Captions enhance your slideshow by providing textual information about content. SlideShowPro for Flash offers a variety of caption styles and layouts for you to choose from.
There are two items in the Caption area: the header, and the caption text. Both are included by default, but you choose to display one or the other through the CAPTION/Elements parameter. See below for an illustration.
The caption header is a dynamic space that unlike caption text (see below) which is rendered through data in the XML is dynamically populated using your own text and (optional) placeholders that are dynamically populated. The text that appears is controlled by the CAPTION/Header Text parameter. For more information on what placeholders are acceptable, see captionHeaderText.
The caption text area displays a text field that is automatically populated with caption data loaded from the XML document. Your captions may be as long as you like. SlideShowPro for Flash will increase the height of the caption text area as you add more text.
SlideShowPro for Flash offers a handful of ways to display captions in your slideshow. These may be assigned through CAPTION/Appearance. Options include:
"Hidden": Caption area never appears.
"Fixed": Captions are layered above slideshow content inside the content area. Width is the same as the component.
"Fixed (if Available)": Same as "Fixed", except SlideShowPro will first test for the existence of a caption. If none exists, caption will not be displayed.
"Inline": Captions are inserted between slideshow content and the edges of the component (thus decreasing the size of the content area). Width is the same as the component.
"Overlay on Rollover": (Default) Caption area enters the component as a layer when the user rolls their mouse pointer over slideshow content, then disappears when they roll-out. Width matches the width of slideshow content.
"Overlay on Rollover (if Available)": Same as "Overlay on Rollover" except SlideShowPro will first test for the existence of a caption. If none exists, caption will not be displayed.
"Overlay Auto": Same as "Overlay on Rollover," except no interaction is required. Caption automatically appears.
"Overlay Auto (if Available)": Same as "Overlay Auto" except SlideShowPro will first test for the existence of a caption. If none exists, caption area will not be displayed.
The following parameters control the appearance of captions:
Background Color - Background color of the entire caption.
Background Alpha - Transparency of the background.
Text Color - Color of all caption text.
Header Background Alpha - Transparency of just the background underneath the caption header.
Padding The amount of space between the caption edge and the text fields. Order of values is top, right, bottom, left.
Text Alignment - How both text fields are aligned. Options include Left, Right and Center.
Text Size - The point size of both text fields.
Text Shadow Alpha - Transparency of the drop shadow effect drawn underneath both text fields.
Any of the aforementioned types can be positioned at either the top or bottom of SlideShowPro for Flash. By default captions are positioned at the top, but you can change this to "Bottom" through CAPTION/Position.
