John's dashboard

A comment on the idea "Custom Script Colors for different comments" in MediaComplete:

Oh, now that is totally awesome. Thanks for taking the time to clarify this and teach me something new! It works great. :-) – John, on October 26, 2009 15:26

John replied on October 26, 2009 15:25 to the idea "Custom Script Colors for different comments" in MediaComplete:

:-)

John replied on October 26, 2009 14:28 to the idea "Cumulative & Scheduled Fixes, please" in MediaComplete:

I was just going to ask this question before finding this post. When I run into an issue I'd like to find out if MediaShout is aware of the issue first before posting a new topic, but I'd rather NOT have to go and search using key words hoping to come across someone else's post to make sure I don't ask a duplicate question.

Even then I'm not sure MS even has it as a documented problem. So, it would be nice to have an official consolidated list from MS of all the known problems, whether they're being worked on or not, or even feasible to fix. If I could at least see a list ahead of time I could scan through them and keep them in mind when working with MS.

John started following the idea "Cumulative & Scheduled Fixes, please" in MediaComplete.

John asked a question in MediaComplete on October 26, 2009 14:00:

Keyed text not firing.

So, once again I was training some new MediaShout presenter volunteers yesterday and demonstrating the cool, easy-to-use tools built into MediaShout 4.4 build 131. One of them is being able to superimpose a parent page up on the big screen using the keyed text button in the KIM box.

After editing the Key Cue ahead of time and testing to make sure the text placement was correct, I typed in "Parent Page 4763" and pressed the key button. "Look, watch this!" Except nothing happened. The button turned yellow, but nothing new came up on the screen. After trying it a couple more times with no change in results, I opened the main MediaShout Settings screen, looked around and didn't find anything, and clicked close. For the heck of it, I pressed the key button one more time and then the parent page appeared on the screen. Clicked the yellow key button again and the parent page turned off as expected. On, off. On, off. It kept working fine.

So, one of the volunteers asked, "What did you do?" I said I had no idea, nothing really. It just started working. Not a real confidence booster!

John started following the idea "How about images with transparent backgrounds" in MediaComplete.

John replied on October 26, 2009 13:31 to the idea "Custom Script Colors for different comments" in MediaComplete:

I completely agree with this idea. We really need to be able to change the color for any of the cue items, not just comments. The script view is getting a little "busy" with each of the cues showing many cue property icons. I have new MediaShout volunteers having a hard time quickly finding specific spots within a script and one of them just yesterday mentioned that they'd like to be color code lyrics, bible verses, and text cues separately.

John started following the idea "Custom Script Colors for different comments" in MediaComplete.

John asked a question in MediaComplete on October 26, 2009 13:24:

Odd problem with trying to edit newly added bible cue.

I came across this odd problem yesterday when I was trying to training new MediaShout users on how to use the program. After adding a new bible cue to the script, I tried right-clicking it and choosing Edit Cue. The Edit Cue dialog box came up as expected, however it was the cue from two previous cues in the script, not the bible cue I wanted to edit.

Using version 4.4 build 131, here's my steps:

1. I had a script with 20 cues of different types - text, lyrics, bible.
2. I dragged and dropped a bible cue in between some existing cues.
3. I specified the bible verse and added it to the script.
4. I right-clicked the newly added bible cue and chose "Edit Cue".
5. The cue from two spots previous in the script would show up in the Edit Cue dialog box - say, a text cue.
6. I repeated this by deleting and adding a new bible cue again. Same problem.
7. I tried adding the bible cue elsewhere in the script. Same problem - always the cue from two previous spots came up instead.

The only fix was to exit and restart MediaShout.

Obviously I'm baffled by this behavior, but my new students are even more apprehensive about volunteering as a MediaShout presenter for Sundays. Not good!

John asked a question in MediaComplete on October 25, 2009 06:24:

Changing cue from video feed to video file has an issue.

There seems to be a minor bug with trying to modify a video cue set as a video feed and then trying to edit the cue to change it to a video file instead. Here's what I'm doing:

1. Drag a Video File cue to the script.
2. Click Video Feed.
3. Select the source (mine is "USB Video Device) and click Select to finish adding it to the script. It works fine when the cue is activated.
4. Right-click the cue and choose Edit Cue.
5. Click the Foreground tab.
6. Click the Select Video button next to the source.
7. Click the radio button next to Video.
8. Notice that the "Look in:" folder selection works, but there is no file navigation available to select a video file.

Not a major deal as I can just delete the cue and add a new Video File cue, but I thought I'd mention this as I don't believe this is desired.

John replied on October 25, 2009 05:43 to the question "Audio cues not stoping on cue exit" in MediaComplete:

Interesting. Ok. I inserted a "Black" cue and added a soundtrack to it. It does indeed end with the cue now.

One question - I liked the fade option of the sound cue. The graphic cue simply cuts off the audio. Is there a way to have the soundtrack fade out with a graphic cue that is manually advanced?

John replied on October 25, 2009 04:48 to the question "Audio cues not stoping on cue exit" in MediaComplete:

I have this same problem using MediaShout 4.4 build 131. I add a single audio file cue (MP3) for during our offering collection, have "end with cue" checked, and the song keeps playing after advancing to the next cue. I have to click the stop button in the audio deck to stop playing the music. Unfortunately I can't used timed cues as I don't know how long the offering will take.

This worked fine in version 3.5, but not in version 4+.

John started following the question "Audio cues not stoping on cue exit" in MediaComplete.

John shared an idea in Teamness on August 29, 2009 23:33:

Allow formatting tools in the "messages" area that are the same as in the "whiteboards" area.

Teamness already has a great set of text formatting tools in the whiteboard area. Would it be possible to incorporate these same tools in the "messages" area?

John replied on August 25, 2009 15:21 to the question "messages are not being sent" in Teamness:

I think it would be great to add an option to automatically "notify" via email anyone from a selectable userlist for anything new posted to the various sections on Teamness. This would be useful for people who don't have RSS feeds enabled (or don't know how to use them) or for people who don't login to Teamness regularly (for one reason or another).

John shared an idea in Teamness on August 25, 2009 15:14:

Add email replies to message board posts.

It might be nice to be able to reply to a posted message via an email response. This would allow a person to participate in an online discussion without having to login to Teamness, yet all comments would be centralized for others to see.

Of course in order for this to work a notification system would probably need to be implemented first.

John shared an idea in Teamness on August 25, 2009 15:08:

Add comments feature to whiteboards.

I'd like to be able to add comments underneath whiteboards. Often times we throw ideas back and forth about information posted on a whiteboard and it would be nice to see the "train of thought" or verbal history that led to the various whiteboard revisions.

John gave praise in Teamness on August 25, 2009 15:04:

Best overall value and features!

You couldn't ask for a better valued online collaboration service than Teamness. The interface is clear, concise, and uncluttered. It incorporates clever visual confirmation queues and is easy to use for people who are new to online collaboration services!

John shared an idea in Teamness on August 25, 2009 14:56:

Email ICS meeting requests automatically for new/updated milestones.

I don't know how difficult it would be to add, but it might nice to have an ICS format meeting request sent out via email automatically to anyone assigned to a new or updated milestone. I've seen this on some other collaboration sites and it works really well. A person then just opens the ICS attachment and clicks "Accept" in their favorite email program to add a reminder to their local calendar.

An example of this process can be demonstrated on www.tungle.com. Tungle is NOT an online collaboration service, however.

John shared an idea in Teamness on August 25, 2009 14:47:

Add option to open uploaded picture files in separate window.

After uploading any type of picture file to Teamness the only option when clicking on the link is to download the file locally. It would be nice to have another option to open the picture in a separate window. Maybe have two small font sized links below the main picture link that says "View in new window" and "Download file".

Having a preview thumbnail next to each picture file could be helpful, but may make the files section look too "busy" and add more time to generate the page. I would instead only want to view pictures full size in a separate window anyway. Thumbnails would not be needed.