SnapKast Session Management

In SnapKast, the term session is used to represent a single recorded presentation. Sessions have two states: unformatted ("unsnapped") and formatted ("snapped" or encoded).

Unformatted Sessions

An unformatted session exists just after the Stop button is clicked on the Recorder. It includes all the files needed to create formatted video and audio files from the recording session. It is named according to the name of the PowerPoint file used during recording, or "Unititle" if a white board session was recorded. All sessions names are appended with the date and time the "Stop" button was pressed. Unformatted sessions should only be loaded from the Format tab (you can't do much with them elsewhere).

To open an unformatted session:

1. Click the Choose Session... button on the Format tab. This brings up the Session Chooser dialog you see below*.

   

2. Make sure the Unformatted radio button is selected (A).
3. Select the session in the list that you would like to format (C).
4. Examine the properties for that session to make sure you picked the right one (D). If the session you want is not in the list, click the Load External... button (B) to choose a session that resides outside of the SnapKast area (e.g. a memory key).
5. When you are satisfied that you have the right session, click the Choose Selected Session button (E).

Formatted Sessions

A formatted session is created when the encoding process is complete. It includes all the files from its previous unformatted state plus the output audio (mp3) and/or video (mp4) files. Formatted sessions can be reviewed from the Play tab (see session playback for details) or from the Format tab (see creating multiple video files for details).

To open a formatted session:

1. Click the Choose Session... button on either the Format or Play tab (depending on what you are doing). This brings up the Session Chooser dialog you see next.

   

2. Make sure the Formatted radio button is selected (A).
3. Choose the SnapKast album that contains the session you want to open (B).
4. Select the session in the list that you would like to view (or reformat) (C).
5. Examine the properties for that session to make sure you picked the right one (D). If the session you want is not in the list, click the Load External... button (F) to choose a session that resides outside of the SnapKast area (e.g. a memory key).
6. When you are satisfied that you have the right session, click the Choose Selected Session button (E).

As with unformatted sessions, you may click on the View Properties button to display the properties for that session. If you are on the Podcast Create RSS tab, use the drop-down boxes to select the album/session. In fact, changing the selected session on either the Play or Create RSS tab causes the new selection to occur on both tabs. To delete the session follow the steps below.

Session Properties

To view the properties of a selected session, click on the "View Properties" button near the selection. The properties shown for each session are:

• Title - the name that identifies the session. Unformatted sessions are entitled [filename]-yyyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss for PowerPoint recordings and Untitled-yyyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss for whiteboard recordings. Formatted sessions are named according to what you specified during the formatting phase.
• Location - the location in your computer file system (e.g. your disk) where this session is stored. SnapKast creates a "SnapKast" folder in your My Documents folder where all sessions are stored. Formatted and Unformatted sessions are stored in different places in this folder (note: you can access all your files directly in SnapKast; there is typically no need to get these files from your file system).
• Last Modified Date - the date that this session was created.
• Number of Slides - the amount of slides created during the recording. Note that for PowerPoint sessions, this number may differ from the actual number of slides in the original PowerPoint file. During the recording session, only presented (i.e. visited) slides are recorded. A new slide is created from each slide visit and revisit. Inserted white board (i.e. blank) slides are also counted.
• Clip Duration - the length of time (hh:mm:ss) of the entire session.
• Available Formats - the video and audio files that are available for podcasting.
• Preview - a thumbnail of the first recorded slide of the session.

Deleting Sessions

To delete a session, first select the session, then click the Delete Session button. A window will appear to confirm your choice.
Warning! Deleted sessions cannot be recovered so make sure that you really don't need the session before you complete the deletion.

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