Has anyone arrived at any creative solutions for displaying, albeit trasiently, hard button assignment for the 14 programmable buttons on these remotes? I am considering a soft button on all device panels that jumps to an "overlay" with the button labels, and then a button to revert back. A solution of this type is important not only for the user who has programmed the remote and is very familiar with it, but for other users.

Let's get some ideas rolling around.

This message was edited by grubin on 02/01/02 14:58.13.

grubin,

What I do is stick a label, in 8-pt type on the bottom of each panel for the function of the M key and the arrow key. They look like M - Menu, or (arrow symbol) - Guide. I place them just inboard of the labels for the 2 outer hard buttons. I lose about 10 pixels of the screen, but with the bigger screen it's no big deal. I use the EX button for the OK associated with the cursor pad. I don't label the cursor pad since it's use is somewhat obvious for most devices.

Jim L

Grubin, I did something similar, except that after 5 seconds of displaying the "key" page, it jumps back to the original page. Also, I used the Manufacturer icon (eg Sony) as a button, which if pressed, jumps to this hidden page, and as noted, jumps back after five seconds).

I kind of did on my Pronto what you described. I created an information page that has a picture of the remote and what each button does (they are globally set). But what you could do is sacrifice one of the hard buttons (or add a soft button on each panel) that jumps you to a panel with a picture of the hard buttons (it is easy to get with ctrl-PrtSc while in the emulator). Then the user can decide if he needs to stay on the panel or jump back to the calling page to used the screen

Thanks for the ideas.

Jim, I assume that your 8-pt labels are created in an image editing program as the smallest Pronto font is 10 pt.

Anthony, I'm curipus as to how you implement the screen capture from the emulator. Would you mind posting a pic?

Thanks,

Geoff

1) open a paint program
2) open RE and the emulator (use a simple screen, or one that is blanc)
3) use paint program or anything else that will give a uniform single color background behind the emulator (makes things simpler in the next steps)
4) Press Ctrl and print screen (at the same time) on the keyboard
5) in paint program do a paste

You will have a screen image, cut the image so that the remote is the only thing left... and work the image until you have something good

6) save the worked image as a bitmap file
7) on a panel in PE add a frame and load the file
8) add a frame beside each button and add the text

Grubin,

If you go to the files section, Utilities&Manuals/Utilities, you can download Daniels ProntoINI Workshop. It'll enable a bunch of additional fonts (including 8-pt) complete with symbols. Does other nice stuff as well. A must have!!

Jim L

Anthony, when trying your suggestion, all I can get is a screen shot; not an image of the entire remote. That is all that Ctl/Printscreen gives on my system. Do you have any way of posting the page you copied, or is there another way to do this??
Thanks, Harris

I will try it on Monday if I have the time. I have RCEdit on my PC at work and I will try it there. But Printscreen should create the screen shot pages, with ctrl+printscreen you need to do a paste into a paint program. I know it works in PE and PPE, I have not tried it in RE

Harris,

Check your e-mail.

Jim L

I am a bit late, but I remembered this morning that Daniel had an image when he announced the release of the editing software

Jim, (and Anthony!), when I had used Printscreen, what I got was a ScreenImage (like when the ccf files are posted on the site), rather than an image of the actual remote. Also, Daniel's photo is less usable than one with a blank screen on the 5200, unfortunately. Jim, your scan indeed absolutely does the trick. Thanks again for the help,
Best,
Harris

This message was edited by drhb on 02/03/02 09:52.50.

I used a screen capture feature in Paint Shop Pro. If anybody else wants one, send me an e-mail. The copy is 240x266 with a blank screen, white background, and is for the 5200 or 9200.

Jim L

You were supposed to press the ctrl button at the same time as the print screen.

Anthony, indeed I had, but still just got a screenshot of the panel!