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Super Simple eZediaMX Instructions
eZedia is one of the fastest ways any teacher or
student can produce a multimedia project. It allows you to do fancy
things quickly and to keep yourself organized while you’re doing it.
The first step in keeping yourself organized is to
always create a new file folder for an eZedia project. You will want to
save your eZedia files in that project folder. The reason is that when
eZedia saves the frame(s) of your project into the folder, it also
creates another folder called the support files where it keeps all of
your movie files and sound files. This way you can’t misplace important
files.
Get in the habit of creating a new folder for every
eZedia project.
To make a folder:
1. Go to Start > Programs > Windows Explorer.
2. When Windows Explorer comes up, choose where you want the folder.
For this example, we’ll create the folder under My Documents.
3. Look at the left side of the Windows Explorer screen. You’ll see the
c:/ hard drive expanded with all sorts of folders under it. (If you
don’t see all the folders under c:/, just move the tip of your mouse
arrow over the small + sign next to the letter c:/ and click. That will
let you see all the folders.)
4. Look down the list of folders until you see “My Documents.” Click on
it once so that it is highlighted in dark blue.
5. Now, go to Files in the menu at the top of your screen. Click on New
> File Folder..
6. A new folder with a blue bar for the title will appear under My
Documents on the RIGHT side of the Windows Explorer screen. Type in the
name of your project into the blue area and then click off to the right
in a neutral white area.
7. If you made a mistake and the folder doesn’t have the name you want,
then move your mouse over the project folder. Right-click. Look at the
menu that appears. Choose Rename. The blue bar will appear again. Type
in the name you want.
Note: Only rename folders you create. Never rename the other folders
that the computer creates. You could confuse it.
With your eZedia project folder created, you’re ready to begin.
A. Starting the program and getting
ready
to work
1.
Double-click on the eZediaMX icon to start the program.
2. eZediaMX will load showing a large blue area and a smaller white
document area where you will create your frame(s) (Figure 1).
3. You are going to want to expose part of the
computer “desktop” so you can drag and drop files into the eZediaMX
document window. To do that, move your mouse cursor to the bottom,
right-hand corner of
your screen until you see a double-arrow at a 45 degree angle. Click,
hold,
and drag in on the corner to move it in from the edges until you can
see
some of your computer desktop. |
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B.
Getting your document frame ready
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1. Click on File
> Document Setup
2. Click on the box next to “Play Using Presentation Clicks.”
This will make the development process a little easier. Later, we’ll
change to using navigation buttons, etc.
3. Check the Frame Width and Frame Height dimensions. Make them say 640
x 480.
4. Do not lock frame size at this time. Later, if you want to make
sure you or your students never change the dimension of a frame, then
select/enable “Lock frame size.”
5. Click OK.
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C.
Choosing a background color for your frame
1. Click on Frames > Frame Setup > Color.
2. Click on one of the color choices for the background. You can always
change the color choice later.
3. Click OK.
4. Your previously white document frame should reflect your new
color choice.
5. Notice that you have the option to apply this
color to the current frame, a certain number of frames, or to all the
frames.
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D. Giving
your frame a title
1. Click once on the text icon in the toolbar with
your left mouse button. The text icon looks like the letter “A” and it
is the 5th icon from the left.
2. A white text box will appear in your document window. Your text
cursor will be flashing in the box. You can now type your title.
E. Making your type fancier
1. Type what you want to appear as the title.
2. You are now going to make the text a little fancier. To do that
you have to select/highlight the text. To select the text, click at one
end of your title, inside the text box, and hold, and drag across the
text
to highlight your entire title.
3. With your text highlighted, click on Format > Text.
4. You will now see the Text Format box
appear. On the left side of the box, you can choose what your title
will look
like. On the right side of the box, choose the size of your font.
Now, if you want, choose whether you want your title to be bold,
italic, or underlined by clicking next to one of the boxes.
5. It is highly likely that your text box
will be too small for the changes you made to your text.
You need to expand your text box. First, you’ll have to select your
text box. Check to see if your text box has little handles around it.
If it does, you have your text box “selected.”
If your text box doesn’t have handles around it, move your mouse over
it until you see a hand with a pointy finger appear. When you see that,
click once and it will select the box.
Move your mouse to one of the handles and watch
for a double-headed arrow to appear. Click, hold, and drag out with
your
mouse. Watch your text box expand to let your text stretch out.
F. Making your text box
transparent
Your title will look nicer if the text box is transparent. In other
words, the white space around the text will be made to disappear.
1. Move your mouse arrow over the small text icon in the top,
left-hand corner of your text box. (Take a look at the graphic above
and you’ll see it there.) Double-click with your left mouse button.
2. The Text Object box opens. Look at the line labeled
“Draw”. There is a drop down arrow. Click on it. You will see the word
transparent. Click on that. Click on OK.
3. If you selected transparent, then you’ll notice that the white space
around your text box has now disappeared (unless you chose a white
background for your frame - in that case you won’t see the difference!)
NOTE: There are some other things you can do while the Text Object
box is open.
i. Give your text box a name. In the line, next to Title, type in a
name for your text object. This time you’re making a title. Next time
you might be making instructions. Have the title make sense to you.
This will be important later.
ii. Next to Activate, you have another drop down arrow. This indicates
a number of choices. If you want your title to show up when the frame
opens up, leave activate set for “frame open.”
iii. For Effect, we’re choosing No Effect at this time. You can
experiment later with other effects.
G. Moving your text box on the frame
1. It is highly unlikely that your text box is exactly where
you want it. Move the point of your mouse cursor over the outline of
the
text box and click, hold, and drag the box to where you want it to
appear
on your title frame and then let go of the mouse.
2. Repeat that last step to get it exactly where you want it.
H. Changing your text box to a
graphic
People like to experiment with different fonts. However, when they
play their project on another machine, the fancy font they chose isn’t
the same and they are disappointed with the effect. This happens to all
computer programs. eZedia gives you a way to avoid this. eZedia will
allow
you to convert your text box to a graphic so that it will look the same
on every single computer. No surprises!
1. Look at your text box in your document frame. Make sure there is
visible space around your text at the bottom and to the right.
2. Notice that below the text icon in the top left hand corner is a
small arrow indicating a fly-out menu of other choices. Click on the
small arrow.
3. Look down the list and click on text to graphic.
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4. A second box now
appears with a small graphic icon in the top left-hand corner. This
tells you that your text box is now a graphic and will look the same on
all machines.
5. You now have both a graphic object that looks like your title and a
text object that was your title, on the frame in front of you. In case
you might want to use your text box again, we’re going to put it in an
object well that we will save with this project.
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I. Opening a new Object Well
Object wells are an extremely valuable tool that you’ll use often.
When you create projects, object wells allow you to put things in them
and then bring them back again when you need them. You don’t have to
hunt
all over to find it again. You just drag things into the well and drag
things out. Because only a copy comes out of the well, you can never
have
the well go “dry”!!
1. To get a new object well, click on File > New > New
Object Well.
2. You’ll see a long, white strip with the title “Object Well”
appear to the right of your document frame.
3. You’re now ready to put things in the well.
J. Putting Objects in the
Object Well
You don’t need a text box of your title and a
graphic box of your title on the document frame. However, you might
want to change the wording or the color of your title at some point and
once you change your text box into a graphic you can’t change it there.
The solution is
to keep your original work handy in an object well.
1. Move your mouse over the outline of the text box. Remember: the
text box has a small icon in the upper left-hand corner that looks like
the letter “A”.
2. With the point of the mouse arrow over the line, hold down the CTRL
key (control key) on your keyboard and then click, hold, and drag the
text object into the object well. You’ll know you can let go of your
mouse
when a gold line appears around the inside of the object well.
3, When you see the gold line inside the object well, let go of your
mouse. You’ll now see a miniature picture of the object you just placed
in the well.
Note: You can put just about anything in an object well. Just click,
hold, and drag it in. If you have particular graphics you want to use,
they can also go into the well.
Good idea: Whenever you create an object in eZedia, you can
double-click it and edit the properties. One thing we forget to do when
we start out is to give an object a title. This becomes important once
you start dragging things into an object well. If you get 20 items in
the well, you’d like to quickly be able to see which thing is which. A
title speeds up that
process. eZedia also gives each item in the well an icon so you know
which
are text objects and which are graphic objects, etc. Get in the habit
of giving your objects a title.
K. Saving your project
It’s a good idea to save your project frequently.
eZedia helps by saving it each time you preview your work or run the
project.
1. To save your project, click on File > Save or Save As.
The first time you save a project it will ask you where you want it
saved.
2. When the Save As box comes up on the screen, look at the white line
next to “Save in” and click on the drop down arrow to locate the
project folder you created at the very beginning. Make sure that folder
is open and the title of the folder appears in the “Save in” line.
3. Give your project a name and click save.
If you were to go back into Windows Explorer and now look in the folder
you created, you would find your project file and another folder called
support files that eZedia made for you. You’re on your way to being
organized.
L. Adding graphics to your document frame
1. Look at your toolbar. Locate the 3rd icon from
the left that looks like a picture.
2. Click on the icon.
3. The following box will appear. Click in the “Look in” line and
navigate to where your graphic is located on the hard drive. Once its
title appears in the File Name box, just click open.
If you just want to use the default graphic you see in the next
picture, then just click Cancel in the Open dialog box (seen above) and
it will
take you to the dialog box you see next.
4. Once you clicked open, the eZedia Graphic Object box appeared with
the picture you choose highlighted to the side. Give your picture a
title and change any of the properties that you want. When you are
finished, click OK.
Remember: The easier way to bring in pictures is to just click, hold,
and drag a picture from an open file in Windows Explorer or on your
desktop directly into the eZedia document frame. You can even drag a
picture in directly from the Internet into an eZedia project.
A compressed
PDF file of these instructions is available here. The PDF version
of this file was produced several months ago. Consequently, the screen
captures are from the previous version of eZediaMX 3.5 so there is a
slight change in how the icons look, but not in how the program
operates.
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