Additional Feature Suggestions

Trevorm · 04-07-2014 14:21:26

Firstly, congratulations on a very good product. It is way ahead of anything I have found so far to purchase or in the Open Source Freeware zone.

Secondly, I am in no way being critical of your existing incarnation of ffDiaporama but I have a few suggestions that would, from a user perspective, increase efficiency of the presentation build. Forgive me if I am suggesting features that are already present that I have failed to locate but I am only a couple of days into reviewing/using ffDiaporama.

I am likely to use your software professionally because I love the philosophy you have adopted for the design and build process. However, as I am sure you will appreciate, efficiency is a key issue in professional slide show development and I think the following wish list would greatly enhance the appeal factor for many Users .

1. Could the Space Bar double-act as a toggle feature to START PLAY/PAUSE PLAY as is the case in many other multimedia titles (e.g. Adobe Premier, Magix Movie Edit Pro, etc.)

2. Add a "SAVE & PLAY FROM CURRENT POSITION" option in the Slide Properties window to complement the existing "PREVIOUS"/"NEXT" options. This would substantially reduce the number of key strokes to review changes especially when you consider that the bulk of any complex presentation is built using the Slide Properties window.

3. I am sorry but the current Music Track is, even at a basic level, very restrictive - e.g. it is not possible to get a smooth music transition (Cross Fade) between slide changes where, for example, there is a mood or location change. This could be achieved simply by adding a second music sound track with both existing and the new music tracks having fade in /fade out functions added to the exiting options. Dragging the two music tracks to overlap would give a cross fade. More simple, just adding fade in/fade out features to the existing Music track would serve as a temporary solution. Also see my point 5 below.

4. A Further sound track for "Voice-Over would be an excellent and very attractive additional feature.

5. A "Rubber Band"* approach to volume adjustment would be infinitely superior to the current method of selecting level from the percentage drop-down list. This method can be reviewed in Adobe Premier (a high-end example) or Magix Movie Edit Pro (a low Budget example).

* The "Rubber band" adjustment method involves a visible horizontal line being placed in the sound track. The vertical position of the horizontal line represents the volume level with zero volume being at the lowest point and 100% volume being at the highest point within the overall height of the sound track. The User can click on the line (rubber band) within the sound track to enter a node on the line (rubber band) which can then be dragged up and/or down to change the volume - hence where the expression "rubber band" comes from. At play back the volume then changes in as steep or as shallow slope as desired corresponding to the position of volume line in the sound track. Horizontal sections of the line at any vertical position on the sound track represents a constant fixed volume at a desired level between 0-100%. Double clicking on an exiting node deletes that node.

My suggestions are based on my experience of ffDiaporama on Windows 8.1.

Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestions.

TrevorM

domledom · 04-12-2014 09:30:30

Hello

Thank you for all these suggestions.

Some of them are quite simple to add and I think I will do fairly quickly
-For the space bar, it's included in the latest devel
-For the Save & Play button, as soon as possible

Regarding the music track, a lot of improvement will be included in the next version (try the latest devel)

By cons, some are really heavy to implement and requires more thought
For exemple: The "Rubber band" may require several tens of hours

I will recall that I am alone developing this application and I also have a life
So maybe in the future but I make no promises

#1 04-07-2014 14:21:26

Additional Feature Suggestions

#2 04-12-2014 09:30:30

Re: Additional Feature Suggestions

Board footer