Blank play list items - non-scrolling and scheduled playlists
You can use a blank control to display nothing when you want a break between items. Using this with a schedule type of PLAYLIST allows you to flash information on and off screen. For example, you could have a picture control with a picture of a special offer. You could create a playlist with 2 items:
- One play list item with the special offer image for a play time of 3 seconds
- One blank play list items for 3 seconds
This would give you a flashing on and off image would catch viewer's attention better than a static image.
You can also use these with schedule types of HOURLY, DAILY and WEEKLY which allows you to displays images, etc, at specify times. For example, you may want to display a sign of 'Store now closed' at say 5.30pm every evening. You could put a full screen Text label control at the front of your presentation and specify a DAILY schedule. Add three play list items:
- One play list item with the 'Store now closed' text scheduled from 0.00am (midnight) till 7:59am
- One blank item with the 'Entire control is visible' tick box left un-ticked (to make it completely invisible) scheduled from 8.00am to 5.29pm
- One play list item with the 'Store now closed' text scheduled from 5.30pm till 11:59pm
The control would be invisible during opening hours and the 'Store now closed' message would be visible the rest of the time.
Options
Entire control is visible - If ticked, then on blank items then you end up with a white background (you can change this) item when this is displayed, rather than a picture, text, etc, depending on the control type. By removing the tick, then the entire control becomes invisible for this item.
Fade out control to invisible - This is only seen on play list items (not scrolling ones) and only enabled if you have removed the Entire control is visible tick. This fades out this play list item to invisible. The length of time it takes to fade is set by the 'Transition duration' box on the Play list tab of the properties form (the previous screen to this one):
Also note that if the 'Fade (see through)' value on the menu:
is not 0 (0 means completely solid), then the fade will happen faster. So a fade of 50 (which is half transparent) will take half the time to fade off the screen (and back on), so you may need to adjust your timings.
Blank play list items - scrolling controls
Blank items allow you to have gaps in play lists where nothing is displayed, or to have gaps when scrolling pictures, etc. For example, you may have two pictures scrolling across the screen, but you want to put a white gap (or a transparent one) in between the pictures.
Audio playlists
In terms of gaps with an audio control, you may just not want any sound playing for a period of time. You can also use gaps as the first play list item. This effectively delays the start of the playing.