mhwarner

While the new text macros using JPEG EXIF info are a welcome addition to version 5, it would be nice to use data stored in the IPTC fields as well. Many professional photographers, myself included, use the IPTC information to store keywords, captions, etc. I have one web page creation program (Arles Image Web Page Creator) that allows the use of either type of data (EXIF or IPTC) for automatic comments. I wonder if this would be possible in a later version of the program. It would save an extra step of transferring the comments from IPTC to EXIF fields. Thanks for considering this.

Hi Dick, I posted the same issue as a bug several days ago on this page: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....=6455&st=60 starting at post #66 I have burned DVDs from P2E AVI files out of version 4.48 using Roxio and the last slide does in fact remain on the screen until you return to the menu or eject the DVD, so I know that it is possible. I haven't tested in Beta 10 yet, but based on your post, I am assuming that the issue has not yet been addressed.

Thank you, Igor, for taking the time out of your holiday to do this. I really appreciate it! Enjoy the rest of your time off. Mary

Howard, Can you open the file with a text editor like Notepad? (Right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select "Open With" then pick Notepad.) If so, you could create a new text file and copy and paste the information from the old file into it. It appears that the new text file should be named reg.txt or pte.key (I think either one will work). As mentioned above, the format of the text file is (where the string of dots is replaced by a very long string of letters and numbers): REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WnSoft\VideoBuilder] "Key"=".........."

Nevermind! My fingers were apparently quicker than my eye (and apparently my brain). I assumed that the link from within the Video Builder was exclusively to purchase the upgrade. When I got to the order page, I neglected to cycle through the available options and what I apparently ordered was another copy of the standard version of the product. Tom's posting of the sequence got me to thinking, because the language in my original email referenced a different key in the registry. No wonder the actual key I received was a duplicate of the one I had already purchased many years ago. Duh! I called DigitalRiver and they agreed to send WnSoft a request to cancel the first order and send me a refund. In the meantime, I re-ordered, selecting "Upgrade to Deluxe" this time. The new key information came through (though it was not an attachment and I had to cut and paste the relevant portion from the email into a reg.txt file). P2E Video Builder recognized it properly and will now create videos without the unregistered copy scrolling text. It might be nice -- AFTER v. 5 is rolled out finally (not now to take away precious time needed for completion) if the link in the dialog received when clicking the "DVD" button on a registered standard version would lead to an order window where the upgrade to deluxe was the default selection. Minor, but I bet it would save Igor and company some time in dealing with idiots like me who don't always read things closely enough.

I expected I would receive a free upgrade key for my contributions on the beta test, but I guess that was not to be. So I went ahead and paid for an upgrade from the link available when I clicked on the DVD button (a small price, really, for the wonderful new functionality). I received both a confirmation email of the order and a follow-up containing the supposedly attached file with a new key. There was no attachment, but there was some registry information at the bottom of the email message. I looked at my old pte.key file and the supposedly new information appears to be virtually identical. But in any case I created a new pte.key file in my version 5 directory and pasted in the text from the bottom of the email starting with "REGEDIT4" and the registration key information "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER" ... etc. I reopened Beta 10, clicked on the "DVD" button, then clicked on "Load a Key", clicked on the new pte.key file and received an "Invalid or Damaged Key" error dialog. The DVD burning still works, of course, but is ruined by the "This DVD is created with a trial version of blah blah" message scrolling across the screen. Have others paid for and successfully received updated keys? I guess now I have to wait for 3 days until Igor's holiday is over or give up and go back to Beta 9. Major bummer!!

I put some animation on a slide (for instance, I changed the mode from "Fit to Slide" to "Original" on a slide). Then I exited "Objects and Animations" window and went back out to main window. Decided I didn't want any animation on that slide. If I go back in to "Objects and Animations" the undo button is of course no longer available. Yes, I can change the mode to whatever I want, but there should be a way to say: "Return to default, no animation for this slide. Just pretend it is a new slide added to the list and that I have never opened the "Objects and Animations" window." If I delete the object itself, then all I see is a black background in its place when I preview the slide show. This is a simple example of course, but what if I have played with some animations, moved the slide around, rotated, resized, etc. Now I decide that none of that works and I want the original slide back (again, after I have exited "Objects and Animations" so that the undo button no longer works). It seems I have to go to the Animation tab and click on each of the labels to return my slide to its original position and then go to the "Common" tab and manually undo any changes, like Mode, I might have made there. If I am customizing music or transitions on a slide I can simply uncheck the "Use Customized Settings for this Slide" box and it will return to default settings. This would be nice for animations also. If this functionality is already there and I have missed it, I would appreciate it if someone could point out where it can be found. Thanks. PS While I have followed the advances made to version 9 closely for the last year, I haven't had the time to do much experimenting with it. Now that most of the features I need to produce slideshows for my customers are available (I have used 4.48 and earlier versions for quite a long time), I am definitely "wowed" by the capabilities. For instance, I added a scrolling text animation to one of my slides using the text in "objects and animations". It was a bit plain for my tastes, though, so I simply "rasterized it to PNG", took it into Photoshop, added a bevel and drop shadow (yes, I know P2E can do the drop shadow but it was a style I already had preset), resaved the PNG and inserted it as an object. Just a few minutes work for a lovely effect. Igor and his staff are absolutely amazing! Thank you for a wonderful product. And thanks, too, to all the folks who participate here and unselfishly provide assistance to those of us who might be clueless at times, as well as to those who share their ideas and examples for implementing the cool new features available.

Not a bug, but a suggestion would be to modify the text on the Project Options\Screen tab in the section where it starts "Additionally" to something like "Additional Options (scroll down to view)". I know that the scroll bar in the dialog should be obvious but I spent the last two hours looking for the percentage dropdown until Tom graciously pointed it out to me.

Duh! I didn't see the scroll bar on the Project Options\Screen tab. Thanks! I will experiment later with both the percentage option and with the "Disable Scaling of Main Images (not recommended)" option. One of them should do the trick. My last resort was going to be editing the .pte file in a text editor to add " FitMode=None" to every slide, which keeps P2E from resizing and avoids editing "Objects and Animations" for every single slide. Not something I really wanted to do Thanks for your help, Tom!

Thanks for the reply Tom. In version 4.48 there is a dropdown box for % of the screen to show slide images. There is no such box on the Project Options\Screen in version 5 Beta 9A. I did check the "Show TV Safe Zone" in the Objects and Animations\Tools button, but it doesn't change anything. Maybe this feature is not yet enabled.

I am totally frustrated at this point! I have created a completely new test show. I trimmed all my images to 4:30 ratio then resized to 1024x768. I created a DVD (which works beautifully) and played it on my standard TV (NTSC). The images are chopped off, both bottom and sides (and I know this because I put a 2-pixel border around some of them just to see if I was getting the entire image--the border doesn't show)! So I recreated the images and resized to 640 x 480 which theoretically should show up in the "safe" region. Wrong! They are still chopped off. Is this a bug or what? I have selected 4:3 in the project options for burning the DVD. I throught perhaps I could change it from "fullscreen" to "windowed" in the Project Options\Screen tab, but unfortunately that option is still grayed out in this latest beta. I even added different versions of the same slide side by side in the project -- one sized to 1024x768 and one sized to 640x480. They both show up at exactly the same size in the DVD. So is this something that will work properly in the final version, am I missing something simple here, or do I need to go back to my "old" method of burning DVD's using Roxio. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions.

While I am pleased to say that I was able to burn a 450-slide, approximately 20 minute slideshow to DVD without a single hitch, I was a little disappointed to see that the show did not fit on my standard TV screen. It fit top to bottom (just barely), but the sides were cut off. I had the impression, possibly a misunderstanding, from what I have been reading, that the new video builder would fit it to the size/ratio selected. Some details: Under Project Options on the "Screen" tab, under "Aspect Ratio" of a slide I have "4:30 PC/DVD" selected. I also selected 4:3 for the menu under the DVD options. My slides are 1023x698 (I know maybe an odd size and definitely not 4:3, but a re-size from my 8mp camera with "maintain aspect ratio" plus some pixels added for a white border). In any case, the result I expected was that the slide would fit the screen horizontally/left to right and would have a black border at the top and bottom. Did I do something wrong or pick and incorrect setting, or do I have to be sure that my slides for a DVD to fit on a standard screen are no more than 720 pixels in width? I did check my DVD player setup and it was correctly set for a standard TV at 4:3. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

While Maureen's post isn't exactly a tutorial, there are some very good tips here. It would be nice if they were added to the Tutorials section at the top so that they can be easily found without searching. Maybe the section could be expanded to "Tutorials and Tips". Just a thought. And thanks for sharing these details, Maureen! It's always inspiring to see the workflow of others and pick up some great ideas along the way.

While I lurk here every day, I haven't had the time yet to play extensively with V5 beta myself. However, I thoroughly enjoy the demos, templates and tutorials of others that have been posted. Yes, the effects are amazing and it is interesting to see the subtle "one upmanship" (fun compettion more than anything) of the ever better and more amazing effects being developed and displayed by forum participants I really do not think that I am ever likely to be using rotating helicopter blades, bouncing cubes, etc. in any of the horseback riding "slideshows" which I sell. But I can definitely see that all this experimentation will lead to some top notch effects that I might use in my title slides or in more elegant transitions or in the so-called "picture in picture" effect that Barry Beckham and others have perfected in earlier versions of P2E. I will welcome the chance to use the occasional pan/zoom effect for emphasis on certain slides, and I am really looking forward to incorporating Dom's filmstrip templates and possibly JPD and Dom's versions of the photo album template into some of my own travel shows. The point I am trying to make, I guess, is that while many of us are unlikely to use all of these effects all the time, when we have a need or wish to use one of them in some part of a slideshow, it will be good to know that the effect will work well because all possibilities have been tested and debugged by knowledgeable users of this forum before the software is released in its final form. And I guess I might also wish to ask Patrick why, if he is already happy with the standard slideshow effects available in v 4.48, he is so concerned about the somewhat "delayed" release of version 5 (although we were never really promised a final date). I am curious as to what features you are expecting in version 5 -- not related to all of the animation stuff -- that will help you in making standard slideshows. Not being a smartass here, just trying to educate myself. I can think of things like the new objects editor (even without using animation), DVD creation functionality, perhaps the ability to use transparent .png files and maybe the ability to create a "template" as a zip file that will be wonderful additions. While I know there are other places in this forum that these bits and pieces of information can be found, maybe what I am asking for (and not necessarily from Patrick since he seems not to want to respond further) is a recap of the other new features we will be getting in v 5 when it is released.

Lin: Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Eyesight problems will be a severe blow to your photography business. I hope you are able to manage. And if any of us here can help with anything, be sure to let us know

Thanks for your wonderful site, DOM! I have downloaded many of your tutorials and templates and I thank you for sharing these. You may also want to include a link to this free cutout/extraction software which we discussed in the forum a while back: http://graphics.cs.msu.su/en/research/Segment/index.html (P2E thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=5057)

Leonard: While extensive documentation and lots of tutorials supplied by the developer imight be preferable for a software product, please do consider that this wonderful piece of software costs about $24 US for a LIFETIME license. And also consider that the developer spends most of his time updating and expanding the features available --based largely on the input and feedback from the software's users here in this forum. There is a help file supplied with the product and many users in this forum have generously shared their experiences and developed tutorials for P2E. I personally would prefer to have the features constantly upgraded than have a large manual which I may never read. For the average user of the product, it has been fairly intuitive to use. With version 5, of course, there are many new things to learn. But most of the time, if there is something specific you want to do or create, you can search here and find the answer as to how someone else has already done it. Or, you can always post your question and within a few hours, someone here will post some helpful instructions or point you to a past thread or give you a link to a tutorial. I would personally much rather have that than to pay $300US for software with an extensive printed or on-line manual from a company that provides little or no technical support on the use of the product itself (for which there may be numerous third-party "manuals" written which cost even more $$). Just my 2 cents.

I, too, am puzzled about this. I downsize my images in shows that I sell for the size I want them displayed and I definitely do not want them upsized for viewing on larger monitors. Part of the reason for the downsizing is so that the show is viewable universally regardless of monitor size. But the other reason is NOT to give them an image large enough that they can use some method of screen capture and print at a reasonable size. If there is a reason for this new option, I would prefer that it NOT be the default so that I don't have to worry about checking it every time.

I know many of your are extracting parts of images to use in transparent .PNG files in P2E v 5. I just ran across this free tool (Photoshop plugin) today and thought some of you might be interested in trying it. There is a downloadable tutorial (.mov file) as well. Haven't had a chance to try it myself, but I did look at the tutorial and it seems like it might be easier than traditional methods on some images. I did look at a similar (not free) product a while back (the name escapes me), but it was about $60 US, so I passed on it. http://graphics.cs.msu.su/en/research/Segment/index.html

Hi Andy, What a marvelous idea. This will be great for promotions. I realize the quality isn't what you'd see on an original executable P2E slideshow, but it seems like a great idea to get photos out there without the likelihood that they will be stolen. I know one of the other members, Lee Evans, has been experimenting with flash slideshows on his website. And since this is free, seems like there would be nothing to lose and maybe a few customers to gain. Thanks for sharing.

I have used the Memorex printable 16x DVD+ media with no problem whatsoever. I sell them to folks with all kinds of players and have never experienced any problems with burning them (on both Dell laptop and desktop DVD burners). Haven't had any coasters yet. I print the "labels" directly onto the DVDs with my Epson 960. Of course, I would never print on or otherwise label any DVD which I am using for archival purposes. For them, I write with a TDK CD market in the clear center circle only.

Thanks for the clarification! Guess I will wait until the final product is released to see what I can do and have a few of my customers try it out. And yes, the new Deluxe version with DVD option sounds great! More and more of my customers are requesting DVDs rather than CDs. I definitely planning on purchasing it when it is available.

As a long-time P2E user, I have been following this forum and the progress of v5 avidly for the last several months. I understand that there will be 2 engines so that older graphics cards will still be supported. I understand that if I wish to create a slideshow which does not use the pan/zoom effects on slides, I can specifically designate or by default will be using the "old" engine. (For the record, I have an Nvidia Geforce FX Go5200 card in my laptop.) I create many shows for sale in my event photography and have no idea of the graphics capabilities of my customers. I have played with some of the new slideshows created by members and worked with a few of the tutorials as well, though not extensively as some of this stuff seems to screw up my display and makes me have to re-boot (I actually think there is a problem with the display adapter but have not had the time to send the machine back to Dell for repair). So, to get down to it, my questions are: (1) Assuming that they worked on my machine or that I purchased a new machine or graphics card and could create shows with pan/zoom, is it a requirement that others who would play these shows on their computers also have updated graphics cards? Or once a show is made into an .EXE, does it even matter? (2) While I know that the pan/zoom effects require higher-level/updated graphics cards, is the new object editor also dependent upon it? I guess what I am asking here is whether any of the new features in v 5 would be available for use in "universal" shows, or do I need to stick with only those capabilities which currently exist in v 4.45 (or whatever the latest version is). I would really like to get more indepth experience with the version 5 features, but if I can't use them for shows which I will be selling to customers, I need to spend my time on other things (like learning the intricasies of custom DVD menu creation, etc.) Thanks in advance to Igor or anyone who has the expertise to answer my questions.

David: Although, all of the excellent replies here have given you accurate information, perhaps if you could explain in a bit more detail exactly what you are trying to accomplish we could offer some additional suggestions. Are you trying to post training videos? Show travel photos? Display a portfolio? No matter what the authoring program, as everyone has said, you are limited to Macromedia Flash (SWF and FLV), AVI, WMV, QuickTime (MOV), RealMedia (RM) or animated GIF for display on the web directly from a browser. You can end up with many of those formats even if you have created your slideshow in PTE, but there are any number of ways (and tools) to get there. You can also put a slideshow into a PDF file using Photoshop, Acrobat, or various other inexpensive shareware programs, which users could either download or open directly in their browsers.

I like this text effect! I have been reading all postings about v5 and downloading the examples -- some of which amaze me that the testers come up with such clever uses of the technology. However, I would like to clarify something, Igor, if you have a minute to answer. Although it appears that my video card supports most of the effects I have tested, if I would not use the pan and zoom effects requiring the new engine, would I still be able to use the secondary (lesser requirements) engine for my shows and have the ability to use all of these wonderful object animations that I am seeing? (This would be for shows that I am selling and so I would have no control over which computer/graphics card combination the user might have). Thanks for your help, and most especially, thanks for giving us such a wonderful product!!