Dear Storyboarder, 

Welcome to Storyboard v1.0 : 2002 Edition


Abs : Storyboard is an application which presents visual 
and written communication. It uses Panes - rectangular shapes 
which are customizable. Panes exist on a Board and may be moved, 
sized, flipped and have labels texts and URLs assigned.

Additionally, Panes may have URLs and be packaged in export
as a standalone website.


****************INSTALLATION*********************
Extract SB1.zip to a folder you can refer to after.

If you are familiar with msi setups then proceed with
Double clicking SB1_2002.msi

Or : Double click setup.exe and follow the onscreen instructions.

98, 95 owners : You may need to restart your machine.

First time use: Double click SB1_2002.exe

Required: Storyboard 1 requires at least 16mg RAM
and a graphics card capable of rendering at least 
256 colors.
****************INSTALLATION********************* 


Notation in this ReadMe:
-----------------------------------------------------
Storyboard, SB1 = Storyboard v1.0 : 2002 Edition
Plot-and-See, PnS = Plot-and-See (SB1) 


Files
-----------------------------------------------------
If you wish to change the name of any project outside of SB1 
then you must take care to also change its associated data folder. 
The format then should look like this: 

file   : Rocket.sb1  rename to Whatever.sb1
folder : Rocket_Data rename to Whatever_Data 

Features:
+ Export storyboards as html pages, ready for internet, 
printing services, etc.

+ Mass Image Import : Click on any logically numbered
image to return all images in sequential range. Example :
Clicking on Image01.bmp in a folder containing 10 images numbered
in ascending order returns all images.

+ Auto-sized Grids : Change any storyboard structure whilst keeping content
using Change Board.


Approach
--------------------------------
Storyboard uses persistence to continually restore from temporary files, 
relinquishing system memory and providing the ability to string together 
moderate sized projects. 

The initial container is loaded with the visual context. Absolute zero 
is defined by a gray and white checkerboard. 

+ A new project is defined by changing the current board. At this point you 
may define the entire project's size, selecting board total and grid size.
A project may have a maximum of 1000 panes. How these panes are represented on the screen is 
determined by the grid - a balanced array of screen square sections. Settings include : 
2x2, 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5, for a minimum of 4 panes or a maximum of 25 panes on any board.
A maximum of 100 boards and a maximum of 1000 panes changes depending upon the grid you
choose, upper values for either altered to suit one of the project's limitations.

+ Images are always saved as bmp files. This image format retains excellent 
quality and may be compressed (i.e. : run length encoding / zip) for 
archiving. Compressing whole projects result in over 90% space saving. 

+ On html export, images are always saved as compressed jpg files. This image
format is the best all round solution for web distribution. It is best used with diffuse
image compounds such as everyday photography. It works best with high color formats.


Functionality
-------------------------------
This software was deemed functional on a Pentium I with 166 MHz and an 
8mg Video card, 16mg RAM and (1) Windows 98. In other words, it will 
run fine on an inexpensive setup. As with all software, the better your 
setup, the smoother the experience. SB1 may also run on Windows 95. 


Limitations :
-----------------------------
25 Panes on any Board; 100 Boards in any project. 1000 unique Pane images total.

Minimum Resolution and bit depth : 640 x 480 / 8 bit.
Maximum Resolution and bit depth : 1600 x 1200 / 32 bit.

Minimum Pane Size : 5 x 5 Grid
Maximum Pane Size : 2 x 2 Grid
Any Pane can have : 1 x Picture, 1 x 999 Chars URL, 1 x 99 Char Label, 1 x 256 Char Text
Boards can have   : 1 x 256 Char Footer Text, 1 x 99 Title Text.


/Tools
-----------------------------
Plot-and-See : (PnS)
This application creates non-spell checked and (usually) grammatically 
incorrect output. It is useful however for creating quick passages of 
text that may trigger ideas. Text is created whenever a Definition List 
is pulled down and an item selected. You may load in new definitions or 
edit / save definitions. Choose Random Sentence / Random Paragraph 
to create forms automatically. Click any words that appear in Sentence 
Preview to send text to Output. You may save the Output via the File 
menu as a text file. Output generates more sensible prose with progressively
less definitions in play.


See Also :
-------------------------------
Storyboard 3 : Beta 1 release for a different approach to storyboarding.


Links:
-------------------------------
www.mainstudios.com 
help@mainstudios.com 

(1) All references to Windows are (c) Microsoft Corp. 


