Slide shows

Recollector has the ability to run a slide show, moving from one Item Details display to the next at a regular interval. The visual effect of the slide show is as if the Next button in the Item Details tab were being clicked, regularly, after a specified number of seconds has elapsed, with the added feature that when the slide show reaches the last record, it automatically cycles around to the first record and continues.

To start a slide show:

1. Make sure your collection display consists of the records you want to view in the slide show: Select a subset or select the full collection from the Subset menu. (See help on Subsetting.)
2. Make sure the order in which you want to display the records is correct: Specify the collection's sort order. (See help on Sorting.)
3. Make sure the Item Details tab is displayed.
4. Choose Options > Start Slide Show from Recollector's menu.

To stop a slide show:

Choose Options > Stop Slide Show from Recollector's menu. In addition, choosing many of the functions from Recollector's menu, or switching to the List tab or Image Gallery tab will automatically terminate an active slide show.

Setting the slide show speed:

Choose Recollector > Preferences from Recollector's menu, pick the Item Details tab, and enter the number of seconds for the Slideshow timer interval.

Customizing what is seen in the slide show:

The slide show displays the collection's Item Details tab. Normally this displays all of the non-empty fields for a data record. But with a slide show you may wish to display just a limited set of data fields. One likely case is that you just want the slide show to display the image data, so that the slide show is a sequence of pictures. To limit what is displayed during the slide show:

1. Choose the fields you want to view and change the List tab's view to include just those fields. This is done by picking Options > List Field Selection from Recollector's menu and using the subsequent field selection dialog. It can also be done using a Field Profile, if you have created a field profile containing just the fields you want.
2. Turn on the menu toggle Options > Limit Item Details to Only Fields Shown in List.

Adjusting the size of images, for image display in a slide show:

If you are creating a slide show that is entirely, or primarily, images, you will probably want the images to be larger than the size currently set for thumbnail images. Make the thumbnail size larger by selecting Recollector > Preferences from Recollector's menu, pick the Images tab and set the maximum thumbnail width and height to larger values. You can specify sizes up to 1000 points.

With an image-only slide show you will probably also want to take advantage of two other Recollector features:

• Suppress the display of the field-name label. Parenthesize the name of your image field, and the field-name label will be suppressed in the Item Details display. For example, if you have an image field named Images, change the name to (Images). You can change the name of a field using the Modify Fields dialog.
• Center the image display. Choose Recollector > Preferences from Recollector's menu, choose the Item Details tab, and turn on the checkbox labeled Center thumbnails (when field label is not displayed).

Note: The slideshow will automatically skip over any record that has a completely blank Item Details display. So if you are only displaying an image field, and some of your records have no data in that field, the slide show will silently skip over those empty records.