The present invention relates to a media editing tool and in particular, an editing tool which allows a media presentation containing text, graphics and /or animation to be easily edited.

Most organisations use media presentations in one form or another. This can range from a simple overhead projector presentation to extremely complicated and sophisticated presentations in which text, still graphics and animations are combined to create an extremely appealing and visually stimulating presentation. As the processing power of computer systems has increased, the demand made by ordinary users to give and also to see visually stimulating complex media presentations has increased. In many cases, the design and implementation of these presentations is a highly specialised task involving a combination of computer and artistic graphical skills to provide a media presentation that is of satisfactory quality.

However, as the complexity of the software packages used to create such presentation increase, it has been found

that the extent to which the final created presentation v is adaptable is reduced. In many cases the end user is provided with a run time version of the software that allows them to operate and manipulate the presentation but does not allow the user to make amendments to the presentation. For example in the case of Macromedia Director™ the contents of the presentation available in the run time version consists of a series of graphical images in which the text and the like has been converted into graphical images for the purposes of providing an end product presentation to the user.

As a consequence, it is extremely difficult to edit the final presentation and consequently difficult for the end user to make amendments to the presentation. Such amendments may be appropriate where the core message of a presentation is to be retained but modifications would be desirable where the presentation is to be given to different audiences within an organisation.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a dynamic media editing tool which allows the end user to make amendments to a presentation.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a dynamic media editing tool for editing media presentations, the editing tool comprising: at least one media asset; an editor module linked to the at least one media asset and containing a media presentation builder function for creating a set of instructions to manipulate said at least one media asset; and

an instruction reader module operable in conjunction with a media presentation software package, wherein the instruction reader module reads the set of instructions and incorporates the at least one media asset into a media presentation contained in the media presentation software package, in accordance with the set of instructions.

Preferably, the at least one media asset is editable.

Preferably, the at least one media asset is editable from a location outside the media presentation.

In this way the fundamental structure of the media presentation may not be altered when the at least one media asset is being edited.

Preferably, the at least one media asset comprises at least one text file.

Preferably, the at least one media asset comprises at least one graphics file.

Optionally the at least one graphics file is a predetermined background image selected in accordance with the set of instructions.

Preferably, the at least one media asset comprises an animation file.

Optionally, the at least one media asset is provided with one or more templates for creating content corresponding to one or more media presentations.

Optionally the templates comprise selectable attributes.

Preferably the attributes are editable.

Preferably the editor module further comprises a set up function that allows a user to customise the media presentation.

Optionally the set up function customises the media presentation responsive to the selectable attributes .

Preferably the set up function dynamically generates the media presentation responsive to the template.

Preferably, the editor module contains links to the at least one media asset so as to uniquely identify each at least one media asset.

Preferably, the links are in the form of an editor script.

Preferably, the media presentation builder function creates a set of instructions related to the at least one media asset that define the sequence in which said at least one media asset is included in the media presentation.

Preferably, the instruction reader module is a reader script.

Preferably, the contents of the instruction reader module correspond to the contents of the editor module.

Preferably, the instruction reader module contains means for determining at least one location in which at least one media asset can be added to the presentation.

This feature ensures that text is added or removed from the appropriate text field and that changes to still graphics or animations occur at the appropriate location within the media presentation.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for editing a media presentation comprising the steps of: defining at least one media asset containing information for use in editing the media presentation; creating a set of instructions within an editor module to manipulate the at least one media asset in a manner defined by a user; operating a reader module in conjunction with a media presentation software package, the reader module being capable of reading the set of instructions and of incorporating the at least one media asset into the media presentation contained in the media presentation software package.

In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program comprising program instructions for operating a computer to function as a dynamic media editing tool in accordance with the first aspect or the second aspect of the invention embodied on a record medium.

In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program comprising program instructions for operating a computer to function as a dynamic media editing tool in accordance with the first aspect or the second aspect of the invention wherein the computer program is carried on an electrical carrier signal.

The present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 shows the desktop icons available in a current state of the art Macromedia Director ™ media presentation folder;

Figure 2 shows a computer folder with icons representing various functions of a media presentation tool in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the relationship between a Macromedia Director ™ presentation system and the various functionalities of the present invention.

Fig. 1 shows the folder that would be presented to a user when using Macromedia Director ™ for creating a presentation. The presentation 3 is contained in a projector file which when double clicked will begin the presentation. With state of the art presentation software, the user cannot edit any information in the presentation as all the text in the presentation has been included as non-editable graphics files. The media folder 5 contains any quick time movies that are played

in the presentation and which are linked to the presentation.

Fig. 2 shows an example of the present invention. In this example 7, the user is provided with an editor file 9 which allows the user to update and edit the information in the presentation. A presenter 11 is a projector file which when double clicked begins the presentation. The user cannot edit any information in the presentation from this icon.

In this example of the present invention, three media assets folders are included. Firstly, there is a set of presentation files which are .txt files that the user can create. Each .txt file is around 8 KB in size. As will be appreciated, this is a very small file size and this allows a large number of presentations to be stored. These files hold all the editable information and determine which background is used, which pages are to be displayed and the text that will be shown on each of the pages. An external background folder is provided which can be created by the user. This folder contains a number of jpeg files typically having dimensions 800 x 600 pixels. When the user creates a background, the background is put into this folder and can be included in the presentation by selecting an 'external ¹ background in the editor file. The user is also able to receive additional backgrounds from external sources such as the software provider. These can be included in the backgrounds folder for later use.

The movies folder contains any quick time movies or animation which are played in the presentation. The

movies or animations are linked externally to the presentation.

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram 21 of an example of the present invention. The general location of the media assets is represented by block 23 which contains text files 25, still/graphic files 27 and animation files 29. The editor file 31 includes a builder function 33 and a script 35. Block 43, depicts the combined Macromedia Director ™ presentation 41 and the reader 37 that contains the script reader 39. In use the reader can be 'plugged in ¹ to the presentation software.

In use, a presentation is created using a media presentation package such as Macromedia Director ™ and is supplied to an end user who may be a company or other similar organisation. In addition, to the standard presentation, a number of editable text files 25, editable graphics files 27 and editable animation files 29 are provided to the end user. The script contained in the editor 31 contains details of the location of each of the media assets whether they are text files 25, still graphics files 27 or animation files 29. The editor is also provided with a builder function that allows the user to construct amendments to the presentation by creating a set of instructions in the form of a script which manipulates the media asset files to define the sequence in which the media assets are included within the presentation.

Once the presentation has been created in the editor 31, the client then loads the Macromedia Director ™ presenter file contained in the presentation software 41 along with

a preload which constitutes the reader software which contains a script reader. The script reader contains the user defined script which in turn defines the order in which the media assets are included into the presentation. The script reader then extracts information from the media asset files and this information is then displayed within the Macromedia Director ™ presentation. In this way, the user has the ability to display any number of presentation using the present invention by loading the instructions for which media asset file at the start of the presentation. The editor simply pulls information from the media asset files for display purposes and replaces the default information contained in the standard presentation file with user defined information.

If the user then chooses to send a copy of the presentation to a third party, the media asset folders are locked and hidden and the dynamic media editor is removed. Therefore, the third party user is not able to edit the presentation but rather has the capability to play the user defined presentation. In all cases, the original presentation file remains unaltered.

The editor functions to embed a script that allows the presentation to read the immediate asset files as an alternative to the predefined presentation which acts as a default. If the presentation is reloaded with the default file name, then the default presentation will play. This shows that the original file structure remains intact.

In addition, the reader script of the present invention is capable of detecting the editable fields of the presentation file and allowing the text contained in these fields to be edited.

In the above embodiment of the present invention, the presentation supplied to a user along with the editor is specific to that presentation only. Therefore, the user is provided with a default presentation along with a number of additional media assets that can be used to allow the presentation to be amended.

In an additional embodiment of the present invention, the media assets are provided by a number of blank templates to which any text files, still graphics files or animation files can be added. This template structure allows the editor to be much more flexible and to be used with more that one presentation.

However, in all examples of the present invention described above, the ability to edit the text and the media assets from outside the presentation without changing the structure of the presentation is provided. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the editor does note resave the presentation changing the presentation structure. Rather it simply creates a hidden file structure and pulls external information from that file structure when instructed to do so through the script.

The script itself is used to provide a sequence of information that tells the presentation to pick up information in a media file and display it within the presentation at a predetermined location.

In use a person may commission a firm of graphic designers to create a sophisticated media presentation for their company. Often, the basic theme of the presentation needs to be communicated to a wide range of people having different roles within the organisation. For example: a presentation directed to members of the board of a company would focus more on the strategic objectives of the presentation subject matter; a presentation to the legal advisors would focus on any contractual or other legal aspects of the subject matter; a presentation to the technical or scientific team would more likely focus on these aspects of the subject matter of the presentation; and a sales presentation would again focus on different aspects.

Attributes that may be selected by an end user may be selected from the group of industry classification, architecture, style, background, fonts, images, movies. Specifically, the architecture might be geared towards the intended purpose of the presentation, e.g. tender, training, seminar, and product launch.

It is proposed that a set up function could be provided with a user friendly interface with which the end user could edit the presentation with relative ease. Suitable interaction means would allow the user to interact with the set up function, and might take the form of a point and click interface designed for mouse users, or a touch screen operable in a similar fashion. Alternatively, advanced users could provide their own user defined script.

It can be seen that in most respects the core information contained in all of these separate presentations would be the same or similar but that it would be extremely convenient if certain aspects of the presentation could be emphasised or added as appropriate and of course removed or given less stress where appropriate so that the presentation is tailored to the specific audience.

The present invention provides a solution to this problem by allowing a highly professional complex media presentation to be created but also allowing the presentation that is viewed to be different depending on the audience. In these circumstances, a set of editable media assets could be created in order to cover the whole range of presentations that would be required for the same basic subject matter. Using the present invention as described above, these media assets could be linked into a media presentation such as one created in Macromedia Director ™ so that the final presentation viewable would be specifically tailored to the audience.

In addition, the presentations so created can be sent on disc or e-mail or otherwise, and the final product created may not be editable unless the software comprising the present invention is available to the user.

Improvements and modifications may be incorporated herein without deviating from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.