Which forum did you post in? link would be appreciated. What is Backstage? I made it free cause I would hate to pay for something like this myself :) I put up a donation button cause it did cost me quite a bit of time and if someone feels that it's worth it to them they can contribute a little to the cause.

If enough interest is shown, I may do a "premium" account that would be paid (but inexpensive) that would let you store scripts, settings, etc.

help me get more traffic and interest generated people! i don't even serve ads on the site

Mike,

how do you bring back the detached controls?

Mike,

how do you bring back the detached controls?

just close that window - it should come back in about 1 second. If that doesn't work for you - let me know what OS/browser you're using.

I was using Slimbrowser, which rides basically on top of IE. If I close the window, I see a "script error" message at the bottom of the window, and it goes back to the prompter page but the controls are gone.

I think that's a Slimbrowser issue though, I tested the actual browser, IE7 and it works as expected.

Thanks,

That is supremely cool. Thank you for sharing it.

I can't get the stan alone version to work on IE8 or Safari. But the online version works great.

Ok, a feature request. When having more than one person read the prompter (say in a two shot), the prompter usually allows for different colored text. Would some simple tags such as those used here on VBulletin work?

I too will donate to your efforts in the near future.

regards,

-gb-

I can't get the stan alone version to work on IE8 or Safari. But the online version works great.

Ok, a feature request. When having more than one person read the prompter (say in a two shot), the prompter usually allows for different colored text. Would some simple tags such as those used here on VBulletin work?

I too will donate to your efforts in the near future.

regards,

-gb-

I have a "highlight" feature in there that does just that. Simply highlight the text and hit the "highlight" button. It puts in [hl] tags.

Anyone wanna make a demo video? I realize it's hard to figure out all the features and the docs on my site arent that great.

I was using Slimbrowser, which rides basically on top of IE. If I close the window, I see a "script error" message at the bottom of the window, and it goes back to the prompter page but the controls are gone.

I think that's a Slimbrowser issue though, I tested the actual browser, IE7 and it works as expected.

Thanks,

I never even heard of that one - I'd be curious to see what the script errors actually complain about. Does it ride on top of IE6 or 7?

I have a "highlight" feature in there that does just that. Simply highlight the text and hit the "highlight" button. It puts in [hl] tags.

Yeah Mike, when I finally watched your Demo, I saw the different tags. Now if I can just get the stand alone to work.

Thanks again for your wonderful efforts to code this app.

-gb-

Yeah Mike, when I finally watched your Demo, I saw the different tags. Now if I can just get the stand alone to work.

Thanks again for your wonderful efforts to code this app.

-gb-

I can probably help you diagnose the issue. Let me know what the script errors say and exactly what your config is (OS/exact browser version). Getting something like this to work on all browsers is a monumental effort (it shouldnt be, but go tell that to the browser makers).. but I also hate when apps dont work on my browser of choice (which happens to be Opera of all things) so I'll do my best to get it to work. For the standalone, IE is just very very tough to get through to :)

I never even heard of that one - I'd be curious to see what the script errors actually complain about. Does it ride on top of IE6 or 7?
See attached for error message. I have IE 7 at work and 8 at home, exact same behavior.

See attached for error message. I have IE 7 at work and 8 at home, exact same behavior.

permission denied eh .. interesting. Not even sure where that may apply. Will test it on IE when I get a chance but as the description on the portable page says - IE is just not supported at this time for the portable version.

OK the problem is with detaching the controls - it's the same problem that makes images not show up in IE. IE doesnt support embedded data in html. I am trying to make a super-portable version now w/o any images or embedded data but IE doesnt cooperate too much - not to worry. I'll strangle it one way or another :)

stay tuned.

in the meantime, all other functions should be working - also, if you can at all, consider a better browser;)

Re-reading your request I see you've been asking about the OS as well - it's XP Pro on both machines, MS updates to day on the home machine, selective (corporate) updates at work.

But don't waist too much sleep on this Slimbrowser thing, this is just my choice, not a lot of people use it anyway. What I like most about it is the auto login - tried that with a few other IE add-ons and none of them worked properly for me.

As long as you nail IE, we're all fine!

What I like most about it is the auto login

If that's the only reason, I'd suggest opera or FF or any other browser -they all have password memorization if you want them to. Also, take a look at clipperz.com - open source, 1-way encrypted password management with ability to use it for auto-login.

Thanks Mike, Microsoft can memorize passwords regardless of your browser, but that's not what I am looking for. With auto login in Slimbrowser you click a favorite and lean back, that's it, you're there. The login info is stored on your computer and the script fills all the info in AND CLICKS the "ok" or "login" tab for you. Yeah, I'm lazy... I am looking at Chrome, they are still adding features, they may have this as well one day...

But we digress, back to your great software!

Internet Explorer has been defeated. New version (1.0.5) of the portable app is now out with full support for IE. I dub this the "ugly" version due to lack of graphics :)

I believe this is a good compromise between functionality and aesthetics. I tried to make the non-graphicsl buttons look nearly the same as the ones currently in the full version. Go grab the latest version!

EasyPrompter - Portable Standalone Version: the best free OFFLINE teleprompter. (http://www.easyprompter.com/portable.php)

Ervin - look into clipperz.com - it does exactly what you'er describing except in any browser and from any computer. great piece of javascript.

Ervin - look into clipperz.com - it does exactly what you'er describing except in any browser and from any computer.
You must be kidding.

To give away all my login info by creating an online account and storing all that sensitive stuff there, web logins, bank passwords, credit card numbers??? Huh, they even offer to store my burglar alarm code; absolutely genious!

What a great trick for stealing personal info! Worth a Nobel prize indeed!

You must be kidding.

To give away all my login info by creating an online account and storing all that sensitive stuff there, web logins, bank passwords, credit card numbers??? Huh, they even offer to store my burglar alarm code; absolutely genious!

What a great trick for stealing personal info! Worth a Nobel prize indeed!

I dont want to hijack my own thread but it's 1-way encryption and it's open source - whats' stored is an encrypted string that w/o your password just simply cannot be gotten to. and the code is in the open so u can go through it and see that that's what it's actually doing.. but to each his own.

anyway - so did the new version fix your issues?

No, there is no change; the control panel detaches into a new window, but when I close that window, I still get the error message. And it's the same in IE8 as well on my home PC today. When I close the new window, it goes back to the prompter screen, no controls, with a little exlamation mark in yellow triangle at the bottom, sign of some error. But if it works for everyone else, it might be something wrong with this particular PC. I have a ton of soft on it, just about ready to reformat the whole thing.

As I said before, don't waist too much time on me, I'll report back after I reformat this thing.

I know this is a dumb question but you did download the latest copy? Sometimes caching can screw with things. Do the buttons look "uglier" now in IE? (I implemented rounded corners for browsers that support it - IE isn't one of them so the buttons are now kinda ugly-ish square grey)

Hi Mike, I got the new version and the great news is that the stand alone now works in both IE8 and Safari 4. But I discovered that IE doesn't like the apostrophe character in the script. Might want to have a look and see what's happening there. Otherwise, fantastic job and it doesn't look the least bit ugly to me.

-gb-

Hi Mike, I got the new version and the great news is that the stand alone now works in both IE8 and Safari 4. But I discovered that IE doesn't like the apostrophe character in the script. Might want to have a look and see what's happening there. Otherwise, fantastic job and it doesn't look the least bit ugly to me.

-gb-

proper character escaping is one of the most difficult things to get right with this program on all browsers - I'll look into it. Thanks for the bug report

Hi Mike, I got the new version and the great news is that the stand alone now works in both IE8 and Safari 4. But I discovered that IE doesn't like the apostrophe character in the script. Might want to have a look and see what's happening there. Otherwise, fantastic job and it doesn't look the least bit ugly to me.

-gb-

Fixed - both regular and portable versions. Portable is now at 1.0.6 - go grab the latest!

I recently did a "placeholder" 8 minute film for the UWOL contest on here, and 4 minutes of it was a "talking head" (mine) shot using the Mike Drob prompter... The prompter was displayed on a 17 inch flat screen about 8 feet from my eyes, and the camera located behind that by a couple of feet. I zoomed until the monitor was out of the scene. I think the lack of looking "directly" into the lens was negligible.

Check it out: UWOL 2nd round - Glacier Park Turns 100 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/4643439)

Oh... I made a donation. I urge others to support freeware efforts like this.

Oh... I made a donation. I urge others to support freeware efforts like this.

Thanks Chris! Very much appreciated.

this thread has gone kinda quiet - people still using the program? any problems? any suggestions? production photos? :)

As a future possibility... can you make it mouse toggable to go to FULL SCREEN during playback? That would be a nice feature.... once it is playing I don't need the frame etc. I am building a miror teleprompter and would rather use your software than the stuff I prevoiusly got to use... but IT is full screen.

Also, I want to THANK YOU for the scrolling speed control. In my 4:30 talking head I on several occasions needed to slow down or speed up. I discovered that what thought would inuitively be true wasn't, namely that once a good speed was set it would remain constant for my reading, it varied throughout the read.

Chris, you can go full screen in most browsers by hitting F11 (at least on PC - not so much on Mac). The only way to do fullscreen in another way is to make your browser physically larger. I personally don't like doing this cause then it usually remains that way, and I hate it when sites resize my browser.
With that said, I'll see what I can do.

Thanks.

Fantastic - used it today in a studio setup. As soon as he pay's I'm throwing some your way..

Had the laptop just below the lens and all I could see was the slightest eye flicker. Next time I'll stick to the centre of the screen rather than go edge to edge - and it should be perfect.

thanks muchly

(at least on PC - not so much on Mac)

I think the new version of Safari (verion 4) does full screen browsing.

Fantastic - used it today in a studio setup. As soon as he pay's I'm throwing some your way..

Had the laptop just below the lens and all I could see was the slightest eye flicker. Next time I'll stick to the centre of the screen rather than go edge to edge - and it should be perfect.

thanks muchly

Cool! thanks for the shots. I noticed you were using the pop-out control. Did you move that to an external monitor?

no - I got that by mistake and just left it there!

So it's been around 2 months since EasyPrompter launched - I'd like to hear some more feedback from people. Are you finding it useful? Is it working reliably? Want to see more/new features?

Currently on the table are 2 features:
1 - adjust the location of the "read here" triangle

2 - vary line spacing (double spaced text etc)

Which do you want to see happen first? What other improvements are you interested in?
Thanks!

You will enjoy this. I work for a large CA state agency... we even have our own TV studio. I recently saw a quickie video they did for some emergency situation and it was clear they did NOT have a prompter.

I sent them a link to yours.

You will enjoy this. I work for a large CA state agency... we even have our own TV studio. I recently saw a quickie video they did for some emergency situation and it was clear they did NOT have a prompter.

I sent them a link to yours.

Awesome! :) thanks

Mike,

I want to thank you so much for the EasyPrompter. I am just getting started producing some videos for my company and found your program.

It is terrific. I found that it is simple to use and adds a level of professionalism to my productions. I am finding that I still have some practice to make it flow naturally.

Anyway your program is great and I thank you for making this available.

If you are going to make any future revisions, I would recommend a feature that makes the top line highlighted so that it the on camera presenter can pace with the script.

The program is great as is, but it would be a nice feature.

Thanks again for the effort.

Jason

Mike,

I want to thank you so much for the EasyPrompter. I am just getting started producing some videos for my company and found your program.

It is terrific. I found that it is simple to use and adds a level of professionalism to my productions. I am finding that I still have some practice to make it flow naturally.

Anyway your program is great and I thank you for making this available.

If you are going to make any future revisions, I would recommend a feature that makes the top line highlighted so that it the on camera presenter can pace with the script.

The program is great as is, but it would be a nice feature.

Thanks again for the effort.

Jason

Good Idea - for now, the arrow on the left is meant for that purpose. Currently I have very little time to work on this (6 week old baby), but I may implement this in the future.

Thanks for your interest.
-Mike

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue with EasyPrompter ( I just sent Mike an email outlining the issue but figured more input couldn't hurt)

I used the stand alone version the other day with my daughter. Copied and pasted the script from Open office and it worked fine, until I mirrored the text. Then at a few spots in the text it took words from the middle of the sentence and put them after the period. It happened in the same spot every time. I save the file as .rtf and .txt to see if the .odt Open office format was the issue, but the same thing happened. Actually at some point in the test, I think it was with .txt I got only one word per line when the text was mirrored.

anyone else have this issue. I'm using a Dell D400 laptop with XP and Firefox.

I will hopefully be able to look at the issue soon. The whole mirroring of text is a ridiculous undertaking, even though it seems like it should be straight forward. This is why other web-based solutions either don't have it or fake it by hard wrapping like every 3rd word.
Anyways, it's a challenge. I'll try to fix it soon.

Well done mike works really well and with good range of options. - (I'm not concerned with mirrored text.)

However, when I downloaded it, Windows couldn't open the file with a .php extension.

Any suggestions.

RonC.

I am guessing you did something wrong when downloading. The downloaded page should be .html

If it by some chance got the right page with the wrong extension, you an just try renaming it.

Hi Mike just did a short clip of my new set-up and it shows your prompter too:YouTube - Studio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns-tQPrOcjE)

Sorry for low res pic we have bad broadband today so it had to go up at i-pod res.

Thanks for the plug Gary! Nice setup.

Just to update everyone - EasyPrompter is still under active development. I just resolved an issue that's been bugging a few of you - under certain circumstances, when using reversed text, some lines would show up out of order. There was also an issue with IE where sometimes the text didn't reverse properly. Both the online and standalone versions have been updated so grab the latest (1.0.7)!

EasyPrompter - the best free online teleprompter. (http://www.easyprompter.com)

thanks
-Mike

Hey, thanks VERY much for putting this together...is there an option somewhere to adjust the line space between sentences?

Sorry - been a while since I checked this thread. Currently there is no such option. Good idea though. I'll keep it under advisement.

(Just trying to add a little humor in the title).

BTW, CONGRATS on the (relatively) recent birth of your daughter. (No wonder you've been away for a while, but over time doing that job will ultimately be more rewarding).

GREAT work. I know how tedious it is to wrestle with browsers. I gave it up a while ago, and never even got to the the level of complexity you've been working at.
I just discovered this thread - and your product - and expect to be using it within the next couple of days.

All your effort, (especially in the face of preparing and caring for a newborn), is GREATLY appreciated.
(NOW IS THE TIME FOR EVERYONE TO HIT THAT "DONATE" BUTTON; hopefully it's enough for you to start a college fund for your little angel ;)

Will provide any feedback once I get this upcoming job completed.

!niaga, SKNAHT

sineD

PS: I just noticed where you're located. We're actually very close to each other, maybe 15 miles for a crow. Keep me in mind if you ever need a hand with any any jobs.

Been playing w/your product; some w/the net-connected version, mostly with the standalone.

Running FireFox under Vista Home Premium on laptop; XP Pro on desktops.

I notice the standalone version I have (1.0.7) doesn't include the option for the elapsed time window.
Not sure if I did something wrong when downloading, if there's an option box I haven't noticed, or it simply hasn't been added. The option is clearly visible and active in the net-connected version. But, if you're looking for suggestions, having that in the standalone would be helpful.

Other ideas/niceties that come to mind (but certainly aren't necessary) include other display options in addition to highlighting. How difficult to add ability to use italics, bolding, and underline? Those would be handy for VO work and/or anyone reading-back. I tried normal HTML tags, and both opening and closing square braces, similar to [pause], but no joy.

Being able to change the highlighting color might also be helpful.
Also, ability to move/click & drag the elapsed time display (once it's been added to the standalone) might be helpful, too.

More if/when I get ideas.

BTW, In my previous post I offered congrats on the birth of your daughter. I don't know what made me presume your newborn is a daughter, but congrats too, if you have a new son. Both are a blessing and change your perspective of what is important in life.

Thanks again.

Thanks Dennis and you're correct - it's a daughter :)

You're not doing anything wrong - the standalone version doesn't have an elapsed timer. The 2 versions have a somewhat different codebase so it was more difficult to work the ET into the standalone. Again - time restriction.

Also, going forward, I'm going to drop support for IE6 since even microsoft is encouraging people to switch (anyone who's ever written a website for several browsers that HAD to work with IE will surely understand).

With that restriction gone, I should be able to do a few more things.

I'll keep your suggestions in mind. I am also considering a "premium" version that will have more features and the ability to save scripts etc. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of adding a "Pro" version to EasyPrompter. Some of the features would include:

- Saving Scripts
- Saving speaker profiles (for instance if speaker A always reads at speed 1 with font size 60, you can save it and then quickly apply it to a script - can also be used to easily account for hardware changes)
- More config options (like colors, etc)

I'd like to gauge interest in a product like this. This would be a subscription service. I am guessing I'd charge something like $10-$20/month for the service.

DVInfo members that have contributed to the development of EasyPrompter and anyone who has donated will get a free membership for a year.

I don't yet know how long this will take me to develop since some of these features are kinda complex, but I am just curious what everyone things of the idea.

Any comments are welcome.

Yeay / Nay?