SteveK wrote:I think I may be able to pin down exactly what is happening here.
When you run a powerpoint presentation, if you advance slides using space bar (or the buttons on the PPT tab) after you get to the last slide, PPT displays a black slide with the words 'end of slide show, click to exit' at the top. If you press space to advance one mor after this (or click next slide button) it seems to advnce to a further black slide, but indicates to ZW that the presentation has finished (thus only shows the start presentation button in the PPT Tab). The problem is that the PPT presentation window is still in the foreground (black) so the song lyrics are displayed, but hidden behind the black PPT display window!
To avoid getting into this state ...
To try to prevent this causing a problem for inexperienced users, tell them to click the 'loop continuously' check box before running the presentation, and you won't ever have this problem. Trouble is you need to do this for every presentation, and it is easily forgotten!
I have a pretty much the same problem, EXCEPT that since I'm using powerpoint to display a vidoe, I have it automatically advance to the last slide - and then get the "click to exit" slide. The idea is that the video plays and ends automatically - but it doesn't without pressing the Stop button in the powerpoint tab.
Ideally Zionworx should handle powerpoints in the same way as other items (ie songs) in the playlist. I find that the operators who are not especially good with computers get confused with having to press the Stop button - they'd expect everything in the play list to be operated in the same basic way - ie Space to advance slide / song, F4 to end the powerpoint / song and move to the next item in the play list. Surely this must be possible?
In the case of powerpoints that automatically advance (such as my videos), pressing F4 during playback or after they have ended should end the powerpoint and move onto the next item in the playlist. (Ideally after the powerpoint has automatically ended it would be good for the next playlist item to display automatically).
I have tried to solve this by using the option in powerpoint 2003 to not display a black slide at the end of the presentation (the one that says "click to exit"). Strangely, this always works when playing powerpoints outside of Zionworx, but within Zionworx, its sometimes works, but sommetimes I still end up with a black screen. Can't remember if the Stop button is still enabled or disabled at that point, I'll post back after I've checked.
Clicking the loop option is a good idea to at least allow the Stop button to always work. I still don't like operators having to press the Stop button as they find it confusing - and it often disrupts the flow of the worship service.