Qlab and Keynote

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Davy Dedienne

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May 21, 2024, 4:56:09 PM5/21/24
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Hello everybody,

I'm a french user, so please excuse my bad english ! ;)

I'm using Qlab for shows, the most of the time for audio and lights, but i've some shows with (simple) videos.

For a show, I need that Qlab open Keynote, because there is a file I need to see, and the differents slides have letters (or words) which appears one by one, and somebody have to send it.
I'm not sure it's very clear but if I export the document, I have a page for each sentence but that's not appears letter by letter (like a little video, but that you can stop)...

I'm very surprised because I've a collegue who works on multiplay, on PC, and this is a free software, and he can do that very easily !

I don't know if I can do this, just open another application with a command in Qlab...

I've tried with a video but I can't stop and go very easily...

Thank you for your help, and tell me if it's not clear ! XD

Davy

John Nolan

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May 23, 2024, 5:58:54 AM5/23/24
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Keynote can export presentations as a Quicktime movie. That can then be played directly in QLab. That might be the easiest.

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Davy Dedienne

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May 23, 2024, 6:58:04 AM5/23/24
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Hello, thank you for your answer.
The problem is that the pages have to be controlled side by side, and some of them are animated.
I'll try your solution but it's not really what I wanted to do.

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Richard Williamson

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May 23, 2024, 7:11:18 AM5/23/24
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I’ve done this with a keynote export but exporting separate files for each pair of slides (including transitions). Drop these into QLab with “hold at end” set and you can recreate the keynote experience

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Davy Dedienne

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May 23, 2024, 7:16:17 AM5/23/24
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Yes, it's what i've done for a first try but I export in png so it wasn't animated ! I'll try the same export in quicktime movie, but for each pair of slides, to see if it's work for me.

micpool

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May 23, 2024, 8:20:21 AM5/23/24
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Perhaps I have misunderstood the question, but Keynote has a comprehensive Applescript dictionary and QLab has script cues

set theFile to "Macintosh HD:Users:micpool:desktop:demo.key"

tell application "Finder" to open file theFile

delay 1

tell application "Keynote" to tell front document

try

start

end try

end tell


will open a keynote file.


The main problem with keynote  is it's very difficult to get it to play in anything other than full screen mode, If you attempt to switch back to control it from QLab the keynote output disappears.,


You can run the keynote in a window, place the window on the monitor you want to show it on and click the green window button to put just that window full-screen, and then return to QLab to control it  with


tell application "Keynote" to tell front document to show next


and other similar scripts.


But it's very difficult to do get the correct Keynote/ QLab window configuration  by any other method other than manually.


I'm also confused by the original post: 


"I'm very surprised because I've a collegue who works on multiplay, on PC, and this is a free software, and he can do that very easily !"


As PCs can't run Keynote, I assume you are not suggesting that Multiplay on PC will openations. Are you saying that  Multiplay has a character-by-character Keynote present slide transition built in?


QLab can use scripts to do animated character transitions using the live Text of text cues.


If you post a short video of one of your transitions in Keynote (You will need to make it small to fit in the posting limit of 5MB) then it might be possible to suggest a way of doing this as a text animation in QLab.


Mic






John Nolan

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May 23, 2024, 9:34:32 AM5/23/24
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I'm not sure I understand. Can't you just cut the Quicktime file into separate files for the portions you need?

Davy Dedienne

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May 23, 2024, 12:22:14 PM5/23/24
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Hello

I've never used Applescript, so I'm quite scared to do this but I think it's a good solution. I'll try it !

Actually, I've already read the type of problem that you're talking about, about the fact that Keynote opens in full screen...

And I'm sorry for the confusion. Of course, my colleague use Powerpoint, and not Keynote, but what I wanted to say it's that there is a function in Multiplay which allows him to open another application.

I'll try to do an export from a little part of my presentation document.

Thank you again !

Davy

Davy Dedienne

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May 23, 2024, 3:48:11 PM5/23/24
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Thank you everybody for your help.

I tried different solutions, but I can't find something that is the good one for me.
I join the ppt document, if you want to understand the problem.
When I'm in Keynote, I launch the diaporama. Each image begin with a white background, and for example, in the image 4, when I press "go", it's running the written part, but the part whit chords accords only appears when I press go one more time.
I let you try !

If I do an export with images (png or jpeg), I always have all the image in one time.
If I do an export with video, it is not very easy to drive (and I have to export images one by one to video, and cut each images in two parts !!)

It seems the best solution (if I'm able to do this) is the AppleScript, and just try to make the best to command Qlab...
11B- POWER POINT_NEU.pptx

Davy Dedienne

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May 23, 2024, 4:20:57 PM5/23/24
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Sorry for my repetitive mails !

I tried the Applescripts, and I writed exactly the same as you, micpool, but it doesn't work ! It is saying "ERROR : "identificator" can't placed after a number" (i'm not sure of that error because it's in french "ERROR : "identificateur" ne peut pas se trouver après "numéro""). My file's name has a number, so I tried to change it, but the error stay and say "identificateur" ne peut pas se trouver après "identificateur"...

:/

micpool

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May 23, 2024, 6:00:51 PM5/23/24
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You have the PowerPoint presentation. So exporting this to a .mov file  to use in QLab is quite straightforward.

Rehearse timings in PPT  and leave 1 second of white screen between each cue

Export to mov (ProRes 422) and tick the 'use existing timings' box.

Open the movie in QT Player and note down the start and end times of each section

Drag the file into QLab. 

Tick the hold at end box in the Time& Loop Tab of the inspector.

Tick Autoload in the basics tab of the inspector

In the triggers tab tick fade and stop peers and set the time to 0

Copy the cue and paste as many times as you need

Set the start and end times of each cue to the times you wrote down in QT Player. 

I've done a very rough version of the first 6 cues, which took about 5 minutes.

Screen Recording 2024-05-23 at 22.55.26-HD 720p.mov
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