HOWTO: Creating an S5 Slideshow
Last modified 4/26/2006.
CourseForum and ProjectForum (full versions only) allow you to generate a very simple HTML-based slideshow presentation from a forum page. While not a PowerPoint replacement, this makes quick-and-easy presentations simple. This is all based on the excellent S5 slideshow package from Eric Meyer.
Before Using Slideshows — Pre 5.0 Only
For versions of CourseForum and ProjectForum before version 5.0, there is an additional step needed before slideshows can be used. The Site Administrator needs to download this file, and place it directly in the "Course Data" or "Group Data" directory (do not unpack it):
Download slideshow.zipThis file contains all the S5 support files required to display slideshows. A separate download is required because of how earlier versions of S5 were licensed; we could not simply include it directly. These licensing restrictions have been lifted in the newer version of S5 that we have incorporated in version 5.0 and later.
Creating Slideshows
Included in the software is a page template that makes creating slideshows easy. When creating a new page, simply select the 'Slideshow Template' to start.
From the slideshow help page, which is linked from the template:
A slideshow consists of a number of different slides, all put in the same forum page. Slides are divided by horizontal rules. Everything up to the first rule is discarded, which allows you to include other notes that will not be included in the slideshow.
You should use headings to provide a title for each slide. Other than that, you can use any other formatting for each slide, images, etc. Of course, bullet lists are quite common.
Include the tag [slideshow:] in the page, which will produce a button that will activate the slideshow.
Slideshow Themes
You can also select a different theme, which controls the appearance of the slideshow. To use a different theme, simply put its name after the 'slideshow:', e.g. '[slideshow:blue]'.
The S5 themes that are included with CourseForum and ProjectForum (as made available at the S5 themes page) are: default, i18n, blue, flower, pixel.
You can add other S5 themes, either that you create or that you find elsewhere, by including them in the slideshow.zip file for your site. Place them in the slideshow.zip file as described above. Any themes you provide there will replace those bundled into CourseForum and ProjectForum 5.0 and higher.