Charles Dickens’s «Christmas Carol»

Let’s create the story «A Christmas Carol» at Documenta.

We recommend visiting the project previously.

Material we need:

-The text of “A Christmas Carol”

– A speech by reciting the text.

– Sequence of images illustrating the story.

The work at Documenta

First of all we will go to  www.mydocumenta.com and create an account.If we make the story among many, all we have to enlist in Documenta and create working groups to co-edit the stories (watch video to create working groups).

When you join on Documenta, you create your web address and your online workspace, where you will be able to edit all your projects and pages, and display them if you choose to do so. Enter your login and password and you enter into your work space. When you enter at Documenta you see a series of buttons on the lower right corner of the screen. Click on the first, the New Project. Enter a name and description for your project and Documenta will ask us to upload your files. A simple click allows you to upload almost any type of file, in any format. In addition, this can all be done at the same time, without the need to separate them into video, audio or image files etc.

When you upload, DOCUMENTA recognizes and organizes your files by category depending on the type: images, videos, sound or attached document.

The grid:

When you create a new Documenta Project you always have a grid made up of a particular number of cells to refer to. You can customise this grid to adapt to your project needs: change colours, increase or reduce the number of cells, merge various cells, etc.

– In this case, we will make a grid of 2 columns x 6 rows.

And we will also choose exact dimensions for the project, so the page does not automatically fit the screen but make it look the same size on all computers, and therefore we have more control over the results: the measures are indicated by entering the exact pixels in the lower right corner of the screen:

– We decide a measure 900 pixels wide x 900 pixels high.

Choose both the background and grid lines in BLACK.

Merge the cells on the first row to write the title here.

In the other rows, we use respectively a cell to make the text  and thenext cell to put the sequence of images+audio with narration.

Editing the sequence of images

Creating the image sequence. We started to drag our images from the library to the cell to the right, you can enter up to 30 pictures in sequence. Then drag our speech to the same cell that contains the images. Already created the sequence now click on the cell to access the sequence editor.

In the Sequence Editor:

1)Put the image sequence in loop.The reason is because when you just play your sequence of images, stopping the playback will also stop the audio,but audio duration is greater. If we put the images in loop so we ensure that our audio is played in full.

2) Next to the PLAY and STOP commands located under the display, activate the option of FIFTING PICTURES AT 100% IN THE CELL. So we could see our images completely.

3) In the reproduction of the grid which appears in the editor, select the surrounding cells. Thus: when activate the sequence (when we are viewing the project) will be expanded to size and position we have stated here in the editor. The cells we chose to extend occupy the same column on the right of the project, because after that we will make the text expand and occupate the cells in the left column, and so you can see, text and images simultaneously.

4) We can also rearrange the images in the sequence simply dragging them from one position to another, delete some, add others, etc.

5) You can decide how to crop an image. Select the icon and then drive the mouse over the photograph to choose the part of the image you want to display.

6) Save the sequence.

Now, editing the project again, we’re going right to the top menu and select OPTIONS: Preview of the project: Once in preview, click in the cell to activate the sequence with the audio. To stop, click again on it.

Lets introduce the text.

To edit the project again, single-click on the project icon and click on the “Edit project” button next to the New Project.To add text to a cell, go to an empty cell and click on it. This takes you to the Text Editor. Now you can add and format your texts.

When you open a text editor you will find two fields.

-In the field above write in title of the story.

-In the field below write our full text.

-In the reproduction of the grid which appears in the editor, select the surrounding cells. Thus, when visiting the project, this cell will activate and could see the text we had written in the field below to expand to the size and position we have told you here in the editor. The cells we chose to extend occupy the same column on the left the project because the images are enlarged to occupy precisely the right column, and so you can see text and images simultaneously.

– You can also change the background color of the cell.

Once in preview, we see that the page displays by default the text we had written in the field above the editor. By clicking on the text, then displays the entire text of the story that we introduced in the field below the editor.

If we click on the image, we can read the story while playing with the audio sequence.

Do the same operation with the rest of staves.

Once finished, we can share it on Facebook and Twitter, plus get the direct link to the project to send it by email to our contacts and friends.