It's
not difficult to use Microsoft Agent Technology to support your own Sunday
School ministry! I use the PowerPoint version "live" in our Sunday School class, and the kids
love it (attentive, knew the answers to
the review questions, and ask to see it again). I also use it to provide
free-running promotional presentations for Vacation Bible School and other
events. This page is designed to
help you get started in making your own presentations. Remember, almost all the
Microsoft Agent technology is available free of charge.
It is easy to modify an existing PowerPoint presentation to personalize it
for your group. Here are the steps:
- Download one of my Bible story presentations from The
Bible Story Page at http://sschool.com/kids/MSAgent/launch.htm
- Open the presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Open the Notes Page view (click on "view", then "Notes
Page")
- Edit any of the text after the "SAY" keyword. This is the
text that James speaks, and you can make it say anything you wish.
- Save your new presentation with a different name and try it out!
Some quick notes to help you out:
You'll want to obtain the complete documentation of the
Presentation Narrator if you plan to do much with this
medium.
To design your own Bible story, you can again start with one of mine and
modify it more extensively. You will need to download the free package
available from Microsoft in the
Presentation Narrator for MS Agent, which includes full documentation and a
PowerPoint template including the macros. You may use either the template
or one of my presentations as a starting point. In either case, you will
need to delete all slides except the first.
The hardest part is actually finding the illustrations. Check for my
favorite sources here.
Once you have selected your images, start with the PowerPoint template and:
- Prepare the basic presentation with your illustrations and any desired
text.
- Modify the first (title) slide with your own title. Do not delete
the title text box (which is linked to begin scripting the presentation),
but rather modify its text to fit your presentation. (You may change
words, format, color, etc., and resize the text box...just don't delete it.)
- Go to the Notes Page view and enter your script. Use one of my
scripts as an example. Remember to begin each notes page with the
special character string. Also remember that commands such as SHOW,
MOVE, HIDE, PLAY, and SAY must be all capitals.
- Determine where your Agent character should stand for each slide, and use
the MOVE command to place it there. Remember that the MOVE coordinates
refer to percentages of the screen, and point to the upper left corner of
the Agent character's bounding box (so screen center will be something like
MOVE 45,40 to allow for the character height and width) .
- Select a variety of animations to PLAY to add variety and expression to
the Agent character.
- Use the SAY command to actually narrate the story.
- Preview your presentation, making notes about needed changes as you go
through, and then refine it.
A very useful tool to familiarize yourself with the available
animations is the free AgentSight
utility available from Freeman
Labs. This utility displays all available animations for any Agent
character and lets you preview each one, plus allowing you to preview spoken
phrases.
Some philosophy: I personally don't like to use the animal characters
for Bible presentations. James is the best character I have found
providing the right level of realism and dignity for the serious nature of the
scripture message.
There is much more available in Agent technology. Check out the links
section for some starting pointers.
You can create your own Agent characters with the free Character Editor
available from Microsoft. This requires generating all of the graphics for
the animation frames.
A voice recognition command capability also is provided, which will allow
pupils to select from a specified menu of verbal commands to drive program
choices. It will also require programming in Visual Basic, C++, or other
script language.
Microsoft®
Agent is a set of programmable software services that supports the
presentation of interactive animated characters within the Microsoft
Windows® interface. Developers can use characters as interactive
assistants to introduce, guide, entertain, or otherwise enhance their Web
pages or applications in addition to the conventional use of windows,
menus, and controls. Microsoft Agent enables software developers and Web
authors to incorporate a new form of user interaction, known as
conversational interfaces, that leverages natural aspects of human social
communication. In addition to mouse and keyboard input, Microsoft Agent
includes optional support for speech recognition so applications can
respond to voice commands. Characters can respond using synthesized
speech, recorded audio, or text in a cartoon word balloon.
