I designed and programmed the FloPrompter program. There were two main windows in the FloPrompter app: one window was a fairly sophisticated wordprocessor supporting multiple tabs; the other window was a teleprompter playback window. The wordprocessor window supported rich text, cut/copy/paste, inserting pictures, Find & Replace, etc. The app even had spellcheck and a thesaurus.
I designed and programmed a sophisticated Find & Replace feature for the wordprocessing window. Instead of showing up in a popup dialog, the Find & Replace features were expressed in bars docked to the bottom edge of the window. I felt this approach was less intrusive and provided a better way for the user to maintain context.
Uniquely in the teleprompter app market, FloPrompter supported tabs in the wordprocessing window. The user could easily add more tabs (aka "segments"), move them around, and rename them. I conceived and design the features, as well as doing all of the programming.
The wordprocessing window supported a rich assortment of user customization features. For example, the user could change the default background and foreground text colors in the wordprocessing window. These colors naturally carried over into the teleprompter playback window, as well.
The look and feel of the FloPrompter app was heavily inspired by the then-new Microsoft Office Ribbon interface. I licensed UI components from a third party which featured support for theming, so I decided to bring that feature into the app, as well. I'm proud to say that FloPrompter had the most beautiful UI design of any teleprompter app on the market, and its integration of the high quality UI components and theming was a big part of that.
Uniquely in the teleprompter market, FloPrompter supported a rich set of spellcheck and thesaurus functionality. At the request of the user community (especially schools), I licensed APIs for these features from third parties, then integrated the features into the wordprocessing window.
The basic teleprompter playback window had a rich list of features to help users find the right playback speed, text size, automatically hiding the control bar at the bottom of the screen, and more. One of the features I added at the request of multiple users was the ability to "loop" the playback. This way, the playback would play through all of the tabs, then loop around and automatically restart indefinitely.
Here's an example of the teleprompter playback window which the user has customized by changing the background and text colors. The default was black text on white, but users could change the colors as desired.
The teleprompter window displayed a scrolling region of text. The professional edition also featured these adjustable "blackout panels" on the sides so that the app would take up the entire screen, allowing the user to ignore background apps, windows, or other distractions.
The teleprompter window offered a special "mirror mode" in which the text was displayed backwards. This mode was only available in the Professional Edition and was most useful when paired with professional display equipment.
At the request of the user community, I designed and programmed a system of synchronized "talent windows." The user could create multiple teleprompter window instances, thus allowing the display of one or more synced windows on external monitors. One of the most popular uses for this was when an operator was in one room with a voiceover person inside a separate soundproof room looking at a "talent window" on a different monitor.
Another feature I added at the request of a user was a small "remote controlpad window," as shown here. The controlpad allowed the user to easily adjust playback speed, which tab's contents were currently showing, and more. This feature was especially useful for use cases involving multiple external monitors. In addition, FloPrompter included fantastic support for keyboard shortcuts (CTRL + a key), F keys (e.g., F5 for full screen mode), and support for foot petals and wireless remote presenters.
I programmed a rich set of file import and export functionality. The user could import not only Microsoft Word files, but also other FloPrompter files. Additionally, I thought it was important to support a rich set of export options, including to Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, HTML, etc.
I designed and programmed a sophisticated system for FloPrompter to check if there were any software updates. FloPrompter would automatically check for updates (if the user wished) and if a new update were found, prompt the user to view new features and download the new version.
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FloSpace FloPrompter (2006-2011)
For several years, I had a side company called FloSpace and it had exactly one product: FloPrompter, a teleprompter app for Windows PC computers. I conceptualized, designed, and programmed the entire app in C#. FloPrompter had two main parts: a sophisticated wordprocessing window, and a teleprompter window which displayed scrolling text. Features were enhanced over the years at the requests of the user community. The app was available in Standard and Pro versions, and had special licensing for education customers. The project never made much money, but was a fun way to engage my creative tinkering side without having to buy a lathe and take up woodworking!
A more complete professional portfolio is on my personal web site:
www.AnthonyDHand.com
