Byers, J.A. Database program to manage slides and images for teaching and       presentations. Educational Media International. 36:77-80.                                                                                                                                 John A. Byers                                                                                                                         Abstract: A compiled program for DOS/Windows manages a collection of pictures   such as photographic slides, overheads, or computer images in one or more       databases. A database is comprised of a list of lines (screen width) beginning  with the letter-number of the slide, for example, and a short description. The  program places pictures in alphabetical order so they can be edited or marked   if missing from the collection. Key words can be searched for in the database   using Boolean logic. An associated file can contain 10 lines of details about   each picture as edited by a built-in word processor. This database can also be  searched. Presentations can be saved in a files with specific lists of pictures for later recall and viewing or updating. The time to present slides in a       particular talk can be calculated and saved for later editing. Context-sensitivehelp is available and the contents of this paper can be read from the program.                                                                                  Introduction                                                                    Presentations at scientific meetings and conferences, as well as teaching       lectures often utilize pictures such as photographic slides, overheads, or      computer images to illustrate the topics. Hereafter, I will refer to such       pictures as slides, since managing slide collections is one of the most likely  uses of the database program. Over the course of one's career many hundreds of  slides may be taken and organized into a collection covering several subjects.  Without special efforts, the details concerning a particular slide may become   fuzzy or even incorrect over time. Furthermore, slides can be misplaced,        forgotten, and hard to find when needed among several volumes of slides.                                                                                        For those seminars that are well received and finish on time, it would be       efficient and productive to note the order and type of slides so they could be  used in identical talks later. These notes are usually not taken and thus any   triumphant slide show becomes vague and half-forgotten when the slides are      returned to their plastic viewing folders or slide trays. Much time can be      wasted reconstructing essentially the same slide show next year, with the       feeling that maybe the order is not even as good as that presented earlier.     Another common problem is running out of time during a slide presentation       because of too many slides. The program described here solves these common      problems by keeping a permanent record of slides in a database that can be      updated easily. The slides used in any successful presentation can be saved for later recall and updating. A running total of time for a particular talk can be kept in an associated file, also for later recall and possible modification.                                                                                    Slide, overhead, and image manager program                                      The compiled program, SLIDES.EXE, can be run from DOS or Windows, and begins by opening a file called DATABASE.DBD. If this file is not present, it is created  and the user is asked to enter a name for the slide database, e.g. SLIDES.LST.  The three letter extension must end in `LST'. If the DATABASE.DBD file contains a name, then this name is used to open the file with the database. The opening  screen with a sample database and the pop-up help window is shown in Figure 1.                                                                                                                 Figure 1 here                                                                                                                    The database is a random access file of 80 characters (or bytes) for the lettersand numbers of the slide plus a short description, plus 7 bytes not shown on thescreen (1 byte for marking and 6 bytes for numbers. The numbers point to recordsin an associated file containing up to 10 lines for detailed descriptions of    each entered slide. The associated file has the same parent name and must end   in `DTA'. The program begins by displaying the first 23 lines of the slide list,unless no slides are present, whereupon the program enters a one-line word      processor so the user can enter the first slide of the collection.                                                                                              Organizing the database                                                         Slides entered into the main database list should begin with letters followed   by numbers. Letters can be used to categorize the collection into topics, and   numbers for ordering slides within a topic. The same letters-numbers should be  applied to the actual borders of the slide which is stored in plastic folders   or similarly labelled slide trays in the order labelled on the slides. In the   database, the entries are ordered alphabetically among those already present by the program, if a mistake is made then the entry is easily deleted or edited    where it is automatically inserted alphabetically. Context-sensitive help       (Figure 1) can be obtained anywhere in the program by pressing the [F1] key. Thecommon scrolling keys are used to rapidly move to any slide, even in a list of  several thousand slides.                                                                                                                                        There maximum number of slides that can be listed in a database is 32,767; but  essentially there is no practical limit if one uses more than one database      (given 8 English letters, DOS allows 2.17 x 10^11 possible ones). Pressing [F5] allows changing of the current database to a new one or one that already exists.Pressing any letter on the keyboard also will take one to that category of      slides, if present in the current database.                                                                                                                     Searching the databases                                                         A text string can be searched for in the main slide list a simple text-string   search or a complex search using Boolean combinations of OR and AND type of up  to 10 word strings (usually only two or three strings are used). A case-        insensitive search is then performed, meaning that any combination of lowercase and uppercase letters are found (unless they are non-English letters). The firstsuch occurrence of the matching search words are highlighted in the appropriate section of the database, and the next occurrence is instantly found by pressing [F4]. In the associated database of detailed descriptions only a single text    string is allowed, as well as when reading this paper.                                                                                                          Database of detailed descriptions of pictures                                   Pressing [Enter] while in the main database will open the associated database   of detailed descriptions about slides and start a word processor. This database,ending in .DTA, is a random access file of records of 800 bytes (10 lines) with any number of records (up to 32,767). Entries in the main database have hidden  numbers which tell which 800 byte record to associate with. It is option to use this database, and usually not all slides will have associated detailed         descriptions. If a description has already been entered for a slide, then the   text can be edited, and pressing [Enter] again saves the revised record.                                                                                        Files with slide shows for talks                                                If the [Tab] key is pressed, then the first slide show file is opened for       editing with the name SEMINAR.1, and successive presses of [Tab] will toggle    between additional files, if present, and the main database. A maximum of 999   SEMINAR files are possible. The slide show file editor is visible in a window   on the left of the screen so that the main slide list is still visible. A word  processor allows the specification of a title for the talk and then a series of slide letters-numbers separated by commas are typed in the order of desired     presentation for a talk. Pressing [Tab] or [Enter] will return the user to the  main slide list, while the left arrow key returns one to the current SEMINAR    file.                                                                                                                                                           Keeping track of time for slides in talks                                       Pressing [F4] while in the slide show editor will open an associated file, namedSEM-TIME.1 of the same extension number which lists the slides in the           appropriate SEMINAR file; and allows entry of estimated times needed to present the slides giving a running total time for the talk as updated after each time  entry. With this facility there is no reason to run out of time again and aids  in organizing and refining the crucial ideas of the talk.                                                                                                       In all sections of the program there is a pop-up help window that shows the     appropriate help for the section. There is also a pop-up calendar which can be  made to show the date and weekday for any month during this century, and even   the next century (to the year 2080). This is beneficial when recording dates andrecollecting details about the scenes in the slides.                                                                                                            Other programs                                                                  Commercial slide scanners are now becoming widely available at reasonable pricesand packaged software often allows cataloging and viewing of slides. However,   the databases of the text descriptions in these programs are usually limited andthere are no facilities for listing slides for talks or time estimations. In    comparison to the actual slides, the thumbnail images, as they are called, are  of much less quality due to the low resolutions. Also, often there are usually  many more slides in the collection than that scanned and stored in the computer so the only really complete database is the slide collection itself. A high     resolution scan of 1600 x 2400 pixels, which is still less than a slide, takes  up 30 megabytes of disk space which is a drawback for many without writable CD- ROMs.                                                                                                                                                           For databases, graphical monitors and advanced operating systems, e.g. Windows  95, are not required and users in some countries may not have such systems. The program here operates entirely in color text mode and DOS, although it can be   used from Windows 95. The program will bridge the time until software and       hardware make slide scanning and storage economical and easy. It can be obtainedas a ZIP file on the internet at (http://www.vsv.slu.se/johnb/gensoft.htm).                                                                                     Summary                                                                         Presentations using slides or overheads are one of the most common ways of      communicating scientific and educational information in the classroom or at a   conference. The program described here is able to manage a permanent database   that can be updated and modified as photographic materials are added or removed.Slide shows can also be saved and times calculated for presenting the slides or overheads during a talk.                                                                                                                                        Biographical note                                                               John Byers was educated at Colorado State University (B.S. and M.S.) and        University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.) before becoming an Associate       Professor of Insect Chemical Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural  Sciences at Alnarp. His main research interests are in insect behavior and      chemical ecology, and in computer simulation of behavioral and ecological       models.                                                                                                                                                         Address for correspondence: Dr John Byers, Department of Plant Protection, Box  44 S-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden; Email john.byers@vsv.slu.se;                        http://www.vsv.slu.se/cec/h.htm                                                 