Comp Programs- FotoMagico 4: Timeline

Working with the Storyboard/Timeline

At the bottom of a FotoMagico document window you can see the Storyboard or the Timeline. The
Storyboard and Timeline are views into your slideshow data. They allow you to create and edit your
slideshow. You can use both views to perform most of the same functions, however, some tasks are
easier to achieve in one view than the other. You can only display one view at a time. Use the
Storyboard button or the Timeline button to toggle between the two views. You can also toggle
between the two views by choosing the appropriate menu commands from the View menu.

The Storyboard is generally used for adding and rearranging slides (image, movies, titles) or audio. The
Timeline on the other hand is helpful for fine-tuning the duration of slides and transitions, and editing
audio items by using the audio waveform feature.

In addition, you can perform most of the same actions by clicking somewhere in the Storyboard or
Timeline, selecting from the Main menu, or working in the Options Inspector; but often they are easier to achieve by clicking directly in the Storyboard/Timeline. If you want to change parameters for a multiple selection however, then you must use the Options Inspector.

When to Use Storyboard View

- Storyboard view is very useful to help start your slideshow by dragging images from the Image
Browser to the Storyboard, and for rearranging slides by dragging them within the Storyboard.

- Slides display as the same size square frame (which always takes up the same amount of space,
regardless of the duration). You can see a larger number of slides at the same time, so you get a
better overview. This is useful when adding new slides or rearranging slides via drag & drop.

- Thumbnails of images, movies, and titles are larger, making it easier to recognize each thumbnail
image.

When to Use Timeline View

- Timeline view allows you to be more precise and is best for fine-tuning slides and transition
durations.

- You can see fewer slides, but you can see more properties for each item in the Timeline.

- The Timeline view depicts slides as rectangular bars with the width being proportional to the
duration. The transition interval, where both the incoming and outgoing slides overlap, is drawn as
a “stairstep” shape. Dragging the lower left edge of this interval allows you to change the slide
duration, while dragging the upper right edge allows you to change the transition duration.

- The Timeline view also provides an audio waveform display which allows you to locate an exact
position in a song.

- Audio markers are used to synchronize slide transitions with the beat of the music by placing a
marker at an exact location in the audio. Using audio markers along with the audio waveform helps
to visually place the marker on the beat of the music. Audio markers display as a vertical red line
on top of the waveform. (For this release, audio markers have been moved from the Audio options
to the Timeline.)

- For more information, see Audio Markers.

- Dragging the left or right edges of an audio item in the Timeline, changes the fade-in or fade-out
offsets. Dragging the yellow dots of the volume envelope (only visible when audio is selected)
changes fade-in/out durations. Dragging the horizontal part of the volume envelope changes
volume.

Drag & Drop in the Storyboard/Timeline
Dragging slides into the Storyboard behaves differently, depending on whether you drag a single item
or drag multiple items. A yellow highlight indicates where the dragged items will end up when being
dropped. When dragging multiple items, only an insertion between existing slides is possible. When
dragging a single item, then adding a new layer to an existing slide, or replacing the media file of an
existing layer is also possible.

Inline Authoring Help in Storyboard/Timeline
Virtually all icons that appear on various items in the Storyboard/Timeline can be clicked to reveal a
popover that communicates a notice or some kind of issue. The popover explains the situation and
offers buttons with potential solutions.

About Tracks in Storyboard/Timeline
Using multiple tracks requires more vertical space in the Storyboard/Timeline, which might present a
problem on smaller screens (for example, on a MacBook). For this reason, you can expand and collapse the visual and audio tracks. Click the Visual or Audio track icon in the lower left corner of the window (below the Storyboard/Timeline) to expand or collapse the tracks.

Blue indicates the track is expanded, grey indicates the track is collapsed. The same commands are
also available in the View menu. When visual tracks are collapsed, the layers are displayed as a stack
of frames, which auto-expand when hovering over the stack.

Storyboard & Timeline
The Storyboard and Timeline view at the bottom of the document window is the main area for
authoring your slideshow. The Storyboard and Timeline view have a header, one or more visual tracks, and up to 3 audio tracks.

They both allow you to create and edit your slideshow. You can use both views to perform most of the same functions, however, some tasks are easier to achieve in one view than the other. You can only display one view at a time. Use the Storyboard button or the Timeline button to toggle between the two views.

The Storyboard is generally used for adding and rearranging slides. Whereas the Timeline is helpful for
fine-tuning the duration of slides and transitions, and editing audio.

For information on the differences between the Storyboard and Timeline, see Working with the Storyboard/Timeline.

-- The visual track contains the slides. Each slide can hold up to 6 layers (images, movies, or titles).

-- The layers are displayed as frames that are stacked vertically. A blank slide is displayed as an
empty dashed outline.

-- The music track holds audio files. Music can span multiple slides.

-- The sound effects track usually holds short audio clips that provide ambience for a single slide, but
may also span multiple slides.

-- The narration track holds recorded narration for the slideshow. It can span multiple slides if the
narration was recorded in one session, or can be broken up into several different audio files that
span fewer slides.

-- You can expand and collapse the visual and audio tracks. Collapsing reduces the required vertical
space, which is helpful on smaller notebook displays. When visual tracks are collapsed, the layers
are displayed as a stack of frames, which auto-expand when you mouseover the stack.

-- Chapters can help structure your slideshow into logical parts. Each chapter would contain a group
of slides and audio items. Chapters can be color-coded for easy identification as you are quickly
scroll through your slideshow.

Dragging to the Storyboard or Timeline

Dragging files from the Finder or from the media browsers in the Sidebar adds new elements to the
slideshow. The yellow highlight on the background indicates where the new items will be inserted or
added.

- Image Files - Inserts new slides with the images at the dropped position.

- Movie Files - Inserts new slides with the movies at the dropped position.

- RTF Text Files - Titles are added to existing slides at the dropped position.

- Audio Files - Audio items will be added starting at the dropped position and will span as many
slides as necessary to cover the length of the audio files. If necessary, empty slides will be added at
the end of the slideshow. You can shorten an audio item by dragging its right edge to span fewer
slides.

You can drag an audio file to the Storyboard or Timeline, and then add the images later. This
workflow is useful for authors who want to start out with pre-composed music and then add
appropriate images after. In previous versions of FotoMagico you always had to start by
adding images first, and then add the music.

Arranging Content

Telling a story is all about arranging your images in a good sequence. To rearrange the content you
can:

- Select images, movies, titles, or audio items by clicking on them. When selected, they highlight in
blue.

- Make a multiple selection by clicking on the background and drag a rectangle across multiple items.

- Make a multiple selection by clicking on the first item, then press the Up Arrow key and click on the last item.

- Extend the selection by pressing the ⌘ key and clicking on another item.

It is possible to make non-consecutive selections. This helps with rearranging your content,
as well as with editing options of multiple items at once.

-Drag selected items to a new location.

The dragged items will be inserted in a consecutive fashion when dragging a non-consecutive
selection to a new location in the Storyboard or Timeline.

- Delete selected items by pressing the ⌫ backspace key or by choosing the Delete item from the
Edit menu.

- Change the range of slides an audio item spans, by dragging the left or right edge of this audio
item.

- Double-clicking an item reveals the Options Inspector so you can edit parameters for the selected
items.

The Header

The header displays the following information above each slide:

- If a slide is set to continue after its duration, the header displays the slide duration. Double-click
the duration to edit the duration for a single slide.

- If a slide is set to continue at a mouse click, the header displays Click.

- If a slide is set to continue at an audio marker, the header displays Marker.

- Right-click, or Control+click on the text in the header to change the continue type for a slide.

- If the chosen slide duration or transition duration yields problematic timing, a yellow warning icon
is displayed. Click on this icon to show a popover that explains the situation and what to do about
it.

The new warning for problematic timing helps you to author slideshows that are guaranteed
to be playable on a wide variety of Macintosh computers. Try to follow the suggestions in the
explanatory popovers.

The Playhead
The playhead indicates where new slides will be inserted and where playback will start:

- Move the playhead by clicking on the blue triangle and dragging it to a new position.

- Move the playhead by one slide by pressing the left or right arrow keys.

- Move the playhead to the beginning of the previous or next chapter by pressing the Option key and
left or right arrow keys.

- Press the Spacebar key to preview the slideshow starting at the current playhead position.

Multiple Audio Tracks
FotoMagico supports three dedicated audio tracks: Music, Sound Effects, and Narration.

- Use the button below the Storyboard/Timeline to expand or collapse the audio tracks. This helps to save some vertical screen real estate on small notebook screens. Blue indicates the track is expanded. Grey indicates the track is collapsed.

- Select Audio>Mute Track from the Slideshow menu to mute the music track, effects track or
narration track. This mutes all audio in the track. A red x appears when audio is muted. This can
be useful during the authoring process when you want to concentrate on a single audio track and
not be distracted by other audio. To unmute the track, select the same menu item again.

- Select Insert > Record Narration... from the Slideshow menu to record audio directly to the
Narration track. A panel appears that lets you record the audio. Refer to Record Narration for more
details.

Contextual Menus
A right-click or Control+click on an item reveals a contextual menu. The commands in this contextual
menu depends on which kind of item you click.

Clicking on a visual item: