how to .....

[ano]

Hi,

I am helping with an exposition in a small local museum. No fancy budgets.

We want to place an older pc with win98 and run a slideshow with (on every
'slide') pictures
and text. Written in simple html. The visitor should be allowed to
'mouseclick' links at the slides HTML pages to go to specific other parts of
the
slideshow. The keyboard will be removed and the visitor cannot make use of
that.

My problem is that i do not want the visitor to get into the system or in
the menu of the browser to use (for instance by moving the mouse to the
taskbar of win98 or by clicking in the menu of the browser.
1) Can i somehow hide completly the menu of (what) browser?
2) Can i somehow prefent the user to get to the win98 menus?
3) Should i use some special browser for this purpose (although i would like
to keep it to Internet Explorer as that is available on the pc that we can
have on loan)?

Any ideas?

Hans

 

[Whitecrest]

I am helping with an exposition in a small local museum. No fancy budgets..

This sounds like a simple job for Flash.

YMMV

 

[Leif K-Brooks]

This sounds like a simple job for Flash.

I agree, but it probably wouldn't be affordable.

 

[PeterMcC]

This sounds like a simple job for Flash.

YMMV

I know it's a heresy hereabouts but... my inclination would be to go for a
kiosk-mode PowerPoint presentation.

 

[Whitecrest]

I agree, but it probably wouldn't be affordable.

Based on what was mentioned, a simple configurable Flash slide show
might work great for you, and you can find tons of them for free at
several sites like www.flashkit.com

 

[Augustus]

Hi,

I am helping with an exposition in a small local museum. No fancy budgets.

We want to place an older pc with win98 and run a slideshow with (on every
'slide') pictures
and text. Written in simple html. The visitor should be allowed to
'mouseclick' links at the slides HTML pages to go to specific other parts of
the
slideshow. The keyboard will be removed and the visitor cannot make use of
that.

My problem is that i do not want the visitor to get into the system or in
the menu of the browser to use (for instance by moving the mouse to the
taskbar of win98 or by clicking in the menu of the browser.
1) Can i somehow hide completly the menu of (what) browser?
2) Can i somehow prefent the user to get to the win98 menus?
3) Should i use some special browser for this purpose (although i would like
to keep it to Internet Explorer as that is available on the pc that we can
have on loan)?

I think the simplest thing you can do here is write it up as an .hta file
(HTML Application) and then put in some javascript (or VBScript) to disable
the mouse right click

As an HTML Application in full screen mode there won't be a title bar (so no
"X" or minimize/maximize buttons) and without the keyboard they won't be
able to close the application (I'm pretty sure that the only way you can
close a full screen HTA is by pressing ALT-F4... so with no keyboard they
can't do that) and they won't be able to access the start menu or the task
bar at the bottom (full screen mode HTA will cover these items and you can't
bring them up without the keyboard)

If this were my project, I would even get rid of the mouse and go for a
touchscreen monitor. You can buy a touch monitor for about $850-1200 US...
if you can't afford that, I would try going to a local company that sells
them and ask them to donate one.
Why would they give you a $1000 monitor? First there is taxes... if you are
a museum any donation made to you might be tax deductable (plus they deduct
the full price of the monitor... even though they maybe only paid $800 for
it, they write off $1000). Secondly, you could put a small brass plaque on
the front of the monitor that reads something like "Monitor and Equipment
donated by ................................." and thats advertising for the
company (brass plaque would cost about $10-20 to make up). And finally it
could increase community releations for the company... if the museum has
some kind of "wall of donors" the company's name can go up there and in any
press releases about this exhibit you can mention in them "and a special
thanks to .......................... for donating the equipment to bring
this exhibit to the public"

But all that said, I think going with the HTML Application is the way to
go... its just like an HTML page except it uses ActiveX components to
override some of IE's settings (such as the title bar, tool bar, task bar,
etc) and since its running local on your computer you don't have anything to
worry about that (as compared to putting an HTA file on the web)

 

[brucie]

We want to place an older pc with win98 and run a slideshow with (on
every 'slide') pictures and text. Written in simple html.

http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/operashow/

 

[Barry Pearson]

[snip]
I know it's a heresy hereabouts but... my inclination would be to go
for a kiosk-mode PowerPoint presentation.

PP was my thought too.

PP has all sorts of hyperlinking that people don't know about. For example in
Slide Show > Action settings.

(Unfortunately, I suspect MS doesn't know about all of them! The last time I
used this, I found it a bit buggy).

 

[Toby A Inkster]

My problem is that i do not want the visitor to get into the system or in
the menu of the browser to use (for instance by moving the mouse to the
taskbar of win98 or by clicking in the menu of the browser.

Get Opera 7. Put it in Kiosk mode.

 

[ano]

budgets.
snip a lot

snip a lot
I think the simplest thing you can do here is write it up as an .hta file
(HTML Application) and then put in some javascript (or VBScript) to disable
the mouse right click

As an HTML Application in full screen mode there won't be a title bar (so no
"X" or minimize/maximize buttons) and without the keyboard they won't be
able to close the application (I'm pretty sure that the only way you can
close a full screen HTA is by pressing ALT-F4... so with no keyboard they

snip the rest


Augustus,

I experimented somewhat with HTA and i think this is the solution for me.
Thanks for the tip!

Two more questions. Maybe you or somebody else can help.

1) Is there a way within HTML to make an image fit to a screen automatically
if it is to large? I normally always used the widht/height attribute to fit
a img to a screen. But for this job i have over 2500 pics in all different
large sizes (to large for the screen i have - sometmes to heigh, sometimes
to widht) that have to go in a slideshow. So making every single pic fit the
best way into the screen would be a lot of work. If this is not possible to
do it with HTML, i have to find me a programm that resizes every single
picture either in widht or in height automatically to make it fitting as
good as possible on a 1024x768 screen. So far i did not find a good prog for
that.

2) Any idea how i could get a vbscript as you propose to block the right
mouse click? That is something i cannot make myself (as an amateur

Regards
Hans

 

[Augustus]

Two more questions. Maybe you or somebody else can help.

1) Is there a way within HTML to make an image fit to a screen automatically
if it is to large? I normally always used the widht/height attribute to fit
a img to a screen. But for this job i have over 2500 pics in all different
large sizes (to large for the screen i have - sometmes to heigh, sometimes
to widht) that have to go in a slideshow. So making every single pic fit the
best way into the screen would be a lot of work. If this is not possible to
do it with HTML, i have to find me a programm that resizes every single
picture either in widht or in height automatically to make it fitting as
good as possible on a 1024x768 screen. So far i did not find a good prog for
that.

2) Any idea how i could get a vbscript as you propose to block the right
mouse click? That is something i cannot make myself (as an amateur

For #1... if the pictures are all the same size (when they are large) you
could use HTML to scale them down... can't say how this will look for all
images though
ie: if an image is 2000x1000 resolution and you are running in 1024x768
pixels, you could make all images 1000x500 pixels

For #2... thats the "oncontextmenu" to disable right click. Try putting
this in your site:

<body oncontextmenu="return false">
(If you have other items in your body tag, include them of course)

Clint

 

[ano]

For #2... thats the "oncontextmenu" to disable right click. Try putting
this in your site:

<body oncontextmenu="return false">

Clint, thanks again. This oncontextmenu is working.

Now I have to find me a photoeditor that resizes 2500 img for best quality
on a 1024-768 screen. Problem is that some are much to wide, and some are
much to high and some are both ways to large. And i want to make them fit
best either in widht (if they are to width) or in height (if they are to
high).

Thanks again....

Hans

 

[Thomas Mlynarczyk]

Also sprach ano:

Now I have to find me a photoeditor that resizes 2500 img for best
quality on a 1024-768 screen. Problem is that some are much to wide,
and some are much to high and some are both ways to large. And i want
to make them fit best either in widht (if they are to width) or in
height (if they are to high).

As bandwidth is not an issue in this special case: If you specify *only* a
height *or* only a width then the other dimension will automatically be set
so that the width/height ratio is preserved. Or you set both width and
height, but then, of course, pictures with a different ratio will be
distorted.