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Make Hollow Tip
Last Post 09 May 2006 01:37 PM by Joel Osborn. 8 Replies.
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Lee MenningenUser is Offline
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23 Mar 2006 10:39 AM  

For a particular song this week I am choosing a very subtle, light colored, abstract, motion background and am using the Maiandra GD standard Windows type face for the text.  I checked Bold and Make Hollow, and it looks very nice on the old, slow, workstation over a Cat5e connection.

This is V7. Then I tested the program on the projection machine, which is 5 times faster and is on a Cat6 subnet, but surprise - the song text would not display at all; its motion background shows correctly, but there is no song text.

After an hour or so of problem analysis it came down to the Tools > Preferences > Text Quality > Enable font smoothing option.

On the slow workstation with a poor graphics board, the song text displays properly regardless of the Enable font smoothing setting. But on the 2.4GHz machine with a "real" graphics board, it works only when the setting is Disabled (No checked).

So if you want to try using Make Hollow, try disabling font smoothing.  Font smoothing is a global-only setting because it is under "preferences" so you would have to live with it disabled for the entire program.

Lee
Joseph KelleyUser is Offline
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05 May 2006 01:29 PM  


Lee,
I realize this post was from March but it will hopefully help me. I upgraded our graphics card to an ATI X700 and everything runs great but a few weeks ago I was messing with some display properties or something right before church and all of the slides that I had used the blur feature on the text suddenly had an awful blur trailing down below it that actually made it illegible.

I had to quickly go through all  of the slide shows, songs, and sermon outline and take away the blur. I use it a lot because it smooths out the bevel effect really well. I haven't been able to use blur since and my text isn't as smooth as it should be. I will try those settings to see if it works.



Joe
kreal
Real Life Church
Columbus, MS
Lee MenningenUser is Offline
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08 May 2006 08:58 AM  
What I find interesting is your experience that text blur once worked. Several times I have tried text blur in a song only to see the entire text area filled in solid. Using blur on text in SSB doesn't produce any visible effect.

It seems blur may be problematic and I don't know whether it has to do with the video card, its driver, a ssb/ssp setting, or a combination. Sorry.

Posted By Jkelley on 05/05/2006 1:29 PM
...I haven't been able to use blur since and my text isn't as smooth as it should be...
Joe
Could your text not being smooth have anything to do with anti-aliasing turned off?
Lee
Joseph KelleyUser is Offline
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08 May 2006 03:18 PM  
Please forgive my ignorance but what is anti-aliasing? If it is turned off I wouldn't know it. LOL.

I did use the tip from above and that was apparently my problem the text looks great now. I should have asked you guys earlier. 

Using the blur effect on text in version 5.5 doesn't normally produce a very visible effect either but in conjunction with the bevel effect it helps make it look smoother than just using the smooth effect. Especially if you use a bold font with a gradient color.

I don't make a habit of using such elaborate text but I do like to use it occassionally on an announcement slide show that will be used often such as children's church or regularly scheduled youth ministry activities.

I appreciate you guys. I have been operating SSP for three years and thought I knew a lot until I started reading this forum. I have a lot to learn.
kreal
Real Life Church
Columbus, MS
Doug ReeceUser is Offline
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09 May 2006 12:15 AM  
When applying the blur affect to text, it only blurs the fill of the text, not the text itself.
Lee MenningenUser is Offline
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09 May 2006 05:42 AM  
Ahh - no wonder I didn't see the outline get blurrier! But then, if the fill is yellow, what is a blurred fill supposed to look like?!

So as an experiment I went to Song Text > Lyrics > Font tab and set the text to a fat font (bold Ravie), and checked the Make Hollow box. Next I set the Fill tab > Fill Type to Texture, and clicked on Category. I chose a stone brick wall and applied it. Now I can see all the detail of the stones in the letters.

Then I went to the Effects tab and applied the Blur effect, and sure enough, I watched the fill immediately become blurrier. As I upped the value to 4 it appears as a multi-colored gradient, producing a rather nice effect inside the letters.

There are other patterns one can chose under the Category button. You can also apply any image file you want - I chose a photo (hey, it is only an experiment), and a small area from the upper left corner shows up in the letters. The blur again turned the sharpness of the photo into a multicolored gradient. There are also adjustments for brightness and color and they do exactly what they say they do, giving you lots of tweaking options to get the look of the letters just as you want them.

I'm sure we can find many uses for this effect.
Lee
Lee MenningenUser is Offline
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09 May 2006 05:47 AM  
Posted By Jkelley on 05/08/2006 3:18 PM
...what is anti-aliasing? If it is turned off I wouldn't know it...
Actually, the higher the projection resolution the less noticeable (less useful) this becomes. Otherwise, look under Tools > Preferences > Text Quality.
Lee
Roger KresgeUser is Offline
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09 May 2006 01:31 PM  
Posted By Jkelley on 05/05/2006 1:29 PM


Lee,
I realize this post was from March but it will hopefully help me. I upgraded our graphics card to an ATI X700 and everything runs great but a few weeks ago I was messing with some display properties or something right before church and all of the slides that I had used the blur feature on the text suddenly had an awful blur trailing down below it that actually made it illegible.

I had to quickly go through all  of the slide shows, songs, and sermon outline and take away the blur. I use it a lot because it smooths out the bevel effect really well. I haven't been able to use blur since and my text isn't as smooth as it should be. I will try those settings to see if it works.



Joe
Here's a suggestion about an SSP feature that would probably have saved you much weeping and gnashing of teeth.  It's PRESETS!  I have v7 installed as a test on my laptop right now, but we've used Presets in v5.x for some time, very successfully.

This tool lets you save your current display settings (all of them, I believe) in a Preset with your choice of names.  Then if someone changes a critical setting and you're not sure what it was and how to recover from it, just restore your standard Preset! 

You'll find this under Global Display Properties.  Look for the word Presets at the top of the screen and click on it.  Nice tool to know about!

Roger

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Joel OsbornUser is Offline
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09 May 2006 01:37 PM  
I l ove using presets. We have a preset for the youth on Wednesday night and then a seperate one for the Sabbath services, so we can just switch back and forth.

Works real well.
...Joel

Milton Seventh Day Baptist Church
______
"I'm working on my 5 year plan. I just need to pick a font." - Chuck
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Most Recent Posts

19 Mar 2010 12:11 PM
March 2010 Beta - projected content disappears after transition in Workstation mode by George in SongShow Plus Beta Release Articles

In the 3/16 beta release, When using SSP in Workstation mode, projected content disappears after transition is complete.

This has been corrected in the 3/17 beta release.  Please update if you encounter this issue.

19 Mar 2010 11:59 AM
March 2010 Beta - Videos will not play when Stage Monitor is enabled by George in SongShow Plus Beta Release Articles

In the 3/16 beta release, When the Stage Monitor was enabled, videos would not play and an alert calling out a display properties error would occur.

This has been corrected in the 3/17 beta release.  Please update if you encounter this issue.

19 Mar 2010 11:52 AM
March 2010 Beta - Web Pages Panel not showing up by George in SongShow Plus Beta Release Articles

The new Web Pages Panel icon is not currently appearing in the Database Panel toolbar by default. It does appear when a clean install is done but not when an update is done.
We are working on correcting this but in the mean time this can be corrected using the following steps:

If you use the default toolbar layout:
1.  Right-click on the database toolbar and select Customize...
2.  Click the "Use Default Controls" button in the lower left corner of the toolbar design window.
3.  Click "Save" to save changes and close the editor.
This will update the toolbar configuration to include the Web Pages Panel.

If you have customised your toolbar layout:
1.  Right-click on the database toolbar and select Customize...
2.  Once in the toolbar design window, Make sure the "Left" control tab is selected.
3.  From the right column of the toolbar design window, scroll down and select "Show Web Pages Panel".
4.  Once added, you can adjust the location of the icon by clicking and dragging.
5.  Click "Save" to save changes and close the editor.
This will update the toolbar configuration to include the Web Pages Panel without changing your current customizations.

You can also view the Web Pages Panel from the View menu on the main toolbar.

19 Mar 2010 11:35 AM
March 2010 Edition, 3/17/2010 Beta Release by dreece in Latest News

The 3/17/2010 beta test release of the March 2010 Edition of SongShow Plus is now available to current subscribers.

  • Fixed problem with presenting images and videos while the stage monitor is active.
  • Various other fixes.

Read What's New for a more complete list of new features and enhancements. Subscribers can also visit the Beta Test Support forum to post feedback and questions regarding the beta version.

You can download the beta test installation from within SongShow Plus using the menu command Update > Check for Beta Version Updates  or by going to http://www.songshowplus.com then to the Download page.

 

19 Mar 2010 09:17 AM
RE: How to Revert from Beta to Official Release by dreece in User Support - V7

Alexander,

Please clarify something, perhaps I missed this point: Are you saying that the September 2009 Edition handles the Russian language better than the December 2009 edition does? While its true that full unicode support is still in the works, I know of nothing specifically that changed that should have caused SSP to be less compatible with non-English languages in the December 2009 Edition. At the very least, we'd like to identify this issue and determine if there is a reasonable fix for it prior to the implementation of Unicode support.

18 Mar 2010 04:36 PM
RE: March 2010 Edition Available for Beta Testing by chapelbythesea in Latest News

OK. Thanks. I'll just stay wiith Sept for now. Don't have time to mess with testing etc.

18 Mar 2010 04:08 PM
RE: Official Status by chapelbythesea in User Support - V7 on Windows 7

Just to let you know, the Win 7 compatible release downgraded usability on my Win 7 machine, as compared to the non-Win 7 compatible previous release. The issues raised are posted in the Windows 7 User Support forum. One person suggested uninstalling and reinstalling with Cinematic FX disabled.

I haven't tried because I don't have time to mess with it. Will wait to hear that all such surprises have been cleared out.

thanks
ken rosentrater

18 Mar 2010 03:30 PM
Issue with Cinematic FX by Cleber Caldas in User Support - V7 on Windows 7

Just moving the discussion from "March 2010 Edition Available for Beta Testing" forum to this one as suggested.
At least for me, as described below, it was solved by not installing Cinematic FX, though we lose this plugin functionality, obviously.
Not sure if it will solve Ken's problem too, though I think so. I am only copying/pasting his post.


17 Mar 2010 05:36 PM  

Greetings, I do hope that the Windows 7 compatibility will be fully worked out by the time this one comes out. The December version is virtually unusable on my Windows 7 workstation, I am sorry to report to you. I went back to September edition. (Dec edition works fine on our XP presentation machine.)

Here are the issues my near-brand-new Windows 7 Professional has with Dec release of SSP:

1) Red "X" close button non-functional
2) "Exit" on menu non-functional 
      (ctrl-alt-del only way to close out Dec SSP on Windows 7 Professional OS)
3) "Program" drop-down menu non-functional
4) "Songs" drop-down menu non-functional
5) "Song/Edit" context menu non-functional

Thank you

Ken Rosentrater

17 Mar 2010 09:08 PM  

I had the very same problem while I was trying out the December Version with the Windows 7. After some "trial and error" process, I found out the problem is related to the "Cinematic FX" collection.

Try to uninstall and reinstall it without the Cinematic FX option (unselect it when reinstalling SSP). It worked fine for me. Good luck.

Cleber
P.S.: We run Windows 7 Professional 64bit Brazilian Portuguese version with a NVidia Geforce GT250 512MB video card.

17 Mar 2010 10:00 AM
March 2010 Beta - How to use Color Improv link is missing by George in SongShow Plus Beta Release Articles

Color Improv is included as part of the new Improv Collection and it appears in the Plug-ins panel that is typically at the bottom of the SSP Control Panel.  This tab is supposed to have a "How to use this plug-in" link similar to the Background Improv with basic instructions.  This omission was an oversight and it will be added later.

 The Color Improv is an advanced effect that allows on the fly hue adjustment and can be applied from the advanced effects tab in the display properties anywhere it is present.

One thing to keep in mind when using this is that Color Improv is a Hue adjustment and not a color filter so when applying this the result may be very subtle depending on what the original color or colors are.

This is pretty cool so have fun with it!

16 Mar 2010 09:51 PM
RE: Computer Setups by fbcgoshen in The 'Wave Pool'

built
Asus rampage MB
Intel Pentium dual core 2.6ghz
4 gig Kingston Ram
130gig Maxtor system drive
1TB Western Digital Data drive
EVGA Nvidia 8800gt 1gig ram and 8800gts 640mb ram
17 wide screen for windows 22in wide screen for Work window 17in standard to match projectors
2 Mistsubishi Projectors
2 Kramer Scaler switches and Distribution Amplifier

16 Mar 2010 04:30 PM
March 2010 Edition Beta Available Now - Please Read before posting by George in Beta Test Support

The March 2010 Edition of SSP is now in beta testing and is available to current subscribers.

You can download the beta test installation from within SSP using the menu command Update > Check for Beta Version Updates or by going to http://www.songshowplus.com then to the Download page.


Read What's New for a more complete list of new features and enhancements.

We encourage and appreciate users posting to the Beta Forum regarding possible bugs and comments. When posting bugs or comments to the Beta Forum, please make a separate post for each possible bug to make it easier to maintain continuity when discussing bugs in the forum.

If additional information is needed or a remote session is desired, a representative may contact you directly regarding a possible bug you have submitted.

Please review the recent postings in this Beta Forum to see if there is already a thread on your issue and the Beta Knowledge Base area to see if it has already been addressed.

16 Mar 2010 04:25 PM
RE: Unstable for me by iamgap in Beta Test Support


I haven't yet updated to the latest release. Was this resolved? If not, it just happened again on the 2/24 beta.

It hung when switching from one song to another. One had the clouds animation with an image overlay @ 25% transparency and 100% size. The next had a Shift Worship MPG file (praise in cliff).

In order to get it to pop an Alert!, I clicked the SSP task (on the Windows Task Bar) three seperate times. The second reported Not Responding, the third popped the Alert!.

3432 - Hint: Ssp: Unable to use fill type: Video File. Reason: Unable to use video file due to it's slow response time

I have a pretty long trace file if you would like it. The video file is in the SSP Video directory, on the local HDD.



EDIT: I edited the file type from WMV to MPG, as I realized it was one of the few MPG types we still had. I also downloaded the WMV version, and used that after restarting SSP, without issue.

15 Mar 2010 04:12 PM
RE: Recommended Professional Level Video Cards (DI009) by George in Display Issues

*******ALERT*******

There has been a reported fan speed issue related to the NVIDIA 196.75 video driver. Consumers are reporting low video card fan speeds, overheating and hardware failure.

LINK TO NVIDIA DRIVER NOTIFICATION

This particular driver is not one that was recommended by the SSP Team, however there may be cause for concern if you recently updated your video drivers.

NVIDIA has removed the 196.75 driver version from the download area but it is worth checking your system to ensure you do not have it installed.  If you have this driver installed the recommendation is to uninstall it immediately and install an older driver.

14 Mar 2010 03:41 PM
RE: some avi's kill SSP by Rick Everingham in User Support - V7

I have seen this to some extent, however once I installed the K-lite code pack, this issue seems to have gone away, as it is pretty inclusive in containing all the codecs.

13 Mar 2010 10:22 PM
RE: LogMeIn.com by fbcgoshen in Tips & Tricks

I use logmein every week to set up my program. As a matter of fact i just got done setting up the service for tomorrow using this. It comes in really handy if you are unable to attend a service and they are having issues. I have corrected monitor settings and what not from my office or lazyboy.

The other thing is we have a digital mackie mixer hooked to a different pc. I am able to run the board from home. I am able to work on the live audio feed from home since you don't always know what is going on with the feed at the church. I can also help other sound techs when they have issues.

I would highly recommend it to anyone. It is free unless you want the advanced features. It is also a good way to keep office computers going.

12 Mar 2010 11:11 AM
RE: Does December 2009 Edition Support Unicode? by dreece in User Support - V7

We understand the need for this, and work continues under the hood torward that goal. We will be sure to make it well known once this capability is supported.

12 Mar 2010 09:49 AM
RE: Bug in 2/26/10 build by akins in User Support - V7

I might add to what George said by directing you to "presets" for songs and other items. We use somewhat similar formats for songs and scriptures each Sunday and I have "preset" these for quick application. I then can make modifications as desired for a particular Sunday.

12 Mar 2010 09:44 AM
RE: How to use ssptimer files by akins in User Support - V7

Just select the type you want (5 min, etc.) from the list and place it in the program. You can then edit the timer changing font, size, color (just two), placement, and two lines of text. Actually, the editing choices are fairly limited and have been the subject of wishes for sometime, but you can usually play around and get a decent look. Right clicking on the timer in the program and selecting "display properties" at the top of the list will allow you to add background color, images, and/or videos and you can apply "advance effects" to any of these.

11 Mar 2010 11:18 AM
Right-Click copy/paste menu does not work in PPT song import panel (TS098) by George in Troubleshooting

Symptom:
During a Song import from PPT the right-click menu is no longer available in the Slide Text box when importing song text from a PPT.  This may cause difficulty in editing content. Import is still possible and text entry and deletion are possible, only the right click menu is affected.   

Possible Cause:
Unknown - the root cause of this is still under investigation.
 
Possible Solution:
Import is still possible and text entry and deletion are possible.  The CTRL-X, CTRL-C and CTRL-V keyboard shortcuts work as well.  If a significant change in the arrangement of the text in the PowerPoint file is needed, this can be done using Microsoft PowerPoint. 

(TS098)

10 Mar 2010 05:37 PM
December 2009 Edition - Bug Fixes (SSP070) by George in SongShow Plus Issues

There are some previously reported bugs that have been fixed in the December 2009 Edition:

  • Drag and drop in Win XP was broken and fixed in the Beta cycle. 
  • Quick Message was broken and fixed in the Beta cycle. 
  • Live Video was broken and fixed in the Beta cycle.  This fix was an improvement of the previous patch that was required to use the Live Video Plug-in.
  • An issue with nvidia driver version 196.21 that broke the SSP Beta on XP was corrected.
  • Print Slideshow and song list selection spinners grayed out
  • Builder re-run error causing file browser to open unexpectedly.
  • H.264 issue with playback of .m4v, .mp4v, and .mpg4 video corrected.
  • Path displayed incomplete when adding sub-folders to panels.
  • Snowflake Wipe transition not working as expected.
  • Font selection when editing text in the Slide Show Builder not working as expected.
  • Background Improv folder navigation and state save corrected.
  • Monitor options placements selector not working as expected.
  • CTRL-V does not paste copied objects as expected in Slide Show Builder.

(SSP070)

SSP News

19 Mar 2010 11:35 AM
March 2010 Edition, 3/17/2010 Beta Release by dreece in Latest News

The 3/17/2010 beta test release of the March 2010 Edition of SongShow Plus is now available to current subscribers.

  • Fixed problem with presenting images and videos while the stage monitor is active.
  • Various other fixes.

Read What's New for a more complete list of new features and enhancements. Subscribers can also visit the Beta Test Support forum to post feedback and questions regarding the beta version.

You can download the beta test installation from within SongShow Plus using the menu command Update > Check for Beta Version Updates  or by going to http://www.songshowplus.com then to the Download page.

 

18 Mar 2010 04:36 PM
RE: March 2010 Edition Available for Beta Testing by chapelbythesea in Latest News

OK. Thanks. I'll just stay wiith Sept for now. Don't have time to mess with testing etc.

09 Mar 2010 07:30 AM
RE: Cinematic Effects Collection: Easter Special from GoFishMedia by osborn4 in Latest News

And if you have multiple projection licenses, one purchase covers all of them.

03 Mar 2010 12:10 PM
RE: December 2009 Edition Released by norvilles in Latest News

No problem.

Also I tested on Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP 64bit.

05 Feb 2010 08:13 PM
December 2009 Edition, 2/4/2010 Candidate Release by dreece in Latest News

The 2/4/2010 candidate test release of the December 2009 Edition of SongShow Plus is now available to current subscribers.

  • XP/nVidia driver problem is resolve.
  • Single core use is now the default. Users can still switch to multi-core mode.

Read What's New for a more complete list of new features and enhancements. Subscribers can also visit the Beta Test Support forum to post feedback and questions regarding the beta version.

You can download the beta test installation from within SongShow Plus using the menu command Update > Check for Beta Version Updates  or by going to http://www.songshowplus.com then to the Download page.

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