Preview Pages in Acquire Editor

Question:

How can I preview pages?

Resolution:

Previews can be invoked from a number of places in Acquire Editor, depending upon what you wish to preview. For instance, in the Page Editor, the page you are currently editing can be previewed, while in the Playlist editor, the playlist (or part of it) is previewed.

A project App (also known as an ACQ) are programs which Acquire runs to assist your project. These can include RemoteMedia or RSS Feed, which collect other media, separate from that which you have deployed using Acquire.

Pages by default have the setting ignore page errors disabled.  This means that any media or content which cannot be loaded on a page will cause Acquire to quit the page and go to the next page.  If enough pages in a row do this, Acquire will show your chosen Out of Order screen as this is not classed as normal operation. 

When you are using the Acquire Editor Suite, most Project Plugins are not started, as they could cause unwanted effects whilst you are using the editor (typically they will connect to devices or connect to remote datasources). Please note: that more recent versions of Acquire will start the helpers when you press Preview from the main menu, but not from other places within the Editor.

Of course this means that if your project relies upon media or content downloaded from other sources, it will not display correctly and if enough pages are unable to show, Acquire will go to an out of order state to warn you.

If you wish to preview your project as a whole, to see what the intended project looks like on the standalone Player device, follow the instructions below:

Run the Acquire player in full mode (not in preview mode). To do this, navigate to Start > All Programs > Acquire> Acquire Player to start the Acquire Player on your computer.

1. When the player starts, it will also start any project plugins required for the project, and use the default project settings for that project, to give you an exact replication of what will play on your players.
2. If you wish to change the project the player is using, simply press the Esc key to invoke the Player Settings screen, and click the Project Settings tab and select Screens and Pages tab.  You can change both the active project, and the project settings.
3. When you wish to close the player, simply press and hold the Alt key and press F4. This will close the player software.