Need a PC program to run stuff on a continuous loop

soupdragon

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Hi all
Posting in GC as I need a quick answer if possible and hopefully the higher traffic here will give me that!
I plan on connecting a latptop to a TV in work. The idea is that I can run some stuff in a loop and it will be a mixture of photos, videos, PDF’s, documents etc – just some general information for our staff running on a loop.
Any idea of a program that would do such a thing for me?
I haven’t bought the laptop yet (or the TV for that matter) but the new laptop will likely be windows 10.

Thanks in advance J
 
PowerPoint or similar?
 
Auto-it is great for that kind of stuff. Decent windows manipulation and similar to BASIC in syntax. Requires some basic scripting ability though. Great forum support and you can download and re-use lots of code snippets

AutoIt - AutoIt

or maybe autohotkey

AutoHotkey

Other than that you could Google for a macro recorder which will record a sequence of events - keypress,mouse-click, window open etc and convert them into a script

Auto-it will do better windows handling though and catch and fix issues and errors.
Really depends on how techy you are :)
 
Wouldn't something like PowerPoint just handle all the media types in a drag and drop fashion?

Is it basically a 'slide show' you are after?
 
Wouldn't something like PowerPoint just handle all the media types in a drag and drop fashion?

Is it basically a 'slide show' you are after?

Good for static data I'd guess but I'm assuming the data sources may change regularly. In which case you'd need to refresh the various windows.

I'm in IT Systems management and we use Auto-it on a plasma to cycle between various monitoring tools, web pages, BBC news etc
 
Auto-it is great for that kind of stuff. Decent windows manipulation and similar to BASIC in syntax. Requires some basic scripting ability though. Great forum support and you can download and re-use lots of code snippets

AutoIt - AutoIt

or maybe autohotkey

AutoHotkey

Other than that you could Google for a macro recorder which will record a sequence of events - keypress,mouse-click, window open etc and convert them into a script

Auto-it will do better windows handling though and catch and fix issues and errors.
Really depends on how techy you are :)

When I say me, I mean the Royal me, as I'll be handing it over to an assistant who has decent computer skills but not sure if he would have the skill to do this....
Wouldn't something like PowerPoint just handle all the media types in a drag and drop fashion?

Is it basically a 'slide show' you are after?
Yes, continuous slide show. Will be general business updates on a PowerPoint style, plus some pics and video. Eg, would maybe like to grab a video off youtube and throw it in there. Can I (he) do that on PowerPoint?
 
Yes, you can link PDF's, video and live website data in Powerpoint so given your colleagues IT literacy that may be the best solution.

Not tried in PPT but assume you can set a presentation on a loop as well, timing the slide changes

if he knows some basic scripting or learns quickly then Auto-it could be another solution. I taught myself the basics in a few hours
 
Depends on exact requirements of course, but in powerpoint you can for example paste a link to a document/media - then if you change the file on disc it will show the new one.

Disclaimer:I am a few years out of the presentation game :)
 
Thanks guys...Looks like PowerPoint is a good starting point and once up and running, we can look at the slicker stuff :)
 

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