For starters, full screen resolution is 720 x 480 which is standard NTSC.  The upper left corner would have an X and Y of 0,0 and the lower right corner would be 720,480 with X being 720, the left to right view, and Y being 480, the top to bottom measurement. 

 

The Safe Zone (red border) is indented in from the maximum resolution by 20 pixels on the top and bottom and 40 pixels on the left and right to provide a margin or space so all layout elements in that space will display properly on most monitors and TV's.  Objects placed on the Draw Screen in the upper left hand corner of the Safe Zone would have a placement of 40,20 rather than 0,0.  Please download the file Draw Screen Coordinates for a visual illustration.  For more information on the Safe Zone and how to adjust it please see Issue #2.

 

From a positioning standpoint, Informa always assumes the X,Y coordinates of the upper left portion of an object when calculating an object's location on the Draw Screen.  What this means is that if you want an object in the exact upper left corner of the screen, drag the image to the screen, right click to reveal the menu and select Modify Initial Position.  Enter 40 and 20 and the object or image will snap to that location.  If you want an object to appear in the exact lower right corner you will need to do some math.  If you place the object at 680,460 this will move the image off the Draw Screen because Informa bases the positioning on the upper left corner of the image.  To avoid this, right click on the image and note the image properties.  For this example the image is 172 x 138.  To calculate the correct coordinates for proper placement subtract the 172 from the Safe Zone X coordinate (680) and subtract 138 from the Safe Zone Y coordinate (460).  The answer is 508,322.  Right click on the image and select Modify Initial Position and enter 508 in the X Position and 322 in the Y Position and the image will snap to the exact lower right location.

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When we began the design process on BugCrawler and Informa we wanted to build a product that could be updated from various sources so that personnel that may not be on the TV or Media side could do updates and with very little training.  To that end, a spreadsheet can be used to update information on a project and anyone with some basic computer skills can update a spreadsheet.

 

To help you understand how this works we have prepared a sample project that illustrates election results.  The basic project is a lower third graphic with a rotating cube and a display of two candidates and their vote percentage.  Once you publish the project the updates are driven by a spreadsheet so you do not need an Informa expert to keep the project accurate just someone who can keep the numbers current.

 

A write-up with sample files is available for download.  Please grab this file and work through the example.  If you have any questions please be sure to give us a call so we can assist you.