GUIDES AND TUTORIALS

• The command buttons provide access to the main features, such as voice recording and video generation, of the Add-On.

• The estimated duration shows the estimated length of the video to be generated. Be careful that it is a rough estimation.

• The slide list shows the list of slide titles, indications of recorded voices and embedded resources, and each slide's estimated corresponding video durations.

• The speech synthesis uses Google Cloud Text-to-Speech in the background. You need to supply an API key for that access. (See Tutorial #3.)

• After the synthesis complete, the slide list updates, and the ear-mark icon appears.

• The synthesized speech voice overwrite the recorded voice. If you want to keep the recorded voice while testing the speech synthesis, select the text in the speaker notes and then synthesize. The speech synthesis for the selected text is handled as just a tentative synthesis.

• You can configure the synthesis parameters, such as the voice, pitch, and speed, at the "Speech Synthesis" tab on the "Settings" form.

• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech denies too long texts. Although the limit is 5,000 characters, it is not the length of the text you typed in the speaker notes. The Add-On adds many special sequences (such as silence) to the text before sending it to Google Cloud Text-to-Speech. A rule of thumb is to keep your typed text's length less than 2,500 characters.

• Avoid using special characters such as < or > within the text. More precisely, the text is treated as a portion of SSML code. Therefore, you can embed SSML elements such as <break time="200ms" />, but it is illegal to write <broken</>tag> within the text.

• During the synthesis, the Add-On accepts the special notation for text replacements. For example, if you want the phrase "USA" to be pronounced as "United States", write it as "[US|United States]". The Add-On will replace this bracketed phrase with "United States" before the synthesis.

• Before starting the recording, it counts down for three. During this counting down, you can stop the recording by clicking on the count. (See Tutorial #2.)

• After the recording complete, the slide list updates, and the microphone icon appears.

• You can record up to five minutes per slide.

• Before clearing the voice, the icon changes to the encircled cross and waits for three seconds. During that wait, you can abort the removal by clicking on the button. (See Tutorial #2.)

• You can play the loaded voice by clicking on the play button on the media player on the sidebar.

• Due to technical limitations, when you change the current slide to another, the loaded voice on the media player won't change automatically. That is why you need this reloading functionality.

• The video generation will take several minutes. The actual time in need depends on various factors. (See Tutorial #1.)

• After completing the video generation, it will be downloaded onto your local computer automatically.

• You can configure the quality of the generated video at the "Video" tabs on the "Settings" form. (See Tutorial #1.)

• The "Add a sound" form appears. You can choose the sound (.mp3, .ogg, .oga, .wav) to be embedded from the list. Those sound files are located in the "resources" folder, which resides in the same folder of the presentation. (See Tutorial #4.)

• When you choose the sound and click on the "Add the chosen sound" button, a special command like "!sound filename.mp3" will be added to the speaker notes. (See Tutorial #4.)

• Also, the slide list updates, and the musical-note icon appears.

• This functionality works almost the same as the sound embedding.

• The "Add a movie" form appears. You can choose the movie (.mp4, .mp2, .webm, .avi) to be embedded from the list. Those movie files are located in the "resources" folder that resides in the presentation's same folder.

• When you choose the movie and click on the "Add the chosen movie" button, a special command like "!movie filename.mp4" will be added to the speaker notes.

• Also, the slide list updates, and the boxed triangle icon appears.

• The duration of a slide with embedded movies is set to be the total duration of those movies.

• The "Choose xfade" form appears. You can choose the crossfade effect applied to the transition from the current slide to the next slide. (See Tutorial #4.)

• When you choose the effect and click on the "Add the chosen xfade" button, a special command like "!xfade fade" will be added to the speaker notes.

• Also, the slide list updates, and the mixed-pictures icon appears.

• Note that you can use only one crossfade effect per page. If you put multiple xfade commands, only the last one is processed, and others will be ignored.

• The "Change text-to-speech voice" form appears. You can choose the synthesis voice applied only to the current slide.

• When you choose the effect and click on the "Use the chosen voice" button, a special command like "!config {...}" will be added to the speaker notes.

• Note that you can use change the voice only once per page. If you put multiple config commands, only the last one is processed, and others will be ignored.

You can save the configured parameters in the following two ways.

• Save to this presentation: Save the parameters to the current presentation only. Other presentations won't be affected.

• Save as default: Save the parameters as the default settings. It affects the presentations you will create. It also affects the existing presentations using the default settings. Note that this option clears the settings saved on the current presentation.

If you want to restore the default settings at the installed time, click on the "Reset" button.