Opus Pro includes all the ease of use and all the features of Creator but adds the power of database support, enhanced SCORM elearning and scripting for when you need even more flexible solutions. It also includes an Android Packager to distribute your HTML5 more easily to Android devices. Opus offers the broadest range of weights and finishes across sheet, web and digital formats. The family tree includes Opus PS, a solution optimized for direct mail—with superior glueability, fold-ability and caliper guarantees for predictable postage costs—and Opus Digital, which is optimized to perform across digital printing platforms.

The ilm file extension is associated with Opus Creator, an easy, cost-effective introduction to creating exciting rich media communications and e-learning for fun or profit, developed by Digital Workshop. The ilm file is the default multimedia format used by Opus Creator.

Introduction
So, What Is Illuminatus?
Working Together
Autorun Splashes
PowerPoint 2002 HTML Presentations
DocView In Illuminatus
Link An EXE from PowerPoint
Support
Experiences & Comments
Pricing
In Conclusion

Introduction

Indezine is primarily a site which aims to address issues pertainingto presentations, multimedia, autorun and screen savers - evolutionhas led to Microsoft PowerPoint being the core of its existence.Using other applications with PowerPoint to exchange and enhancecontent has been an important aspect here - in the past we havediscussed using PowerPoint with Director, Flash, SVG and AutoCAD(using WHIP! and Volo View). And now we look at Illuminatus Opus(hereafter, Illuminatus). And frankly, I am sure I would not beoff the mark to quote that this could be a very significant researchindeed for users of both PowerPoint and Illuminatus. In many ways,they both complement each other perfectly. So, let's explore...

So, What Is Illuminatus?

Illuminatusis basically a multimedia development tool from a UK based companycalled Digital Workshop. They create many more fine products whichsurprisingly cost only a fraction of the amount you would pay forother similar stuff elsewhere. You'll find more information attheir site:

Across subsequent versions, Illuminatus has evolved to emergeas a mature multimedia creation platform. The newest version calledIlluminatus Opus takes this trend further with many new featuresand refinements. Digital Workshop also creates an advanced versionof Illuminatus Opus called Opus Pro. However, for this articlewe have used the basic Illuminatus Opus application for all techniquesexplained hereafter. You'll find more information on IlluminatusOpus at its homepage:

Working Together

So, how do PowerPoint and Illuminatus work together? Actually,in many ways only limited by your creativity or imagination. Iknow many people would point out that with Illuminatus and itsadvanced multimedia features, one does not need PowerPoint. Nothingcan be farther from the truth - my experiences with PowerPointhave resulted in a mindset which believes that PowerPoint is muchmore than a basic presentation program - it actually owns the presentationstandard. Tomorrow's presentations are going to be even more PowerPointcentric, with almost unlimited distribution strategies being developedaround its core. And yet I've not discussed PowerPoint's greatestadvantage - let me explain using an example:

A few months ago, my client visited Australia to deliver a presentationI created for him using PowerPoint - there were a few changes requiredin the last minute - so all he did was to open the presentationin his copy of PowerPoint and edit a few figures - that's somethingyou cannot do with a multimedia development program. In plain words,PowerPoint is omnipresent!

That's why it is important to create opportunities where otherprograms perform in concert with PowerPoint - and that's why weare looking at Illuminatus. It is certainly more strange than ever- the question is why Illuminatus and why not any of the othermultimedia programs like Director, Authorware, Dazzler or Mediator?I would love to answer that question because I've had some experiencewith a few of the other products too - Illuminatus basically scoresbetter on both the features and the price front. Let's look atfeatures: Illuminatus can create autorun splashes for autorun PowerPointpresentations on CD ROM, it can create browser controls to viewthe new PowerPoint 2002 HTML presentations fullscreen from theweb or CD ROM, it can incorporate actual PowerPoint presentationsin itself using the DocView feature and finally it can create standaloneEXE files which can be linked to actual PowerPoint presentations.We'll explore all these techniques. Finally, Illuminatus costsmuch less than its other competitors - and almost anyone who hasPowerPoint can take advantage of a cheap upgrade path to buy Illuminatusat an even lower price.

In the next few days, I hope to put up detailed tutorials on allfour techniques listed above - as of now, we'll just skim overthem.

Autorun Splashes

Some time ago, I needed to create my portfolio of PowerPoint presentationson an autorun CD. Since I was experimenting with Illuminatus, Itried to create an interactive splash screen as a menu to run multiplePowerPoint presentations. The entire thing was accomplished in less than half an hour - and the whole thing included animations,custom backgrounds and embedded typefaces. The compiled splashscreen was set to run as a trigger from an autorun procedure assoon as a CD was placed inside a system. Resultant menu clicksopened PowerPoint presentations in full show mode - as soon asthe presentations were viewed, the control reverted back to thesplash screen. The result was simple, yet elegant.

Illuminatus can also create an autorun.inf file which tells Windowsto run a CD ROM automatically on insertion through the 'PublicationProperties' dialog box.

PowerPoint 2002 HTML Presentations

PowerPoint 2002 is the new version of PowerPoint which ships aspart of Microsoft's Office XP suite. New to this version is Microsoft'scommitment to bestow it's Internet Explorer product the new avatar of'presentation browser'.

As Microsoft makes its moves to promote Internet Explorer furtherin this direction, one is forced to face the fact that such HTMLpresentations don't open fullscreen as normal presentations do.Enter Illuminatus again, which I used successfully to create anautorun container for just this purpose. Such autorun containerscan be created to link to an inline web page to act as an elegantsplash screen and help system. Basically, the entire system usesthe browser component built-in into Illuminatus.

All such inline browsers require the existence of Internet Exploreron a client machine - since the browser control actually relieson the Internet Explorer engine to render a page.

DocView In Illuminatus

Somtimes, your major project could have been developed in Illuminatusitself - and you may be looking for an easy way to incorporateexisting PowerPoint content into the Illuminatus project.

Digital Workshop Opus Creator Pdf

Illuminatus contains an object model that includes the DocViewcomponent. Inserting such DocView components is as easy as insertinga picture - and such DocView components can contain Word documents,Excel spreadsheets and you guessed it - PowerPoint presentations!Unlike the Word and Excel DocView links, PowerPoint presentationsare dynamic - they play like any other normal PowerPoint presentationin either a window or fullscreen mode within your Illuminatus projector standalone compiled EXE.

DocView is indeed among the important killer features which makeusing Illuminatus and PowerPoint together so easy - nevertheless,it's important to mention here that a PowerPoint engine in theform of a PowerPoint installation or the free PowerPoint Viewerneeds to be made available on every client machine.

Link An EXE from PowerPoint

Our three examples above discussed Illuminatus as a host containerwhich made calls to a PowerPoint engine. Finally, we look at areverse situation - wherein a PowerPoint host will make calls toan Illuminatus engine.

We basically need a compiled standalone EXE project publishedfrom Illuminatus. Thereafter, one can link to this EXE from withinPowerPoint using the 'Action Settings' feature on a given hyperlink.

Here, it may be important to consider the resolution implications- while a fullscreen Illuminatus publication will completely superimposea playing PowerPoint presentation onscreen, a windowed Illuminatuspublication will only superimpose the areas it covers onscreen.Such windows are excellent for usage of newer QuickTime contentwhich PowerPoint does not support natively. Of course one can usethis technique for anything - and small popup windows over thePowerPoint show can look very elegant when one needs to highlightsomething significant to an audience.

Support

Digital Workshop offers free lifetime technical support througha dedicated support line - anyway you may not need support at allsince Illuminatus Opus comes with an extensive manual and onlinehelp files. Also, the product itself ships on two CD-ROMs whichcontain many tutorial and sample files to get you going.

There's also an excellent support forum at the Digital Workshopsite - where answers to problems are provided by longtime Opususers and developers. There's another excellent forum at the Illum4site, which again also functions as a US based distributor forIlluminatus Opus.

Experiences & Comments

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Digital Workshop Opus Creator Free

Pricing

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In Conclusion

Digital Workshop Opus Creator Software

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