Digital Workshop

I took an older presentation and upgraded it into OPUS Pro 4.22. With a few minor Text Object adjustments, it works great, including several small GIF files.

I tried to Publish and OPUS locked up my computer when it hits a GIF file. I had to do a power button Reset to unlock it. I then created a NEW Pub with one Page, and two GIFs in Video Objects (set for Continuous). Again, works perfect in Preview, but locks the computer when I try to Publish.

I'm including one of the offending GIF files. Could someone build a one Page new Pub in OPUS Pro 4.?? and see if this can be Published? My client has a meeting 12 January 2005 which needs this presentation, so I can either solve this problem, or redo everything back in 2.81. TIA

Hi Fred

The animated gif you provided works fine here in a one page Opus Pro 4.30 standalone exe. (I'm using the revised version of SR3 on Windows XP Home, if that makes any difference.)

Regards,

Andrew

No problem here, Fred
Opus Pro v4.21, Windows XP Pro or XP home
Paul

Fred

No problems with this GIF file on my system:

Opus Pro 4.21
Windows 2000 Professional
512MB RAM
1.2GHz AMD processor
NVidia Graphics card with nView extensions installed.

The GIF ran perfectly in Jasc Animation Workshop and in a stand-alone-exe produced in Opus.

I am just guessing, but if you are using several GIFs are you running low on memory, or possibly a corrupted video driver that only faults when several animations are running at the same time.

Good luck with your project.

Paul Conway
Opus 04 XE/Opus O4/Opus Pro XE

The GIFs work fine in Preview. I have tons of available RAM. Drivers are all current.

I'm working around this by turning OFF any compression (Publication --> Settings --> Options), and I've replaced the GIFs with new OPUS animations (Spin). The presentation has about 30 Pages, so the size is still no problem on a CD-ROM.

Thanks to all for checking my GIF sample.

I have also been experiencing similar problems with GIF files. Sometimes I experience the computer locking-up during preview when it is running an animated GIF. This is all with a publication that used to run OK in v2.6 and (I think) Opus04 SR2.

I tried your particular GIF and it worked OK on my machine during preview and after publishing (OPUS04 v4.30). The GIF problem is a real one, however. It just seems to be hard to pin it down.

My problem is posted on the advanced forum ("sr3 problem with gifs after publishing").

I created a new 1 page publication today in OPUS04 v4.30 and the GIF worked OK after publishing (i.e. had no black background)!. The same exersise yesterday produced a publication which had a black background!....so I'm struggling to find out what on earth is going on here.

I'd really like to hear from DW on this as soon as possible.

/Mark

Mark --

I have now had success with Publishing by turning OFF any Compression (Settings -> Options) during the phase which makes EXE files. Since I maily use JPEG graphic images, I don't believe there's much room for additional compression anyway.

Steven Henson wrote to me and said he also had this problem with his Windows 98 OS. I'm using ME. It maybe a problem with the older OSs.

Fred

Glad you successfully solved the problem and published the project. When I checked the program again I found that the compression options were left on. I repeated the test on my Windows 2000 Professional OS and it worked fine, so your assumption about older OSs may be right.

Happy New Year

Paul Conway
Opus 04 XE/Opus 04/Opus Pro XE/Evolution Subscriber

Thanks for the info.

I'm running windows XP, so I don't think it is an operating system problem for me. Switching off compression doesn't help me either.

I've managed to come some way into solving the problem, though. I think it may be related to importing the publication into opus04 from an earlier version of Opus (v2.6).

I have noticed that picture objects sometimes have their backgrounds set to black after importing an older publication into opus04. It seems that something similar can happen to the GIFs. For picture objects, the solution is to simply go to properties - background and untick the background colour. For GIFs this does not seem possible, so the solution seems to be to create a completely new video object for the GIF.

I created new video objects in my publication (opus04 v4.30) starting from scratch and the black background problem in the GIFs seems to disappear - up to now at least!.

My little list of things to look out for after importing an older publication into opus04 is now - look out for:
1. font size in text slightly different
2. double line spaces in text
3. black backgrounds on some pictures
4. black backgrounds on some gifs

I understand that SR3 has addressed the double-space problem, although I havn't checked this, as I imported and changed to single-line spacing when I had SR2.

Interestingly, when viewing the properties of the imported mis-behaving gif (i.e. properties - video) the Transparent colour option has a shaded-out tick on it with red selected as the colour. When creating a completely new video object and setting to the same gif file, it is not possible to set the Transparent colour option. Maybe a clue that something has screwed-up during import?

/Mark