User Guide

TickerPoint

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Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION TO TICKERPOINT .................................................................................................................. 3

2 SOURCE .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 FIXED TEXT ................................................................................................................................................ 5

2.2 MICROSOFT ACCESS ................................................................................................................................... 5

2.3 MICROSOFT SQL SERVER........................................................................................................................... 10

2.4 ODBC ................................................................................................................................................... 10

2.5 OLE DB ................................................................................................................................................. 11

2.6 EXCEL FILES ............................................................................................................................................. 12

2.7 TEXT FILES ............................................................................................................................................... 13

2.8 XML ..................................................................................................................................................... 14

2.9 RSS ....................................................................................................................................................... 15

3 TICKER SETUP............................................................................................................................................... 17

4 TEXT OPTIONS.............................................................................................................................................. 18

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1 Introduction to TickerPoint

After a correct installation of the TickerPoint add-on you will see a TickerPoint entry in your Microsoft

PowerPoint menu.

TickerPoint will display a continuous running ticker over all slides in your Microsoft PowerPoint

presentation. To set the ticker properties you have to go to the Slide master because there you set

properties valid for all slides. To go to the slide master click View > Slide master.

The TickerPoint ticker is always hosted in a Microsoft PowerPoint text box. You can set up multiple

tickers. To insert a text box click Insert > Text box and draw a new text box on your slide.

Now select the text box by clicking on the border. When the cursor is inside the text box, you will not be

able to set the TickerPoint options. You need to select the frame. Now with this text box selected you

can go to ticker TickerPoint options by clicking TickerPoint from the menu.

Note: Make sure that you select the text box by clicking the border of the text box. When you are in a text box you can only change the text content manually and change the text formatting.

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There are 4 zones in the TickerPoint menu;

Zone Description

Source Indicates where the ticker text is coming from; as fixed text, database text, RSS feed etc.

Ticker setup Sets the ticker speed and direction.

Text Specify text replacements when there is no information returned from the data source or when an error occurs during the retrieval of the ticker.

Miscellaneous Check our support section and check for updates.

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2 Source

2.1 Fixed text

Use the option ‘fixed text’ if you just want to display text, not connected to a database or file. Select the

TickerPoint shape and click TickerPoint > Fixed text (from the source group).

Now enter the text that you want to display in the ticker. Click OK and start the slideshow.

2.2 Microsoft Access

It is very easy to connect TickerPoint to a Microsoft Access database. With your text box selected click

TickerPoint > Microsoft Access.

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Select the Microsoft Access database where you want to retrieve the information from. In some events

you need to set the security information like username and password before you can connect. However

most of the times no security information needs to be set with Microsoft Access databases. If you are not

sure, please consult your database administrator.

Click the Test button to verify the connection and click Next to continue to the following step in the

wizard.

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The second step of the wizard will show you a list of tables and views or queries that can be found at the

selected database. Select one of those objects or enter your own custom SQL statement. You can always

hit the Test button to verify you SQL.

Note: A query or view typically is filtering for the information you need from one or multiple base tables.

Later on when the ticker is running in the PowerPoint slideshow, TickerPoint will retrieve its information

from the database. During the slideshow TickerPoint will continue to check for text updates. In case of an

update at the database, the ticker text will be changed accordingly. Set the number of seconds for this

refresh data timer. A value between 5 and 60 seconds is ideal in most of the situations.

Click Next to continue.

Note: The new text of a ticker will become only visible when the current running text ticker is fin-ished. The text of a ticker cannot be changed while the ticker is scrolling.

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Now you will find a list of columns that are present in the chosen table or query. Select one or more

columns or field names to include its content in the ticker.

Click Next to proceed.

Specify a data filter when needed. E.g. [First name] like 'A%' will filter for first names starting with an A

only. Or [ProductCode] = ‘AAA111’ to filter on a specific product code.

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Click Next to continue.

In the event that you have selected more than one column from the column list, then this step is shown

where you can set the order of the selected columns.

Click Close to finalize your ticker.

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2.3 Microsoft SQL Server

Please execute the following steps to connect the content of your ticker to a database of a Microsoft SQL

Server. There are 2 ways to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server; via Windows NT integrated security or via

a username and password combination. Contact your database administrator for more information.

Enter the name or IP address of the server hosting the Microsoft SQL Server, the name of the database

and the user information. Click Test to ensure that the database can be reached.

Now, just like a connection to a Microsoft Access database, you will now see a list of tables and views or

you can enter a custom SQL statement to retrieve your information.

Select the table or view or query that you want to use and click Next.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.4 ODBC

ODBC is a generic way to connect to databases. An ODBC connection or definition needs to be available

already on your system.

Note: See Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative tools > Data Sources (ODBC).

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When you choose to use an ODBC connection for your ticker, then click ODBC in the source menu group

and you will get a list of all ODBC connections declared on your computer. Pick one, optionally enter a

username and password to authenticate and click the Next button.

Select the table or view or query that you want to use and click Next.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.5 OLE DB

Object Linking and embedding database is an API designed by Microsoft that allows accessing data from

a variety of sources in a uniform manner. Depending on the database or device type you have to use a

specific connection string that allows you to talk to the database or device.

In this example we will just use a connection string to connect to a Microsoft Access database, or Jet

engine.

Note: The web site www.connectionstrings.com is a good resource for OLE DB connection strings.

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Click Next to connect to the database and it will get a list of tables and queries.

Select the table or view or query that you want to use and click Next.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.6 Excel files

Excel is not really a database but it offers the possibility to enter and store information in a very common

way without being a database expert.

TickerPoint can connect to a worksheet of a spreadsheet and read out the information of 1 or multiple

columns.

Browse for the Excel file, select the datasheet that you want to use and enter the range of cells to

include.

Note: The range of an Excel worksheet is set in the typical Excel range notation like A1:D10 mean-ing all the data from columns A till D and rows 1 till 10.

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Click Next to connect to the Excel file and it will get a list of columns that you can choose from.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.7 Text files

You can also get the ticker text from a text file. Most common text files are tab delimited files where you

will find a TAB character between 2 columns.

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Browse for the file and indicate what delimiter (to separate columns of a line) can be used. Click Next to

get the columns of the file.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include the information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.8 XML

TickerPoint can also read the information from an xml file. This file can resides on a local hard disk but

also on a remote website. Browse for the file or enter the URL of the remote xml file.

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After that the wizard will read out the xml file and scan for existing tables. Select the table that you want

to work with.

Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

2.9 RSS

TickerPoint can also read out news from a local or remote RSS feed. Browse for the local file and enter

the URL of the remote RSS feed, e.g. http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition.rss.

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Now select 1 or more columns from the list to include its information in the ticker text.

Optionally you can filter the information and finally you can set the sequence of the chosen columns but

only if more than one column was chosen from the available columns list.

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3 Ticker setup

In the ticker setup group of the TickerPoint menu you can set the scrolling direction and the scrolling

speed. Also you can hide or show the dynamic ticker text boxes or refresh its content (in design mode).

The speed is expressed on a scale from 1 to 10, slow to fast.

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4 Text options

The text group of the TickerPoint menu allows you to set some text replacements.

Option Description

Error Whenever an error occurs while retrieving the text of your ticker, this text here will be shown instead in the ticker. A typically usage for this could be something like ‘We have a technical problem. Sorry for this inconvenience.’.

Prefix A prefix text that comes before your ticker text like ‘CNN says:‘ or ‘Latest news:’.

Empty When no rows of information could be found at the database, then this text can be shown. E.g. ‘No teacher absences today’.

Separator This character or characters are used in between 2 records from your database. In case of news messages this separator character (e.g. *) will be placed between the titles of 2 articles.

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5 Miscellaneous

In the Miscellaneous group of the TickerPoint menu you will find a few options to use your software

product and to keep your system healthy.

Click the Website option to go to the PresentationPoint website. Online help and frequently asked

questions can be found by clicking the Help button. The Check for updates button checks for free

product updates and finally the About button gives you information about the status of your trial or

license and also displays the version number of TickerPoint.