goddi

Well.... I am getting a little closer to your technique...not that close, though. My big problem is that I don't know which image I am working on. In the 'Objects:' list, each one is named "Image". When I click on one of them, the specific image does not get highlighted. I did something....but still confused........ Second try: http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle-2.zip Gary

Lin... Thanks, but your puzzle is much more creative. The Photoshop part was the easy part... I don't know how you got all the parts spinning around all at the same time. With my 'technique', I had to add in all the previous pieces to each piece's annimation. For example, for the 5th piece on the top row, I had to copy in pieces 1 - 4, and then animate the 5th piece. For the 6th piece, I had to add in pieces 1-5, and then animate the 6th piece. I really don't have a good understanding of an easier way of doing it but....at least I got something done. I hope the manual will be 'good for dummies'. Thank... Gary

Lin.... Yikes....!!!! I don't know how I did this but I finally got something to look like a puzzle with animaition. Was a good learning exercise. It is rough but my head was about to explode until I finally got the hang of it...sort of. Thanks for the push!!! Gary Added.... I thought I could attach the .exe file but not having much luck... Is it possible??? Let me see if this works... http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle.zip

Load the action in PhotoShop and run it, adjust any parameters such as contour, outer-glow, texture, etc., to suit your taste then open the results in ImageReady and export the separate layers as PNG files. The rest is just import into P2E on separate layers, adjust the animations for each and you have a "puzzle" slideshow. Lin

Lin... It worked just fine on my PC. Neat stuff!!! In fact, I was trying to do a similar 'puzzle' last week but I could not figure out how to 'cut up' an image without going completely crazy. Can you tell us what software or method you used to create the puzzle pieces??? Thanks... Gary

Al.... Thanks for your patience. I am now smiling because I now got "the hang of it". I played around with a show with just one slide, added slides, and poked around using your instructions. I am always amazed that someone can write a program that includes stuff that I didn't even know that I would want to do. I think that is what makes it difficult sometimes to understand what some functions do. It is like someone trying to teach me new words but I have never seen what the words really represent. It takes a great leap...at least for me. Thanks... Gary

Al... It is really facinating to me that I can have a murky thought in the back of my head that needs to be clarified...and then someone puts some light on the thought and makes it clear and concise before and better than I did. Yes, that is exactly what was bouncing around my head. Thanks... Gary

Yikes!!!!!!!!!! I'd better get a new pair of bi-focals!!!!!!!!! Thanks... Gary

That is a great demo. Thanks very much for sharing it. I have a general question, though, that might help me understand how to get an understanding how you did this. When I fiddle around and move around some of the Keypoints to see what would happen, is there anyway to "Cancel" what I just did and return back to the original settings? I find that when I hit the "x", I have to close the program without saving. Don't see any way to just "Cancel." It would be nice to be able to just "Cancel" any changes made in "Objects and Annimation". Is there a way??? Thanks... Gary

Thanks, Al, I now, I think, get your second point on "Arrange All Points." However, when I de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, and add a slide to the slidelist, the new slide and its transition effect DOES display in the timeline. Obviously, I am missing something. But for now, I will just stay away from these choices. I don't think I am creative enough to dabble with these 'esoteric' commands.... Thanks much, Gary

Al, I feel I should be writing 100 times on the blackboard that "I am dense". However, I confess that I still do not grasp the difference between these 2 choices or when/why I should use them. 1- You stated "The difference is that if you have extra slides on the slide list, and have not yet added transitions to them on the timeline,...". How can there be 'extra' slides with no transitions? When I put slides in the Slide List, the transitions I chose from the Project Options/Effects, usually the Fade In/Out, have already been applied to all the slides in the Slide List and the Timeline. To test this, I changed the Effects for one slide from "Fade In/Out" to "Quick (no transition effect)." Then I chose "Arrange All Points" but the transition for that slide in the Timeline did not get change from "Quick" to "Fade..." as I thought it would. Since that slide was already "spread", I assume the only thing that "Arrange All Points" would do would change the transition from "Quick" to "Fade". But it did not. 2- You stated ""Add Arranged Points" will first add the additional slides to the timeline, and then spread them all evenly...". When I add a new slide to the Slide List, it is automatically added to the Timeline with its transition, without any need for "Add Arranged Points". I assumed that, in para. 4.7.1, in Jeff Evan's PDF, the "Auto Adding of Transition Points" has to be deselected for this to occur. However, when I deselected "Auto Adding of Transition Points" , and then added a new slide to the Slide List, the image automatically appeared in the Timeline with the Fade In/Out transition. So I still don't see what "Add Arranged Points" is supposed to do. Apologies for beating a dead horse. Gary...

Jeff.... Thanks so much for your reply and the PDF instructions. I have read them and they helped quite a bit. The thing that still puzzles me a little is the differences between: Add Arrange Points and Arrange All Points. It seems that both, whether the delete all points or not, will "add at equal intervals over the length of the music files." I am still missing something here, but I am way ahead of where I was. The PDF instructions were great. Thanks... Gary

I have been using the pre-Beta versions for some time now but have been intimidated by the Timeline function. I have always used the Sync to Music because I never have been able to understand what the heck I was doing with the Timeline. But now, I feel I had better get a grip on the pre-Beta version's Timeline before I get serious with the more involved Beta version with its animation. So here are a few questions that, I hope, the answers will get me on the right track and clear up some of my confusion. 1- When I open the Timeline, the “Automatic synchronization” button is selected. However, when I hit “Play”, the selection moves to the “Customize synchronization” .button. If I reselect either “Not synchronized” or “Automatic synchronization”, the “Customize synchronization” gets automatically reselected. Why do we have the “Not synchronized” or “Automatic synchronization” choices when they cannot be reselected? 2- When I first get into the Timeline, no Timed Points show up. So I go into the “Timed Points” and click on the “Add Arranged Points.” Then all the transition points show up spaced as expected to the length of the music. Why don’t they just show up automatically without have to go through these steps? I feel that I might be missing something else that I can or should do other than click on “Add Arranged Points”. What am I missing??? 3- I see many really interesting slideshows that are more than just sync’d to music. I see shows that are timed to the beat of the music. So my question is if I want, say, to have the first part of my show to be timed to the beat of some music, then the remaining slides just spaced out evenly to the remaining length of the music, can I choose “Synchronize slideshow to music duration” but then go into the Timeline to choose certain slides independently to be timed to music? I’d appreciate it someone could clue me in on the philosophy of using the Timeline so I can get more creative. It seems to me that I should first choose "Sync to music", then go into the Timeline to, say, move images closer together to match the beat of the music. But then there is lots of music left at the end with no images being shown, just music. So the choice would be to add images to fill in the music space or edit down the music's length in Audacity. It this what is normally done or am I really off the mark??? Thanks… Gary

But I did get a Memory Leak... I ran the PteShow_H.exe for about a minute and it came up with a memory leak the first of 3 tries. You said it doesn't have memory leaks, so I am not sure what this would tell you. Everything else looked great. Gary

Oooppsss, I thought I had installed the Beta#2. I just installed it and, yes, did not get the error message. I agree and now understand that, technically, one can not resize an object Zoomed to zero. I just thought that might get someone into scratching their heads a bit wondering what happened, if they, like me, just accidentally entered "0". Maybe, the "Image" in the Object window could turn red, or something, as a warning, when it is Zoomed to "0"....? Just a thought... Gary

Igor... Yes, I understand that you can select object. But even if it is 'selected', I can not grab the handles of the object and resize it as you might expect. I have to go into the Zoom windows and enter a value >0. When I did initially enter a "0" in the Zoom windows, an error message popped up..."Complanar Vectors in Basis....". Gary

I mentioned a problem I had with 5Beta in another topic but I think it got buried in with other responses. Since it did not get any response, I would like to bring it up again to see if it really is a problem or not. What happened is that I entered "0" into the Zoom entry windows to see what would happen. The image shrunk to a small green retangle as expected. Normally you can grab on the handles of the image and resize it. However, I could not 'retrieve' the image. I could not grab any of the 'handles' around the little green rectangle that represents what is left of the image. The only way I could get the image back to visible size is to type in a Zoom value >0 or some number into the Zoom setting windows. It took me a while to figure this out. Gary

Lin.... You are goldmine for information. Thanks much... Gary

Lin.... Just a clarification, if I may ask you. I have tried to create the autorun.inf file WITHOUT the icon line. It never seemed to work. It would just open the directory of the CD, not start the PTE file. So I tried again recently and included the icon line and it worked just fine. My question is: do we really need to have the icon line in the autorun statement or was it just me doing something else incorrectly. Just curious. The statement below worked well. [autorun] open=menu.exe icon=CD_Rom.ico Gary

Igor.... I understand. I am greatful that you are listening in and looking at the 'problem'. Much appreciated. Gary

LumenLux... Yes, I think you are saying more clearly what is in the back of my mind...one button for the timeline of the particular slide that has more than one Keypoint in it. Push the button and the Keypoints space out or in proportionally to where they were, based upon the new amount of time. Gary

Al, I tried your suggestion but it did not work. However, I see what I did. I actually went into both Zoom entry windows and typed in "0" to see what would happen. The image shrunk to zero. This might be a little bug that Igor might want to fix. You can not 'retrieve' the image like you mentioned. You cannot grab any of the 'handles' around the little green rectangle that represents what is left of the image. The only way to get the image back to visible size is to re-type "100" or some number into the Zoom setting windows. Gary

Just had another thought as to what I am trying to explain. I have read Replies from other and sometimes I can not quite follow what their point is....my fault not theirs. I think I might be on a little different wavelength. But anyway...my thought is that there can be a button that will adjust all of the Keypoints proportionally across the amount of duration we give to that slide (in the Customize Slide/Duration of Slide For...). This would be similar to how it is now when you add or remove music from the slide show, all the slides adjust proportionally. Make sense....? or not??? Thanks... Gary

I am a little confused (still). In the slide that I was trying to adjust the 'slide's duration time', I did not see any "+" symbol. So I took a look at the second slide I had. I saw the only keypoint it had (at the very beginning), and it did have a "+" next to it. But if I moved the keypoint, the "+" dissappeared. So I am not sure what is going on here. Not sure how I can add any more keypoints with a "+" so they will "automatically move if you change time of a slide or duration of a transition effect". Did I misunderstand Igor's point??? So, anyway, I fiddled around with this this keypoint and eventually I messed it up so bad that I can not see the slide at all in the "Objects and Animation" window to make any adjustments. The only thing in the window is a small green square that I can not grab any of the edges to make it show up. Any hints on what I did wrong??? Thanks... Gary

Chuck... Yes, I understand that I can do that way but I would like to be able to click on a button to spread the 6 keypoints proportionally over the new increased (or decreased) 'display time' of that slide. It would make it much easier to tweek the 6 animations this way than having to do it manually. I think it would be a useful addition (if possible) if there is no other way than to do it manually. Thanks... Gary