What is Microsoft Producer?
Microsoft Producer is an add-on tool to PowerPoint in Office XP. Microsoft Producer facilitates users to
capture and synchronize audio, video, slides, images, and html files and publish the presentation onto
the computer, intranet site, website, network, or onto CD. The video and audio are compressed – making
it easier to distribute over the internet. These presentations can be viewed from a PC desktop, across the
internet, on CD. Microsoft Producer is a free download available at: www.microsoft.com/downloads. This
document is also available on the web at: www.lsc.mnscu.edu/admin/tech/producer.pdf
Planning
When creating a presentation, it is tempting to start immediately. Planning is a time saver when
working with Producer. When you have planned sufficiently, all that is needed is to gather the materials
and place them into Producer.
Audience, purpose, time, and budget are all important factors to consider while in the planning
process. Ask yourself what you expect to accomplish through the presentation. Is it to teach, explain,
or demonstrate something? How much time do you have to create your presentation and how long does
the presentation need to be?
If you are going to use PowerPoint slides as the basis of your presentation, then you need to create
the PPT slide show before you begin using the Producer program. Add text builds (animations), slide
transitions, and audio narration to your PowerPoint slides before bringing your PowerPoint slides
into the Producer program.
Using the Wizard
To start, open the Producer program on your
computer. A dialog box will open with options to use
the presentation wizard, start a new blank project,
and to use an existing project. We will go through a
step-by-step of using the wizard: select “New
Presentation Wizard”.
This is the welcome page. Click “next” after reading
the introduction screen. You can press F1 for Help at
anytime.
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Choose from the numerous presentation templates. This
will determine the layout and appearance. When choosing
the template for your production, decide which of the items
should be included. These possible items are: PowerPoint slides
can either be fixed or resizable, audio (two tracks available),
video (different sizes), still photos (in place of video), and
HTML pages.
Choose a presentation scheme. This determines fonts, sizes,
and colors.
Specify information about the presentation: this information
will be seen in the “pre-roll page” – the first page seen by the
audience. This includes the title, cover page image, presenter’s
name and a description that provides the audience with an
overview of the presentation.
Import PowerPoint or still images using the browse button to
navigate to the files.
Import audio and/or video using the browse button to locate the
files. Another option is to capture audio or video at this point.
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Capturing Audio and Video
If you decide to capture video, audio, or still images
directly into your producer file, you can use
the “capture wizard”. There are four options to
choose from.
You can narrate slides from a PowerPoint presentation. This option lets you synchronize audio with your
PowerPoint slides. To use this capture option and
continue with the wizard, slides must first be added
to the timeline.
You can capture audio from an analog or digital video
camera, VCR, Web Camera, microphone, or other
capture device. You can also use this option to capture
live or taped audio.
You can capture still images of your computer screen.
You can select to capture a portion of your computer
screen or the entire screen.
You can capture video from your computer screen with
accompanying audio. This option lets you capture video
from your computer screen while recording accompanying audio, such as a narration.
Shown here are selected image captures from choices in the capture wizard.
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Finish the Wizard and Synchronize
Click on finish and Producer will import all the
elements and launch the Synchronize Wizard.
You will need to decide whether to synchronize
slides and stills with audio and video.
To synchronize, press the play button to start the
video and then click “Next Slide” to set the timing
for each slide. You may also preview the slide
timing. You cannot, however, change the slide
timing while previewing.
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Producer Workspace
Main Menu
Tool Bar
Tabs
The main menu contains all possible commands that Producer can accomplish. The toolbar contains the
most commonly used commands as a one-click button. There are three tabs. Media shows you the files
that you can use in the production.
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Project files shows the files that are included in the project. You
can select folders to see the contents of each folder. You can
easily drag and drop files from your computer.
There are five different folders where the content files will be
stored. These are Audio, HTML, Images, Slides, and Video.
Double click on any folder to view the contents.
At any time you can view the item that you are currently
working on. Slick on any one of the various tracks in the
timeline to view that item.
The timeline at the bottom of the screen gives a workspace
where you can manipulate the order, timing, and synchronization of the various media items.
If you want to add something to your production, you can locate
the file in the file contents area, then just drag and drop the file
onto the timeline.
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Publish
When you select to publish your Producer file, you need
to select how your file will be played back. You can
select to publish your presentation on your computer or
CD, a place on the network ,or from a Web server.
Choosing “my computer,” the presentation can then be
played back locally from your computer or a CD.
Enter the file name for your presentation and specify
where you want your presentation files to be stored.
Enter the information about the presentation you are
creating. This information appears on the introduction
page while the presentation is loading. After clicking
“next,” you will be able to select the setting you want
to use for publishing this presentation. The setting
determines the quality and size of the presentation.
You can select “suggested settings” or publish for a
variety of audiences
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