authorPOINT 3.5 Release
Release Note - 2.1

Overview
March 01, 2006.
The authorGEN family proudly declares the release of authorPOINT 3.5 with new features as listed below.

People and groups affected by this release.
1. End User (Instructor/Presenter)

New features/Changes (in this release)
. Flash Outputs
  o Video in Flash Output
        - Flash output will now have FLV (Flash 8 video) for video as well as audio based            presentations.
        - Rebuilding the old presentations will convert the exiting audio/video files to FLV.
        - Video window size increased to 300 x 225 pixels.
  o There is support for narrations in Flash outputs (Pocket PC as well as desktop versions). When      the presenter captures a PowerPoint file, authorPOINT can extract and include narrations in       the output.

. Flash Output
  o Increased support for animations and transitions.
  o See details of animations and transitions in authorPOINT's flash output.
 
. A new flash player with
  o New layout.
  o Thumbnails in flash player.
  o Single slider for whole presentation.
  o Increased logo space.
  o Customizable look-and-feel as well as customizable layout.

Rebuilding the old presentations (from previous versions) will show the new player.

. Quick Convert to Flash
  
  o A new feature in authorPOINT, which converts the PowerPoint files to flash.
 
  o Available as a menu option in PowerPoint in authorPOINT menu.

  o Also available on right click options in Windows Explorer, on all the .ppt and .pps files.

Includes options for
  
  o Output type (Flash, HTML or zipped)
 
  o Packaging players
        - Using different layouts.

        - Using different color schemes.

        - Embeds Narrations if found in the PowerPoint file. The user will have options to exclude            these in the output.

        - The user will have an option to use "rehearsed timings" if found in the PowerPoint file.

        - The user can set the duration of slide, and the start time for animations with in each slide.

. Known issues solved

  o Wait screens introduced in the capture process, i.e. before the launch window & advance      settings window loads. This consumes the delay in loading launch and Advance settings      window.

  o Annotation overlaps in certain scenarios such as
       - Go to some other slide in PowerPoint.
       - And using a slide more than once in a presentations capture.

Both of the above listed scenarios have been solved. Rebuilding such old presentations however will not work.

  o PowerPoint files with base slide index other than 1 will be processed to Windows media output      as well. Rebuilding such old presentations however will not work.

  o Issue with 'Fast encoding' in case of pre-recorded/live captured WMA has been solved.      Rebuilding such old presentations however will not work.

  o Issues with Uploading Flash presentations to authorSTREAM is now resolved.

  o The issue of Encoding of characters in Slide Notes, Table of content and Text on the slides has      been resolved. The font and the language in which the characters are encoded however      should be available on the machine.

  o Debug window on Flash slides should not appear.


Known issues in this release

. There is a compatibility issue with Apreso. Both authorPOINT ad Apreso cannot be installed on    the same computer.

. Network installation is not supported. One cannot run InstallAP from the network.

. It does not work on non-English Office version regardless of the language settings of the    Operating System. E.g. authorPOINT would work with Spanish OS with English version of Office.    It would not work with Spanish OS with Spanish version of Office.

. A few web cams may get stuck for a few seconds during capture. E.g. sometimes when the user   clicks to continue after it was paused. However this will not affect the recording of the captured   presentation. It will be perfectly recorded.

. CD/DVD writer in 'Distribute content' does not work on the "restricted" user's login i.e. it will    work only for the administrator of the computer. This is true even for leading CD/DVD writing    software available in the market.

. authorPOINT does not support input from USB Microphones.

. Narrations are supported only on office XP and Office 2003.

. Flash output
  o Not all animations are supported in flash output. (reference to detailed document on      animations supported in Flash output)
  o Picture bullets not supported.
  o Numbered bullets not supported.
  o See the complete details of features available in flash outputs.

CM is not able to process some AVI files for which video codec is not installed in the respective system.

. Embedded and Linked media files
  o Supported only in Windows Media output
  o Not applicable for Flash objects. They will be visible in the Windows media presentation but if      they are moved or removed from the original location, they will not play.
  o Media objects embedded in master slides will get copied in all the slides folders hence      increasing the presentation slide.
  o Sound used in slide transitions is not supported.

. Media conversion is not accurate at times when the number of pauses and re-records is more (e.g. more than 5 times). Although this is rare. One of the following things happen:
  o Lips are not synced perfectly.
  o Bit rate of the media file may decrease.
  o Quality might get reduced.

System Requirements
On a new system you need to install the following tools/applications in order to run authorPOINT.
 . Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 or above.
 . Flash player 8 or above for viewing Desktop Flash presentations.
 . IIS on the server needs to be configured to run FLVs from server. Add a new entry to MIME     types: extension= .flv, MIME type = video/x-flv.
 . Need to configure flash player settings in order to use all the functionality of Flash     presentation's player.

How to install
 . Smart Installer that downloads and installs only the files which are required on a particular     computer.
 . Complete installer downloads the complete setup, approx. 120MB.


Note For authorGEN for PowerPoint 2.0, authorPOINT 3.0 and authorPOINT 3.01 users

. Registered Users-Installer will not ask for the key. It uninstalls the previous version automatically and then installs authorPOINT 3.5. The installer will ask for the key only on a computer that doesn't have a registered version of authorGEN for PowerPoint 2.0, authorPOINT 3.0 or authorPOINT 3.0.1.

. Keys for authorGEN for PowerPoint 2.0 will not work with authorPOINT 3.5. If the user skips the registration process, installer resets the trial for authorPOINT 3.5 to 30 days. Keys for authorPOINT 3.0 and authorPOINT 3.0.1 will work in authorPOINT 3.5.

Release note for authorPOINT 3.7
Release note for authorPOINT 3.6
Release note for authorPOINT 3.0.1