Working with the Storyboard/Timeline

At the bottom of a FotoMagico document window you can see the Storyboard or the Timeline. The Storyboard and Timeline are views into your slideshow data. They allow you to create and edit your slideshow. You can use both views to perform most of the same functions, however, some tasks are easier to achieve in one view than the other. You can only display one view at a time. Use the Storyboard button or the Timeline button to toggle between the two views. You can also toggle between the two views by choosing the appropriate menu commands from the View menu.

The Storyboard is generally used for adding and rearranging slides (image, movies, titles) or audio. The Timeline on the other hand is helpful for fine-tuning the duration of slides and transitions, and editing audio items by using the audio waveform feature.

In addition, you can perform most of the same actions by clicking somewhere in the Storyboard or Timeline, selecting from the Main menu, or working in the Options Inspector; but often they are easier to achieve by clicking directly in the Storyboard/Timeline. If you want to change parameters for a multiple selection however, then you must use the Options Inspector.

When to Use Storyboard View

When to Use Timeline View

Drag & Drop in the Storyboard/Timeline

Dragging slides into the Storyboard behaves differently, depending on whether you drag a single item or drag multiple items. A yellow highlight indicates where the dragged items will end up when being dropped. When dragging multiple items, only an insertion between existing slides is possible. When dragging a single item, then adding a new layer to an existing slide, or replacing the media file of an existing layer is also possible.

Inline Authoring Help in Storyboard/Timeline

Virtually all icons that appear on various items in the Storyboard/Timeline can be clicked to reveal a popover that communicates a notice or some kind of issue. The popover explains the situation and offers buttons with potential solutions.

About Tracks in Storyboard/Timeline

Using multiple tracks requires more vertical space in the Storyboard/Timeline, which might present a problem on smaller screens (for example, on a MacBook). For this reason, you can expand and collapse the visual and audio tracks. Click the Visual or Audio track icon in the lower left corner of the window (below the Storyboard/Timeline) to expand or collapse the tracks.

Blue indicates the track is expanded, grey indicates the track is collapsed. The same commands are also available in the View menu. When visual tracks are collapsed, the layers are displayed as a stack of frames, which auto-expand when hovering over the stack.