Autopa is an automated programme timer. It gives visual indications of "time to transmission", "time to off air" and "time to stop talking". It also has optional audio indications (with British or American, female or male accent) for "time to transmission" and "time to off air". The PC's internal clock should ideally be synchronised to an external accurate time source, but adjustments can be made using the Time Offset feature.
Click on the Enter button or double-click the To Air/Transmission or To Off Air boxes and you'll get a dialog as below.
Enter the programme on air and off air times and click OK.
The main screen will look similar to this:
You can select whether there are audio indications for "to transmission" and/or "to off air" by selecting/deselecting the appropriate Sound check box. See also Setting Audio Options.
If the PC's internal clock is not correct, an adjustment can be made by selecting the Options|Set Time Offset menu.
Selecting this brings up the following dialog.
Enter the offset to be added to the PC's internal clock and click OK. Note that a negative value makes Autopa's clock earlier that the PC's and a positive value makes it later. Also note that the PC's clock is unaffected.
The offset value, current time (using the offset) and SMPTE Timecode status is shown.
When the on air time has been reached, the screen will look similar to this.
If the Time To Stop Talking feature is not required, then it can be removed by unchecking the Options|Show Stop Talking menu.
The "time to stop talking" can be changed by entering the value (in seconds) in the Stop Talking at Minus box. e.g. If the presenter should stop talking at 7 seconds before the end of the programme, enter "7" here. If a negative number is entered, it changed to a positive number. e.g. "-10" becomes "10". It makes no sense to have the presenter stop talking after the programme has come off air!
The screen will now look similar to this.
The audio options can be selected by selecting the Options|Speak Setup menu.
This brings up this dialog.
You can select the audio options for "to transmission" and "to off air" by selecting or deselecting the appropriate boxes. The Select All and Select None buttons select or deselect all the options. Note that the 20 seconds and below option is always selected. You can also select British or American, female or male accents.
Instead of "to transmission", you can change the phrase to "to air" by selecting the appropriate Phrase option.
The Sound Enabled check boxes are mirrors of the Sound check boxes on the main screen. Any changes to these check boxes are also reflected on the main screen and vice versa. Note that the Sound Enabled options can be changed from this screen even if the Lock Sound Status is enabled.
On the main screen, you can select whether the audio output is enabled for "to transmission" or "to off air" by selecting or deselecting the appropriate boxes.
The Options|Lock Sound Status menu allows you to lock the Sound check boxes so they can't be accidentally changed.
With this item checked, the Sound check boxes appear greyed out.
The loudspeaker icons shows if the current countdown ("to transmission" or "to off air") has its Sound checkbox selected. If it is deselected, then the loudspeaker icon is crossed out. The current countdown is highlighted in yellow.
The Clear Times button clears any entered programme times.
If the Options|Always Show Time To Off Air menu is checked, then the Time To Off Air counter is shown before the transmission time.
The Options|Test Voices menu offers you the opportunity to preview the four voices used by Autopa.
You are pesented with this dialog:
Select the accent and gender combination you wish to preview and click Start. You will hear all the phrases used by Autopa in the accent and gender selected. Stop halts the preview, and Exit returns to the main screen. You can switch between the voices while preview is in progress.
The About menu shows these two options.
About|Help brings up this help file.
About|Version gives version information about Autopa.
