scotts2junk@gmail.com

What sort of impact does this compression have on the size of the standalone EXE file? What factors affect the compression ratio? e.g., if the source files were bloated bitmap and wav, will you get better compression than if the source files were more efficient jpeg and mp3? (I'm assuming that the jpeg and mp3 source files were not created with bloated options to begin with.)

Is any information available about the format of the PTE text file for manually editing the file in a text editor? I think that after I initially load all of my images and corresponding sounds files into PTE and save to PTE file, it might be less time-consuming for me to set the start positions and durations for the images and sounds by editing the PTE file rather than by adjusting through the PTE user GUI (especially because I can write a script that will automatically edit the PTE). e.g., I would like to write a script that takes each music track item, inserts a fixed pause time (delay) in front of the object, reads the object duration, and then sets the duration of the corresponding slide to equal the audio duration+ audio delay. But I haven't figured out how the PTE file represents this information, other than the audio duration. I've been able to change the pause time for audio objects where the PTE file already had a nonzero pause, but it did not seem to work right when I inserted a pause in the text file that did not already exist. And I have no idea how the slide start time position or slide duration are represented. Thanks, Scott

I read an old post (applicable up through PTE version 5) that said all the paths to the external files were absolute. Is there a way to support relative paths in the current version? E.g., if all my images and audio files are in a certain directory, but I relocate that directory to a different path on my drive, then when I open the previously created pte file, it can't find any of the linked images and sounds. I would like to be able to re-point pte to the new parent directory for the images and sounds rather than having to relink every single file. Alternately, if absolute paths are still mandatory, I believe I should be able to edit the PTE file in a text editor to find/replace the old absolute path with the new absolute path. Is this a viable approach? Thanks, Scott

Thanks. Ctrl F11 and Ctrl F12 is what I was looking for.

Thanks DG and Robert. Both approaches work great. I was looking for a point size field..Not realizaing that the text could be sized like an object.

I have a show that is very straightforward--a series of slides with audio, with a one-to-one correspondence... one audio file for each side. what is the easiest way to adjust each slide's duration to match the duration of its audio file? Here is what I have been doing... is there something easier? a. My images are in a directory by themselves, with sequential filenames. (e.g., slide 1.bmp, slide 2.bmp) I do 'add all files to project', and based on my file name convention, all the slides are in the correct order in my show. b. The corresponding audio files are in a directory by themselves with sequential filenames. I do 'add all files to project', and all the audios are in the correct sequence in the show, and adjacent to each other, but of course are not correlated with the slide timing. c. I do 'fit all slides to soundtrack' and the slide durations are adjusted such that the last slide ends when the last audio ends. d. I now need to manually drag each slide duration starting with slide 1 so that the slide duration corresponds to the audio duration. Is there a less manually intensive approach to accomplish this?

In the main window, in the timeline view that shows the slide track and audio track, is there a way to zoom in and zoom out? That would make it easier to navigate back and forth. And would also give you more granular control when you're you're using the mouse to adjust slight position or duration, if you have a lot of slides. Alternately, if there is no zoom function, is there some way that I can set the scale of the timeline slider?

what is the relationship between the file size of my images and my audio files, as compared to the file size of the published EXE? I am not referring to the number of images and audios. I mean whether Image X was saved from its source program as big file or a small file. Do big source files result in big EXE, or does the publishing process somehow normalize the source data so that it takes the same output space regardless of its original file size? The user manual suggests that big source files equal big EXE files in the following statement (but my experiments are giving contradictory results) "Executable file of my slideshow is too large.How can I reduce the size of my executable file? Reduce your JPEG images to 1024x768 or 1280x960,160-500 KB. Use MP3 files for soundtrack (don't use WAV audio files)" I used the PowerPoint 'save as' feature to save my presentation as a series of image files (one for each PowerPoint slide). I then imported all the slides with no audio into a pictures to EXE show, and published to EXE. I first did this setting the PowerPoint output format to bitmap. I then repeated the experiment with PowerPoint exporting to PNG. Although the PNG source images are much, much smaller than the bitmap counterparts, the EXE file based on the PNG was actually a little bit larger than the EXE from bitmaps. (2.23 meg for bitmaps; 2.27 meg for PNG). I'm just experimenting now. I have not created my first show yet (which like my experiments, will be based on exported PowerPoint slides). So it's early enough in my project for me to adjust how I generate the source data. I appreciate any advice you have on the source image and source audio settings for the best compromise between image/audio quality and EXE file size.

When editing a slide in 'objects and animation', I am adding a text object to a slide. How can I control the point size of the text? When I go to the properties tab, I can set the font, color, alignment, and line spacing, but I don't see any option for the text size. The PDF user manual (page 40) states that the text size can be controlled from this tab, but I can't figure out how to do so.

What is the purpose of Non-exclusive fullscreen mode in v7-5-5. The user manual says: Added "Non-exclusive fullscreen mode" option (the Project Options,Screen tab) But this is the entirety of what the manual says on the subject. It does not say what this means or does?

1) I would like my presentation to stop at a given slide, where I have defined a button with action 'next slide'. I do not want the presentation to go forward until the user presses the button. How can I do this? I am able to get the presentation to stop at the slide by customizing the slide and selecting either 'loop this slide' or 'wait for a keypress to show next slide' But both of these options still allow the presentation to go forward to the next slide if the user presses the keyboard key. Is there a way to force the user to press my online button to move forward? I know I can set the project options/control tab to uncheck 'permit control of show using keyboard'. But this still allows the show to move forward (after it has stopped on the slide with the button) if the user presses the right arrow key. 2) similarly, I want to have the first slide in my presentation as instructions to the person watching it, with some buttons on that page. And I don't want the presentation to move forward until the user presses an online button (no action if they press a keyboard key). The only way I've found to do this is to create a separate, one slide presentation with the buttons, and set the project options "when show ends keep last slide in show on screen". Now if the user presses a keyboard key, it does not move forward to the next slide (because there is no next slide). But this is not an elegant solution. Plus it means that I need to distribute to the audience to be exceed files instead of just one. Is there a better approach I should be using?

I know I can put a button on the slide and assign various actions to that button. But is there a way to assign actions that happen automatically at the completion of playback of the slide without any action from the person viewing the slides. e.g., I could have 10 slides in my show, but I might want the show to stop at slide 5, or for playback to jump from slide 5 to 9, skipping 6 and 7. (Maybe the content in certain slides should not be distributed to some audiences, but should be distributed to others, and the published EXE. So I would be looking for an easy way to still keep a single pte file with all my slides, but just modify the per slide playback setting before generating my EXE's.

Is there a way to combine shows (into a single published EXE file), so that when the user presses a button or when one show ends, the next show starts? I know I can create a button for the user to press in the first show, which will have an action of starting the next show, or also I can set the project options to automatically run a slideshow at the end of the current slideshow. But the next show remains in a separate EXE file ... I am trying to publish it so that both shows are combined into a single EXE file (so I really should not even be pointing the first show to the second EXE file but instead should somehow link to the second shows PTE file). Of course I could just re-create all the slides and audio from the second slideshow in the first show's PTE file... but this is what I am trying to avoid.

It seems the information in the user manual and in the program itself is not accurate compared to actual published EXE file sizes. The user manual says: "How can I calculate the size of a produced executable file with my slideshow? The size of your executable file with slideshow is 280 KB plus size of your files (images and audio files)." The status bar at the bottom of the main window can also give an estimate of the EXE file size. But I created a show which consisted of one blank slide, with no effects added to it, and no audio. The published EXE file was 1.3 meg. The status bar said the exe would be 479 kb. On an actual 10 min show, the status bar said 46.6 meg but the actual EXE file was 18.2 meg. Can someone describe a more accurate method for estimating the EXE's before I create them?

bbdigital and yachtsman1, Thank you both. This looks like a great piece of software. I found in the user manual where it says: "How many slides can I include in my slideshow? Up to 20000 slides (unregistered version is limited to 10 slides). What is the largest size that the generated executable file can be? The resulting executable file can be up to 2 GB." I've been experimenting more with the file sizes, but will post my new questions/issues in a separate thread. bbdigital - how did you do that wonderful animation in the sample presentation you directed me to... e.g., flipping the cards... moving the moon in the picture? I assume that you did that animation in a separate program and saved it to a movie file, and then just loaded that the file into 'pictures to EXE'. Or did you actually create that animation in 'pictures to EXE'? I didn't think 'pictures to EXE' animations features were that sophisticated. Scott