LumenLux

Quick and effectivewould seem more accurate, Al. Great look! But now you are under obligation to come up with the sequence to go with it. Innovative thinking must be in bloom up your way.

Lin, I have not yet figured out why, but Irfanview and Globfx and Macrocmedia's own viewer will not show this for me. However, on the same PC, my Firefox browser runs it just dandy. Using my Firefox setup, your swf. opens to fulol screen on my 1024x768. In Firefox, I can drag the window to any size and the playing swf. reduces accordingly. At the approximately 400 pixel width it looks as you probably see it - very good. If I drag the window smaller, quality remains unchanged. As I drag window larger, quality deteriorates accordingly. It seems the same result whether I left-click your link and view immediately or if I save-as and then use my browser to open the downloaded file.

Thank you Ken. I just downloaded and installed globfx swfplayer. It exhibits same behavior on rotor blade.swf. That is, sound, but no picture. If I use the same installed swfplayer on TutReflect.swf, (was this Lin's also?), the result is a picture and sound!

Lin, in my estimation, your latest snow globe (with the yellow house) is perfection for the concept. Congratulations and thank you. And when you have Panos telling you the result is "jaw dropping", that says a bunch. In another topic you remind us how, with PTE V5, an experienced user will always find another mountain to cross. The journey is as endless as the PTE user wants. With that in mind, I am attaching a little PTE.exe file that I played with a couple of years ago. My effort was very simple of PTE and PS. If you look at it, you will recognize that my intent was for a very slow moving effect for the most part. And of course this was long before PTE V5. I am now thinking a similar approach could be integrated into your already perfected snow globe concept. I suppose the "ultimate" combination would be that a PTE show would run on the screen inside the globe in an integrated manner such that the snow falling in the globe would on cue accumulate or "melt" to provide a seasonal evolvement. I don't know if that makes sense, but maybe it will lure you on to another mountain. "Moosework" example to download 2 mb.

Although I routinely use Irfanview and all the plugins, the above .swf will not run on this computer. Using Irfanview's swf viewer Ver.9 (thanks Adobe, per Irfanview) the .swf file opens with a brief flash and crackle then no picture -only sound. The same .swf and same Irfanview version (3.99) and plugins on a different PC here, run the .swf fine. This computer that plays sound only, right now will run other .swf files with picture and sound. Anyone help me troubleshoot this?

Lin, with your incredible work (snow globe for example) he probably will see an increase in interest and sales! Thanks, as always.

And you deserve to be proud! You provide much help and inspiration to us all. Thank you!

Thank you Ken. I guess I could have been paying a little closer attention to Bill's post (which I had read. ) What would I/we do without you being such a good librarian for all this good info. I thought I was home free in V4 and just needed V5 for the AVI. I guess I will have to back up if I still want an .avi for a couple of people. (Durned Apple/Mac's anyway.)

Igor, this is either already known by you, or very minor if not known. I made sequence in V4.48. In the process of prepping the photo files, I ended up with all photos standing vertically although they should have been lancscape format. So, quickly, I used V4.48 "rotate" on all slides in PTE. Created .exe file and it runs the proper orientation. Then I opened the .pte file in V5u, and re-saved, so I could use Video Builder to make an .avi file. Now, in V5, I can not rotate the slides to landscape view. Is "rotate slides" not activated fully in V5 or is it a quirk between V4 then re-saving in V5 for Video Builder?

Foto1, if you are using Version 5 Beta#, that may be the problem/answer. The features you mention work perfectly in PTE V4.48, but they are not yet "activated" in the current V5 Beta. If you are having the problem in V4.48, then we will need to dig further into what you are hitting.

Feedin' the beef & breathin' the air - in Boulder, Utah on Beechbrook.com is the latest in the informal series: "The Good Stuff of Life" . I would like to hear what you like or don't like about it. Or any other observations. Presentation is about 11 minutes long.

I think this would be best. It seems the most "natural" and good to be automatic.

Thank you Ron and thank you Fred for the fun demo. I was quite amused by your animation, as were the sledding participants. Also, the thoughts of both of you have given me more ideas. They even motivated me to use a couple of text.png files on a blog/website I am doing. BUT - now I hit a quick stumper. Probably an obvious answer for you? I successfully made a text-only .png in PS Elements. The text shows up fine in Firefox browser with the transparent background not evident at all. (just like I want it.) When the same .png file is viewed with Internet Explorer, the "transparent" background shows as low opacity, but is visable behind the text. That is problem #1. The "stumper" is the next .png I made for a similar use in the same web page. This #2.png is also text only and I thought I made it the same as I did the first one. However - this #2.png does not show on the website as "transparent" background, but rather with a black background. It shows this way in both Firefox and IE. Is this a simple setting I missed in PS Elements, or do you know what I have done wrong?

I too think that is a slick little program. Did you compose the program yourself? I'm honestly not sure if I would routinely use it. It certainly is a quick way to check. I think what I personally need is more a "reminder" to check, as I had come to rely on the email notifications. The other thing you might consider is whether you would benefit by the traffic that comes to your site to see what is new but would come less often if they just use PNT.

Thank you Lin and Sherry.

Thank you Ron. From your attached photos I get some idea and I can see the dog you posted is a .png while the ocean view itself is a .jpg. I think though I may be missing the key advantage of using the .png instead of a .jpg of the dog. Maybe you could bring me and others further into the basic understanding zone. I think it may have been an earlier tutorial or demo of yours with .png and masks, or just masks, that intrigued me but I never really understood it all. Or maybe it was Roger that made it? Who ever, what ever, thank you for the help. Eventually, a lot of things sink in. Now, (30 seconds later), is the essential difference between the .png cut-out and the .jpg cut-out, that the .jpg still must have a rectangle background and therefor can't be transparent to the cut-out shape?

Lin, we all wish you a complete, quick-as-possible recovery. Maybe your wife is helping you read this forum so you don't have to struggle to receive everyone's concerns. I'm sure there is also much sincere interest as to what the cause of your trauma was. Unless you feel it is not appropriate (ie. it is none of our business), please ask someone to help you leave some more information. Best to you !

Lorenzo, I think you succeeded. I liked that you included the first section, not just in the "big tent" Hoffbrau Haus. Enjoyable presentation.

Barry - Thank you for that idea. I have not tried, but I think it would suffice for the need I expressed. Al- I almost hesitate to comment on this as I know I don't understand all the intricacies. Does it seem that Barry's method would still work in many cases as long as his action took place early in the workflow. That is if I use Barry's method to apply Cover-Slide to all slides and then start adding additional objects and customize those additions to each slide as needed? Is it most likely that the later objects would not be needed on every slide?

Thanks cc. I'll just mention - if you are not careful you will find yourself still trying to have it when he is about 12!

Thank you Ragnar for your careful thoughts. I like that you share your thought process of what factors contribute to "successful" slide shows. ("Successful" is my liberty with what you are saying.) A "great impression" (your term) is also a good way to look at it. Certainly all the points you mention are very important and I have even thought of some of them myself as I have more casually addressed the subject as I have made my own presentations. At the moment, I think perhaps for me the most encompassing criteria of "success" is the "enjoyment" resulting to the producer and the viewer. (I know that "enjoyment" may not be a real good word for every show. Sometime a viewer may be very "bothered" or "uncomfortable" with a show and still see it as a "success" and even a "great" show.) Some recent shows have really shown how much can be added/achieved with sound effects. Yet in many instances (at least personally) I am not willing to devote the necessary time & effort or to develop my skill to the point where it might not be so time consuming. Or maybe I am more interested in learning the V5 skills, or ? I know for sure there is a lot of satisfaction for each of us that takes photos and uses PTE to present them in so many possible ways. I think you have started a very useful topic here as long as it doesn't become a heated discussion as to what is "the best" way. But I also have no problem and do welcome anyone's list of their "favorites."

Fuzzy, I have not followed this topic close enough to know if this will help you, but let me tell you of a simple little maneuver I just tried in case it might help you. IF you have your .pte file created in V5 Beta, this might help. Using PTE V 4.48, I made a show of 3 slides and then "saved as" the V4.48.pte Using PTE V 5 Beta #8R I made a show of 5 slides and saved as V5Beta8fiveslides.pte Using Notepad I opened V4.48.pte. Starting from the last of the text file I erased the info for each of the 3 slides listed in the .pte file. Saved this "shell" .pte file. Using Notepad, I opened V5Beta8fiveslides.pte Starting at the end of the text file, I copied all the 5 slides info. I again opened V4.48.pte in Notepad. And the end of the text file, I pasted the 5 slides copied from V5. The last line of the "shell" (prior to pasting slides in) was opt_slidescount=3 I simply changed the 3 to 5. (For the number of slides coming from V5.) Then using the PTE V4.48 program main window, I opened the V4.48.pte which now contained and ran all the slides which I had previously organized (ordered) in V5. So at the simplest level, that works. Maybe you could use it as a partial solution so far as to not have to re-order some 1000+ slides. Good luck.

Actually, the .jpg background is already available in V4.48 but it is a project choice not in the object window. I am wondering if that distinction would be relevant. If not, then it would really seem Igor could easily turn it on.

Would this just require Igor to "activate" the .jpg background feature as it was in V4.48 or would it be more difficult with the O&A structure of V5?

Thank you Ron for the comments. I am not very conversant yet with .png's. I have used them very little and would like to have a better understanding of their use and benefits. In this instance, do you have ideas how I might use these same cutouts as .png in this sequence?