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Whether you're giving a proposal to NASA on your plans
for the next generation space telescope, or just showing
your friends the highlights of tonight's sky, Starry Night
is the perfect presentation tool. It's interface has been
designed to make it easy for you to quickly open prepared
files, or to change the entire look of the program with just
a drag and drop.
Example files
Creating example files is easy -- just set up the view
you like, then Save (or Save As) to a location on your
computer. To open an example file, open it from the File
menu, double-click on its icon, or drag and drop it into any
open Starry Night window.
Making an example file preserves all aspects of your
view, including the time flow. If, when you save, time is
flowing at any rate or direction, the file will record it.
Upon opening the file, time will automatically be flowing.
This can prove handy during a presentation, since you won't
have to use the Time Palette to get time flowing: just drag
and drop the file and away it goes.
By creating a folder of your example files and placing it
on your desktop, your entire presentation can be just a drag
and drop away.
Option sets
Option sets can also be saved
and opened in a fashion similar to example files. This makes
it easier for you to switch quickly between a variety of
custom settings.
To create a new option set, open a Starry Night window
and set your options as desired. Then, in the Settings menu,
choose "Save Options As...". Name your option set, and save
it to the Options folder (Windows) or Options Sets folder
(Macintosh). You can now select it by choosing "Use Options"
from the Settings menu any time you want to quickly change
to those settings.
- Shortcut: A particularly handy
trick if you're using Starry Night in a presentation and
want to change settings quickly is to drag and drop
option sets. Open Option folder, and create a Shortcut
(Windows) or alias (Macintosh) of it. Keep the
shortcut/alias on your desktop, and when you want to
switch between sets, drag and drop the individual option
sets onto an active window. The window will immediately
adjust itself to reflect the new option
settings.
Multiple windows
The ability to open multiple windows in Starry Night can
provide your audience with breathtaking views of the Solar
System. If you want to quickly open multiple windows, just
drag and drop files onto Starry Night's application
icon.
For an example of how to use multiple windows to view an
eclipse from three different locations simultaneously, see
the chapter "Working With Multiple
Windows".
Removing scrollbars
You can turn off the scrollbars by selecting the
Scrollbars command in the Window menu. Since you can
navigate within a window so easily with the hand grabber
tool, some people like to turn off the scrollbars for
aesthetic reasons, especially during a presentation.
Selecting the command again will toggle the scrollbars back
on.
QuickTime movies
The Movie tool can be used to make spectacular movies of
any Starry Night view. These can played back using any
QuickTime viewer, so you can use Starry Night movies on
almost any computer. The Movie tool lets you record a
graphically intensive event (such as a planet flyby) and
play it back as a gorgeously smooth QuickTime. Even a slow
computer can take all the time it wants to render a screen
update, record it as a movie frame, and then work on the
next screen. Once the recording is finished, you can use it
in your presentation. Your audience will then be able to
view the event faster and smoother as a movie.
For more information on movies, please the chapter
Making Movies.
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