Creating .CSDs with DeckBuilder

DeckBuilder is an application that installs automatically with the CP client. You can find it in your Start Menu under the "Ubiquitous Presenter" group. You can use DeckBuilder to import slides from applications other than PowerPoint. We also support instructor objects (items that you will see, but will not be projected on the screen) for non-PowerPoint users -- details below.

• From whatever application you use to create lecture slides (TeX, OpenOffice, whatever) create a directory of numbered images (the filenames don't matter, DeckBuilder looks for some number in the filename and takes them in increasing order). The image formats currently supported are: WMF, EMF, JPG, and PNG.
• Launch DeckBuilder, Goto Edit and then select Image Format -- for the format that you will use.
• Then goto Edit, Insert Image Set. This will ask you to select the directory where your numbered images for the lecture are stored (nothing else should be in that directory). This will import your images and show them in DeckBuilder. You can flip through to ensure that they imported correctly.
• Goto File, Export to .CSD to create a local .CSD for you to launch CP with in class.
• Don't forget this step: Goto File (again), Export to Web to login to our web server and store and name your lecture on your class web site.

We admit that the following is not well documented in DeckBuilder, but the functionality exists for those who want to use it. Follow these directions. And MUCH MUCH thanks to Neil Rhodes for developing this code.

Before you run DeckBuilder, create two image sets:
• INSIDE the directory of your slide images, create a subdirectory called "instructor"
• Modify your original slides (in TeX or whatever) and add your instructor objects.
• Save THOSE into a set of slides (numbered and named EXACTLY as your original set) but put them in the instructor subdirectory.
• NOW perform the steps listed above. When you "Insert Image Set" it will automatically grab any instructor objects from files in the instructor subdirectory that are named identically to slides in the main image directory. You will see the instructor objects in the DeckBuilder view.