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How To's A Short Tutorial On Using Deboard
Section 95.2

DeBoard II Help

To begin with, there are certain defaults that are set when DeBoard first runs. The defaults, or configurations, can be changed and then saved. So if you don’t like the default red, white and blue color scheme, fear not, we will change that shortly.

The first thing to do is begin with a clean slate. Click the Clear Current Configuration button to clear out any remaining stuff.

Next, click on the first title line and enter your new main title. This title is stationary and will not scroll or crawl. Press the tab key to move to the second title line and enter your second title. Now, left click on the first text object box and the cursor moves to that edit box. To read-in a text file into the first text object box, right click your mouse on the edit box; this will bring up its options menu. Select Read In Text File. Open any valid text file from the open file dialog box. Next, left click on the Crawl Line, then right click your mouse on the crawl box, this will bring up its options menu. Read-in a text file into the crawl box now.
At this point, we have four objects on the edit screen with text. Click the Play button, and see what happens! But remember, use the [Esc] key to exit the play screen; there are no exit buttons on that screen.
Now that you're back, let's make some adjustments.

If all went well, you just saw your first video bulletin board in action. The text files you loaded into text object one and the crawl line box will repeat forever. The play screen defaults use only a quarter of the screen for text object one. We'll change this in a moment. You also noticed that the crawl line was just below text object one. This is the crawl line default position.

When designing DeBoard, we used auto calculations that will change the defaults based on what adjustments you make in object and font sizing. In other words we took out a jillion user input options to make the program easy to use.

DeBoard displays graphic files on the defaulted right side of text object one. To load some graphic files into image list number 1, click on the [Images] page, then right click on the empty image list 1. The current graphic files that came with DeBoard will be listed in the open file dialog box. Locate a few graphic files and load the file names into the image list by opening them. Image lists are saved with configurations. To adjust how long a graphic remains on screen, drag the Image Play Time in Seconds slider in the Image page control panel to about 5 or 6 seconds. You should also check to see if the Skip Images check box is not checked on the [Configuration and Settings] page.

Now, click the Play speed button to see the mess we've made. Then come back here and we’ll fix it again.

More than likely you saw junks of graphics scrolling and jumping all over your play screen. You can't hurt anything by doing this, and it can be amusing. To invoke some auto calculations, left click the Image Stretch button on the [Images] page. Now, click the Play speed button to see the creative display of work thus far; then press the [Esc] key to come back here.

Back on the edit screen, left click the [Clock] button on the speed bar (so it is in the down position) and then load a different text file into text box two. At this point we have two scroll boxes, one crawl line, 1 date line and 2 title lines. Click Play again to see what's up. Are there still some problems with our creation? If so, click the [Auto Size] button on the speed bar, then [Play]. The [Size] option recalculates a default screen set based on what you've done. This is the easiest part of using DeBoard. The [Align] can also be used to "Size" objects up.
The last edit screen exercise is to change the fonts and colors of our text objects. Start at the first title line and right click over the text. This will bring up the Text Object Popup Menu again. Select a font color by left clicking the [Set Font Color] and selecting a color from the palette. You should also change the [Font Type Size] and use the [Set Background Color] option since we're here.

Before clicking the [Play] button, remember [Esc] or left clicking on a blank part of the play screen will return to the editor and the [Space Bar] will pause everything (and restart). Press the [Play] button.

Start by changing the height and widths of text object one.

You can also change the speed delay of the text and graphic objects from the [Configuration and Settings] page. Try 40 msec`s delay for the second text object and 60 msec`s delay for the crawl line. Since there are large variations in the Speed Delay sliders, use small amounts when adjusting. You can get rid of the jumping and slow down the scrolling by adjusting all the speed delays between your objects.

Don’t be afraid to try something different. Color schemes, sizing, movement, and content will draw your viewer to the information you are presenting. Also, don’t forget to save your configuration settings often. You can save as many different configurations as you need.