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Message from Steven
===================
James wrote:
>
> 800x600 was just blurring too much detail on the maps. 

These are the scanned maps, right?  I assume they
were scanned at a higher resolution than 800x600.
You may get greater clarity by scanning them at
800x600.

> 1024x768 looked better, and 1152x864 better yet.

Have you tried looking at them from the back of 
the room?  I would be surprise if someone sitting
at the rear of your audience could tell the 
difference.

> So, using the old laptop I had intended for this 
> is now out. 

Then you probably should dump MagicPoint as well.  
If you are going to use up-to-date hardware, then 
you might as well use PowerPoint.  It will give 
you lots more multi-media bells and whistles.
I think it also has a wizard to write your 
presentations for you.  

> It seems that BL's magicpoint may be an older 
> version

Yes.

> or perhaps was compiled without certain options 

Yes.

> (for size considerations), correct? 

Yes.

> I've found things on the 'net indicating magicpoint
> handles png's, 

Yes, it normally does.

> but it's not been able to deal with any of the png's 
> I've tried with it. 

I stripped out all the graphics formats (except jpg)
to make the executable smaller.

> Also, some of my images are taller than they are wide, 
> so it's undesireable to add text above them.  But 
> there's plenty of room at the side.  Is there no way 
> to make magicpoint do something like columns, such 
> that a caption can appear side-by-side with an image? 

I don't know the answer to that.  So far the only images
I've used in my presentations were full-screen, so I've
not played around with mixed text/graphic pages.

> So, in order to get some sort of appearance like that, 
> would I have to edit the image itself and add text at 
> the side?

That should work, but you will probably find PowerPoint
more accommodating in this regard.

> Finally, on video memory: how crucial will it be to 
> magicpoint's speed to have more than 1MB of video 
> memory?  

I don't know which is more important:  CPU speed, RAM
or video RAM.  

> Can I expect a card with that amount to enable me to 
> scroll quickly through my slides at 1152x864 resolution?

As I said, I haven't done much graphics in my presentations.
And I've never done 1152x864 resolution, even on my best
computer.  I think you are setting your sights a little
high, but with up-to-date hardward you can probably do
things I would never dream of.  Anyway, I know from
personal experience that MagicPoint is able to cache
pages (there's a setting for that) and is able to bring
up pages quite quickly after that.  However, I have no
idea whether the cache works with graphic images.

> Anyway, it's a neat little program 

With the emphasis on the "little".  I was very pleased
to squeeze a useable presentation program onto a two-
floppy Linux.  It's a perfect match for my old laptop.  
As long as I don't get too ambitious, I can do some 
pretty impressive presentations.

Cheers,
Steven