Preparing Your Project for CD-ROM

Computers in Communication
Boston University College of Communication
Professor Jim Lengel

Follow these steps to prepare you work for transfer to CD-ROM:

1. Flatten your QuickTime movies to a standard data rate.
A CD-ROM cannot deliver information to the computer as fast as a hard disk can. For your movies to play back well from CD-ROM, they need to have a data rate of 150 kilobytes per second or less. You can "flatten" an existing QuickTime movie down to 150K/second by using the program MovieShop. Open MovieShop. Import one of your movie files. Under the Preferences menu, Methods and data rate section, set the data rate to 150K per second, and choose the compact video default settings. Under the Preferences menu, Video Settings, choose the Cinepak compressor, and leave all other settings as they are. Under the FrameRate menu, choose to resample at 15 frames per second, if you think your movie might have been sampled at a different rate. Save your "flattened" movie with a different name, on the desktop. The Output Movie from this process will play better from CD-ROM than the movies you already have, and will take up less disk space.

2. Re-import these new movies and sounds into your program.
Open your project in Persuasion or Astound. Go through and delete each movie, then re-import into its place the "flattened" movie you just made. This won't take as long as you think. Don't forget to save your project. Put your project and all its files into a single folder.

3. Test your project.
Once it's on the CD-ROM, you cannot edit or change it, so the time to fix it is now, while it's on your Zip cartridge. Go through it several times and make sure it works correctly. If you are having memory problems, go back and minimize your photos with PhotoShop, and your sounds with SoundEdit, so they take up less memory. Test your program on at least two different computers, to make sure all the files you need are on your Zip cartridge.

4. Make your project into a self-running player file.
If you used Persuasion, take the following steps:
a. In the Show All Slides dialog box, check the option, Player Preview. Then run your slide show, to make sure it works as you want it to when run in the player mode.
b. When it's working properly, save it to your Zip cartridge.
c. Now go under the File menu in Persuasion, and choose Export...
d. Export in the Slide show file format, All slides, background fill, separate layers, package movies. Give your player slide show a different name from your existing slide show, as you save it to your Zip cartridge.
e. Make sure you have a copy of Persuasion Player 3.0 on your Zip cartridge. You can find this in the Persuasion folder each computer in Room 206. Set its memory partition to 8 megabytes. Test your newly-made player file by double-clicking on it, and make sure it works. Go through all slides. Reset the allocation higher as necessary until it works right.

If you used Director, follow these steps to make a self-running Projector:

a. Open Director. Under the File menu, choose Create Projector. In the dialog box, choose your opening Director file from the left window, and add it to the right window. You need turn only your opening Director program into a Projector. The rest of your Director files should remain as they are.

b. Set the Options to run on any Macintosh, and check off all the little boxes.

c. Click on the Create button, assign your Projector a name different from the name of the Director file, and save it to the same folder as the Director file. When you name this file, begin its name with a space. This will cause it to be listed first in alphabetical order, which is important on the CD-ROM. The computer will take a minute or so to create the self-running projector.

d. Set the memory partition of the Projector to 6 megabytes, and see if it all works. Go through every part of your project. If you find insufficient memory, go back and increase the projector's memory partition to 8 megabytes, and try it again.

5. Test your project on another computer.
This will ensure that indeed all files you need are on your Zip cartridge. Then use SimpleText to write a small ReadMe file, telling what kind of computer is necessary, how the monitors should be set, and any other settings that are necessary to make your project run well. Save this ReadMe file onto your Zip cartridge.

6. Arrange a time with Ken Fye to make your CD-ROM.
The process will take almost an hour, so advance booking is advised. He will take your cartridge and transfer its entire contents to the CD-ROM. Tell Ken what you want your CD-ROM to be called. You get only one chance, and once the CD-ROM is made the files on it cannot be edited or changed. So make sure you followed carefully steps 1 - 5 above before taking step 6.

7. Test your CD-ROM.