If your theater access is limited, or if deadlines are very tight, I suggest that you allow time for me to "overnight ship" actual diskettes to you. On the other hand, it is entirely practical to receive most brands of show as an attachment to an email message.
If you ask me to email you a show, please make sure that your email service does not block my messages (from secondcut( at---sign )att.net ) as possible spam. Also check, in advance, whether your provider automatically blocks certain types of attached files as a safety measure. For example, my home theater's server does not allow ".zip" files to arrive as an attachment. (I've gotten around that by changing the extension before sending the attachment, and changing it back after "Save As..." upon receiving the email. But you have to be comfortable changing extensions.)
Alternatively, you can ask me to put your file(s) on the internet, and you will retrieve them by clicking on links in an email I will send you. This does make your files (theoretically at least) available to anyone. But they'll be in a secluded corner of the Web, and they'll be read-only there. Please tell me when you successfully download your show, so I can remove the files. If you don't get a prompt asking you where to save the file(s) when you click on the links I send you, then try "Right-Clicking" on the links. That will usually produce a context (drop-down) menu with "Save Link As", the choice you want. Do this until you've collected all of the files I provide links for.
If you know that you can receive an email with more than one attachment, I don't have to "zip" multiple files I send you. (Obsession board diskettes have two files on them. LP90 boards have even more.)
Back when light boards had proprietary disk formats (for example, Expression 1 or Prestige 3000), generating a valid show offline was very difficult. Today, most boards use a more "standard" PC-formatted diskette, with one or more "DOS" files on it. Of course, the internal layout of each file is proprietary.
To have the best chance for creating a valid show disk from an email attachment, start with a brand-new, or a freshly-formatted 1.44Meg diskette. It's okay to use the Windows "Quick Format" option, which is quite fast. A USB Floppy Drive should work, but I recommend using a new, pre-formatted diskette in that case. If you are using a diskette that isn't new, make sure that it has never been in another brand of light board, or a computer that's not an "IBM PC" type of PC. The reason is that such previous uses of the diskette may have changed the diskette formatting, or left hidden files (Macs are particularly likely to have done this. Sorry ... . Another guarantee of failure is to use a diskette that has been in an "older" board, like an original Expression, the one with no "number" after its name.) For most modern light boards, the diskette should say "HD" on it, and have two square holes on the edge away from the edge with the shutter.
In most cases, email readers allow you to right-click on an attachment. You get a context-menu that lets you chose something like "Save File/Attachment As...". You then receive a dialog box asking where to put the file, and suggesting a name for the file. If you have the clean floppy disk handy, you can save directly to it. Alternatively, you can save the files to a directory (preferably, an empty directory to avoid confusion with similar files... .) After you've saved all the attachments, you can transfer them to the clean floppy.
After transferring the file(s) to a floppy, please perform this final check. Leave the floppy in, say, drive "A". On a Windows machine, click the "Start" button and select Programs|Accessories|Command Prompt. You'll get a little window with a DOS prompt. Type in the command "Dir a:" and press "Return". You should get a listing that looks a bit like this. (Of course every number will be different. It's the file name(s) and quantity of files we're interested in:
Volume in drive A has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 380A-15D6
Directory of A:\
02/04/1996 10:57 PM 215,118 EXP2.SHW
1 File(s) 215,118 bytes
0 Dir(s) 1,242,112 bytes free
Volume in drive A has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 1112-15D8
Directory of A:\
07/22/2005 01:14 PM 199,507 ETCSHOW.DAT
07/22/2005 01:14 PM 516 ETCSHOWS.DIR
2 File(s) 200,023 bytes
0 Dir(s) 1,256,960 bytes free
Then type "exit" and press "Return". The Commmand Prompt window should close, and you can resume your work. If you can't get a clean-looking directory listing like these, contact me for assistance.
Of course, if you have an offline editor for the target light board, you can try the constructed show before you go to the theater. I suggest you open the "write-protect" tab after creating your diskette. But once you get the show into your board successfully, you can close the tab and save a "native" (that is, created by the board itself) show on the same diskette. I recommend that you save a "native" show as soon as possible, and also save to the board's hard drive, if it has one.
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