INTRODUCTION

The Powershow Maker program will enable you to easily prepare a slideshow (based on web pages) so that you can carry
it on CD/DVD or a pendrive and give your presentation on any computer that runs Windows. And if you have your own website,
and the computer(s) to be used for your presentation has/have a reliable connection to the Internet, you can upload the
Powershow (slideshow) to it and run the presentation directly from your site.

PREPARATION OF WEB PAGES

When you are using Windows, your web pages will normally be produced using the howsoft Webpage Editor (see HERE).
Such pages do not require an Internet connection to be displayed.

However, if you can rely on a good Internet connection on your presentation computer(s), your web pages can also be prepared
using webEd4 (see HERE). (This is because webEd4 pages make use of Google Fonts which need to be downloaded when the
pages are displayed.)

Pages prepared in another way might indeed work, but success cannot be guaranteed.

When the pages for your webShow are ready, make sure the file names have a format like this:

1_Title of first page.htm
2_Title of second page.htm
3_Title of third page.htm
.
etc.

As you can see, the numbers indicate the intended sequence of the pages. They MUST be followed by an underline
character (_).

You will see that some new files have been added. The most important one is the file "index.htm". This will normally be
shown first at the beginning of the presentation and is executed (displayed in a browser) first. (However, you can begin with
another page if you want to: subsequently, it is always possible to navigate to the index whenever required.)

In its first simple form, this is what the index looks like:

If this simple index is sufficient for your purposes, then all well and good. However, if you wish to improve its layout
and give it a pretty background for example, then all you have to do is load it back into the howsoft Webpage Editor
program ("webEd"). (N.B. The "webEd4" program is unable to elaborate index.htm in this way: its format is not compatible
with webEd4.)

However, if you HAVE elaborated index.htm in webEd, and it is still present in the folder where you produced your
Powershow, and you decide to run the Powershow Maker again for some reason, you need to MAKE SURE IT
DOES NOT GET OVERWRITTEN BY THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW (SIMPLE) INDEX.HTM. The program itself will
help you to avoid this by checking the presence of index.htm before it overwrites it. If you do NOT want the Powershow
Maker to overwrite your shiny new index.htm, just make sure you have a copy of it in another folder, and after
reproducing your Powershow, copy it back to the Powershow Maker folder to replace the simple one. JUST MAKE SURE THAT
THE NUMBERING AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WEB PAGES CORRESPOND ACCURATELY TO THE POWERSHOW AS IT
NOW STANDS.

WEB PAGE CENTRALISATION

When you go travelling around to give your presentation, and you are not using your own computer, it is difficult to
predict exactly what size computer screen you will be given. Nowadays, I think that you can bet that it will be at least
1024 pixels in width. On a 1024-pixel-wide screen, it is better if your web pages do not occupy any more than 1006
pixels to allow room for a scrollbar on the right. The best policy is to prepare web pages of 1006 pixels. However, if
the screen in use for the slideshow is wider than this, and you have prepared your web pages using webEd, they
will be justified to the LEFT and you will have a space on the right. This might be OK for you, But if not, then you can
get the Powershow Maker program to centralise them. This is a completely independent function, and you can
centralise the pages either BEFORE OR AFTER actually making your Powershow. And if you want to use this function
quite independently of producing a Powershow, you can do it. Just copy the Powershow Maker program to the folder where
your web pages are, run the program, choose the "Add webpage centralisation" option, and click on the "Go!" button.
You do not even have to make sure that the names of the pages begin with a numeric prefix such as "22_" and so
on. What you DO need to be careful of is that THE WEB PAGES YOU SUBMIT FOR CENTRALISATION WERE
PRODUCED BY THE howsoft WEBPAGE EDITOR OR webEd4 PROGRAMS, otherwise the success of the centralisation
cannot be guaranteed.

RUNNING YOUR NEW POWERSHOW

Following the steps above, your Powershow should now be ready to run. Test it by double clicking on the file
"index.htm". (Or load it up in another browser of your choice.)

From the index you can navigate to other pages (see below). If you are not taking your computer with you to the
place of presentation, copy the whole Powershow folder to a CD/DVD or to a pendrive. And if you prefer to run
your Powershow from a portable browser of your preference, don't forget to include this on your CD/DVD/pendrive
as well!

NAVIGATION

From the INDEX page you can navigate to any page in your Powershow by clicking on the link to it. Addtionally, if you
press the LEFT ARROW KEY it will go to the LAST page in your presentation, or if you press the RIGHT ARROW KEY
it will go to the FIRST page in your presentation. You can return to the INDEX at any time from another page by
pressing either the UP ARROW KEY or the DOWN ARROW KEY.

Navigation from pages OTHER than the index is as follows. Use the LEFT/RIGHT ARROW KEYS to go to the
PREVIOUS/NEXT page in the presentation. If you click on a LINK (which is useful if the computer you are using has
A CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET), you will be taken to that EXTERNAL URL. To return to your Powershow, press
the Backspace key as many times as necessary. If you wish to return to the INDEX so that you can easily hop to
another page without using the left or right buttons or keys, press either the UP ARROW KEY or the DOWN ARROW
KEY.

HELP

There are 2 places you can look for help with the howsoft Powershow Maker.

If you click on the question-mark icon you will be given a few tips, but from there you can also navigate to this very
page by clicking on the next question-mark icon you will see on the tips page. To escape from this page, click
anywhere except on the question-mark icon.

If you click on the howsoft logo, apart from the About information, you will find another question-mark icon to take you
to this Internet page. To escape from the About page, click anywhere except on the icons provided for Internet
navigation.

RUNNING YOUR POWERSHOW ON THE INTERNET

If the computer you intend to use for your presentation has a connection to the Internet, you can also
upload your Powershow to your site and use a browser to display it. (Nevertheless, you would be
well advised to also take a CD/DVD/pendrive version with you so that it can be run offline in the case
that the Internet becomes unavailable.) Click on the link to the right to see a short demo of this in
practice. The demo will also give you information about what you need to upload (which in fact is a
little less than what you have already produced).

The Powershow Maker program will enable you to easily prepare a slideshow
(based on web pages) so that you can carry it on CD/DVD or a pendrive and
give your presentation on any computer that runs Windows.

In addition, you can upload the Powershow to your site and run it from any
Windows computer when you are on the road.