowed (not re-sizable) view, but by showing us a text view of the slide contents, the people working the computer were quickly able to find the correct slide. I've heard from several of our volunteers that they can't quickly identify which slide to use next. The thumbnails can be fuzzy and hard to read, and the mouse over slow to come up when someone is trying to quickly advance the song. I'd love a minimalistic option for the controlling computer, giving the song lyrics more real estate than the entire slide. Some of the songs come up with more than 6 slides, and to make the slides legible, we can probably only see 4 or 5 on the screen at a time.

Thanks for a great product!

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Jonathan

2. Presenter view. While I find the "whole slide" view side scrolling on the bottom aesthetically pleasing, it uses a lot of screen real estate. OpenSong frustrated us with a small windowed (not re-sizable) view, but by showing us a text view of the slide contents, the people working the computer were quickly able to find the correct slide. I've heard from several of our volunteers that they can't quickly identify which slide to use next. The thumbnails can be fuzzy and hard to read, and the mouse over slow to come up when someone is trying to quickly advance the song. I'd love a minimalistic option for the controlling computer, giving the song lyrics more real estate than the entire slide. Some of the songs come up with more than 6 slides, and to make the slides legible, we can probably only see 4 or 5 on the screen at a time.

Thanks for a great product!

This is something that Kevin (see link below) and others have noticed repeatedly. This needs to be addressed by Logos since I am pretty sure everyone using Proclaim would eventually struggle with this aspect of the software.

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/43465.aspx

Jonathan

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/325050#Comment_325050

This is something that Kevin (see link below) and others have noticed repeatedly. This needs to be addressed by Logos since I am pretty sure everyone using Proclaim would eventually struggle with this aspect of the software.

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/43465.aspx

Actually I guess that wasn't the right link.. I know I read someone commenting on this yesterday, but I can't find it.

Andy

2. Presenter view. While I find the "whole slide" view side scrolling on the bottom aesthetically pleasing, it uses a lot of screen real estate. OpenSong frustrated us with a small windowed (not re-sizable) view, but by showing us a text view of the slide contents, the people working the computer were quickly able to find the correct slide. I've heard from several of our volunteers that they can't quickly identify which slide to use next. The thumbnails can be fuzzy and hard to read, and the mouse over slow to come up when someone is trying to quickly advance the song. I'd love a minimalistic option for the controlling computer, giving the song lyrics more real estate than the entire slide. Some of the songs come up with more than 6 slides, and to make the slides legible, we can probably only see 4 or 5 on the screen at a time.

I agree wholeheartedly with this comment.

Our operates similarly report difficulties in easily navigating between slides. Either thumbnails are too small or so large that the song overlaps of the edge of the screen.

Andy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/325052#Comment_325052

This is something that Kevin (see link below) and others have noticed repeatedly. This needs to be addressed by Logos since I am pretty sure everyone using Proclaim would eventually struggle with this aspect of the software.

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/43465.aspx

Actually I guess that wasn't the right link.. I know I read someone commenting on this yesterday, but I can't find it.

Hi Jonathan,

I think this is possibly the correct link. I mention this issue in the second post on the thread...

Andy

Hunter Clagett

1. The Mac client is still crashing on us. I think this is probably due to our old Mac Mini running USB -> Video more than Proclaim, but it has been frustrating. We may have to try and budget in a PC purchase. In my testing, I haven't had any issues with the PC version, but I still can't get a video to complete start to finish on our Mac client.

Are you running a USB monitor/projector from your Mac Mini? Or, are you running videos from USB flash drives?

Our developers are working very hard at resolving the memory usage issues that have been causing instability and performance degradation on with the Mac client. In the meantime we do apologize for the inconvenience.

[quote]

Thanks for a great product!

Those are some good suggestions! You should post them on our Proclaim Usevoice page: http://proclaim.uservoice.com/

Thanks,

Scott Alexander

The thumbnails can be fuzzy and hard to read, and the mouse over slow to come up when someone is trying to quickly advance the song. I'd love a minimalistic option for the controlling computer, giving the song lyrics more real estate than the entire slide.

Have you tried resizing the timeline?

Scott Alexander

1. The Mac client is still crashing on us. I think this is probably due to our old Mac Mini running USB -> Video more than Proclaim, but it has been frustrating. We may have to try and budget in a PC purchase. In my testing, I haven't had any issues with the PC version, but I still can't get a video to complete start to finish on our Mac client.

We just shipped an update which reduces the memory usage on Mac while playing video. I'm interested to hear if this works any better for your mac mini. If not it would be helpful if you could provide some crash logs.

Mac:

/Users/[username]/(~Library)/Application Support/Proclaim/Logging/
The Library folder might be hidden. If so, hit CMD+Shift+G and enter "~/library" into the box.

Windows:

XP - %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\Proclaim Log Files\
Vista/Win7 - %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\Proclaim Log Files\

Andy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/325151#Comment_325151

Have you tried resizing the timeline?

Dear Scott,

Although this addresses the question of the OP, resizing in this way results in a different problem.

In resizing the timeline in this way, less of the song fits on the screen. If you then have a song that stretches over six slides (which is not unusual), at this size, four slides are hidden off screen. This then either relies on the operator knowing the song sufficiently well to use the hot keys or necessitates scrolling back and forth which is less than ideal.

Further options enabling the central screen to be set to preview would make this more manageable (i.e. the central screen could be used to preview the next slide, as per media shout, etc.).

Although it looks pretty, I am not sure I see the value of previewing on screen what is being displayed through the projector. If I want to see what is being projected, I would look at the projection screen. It would be fantastic if we were able to customise what is viewed on the central Proclaim screen. I think this would make the issues with the timeline more maneagable.

Andy

Scott Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/325163#Comment_325163

Thanks Andy. I will pass this feedback on to our UI designers.

Andy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/325166#Comment_325166

Thanks Andy. I will pass this feedback on to our UI designers.

Dear Scott,

Thanks for listening.

And just to balance the constructive criticism above, we are very impressed with Proclaim overall.

Thank you for your assistance.

Andy