alrobin

Hi, Cindy, I use WsFTP95-LE (a free download) to transfer files to and from the web-page server. It is designed for use in Win 9x operating systems, but I find it works well under XP too. However, as Boxig says, some of the free public sites may not allow FTP transfer, but it is so handy once you get it set up that it is worth a try. You may find it useful in uploading all your .htm and .html files when doing updates to your site if you don't use it already and your server allows it. It is available at WS FTP95-LE, or WS FTP95-LE (2) . Here are some links to sites which provide info on how to use it: Site 1, Site 2, Site 3.

Claire, Just to prove that two heads are better than one, I'll add one other note to Alan's good advice. If you do want commentary along with your music, be sure to add it on the line opposite "Sound" at the bottom right of the main window. This way it will play along with the background music without cutting it off and you can have your cake and eat it too.

Hi, Claire, Welcome again! To control the music without setting up the synchronization timeline (which is the most effective way to control slide/music sync, but a little more work), simply highlight the slide on which you want to start, click on "Customize Slide", and move to the "Music" tab. Check "Play new background music" and click on "Add". Select the piece you want (preferrably an Mp3 or Ogg file, but it could be a wave or MIDI file, etc.), and click "Open". Presto, whenever this slide is activated, the music will begin to play, and continue until either cut off by another slide with "Play new background music" checked, or at the end of the selection, if you have enough slides to last that long. You can also elect to have music repeat over and over (in the Project Menu). Good luck with PTE!

Pushu, That's correct, always keep the .pte files for all your shows, just in case you ever have to go back in and change something, or if you are using them as templates, so you can go back and adapt them for new shows.

Hi, Claire, Welcome to the Forum!

Pushu, Yes, to link to each large image would be a big job. However, done once, you could save it as a "template" for future use. It would be less work to confine the links to separate sections only. Re loss of the objects after saving, maybe you forgot to press "OK" after adding the buttons in "object editor". Are they still there in the ".pte" file when you test the show using "preview"? Don't save the "template" page as an "exe" file, but keep it as a ".pte" file so you can use it and modify it for another show. As for adding "picture" objects and using them as buttons": - in the "slide list", highlight the image on which you want your buttons to appear, - click "Object Editor", - click on the "picture" icon at the top (fourth one from the left), - look for and "open" your button file in the directory dialogue box provided, - drag it down to where you want it on the main image, - right-click on it to access the "properties" menu where you can select the appropriate action when pressed. Hope this helps!

Igor, A long time ago I suggested that the capability to have a new transition start part-way through one already in progress be considered. (i.e. have several independent tracks, each one representing a separate "projector".) I can do this with my crude self-designed and built pc-controlled analogue 4-projector controller, so with all the flexibility in digital design, it should be a "piece of cake" to provide it for a much larger number of "virtual projectors" in digital!!?? If you can provide this feature in PTE, even with only two or three independent "tracks", then you will have a program even further ahead of any competition, and the excellent program that it is will be made even better. Of course this is not a small add-in, as the whole GUI for PTE would have to be re-thought and re-designed. But, I think it is worth considering, especially before becoming more "locked-in" to the present design through the addition of some of the new features being contemplated.

Igor, I am in the process of putting together a basic PTE tutorial which I hope to upload soon (after you get a chance to look it over), and I have encountered a small problem which, if fixed, would greatly enhance one's flexibility in creating non-synched tutorial-type shows. I'm posting it here in order to obtain feedback from the Forum members. I am using all three means of adding sound and narration: Project options, Customize slide, and Sound (on main window). I started out by adding my narration via the "Customize slide / Music" tab, but then decided to have soft background music playing throughout the presentation. So, in order not to cut off the background music at the appearance of the first narrative slide, I switched the narration to "Sound" at the bottom of the main window. However, (and here is the problem), in "Sound", there is no easy capability for having the narrative spread over more than one slide as there is when using "Customize slide". The sound cuts off as soon as the next slide appears. This could be fixed very easily: by having the narration continue until the next slide with a file listed in "Sound" occurs. When creating a tutorial type show this feature would add greatly to the ability to demonstrate the effect of various actions without having to break up the narrative into short jerky segments.

Life's a slice!!!

I call that the "loaf of bread" icon - it's so small you can hardly tell what it looks like. But, as Ron says, you have to have a slide selected in the slide list before it will show itself.

Hi, Alan, Currently, you can preview the show, even without synching, starting at any slide in the show. Does this not meet your requirements? Or are you thinking of some other format? Please elaborate.

That's great, Merlin! WnSoft and their support team are usually right on the ball! (except on weekends, but they work so hard they deserve the weekend off! ) Looks like Christmas came early this year after all! Let us know when your first show is ready!

Ken, Just wondering if you are aware that you can customize the comments in PTE already. If you type in your text opposite "Comment" on the main window it will override any other comments for that slide that you may have set up in "Project Options". Copying and Pasting this for each slide is not a whole lot of work, unless you have 1000 slides in your show. However, if you also want to add a different global comment automatically, you are out of luck until Igor adds this capability to PTE.

Paul and Guido, # 20 on Boxig's list of utilities for PTE is a volume control. Would this fit the bill for now?

Merlin, I think I just discovered part of your problem. I tried to send you an email, first in reply to your email from the forum, and then directly from here to the email address provided, and it bounced back both times with this message: "A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed: (address hidden) SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data: .................snip.............................. dd This user doesn't have a yahoo.com account (address hidden) [-5] - mta220.mail.scd.yahoo.com" Is this the address that you sent to WnSoft? If you like, if you provide me with a viable address, I will send you privately the address returned by Yahoo.

Stu, I'm all for it too. Plus, it would also be useful to have a repeat button on the nav bar. Today, in order to replay narration for a particular slide in non-sync mode, one has to go back one slide and then ahead one slide, or vice versa. It would simplify matters if there were a button which, in pause mode, would simply repeat the transition to the current slide, or better still, repeat the narration.

Hi, Merlin, Welcome to The Forum! You're right, this seems to be a common complaint from new users lately, so it is possible something is happening through your email provider or your own server - are you using a corporate email account with firewalls, SPAM-blocking, etc? Might help if you could give WnSoft another email address to try. In your emails to them, make sure you use the address listed on their web site. WnSoft are having a lot of trouble with SPAM these days, so your message might be getting lost in the trash. Make sure your message is simple and does not contain any links or signature at the bottom, and does not use a lot of special formatting, so it won't be classified as SPAM. Also, keep the subject simple, and don't use any bad words! Keep sending, and you will undoubtedly hear from them, as they also check this forum regularly. When you do get everything up and running, as you say, it will be worth the wait! Good luck!

Stu, You are correct- it is still PTE.KEY. And to be sure it is the right one, it should be 231 bytes in size.

Bill's reply re the "tape squeals" prompted me to think of another possibility for fast-forward and reverse. I basically agree with Bill on this - my comment about "tape squeals" was really meant as a joke, as, like Bill, I was discounting the real possibility of handling all this, along with transitions, etc. (I think I did put a smilie after it). Igor, if you can design an accelerated fast-forward/reverse with simulated transition effects (IMO, the latter are not as important as provision of an audible indication of position), then perhaps a slider control similar to those found on video simulations would be preferable to a simple left and right button arrangement on the navigation bar. I have found that same-pitch audio feedback works best when there is some control over the speed of fast-forward or fast-reverse, so you can "listen in" by slowing the speed down, to determine the position and whether it has reached or overshot where you want to continue playback. A slider which you could "grab" and move with the mouse would give one this desired control. Besides, if the fast-forward or reverse were too fast, then "same-pitch" feedback would not be any more helpful than the old-fashioned "tape-squeal". Igor, since the sound generally occupies fewer resources than the visual components of a show, I would prefer that you provide audio feedback on fast-forward and reverse, and if necessary compromise on the visual feedback (i.e. forget about the transitions (they would be virtually "cuts" in any case), and perhaps provide a glimpse of only every 4th or 10th or 20th image, depending on the speed of fast playback. This sounds like an interesting challenge - hope you find it rewarding as well!

Igor, This is very good news! The most important feature for my purposes is the first one, full control in synch mode. IMO, both the ability to jump back or ahead to a specific slide and also to pause, play, fast-rewind or fast-forward would be useful. These could be made available on a navigation bar, but it would also be useful if pause, play, fast-rewind, and fast-forward could be available via mouse clicks and/or hot-keys in order to avoid having to display the nav bar on an "artsy" full-screen slide show. It would be nice if f-forward and f-rewind could be activated by holding down an "arrow" key until the desired slide is reached. And if you can add in the high-pitched fast-forward and fast-rewind tape sounds too, this would be even better! Regarding proportional scaling, as you know I am in favour of having the slide show play exactly as the maker intended it. So, if this means chopping the screen top and bottom in the case of wide-format shows, for example, I am all in favour of it. (For those people who still prefer to fit these shows to screen, then that option would also still be available.) I will look forward eagerly to these new features!

Marianne and others, A while ago I discovered this "piece de resistance" of "sharpening" in Photoshop. It was covered in a tutorial, the author of which I no longer remember, but it is so effective I have to share it with you. It sounds complicated at first, but after a couple of trys you should find it makes a lot of sense. Here goes (I'll try to keep it simple): 1. Make a "copy" layer of your image. 2. Open the "unsharp mask" filter on the copy. 3. Select a reasonable set of parameters, depending on the size of the image, etc. 4. Close the filter and make a copy of the corrected layer. 5. Select the first sharpened layer (copy #1) and change the option from "normal" to "darken". Set the opacity at something like 75 to 80%, whichever looks good. 6. Select the second sharpened layer (copy #2) and change the option from "normal" to "lighten". Set the opacity at around 25 to 30%. 7. Play around with the opacity settings to obtain the best-looking effect. This procedure, if you had to go through all these steps every time, would be too much work for most every-day images, but the handy thing about it all is that you can set up an "action" to do it all automatically whenever you press the assigned function key. Just a couple more notes on sharpening: 1. If you use "edge sharpening" instead of "unsharp mask" you can reduce the artifacts and noise (unless, of course, your image is abnormally grainy or noisy to start with). You give up all control over edge thickness, etc. however. 2. My "Photoshop Bible", by Deke McClelland, tells me I should always use a setting of "0" for the "threshold" parameter. To use his words: "I urge young and old to observe Threshold with the utmost scorn and rancor." He uses an "edge mask" to deal with the issue of Threshold. This procedure is even more complex, so I won't go into it any further, unless someone wishes to have the details, in which case you should contact me by email as I don't want to take up any more time on it in the Forum. Hope this adds to the body of useful knowledge on "sharpening". Edit: The author of the tutorial mentioned above was Russell Brown, the "Photoshop Guru".

Hi, Maureen, I, too, use "save for web", mainly for faster action, and, as you mentioned, more options. The main (IMHO) significance of "save for web" is that it saves the image in the sRGB colour profile which has become the "standard" for distributing photos (mainly by web, but this would also apply to distribution of slide shows for others to watch). The reason for this is that apparently sRGB is the profile used on the majority of pc monitors. Many serious Photoshop users, however, prefer the Adobe RGB "working space" (or some other profile for specific needs), as it has a wider selection of colours. As such, it is the preferred mode if you are planning to convert to CMYK for pre-press applications. If you are already working in sRGB mode, you can achieve optimum jpeg compression by choosing jpeg save option "baseline optimized". This option is made available particularly for obtaining optimum compression for web applications. It is different from ordinary "baseline" mode in that it compresses by 5 to 10 % more than ordinary "baseline". I do not know if it also converts to sRGB, but I do not believe that it does. However, it seems to create files about the same size as "save for web" in most cases. One important fact to consider in all this: in Photoshop, in "save for web", the jpeg compression settings are measured as percentages (i.e. values with a maximum of 100). However, in "save as", jpeg compression ratios are based on a maximum of 12. So, a "save as" value of 7 will compress more than a "save for web" value of 70. Hope this sheds a little light on a very complicated topic.

Bob, Just watched your beautiful show, "Sunset Peak". Wish I had been there with you - beautiful colours! You mentioned the characters in order of age - I'm assuming it was from youngest to oldest?? You are lucky to have hiking opportunities like that in your back yard!

Harold, I have been using Audition for about a month now and am very pleased with it - was it worth the extra dollars? I think so, but only time will tell. The list price of Audition is $299 US, but the upgrade from Cool Edit 2000 and CEP 1.x is still available for $99. I believe Audition is identical to Cool Edit Pro 2.x, so is perfectly compatible with Cool Edit 2000. I like the extra levels (128) in the mixer view, the CD ripping capability, and the extra special effects and noise-reduction capabilities (although I have had only limited success with applying the latter - a lot of experimenting is necessary to get it right.) All the effects are visible, too, in a handy expandable menu along the left-hand side. It also allows one to import a MIDI file into the multi-track section, view it as a "piano-roll", and also play it along with other wave files. I have already used this feature in lining up a wave file to play along with a MIDI file. It is not possible to mix the two together, however. Of course most if not all of the special effects and noise reduction capabilities were available in Cool Edit as plug-ins (for an extra price of course). The most useful features are exactly the same as in Cool Edit 2000 (the fantastic user interface, the smooth scrolling, ease of selection of portions to edit, handy zooming in and out, etc.) I am in the process of using it now to touch up some vocal music, something which can be very tricky and easy to over-do! I find the ease of use of Audition (and Cool Edit) really pays off in terms of time saved in projects like this where you are constantly flipping back and forth from detailed to expanded view, using multiple levels of "undo", cutting and pasting, etc. I guess the most significant reason to upgrade, apart from the additional features mentioned, is to be able to get in on future upgrades without having to pay the full price. If you give me your email address, I'll send you some screen captures.

Hi, Bob, Both methods seem to work for me. Except for the "IMG" tags: .