Alamo PC Organization: HOME > PC Alamode Magazine > Product Reviews

cat

Super Show and Tell 2.0 
review by James H. Henderson II, Alamo PC

[SST box photo] Midisoft Corporation's $149.95 Super Show & Tell 2.0, acquired as version 1.5 with Midisoft's purchase of Ask Me Multimedia in 1994 and upgraded to version 2.0, incorporates sound, graphics, video, and animation files into automated kiosk demos or interactive, branching presentations. New features in version 2.0 allows presenters to animate any object easily without knowledge of complex time line, or use color masking to integrate images.

Installation

SST is a 16 bit Windows 3.1 compatible program which comes on two 1.44 floppies and installs quickly with the user only needing to decide whether to accept the default drive and directory suggested. SST 2.0, itself, is installed, as well as a lite version of Perspective for Windows 1.0, a 3D charting program from Three D Graphics. This installation offers to install into a program manager group for Win 3.1 users and allows you to choose which group. I installed in Windows 95 without any difficulty, with SST placing an entry in the start menu. SST also arrived with two CD-ROMs (Media Library 1, and A Guide to Multimedia) filled with little extras such as over 50 animations and sound effects, 100 clip art selections, 100 photos 100 slide backgrounds, and 80 MIDI compositions. The written documentation described CD installation, but the CDS provided only contained SST lite, an older limited version. Also included are many older or trial versions of programs such as Photodex (photo gallery), and PhotoMorph.

Show & Tell

SST uses a unique interface which uses VCR-like controls along with toolbars and drop menus to access the multiple options available. Information on the functions controlled by each aspect of the interface is displayed on the status bar located along the bottom of the screen. Each presentation is a carousel in SST terminology, filed with slides. Each slide may have any multimedia object placed on it. This is done the MAAP way: Media, Attributes, Actions, and Playlist. The program permits previewing of common image, sound, and video formats to help you select which media object to use. You then determine each object's attributes, specific for each type, such as color, appearance, entrance, exit, and location. Actions, such as movement and sizing or color changes, can then be added to any object. They are given a default time value set in user preferences which can be altered manually by changing the number of time units in the playlist. There is no timeline to guide you graphically, but events can occur simultaneously or in a staggered fashion.

A unique and powerful feature is the new AutoRecord feature, which allows you to perform a desired action effect, such as moving text, on a object and record it for addition to the playlist. Like traditional presentation packages, SST allows you to choose slides you've designed to be used as a master slide and templates, but falls down on the job when asked to do the work with text. You can only import ASCII files, and attributes like bullets or indenting must be added manually. There are no "Click here" boxes for easy text entry. No outliner is available to allow direct long text entry. There are no automatic build features to emphasize bulleted points, nor the automatic transition effects found on leading business presentation packages. Slide gradients, patterns, and fill colors are changeable, but templates are merely bitmap background with special highlights. You are left to your own creative devices and must place text objects on the slide manually. You can also draw free form objects and use them, along with text or images, as hot spots to activate branching or playback of other objects.

Sound files require the necessary audio board and speakers. Volume and tone levels cannot be set in the program and require that you use your own utilities. Sound clip lengths are based on time entries, so there is no way to fade clips in and out unless the clip, itself, is prerecorded for that purpose. You can record sound as wav files in the program and overlay wav and midi files. AVI video clips require that you have Video for Windows 1.1 or higher already installed and tend to look choppy. You can choose to use the palette associated with your video, but this will effect all other colors in your presentation. Animation AAPlay dynamic link library is installed to allow flc and fli animation playback. Documentation is reasonable, with a well-laid-out user manual and reasonable help files with read-through tutorials. These provide the basics necessary to get up and running, but only trial and error will get you to the place of more complex presentations.

Output is best handled by allowing the program to create a runtime disk for you to take with you. This will place the necessary executables, images, sound clips, and movies in a transportable form, although this can bridge several floppies, depending upon the size of your associated files. Even the smallest presentation will require one 1.44 floppy to accommodate the playback executables. If you have a multimedia ready laptop, using SST itself would simplify matters further.
 
 

Summary

SST is an interesting program which allows you to put together simple multimedia presentations quickly. With some time on your hand, some fairly complex tricks can be pulled off. Unfortunately, text handling is extremely poor, and video playback is hampered by the typical problems associated with AVI formats. The best way to think of SST is as an elaborate layout board with variable methods of combining objects, but with little ability actually to change the individual objects. Setup and playback went off without a hitch on my system, an older Pentium-60 with 16 MB RAM, 32 bit graphics accelerator, 16 bit sound card, using Windows 95. Minimum requirements depend on what you read. The box and Midisoft's web page says a 386 chip or higher is sufficient, but the user manual and read me files state that at least a 486SX25 is required with a 486DX33 or higher recommended. Other minimum requirements are RAM 4MB, with 8MB suggested; 2x CD-ROM drive; 16 bit audio with on board synthesizer and volume mixing; and VGA display (Super VGA recommended). Disk storage: 6 MB for basic program files and images, not counting the DLLs added to the Windows directory.

Midisoft's products are distributed domestically through Ingram Micro and other mail order companies. Its list price is $149.95, but I could not find SST 2.0 locally. One local vendor will order the program for $136.63 (sku 581595) with a one-to-four-week delivery time. Direct sales at Midisoft can be reached at 1-800-776-6434, with service at 206-391-3610 and BBS at 206-391-7966 (9600 bps, 8, 1, N). E-mail can be sent to salesinfo @midisoft.com, and its web page is at http://www.midisoft.com. Midisoft is best known, according to data retrieved from its Web page, for its multimedia audio and music software. Midisoft's music software line has received numerous awards, including several Multimedia World Reader's Choice awards and a Best Product Award at RetailVision.