dagrace

Hi Jean! I think you're missing a few steps. When you create the show, there are 2 files: one that ends in .pte which is a very small file. When you're ready to "publish", you create an .exe file, which contains all the photos, music, and the viewer all bundled into one, so the recipient need not have PTE installed. After you create the .exe, that's what you can upload to your web site. You need not upload all the photos or the .pte file. The exe has it all! Many people zip the .exe because it makes it a bit smaller and also it changes the name to .zip. Many viruses are spread as .exe's, so some web sites and email programs don't like .exe's. Hope this helps!

Welcome Cagney. PTE can be found at the winsoft site: http://wnsoft.com/apr/ Enjoy!

Please do not take my bug report as criticism. This is a great program, and the additions you have made are wonderful! I wanted to point out things I noticed. Forgive me for not telling you all the good things I found. Thank you!

I think I may have found a small bug. I don't know how to attach a jpg file to a reply like this, but I have a screen shot. Basically, in my file list (left side of main page) I have, say, File1.jpg which is 100 KB, File2.jpg which is 200KB, and File3.jpg which is 300KB. When I pick File2.jpg and Add to the slide list (right side), It shows File2, and the picture is in fact File2, but the slide list says it's 100KB. Then if I pick File3, it shows as 200KB. If I pick File1, it says it's 1KB, which is probably the size of icon that says "Up". Hope this makes sense. Like I said, I can email you a screen print if needed.

Any tips / gotchas on installing the new release? Will it install over or next to 4.2? Do I need to specify a new folder? Should I uninstall 4.2 first? Anything else I should watch out for? Is there somewhere where I should have read about this so I didn't have to ask here? This is my first upgrade of this sw so I don't want to make a mess. Thanks!

Igor, Please don't take my comment as a suggestion to change anything about the file rename. I don't think it is as important a feature as some others you have mentioned. As Ron points out, perhaps this is not even necessary. Thanks!

As a fairly new member, I am impressed with how quickly a new release has come along. Thanks in advance, Igor, for all the improvements. I have been a part of the discussions about renaming files, etc. that Ron mentioned, so I too think you must be chuckling. Hope to get a chance to download the new release and play this weekend!

Ron, Roger, bharkins, Thanks. I guess once you're in there, you might as well stay in PS. I can see the special uses that some have described. Ron, I've not been bold enough to try the clever things you suggest, but I know they are possible. Maybe next show! bharkins, I've done what you do and it worked flawlessly. That's why I was somewhat confused. There's obviously no hard and fast rule. Thanks, all.

Thanks guys. Ken, I have the grid. I found it somewhere when I was poking around. The real question for me is: Do you use the Object Editor? If so, what for? (Not "what can it be used for" but "what do you use it for, if at all?") It seems I've seen a lot of advice / workflow that suggests people tend to do the construction outside of PTE (my Method 2 above) even if the Object Editor will do the job. Just trying to understand the rationale. Not a biggie. But if there's some downside to the Object Editor that I'm overlooking, I'd rather know it now than after spending 20 hours on a show.

I've seen some references to this topic in other threads, but I thought I'd ask it point blank. Let's say I want to show slide 1, then show the same picture on the next slide, with another smaller picture in addition, say, in the upper left corner. Method 1 Slide 2 could be exactly the same pic as Slide 1, with the additional picture included as an object, positioned wherever I want. Method 2 I could use Photoshop to create the look of Slide 2 using layers, in the correct position and size, then save the whole thing and use that as Slide 2's pic and not use the object editor. I think I've read on this forum that in general people prefer Method 2, avoiding the Object Editor. Is that true? If so, why? I understand that there are some positioning issues at times at different screen resolutions. Is that the only reason? Could some of the experts with lots of experience wiegh in on this? Does the answer change if I say I want text instead of a second picture? Either method will produce the result. Thanks.

Welcome Julia (and hubby) I had the exact same question when I got it. Here are some simple truths (I think) that helped me understand it: 1) When you select a picture for a slide, it is centered. 2) The object editor lets you import other things (including jpgs) and place them anywhere you want. (But the "main" picture that's displayed in the list will be centered. 3) There is a default project background (let's say it's black), and each slide can have its own (different) background. Now, here are some clever variations: a- The "picture" referenced in #1 above could be a single black pixel. b- The pic could be an image (for example, made in photoshop) on a black background that is not centered. c- The pic could be an image (made in photoshop) of 3 separate images on a black background. In the case of a, you can now use the object editor to place another object (like the pic you really want to show) on the screen anywhere you want. In the case of b, the image you want to show will look not centered, but it really is. Etc. etc. So the short answer is: the "main" image of the slide is centered. Period. What Alastair mentioned is a way to get the pics to "move around". If you're really new, I'd suggest reading though this forum. I learned a whole lot just by reading the threads. Also, find Al's PTE101 show on beechbrook.com (or search for a link in this forum elswhere) and watch it. It's a PTE slide show on how to build PTE slide shows! Welcome aboard. Feel free to ask lots of questions. People on this forum are very friendly and helpful, I've found.

The one show I successfully finished, I put a black slide at the beginning, and faded that fairly quickly but faded it nonetheless, because I didn't want my first slide to fade directly from the Windows desktop. I thought it more appropriate to fade the desktop to black, then bring up the real first slide. More like a movie theater, I thought. I also didn't want an abrupt cut to the first slide. That's a cool thing I've noticed about this software (and results)... the fades and techniques are flexible enough that you get many different "looks" fairly easily.

Robert, What an experience this must have been for you! Thanks for sharing. I will give you some "first impressions" with the caveat that all this is sooooo subjective. The next person will undoubtedly feel differently. And that's what it's all about isn't it? The upbeat music in the first few slides seemed out of place compared to the rest of the show. I agree that in general, the slower, mellow, non-lyric'ed music is a good choice for this show. It seems to convey the warmth of the day, your emotional experience, and the pace of the process that created the Subway. IF there had been a tense moment (like of the rope broke or you got stuck or got chased by a mountain lion) then some faster paced music would have been a nice change. But to just "stick some in" for a break wouldn't make sense. I personally would have not included the 2 quite out of focus slides (near the middle) as they didn't seem to be pivotal in the telling of the story, but perhaps they are important to you. Nicely done, sir, especially in light of the technical challenges you faced. What camera did you use? Are you in any of the shots? Looks like a close group of guys. Congrats on the achievement of both the hike and the show!

bharkins, I didn't address all the features of BreezeBrowser in my post above, but denwell was more specific. In thumbnail view (sizable to one of several sizes), you can move pics around to whatever order you want. Even after leaving and returning, they are in the same order. Then you can rename a subset (or the entire set) of photos to virtually anything you want using string functions. For example, I like to keep the original image number imbedded in the filename somewhere so I can go back to it someday if I want. Say my original slide name is IMG_0876.jpg. I can rename it (or any set of slides) to NewShow-xxx-orig-nnnn.jpg where xxx is a sequential number (starting with any number I want or BreezeBrowser remembers the last number it used for this task) and nnnn is derived from the 5th thru 8th characters of the original file name. There are virtually countless possibilities. I think it's $49. It's probably not worth $49 just for a renaming function, but it does many other things too. I'm glad I spent the money. Jimbo, yes, Al's program is really an Excel workbook with lots of sheets and macros.

Jim, I think I cracked the code... It shows you have posted 11 times. When you get to 50, you get Average Member status (how boring ) then at 100 you become Senior, and at 300, Advanced. So I don't know what you did to reset your counter to 11. Did you pay your bills?

Nicely done, Isabel! One thing that "got me" about this is your statement that no flash was ever used. What a nice range this camera has. The music was wonderful too. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting show. I saw plenty of signs there I had never seen before, but I hate to admit there were plenty I did recognize. Nicely done, George.

Brian, Couldn't get that link to work. Can you recheck? Thx.

I'm a visual learner and I found the custom synchronization screen useful. It shows a gray bar for transitions and white for durations. The first slide is a bit odd, but let's take the second. At a point in time (6 seconds into the show in your example) it says "To 2" and there's a gray bar for, in your example, 2 seconds, then white for 4 seconds, then "To 3" and a gray bar for 2 sec and white for 4... At a microsecond before the "To 2" point, Slide 1 is showing. So at t=6, slide 2 starts to show and slide 1 is starting to fade, assuming you have a fade effect selected. At t=7, both slide 1 and 2 are showing, presumably equally. By t=8 slide 1 is gone. So I don't think about it as splitting of the 2 seconds into 1 in front and 1 in back. The visualization of this in the custom synchronization screen makes a lot of sense to me. Take a look and see if it helps. Or email me and we can chat about it offline.

I haven't tried this one, but I bought BreezeBrowser a while back and found it quite useful for sorting and renaming slides. It is not free, but it's a nice piece of software, and does lots more than just sort slides. from breezesys.com http://breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/index.htm

Outstanding. I am becoming more aware of how much we miss of the world around us. We all probably walk or drive by countless great shots (like these) every day, but I don't "have the eye" to see them. I have to start paying more attention! Very well done. I agree with Severn. How did you package it so small?

I can't do all of these, but maybe I can answer some... 1) I remember reading something about this, but I can't remember where. (And I never fully understood it myself!) Perhaps in Al's PTE 101 show, or in a topic on this forum. Maybe try a search in this forum? Strike 1... 2) Yes, I believe that is true. Of course, to get fancy, you may want to start the show (like fade to black or your first slide) before the music starts, or keep the last slide up while the music finishes (there is a way to hold the last slide on the screen indefinitely). 3) This is more complicated. I am doing some tests as I write this and I think this is what I find. The experts can confirm/correct me. Let's assume you have a default of 1 sec transition and 4 sec duration. 6 slides. a- Transition it stays fixed at either the default or whatever you override it to. b- It appears that the total time (transition + duration) is then spread evenly over the music. So, if I have no overrides, and 6 slides, that's 30 sec. Now override slide 2 to have a 6 sec transition. Show will now be 35 sec. Now I synch to 1 min of music. Here's what I think happens: 60 sec / 6 slides is 10 secs each. Slide 1 has 1 sec trans and 9 sec duration Slide 2 has 6 sec trans and 4 sec duration Slide 3 has 1 sec trans and 9 sec duration etc. The ending slide in my experiment did not fit this model exactly, but I'm not sure why. So after all this, maybe it isn't more complicated. I think I've convinced myself that the answer to your question is "it never adjusts the transition time." However, it seems to adjust the duration so that (transition + duration) is spread evenly. Like I said, the experts can correct me.

Just a thought... Does the sound hiccup when you do a preview, or only when you generate the exe and play the exe? This might be a distinguishing feature. I'm no expert, but that might give someone else a hint. Also, have you read the threads about transitions happening right where the music changes and making all the different pieces one big mp3? Just grabbing at straws...

Thank you for sharing a part of the world I may never see.

Interesting how many different forms and textures this simple thing can take. Nicely captured. I, too, would be interested in nowing a bit more about where the shots were taken. Good job, Vince. Probably no control on your part, but the server where I downloaded this from was extremely slow. Took me nearly an hour to download it, and I'm on cable That shouldn't deter others from giving it a go. Worth the wait...