Working with Presentations

Viewing a Media Group as a Slide Show is a great quick way to see images as a series of slides. But what if you want to create a slide with 2 images side by side? Or of one image in zoomed detail? Or 5 images at a time? That's where the LUNA Presentation tool comes in.

Slides for a presentation are built and edited in the LUNA Workspace. Using the Media Panel you can easily drag images from your Media Group into the LUNA Workspace to create your slides. Create as many as you like, and when you're ready play the presentation back in LUNA or export it to PowerPoint. And as with many other tools in LUNA, you can create a unique URL or embeddable web widget of the presentation.   

On this page:

Creating a Presentation

Creating dynamic presentations in LUNA is a simple, creative way to organize material from different collections into a seamless series of slides for sharing or playback.

Presentations can be made public or private and can easily be exported to PowerPoint. Specific to LUNA presentations is the ability to maintain the aspect ratio of images in a slide, so that if you create a presentation on a small screen, viewing it on a larger screen will not distort the sizes of the images upon playback or export. This special feature helps take the guess work out of creating presentations, giving you more time to concentrate on creating great presentations and less time fidgeting with settings.

Presentations in LUNA will only support images. Video, audio and other non image file types cannot be used to create slides.

Presentations are made in the LUNA Workspace by creating slides:

  1. Click on Create > Presentation from the LUNA Main Menu. You must be logged in to create a presentation.

  2. Enter the Presentation Name.

  3. Select the Aspect Ratio.

  4. Choose whether or not to make the presentation public or private. Public presentations can be cloned, embedded, linked to or played back, but cannot be edited by anyone other than the original creator. To edit a public presentation you must clone it from the playback mode and then save it into My Presentations.

  5. Select a folder to save the presentation into.

  6. Add a description (optional).

  7. After clicking the Save button, you’ll be taken to the Create Presentation page where you can choose to go Back to the presentation page, or to proceed directly with creating the presentation by clicking on Open in Workspace. Click on Open in Workspace.

  8. The LUNA Workspace will open in a new browser window (IE), or tab (Firefox and Safari), with the Media Panel open to your Active Media Group . You’ll be able to drag and drop images from your Media Groups into the LUNA   Workspace to create the slides for your presentation. You can also add images to the LUNA Workspace to make slides from as you’re browsing collections by clicking the icon in the top left corner of any image

  9. Open the Presentation Panel to start building slides for your presentation. You’ll see that you have slide one already created but it is blank.

     

  10. To add images to this first slide drag images from the Media Panel into the LUNA   workspace , or, add images to the LUNA   Workspace while you browse a collection, and then arrange them as you like. You can add as many images as you want and use the zoom feature to select zoomed in sections of an image.

  11. When you’ve finished creating the layout for that first slide click on the Save Slide icon. Your first slide is now complete and you can add more slides.

  12. Click the New Slide icon to start working on your next slide.

  13. Before you can add images to the second slide you have the option of adding a description to the new slide. Click Create to continue (with or without a description), or Cancel to cancel creating the new slide.

  14. If you have images in the LUNA   Workspace these will be cleared in order to create this new slide.

  15. Continue with steps 10-14 to add as many slides to your presentation as you like.

  16. To edit a slide you have already created, simply click on that slide from the Presentation   Panel . The images for that slide will then appear in the Workspace in their current layout. Once you’re done editing the layout, or adding or removing images, click on the Save Slide icon to save your changes.

  17. To edit the slide descriptions, click on the slide in question to select it and then click on the Slide desc icon.

     
     

  18. You can change the order of your slides by using the Click to move this slide over to the right icon, or, the Click to move this slide over to the left icon located under each slide within the Presentation Panel .

  19. You can also copy a slide by clicking on the Copy icon beside the Delete icon. This new copied slide will appear as the last slide in your presentation. By copying a slide you are simply making a copy of it, any changes you make to the copied slide will not be reflected in the original slide. 

Editing Presentation Properties

You can edit your presentation properties at any time:


  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of your presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Under My Presentations, mouse over the presentation you are interested in. You’ll see 3 icons to the right of the presentation name: Edit Presentation; Edit Presentation Properties; and Delete Presentation.

  3. Select the second icon Edit Presentation Properties, to be taken to the Edit Presentation Properties page where you can edit the following properties:

    • Name of your presentation

    • Option to make the presentation publicly viewable

    • Password for accessing the presentation (optional)

    • The folder your presentation is saved in

    • Description for your presentation (optional)

4. When you’re finished click Save .

Editing Presentation Slides

You can edit your presentation slides at any time:

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Under My Presentations, mouse over the presentation you are interested in. You’ll see 3 icons to the right of the presentation name: Edit Presentation; Edit Presentation Properties; and Delete Presentation.

  3. Select the first icon Edit Presentation, to be taken to the LUNA Workspace where presentations are made and edited.

  1. Your presentation should open in the LUNA Workspace. If it did not, then simply expand the Presentation Panel and use the presentations pull down menu to select the presentation you want to edit.

  2. You’ll see the slides for that presentation in the Presentation Panel with the image(s) from the first slide appearing in the LUNA Workspace.

  3. Click on the slide you want to edit in the Presentation Panel. The image(s) from that slide will appear in the Workspace and ready for you to edit the layout of that slide. In addition to just re-arranging the layout of the images in that slide you can also add more images to it.

  4. Click on the Save Slide icon when you are done editing that slide. Be sure to save your changes each time you edit slides.

  5. To delete a slide click on the Click to delete slide icon below the preview of that slide in the Presentation Panel .

  6. You can also copy a slide by clicking on the Copy icon beside the Delete icon. This new copied slide will appear as the last slide in your presentation. By copying a slide you are simply making a copy of it, any changes you make to the copied slide will not be reflected in the original slide.

  7. Using the Click to move this slide over to the left or Click to move this slide over to the right icons in each slide, you can then move this copied slide to your desired place.

Reordering Presentation Slides

You can re-order your presentation slides at any time:

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Under My Presentations, mouse over the presentation you are interested in. You’ll see 3 icons to the right of the presentation name: Edit Presentation; Edit Presentation Properties; and Delete Presentation.

  3. Select the first icon Edit Presentation, to be taken to the LUNA Workspace where presentations are made and edited.

  4. Your presentation should open in the LUNA Workspace. If it did not, then simply expand the Presentation Panel and use the presentations pull down menu to select the presentation you want to edit.

  5. You’ll see the slides for that presentation in the Presentation Panel and the images from the first slide appear in the LUNA Workspace.

  6. Keep the Presentation Panel open and use the Click to move this slide over to the right or the Click to move this slide over to the left arrow icons to change the order of the slides.  

Copying a Presentation

You can copy your presentation at any time.


  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Under My Presentations, mouse over the presentation you want to clone. You’ll see 3 icons to the right of the presentation name: Edit Presentation; Edit Presentation Properties; and Delete Presentation. 

  3. Select the first icon Edit Presentation, to be taken to the LUNA Workspace where presentations are made and edited.

  4. Your presentation should open in the LUNA Workspace. If it did not, then simply expand the Presentation Panel and use the presentations pull down menu to select the presentation you want to clone.

  5. Select the Copy icon in the Presentation Panel to clone the current presentation.

Note: This is different from the Click to copy slide icon which is available in each slide and is used to clone an individual slide, not the entire presentation.

  1. The Presentation Panel will clear for a moment and when it re-appears it will be showing you the slides of the copied presentation and will automatically add the appendix Copy of to the name of your original presentation. This copied presentation will also be saved into the same folder as the original presentation.

  2. You can edit the name of this copied presentation as well as what folder it is stored in by editing the Presentation Properties.

Copying a Presentation from Playback Mode

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of your presentations and the public presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. To view the presentation in playback mode, simply click on its title.

  3. The presentation opens in the playback mode. Click on the Click to copy this presentation icon in the upper right corner of the window. 

  4. You’ll be taken to the Presentation Properties page where you can edit the properties of this new presentation.

  5. Click Save when you’re finished editing the properties.

  6. Edits you make to this copied presentation will not appear in the original.

Presentation Playback

Playing back a presentation in LUNA is simple and offers an elegant and dynamic way to view a presentation. The presentation is played back in a format very similar to the LUNA Workspace , allowing you to zoom in on image details, add images, or re-arrange the slides.

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of your presentations and the public presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. To view a presentation in playback mode from the presentations page, simply click on its title.

  3. To view a presentation from the LUNA Workspace, click on the Play Presentation icon in the Presentation Panel to start playback of the currently selected presentation.

  4. Use the arrows in the upper right corner to move forward and back through the slides.

  5. Because the image tools are embedded in each image, you can change the layout of each slide or zoom into the images using these embedded viewing tools. These changes will not be saved and are not a way to edit a presentation. This simply offers more flexibility while playing back a presentation.

  6. Use the Share This tool to create a URL of the presentation in playback mode, or the Embed This tool to create an embeddable web widget in playback mode.

  7. The Collections Home button will return you to the page from where you first launched the presentation playback.

Exporting a Presentation

Presentations in LUNA can be exported to PowerPoint (Note: for Keynote users, PowerPoint files will open in Keynote). Unique to LUNA is the ability to maintain the aspect ratio of your slides upon export and playback.

To export a presentation:

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Under My Presentations, mouse over the presentation you are interested in. You’ll see 3 icons to the right of the presentation name: Edit Presentation; Edit Presentation Properties; and Delete Presentation.

  3. Select the first icon Edit Presentation, to be taken to the LUNA Workspace where presentations are made and edited.

  4. Your presentation should open in the LUNA Workspace. If it did not, then simply expand the Presentation Panel and use the presentations pull down menu to select the presentation you want to export.

  5. Click on the Export PowerPoint icon to export the presentation to PowerPoint. Note: Slide descriptions will not accompany the exported presentation, but the data for each image will appear below the image(s).

  6. The aspect ratio that you chose when creating the presentation will be maintained in this exported version. 

Linking to a Presentation or Slide

Linking to a Presentation :

Creating a unique URL to a presentation in LUNA is very easy to do and offers an excellent way to creatively share presentations with others. If you have restricted content in the presentation you are sharing, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the presentation:

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations and the public presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Click on the title of the presentation you want to create a link to. The presentation will open in the playback mode.

  3. Click on Share This and copy and paste the URL into an email, for example.

  4. When the user you shared this URL with clicks on the link, the presentation will open for them also in the playback mode. The aspect ratio of the images will be maintained allowing you to share the exact same layout regardless of what screen resolution the other person has.

  5. The links you create in LUNA are dynamic, so if you make changes to a presentation these changes will also be reflected when a user launches the URL to that presentation.

Linking to a Slide:

While creating a presentation in LUNA you can easily create a link to a slide. If you have restricted content in the slide you are sharing, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the slide:


  1. While working on a presentation in the LUNA Workspace, select the slide you want to link to by double clicking on it. The LUNA Workspace will then load the images from that slide, and the background of the slide itself in the Presentation Panel will be black as opposed to dark grey.

  2. Click on Share This to generate a unique URL to this slide and copy and paste the URL into an email, for example.

  3. When the other person launches the URL they will see the slide in the LUNA Workspace but it will be independent of the presentation. You are not sending a link to the editing capabilities of the presentation, just to one slide as it would be viewed in the LUNA Workspace.

Embedding a Presentation or Slide

Embedding a Presentation:

Creating an embeddable web widget of a presentation in LUNA is very easy to do and offers an excellent way to creatively share presentations with others via a different application. If you have restricted content in the presentation you are sharing, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the presentation:

  1. Click on Explore > Presentations to see the list of available presentations and the public presentations. You must be logged in to see your presentations.

  2. Click on the title of the presentation you want to create a link to. The presentation will open in the playback mode.

  3. Click on Embed This. You’ll be taken to the Embed This page wherein you’ll have the following options to further customize this web widget of your presentation:

    • Select either JavaScript, or Forum code.

    • Select either Object Tag code or I-Frame code (*see Note below)

    • You can change the width, height and border color of the widget.


4. As you customize the web widget you can preview the changes in the preview pane.

  5. When you’re finished simply copy the code below the preview pane and paste it into your wiki, website, blog or forum. The code will also include a link back to LUNA so those who you share the web widget with can easily find their way to your original collections.

6. The embeddable web widgets you create in LUNA are dynamic, so if you make changes to a presentation these changes will also be reflected in the applications you embed them into.

Embedding a Slide:

While creating a presentation in LUNA you can easily create an embeddable web widget to an individual slide. If you have restricted content in the presentation you are sharing, then users will be notified that they might not have access to all images in the slide: 

  1. While working on a presentation in the LUNA Workspace, select the slide you want to create an embeddable web widget of.

  2. Click on Embed This. You’ll be taken to the Embed This page wherein you’ll have the following options to further customize this web widget of your presentation:

    • Select either JavaScript, or Forum code.

    • Select either Object Tag code or I-Frame code (*see Note below)

    • You can change the width, height and border color of the widget.

    • Choose whether or not to include the Display Panels (Presentation and Media Panels)

As you customize the web widget you can preview the changes in the preview pane.  When you’re finished simply copy the code below the preview pane and paste it into your wiki, website, blog or forum. The code will also include a link back to LUNA so those who you share the web widget with can easily find their way to your original collections.  The embeddable web widgets you create in LUNA are dynamic, so if you make changes to a presentation these changes will also be reflected in the applications you embed them into.

While creating your web widget you have the choice of the following codes:

  • I-Frame Code is for use with all browsers, but banned by some blog sites and 3rd-party content sites.

  • Object Tag Code is accepted by more sites, but will not work with Internet Explorer default settings. 

To enable an object tag to load content across domains with Internet Explorer, set:

Tools : Internet Options : Security : Custom Level : Miscellaneous : Access data sources across domains : Enable

 

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