Adding and Placing Multiple Layers Efficiently

Use the Arrow to display Slide 3 in the Show. I’ve labeled the Slide’s Layers in the Preview, shown in Figure 3.9, along with the Layers List. The Slide’s designer has used the same image in both Layer 1 and Layer 2. They have been sized and positioned to create the impression of a single tabletop with four frames and two candles. The picture frames have been made transparent in an external editor, just like the area in the Invitation in Slide 1 that revealed the engagement portrait of the couple on the lower Layer.

Figure 3.9. Slide 3 uses reversed duplicates of one picture on two separate Layers to create mirrored sets of frames and candles. (Notice that the Preview’s Display setting now has all Layers at full brightness.)

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The remaining Layers are all arranged in the Layer Stack and the frame to provide images for each of the virtual picture frames and embellished with Motion Effects.

Duplicating the Design

We are going to make a second version of Slide 3 from scratch, using different pictures under the frames, and gain some experience working with ProShow’s Layer Adjustment controls and Motion Effects. If you already have the Show open, close any Slide Option and/or Precision Preview windows. The main Producer Work Area should have the Slide List enabled. If you have not been following along, please have ProShow open with the FrameLayers_01 Show loaded and the File List set to display the content of the Chapter 3/Images folder. (If you have not already copied the Chapter 3 folder to your hard drive, please do so now.)

The quickest way to duplicate this Slide would be to Copy and Paste Slide 3 into the Slide 5 position. But that wouldn’t let you practice adjusting and manipulating Layers, and we are not going to make an exact copy. Instead, let’s drag and drop the thumbnail of the picture with the lighted candle and two picture frames into the location for Slide 5. (TC-frames.png, a PNG file, produced by editing a JPEG picture. JPEG images don’t support Transparency.)

Now we need to make a second copy of Layer 1 (making a new Layer 2) and reverse it. Double-click the new Slide 5 and get it into Layers>Editing. Rightclick on Layer 1 in the Layer List and choose Duplicate Layer from the menu shown in Figure 3.10. (You could also accomplish the same task by holding down the Control key and dragging a second copy onto Slide 5.) We’ll be adding the other Layers soon, but we’ll get the first two arranged before doing that.

Figure 3.10. Adding a second copy of the image using the Duplicate Layer command, and then flipping the new Layer.

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We now have two Layers, one on top of the other in the center of the slide. Our next step is to flip Layer 2. Make sure it is selected. Place a check mark in the Flip Horizontal box (circled in red in Figure 3.10) in the Editing Tools pane. The location will vary, based on which version of ProShow you are using.

You could use your mouse to drag both Layers into place and adjust their Zoom so as to properly fill the frame, but we’ll set the values using numbers and the controls in the Layers>Layer Settings window. We want the slides to be side by side and the same size, so using numbers will save time. (The initial setup was actually done using a mouse, hence the fractional numbers.)

Make sure Layer 1 is selected. Its Border should be blue. In the Layer Settings pane of the Layers>Layer Settings window, set the Scaling value to Fit to Frame, the Position to −23.66 × 1.1, and the Zoom to 105 percent (see Figure 3.11). The Aspect should be Auto.

Figure 3.11. Setting the Position values for Layer 1.

Now select Layer 2. Its Border should be blue. Once again, In the Layer Settings pane, set the Scaling value to Fit to Frame, the Position to 28.71 × −0.15, and the Zoom to 105 percent (see Figure 3.12). The Aspect should be Auto. The two Layers should now be side by side, the same size, and just about centered in the frame. They are slightly offset to the right of the frame.

Figure 3.12. Setting the Position values for Layer 2.