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User Manual: MediaZone Pro Editor User Manual

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MEDIAZONE PRO EDITOR™
USER MANUAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................5
Key Features ..............................................................................................................................................................5
System Requirements ................................................................................................................................................5
Installation .....................................................................................................................................................................6
Interface ........................................................................................................................................................................8
Main Window ............................................................................................................................................................8
Ribbon........................................................................................................................................................................9
Application Menu ..................................................................................................................................................9
Home Tab ............................................................................................................................................................12
Share Tab .............................................................................................................................................................13
Manage Players and Groups ............................................................................................................................13
Import Playlist ..................................................................................................................................................15
Export Playlist ..................................................................................................................................................18
Email Playlist ....................................................................................................................................................21
Send Playlist .....................................................................................................................................................22
Traffic Manager ...............................................................................................................................................26
Retrieve Playlists ..............................................................................................................................................27
File Transfer .....................................................................................................................................................30
Instant Crawl ....................................................................................................................................................33
Instant Commands ...........................................................................................................................................35
View Tab ..............................................................................................................................................................40
Media Attributes Tab ...........................................................................................................................................41
Zone Layout Tab ..................................................................................................................................................42
Media Pane ..............................................................................................................................................................43
Canvas Area .............................................................................................................................................................47
Property Pane ..........................................................................................................................................................47
2

Zone Lists Pane ........................................................................................................................................................49
Other Interface Regions ...........................................................................................................................................51
Quick Access Toolbar ...........................................................................................................................................51
Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................52
Add Content.................................................................................................................................................................54
Media .......................................................................................................................................................................54
Blank ........................................................................................................................................................................55
Web Page .................................................................................................................................................................55
External Video..........................................................................................................................................................57
Streaming Video ......................................................................................................................................................58
Create Content ............................................................................................................................................................59
Text Editor ...............................................................................................................................................................59
Application Menu ................................................................................................................................................60
Home Tab ............................................................................................................................................................62
View Tab ..............................................................................................................................................................62
Text Tab ...............................................................................................................................................................63
Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................65
Crawl Editor .............................................................................................................................................................66
Application Menu ................................................................................................................................................67
Home Tab ............................................................................................................................................................67
View Tab ..............................................................................................................................................................69
Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................70
Variable Editor .........................................................................................................................................................71
Application Menu ................................................................................................................................................72
Home Tab ............................................................................................................................................................72
View Tab ..............................................................................................................................................................72
Text Tab ...............................................................................................................................................................73
3

Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................75
Using MediaZone Pro Editor ........................................................................................................................................77
Company Logo Example...........................................................................................................................................77
Exercise One – Adding Videos .............................................................................................................................78
Directory Board Examples .......................................................................................................................................79
Basic Directory Board Example ................................................................................................................................79
Exercise Two – Color Key Transparency ..............................................................................................................80
Advanced Directory Board Example ........................................................................................................................81
Exercise Three – Changing Transitions ................................................................................................................82
Exercise Four – Zone Priority ...............................................................................................................................82
Exercise Five – Editing a Text-Based Image .........................................................................................................83
Exercise Six – Combining Overlay Images ............................................................................................................84
Exercise Seven – Editing a Crawl Image ...............................................................................................................85

INTRODUCTION
Thank you for choosing MediaZone Pro Editor™, the content creation application for use with the MediaZone Pro™
digital signage software suite. This guide will show you how to find and use the most important features of
MediaZone Pro Editor, so you can quickly begin creating and delivering high quality content to your digital signage.

KEY FEATURES
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The Microsoft Ribbon interface provides an organized palette of tools and commands
The configurable Media Pane simplifies content browsing
Drag and drop functionality increases ease of use and performance
The Wizard-style Edit And Send tool provides step-by-step guidance for scheduling and sending playlists

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MediaZone Pro Editor was developed on and for Windows 7, but can also perform adequately on Windows XP or
Vista. For best performance, the system requirements for MediaZone Pro Editor should match the recommended
requirements of Windows 7.
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1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
850 megabyte (MB) available hard disk space (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

INSTALLATION
Additional components may be installed during The MediaZone Pro Editor installation, including the .NET
Framework, DirectX and others. Each installation may vary. A reboot may also be required prior to completion.
1.
2.
3.

Insert the Installation CD into a CD-ROM compatible drive.
Open My Computer, navigate to the CD drive and double-click the Setup.exe.
The Welcome screen will appear.

Press next to read the Software Licensing and Services
Agreement. You must select the I Agree button to continue.

Specify the installation folder and users that will have access to this
software and press Next.

A confirmation message will appear. Press Next to proceed with the
installation.

MediaZone Pro Editor installation is now complete.

INTERFACE
The following sections describe the MediaZone Pro Editor interface. Upon initial launch of the application, the
software attempts to load the sample media. If not found, the following message will appear. Press Yes to install
the sample media or No to dismiss this message and display the MediaZone Pro Editor main window.

MAIN WINDOW

The following sections describe a detailed description of the interface. Skip forward to the How To Use section to
begin creating a playlist straight away.
The MediaZone Pro Editor interface contains five regions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ribbon
Media Pane
Zone Layout
Properties Pane
Zone Manager Pane
8

RIBBON
The ribbon control organizes the tools and commands you’ll need to create a content set, or playlist. Tabs on the
ribbon control are used to group together similar tasks.

APPLICATION MENU
The application menu contains miscellaneous application and file management commands. Depending on the
current visual theme, the application menu can look like a round button in the upper left corner of the window, or
like a ribbon tab named “File”, as shown below.

The application menu contains eight common file management commands.
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The New button creates a new, empty playlist with zones based on the default template
The Open button launches the Open Dialog, and allows the user to navigate to a Windows folder to open
an existing playlist. A preview of the playlist is included on the right side of this dialog
The Save button saves an existing playlist, or displays a SaveAs dialog if the playlist has not yet been saved
The Save As button launches the SaveAs dialog, for navigating to a Windows folder and naming the
playlist
The Share button reveals a pane with various tools for sharing information with players. The available
tools are described further in the Send Options and Player Management section
The Import/Export button reveals a pane with tools to Import or Export playlists to a USB drive
The Help button launches the User Manual in pdf format
The Close button closes the current playlist and exits MediaZone Pro

In addition to the Exit button, an Options button appears in the lower right corner of the application menu.
Pressing this button launches the options dialog, as described below.

The Options dialog contains four tabs, selectable along the left pane of the dialog.
The General tab includes the following functions:
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

A numeric control for setting the number of Recent Documents to show on the application menu
An Install Sample Media button to install a set of sample media to the default media folder
A default Dwell control
A default Transition drop-down menu
A set of Clear History buttons, for
removing various folder and filenames
from the application history

The Display tab includes the following controls:
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


A checkbox to always launch the
application in a Maximized state
A Default View drop-down to set the
preferred view of the Media Pane
A Thumbnail Size drop-down menu to set
the preferred size of thumbnails

The Advanced tab includes the following controls:
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A checkbox to Update Media Item Transparency in Real-time. This setting corresponds with the
transparency slider control on the Media Attributes ribbon tab. Note: Checking this box may decrease
performance while changing the transparency percentage of a media item
An FTP Password textbox for entering the password used when sending playlists to players
An Always Prompt for Password checkbox for hiding or showing the password prompt when sending
playlists to players
A Use Passive Transfer Protocol checkbox for sending files via FTP. This checkbox should remain checked,
except in those cases where an internal firewall or proxy server requires FTP transfers to occur via an
active protocol
An RSS FTP Password textbox for saving
the password used when sending RSS
Feed data to players. RSS Feeds are
discussed further in the Crawl Editor
section
A text box for specifying the Location of
the MXRSS.exe file on the players

The resources tab includes the following information:
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



A Version label that indicates the current version of the software
A Check for Updates button to launch a
browser window and direct the user to
the Keywest Technology support site
where MediaZone Pro Editor software
updates can be downloaded
A Contact Us button to launch a browser
window and direct the user to the
Keywest Technology website where
contact information can be found
An Additional Credits button that
launches a dialog that lists additional
attribution for the software
The Copyright Warning statement

HOME TAB

The Home tab contains five groups.
The Clipboard group contains the standard Windows clipboard tools Cut, Copy and Paste. These can be used to
transfer media to and from the Windows clipboard and the currently selected zone. This includes content saved to
the clipboard from other applications, such as Windows Explorer or a web browser.
The Add Content group contains six buttons for adding different types of content to a zone. All of these are
discussed in more detail in the Add Content section of this manual.
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

The Media button inserts the currently selected items in the Media pane into the current zone
The Blank button inserts a blank into the currently selected zone. Blanks are used to separate media
during playlist playback by the amount of time specified in the dwell property
The Web Page button launches a dialog that allows a URL to be specified as a media item, with options to
size and crop the web page area to be displayed
The External Video button allows devices to deliver video via different types of input. For instance, a DVD
player could deliver video through an S-Video input
The Streaming Video button launches a dialog to configure a URL as a streaming video source

The Create Content group contains three buttons, each of which launches a dialog to create media content. All
three of these are discussed in more detail in the Create Content section of this manual.
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


The Text button launches the Text Editor, which is used to create a text-based image
The Crawl button launches the Crawl Editor, which is used to create an image for crawling, or horizontally
scrolling, across the display
The Variable button launches the Variable Editor, which is used to create a text-based overlay image with
variables such as date, time or temperature

The Canvas group contains a Resolution drop-down menu for selecting standard or custom resolutions for the
intended display, as well as a Set Orientation drop-down menu to toggle between landscape and portrait view.
Matching the playlist resolution to that of the digital signage display ensures the content will look its best. Changes
made to these values will be reflected in the zone layout area.
The Enabled Zones group contains a gallery of buttons to quickly select the number of zones to enable. The last
button disables all zones except the background.

SHARE TAB

The Share tab consists of several buttons for sharing content, and contains five groups.
The Manage group contains the Manage Players and Groups button. This tool is used to configure players and
groups of players, and is described in more detail below.

MANAGE PLAYERS AND GROUPS
To configure players to receive content, use the Manage Players and Groups tool.

The Players tab contains a list view with three columns, Name, IP Address and Group. A toolstrip with three
buttons appears above the list view.
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

The Add button launches a dialog to enter the player Name, IP Address and Port
The Edit button launches a dialog box to edit existing player data
The Delete button removes the player

Additionally, the Add and Edit player dialog button includes a Verify IP Address button, to check network
connectivity to the player. The most common port used for network connection to a player is 21. Consult the local
system administrator for additional ports.

Note: the use of Groups is optional, but can be helpful when multiple players will share the same content,
scheduling, etc.
The Groups tab is divided into two sides. The left hand side contains the Players list and buttons similar to the
Players tab, complete with Add and Delete toolstrip buttons. The right hand side contains a Groups list, and three
buttons for creating and managing groups.

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


The All Groups button displays all groups in the list, and is helpful to return to displaying all groups after
double-clicking a group to view it’s players
The Add button allows a new group to be created. A player must be added to the group for it to be
retained, otherwise it will be removed when the Manage Players and Groups window is closed
The Delete button is used in two ways. First, if the current view displays all groups, then this button is
used to delete a group, which does not delete any players in the group. Alternatively, if the current view
displays players within a selected groups, the delete button is used to delete the selected player from the
group, which does not delete the player itself but merely removes it from the group
14

The Groups tab also allows drag and drop control. A player can be added from the list on the left hand side to a
group on the right hand side via drag and drop.
Note: A player can only belong to one group
The Share Playlists group contains three buttons: Import Playlist, Export Playlist and Mail. The Import and Export
playlist buttons are designed for saving and retrieving playlists to/from a USB drive. Once a playlist is saved to a
USB drive, it can be inserted into a USB port on a player to begin immediate playback. This drive can also be used
to share a playlist with another computer that has MediaZone Pro Editor installed.

IMPORT PLAYLIST
To import a playlist from a USB drive, insert the drive into an available USB port and click the Import Playlist
button. A wizard provides step-by-step instructions, as described below.
Select USB Drive
The first step of the wizard displays a list of all available drives, including any removable drives (USB, SD Card, etc.).
Note: although the purpose of this tool is to store playlists on a USB drive, the user is not limited to USB. For
instance, an SD card, CD-RW drive, or mapped network drive can all be utilized instead of a USB drive.
If the USB drive was added after the Import Playlists wizard was launched, a refresh button
is available to
search for all drives again. The default view of the drive list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in the upper
right corner can be used to view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns, including a
column for drive type.

Playlist Selection
After selecting a drive and pressing Next, the
Playlist Selection step displays the playlist that is
currently saved to the drive. If additional
scheduled playlists are also saved to the drive,
the drop-down menu will display them, as well.

To ensure that the selected playlist is indeed the
desired one, a preview button in the lower-right
corner will download and display a preview
image of the playlist, if available.

Finish
The last step of the Import Playlist wizard is to specify the options for importing media from the USB drive. Four
option buttons appear in this step to determine exactly which files are to be imported.






Don’t import media. This option will import the playlists, scheduling and layout template information, but
will not import media content
Only import files that don’t exist on the local
computer
Import all files and compare dates. This is the
recommended option, and will only import
updated media files, and not bother
importing the files which are identical
Import all files and overwrite. This option will
import all media in the selected playlists, and
can be used to ensure an import of all the
content is performed. Depending on the
number and size of media files to import, this
option could take a very long time to
complete

When importing is underway, the Progress window updates with detailed information about the files being
imported, including success or failure. This information is helpful when troubleshooting a failure. A progress bar is
also used to indicate the transmission status when a large media file is imported.
Once complete, the Import Playlists dialog will display a Done button for closing the window and returning to the
main MediaZone Pro Editor interface.

EXPORT PLAYLIST
To export a playlist to a USB drive, insert the drive into an available USB port and click the Export Playlist button. A
wizard provides step-by-step instructions, as described below.
Select USB Drive
The first step of the wizard displays a list of all available drives, including any removable drives (USB, SD Card, etc.).
Note: although the purpose of this tool is to store playlists on a USB drive, the user is not limited to USB. For
instance, an SD card, CD-RW drive, or mapped network drive can all be utilized instead of a USB drive.
If the USB drive was added after the Import Playlists wizard was launched, a refresh button
is available to
search for all drives again. The default view of the drive list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in the upper
right corner can be used to view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns, including a
column for drive type.

Export From Existing Player
This step of the wizard allows the option to export the playlist of an existing player. If so desired, select the player
from the list and press next to continue. The
default option is to choose a playlist directly.

Playlist Selection
After selecting a drive and pressing Next, the Playlist Selection step displays the playlist that is currently saved to
the drive. If additional scheduled playlists are also saved to the drive, the drop-down menu will display them, as
well.

Add Playlists
This step is optional. If the intent is to play only one
playlist all of the time, this part of the wizard can be
skipped. However, this step can be used to schedule
other playlists to play on specific dates at certain
times.
For detailed information on adding scheduled
playlists, refer to the Send Playlists section of this
manual.
When finished adding scheduled playlists, press the
Next button to proceed to the next step in the
wizard.

Finish
The final step of the wizard is shown below. Pressing finish commences the export.
When exporting is underway, the Progress window updates with detailed information about the files being
exported, including success or failure. This
information is helpful when troubleshooting a
failure. A progress bar is also used to indicate the
transmission status when a large media file is
exported.
Once complete, the Export Playlists dialog will
display a Done button for closing the window and
returning to the main MediaZone Pro Editor
interface.

EMAIL PLAYLIST
To email a playlist, open the desired playlist in MediaZone Pro Editor and click the Email Playlist button. A new
email message will be created in the default email client (IE: Outlook) with all playlist files included as attachments.
Specify the recipients to send.
Note: some media files can be large and may not succeed when sending in an email, depending on mail server
configuration.

The Send and Receive group contains three buttons: Send, Traffic Manager and Retrieve. The Send and Retrieve
buttons are designed for sending and retrieving playlists to/from a MediaZone Pro Player. The Traffic Manager
button launches the external Traffic Manager Scheduler application, for sending a schedule of playlists to Traffic
Manager Server, an integral part of the InfoZone Server suite of products.

SEND PLAYLIST
The Send button launches a wizard for sending a playlist to a player or group of players, including options for
scheduling additional playlists to play on specific dates at specific times. The Send Playlists wizard includes several
steps, to allow the user to select exactly what content to send to the player, with multiple options. Each step is
described below.
Select Recipient
The first step of the wizard displays a list of all available players or groups. If none are shown, the user must first
add them via Manage Players and Groups. The default view of this list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in
the upper right corner can be used to view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns,
including a column for IP Address.
The Next button is disabled until a player or group is selected.

Choose a Default Playlist
The next stop of the wizard is to choose the default playlist. This is the playlist that will be played by default at
times when no other playlist is scheduled to play.
A drop-down menu appears that lists a history of
saved playlists, sorted by the most recently saved
playlist at the top. Additionally, a Browse button is
available to navigate to a folder and select a
playlist.
Once a default playlist is chosen, the user can
proceed to the next step in the wizard. Optionally,
the user can go directly to the end of the wizard by
pressing the Finish button.

Add Playlists
This step is optional. If the intent is to play only one
playlist all of the time, this part of the wizard can be
skipped. However, this step can be used to schedule
other playlists to play on specific dates at certain
times.
Consider a scenario where two playlists are desired:
One is the default playlist, which plays when no
others are valid, and the other playlist plays only
during the month of December between the hours
of 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM. This is a powerful tool if
the digital signage is to be used for matching
advertising to time of day demographics, or selling
time blocks on a schedule, or just to target content
for different audiences. Not only can time and date
be specified, so can specific days of the week.
Scheduling of additional playlists can be
accomplished by following the steps outlined
below.

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

Press the Add Playlist button. A scheduled playlist block will appear in the list area of the basic tab
Within this block, select the playlist from the drop-down menu. This menu is automatically populated with
the list of playlists saved to the history. If the desired playlist is not shown, select the Browse button to
navigate to and select the playlist
Enter the start and end dates, or click the
calendar controls to specify the date range for
this scheduled playlist
Enter the start and end times to specify the
time range for this scheduled playlist
Note that when a scheduled playlist is
selected, the End Time control is automatically
adjusted to calculate the total dwell time. This
total dwell time is also adjusted when
changing the Start Time. Although the End
Time can be manually overridden, do not
change the calculated End Time if the playlist
is to be played only once
Check the days of the week that are valid for
this scheduled playlist
In the example on the right, a scheduled
playlist will play weekdays between 12:00 and
1:00 PM for several years
For a recurring playlist to play each hour,
check recurrence and specify the minute after the hour to begin playback. A label will indicate 24
occurrences per day, but will adjust accordingly if the start or end times are changed

To remove a scheduled playlist, click to select the scheduled playlist block to delete and select Remove Playlist.
To view all playlists, both default and scheduled, at
once, select the Details tab. A grid view appears with
rows for each of the playlists, and columns for specific
playlist data. Please note that the columnar data in the
grid view is read-only, and cannot be changed directly.
Changes can be made on the Basic tab, however.
When finished adding scheduled playlists, press the
Next button. If multiple scheduled playlists are found, a
validation process begins to check for conflicts
between all scheduled playlists. Depending on the
number of scheduled playlist occurrences, the
validation process could take some time. A progress
bar appears to indicate the completion percentage. If
conflicts are found, a prompt appears to indicate which
playlists conflict with each other. If conflicts are not
found, the wizard proceeds to the next step.

Send Options
The final step of the wizard is to specify options for sending media. Four option buttons appear in this step to
determine exactly which files are to be sent.
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



Don’t send media. This option will send the playlists, scheduling and layout template information, but will
not send media content
Only send files that don’t exist on the
player
Send all files and compare dates. This is the
recommended option, and includes a
feature called Smart Uploads. This option
will only send updated media files, and not
bother sending the files which are identical
Send all files and overwrite. This option will
upload all media in the selected playlists,
and can be used to ensure an upload of all
the content is performed. Depending on the
number and size of media files to send, this
option could take a very long time to
complete

Pressing the Send button may prompt for the FTP password that is used to transmit files to the player. If the
password is not known, contact the system administrator for help. To disable this prompt and always use a stored
password, uncheck the “Always Prompt for FTP Password” checkbox in the Options dialog, which is found on the
application menu.
When sending is underway, the Progress window updates with detailed information about the files being sent, and
the transmission success or failure. This information is helpful when troubleshooting a communication failure. A
progress bar is also used to indicate the transmission status when a large media file is sending.
Once complete, the Send Playlists dialog will display a Done button for closing the window and returning to the
main MediaZone Pro Editor interface.
The Save button offers a means to save all scheduling information without connecting and sending to the player.

TRAFFIC MANAGER
For networks that utilize the InfoZone Pro Server suite of products from Keywest Technology, a button appears on
the Send menu to launch and send content to a network of players from the Traffic Manager Scheduler software.

The InfoZone Pro software suite includes powerful digital signage network products to manage and control
content on a group of players, as described below.
Keywest Technology’s InfoZone Pro is suitable and affordable for any enterprise needing centralized
control of MediaZone digital signage players. InfoZone greatly enhances digital media scheduling and
manageability through a web browser and application interface. It also offers the flexibility to allow local
content control in specific on-screen zones on a permission-only basis.
Designed to be easy yet powerful to use, InfoZone provides the tools to schedule content playout,
including video, graphics and text, monitor playback in near real-time, and alert operators to potential
errors on digital signs across an entire digital signage network spanning cities, states or even multiple
continents.
Relying solely on an outbound Internet connection, Keywest Technology’s digital signage players can be
configured to continuously poll an InfoZone server for new content, scheduling updates and automatically
download them.
Please consult the Traffic Manager Scheduler User Manual for more information.

RETRIEVE PLAYLISTS
The Retrieve button launches a wizard for retrieving a playlist from a player. The Retrieve Playlists wizard includes
several steps, to allow the user to select exactly what content to retrieve from the player, with multiple options.
Each step is described below.
Select Recipient
The first step of the wizard displays a list of all available players or groups. If none are shown, the user must first
add them via Manage Players and Groups. The default view of this list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in
the upper right corner can be used to view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns,
including a column for IP Address.
The Next button proceeds to the next step only if a player is selected.

Playlist
The next stop of the wizard is to choose the playlist to retrieve. The default playlist is automatically selected when
entering this step of the wizard, but two other options exist:




A Default and Scheduled Playlists option
allows all playlists, including those
scheduled for specific dates and times, to
be retrieved. A drop-down menu appears
that lists all scheduled playlists for
reference.
An Other Playlist option, when checked,
will populate a drop-down menu with all
available playlists present on the player.
Select this option and select the desired
playlist from the drop-down list to retrieve
it.

A preview button in the lower-right corner will
download and display a preview image of the
playlist, if available, as shown here.
Once a playlist is chosen, the user can proceed to
the next step in the wizard.

Retrieve Options
The final step of the wizard is to specify options for retrieving media. Four option buttons appear in this step to
determine exactly which files are to be sent.






Don’t retrieve media. This option will retrieve the playlists, scheduling and layout template information,
but will not retrieve media content
Only retrieve files that don’t exist on the
player
Retrieve all files and compare dates. This is
the recommended option, and includes a
feature called Smart Uploads. This option will
only retrieve updated media files, and not
bother sending the files which are identical
Retrieve all files and overwrite. This option
will download all media in the selected
playlists, and can be used to ensure all the
content is retrieved. Depending on the
number and size of media files to retrieve,
this option could take a very long time to
complete

Pressing the Retrieve button may prompt for the FTP password that is used to transmit files to the player. If the
password is not known, contact the system administrator for help. To disable this prompt and always use a stored
password, uncheck the “Always Prompt for FTP Password” checkbox in the Options dialog, which is found on the
application menu.
When retrieving is underway, the Progress window updates with detailed information about the files being
retrieved, and the transmission success or failure. This information is helpful when troubleshooting a
communication failure. A progress bar is also used to indicate the transmission status when a large media file is
retrieving.
Once complete, the Retrieve Playlists dialog will display a Done button for closing the window and returning to the
main MediaZone Pro Editor interface.

The File Transfer group contains the Transfer button. This tool is used to transfer files to and from players, and is
described in more detail below.

FILE TRANSFER
To transfer individual files to and from players, use the File Transfer tool shown below.

The default view of the player list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in the upper right corner can be used to
view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns, including a column for IP Address. Select a
player and click Next, or double-click on the desired player to proceed to the next step.

File Transfer
The file transfer view is split into two sides: your local computer on the left and the remote player on the right.

Each side includes a set of buttons and controls:
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

An Address bar to indicate what folder is currently shown in the folder view
An Up Folder button to navigate to one folder up, to the parent folder
A Delete button to delete the currently selected file
A Refresh button to refresh the current folder view
Send and Retrieve buttons to transfer the selected file from one folder view to the folder selected in the
other folder view
A Folder View that displays the folder structure. The folder view for the local machine resembles
Windows Explorer, with a hierarchical structure of the files and folders on the computer. The folder view
of the remote machine is merely a list, and requires a double-click of a folder to reveal its contents
A Status window to log the status of each file transfer

In addition to using the Send and Retrieve buttons, drag and drop can be used to transfer files.

Example
In the example shown below, a file named Basic_1.png is selected from the Media folder on the remote player. To
retrieve this file to the local machine, select the target folder in the left folder view and press the Retrieve arrow.

Alternately, drag and drop this file to the target folder in the left folder view. Once complete, the status window
will indicate the success or failure of the file transfer. To further verify the success of the file transfer, navigate
inside the target folder and press the refresh button to ensure the file is present.
Note: when using the Send and Retrieve buttons, files are transferred to the folder shown in the address bar.
However, with drag and drop, files can be transferred into folders other than the folder shown in the address bar.
The File Transfer tool is only for transferring individual files, it cannot transfer multiple files simultaneously or
folders.

INSTANT CRAWL
Instant Crawl is an external application for sending crawl text to a player. It can be used to send an emergency
message without interrupting the normal playlist.
The Instant Crawl button launches the external MX Instant Crawl application, as shown below.

Upon launch, a system check is performed to determine if the current user has administrator privileges in
Windows. If so, the IP address of each configured player is added to the Enter IP Address drop-down. The Add IP
To List button is to add additional IP addresses to the drop-down list in the future, however, this requires
administrator privileges in Windows.
The Instant Crawl Information pane contains the following controls for configuring the Instant Crawl.







The Dwell control sets the duration of the crawl, in minutes
The Background Color provides a drop-down list of several colors to choose as backgrounds to the crawl
text
The Background Color Transparency checkbox, when checked, completely hides the background from the
crawl
The Transparency percentage control specifies the opacity of the entire crawl text, both foreground and
background
The Speed setting determines how fast or slow the crawl travels. Positive speed values will move right to
left; negative speed values will move left to right
The Location control sets the distance of the crawl, from the top of the display

The Instant Crawl Creation pane includes several options to control the crawl styling





The Font Name drop-down contains a list of available fonts
The Size drop-down contains a list of available font heights
The Font Color drop-down contains a list of available colors
The Bold, Italic and Underline buttons toggle the respective text attributes





The Save Instant Crawl button saves the crawl information file before sending to the player. Pressing this
button is required prior to successfully sending an instant crawl
The Load Instant Crawl button retrieves a saved crawl information file
The Hide button minimizes the Instant Crawl application to the system tray

The Start MX Instant Crawl and Stop MX Instant Crawl buttons are used to send the crawl to the player and clear
the crawl from the player, respectively. Sending an Instant Crawl will prompt for the player password. The
password is preset as “123456”, but can be changed to a more secure password by selecting “Change Password”
on the File menu.
The Instant Crawl application includes two features related to the obsolete Star-8 products: a checkbox for the MX
Instant Crawl Include Star-8 Instant Crawl and the External Devices menu. These items can be ignored.

INSTANT COMMANDS
To access the instant command functions, select the instant commands button. A wizard provides a series of steps
to send several types of instant commands to a player or group of players, as shown below.
Select Recipient
The first step of the wizard displays a list of all available players or groups. If none are shown, the user must first
add them via Manage Players and Groups. The default view of this list is large icons, but the drop-down menu in
the upper right corner can be used to view the list in Details view. The details view displays rows and columns,
including a column for IP Address.
Note: not all commands can be sent to a group of players. Those which are invalid will be disabled.
The Next button is inactive until a player or group is selected.

Select a Command
This step provides a list of the available instant commands, separated into two types: Actions and Queries.
Selecting an Action command will change the playback on the player. Selecting a Query will not.
Four playlist commands are available to change the behavior of the playlist.





The Restart Current button stops and restarts the current playlist from the beginning
The Play New Playlist button launches a dialog to select and play a different playlist on the player. See
the Play New Playlist section for more information
The Pause Current button freezes the playback to maintain the currently visible frame
The Resume Current button resumes normal playback after a pause command has been issued

Two instant commands are available to play and stop a specific file




The Play Media File button
launches a dialog to select and play
a specific file on the player. See the
Play Media File section for more
information
The Stop Media File button stops
the specific media file from playing
and resumes normal playback

Several player commands are available for
the player







Reboot Player stops the player
software and reboots the machine
The Sync On button sets the
displays power to the “On” state
The Sync Off button sets the
displays power to the “Off” state
The Retrieve Log buttons launches
a dialog to select a log file from the
player for preview or download
The Synchronize Time buttons sets
the machine’s system time and
date to synchronize with the local
computer

Three buttons in the Queries group are available to retrieve information from the player



The Get Player Version button retrieves the version of MediaZone Pro Player software running on the
player
The Get Current Filename button retrieves and displays the name of the file currently running on the
player



The Get Thumbnail button retrieves a recent thumbnail image from the player. This functionality requires
that the InfoZone Player software is running on the player

Play New Playlist
This instant command launches a dialog to select from a set of playlists, as shown below.

When first launched, a list of all available playlists that exist on the player are retrieved and displayed in the list on
the left. Selecting a playlist attempts to show a playlist preview on the right.
The Dwell area allows three different options.




Infinite will play the selected playlist indefinitely, or until another playlist is sent to the player
Once will play the selected playlist once, then play the normally scheduled playlist
Seconds allows a predetermined amount of time, in seconds, that the selected playlist will play, then play
the normally scheduled playlist

Press OK to begin playback of the selected playlist on the player, or Cancel to return.

Play Media File
This instant command launches a dialog to select from media files, as shown below.

When first launched, a list of all available media files that exist on the player are retrieved and displayed in the list
on the left. Selecting a file attempts to show a preview on the right. Because audio and video files can be large and
take some time to be downloaded and previewed, a checkbox in the preview area is unchecked by default. To
preview audio and video files, check this checkbox and select a file.
The Dwell area allows three different options.




Infinite will play the selected file indefinitely, or until another playlist or file is sent to the player
Once will play the selected file once, then play the normally scheduled playlist
Seconds allows a predetermined amount of time, in seconds, that the selected file will play, then play the
normally scheduled playlist

Press OK to begin playback of the selected file on the player, or Cancel to return.

Retrieve Log
This instant command launches a dialog to select from log files, as shown below.

When first launched, a list of log files that exist on the player are retrieved and displayed in the list on the left.
Selecting a file attempts to show a preview on the right.
Note: if a file is currently in use on the player, such as the case with the current day’s log file, it cannot be
previewed.
Press OK to save the selected log file to the local drive.

VIEW TAB

The View tab contains five groups.
The Visual Theme group contains a drop-down menu to select from multiple application themes. These themes
change the look and feel of MediaZone Pro Editor to better impact the user experience.
The Media Pane group contains three buttons, including a Hide toggle button to hide or show the pane, a View
drop-down button to customize the display of the media pane, and a filter drop-down menu to customize the
contents of the media pane.
Different ways of displaying files in the Media Pane
Selection

Type

Comments

Details

View A list that includes various file properties. Useful for sorting

Thumbnails

View Provides a small thumbnail image for graphics files

Gallery

View Uses large icons and a horizontal scrollbar

Pane

View Uses large icons and a vertical scrollbar. Also provides some information such as size

All

Filter Lists all valid media file types

Crawls

Filter A list that only includes files eligible for use in a crawl zone

Variables

Filter A list that only includes files eligible for use in a variable zone

The Zone Lists Pane group includes a Hide toggle button to hide or show the pane, and a toggle button to expand
the selected zone to the entire width of the application. This button can be selected again to restore the zone lists
pane to its default state.
The Property Pane group includes a Hide toggle button to hide or show the pane.
The Preview Pane group includes a Play and Stop button. Pressing the Play button launches Preview.exe, an
external application that closely mimics how the current playlist will be displayed on the digital sign. It is not
necessary to save your playlist, making it easy to first check the appearance of a playlist without sending to a
digital sign. The launch of Preview.exe can take several seconds to complete, and creates a window directly on top
of the canvas area. Pressing the Stop button or closing the Preview window with the red “X” in the upper right
corner returns the user to MediaZone Pro Editor.
Note: the Preview window is designed as a quick way to review a playlist’s content. It produces much lower quality
graphics when compared with the digital signage player software.

MEDIA ATTRIBUTES TAB

The Media Attributes is context sensitive, and is automatically displayed when a media item is selected in the zone
lists pane. When multiple items are selected in the zone lists pane, changes made on this tab will apply to all items.
The Media Attributes tab contains three groups.
The Properties group includes a Dwell numeric control for specifying the duration time in seconds, and a Transition
drop-down menu for selecting the type of effect at the beginning of each media item. The Fade In transition, for
instance, makes the item gradually appear from the previous item. The Cut transition is actually no transition.
The Transparency group contains the following controls:






The Set Color Key button launches a color dialog to select the transparency color key. A color key is used
by the digital signage software to “key out”, or make transparent, a specific color value
The color key textbox indicates the hex code for the color, preceded by the hash tag (#). This textbox is
automatically populated when a color is selected in the color dialog, or can accept valid color hex codes
which are typed into it directly. This textbox is self-validating, whereby invalid color codes are shown in
red and valid ones in black
The color key preview appears above the textbox, filled with the desired color
The Adjust Transparency button displays a slider control when selected. This slider is similar to the
Windows speaker volume control, with a sliding thumb along a track. Sliding the thumb along the track
changes the overall media item transparency, from 0 to 100%. A media item set to 100% transparency will
be invisible. It is required to press OK to dismiss the slider control and set the transparency value

The Date Time Validity group includes two controls for specifying when a media item is to be valid and displayed.
By default, media items are set to always be displayed. Pressing the Specific button reveals a panel of controls for
setting specific validity dates, and specific validity times within the selected date range. Individual day of week
checkboxes are also available for further refining the validity of a media item. Pressing OK is required to dismiss
the panel and set the specific values.
When a playlist is ran on a digital signage player, Date time validity properties are evaluated for each media item in
the playlist. If Always is selected, any time the player encounters the item in a playlist, it will display. If Specific is
selected, when the player encounters the item, it will validate if the current date falls within the start and end
dates – if so, it will then validate if the current time falls within the start and end times. If so, it will display the
item, and if not, it will ignore the item

ZONE LAYOUT TAB

The Zone Layout tab is used to controls zone properties, and contains four groups.
The Visibility group contains the following controls:






The View All button enables every zone
The View Zones drop-down menu allows selection of the number of enabled zones
The Clear Media button removes media items from the currently selected zone
The Reset Zones button restores the zones to their original state, as saved in the playlist
The Swap Zones launches a dialog box to swap the media of two zones, with an option to also swap their
type, size and location, as shown below

The Zone Type group includes a drop-down menu for the three types of zones: Page, Crawl and Variable. Selecting
a new option will change the currently selected zone to that type. The Crawl Speed numeric control is enabled
when the current zone is a crawl type. The value specified will change the speed and direction of the crawl as it
scrolls across the display. Positive values 1 through 7 scroll from right to left, with 1 as the slowest and 7 as the
fastest speed. Negative values -1 through -7 scroll left to right, with -1 as the slowest and -7 as the fastest speed.
The Dimensions group includes numeric controls for specifying the size and location of each zone. Note:
maximizing the application before changing these values will decrease rounding and increase precision. The Lock
Aspect Ratio prevents the currently selected zone from changing its rectangular shape while resizing. Changing
these values may require re-selection of the zone for the values to update.
The Canvas group includes the width and height dimensions for the entire canvas. These controls are read-only.
Changes to these values can be made on the Home tab.

MEDIA PANE
The Media Pane displays media files of a selected folder. The pane can be customized to display items in multiple
ways. Items in the media pane can be dragged and dropped into a zone.

The Media Pane includes a toolstrip with five controls:




The Folder Menu is a drop-down box that displays the current folder name. A folder is typically added
with the browse button, described below. Selecting the arrow on the right side of the drop-down reveals
the history of previously selected folders. Folder names can also be typed directly into the drop-down
box.
The Go button forces the Media Pane to reload the folder in the drop-down box. This is necessary when
the folder name is typed directly into the drop-down box, or when the folder needs to be refreshed for
displaying new media content.
The Browse Button launches the open dialog, to allow navigation to and selection of a folder name. This
dialog not only shows folder names, but also filenames. This allows the user to see the contents of a
folder. Selecting the Open button of the dialog loads the selected folder name into the folder menu and
loads the media items into the Media Pane.
The View Menu and Filter Menu are used to customize the display of the media pane, as shown in the
chart below

Different ways of displaying files in the Media Pane
Selection

Type

Comments

Details

View A list that includes various file properties. Useful for sorting

Thumbnails

View Provides a small thumbnail image for graphics files. (As shown above)

Gallery

View Uses large icons and a horizontal scrollbar

Pane

View Uses large icons and a vertical scrollbar. Also provides some information such as size

All

Filter Lists all valid media file types

Crawls

Filter A list that only includes files eligible for use in a crawl zone

Variables

Filter A list that only includes files eligible for use in a variable zone

The Details view includes columns for sorting media files by date, size, etc. but does not include a thumbnail
image.

The Thumbnails view includes a vertical scrollbar, and displays a small image of the media files.

The Gallery view includes a horizontal scrollbar, and displays a large image of the selected file.

The Pane view includes a vertical scrollbar, displays a large image of the selected file, and includes file details such
as size, date and dimensions.

CANVAS AREA
The canvas area is for configuring the zones in MediaZone Pro Editor.

Zone Order Rule: content in
higher-numbered zones will
overlap content in lowernumbered zones

The initial configuration, shown above, has five enabled zones plus the background. Selecting a zone change the
cursor to indicate the zone can now be moved, and also reveals the eight resizing glyphs around its edges, as
shown above. Click and drag within the zone to move it, click and drag a glyph to resize it.
Some notes on configuring zones:












The size of the background zone always matches that of the resolution
Other zones can be a maximum size of the background, or a minimum of 20 x 20
Zones are prevented from moving outside the boundaries of the background, and will appear to butt
against the boundary
The selected zone can be moved with the up, down, right and left arrow keys on the keyboard
If the Lock Aspect Ratio (Zone Layout ribbon tab) checkbox is checked, resizing the zone is best
accomplished with the left and right side glyphs
A zone can overlap another or even completely hide another zone. Selecting a hidden zone can be
accomplished with the zone buttons in the Zone Lists pane, which always brings the selected zone to the
top in the canvas area. Overlapped zones, when viewed on the digital signage player however, will be
ordered by the zone with the larger zone number on top. See the Zone Order Rule
Variable zones cannot be resized. Their size matches the background
The background of a Crawl zone becomes transparent once a crawl item is added
Additional tools for configuring zones can be found on the Zone Layout ribbon tab
Some zone properties can be adjusted in the property pane

PROPERTY PANE
The property pane displays detailed properties of the selected zone or media item.

When a zone is selected, the property pane displays a grid of zone properties, as shown above. The left column
states the property name, the right column its value. The bottom area briefly describes the property. Different
editing options are available, depending on the type of property. For instance, a zone can be either enabled or
disabled. Therefore, the right column of the Enabled property includes a drop-down menu for selection of True or
False. Other properties can accept numeric input, text, or even launch a dialog.
The toolstrip at the top of the property pane includes two buttons. These buttons toggle between categorized and
alphabetical views.
Property names with an arrow are expandable, such as Location or Size. Press the arrow to see their subproperties.
When a background zone or a media item is selected, the property pane changes to reflect their properties. The
property pane is read-only when a media item is selected.

ZONE LISTS PANE
The zone lists pane is the zone manager for media items.

As discussed earlier, media items can be dragged and dropped from the Media Pane directly into a zone. As they
are added to a zone, they appear in the associated zone list. Each zone list is a grid, with columns for Name, Dwell,
and Total. The total column is a tally of all item’s dwell time, in seconds.
Media items can also be dragged and dropped directly into a zone list. As the mouse cursor hovers over the zone
list about to drop a media item, any existing media items will be sensed, and a horizontal red line with arrows is
shown to help identify where among the existing items the new media shall be added. See below.

This same red line appears when changing the order of existing items up or down within the zone, and pertains to
both single and multiple selections of items.
When too many media items appear to fit into a zone list, select the zone button to reveal a vertical scroll bar.

Adjusting the height of the zone lists pane may also reveal any hidden media items. Placing the cursor on the
upper boundary of the pane changes the cursor to the double-sided arrow. Clicking and dragging allows resizing of
the pane.

Media items can be moved from one zone to another by dragging and dropping. The red line will indicate where in
the target zone list the items are to be place. Dropping outside the MediaZone Pro Editor interface will delete the
item. Some media items cannot be moved from one zone into another. For instance, crawl images cannot be
moved to a zone which is not a crawl zone. Illegal operations such as these will be either ignored or produce an
error message.
The zone lists include a pop-up menu that appears after a right-click, as shown below.

In addition to the Cut, Copy and Paste clipboard commands, the following commands are available:





Delete removes a media item from the playlist
Preview launches the default application to view the file
Save As launches the Save dialog box, to rename and save the file
Replace launches the open dialog box, to select another media file to use in its place

OTHER INTERFACE REGIONS
In addition to the five main regions of MediaZone Pro Editor, two other regions provide benefit and are described
below.

QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR
The Quick Access Toolbar includes a set of controls that are always available regardless of which ribbon tab is
currently selected. Located either above or below the ribbon, the Quick Access Toolbar can be customized to add
or remove commonly used commands. The default commands that are configured to appear in MediaZone Pro
Editor are Save, Open and Play, as shown below.

To customize the location and content of the Quick Access Toolbar, click the drop-down arrow on the right and
select or deselect the menu items, as shown below.

STATUS BAR
The status bar resides at the bottom of the MediaZone Pro Editor interface. This region provides general
application information, such as status messages, selection verification and coordinate system indicator.

The left side of the status bar includes a notifications area for status message and verification of the selected item.
When MediaZone Pro Editor is first launched, the selected item is Zone 1, as shown above.
While a playlist is being opened, the notification area reads “Loading”, as shown here.

When a media item within a zone is selected, the notification area displays the name of the item.

If multiple items are selected, the notification area lists multiple names.

The right side of the status bar includes a coordinate system indicator, that provides the X and Y coordinates of the
cursor location within the zone layout area. The coordinates are updated in real-time as the cursor is moved about
the canvas.
The coordinate system is based on a 0,0 location in the upper left corner of the canvas. In the example below, the
cursor is located near the lower right corner of a canvas whose size is 1920 x 1080.

ADD CONTENT
There are many different types of content that can be added to a playlist. The following section describes adding
content in more detail.

MEDIA
There are multiple types of media that can be added to a zone. Image file types include bmp, jpg, png, tif, gif and
additional types that are valid. Video file types include avi, mpeg, wmv, mov, divx, swf and others. There are
special considerations for other file types.
Adding media can be done in one of three methods. First, select the desired media file(s) in the media pane, then:




Click the Media button on the Home tab
Drag and drop into a zone in the zone layout canvas
Drag and drop into a zone in the zone list pane

Regarding the playlist order when adding media, in the first two methods described above, the media will be
added at the end of all other media. The last method, dropping into the zone list pane, allows media to be added in
any desired order among existing media. This is described in more detail in the Zone Lists Pane section of this
manual.
Audio Files
Audio file types include mp3, au, wav, midi, wma and others. Audio files can be added to the background, but not
to other zones. Furthermore, consideration should be taken when adding multiple files to the background. The
duration of an audio file, when added, will be calculated and this value set as the dwell. This dwell time can be
overridden, of course, but could result in “clipped” audio if the overridden value is too short or a “repeat loop” if
the value is too long.
Playback of an audio clip does not include a visual file, and instead includes a blank screen. If a background zone
contains both images and audio, they do not overlap. For instance, a playlist may include both MySong.mp3 and
Sunrise.jpg in the background. During playback, MySong may play for 214 seconds with a blank background,
immediately followed by the Sunrise image for 15 seconds with silence.
Because video files can contain audio and be added to any zone, be careful to avoid audio conflicts. For instance, a
music video in Zone 2 could play simultaneously with MySong.mp3 in the background, producing overlapping
audio tracks.
PowerPoint Files
PowerPoint files can be added to the background zone, but there are some limitations. PowerPoint files have
priority over all other media, so the presentation will be full screen and the only visible media of the playlist. Other
zones, including crawl zones, are hidden. All content must therefore be embedded inside the PowerPoint
presentation file.

BLANK
The Blank button inserts a blank into the currently selected zone. Blanks are used to separate media during playlist
playback by the amount of time specified in the dwell property. Blanks cannot include transitions, and instead use
the Cut transition. During playback, a blank is displayed differently depending on the zone in which it resides, per
the following.



A blank in the Background zone is displayed as black, although future versions of MediaZone Pro Player
software may provide the ability to choose another color
A blank in Zone 1 – 5 will display as transparent, allowing content from lower-numbered zones to “show
through”

The real value of using blanks is in creating a playlist where all zones have the same total dwell. Because media
items such as audio or video files can have disparate durations, blanks can assist in “stretching” another zone’s
total dwell to equal the dwell of the entire playlist. This results in a more professional playlist that can recycle and
repeat properly.

WEB PAGE
A web page can be added to a zone by selecting the Web Page button. This launches the Add Web Page dialog, as
shown below.

The address drop-down box includes the history of web pages visited with this dialog, with the most recent at the
top. Enter the desired web page URL and press Enter or the Go button. The page will be displayed in the preview
area.

If the dimensions of the web page are equal to the dimensions of the zone, then the playlist will display the
content accurately. Often, however, this is not the case. An additional feature to the Add Web Page dialog is the
Crop window tool. This feature allows you to choose just a portion of the web page for display. To use, add the
web URL, press enter to show it in the preview area, check the Crop checkbox and press the Set Crop Area button.
The Windows desktop will display the web page in full-screen mode, with a blue crop window in the upper-left
corner, as shown below.

The crop window can be resized and moved to any area of the screen, just like any normal window. The outer
edges of the crop window are used to dictate the desired cropping area. Real-time size and location pixel values
update as the window is resized and positioned.
Note: when moving the crop window in Windows 7, the “snap” feature may attempt to enlarge the window when
the edge of the screen is encountered. To prevent this, carefully and precisely move the crop window close to the
edge without actually touching the edge.
Once in the proper position, select the Apply label inside the crop window to save the position settings and return
to MediaZone Pro Editor. Alternately, click the red X in the upper-right corner of the crop window to cancel the
crop operation and return to MediaZone Pro Editor.
You may notice a warning in the lower portion of the dialog and the cropping screen that indicates the current
resolution does not match the playlist resolution. In such cases, the desired cropping window size and location will
vary on the digital signage display. If possible, set the Windows resolution for your computer to match that of the
digital signage display and try again.
Note: launching the preview of the current playlist in MediaZone Pro Editor may not accurately represent the crop
setting due to screen resolution mismatches.

After a web page item has been added to a playlist, the item can later be edited by double-clicking it in the zone
lists pane.

EXTERNAL VIDEO
If the player hardware supports it, a video feed from an external source can be added to a playlist. The type of
source can be specified when selecting the External Video drop-down button, as shown below.

For the first three selections, Composite, S-Video and Component, the media item will be added to the selected
zone without any further requirements.
The last selection on the drop-down menu, Tuner, requires further information. A tuner may be a satellite or cable
set top box, and therefore the channel setting is required for MediaZone Pro Player to display the correct content.
After selecting Tuner, the following dialog will appear.

In most instances, setting the desired channel is all that is required. In other instances, perhaps for QAM or Overthe-Air digital receivers, a subchannel will be required. Once these channels are set, press OK to add the tuner item
to the playlist.
Like any other media item, the dwell time, transition and other attributes can be set accordingly.

STREAMING VIDEO
For players that have internet access, video can be streamed from the internet during playlist playback. To add a
media item from streaming video from the web, select the Add Streaming Video button. The following dialog will
appear.

Enter the desired web stream URL in the address bar and click the Go button. A preview of the streaming video
content will load into the dialog. Controls for pause, play, mute and volume are available for preview playback.
Slower loading streams may require buffering during playback, as shown below.

Press OK to add the streaming video to the playlist. Double-click an existing streaming video item to edit.

CREATE CONTENT
Three editors are available in MediaZone Pro Editor for content creation. Though all three are similar in design and
share the same text generation controls, they each serve their own specific purpose for creating rich and impactful
content.
The Text Editor creates a text-based image file in PNG format for page zones. The image can be any size, have any
background color (or have a transparent background), or use another image as a background. There can be any
number of text items in the image, with a wide variety of text colors, font and effects.
The Crawl Editor creates a text-based image file in PNG format for crawl zones. Crawl images scroll horizontally
across the display, and the Crawl Editor provides a means to create the text with numerous styling options. In
addition to plain text, text variables can be inserted to intelligently provide dynamically updated information such
as date, time and temperature. The ability to include an RSS text feed makes the Crawl Editor a full-featured and
powerful tool.
The Variable Editor creates a text-based image file in PNG format for variable zones. Variable zones act as
transparent overlays, with variable text layered over the content of other zones. Text variables appear on the
player as dynamically updated text information such as date, time and temperature. These variables can be
interspersed among plain text.

TEXT EDITOR
Clicking the Text button on the Home tab of the MediaZone Pro Editor ribbon launches the Text Editor.

The application menu contains six common file management commands.
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New
Open
Save
Save as
Print
Exit

In addition to another Exit button, a Properties button appears in the lower right corner of the application menu.
Pressing this button launches the properties dialog, as shown below.

The Properties dialog includes basic file attributes for the currently opened document, and width and height
controls for changing the desired values of the current image size.
A Default button resets the image size to the default size stored in the application settings file.
A Defaults tab contains miscellaneous controls for saving default values in the application settings file, as shown
below. Adjustments made to these controls will affect the image attributes upon the next launch of Text Editor.

HOME TAB

Three buttons are in the Background group of the ribbon Home tab.
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The Transparent button is selected by default
Pressing the Image button reveals a Media Pane, where a folder of potential background images is
displayed. Clicking an image draws it to the background
The Color drop-down allows 16 pre-defined colors to be selected, or any other color via a color dialog

The Tools group contains four buttons.
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The Text Box button adds a new text box to the upper left corner of the image, and automatically enables
and displays a third ribbon tab named “Text”
The Line button is not currently supported
The Circle button is not currently supported
The Rectangle button is not currently supported

VIEW TAB

The view tab contains a Zoom group with four buttons.
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The Zoom In button increases the zoom factor of the image
The Zoom Out button decreases the zoom factor of the image
The Zoom To Fit button adjusts the zoom factor to size the image to fit inside the Text Editor
The 100% button adjusts the zoom factor to full size

The Show or Hide group contains three checkboxes.
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The Preview Pane checkbox is not currently supported
The Media Pane checkbox shows this pane when checked and hides it when unchecked
The Status Bar checkbox shows the status bar area along the bottom of the application when checked and
hides it when unchecked

TEXT TAB
Clicking Text Box on the Home tab reveals the Text ribbon tab and automatically inserts a text box in the upper left
corner of the image, as shown below.

The text box includes 8 glyphs. Clicking and dragging a glyph will resize the text box. Placing the cursor at the edge
of the text box, between two glyphs, changes the cursor to the four-sided arrow, allowing the user to click and
drag to move the position of the text box. The following items should be considered when adding text.
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Typing long strings of text within the text box will automatically word-wrap the text
If the text string is too long to fit within the extents of the text box, a scrollbar will appear. Resizing the
text box to remove the scrollbar will ensure the entirety of the text string is drawn to the image
Changes made in the Font, Effect and Gradient groups will affect the entirety of text in the current text
box. A single text box cannot contain multiple styling options
Clicking outside the text box ends the edit mode and “prints” the text to the image
Clicking on text that has printed to the image will restore the text box to edit mode, revealing the glyphs
Effects and gradients are not shown in the text box during edit mode
Changing Font, Effect and Gradient styling after clicking outside a text box will affect the previously
selected text box. This is recommended for applying effects and gradients
The background of the text box itself can be changed with the Back Color drop-down menu. This is helpful
if the image background is transparent or white, or if the desired font color is white
A text box must contain text to “print” to the image. If the text box is empty, it is removed
Delete an existing text box by selecting the text box (by clicking a glyph or the edge of the text box
between glyphs) and pressing the delete key on the keyboard

Several paragraph formatting buttons are found in the Font group.
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The Font Name drop-down menu contains a list of all available Windows fonts
The Font Size drop-down sets the height of the text
The Bold, Italic and Underline buttons adjust the font style of the text
The Insert Bullet button inserts the bullet character. This is helpful for making a list of bulleted points
The Left, Center and Right buttons set the text alignment
The Highlight Text button sets the color behind the text, as if it were marked by a highlighter pen
The Color button sets the color of the text

The Effect group contains four buttons.
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The None button toggles of any text effect
The Edge button applies an edge effect around the text characters. Pressing the Edge button enables the
color selection button, to set the desired color of the edge effect
The Shadow button applies a drop shadow to the text characters. Pressing the Shadow button enables
the color selection button, to set the desired color of the drop shadow effect
The Color button, when enabled, launches the color dialog box for selecting the effect color
The following images represent Edge and Shadow effects:

The Gradient group contains five buttons. A gradient is a blend of one color to another. Resizing the text box to
closely fit the text characters is recommended for best results.
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The None button toggles of any text gradient
The Horizontal button applies a gradient effect from left to right. Pressing the Horizontal button enables
the color selection buttons, to set the desired colors of the gradient effect
The Vertical button applies a gradient effect from top to bottom. Pressing the Vertical button enables the
color selection buttons, to set the desired colors of the gradient effect
The Color 1 button, when enabled, launches the color dialog box for selecting the first gradient color
The Color 2 button, when enabled, launches the color dialog box for selecting the second gradient color
The following images represent Horizontal and Vertical gradient effects:

The Text Box group contains one button.
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The Back Color drop-down menu contains three items: White, Grey and Black. These control the
background color of the textbox itself, while in edit mode. These colors are for use in the Text Editor, and
are not reflected in the saved image. Selecting a contrasting color can be helpful in instances where the
textbox color matches the image background color, or when the text color matches the image background
color. A contrasting color is also helpful when resizing a text box, during which the glyphs are hidden, as
shown below:
64

Additional text boxes can be added to the image by pressing the Add Text Box. Each text box can have its own
unique styling. The functions in the Clipboard group, Copy, Paste and Format Painter allow for reuse of existing
text and text styling.

STATUS BAR

The status bar appears at the bottom of the Text Editor. It contains three controls:
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The Cursor position indicates the coordinates of the mouse on the image surface in pixels
The Image dimensions indicate the size of the image in pixels
The Zoom slider controls the zoom factor. Pressing the plus and minus buttons on either end of the slider
track will increase and decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 1. Clicking the track on either side of
the thumb marker will increase or decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 25. Note: the zoom
control is for adjusting the current view of the Text Editor; it does not change the font height or other
characteristics of the text itself.

Saving and closing an image from the text editor may force the media pane to refresh, if this pane is currently
displaying the folder where the image resides. The text-based image can then be dragged and dropped into any
zone which is a page-type, or the background zone.

CRAWL EDITOR
Clicking the Crawl button on the Home tab of the MediaZone Pro Editor ribbon launches the Crawl Editor.
The Crawl Editor creates a text-based image file in PNG format for crawl zones. Crawl images scroll horizontally
across the display, like a news ticker, and the Crawl Editor provides a means to create the text with numerous
styling options. In addition to plain text, text variables can be inserted to intelligently provide dynamically updated
information such as date, time and temperature. The ability to include an RSS text feed makes the Crawl Editor a
full-featured and powerful tool.

The application menu contains six common file management commands.
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New
Open
Save
Save as
Print
Exit

HOME TAB

Three buttons in the Clipboard group of the ribbon Home tab provide standard Windows clipboard functionality of
Cut, Copy and Paste for text.
Several paragraph formatting buttons are found in the Font group.
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The Effect group contains four buttons.
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The None button toggles off any text effect
The Edge button applies an edge effect around the text characters. Pressing the Edge button enables the
color selection button, to set the desired color of the edge effect
The Shadow button applies a drop shadow to the text characters. Pressing the Shadow button enables
the color selection button, to set the desired color of the drop shadow effect
The Color button, when enabled, launches the color dialog box for selecting the effect color

Note: text effects are applied when the image is saved, but will not appear in the preview area of the Crawl Editor.
The Editing group contains four buttons.
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Undo allows the user to step backward to reverse most changes
Redo allows the user to step forward to discard an undo
The Find Or Replace button launches the a dialog to search for text, with an option to replace a text string
with another
The Select All button highlights all text, which can be helpful when intending to change the style of all the
text at once

The Insert group contains two buttons, Text Variables and RSS.
The Text Variables button contains a drop-down menu with a gallery control. Text variables can be inserted into
the crawl text to intelligently provide dynamically updated
information such as date, time and temperature. The gallery is
divided into three sections: Time, Date and Weather.
Selecting a text variable item from the gallery inserts a special ID
character code, surrounded by hash tags. For instance, selecting
the Date Full item inserts #MM/DD/YYYY# into the crawl text.
When the crawl image scrolls across the digital signage, this special
ID character code will be converted to the current date. Note: The
preview window in MediaZone Pro Editor will not convert text
variables.

The RSS button launches a dialog to enter RSS feed information. You must first save the current crawl image to
reveal this dialog, as shown below.

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The URL of the RSS Feed is a required field. Once an RSS feed URL is stored it will appear in the URL dropdown menu for future use in other crawl images
The Include RSS Title in Crawl checkbox and Separator character will display the embedded title,
followed by the designated separator character
The Include RSS Description in Crawl checkbox and Separator character will display the embedded
description, followed by the designated separator character
At least one of the two checkboxes must be checked to successfully save the RSS Feed data
Once the dialog is closed, the crawl text will include the special ID Character code #RSS Feed#

VIEW TAB

The view tab contains a Zoom group with three buttons.
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The Zoom In button increases the zoom factor of the image
The Zoom Out button decreases the zoom factor of the image
The 100% button adjusts the zoom factor to full size

The Settings group contains three controls.
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The Status Bar checkbox shows the status bar area along the bottom of the application when checked and
hides it when unchecked
The Enable Word Wrap toggle button changes the display of the Crawl Editor to wrap the text. This only
affects the view in the Crawl Editor, and does not impact the crawl image which appears on the digital
signage. This toggle button is helpful when an excessive amount of text is used
The Form Background drop-down menu includes options to changing the color of the Crawl Editor’s text
area. The selections include a gallery of 16 colors, a transparent grid pattern, a randomly generated color,
or the traditional color dialog for specifying a desired color

STATUS BAR

The status bar appears at the bottom of the Crawl Editor. It contains two controls:
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The Character Counter indicates the number of text characters in the crawl text
The Zoom slider controls the zoom factor. Pressing the plus and minus buttons on either end of the slider
track will increase and decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 1. Clicking the track on either side of
the thumb marker will increase or decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 25. Note: the zoom
control is for adjusting the current view of the Crawl Editor; it does not change the font height or other
characteristics of the crawl text itself.

Saving and closing an image from the crawl editor may force the media pane to refresh, if this pane is currently
displaying the folder where the image resides. The crawl image can then be dragged and dropped into any zone
which is a crawl-type, or into any zone which doesn’t contain media.

VARIABLE EDITOR
Clicking the Variable button on the Home tab of the MediaZone Pro Editor ribbon launches the Variable Editor. The
current state of the canvas area in MediaZone Pro Editor is shown as the background image. This is helpful
considering that variable images are full size, transparent images, designed to overlay existing zone content.
Having a background image of the current canvas state allows for proper text alignment.
The Variable Editor creates a text-based image file in PNG format for variable zones. Variable zones act as
transparent overlays, with variable text layered over the content of other zones. Text variables appear on the
player as dynamically updated text information such as date, time and temperature. These variables can be
interspersed among plain text.

The application menu contains six common file management commands.
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New
Open
Save
Save as
Print
Exit

HOME TAB

Three buttons in the Clipboard group of the ribbon Home tab provide standard Windows clipboard functionality of
Cut, Copy and Paste for text.
The Text Box button inserts a new text box in the upper left corner of the image, and automatically selects the
“Text” ribbon tab.

VIEW TAB

The view tab contains a Zoom group with four buttons.
72

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The Zoom In button increases the zoom factor of the image
The Zoom Out button decreases the zoom factor of the image
The Zoom To Fit button adjusts the zoom factor to size the image to fit inside the Variable Editor
The 100% button adjusts the zoom factor to full size

The Settings group contains three checkboxes.
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The Show Zones checkbox toggles the look of the Variable Editor background area between the canvas
image and a grey background
The Show Status Bar checkbox shows the status bar area along the bottom of the application when
checked and hides it when unchecked
The Show Variables toggle button changes the way text variables are shown in the Variable editor. When
enabled, the text variables are converted to intended text values (01/31/2012), when disabled, the text
variables appear as special ID Character codes (#MM/DD/YYYY#)

TEXT TAB
Clicking Text Box on the Home tab reveals the Text ribbon tab and automatically inserts a text box in the upper left
corner of the image, as shown below.

Several paragraph formatting buttons are found in the Font group.
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The Insert group contains a Text Variables button.
The Text Variables button contains a drop-down menu with a
gallery control. Text variables can be inserted into the crawl text to
intelligently provide dynamically updated information such as date,
time and temperature. The gallery is divided into three sections:
Time, Date and Weather.
Selecting a text variable item from the gallery inserts a special ID
character code, surrounded by hash tags. For instance, selecting the
Date Full item inserts #MM/DD/YYYY# into the crawl text. When the
crawl image scrolls across the digital signage, this special ID
character code will appear as the current date.

The Effect group contains four buttons.
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The Text Box group contains one button.
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The Back Color drop-down menu contains three items: White, Grey and Black. These control the
background color of the textbox itself, while in edit mode. These colors are for use in the Text Editor, and
are not reflected in the saved image. Selecting a contrasting color can be helpful in instances where the
textbox color matches the image background color, or when the text color matches the image
background color. A contrasting color is also helpful when resizing a text box, during which the glyphs are
hidden.

STATUS BAR

The status bar appears at the bottom of the Variable Editor. It contains three controls:
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The Cursor position indicates the coordinates of the mouse on the image surface in pixels
The Image dimensions indicate the size of the image in pixels

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The Zoom slider controls the zoom factor. Pressing the plus and minus buttons on either end of the slider
track will increase and decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 1. Clicking the track on either side of
the thumb marker will increase or decrease the zoom factor by an increment of 25. Note: the zoom
control is for adjusting the current view of the Variable Editor; it does not change the font height or other
characteristics of the text itself.

Saving and closing an image from the Variable Editor may force the media pane to refresh, if this pane is currently
displaying the folder where the image resides. The variable image can then be dragged and dropped into any zone
which is a variable-type, or into any zone which doesn’t contain media.

USING MEDIAZONE PRO EDITOR
The following sections provide examples of how to use MediaZone Pro Editor to create playlists for typical digital
signage usage, and expose various techniques to achieve the best results. To follow the examples, please ensure
the sample content is installed. If not installed, select the Add Sample Content button in the options dialog.

COMPANY LOGO EXAMPLE
The company logo example is suited for users new to MediaZone Pro Editor and digital signage in general. It
includes a basic playlist, consisting of two rotating background images and another zone for videos. As part of this
example, an exercise is included to add an additional video. Open the Company Logo example by navigating to the
My Documents\MediaZone Editor Pro\Sets folder and opening the Company Logo.set file. Once open, the
interface will appear as follows:

To preview the playlist, press the Play button located on the title bar in the upper left (if this button does not
appear in the title bar, use the Play button on the View ribbon tab). A separate preview window will open and load
the playlist, as shown below.

This playlist is designed to be an advertisement for an organization, perhaps to appear on digital signage located in
the lobby of the corporate headquarters. It only contains three media files, but is still eye-catching and dynamic.
Close the preview window to continue.
In the Company Logo playlist, zone 1 is used like a background zone, sized to fit the full screen. It contains two
images, Basic_1.png and Basic_2.png. The reason these images are in zone 1 instead of in the background zone
itself is because zones 1-5 can contain transitions while the background zone cannot. The other zone, zone 2,
contains a single video. To add two more videos to zone 2 simultaneously, follow the steps below in Exercise 1.

EXERCISE ONE – ADDING VIDEOS
1.

2.
3.
4.

In the media pane, scroll to and select the kwt.wmv media item. While holding down the Ctrl key on the
keyboard, select the kwt2.wmv media item. Both items appear highlighted. Notice the generic icon for
these items, which resembles a photo from an instant camera
While pressing the left-mouse button down over the selected media items, drag them to the zone layout
area and drop them onto zone 2
The zone list for zone 2 now includes kwt.wmv as the second media item and kwt2.wmv as the third
After several seconds, the generic icons for kwt.wmv and kwt2.wmv in the media pane are replaced with
thumbnail from the videos. The zone layout area automatically refreshes to display the new thumbnail in
zone 2, as well

If desired, press the play button

to preview these changes.

Adding media by drag-and-drop (or with the Add Media button) places new items at the bottom of the zone list. To
better control where a media item is placed among the existing items, it can be dropped directly into the zone list.
While dragging a media item over the zone list, a red line appears. This line signifies where in the list the new item

will be added, once dropped. This method can also be used to move items in a zone list. To use the example from
Exercise One, click and drag the kwt.png to the top of the zone 2 list.

DIRECTORY BOARD EXAMPLES
A directory board is an informational panel, such as those located in an entry for an office building, hospital or
convention center. A directory board usually lists occupants, their location, and sometimes includes map
information, as well.
Traditional directory boards use either interchangeable letters or permanent nameplates to display the
information. Changing the directory information can often be tedious or expensive. With digital signage, a
directory board can be much more dynamic, easy to change, and offer additional information. Take, for instance, a
scenario where an occupant is not available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A digital-signage directory board can
inform patrons of this with a different playlist, scheduled to play on those days.
The two examples in the following pages are as follows:
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Directory – Basic: a simple directory board playlist that utilizes a color-keyed region
Directory – Advanced: a more complex directory board playlist to demonstrate advanced features

BASIC DIRECTORY BOARD EXAMPLE
The Basic Directory Board playlist includes three images in zone 1 and one image in zone 2. The exercises for this
playlist cover the concepts of overlaying images and transparency color-keying. Open this playlist by navigating to
the My Documents\MediaZone Editor Pro\Sets folder and opening the Directory - Basic.set file. Once open, the
interface will appear as follows:

To preview the playlist, press the Play button . During playback, notice how the images of people can be seen
with irregularly shaped borders. Close the preview window.
In the zone list area, select people_1.png in zone 1. Clicking this image “brings to front” the selected zone, allowing
hidden content to be seen. In MediaZone Pro Editor, all the images in zone 1 are hidden by the full-screen
Intermediate_directory.png image in zone 2. However, during playback the images of people in zone 1 become
visible. This appears to conflict with the zone order rule, which states that content in higher-numbered zones
overlaps the content in lower-numbered zones. To discover how this playlist circumvents this rule, follow the steps
below in Exercise 2.

EXERCISE TWO – COLOR KEY TRANSPARENCY
1.

In the zone list for zone 2, select Intermediate_directory.png. Note how the glyphs for zone 2 are equal to
the full screen size of the canvas area. This indicates that any media item in zone 2 will completely cover
any content in the background zone or zone 1, per the zone order rule
On the Media Attributes ribbon tab, in the Transparency group, the assigned Color Key value is #FF00FF
and the preview box shows a magenta color. Notice the irregular shape on the right side of the image
which is also of a magenta color. Because of this color key assignment, any portion of the image that is
magenta in color will be “keyed out”, or transparency. This explains how the images of people are seen
through the magenta region of Intermediate_directory.png during playback
On the Media Attributes ribbon tab, in the Transparency group, remove the assigned Color Key value from
#FF00FF by typing “None” in the textbox

Press the play button
to preview these changes. The images of people are hidden and the magenta
region is visible. Close the preview window

Reassign the color key transparency by pressing the Set Color Key button
and selecting magenta,
which is in the last column, second row. Press OK
The color key textbox should contain “FF00FF” again, with a preview box showing the magenta color

Although this playlist used an irregularly shaped area for transparency, it could well have been a circle, ellipse, or
any other geometric shape. This method of using a color key to make an area of a full screen image transparent
can be thought of as using a “window” to see underlying zones. With this technique, a zone no longer must be
constrained to a rectangular shape, providing a powerful way to develop creative playlist content.

ADVANCED DIRECTORY BOARD EXAMPLE
The Advanced Directory Board playlist includes five zones of content layered over a stylish background. Open the
Directory Board example by navigating to the My Documents\MediaZone Editor Pro\Sets folder and opening
Directory - Advanced.set. Once open, the interface will appear as follows:

To preview the playlist, press the Play button

With a rotating bank of images, sliding directory text and horizontal crawl, the dynamic effect of the playlist is
immediately impactful. Close the preview window. Note how some of the images which appeared in the preview
are not easily seen in the zone layout pane.
Because this playlist makes use of full size zones, which overlay other zones, some of the content is hidden.
However, selecting a zone or a zone button performs a “bring to front” to reveal its content. Beginning with the
Background button in the zone lists pane, select each of the zone buttons. As each button is selected, the
associated content is shown or hidden. The exercises below will demonstrate how to improve the playlist design to
eliminate conflicts which hide content.
Next, select the Zone 1 button and notice in the zone layout pane how eight “glyphs” around the square images
appear. This indicates that zone 1 is now the active zone, and brings to front its content. In the zone list, select
each media item within zone 1 and notice how the images in the zone layout update to reflect each individual
image. To demonstrate how easy it is to change the playback of the playlist, follow the steps below in Exercise 1.

EXERCISE THREE – CHANGING TRANSITIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

In the zone 1 list, select group 2.png. The ribbon will automatically select the Media Attributes tab
On the Media Attributes tab, select the Transition drop-down menu and change the Fade In transition to
another, such as Grow Left
Now select group 3.png and change its transition to Spin CW Center, and group 4.png to Cut
Select all media items in zone 1 list by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting the top and bottom items
On the Media Attributes tab, change the dwell from 2 to 7 seconds

Press the play button
to preview these changes. After each 7 seconds of dwell time, the new transition effects
will be shown. Notice how the Cut transition assigned to group 4.png is actually no transition at all.

EXERCISE FOUR – ZONE PRIORITY
To further describe the Zone Order Rule and demonstrate how zones act when layered over one another, follow
the steps below. If it is still open, close the preview window.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select the Zone 2 button. Note how the position of zone 2 in the zone layout occupies most of the left
side of the canvas
Select the Zone 1 button to see how it occupies the right side of the canvas
Move the mouse cursor over this zone in the zone layout pane. The cursor changes to a four-sided arrow
to imply a move command
Click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor to the left until the zone is positioned on
the left side of the canvas, in the same general location as zone 2, then release. The zone layout pane
should look similar to below:

Press the play button to preview this change. It’s important to note that although zones 1 and 2 occupy the same
space, both can be seen. Also notice how zone 1 was moved behind zone 2 and not in front of it. The reason for
this is simple; during playback, the number of the zone dictates its depth priority. The larger the zone number, the
closest to the foreground it will appear. In this exercise, 2 is greater than 1, so zone 2 appears on top of zone 1.
Additionally, the only reason the content in zone 1 can be seen beneath the content in zone 2 is because the

images in zone 2 have a transparent background. If they were not transparent, zone 1 would be hidden during the
playback.
Close the preview window and move zone 1 back to its original position, or press the Reset Zones button on the
Zone Layout ribbon tab.

EXERCISE FIVE – EDITING A TEXT-BASED IMAGE
To demonstrate how the Text Editor is used to create and edit text-based images, select D-2 directory-2.png from
the zone 2 list. Notice the misspelling in the zone layout; the third line of occupants reads, NAI Captial Realty. To
correct this spelling error, double-click this media item in the zone list. The Text Editor will launch with what
appears to be a blank page. The reason it appears blank is because this image contains white text on a transparent
background. To change the view to make it easier to work with white text, follow these steps:
1.
2.
3.

On the Home ribbon tab, in the Background group, select the Color drop down menu
Move the cursor over Select until the pop out menu appears
In the gallery of colors, click one of the non-white colors. For instance, the baby blue in the lower left
corner. With the background color set, the white text now becomes readable
Select the text that reads NAI Captial Realty. A large white textbox now becomes active
To change the background of the textbox, select the Back Color drop down menu on the Text ribbon tab
and choose Grey
With the text now readable, place the cursor near the misspelling and change the word Captial to Capital

7.
8.

Select the Home ribbon tab and press the Transparent button
in the Background group
Save and exit the image. The spelling now appears correct in the zone layout pane

4.
5.

EXERCISE SIX – COMBINING OVERLAY IMAGES
In this playlist, both zone 3 and zone 5 contain full screen, transparent images. Zone 3, a page zone, contains D-2
title.png and zone 5, a variable zone, contains D-2 time_date.png. Because both of these zones are full screen
overlays, they compete with one another unnecessarily and should be combined to eliminate viewing conflicts in
the zone layout pane. The preferred type for an overlay zone is a variable zone. Perform the following steps to
replace the page zone (zone 3) and combine its contents with zone 5. This exercise also demonstrates how to
create custom colors.
1.

In the zone 5 list, double-click D-2 time_date.png. The Variable Editor will launch

On the Home ribbon tab, in the Tools group, select the Text Box button
. A text box appears in the
drawing area and the current ribbon tab is automatically switched to Text. Type the word “Business”
In the Font group of the Text ribbon tab, set the font name to Franklin Gothic Demi (Note: if this font is
not shown, select Arial Black). Set the font height to 32. Press the bold button

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Click the color drop-down menu
and select More Colors
In the Color dialog, press the Define Custom Colors button to expand the dialog
In the Red, Green and Blue boxes, enter these values respectively: 225, 169, 76
Press the Add to Custom Colors button. The dialog should look similar to the following:

8.
9.

Press OK to close the Color dialog
Move the Business text box into position over where the word “Business” appears on the background. To
move the text box, place the cursor at the edge of the text box, between two glyphs. The cursor will
change appearance to the four-sided cursor. Click the left mouse button and drag to move the textbox.
Once the text box is in the desired position, release the mouse button, move the cursor outside the text
box, and click once to exit the edit mode

10. Press the Add Text Box button
and type the word “Suite”. The formatting and color of this text box
will match the previous style
11. Move the Suite text box into position over the existing background
12. On the View ribbon tab, remove the Show Zones checkbox. The background image is replaced with a dark
grey background, leaving only four remaining text boxes
13. Save the image and exit to close the Variable Editor
84

14. With the updated D-2 time_date.png in zone 5, zone 3 is no longer required. Press the Zone 3 button to
make it active, then set the Enabled value to false at the top of the properties pane
With these two images combined into one image on a variable zone, the conflict is resolved and the zone layout
can now display all image information.

EXERCISE SEVEN – EDITING A CRAWL IMAGE
The Advanced Directory Board playlist includes a crawl image in zone 4. This exercise will demonstrate how to
change the test styling of a crawl, and how to find and replace text. To edit the crawl image with the Crawl Editor,
double-click the D-2 crawl.png in the zone 4 list and follow these steps:
1.

On the Home ribbon tab, in the Font group, press both the Bold and Italic buttons

Change the text color in the Color drop-down menu

3.
4.
5.
6.

In the Effect group, press the Shadow button
Select to the View ribbon tab and ensure the Enable Word Wrap button is pressed, to display more text
On the Home ribbon tab, in the Editing group, select Find or Replace
In the Find Text dialog, type the word “highfalutin” in the Find textbox and “prominent” in the Replace
textbox. Press the Replace button, then Cancel. The new text appears highlighted in the Editor
Save and exit the image

to yellow

Note the new text formatting in the zone layout pane, or press the play button

to preview this change.

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