Features

Versioning

It is recommended to always use the latest version of SpeedPix, available from the website.

SpeedPix is versioned by three numbers separated by full stops—these are separators only and are not decimal places, meaning that v1.11.0 is nine minor versions ahead of v1.2.0, not behind. Testers will also see a “-rc.X” suffix meaning that this specific version is a candidate for release, may not yet be stable, and may contain breaking bugs. Before using a release candidate version, ensure that you have a backup of your data.

The three numbers, left to right, are the major version, the minor version, and the patch version.

Patch versions will have bug fixes, small changes to existing features, and/or changes to layout or wording.

Minor versions will have non-breaking changes to data files, large or breaking changes to existing features, and/or new features.

Major versions will have breaking change to data files and/or a major overhaul to SpeedPix itself.

Notes

• SpeedPix will refuse to load data from newer versions, including Presentation Packs.
• Data from old versions can generally be migrated to newer versions. This occurs automatically when SpeedPix loads older data.

Free trial

A free trial is available for 30 days. The user will still be prompted to activate every time that SpeedPix is started. After the free trial period has expired, SpeedPix will not continue unless a key is entered to activate it.

Importing media

Image Source Bay

The Image Source Bay allows selection of media to import into SpeedPix for use in presentations.

Once a directory is loaded, files can be dragged into the Image Holding Bay or directly into presentations.

Notes

• Only one file can be added to SpeedPix at a time. There is currently no way to add multiple files at once.
• Thumbnail size cannot be changed.

Choose local source

The Choose local source button will prompt the user to select a file on the computer and then will read all of the files in the same directory as the selected file and load them if they are in a compatible format.

The list of compatible formats is available below.

Notes

• Any file can be selected, even if it is not in a compatible format.
• Any files which are not compatible (including the selected file) will not appear in the list.
• If there are no files in compatible formats, a message will be displayed.
• A spinner will show in the top right to show that the directory is still being loaded.
• Depending on the number of files in the directory, all of the thumbnails may take a while to load.
• A thumbnail which is still loading will show a spinner in place of its image.
• Thumbnail generation will continue in the background.
• If many directories are opened in quick succession, they will all be read in the background and thumbnail generation will be queued for all of their files in the background.

Clear

The Clear button will clear out the file list.

Notes

• Clearing the list will not stop the generation of thumbnails in the background.

Add Presentation Pack from Web

The Add Presentation Pack from Web button will go to the Add Presentation Pack screen which allows installation of Presentation Packs and access to the Presentation Pack Library.

Image Holding Bay

Slides can be put into and taken out of the Image Holding Bay to allow for adding a large number of files before sorting them all out into individual presentations.

Files can be dragged from the Image Source Bay into the Image Holding Bay.

Slides can be dragged to and from any presentation out of and into the Image Holding Bay.

Slides in the Image Holding Bay can be cut and copied.

The current presentation can be changed and will keep the Image Source Bay and the Image Holding Bay open.

Notes

• Attempting to paste into the Image Holding Bay will instead paste into the currently opened presentation.
• Most features of presentations, such as scripts, presentation mode, and the grid menus, are unavailable for the Image Holding Bay.
• The Other locations dialog will not include the Image Holding Bay.
• The Other locations dialog will have no body if clicked from a slide in the Image Holding Bay which has not been copied to a presentation.

Installing Presentation Packs

SpeedPix can install premade Presentation Packs containing slides with labels, captions, and scripts already organised into presentations.

Entering a Presentation Pack key on the Add Presentation Pack screen will contact the server to download the Presentation Pack and install it.

If the Presentation Pack has any presentations which collide with the existing presentations—if they both use the same location—the user will be prompted to relocate the presentation from the Presentation Pack.

Notes

• If there are not enough free locations for all of the presentations in the Presentation Pack, then installing the Presentation Pack fails with no presentations added.

Alphabetical menu

The Alphabetical menu lists presentations based on their title. It allows pasting into presentations and playing presentations.

Notes

• Presentations whose titles do not start with a Latin character will not be displayed. This includes numbers, special characters, other languages, and even spaces.
• Presentations without a title will not be displayed.
• Presentations with no slides will not be displayed even if they do have a title.

Grid menu: words

The Grid menu lists all of the presentation locations with the presentation title (if any) and the number of slides (if any) at each location. It gives an overview of all presentations and allows playing presentations.

Notes

• There is no way to select a presentation in this screen.
• Clicking Paste on this screen will paste into the last presentation which was selected.
• If a presentation has a title but no slides, the number of slides will not be displayed.

Grid menu: images

The Grid menu lists all of the presentation locations with a thumbnail of the first slide (if any) of each location. It gives an overview of all presentations and allows playing presentations.

Notes

• There is no way to select a presentation in this screen.
• Clicking Paste on this screen will paste into the last presentation which was selected.
• Scrolling using the mouse wheel appears to be slow if trying to go from first page to last or last to first.

Search

A case-insensitive search of all slide labels and presentation titles.

Notes

• Slide captions and scripts are not used for search.

Presentation mode

SpeedPix will display slides in a given presentation one at a time.

The keyboard can be used to navigate forward and backward between slides in a presentation and to switch presentations.

Swipe gestures can be used on a touch screen to navigate forward and backward between slides in a presentation and to exit presentation mode but cannot be used to switch presentations.

Videos

Videos will start automatically and play through until the end. After the video plays through to the end, clicking on it will play it from the beginning again.

Clicking on the video will toggle between play and pause.

Notes

• There are no video controls except for clicking for play/pause.

Power Pics

Pressing Ctrl on the keyboard instead of the right arrow key will advance the presentation to the next Power Pic slide.

Notes

• There is no way to go back to a previous power pic.
• There is no way to advance to the next power pic using touch gestures.

Touch gestures

Swiping right goes to the previous slide in the presentation.

Swiping left goes to the next slide in the presentation.

Swiping down exits the presentation.

Notes

• The minimum movement required for a swipe to registered is approximately two times the object used for the touch (e.g. two finger widths).
• Multiple touches are not supported. All gestures must be completed with one touch.

Organise screen

Presentation title

Notes

• Keyboard shortcuts will not work while editing the title.

Slides labels

Notes

• Keyboard shortcuts will not work while editing the label.
• Windows does not display its on-screen keyboard when editing the label.

Thumbnail size

Notes

• Thumbnail size also affects text size.
• There is no keyboard shortcut for the thumbnail size.

Selecting slides

Notes

• Clicking on any selected slide will deselect all slides.
• Pressing the left or right keys when all slides are selected will deselect all slides.

Moving slides

Notes

• Dragging a selection to the end of a row of slides will place it at the end of the presentation instead of at the end of that row.
• A drop cursor is not displayed after the last slide of a presentation.
• When there is no drop cursor visible, dropping the selection will put it at the end of the presentation regardless of the position of the drop.
• There is no support for multiple selection or dragging with touch gestures.

Cut, copy, and paste

When there are slides selected, cut will move them to the cut buffer (clipboard) and copy will copy them to the cut buffer.

When there are slides in the cut buffer, paste will copy them after the current selection (if any) or to the end of the current presentation.

Undo

Undo is a feature available only to the daring who choose to press the keyboard shortcut when there is no obvious sign of it in anywhere in the application. It will undo the most recent change to a presentation—moving, cutting, adding, or pasting slides.

Notes

• Copying will block the ability to undo the previous change.

Trash

Dragging a selection to the trash icon or pressing the keyboard shortcuts will remove those slides from their current presentation. These slides are permanently removed and cannot be recovered.

Notes

• On Mac, the mouse cursor will not show a disabled icon when trying to drag from the Image Source Bay.

Quick Pics

A slide which is the first slide in a presentation will show a Quick Pic icon to signal its significance.

Notes

• The first slide in a presentation will always show as a Quick Pic even if it is not actually in any other presentation.

Show all locations

The Show all locations button will open the Other locations dialog which displays all of the locations of a slide.

Notes

• The Other locations dialog cannot be closed by clicking anywhere except the cross icon.

Auto presenter

The Auto presenter will run Presentation mode and automatically switch between slides and loop from the beginning at the end until told to exit.

Notes

• The Auto presenter can start even in the middle of a presentation if left long enough. There is no quick way to return to the presentation which was in progress.
• Swiping is disabled on the Auto Presenter is starting… screen, preventing exit until the actual Auto presenter has started.

Settings

Start presenting after

The number of minutes of inactivity before the Auto presenter starts.

The special value of “Disabled” will prevent the Auto presenter from ever starting.

The special value of “Preview” will start the Auto presenter and leave the actual setting unchanged.

Notes

• When selecting the “Preview” option, there is a delay of five seconds before the Auto presenter starts with no feedback where nothing appears to have happened. It is possible to navigate away during this time only to have the Auto presenter unexpectedly begin.

Show this presentation

The location of the presentation to be used for the Auto presenter. All of the slides in this presentation will be displayed in order, looping back to the first after reaching the last slide.

Show picture for

The number of seconds to show each slide before moving to the next.

Notes

• Video slides will ignore this value and play through in full, immediately changing to the next slide. This means that they may be displayed for either shorter or longer than this value, depending on the video.

Power Pics

Slides can be set as Power Pics which allows skipping straight to them in Presentation mode. Selecting the Select Power Pics button will enter Power Pic mode, where clicking on slides toggles their Power Pic status. Power Pics are displayed with a red border.

Notes

• Power Pic mode can be enabled on the Grid menu screens but will have no effect until moving to a screen which displays individual slides.

• Copied slides share their Power Pic status.

Help videos

Notes

• These videos are streamed and require an Internet connection to access.
• These videos are stored on the server and can be updated without notice.

Keyboard shortcuts

Global

These keyboard shortcuts will work on every screen except the licence screen and the install presentation pack screen.

Key(s)	Action
?	Go to the Search screen.
Space	Cycle between the pages of the Grid menu: images, the Grid menu: words, and the Alphabetical menu.
ESC	Go to the Organise screen.
Ctrl+x	Cut the current selection.
Ctrl+c	Copy the current selection.
Ctrl+v	Paste after the current selection.
Ctrl+z	Undo.
Alt	Start Presentation mode.

Organise screen, Import screen, and Script screen

Key(s)	Action
Delete/Backspace	Delete the current selection.
Left	Select the slide to the left.
Right	Select the slide to the right.
Shift+Left	Add the slide to the left to the selection.
Shift+Right	Add the slide to the right to the selection.
A–Z	Switch location to given letter.
0–9	Switch location to given number.

Presentation mode and Auto presenter

These keyboard shortcuts will work in Presentation mode and in the Auto presenter. When used in the Auto presenter, they will deactivate the Auto presenter and normal Presentation mode will begin.

Key(s)	Action
Ctrl	Go to the next Power Pic.
Left	Go to the previous slide.
Right	Go to the next slide.
Home	Go to presentation bookmark.
End	Create presentation bookmark.
A–Z	Go to first slide of location switched by the given letter OR if already on that letter, then go to the next slide.
0–9	Go to first slide of location switched by the given number OR if already on that number, then go to the next slide.

Presentation mode bookmark

It is possible to bookmark a specific slide in Presentation mode to which to return later. Pressing the END key during a presentation will create a bookmark at that slide. Pressing the HOME key during a presentation will return to that location.

This bookmark is saved between presentations and when SpeedPix is closed.

Scripts screen

The Scripts screen allows adding and editing of slide labels, captions, and scripts.

Notes

• Copied slides share their label, caption, and script.
• Keyboard shortcuts will not work while editing the label, caption, or script.

Navigation

A number of screens have back and forward buttons for navigation through history.

Notes

• The back and forward buttons do not change their appearance when they would have no effect (i.e. when there is history to which to go back or forward).
• Going back to the Search screen does not restore the search query or results.
• The Search screen lacks a forward button.
• After Presentation mode or the Auto presenter, going back will enter Presentation mode, preventing further navigation.

• The Alphabetical menu and the Help screen lack navigation controls, preventing further navigation.

Compatible formats

Images

SpeedPix supports the following image formats:

• JPEG
• PNG
• BMP

Videos

SpeedPix supports the following video formats:

• MP4

Media cache

SpeedPix keeps a cache of all of its media, meaning that when you add media to SpeedPix from a remote location or removable drive, SpeedPix has a copy and you no longer need access to the original source.

SpeedPix keeps a cache of all of the thumbnails it generates when browsing directories, meaning that re-opening a directory for adding media is quick. To prevent the cache from becoming too large, SpeedPix keeps only the most recent 10,000 such thumbnails.