Options
- Page 2 - Timer
The second page (Timer tab) of the Options window allows you to
define preset timer configurations. Each preset Timer has a name
and a set of parameters. The names of all defined Timers will
appear in the Timer menu of the main program. The figure below
shows two presets, "Presentation (15 Min)" and "Keynote (60 Min)".
Using the Timer menu to select one of the presets sets the program up
in the mode defined by that preset and sets the time to the start time
defined for that preset. The parameters for the "Presentation (15
Min)" preset are shown in the figure below:
On the left side of the Timer tab is a list of Timers.
The "Presentation (15 Min)" item is highlighted, so its parameters are
shown on the righ of the screen. The name of the preset can be
edited in the list on the left or in the text box on the top of the
right side. It is suggested (but not required) that you include
the start time in the name of the timer, as shown above. This
will make it easier to choose the correct preset from the menu of
the main program.
The four buttons under the Timers list are used to manipulate the timer
presets. New adds another timer to the bottom of the list.
Insert Before adds another timer before the highlighted timer.
Delete erases the highlighted timer, and Copy duplicates the
highlighted timer and adds the new copy to the bottom of the list.
The Play a Sound button allows you to preview sounds while you are
setting up a timer.
The set of controls on the right contains three main options, an array
of "Event" definitions (with a vertical scroll bar), and the "Delete
-->" button.
As mentioned above, the Name is used in the menu of the main program
for selecting what preset to use. Below the Name is a control that
allows you to select which
display
to use. If you click on this control and hold the mouse down, a
drop-down menu will appear from which you can select the desired
display. To the right of the display selection is the Timer
Direction control. This control allows the timer to count up or
down.
The array of Events is below the above three controls. There is
room to display three Events, but any number (with a minimum of 2) can
be defined. More can be added by using the vertical scroll bar to
scroll down to an empty slot and entering new parameters there.
The "Delete -->" button allows you to delete whichever Event is
currently displayed next to this button. This is set up in such a
way that you can never delete the first two Events, which are required
for any preset Timer.
The first Event (at the top of the display) defines the start
time. The last event defines the ending time. After the
ending time is reached, if the timer is set to Count Down and When
Counting Down: Continue Past Zero is not selected, then the counter
will stop. For other cases, the counter continues counting.
The Times for the defined events must follow in a logical
sequence. If the Timer is set to Count Down, then the Time for
the top (first) event should be the largest time, and the Times should
decrease for events further down the array. The program does not
check that you entered logical Event parameters. If illogical
parameters are entered, program operation can appear to be erratic.
The parameters for a single Event are:
Time - This is the time at which the Event will be
triggered. As described above, the Times need to be entered in
the proper order.
Alarm - This is a user-definable color used for the
display. The portion of the window that uses this color depends
on which
Display is
selected.
Background - This is a user-selectable color that is used
for the window background. This allows the background color to
change at different times (Events) during the program.
State - This parameter is used by only some of the
Displays and
determines how the Display is shown for the Event.
Flashing - If this parameter is checked, the display flashes
rapidly when the Event is triggered.
Sound - This parameter is used to specify a sound file that
will be played when the Event is triggered. Leave it blank for no
sound. Only .wav files can be played with this program.
Sample sounds have been included in the ...\Presentation Timer\Sounds
directory. To choose a sound file, press the folder icon to the
right of the Sound file name. Alternately, the file name and path
can be typed or pasted directly into the Sound path. If a file
has been selected and you wish to delete it, highlight the entire file
name and press the delete key.
In the figure above, the "Presentation (15 Min)" timer is configured
with a start time of 15 minutes (15:00:00) with a green clock
face. When 2 minutes remain, the 2nd Event will change the clock
face to yellow. At time 0, the clock face will turn red, the
background will turn orange, the clock will flash, and the
alarm_clock_1.wav will play.
When the Presentation Timer 2.0 program is first installed, it creates
a set of default Timers that demonstrate how some Timers can be set
up. If you change your settings and wish to recover these
defaults, you can uninstall and reinstall the program, or you can
download the Presentation Timer.ini file from
www.originalcode.com and copy
it into your Presentation Timer 2 directory.
Note that the default Timers that are present when you install
Presentation Timer 2.0 have paths for the Sounds that use the expected,
default installation path for the program. If you choose to
install the program in a different location than the default, these
sounds will not work when the Events are triggered. In this case,
you should open the Options and reset the Sounds to the correct
locations on your system.
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