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nobeefstu, Not quite so - if you customize the first slide with the "play new music" option the music will not play, even though you have music files loaded in the music listing.

nobeefstu, I think it's a bug. Even if you disable "Sync Music", it still comes back on.

Hi, Granot, That's very interesting. XP does have the capability, as in Win NT, to log on as admin, or a user, or a guest, etc. But, if you do like I do, and only log on as admin, with no other users, there is never a problem creating and deleting files, except sometimes, as I mentioned, when I try to do it under program control. There has to be a way to set some options at the time of creating the files which would allow later deletion. It's confusing trying to keep up with all these new operating systems. And I hear MS have another one in the works now, too. In the short term, it helps them sell more software, but at the same time, as more and more users become frustrated, more and more will start thinking about alternatives.

Granot, You understood correctly - the delete app seems to work on its own, but not when part of a program which has already accessed the file or folder. As a separate utility it seems to be fine. If it were only because of not being the administrator, then the small delete utility would not work either. However, I am logged on as administrator, so that is not the problem. ( XP does take on some of the characteristics of Win NT in its "administrator" / "server" functions, but not as rigorously as Win NT.) Good luck!

Granot, I tried your app and it does delete the ".exe" files. It wiped out my "D" drive, too, though (no, no - just kidding!!!! ) However, I found in my Adjustor model that deleting a file in XP seems to have some dependency on whether it was opened previously in the model. In VBA, there is a small built-in routine for checking for files in a folder. If one uses it in XP, then for some reason, the program assumes that the file is still in use, and refuses to delete it later in the program. In Win Me, this doesn't seem to be a problem. So, even though your new mini-app works on its own, if used in conjunction with the rest of the application it may still refuse to delete the files. I have looked everywhere for a way to "refresh" the directory, to indicate that the file is no longer in use, but haven't found any reference to such a procedure. So I had to work around it, and use another method to determine the pathname of a particular file before deleting it. I take the pathname from the PTE file, so it doesn't actually open any of the files involved.

I realize that, Guido, but one is not always merely "appending" them. I usually overlap them, or sometimes merge two together, if I am combining a special sound with the background music, for instance. (i.e., a marriage is not always a matter of taking on an appendage - it often comes with some merging of assets).

Granot, The first half of your utility works fine on my laptop's XT system. However, it does not erase the files in the "temp" folder.

Guido & Ken, Maybe when you save in Audacity, it automatically mixes everything together. I'm more familiar with Cool Edit where you do a "mix-down" before you save. With all the experience you two have, I wish I could read your minds!

Ken, With most of the sound editing programs I have seen, once you have loaded in all your images, and positioned them along the timelines (audacity opens each sound clip in a separate timeline), you have to "mix down" to create a single sound file.

Bill, Looks like it might be a bug. However, if you customize the first slide with the "play new music" option, and de-select "play background music" in "project options", no background music will be heard, provided there is no custom music loaded with that slide.

Thanks, nobeefstu, I had missed that one! Thanks for pointing it out to me. I always said that it's a dull day when you don't learn something new!

Mark, One thing to note in selecting default values - if you have customized a slide, changing the default will not affect that slide's settings. It would be nice if there were an option in PTE to globally reset all slides to the default values, without having to manually reset each one.

Granot, Only until midnight tonight - after that the price goes back up to $80.

Okiediver, As Guido indicated, you can make PTE accomplish all sorts of special effects with the image editor, and by speeding up the showing of slides, etc. To make text fade in and out, you can either put text on a second appearance of a slide, using the image editor, and then put another instance of the same slide without image editor text after it. So, you will have three "copies" of the same image (actually there is only one image in the show, but one image used three times - this is allowed, and it doesn't take up any more space than using it once!) Then you select a "fade" transition (or circle, etc., for special effect), and the text will fade in and out, leaving the main slide motionless. To be sure that the text is where you want it over a large selection of pc's, it is best to add the text to a copy of the image in a photo editor, such as photoshop, and use two separate images in PTE, one with text, and one without. Guido is correct about not having to customize the slide (after all, that is why we call him the Guru! Only if you have already customized it and checked "stop music" would it be necessary to go back and check "continue playing". This happened to be the case in the example I tried out in order to answer your question. Hope this helps.

Okiediver, After refreshing my mind on PTE options, I think I have a better idea of what you are wanting to do. If you are using version 4.01 of PTE, you should have a box under "comments" called "sound", and a file-finding box you can click on to choose a sound file for the slide that is highlighted. This sound will play when that slide is opened in the PTE slide show, along with whatever music is playing at the time. Make sure that "continue playing current sound file" under "customize slide" / "music" is checked. You have to provide the sound clip (wave or mp3 file), though, by creating one and recording it in Audacity or Cool Edit 2000, etc. Hope this helps.

Okiediver, I'm not sure I follow you - is this supposed to be a feature of PTE, or is it a special effect you want to add to a show? I think you are referring to shutter click sounds in the sound track - if so, you would have to dub them into a music file using a sound-editing program. You can do this easily in Cool Edit 2000, which I am more familiar with, but I believe it is also possible in Audacity by creating a small sound file, opening it along with the main music file, and positioning it where desired on the time-line.

I have uploaded another version of Adjustor (v. 3.03) to my Webpage . This version includes the ability to make global changes to image file names. It will be useful when one transfers a ".pte" project from one pc to another, and the image file specs no longer match the new location. I think I have also solved the problem with Windows XP, where the OS wouldn't allow a folder to be removed or renamed once it had been accessed previously in the program. The model is becoming very complicated, and hence also difficult to re-program and also to learn. So, if anyone encounters glitches, or needs help in getting started with it, please don't hesitate to email me or ask questions here in the forum.

Guido, Maybe I have a later version of the program (1.0.0). There is a separate "help" tab on the menu bar at the top on my version. I haven't use Audacity myself, but the help instructions look very detailed and orderly. There are 12 tutorials, and lots of other useful information on how to edit files, combine them, etc. The menu is labelled "on-line" help, but I think it's all from the included Help file.

Okiediver, There is a very detailed help section on the menu bar at the top - says "online", but I think it's included in the downloaded material.

Hi, Jan, As with everything else, "sharpness" is relative. If you leave your laptop at 1400 x 1250, it may appear sharper, but the image is probably smaller. (just like when you project a slide, it looks sharper if your projector is closer to the screen). I would set the laptop at the maximum native resolution of your lcd projector (1024 x 768) and adjust the distance from the screen for the optimum image. By the way, which projector and model are you using? Are you happy with the D-max, or density range, of the projected images?

Hi, Janie, The only low-price audio-editing programs that come to mind are "Audacity" and "Acoustica". "Cool Edit 2000" is a little more pricey, but will do almost everything. You can probably find them through an internet search. "Cool Edit" has a free trial download, but it puts a tone on to discourage serious use. It's fun to try it out, though. Good luck!

Ken, Yes it is still 3.02 - just a newer date.

Connie, No need to feel stupid at all - everyone starts where you are when learning this stuff. And it is very technical. To merge your sound files, you need a sound editor such as "Cool Edit 2000", "Audacity", "Acoustica", etc. "Audacity" apparently is downloadable as freeware, "Acoustica" is approx $25 US, and "Cool Edit 2000", with the mandatory "mixer" software, is around $100 US. Then you just open your files in the editing program, stack them end-to-end on the timelines, and press "mix-down", which will create a new file including the entire repertoire in exactly the relationship you want with respect to each other. Another way to do this, but one which is more tedious, and less easy to control, is to play your selections one after another from your stereo or tape-recorder into the line input at the back of your sound card and record everything that way into digital format. You will probably want to convert the resulting large file into mp3 format, though, and you will need software similar to the above to do that, although there are a few other free programs that will do the job as well. Of course there are a few other things to consider such as type of file (mp3, wav, mid, etc.) and the quality of the file (i.e. number of samples per second, number of bits, etc.), but this will come after some experience with the programs, and after asking a few more questions of the forum. Don't hesitate to ask if you need to know.

Mark, Sorry you're still having trouble getting going with the Adjustor model. Once you do get it going, though, you'll kick yourself as to how easy it is. I must have opened my version up 50 times today testing out some new improvements. If there are two spreadsheets showing on the bottom status bar, you should have 2 spreadsheets open, provided you have successfully manipulated through the "Open PTE File" and "Get Data" routines. One should be called "PTE_Time_Adjustor.xls", and the other "ptesource.xls". Another way in Excel to select which spreadsheet you want to see is to select menu item "Window". From there you can click on each one, one at a time, to open it and view it in a separate window. If you do not see both spreadsheets there, then the data you need has not been successfully loaded. By the way, for those using XP, I have found a solution which seems to work OK on my version of XP. The updated model can be downloaded from my website at the usual place. The most important thing to remember when using the Thumbnail feature under XP is to give the program time to convert the images before proceeding with any other features, such as "Dark-table", "Restore", etc. Hope this helps!

Mark, I just uploaded a new "Adjustor" to my site which seems to perform better under XP. You might like to give it a try and see if you still have the same problem.