Optimal Browser Settings

Jan172006

Written by — Posted in Articulate Presenter

In Articulate Presenter 4, the Articulate Player window was more or less locked at the optimal playback size, 800 pixels wide x 550 pixels high. Articulate Presenter 5 gives you more flexibility to control the way your presentation launches, and whether your users can resize the browser containing the Articulate Player.

Depending on your content, it’s not always going to produce the highest quality results to Resize browser to fill screen or to Allow user to resize browser.

Since 800 x 550 is the optimal size for a PowerPoint slide, it is normal to see slight degradation in image quality when viewing your Flash output at any resolution larger than that, especially if your presentation includes screenshots with text.

To achieve optimal playback quality in the Articulate Player, here’s what you’ll want to do:

Go to Articulate -> Player Template Builder -> Other to customize your Browser Window Settings.
Set Browser size to Resize browser to optimal size.
Set Presentation size to Lock presentation at optimal size.
Check the option to Launch presentation in new window (creates launch page).
Check the option to Display window with no browser controls.
Uncheck the option to Allow user to resize browser.

Alternatively, you can download this zip file, extract the contents (launcher.xml), and place it in the following directory on your computer:

C:Program FilesArticulatePresentertemplates

Using this method will add a new custom player template to Articulate Presenter for you. Restart PowerPoint and, when you publish, select launcher for your Player template.

When you view your published output, it should now launch in a new window, which is set and locked at the optimal playback size, thereby resolving any issues you may have had with degradation in image quality.

12 comments

12 responses to “Optimal Browser Settings”

…but even then, the resulting presentation scales and thereby distorts the embedded pictures.

You can easily re-check this by:
– creating a test picture with a pattern like:
1 pixel high black horizontal line
1 pixel blank
1 pixel high black horizontal line
1 pixel blank
and so on
– importing this into PowerPoint,
setting to 100%
– publish with the Browser Window Settings provided.

Or maybe I have overlooked something?
(Evaluating Presenter since yesterday… 🙂

Ralph Muhsau // Posted at 10:49 am on January 30th, 2008

What type of image are you using? Keep in mind that when you insert an image on the PPT slide Presenter is going to take that image and the other slide content and convert that to a .swf file.

You’ll have some degradation, especially if the image is a raster image like a .jpg since they don’t compress well. A work around is to convert the image to .swf and insert it via flash object.

Following the steps Gabe has listed above will help you get the best image quality.

Tom // Posted at 5:37 pm on January 30th, 2008

When I publish, my images are fine, but my numbers and bullets disappear or are distorted. I have tried making all the changes to the player template building, but nothing seems to work.

Courtney Wasowicz // Posted at 4:03 pm on February 22nd, 2008

Gabe,
How can I get it to launch without the launch page as you guys do it in your demos-(http://www.articulate.com/products/presenter-demos.php)?

Browsers are sized perfectly and no “pop-up-blocked” messages.
Thanks

Andrew Nafekh // Posted at 10:54 am on May 27th, 2008

This causes the presentation to crash when played on the web. Articulate tech support will tell you to uncheck the option to start the presentation in a new window.

TucsonTom // Posted at 12:02 pm on May 29th, 2008

Hey Tom,

I’m also having problems with loss of resolution after publishing.
Following your creative advices on editing microsoft clip-arts (I really liked them), I based all my presentation on customized clip-art characters. Now I’m having enormous trouble because the clip-arts show up completely distorted… I tried changing the quality settings as recommended above, but it didn’t work at all…

Also, I have some slides with “layers”, because the image is a scheme which evolves piece by piece, building and explaining an idea. When I publish, no matter how I’ve recorded the animations, all the layers show up completely messed up and it’s impossible to understand anything.

PLEASE I need help to fix those things… 🙁

Thank you.

Best regards,

Katia

Katia Todeschini // Posted at 8:23 pm on November 11th, 2008

Hi,
The inserted swf files do not display well but a placeholder in ppt after a new computer start, consequently these flash do not display in the thumnail panel in Articulate player.How to fix that?

Angela // Posted at 4:25 am on February 2nd, 2009

I am having the same problem as Courtney. When I publish, my images appear fine, but my numbers and bullets disappear only on some of the pages. I made the changes to the player template builder, but it didn’t make any difference. Any resolution on this issue?

Jan // Posted at 9:52 am on March 26th, 2009

Like Courtney and Jan my bullets have recently started to disappear when I publish – any resolution to this problem yet?

Charlie // Posted at 6:25 pm on July 15th, 2009

Hi Charlie- could you please submit a support case so that we can help you more closely?

gabe // Posted at 4:22 pm on July 16th, 2009

Hi,
The link to the .zip folder is broken.

Antony Kenwright // Posted at 9:57 am on October 26th, 2009

Thanks for pointing that out, Antony. I’ve corrected the link in the post.

gabe // Posted at 3:54 pm on October 26th, 2009

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