LumenLux

Welcome Joe, the "doing wrong" is probably using a wma file. PTE handles them fine, but the "key" or "protection" scheme of wma files make them a headache for playing on machines other than the "original" home pc of the file! Most users simply use mp3 format and avoid wma problems. Give a further cry here if that does not solve the situation.

Granot, my computer doesn't even respond as quickly as you do! Thank you for making this combo. Like you, I wondered if you had tried similar earlier. But as you suggest, this new one will likely be better or super better. I will certainly get to trying it here soon.

Mike, I spent days trying to determine the cause of that error as it occurred sometimes with PTE shows I was trying to put on DVD. Igor also was very good trying to solve it with my testing. Conclusion, both Igor and I had to turn attention to other things. It may well be a bad combination of events on our PC's as cause, but Igor would like very much to find the cause so it could be avoided. I tried also to find an answer on Ulead's site. That is not easy. What I eventually found is that MANY people get that error message who are not using PTE. There are many complaints and some answers that some Ulead people say solved their particular situation. I think the error message is very generic and probably results from many, different, problems. I did find that it was only a problem on some of my PTE/dvd creations. Others do fine. So, if you want to test further, you might be able to isolate what conditions result in the error. Try some different PTE shows - different slides, different music etc. Maybe you can find the common denominator of the problem cases. Maybe also, Igor will find time to look further and or direct your efforts to help isolate the problem.

Granot I briefly tried your CD_Installer yesterday. It seemed to work well and I did not happen to hit the bugs. But thanks for correcting them. I think with all the many, many, ideas you have, it must be a task to decide how to package them. I have a thought in that direction. Has to do with CD_Installer and your (also good) All_exe. program. I think both programs can be quite useful. Perhaps you could combine them for even greater utility. Could you make it so the All_exe would bring up all the PTE shows in a left column (like it does now) and then have the CD_Installer feature in the right side of the window? Then if the viewer could check which PTE show on the left is to be acted upon by the CD_Installer choices on the right. It seems that would be very useful for my personal use and maybe even more useful for commercial users of PTE.

No, not really. But if you use an editor to rotate the files without changing the name or location, the next time you run PTE, the files will be right side up. You don't have to import new slides into your PTE project.

Carol and Oleg - how nice of you to share your talent and time this way! Thank you very much. I know many of us are overly concerned with "time" it takes to make a presentation. Art in it's most personal sense certainly should not be constrained by time dedicated to a project. Never the less, I would be curious, how many hours a presentation might take you to construct - when the techniques are well known and practiced. I don't mean how long to create the masterpiece you have just posted. But maybe sometime, if you do a new show starting with say 30 images. If you could record how much time it might involve to do the Photoshop work and then the PTE. And then if you could share the presentation and tell us how many hours?

Yup.

I am anxious to try this one Granot. Thank you very much.

Ralvis, thank you for exposing so much information here. I wrote a reply to boxig yesterday, which due to technical difficulties never posted. Your information is much better than what I was going to opine. But now you have also opened yourself up as the key recipient of my own current concern and questions. Surprisingly, the Abit BH6 motherboard is the very board I have in the PC in question. A few years ago, I upgraded the processor to 766mhz PIII! But here is my problem - in a long nutshell. In order to install Adobe Photo Album version 2, I had to go from Win98 SE to XP Home. I did a full install onto a new hard drive. I am happy with XP, especially all the re-boots I know longer have to make. But my machine is still open after two months as I am re-installing hardware and software as I incur the need. Now for the problem(s) - Running XP I soon learned that my SCSI flatbed scanner would not work with XP and apparently there is no intent from anyone that it should. I accepted that and was greatful that my aging Minolta Scan Dual film scanner (also SCSI) was still working fine with XP! My system has 3 hd's with total of 5 partitions. About a week into XP, one partition could produce none of the information that was indeed still there. Ultimately, I put that drive in a Win98 SE machine at work and was able to take all the data off and copy it to another partition. Then I put the drive back into the XP, formatted the guilty partition and went my merry way. Until - two days ago, when I tried to use the film scanner. My search for a solution sort of ended on the Minolta site. There I am told that unless I happen to have a certain late model of my scanner, I should not expect it to work on XP. You see my consternation however, as I know the film scanner did indeed work initially with XP! So the question is, can I possibly find a way to make the film scanner once again work in XP? Or, second choice - could I reasonably re-install Win98SE in some kind of a dual boot for the sole purpose of using the film scanner and the abandoned flatbed scanner as well? I do want to use XP as my normal OS.

And comments like Monty's help many of us, not just the creator of the presentation.

I am very interested in the opinions about this subject. I wish many people would jump in here with their thoughts. Myself, I'm not sure what is "best." I do know, that when I decide to post a show, I always would like some comments. I don't care what the comments are. I will either gain satisfaction from a comment, or I will try to learn something from it. I have always tried to encourage more discussion about posted shows. I also realize there are many reasons that I or others don't always make a comment. Sometimes I watch a very good show but would feel presumptious to say it is well done. It's almost like I or other viewers may feel we don't have the credentials to comment. When I see Michel, that you have posted a show, I know I want to watch it. Each time I expect that it will be artistically done. I will undoubtedly enjoy it. But what will I have as a comment? I know Michel is a very good photographer, I know you are an artist, but maybe all I can really say is I like it or it is not my favorite etc. I think also sometimes people would like to share a show, but hesitate because they know other people do "better" shows. Maybe a "rating" system would seem even more intimidating. Or maybe less intimidating? I know that there are so many purposes for creating a show. And often we do things the best we can justify for the purpose. I watch some very good shows that are great for a three minute message. Every slide is a piece of art. The transitions, the blending, the "third image", or other AV specialties, are all very appealing. But when I put together - say a travel report, or a 200 slide presentation - It is perhaps not only not feasible, but maybe not desireable to make the presentation so slick. But I still want to make the show as interesting and as "effective" as possible. I guess, if there were to be only two points of evaluation - or self evaluation - they might be 1. How effective is it for the creator's purpose? 2. How satisfying to the viewer? Or maybe there would be a hundred points on which to be rated. I think the best reason for a rating system might be not the rating itself, but if the rating system would generate and encourage more discussion. Because I think the discussion is what could be really helpful.

Harry, this feature is like so many things in PTE - The more you experiment, the more you start to see the potential. This ". . . first transition from desktop" has quite different effect with various transitions. I think the best way to appreciate is to make a few very simple shows using various size slides and various transitions. Create the shows and put them on your desktop. Then in each show's project file, check the box to start "..first transition from desktop." Create the shows with a slightly different name this time so you know which is which. Then put these 2nd versions on the desktop and run each one versus the original similar show. You will see in some cases the difference is "no big deal". In other cases, very interesting visuals occur.

Yes Al, background may be a better definition. I guess what had not previously occurred to me, is that with the "odd ratio" condition, it matters not how large or small the file dimensions are, you can never (within PTE)get rid of the partial background showing.

Regarding PTE, is the following statement true? No matter what the photo dimensions, if they are not the same ratio as the monitor screen, there will always be a border showing, no matter what PTE options are selected regarding full screen, window mode, fit to screen, etc.

Welcome Leslie - If you have not already, download a few examples from Beechbrook.com. That will at least show you some of what can be done.

You are right - I missed this for #8. I added, and now all works well. Only the fade was not well before. Thanks not only to you Igor, but also Aleksey, and now, I understand, think(box)bill. Everybody!

Uh Oh, this won't be a popular report. But unexpected results is why Igor can find us useful - right? My present playing and testing Beta#8 is revealing NOT so smooth fades as same show in Beta7! I used Beta8 to open an existing project (.pte) file. Per Igor's suggestion, I changed thickness from 40 to 60 points. The project has 199 slides, each less than 200kb. Mp3 files (4) for show length 13:47. Show has random transitions except first 4 slides and last 7 slides, which are 2500ms fades. Beta 8 shows unpleasant flickering. I saved .pte in Beta8, then closed Beta8. Opened Beta7 and then opened the same .pte project. The show is much smoother (no flicker) in Beta#7. The result is the same whether I am running Preview or actually running the Create as .exe file. Does this make sense Igor? Anyone else observed similar?

Al, you make an important reminder about the space bar function in the timeline window. I can be content with the way it works, but I do forget. Of course I am capable of forgetting most things in PTE if I don't use them frequently. I was constructing a show recently where I working on the timeline, whistling merrily along, moving transitions, tweaking this and that. Suddenly I realized the space bar was piling up transitions on top of each other while I thought I was doing something else. It was a panic moment in a panic timetable for deadline. I mostly write this to thank you for the reminder and to maybe reinforce the methology in my memory. Maybe it's time for me to enjoy a careful study of your fine tutorial.

CGalvin - welcome to the world's most congenial forum. I don't know cause of your specific problem. I would remind or alert you though, that you may as well use the latest version of PTE. I think 4.14 is the latest official version and Version 4.20 Beta#7 is also available if you want. Both versions are downloadable from Wnsoft.com home page. The beautiful part of Igor's approach to his software - always improving - and providing without additional charge to registered owners. That is part of the reason he has such a loyal following for Pictures to Exe.

Well, I did not find a way to trace down the information. But I was able to restore my memory. So host found and topic closed I guess.

Are you sure?! Welcome back. But where am I going to get time to try all your fine utilities?

I think Al you clarify a possible design change by Igor. I don't think such a change would be a "correction", but anytime Igor can make the program more intuitive while keeping or adding function, that is his goal too. Maybe he should change it.

Great minds think alike. I have done about what you suggest. The info listed a true # of my host server, but I could not access it with the #. My URL is do-some-good.com (But there is very little good being done there so far.)

I have recently made a couple of specific purpose PTE shows that I would not mind sharing. But the shows, while not real long, were made with no reason to struggle to keep file size small. So the shows are big enough (36-40 mb) that I'd rather not burden Bill's Beechbrook site. I've had a new website of my own for about 5 months now without knowing how to use it. Now, with these shows I decided I better start learning. However - I have overhauled most the software on my PC and changed browsers (for now) etc. In the process I have lost any reference to who my webhost is. It is a provider that was mentioned in this forum by Mitch Silver, but I don't know if he uses the host or would remember. (It was something like "IBC" or ?) My real question is - I do at least know my URL - so is that enough for me to somehow trace down my web host so I can find out how to access and build the pages?

I realize all we can each do is express our own experience. For me, Permit the Control of Show, feature is flawless. My first use of the navigation bar with control of a synced show did confuse me a little. But I think my confusion was the result of being a little over-anxious myself. I presented a show tonight that uses the feature. After reading this topic I took a closer look. Here is the behavior I find. The pause button does pause the slide and the background music. The show stays paused until I click pause again, or the backward or forward arrow. Whether the pause button has been used or not, the arrow will move the show in the indicated direction, one slide per each click on the arrow. If I click the reverse arrow one time only, it will show the previous slide and then resume playing forward. If I click the back button on each earlier slide, I can reverse a slide at a time all the way to the start. And at any time, the pause button will stop and hold the show until I click one of the "move" options on the nav bar. I think the feature is working (for me) exactly as Igor designed it to do.