resizing in activprimary

[zeca]

I've just read a few threads which say two flipchart pages can't be open at the same time in activprimary.
I haven't seen anyone commenting on an additional difficulty of not being able to minimize or resize the flipchart page:
Quite often I'm faced with the need of running a cd track in the background while showing something on the flip page.
I can do that in activstudio when I reduce the flip page size and can control the cd track position or even change volume. In activprimary, as far as I know, I have to take the page out, put the track to play, open the flip page and wait for the track to end when I , put the page down again, close the cd track and get back to the flip page.
Maybe I'm not aware of something which might spare me of that.
zeca

[davidlloyd]

Hi Zeca

You might be able to keep the page visible if you set up a link to the track but it might depend on what software the musci plays in, i.e. Windows Media will force Primary into desktop mode.

[zeca]

Hi David!
Yes, the tracks run on Windows Media Player. Would you mind telling me (in case it's possible to implement it)
how I can set this link?
Thanks again
zeca

[davidlloyd]

The method is the same as setting any link really. In Primary you need to be in Design Mode. Pull out an object from the shared Collections to use as a button. Double click on it and go to Properties > Actions > File and choose Play Sound. Navigate through to the CD track or wherever the music is on your computer. Click OK. Come out of Design Mode and click on the object to activate the sound.

Hope it works. If the music is on the CD, the CD will need to be in the machine before you click the link.

The other option might be to set the default music play as something other than WMV so that it plays as you want it but I'm beginning to get a bit out of my depth:o

[zeca]

Thanks again David!
I had already tried this course of action but, for my surprise, when I tried to access WMP to get the tracks, all I found inside the WMP folder were 5 or 6 sub folders with absolutely nothing inside. Only now I noticed all the tracks I had stored under WMP control ended up being stuck in another folder in "my documents" under the label "unknown artist".
I've finally managed to create the link[clap], but I still can't figure out why the activstudio guys didn't devise activprimary with the same flexibility found in activstudio (in terms of resizing, of course) .
Thanks one more time for your suppport and patience.
zeca

[davidlloyd]

Hi Zeca
The reason for Primary's different behaviour is historical. The original version of Primary was a cut down version of Studio to make it easier for users unfamiliar with and possibly anxious about using computers. So it had a simple interface with easily accessible tools and appeared directly in flipchart mode so that users didn't need to understand the desktop or anything else.