Thank you for choosing SimVentions’ PhotoVisor. This Online Documentation introduces you to PhotoVisors features and basic functionality needed to begin creating and sharing PhotoVisor Albums (PVAs). PhotoVisor consists of three programs:

• The PhotoVisor Creator,
• The PhotoVisor Player, and
• The PhotoVisor Screen Saver.

PhotoVisor allows you to arrange all of your digital pictures in any order you want. Then simply add music, captions, and voice narrations to your photo album and save everything into a single multimedia file called a PhotoVisor Album (PVA). Friends, family, and co-workers can then play and enjoy your arrangements over and over again.

PhotoVisor comes complete with an intuitive interface and non-intrusive wizard that let's you quickly create multimedia photo albums. PhotoVisor is the perfect complement to your digital camera, scanner, photo CDs, and computer. Use PhotoVisor to create image-based multimedia presentations for your home, school, church, organization or business. Here are just a few of the many ways to use PhotoVisor:

• Sharing your family vacations
• Showing real estate and scenic locations
• Creating computer based learning tutorials
• Storyboarding your ideas for projects
• Creating virtual field trips which retell events of history
• Creating kiosk presentations for announcements and advertising
• Building electronic yearbooks, wedding albums, and digital school projects

PhotoVisor is KODAK Picture Friendly. You can count on this software to work well with KODAK Digital Cameras and KODAK Picture CDs.

PhotoVisor Creator allows you to bring your photos to life, wowing friends, family, and others with your multimedia creativity. It allows complete control in arranging all of your digital pictures in any order you want. Then simply add-in music, captions, and voice narrations to your photos and save everything into a single multimedia file called a PhotoVisor Album (PVA). Capture and share your family vacations, genealogy tree, business presentation, year book, wedding, birthdays, holidays, fishing trip, school trips, etc.

The PhotoVisor Player is free! It allows for playback of not only PhotoVisor Albums, but most music, picture, and movie formats. Its uniqueness is its simplicity, light weight, and state-of-the-art DirectX8 capabilities. You are encouraged to freely distribute the PhotoVisor Player. It can be downloaded for free from this web site, as well as sent with your PhotoVisor Albums - to ensure the people you send your PhotoVisor Albums too can view them immediately!

The PhotoVisor Screen Saver is free! It allows for your computer to automatically playback any existing PhotoVisor Albums when it is idle. You select the PhotoVisor Album to be played. Its uniqueness is its simplicity, light weight, and state-of-the-art DirectX8 capabilities. You are encouraged to freely distribute the PhotoVisor Screen Saver. It can be downloaded for free from this web site, as well as sent with your PhotoVisor Albums - to ensure the people you send your PhotoVisor Albums too can view them in this exciting way!

The following system requirements are needed for PhotoVisor products to properly execute:

• Pentium 200 MMX or better
• Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, 2000, XP
• DirectX 8 or higher recommended
• Sound card with DirectSound support
• Internet access (for online features only)
• 30MB free disk space for temporary files during program operation

File formats supported by PhotoVisor include:

• Images: JPG, GIF, BMP, WMF, EMF
• Audio: WAV, MP3, WMA, AU, MID
• Video*: AVI, MPG, MOV, QT, WMV

*Video supported by the PhotoVisor Player Only

ALWAYS UNINSTALL PREVIOUS RELEASES of PhotoVisor prior to installation. To install PhotoVisor. Run SETUP.EXE or click "Install PhotoVisor" on the auto run CD program and follow the step-by-step instructions provided by the installation program. Be sure to install DirectX8 or higher if it’s not already loaded on your system. DirectX8 can be installed by clicking the appropriate "Install DirectX8" button for your operating system type on the auto run CD program.

Uninstall: To uninstall, use "Add/Remove Programs" from the Control Panel to uninstall the Install Shield installations.

If the program does not auto start after inserting the disk into a CD Drive, open Windows Explorer and browse for the CD. After locating the root directory of the CD, launch "SIMV_PV.EXE" by double clicking it with the mouse.

The PhotoVisor installation contains software required to create and play PhotoVisor Albums (PVAs) including:

• PhotoVisor Creator- Create and share PVAs
• PhotoVisor Player - A freely distributable player
• PhotoVisor Help - A "Getting Started" help document
• Media Files - Some media content to help you along (audio files, image files, and sample PVAs)

PhotoVisor comes complete with an intuitive interface and non-intrusive wizard that let’s you quickly create multimedia photo albums. Once installed, simply launch the photovisor.exe from your Start menu, Desktop, or Windows Explorer. By default, the PhotoVisor Wizard Tree will load and appear on the left hand side of the application. The Wizard Tree is geared to assist you in loading, building, and playing PhotoVisor Albums (PVAs) in the shortest time possible.

Choose either to “Create a New Album”, or “Open an Existing Album” by selecting the appropriate node from the Wizard Tree, or by using the speed buttons available on the top menu bar. PhotoVisor Albums are saved with a PVA extension. When selecting “Open Existing Album” you can either browse your computer for existing PVAs, or select from a list of recently opened projects.

Once you create or open a new album, you can then add items to your album such as Images and Sound Tracks. Add Images to your album by selecting the “Images…” node in the Wizard Tree, or select the “Add Images” button in the Film Strip View or Event View. This selection will allow you to browse your computer, picture CD or Kodak digital camera, if it is connected, and add images to the film strip and events.

Sound tracks can be added and managed in much the same way as images. Simply click on the “Add Sound Track” node in the Wizard Tree or the “Add Sound Track” button in either the Film Strip View or Event View.

Once you load a set of images from your computer, photo CD, or camera, they can then be arranged in any order you choose simply by:

• Dragging and dropping the images in the Film Strip View
• Dragging and dropping the image descriptors in the Event View
• Using the right and left movement arrow buttons provided in either view

NOTE: The Film Strip View or Event View views provide a timeline orientation allowing you to easily arrange and view your images and sound tracks. Let PhotoVisor automatically adjust the play length of your images with the soundtracks that you add by selecting the “Auto Synch” button on the menu bar or from the Wizard Tree.

You can also choose to fit the music any way you want using the Drum Beat dialog. The Drum Beat dialog plays back your PVA on your command and allows you to manually select the transition times while it’s playing.

For images that don’t quite fit the screen, you can stretch-to-fit images as they play back. This will allow all images to take up the full image panel, or full screen if playing back in the “Big Picture Show” mode. Simply select the “Stretch To Fit” speed button on the top tool bar, or the “Stretch To Fit” node on the Wizard Tree. All the buttons for the Toolbar are identified in the illustration below:

Once images are loaded into the environment, you can easily add captions to each picture within the Film Strip View. Simply select the appropriate button in the side toolbar as illustrated below.

The following illustration provides an example of a caption that has been added to one of the images within the Film Strip View.

Once images are loaded into the environment, you can easily add sound clips to each picture within the Film Strip View. Simply select the appropriate button in the side toolbar as illustrated below.

When adding sound clips to image you may “browse” the system for audio files, or capture your wave file such as a voice recording. The following dialog will appear.

For capturing wave files, select “Record New”. The following dialog will appear.

For voice capturing, be sure to enable “Microphone Recording” in Windows Volume Control! Volume Control can be opened by double clicking the Volume icon in the System Tray. Make sure the “Mic” checkbox is selected under Recording Control as shown below.

Once you’ve constructed your album by adding your favorite images, sound tracks, and any desired captions, you're ready to test play your PVA. There are several different ways to play your PVA slide show using PhotoVisor.

• Play it in the Film Strip View, or Event View by pressing the “green play” button in the ToolBar
• Play it full screen in the Show by pressing the “Big Picture Show” button on the Toolbar.
• You can also launch PhotoVisor Player and play your PVA using the freely distributable player.

Consider modifying the Output Parameters (resolution and compression) to reduce the size of your PVA for easy sharing with friends and family! Keep in mind you can always stretch-to-fit those smaller images to fill the screen on playback.

You can also initialize your Start Up options within the PhotoVisor Settings dialog.

Feel free to go back and add more images and sounds as you see fit, but remember to save your work frequently. Simply click the Save button, and if needed you will be prompted for a filename and location.

Check this web site regularly for the very latest information about PhotoVisor. The SimVentions team will post answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), sample PVAs, free media files, updated software, updated documentation and information about new and existing products. Questions and issues can be emailed to pv_support@simventions.com