SlideRocket Support - The SlideRocket Editor

The SlideRocket Editor

The SlideRocket Editor is the main area where users create, manipulate and execute presentations, slides and slide groups. This section will teach you how to navigate and use the SlideRocket Editor.

To bring a presentation into the editor, double-click on it from within the Presentation Library or single-click on it from the home page. To open a library slide or slide group, click on the Slide Library then double-click on it.

Key Terms:

Asset: An image, SWF, flash, video or audio file that can be added to a presentation. Once placed on a slide, the asset is then called an element
Example: When a user uploads a picture into SlideRocket it is an asset. When a user assigns it to a slide it is an element on that slide.
Assets Library: Where assets are stored for use in multiple presentations. Personal assets can be uploaded into SlideRocket here. When accessed from the editor, there is also a tab to the Marketplace to purchase stock assets
Canvas: Similar to a painter’s canvas, it is the blank space on a slide where users can design the slide using elements, effects, transitions and builds
Element: Something that has been placed onto a slide, like a text box, picture, chart, or table
Library Slide: A collection of slides that can be used in multiple presentations and shared with others. When a library slide is updated in one presentation, it is updated in all presentations in which it is used. Library slides are indicated with an icon in the Slide Sorter
Menu Bar: The menu bar is located along the top of the SlideRocket Editor and provides users with tools to manipulate, save, edit, add, delete, auto advance and more. This guide will cover these tools in further detail
Placeholder: Predefined space on a slide’s layout for text, assets, charts, etc.
Slide Group: A group of slides created in the Slide Library that are added to a presentation as an uneditable collection of slides
Slide Tray: The bar across the bottom where the slide thumbnails for the presentation are displayed
Toolbar: The toolbar, located on the left-hand side of the canvas, allows users to add elements to a slide canvas

ADVANCED NOTE: Return to the libraries by clicking on the SlideRocket logo.

Menus Within the Editor:

Slide Properties:

Skip this Slide: Does not show slide when presentation is played
Add slide to library: Saves the slide to library
Theme: Updates the theme for the whole presentation and allows for creation of new theme
Layout: Changes layout from default theme options
Background: Changes background from default theme options
Reset Layout: Returns placeholders to original layout
Transition: Determines how slide will animate and advance when played
Audio: Sets audio for slide
Advance to next slide: Sets the time before the slide advances to the subsequent slide
View Slide History: Shows all saved versions. Can select and revert to a previous version

ADVANCED NOTE: To set audio for the whole presentation, click on File, then click Presentation Settings. From this location, the entire presentation’s audio advance can be set as well. If a slide has audio advance and the presentation has a separate one, the slide’s audio advance will be applied.

Menu Bar:

The menu bar is located along the top of the SlideRocket Editor and provides users with tools to manipulate, save, edit, add, delete, auto advance and more.

File

Save: Save changes to the presentation
Revert…: Returns the presentation to an older version
Choose Theme…: Select or create a new theme for the presentation
Edit Theme: Edit layouts and backgrounds for custom themes
Print…: Print the entire presentation or specific pages
Presentations Settings…: Set the rules for audio in this presentation
Resolution:
- Slide aspect ratio: use the pull-down menu to select the resolution: Standard, Wide Screen, Apple, Portrait, Print and Custom
Playback:
- Advance slides automatically after [insert] seconds: determines the speed the slides play
  - If slides are set to auto advance in presentation settings and Advance to Next Slide on slide level, the slide level will be used
  - Allow viewer to manually navigate slides: determines if the view can click on the slide to advance when played
Presentation Soundtrack
- Select…: Opens the asset library and shows audio files to choose from Users can also import a new audio file here
- Clear: Removes the audio from the presentation
- Play: Determines if the audio is off, played once or on loop
- Volume: Use the toggle to determine how loud the audio will play
- Preview: Hear how the audio will sound in the presentation
Close: Return to the main library

Edit

Undo: Erases the last change made to the slide, reverting it to the previous state
Redo: Reverses undo
Cut: Removes text from slide and saves it to the clipboard for pasting
Copy: Saves a copy of the text from the slide to the clipboard for pasting
Paste: Pastes text that has been cut or copied to the selected location
Delete: Removes the selected element from slide
Duplicate: Makes a copy of the original slide
Select All: Highlights all elements on the slide

Slide

New Slide: Adds a new slide to the presentation
Insert Slide from Library: Adds an existing slide from the Slide Library to the presentation
Duplicate Slide: Creates a copy of the original and places it in the next sequential spot
Delete Slide: Deletes a slide from the presentation
Add Slide to Library: Saves a slide in the library for use in other presentations
Skip Slide: Slide is in the presentation, but is not shown when the presentation is played or printed
Go: Jumps user to another slide
- Next Slide: Jumps to next slide
- Prev Slide: Jumps back to the previous slide
- First Slide: Jumps to first slide in presentation
- Last Slide: Jumps to last slide in the presentation
Preview builds: Allows the user to see how the builds will animate when presentation is played

Arrange

Bring to Front: Brings element to top of the stack
Bring Forward: Brings element one level forward in the stack
Send to Back: Moves element to bottom of the stack
Send Backwards: Moves element one level back in the stack
Toggle Lock: Locks an element in place, disabling it from being moved on the slide
Group: Sets group of elements as one element
Ungroup: Reverts the group command
Align: See section on Transform Tool box below

Tools

Hyperlink: Turn any slide element into a clickable link that redirects the viewer to another location in the presentation or to another website
Hover Tip: Adds a small text box to appear when an element on a slide is hovered over with the mouse cursor
Preferences: Set autorecover frequency for data

ADVANCED NOTE: For more information on Hyperlinks and Hover tips, please refer to the documentation at: http://www.sliderocket.com/support/documentation.html

SlideRocket also recommends users do not depend on auto-recover. Save edits often.

View

Play from Start: Plays presentation from first slide
Play from Current Slide: Plays presentation from the slide on the canvas
Show Slide Elements: Opens a new menu window in the editor that lists all the elements on that particular slide. Clicking the eye icon makes the element invisible while clicking on the lock icon sets the element in place. This turns off the ability to move or resize the element
Show Transform Toolbox:
- Transform: Sets the X and Y location of an element as well as the height, width and rotation
  - X: Positions the left edge of the element in pixels
  - Y: Positions the top edge of the element in pixels
  - Width: Sets the width of the element in pixels
  - Height: Sets the height of the element in pixels
  - Rotation: Sets the rotation of the selected element in degrees either by dragging the toggle within the circle or by entering a number in the box. Hold the shift key when choosing the rotation to constrain to 45-degree increments
- Align:
  - Align Lefts (horizontal): Aligns the left edges of all selected slide elements
  - Align Centers (horizontal): Align the horizontal center points of all selected slide elements
  - Align Rights (horizontal): Aligns the right edges of all selected slide elements
  - Align Tops (vertical): Aligns the top edges of all selected slide elements
  - Align Middles (vertical): Aligns the vertical center points of all selected slide elements
  - Align Bottoms (vertical): Aligns the bottom edges of all selected slide elements
  - Distribute Horizontally: Positions all selected elements so that the horizontal spacing between each element is equal
  - Distribute Vertically: Positions all selected elements so that the vertical spacing between each element is equal
Show Slide Sorter: Opens a thumbnail view of all slides in the presentation
Show Slide Tray: Turns on and off the ability to view the slide tray
Show Property Sidebar: Turns on and off the ability to view the slide property panel menu
Show Notes: Turns on and off the ability to add and view notes to a slide. These notes are not visible when a presentation is played or presented in a remote meeting. The notes can be printed from the editor only
Show Undo History: Shows a detailed list of the slides edits and allows the user to undo edits, redo an undo edit and clear the edit history

Help

Help Contents…: Opens the Support Documents page http://www.sliderocket.com/support/documentation.html
SlideRocket Forums…: Opens the Forums and helpdesk http://support.sliderocket.com
Show Log…: Shows log of recent activity
About SlideRocket: Shows preview version number

Toolbar:

The toolbar, located on the left-hand side of the canvas, allows users to add elements to a slide canvas.

Text: Adds new textbox to slide
- Double-click and/or drag within the text box to select some or all of the text. The text box will be outlined with an orange box, indicating that any changes made from the Element Properties Panel will be applied only to the selected text.
- Click once on the text box and it will be outlined with a blue box, indicating that the entire text box is selected and any options chosen from the Element Properties Panel will be applied to all of the text inside the box.
Picture: Opens all images that available in the Asset Library, Marketplace or Flickr
Flash: Opens all SWF files that are available in the Asset Library, Marketplace or Flickr
Video: Opens all FLV video files that are available in the Asset Library, Marketplace or Flickr
Shape: Shows the shapes that can be added to the slide. Select the shape, then click on the slide canvas to add it
Chart: Shows the chart options that can be added
Table: Adds a table to the slide canvas. Use the arrows to increase or decrease the number of columns and rows, then click Create Table. Tables can be linked to a Google Document for automatic updating. For more information, visit: http://www.sliderocket.com/support/qs_2-12_linking-google-spreadsheets.html
Plugin:
- Quotes: Search by keyword to add a quote to the slide
- Word Definition: Search by keyword to add a definition to a slide
- Snow: An admitted snow effect is applied to the slide

Adding an element to a slide

Users can use assets such as image, SWF, flash, video, audio, text, shapes, charts, tables and plugins to develop their slides. Once placed on a slide, the asset is then called an element

Add an element from the toolbar:

Click on the icon for the element to be added
Click mouse on the slide canvas. This will bring up an area to work with the chosen element

ADVANCED NOTE: When picture, flash, or video is selected, the Asset Library is opened. From the asset library, new assets can be imported or shared with other SlideRocket users.

Element Properties Panel:

The Element Properties Panel appears in place of the Slide Properties Panel when you select an element on a slide (otherwise the Slide Properties Panel is displayed). It offers four tabs with the following options:

Text, Picture, Flash, Video, Shape, Chart, Table or Plugin: The first tab is specific to the element that is selected, but can include resizing, reformatting, volume selection and more
Styles: Allows users to format the color, fill, stroke, etc. of the selected element
Effects: Allows users to apply effects to the selected element
Builds: Allows users to apply builds to the selected element

ADVANCED NOTE: For more specific information about these sections, please visit the documentation at: http://www.sliderocket.com/support/documentation.html

Adding Slides to Build a Presentation

Users can create a new slide, duplicate an existing slide and add a shared slide from the Slide Library.

Creating a new slide:

Click the New button in the lower-left corner or right-click in the slide sorter
Select New Slide to create a new slide

Duplicating a slide:

Right-click the slide you would like to copy in the Slide Sorter
Select Duplicate Slide

ADVANCED NOTE: Users can also copy a slide to duplicate it. When cutting or copying a slide, users can paste it into the current presentation or into any other presentation.

Adding a slide from the library:

Click on the Library button
Drag and drop the desired slide into the presentation displayed in the Slide Sorter

ADVANCED NOTE: Users can add slides to the library for their own personal use or to share with others. Any edits made to a library slide will update that slide in every presentation in which it is used. For more information about creating library slides, please visit the documentation at: http://www.sliderocket.com/support/documentation.html

Adding a slide group from the library:

Click on the Library button
Drag and drop the slide group into the presentation displayed in the Slide Sorter

ADVANCED NOTE: Slide groups must be edited from the presentation editor. For more information about creating library slides, please visit the documentation at: http://www.sliderocket.com/support/documentation.html

Reordering Slides:

The Slide Sorter displays thumbnails of the slides within the presentation in the order that they will appear during playback. Users may re-order a slide by clicking its thumbnail and dragging it to a new location in the Slide Sorter.

Right-Click Menu

The Right-Click Menu shows when a slide in the tray has been right-clicked by the user. It contains several options that are also in the Menu bar, allowing faster access to these tools.

New Slide: Creates new slides
Skip Slide: Toggles whether the slide is skipped during playback. Skipped slides remain in the presentation and are displayed with a white “X” through them in the Slide Sorter. These slides cannot be access when the presentation is played or printed
Cut Slide: Removes slide from presentation and saves it to the clipboard. Users can paste a cut slide in a different location in the Slide Sorter or into another presentation
Copy Slide: Makes a copy of the slide and saves it to the clipboard
Paste Slide: Pastes a slide that has been cut or copied either from the open presentation or another SlideRocket presentation
Duplicate Slide: Makes a duplicate of the slide next to the original in the Slide Sorter
Delete Slide: Deletes the slide forever. If this is a Library Slide, then a user will only be able to remove it from this presentation; It will not disappear from the Slide Library or other presentations in which it is used

Deleting Slides

Users can delete a non-library slide from SlideRocket forever by right-clicking on it in the Slide Sorter.

Removing a Slide

Library slides may not be deleted using the Slide Sorter. Users may remove a library slide from the current presentation by right-clicking its thumbnail in the Slide Sorter and selecting “Remove Library Slide From Presentation”