The Video tab in the Properties dialog box will only appear in the dialog for Video objects. This tab allows you to load and set up a movie or animation in any of the supported file formats. This includes animated GIF files (these should not be loaded as image files).
Note:
Try to match the size of your video to the same size as you want to use it in the publication, this will avoid unnecessary overheads.
Click on the Browse button to the right of the Filename box to locate the video you want to show in this object. The Windows Open File dialog box will appear, which allows you to locate the file you want.
Note:
If you click on the drop down button beside the Filename box, a list of videos you have most recently added to Opus will appear. You can select one of these videos instead of using the Browse button.
Once you have selected a video file, a warning message will appear explaining that saving your publication may take some time if the size of the video is large.
Click on the Preview button if you want to see a preview of the video in the tab. A popup Preview window will appear and the video will play automatically. You can press the stop button 
while the video is playing to stop the video, or press the play button 
to start the video.
Note:
Tick the Thumbnail option if you want to see a thumbnail view of the first frame of the video in the Display Options panel.
In the Display Options panel of the tab, select how you want to display the video in relation to the bounding box on the page containing it.
Note:
By default, a video is set to Size to Fit and Keep Aspect. However, you can change the Display Options to any of the other options in the tab, as described below.
Click on the Fixed option if you want the video to start at the top left corner of the object’s bounding box. The image will be the same size as it was originally created.
Note:
You may need to resize the bounding box to show all of the video.
Click on the Tile option if you want the video to display repeatedly across and down until the bounding box is filled.
Note:
If the Always on Top option in this tab is also ticked, the Title option is disabled.
Click on the Centred option if you want to centre the video in the bounding box.
Click on the Scale to Fit option if you want to stretch the video to fit the bounding box you have drawn. This will activate the Keep Aspect option (see next point).
Note:
If you change the size of the bounding box, the video will continually stretch to fit the new size of the box.
Click on the Keep Aspect option if you want a video that has been set to Size to Fit to retain its shape and be un-stretched.
Note:
This option will keep a video in proportion (aspect ratio) and prevents the video looking stretched or out of shape.
Click on the Transparent option, if you want to ignore one of the colours in the video and let the background show through. Use the colour slider beneath the Colour box to increase the range of that particular colour that will be ignored – see Creating Transparent Background Graphics.
Click on the Start Automatically option if you want the video to self-start when the video object is played. By default this option is selected for new Video objects.
Note:
If you do not set this option, you must use a Play Video Action to start the video in your publication.
Click on the Display only when playing option if you want the video to only appear while the video is playing. If this option is unticked, a frame of the video will be displayed even when the video is stopped.
Note:
The frame that is displayed is the preview frame. The preview frame is by default the very first frame in the video. However, if you want to select a different frame from the video as the preview frame, click on the Display video in editor option, as described in point 14 below.
Click on the Mute audio option if you want the audio soundtrack on the video to be muted.
Click on the Reset when end is reached option if you want to reset the video to the first frame or frame selected.
Click on the Display video in editor option if you want to set a specific frame that should be used as the preview frame when the video is displayed in the editor. Use the spin buttons to increase or decrease the number of seconds from the start of the video that should be used as the preview frame.
Note:
This is useful for videos with blank or unhelpful first frames but it only affects how the video is displayed in the Opus Editor and does not affect previewing or the running of the stand-alone publication.
Click on the Play panel and select the number of times you want to play the video. You can choose to play the video Once or Continuously, or you can use the spin buttons to set the number of times the video will play for.
Click on the Change button if you want to change the mode the Video will be played in. You can select from On Top, Chroma Key and Rendered – when you click the button a brief description will appear for each option. By default Chroma Key is selected and is the recommended choice unless you wish to display interactive Flash movies in which case choose On Top to allow access to the interactivity.
Note:
Video set to be On Top will not be able to use some of the options on this tab and these are disabled. Nor will it be able to use items set on the Border, Transitions, and Effects tabs. These tabs are not disabled because you may wish to use some of these options for periods when the video is not visible but the settings will be ignored. Any rotation will also be ignored.
Click on the Apply buttons to save your changes.
Note:
You can play Adobe Flash movies using the Video object. Flash movies have a SWF file extension and are commonly referred to as swf movies. If the movie contains interactive elements you should use the Always on Top video playback option. The video object also support Flash video .FLV files. Both the Opus designer and the end user of the publication must have the Flash player installed to view Flash movies or video.
Creating and Editing Properties