alrobin

Eddie and Dana: The "Adjustor" model, since it is a spreadsheet, can be used to readily customize the timing for a large number of slides at once. You first have to designate the slides as "customized" within PTE, but this is readily done by pressing the small button marked "P", at the bottom of the main screen. Highlight the first slide you want to customize, and then alternatively press "P" and "down-arrow", and a whole list of slides will be so designated in no time at all. You can now import the file into "Adjustor", and make whatever changes you want to the "delay" (duration) and "transition" times. If you don't designate as "customized" first, you will not be allowed to change delay and transition times in Adjustor, as they will all be set to the default values.

Guido, Re the second problem, it seems to have corrected itself. I noticed that according to the system monitor there was a lot going on in the background on my pc, so I closed everything down, re-booted, and so far it is fine. I also noticed that the show was quite jerky when it ran, so there must have been too much load on the processor, and the button was taking quite a while to close. Didn't stop the preview from operating, though. However, the first problem is still there. The space button seems to take on the characteristics of whichever button on the timeline is "active" or "highlighted". If you press "add transition", then the next time you press the spacebar it will try to add a transition. (you can actually see it trying to activate, but if there is no remaining un-assigned slide, of course it can't do anything). If "delete transition" has just been pushed, it will try to delete. If "play" was the last button pushed, the spacebar will "play", if "pause", it will pause, etc. You can see this effect by pressing "Project Options / Customize Synchronization", and before you press anything else, hit the space bar. Since the "OK" button is the one which has "focus", the window will close.

Here's another little glitch in the timeline window. When I am previewing a show by pressing "Play", the button doesn't change to "Pause" until I am about 15 seconds into the show.

Brian, If you have MS Excel 97 or 2000, you could try loading the .pte file into the "PTE Adjustor" model, and it will tell you if there are any timing inconsistencies. And, if you fire up the "dark table", it will let you know if there are any image files it can't find. (see separate Adjustor thread on this page for details on where to find it.)

There is a problem when using the space-bar for pausing and re-starting the motion on the timeline when synchronizing a show to music. This is a very handy feature, as it saves having to pick and press with the mouse and cursor when pausing the mini-preview. However, if you insert a transition "on the fly" while previewing, and then press the space bar, you will get another transition added. Or, if you pause and delete a transition and then immediately press the space-bar, PTE will try to delete another slide until you have picked and pressed the "play" button first with the cursor, instead of using the spacebar. Quite awkward, and also dangerous, as you could inadvertently add a transition, as I did just now, without knowing it.

Hi, Dana, Sorry you're having problems getting "Adjustor" going. It does take a few tries to work out a routine that fits your configuration. First of all, it sounds like the basic model is working for you. On the "Dark-Table", to move an image, you have to click first on an image, which shrinks the thumbnail so you can remember which one you are moving, and then you have to click on an empty location (without pressing "Shift") to release the image or images, starting at that location. If you are moving a group of images (after pressing "Shift"-"L Mouse Button"), and if there are any images in the way at the location where you are dropping them, they will automatically "wrap" around the occupied locations. You have to play with it a bit until you discover just what is happening. Re the message about objects not available, they are probably just the sounds that play when you release an image, or align them back to the top of the table. You can try to configure your version of Excel in this manner: Start up Excel with a spreadsheet other than "Adjustor". (You can't configure the VB in "Adjustor" because it is locked out.) In the menu bar at the top, select "Tools" / "Macros" / "Visual Basic Editor". This will open a new window called "Microsoft Visual Basic". At the top of this new window, select menu: "Tools" / "References". Hunt through the list and make sure the following items are checked: - Visual Basic For Applications - Microsoft Excel 9.0 Object Library - OLE Automation - Microsoft Office 9.0 Object Library Then select "OK" to exit the menu, and, finally, close the VB Editor. Now, when you open "Adjustor", everything should be OK. Let me know if this helps.

Further to my "further to", I have posted beta version 2.08 at Adjustor Updates . The new version cleans up a few minor bugs, and also attempts to fix a problem some of you might be having with running it in Excel 2000. If this continues to be a problem, I may have to back off of the automatic directory method used, as I have had to re-boot a couple of times myself in order to get it to function properly. Nothing to do with the "design mode" problem you had, though, Rick. As before, please keep me informed of any further problems you may have.

Good for you, Cathy! It's a good one - similar to the "card trick" show on Beechbrook. It would be possible to adapt it to PTE, but would require a lot of work preparing all the objects and pictures of symbols, etc. No more work than doing it in Flash, though. And the transitions, which are pretty jerky in Flash, would be smooth as silk in PTE. Wouldn't need many slides, either, and the "programming" would be simple. Let us know when you have it finished!

Rick, Further to my last post, it just occurred to me that you may not have the menu-bar turned on, either. If not, go to menu item, "View / Toolbars" and check off "Control Toolbox". The "design-mode" icon is the first one on that toolbar.

Rick, You have the "Design Mode" turned on. Click the "set-square" icon on the menu-bar at the top to turn it off, so you can use the control buttons. You can't access the code behind the controls as the VB is locked out. If you can't get out of that mode, you may have to download another copy. Let me know if you continue to have problems. Running the spreadsheet isn't "rocket-science", but creating it sure was!!

Ken, that's probably a more fitting answer than you realize. None of the images that have appeared on my "Dark-Table" so far are gallery material, either! I do get your point about a dark forum, though, although I must say that my favourite web sites are the ones done in black, with light-coloured text. They are beautiful, but can be very difficult to print sometimes, though.

Ken, You won't like my "Dark-Table" in the Adjustor model, then! I, personally, like dark pages for photo-intensive content as it removes distractions, and lets your irises open up so you can see minute colour detail in the photos. In our camera club, we always turn the lights out when we put on a slide show. We also judge prints in a darkened room, with a dark velvet cloth on the easel, with just one light above the print to illuminate it. (this, I think is going a little too far, but............different strokes ............ )

You must have converted the music to a different format than was recorded from the CD. I have had the same problem when changing the sampling rate, etc., without compensating for the change in pitch. You have to be careful to make sure the audio editing program does a real conversion of all music parameters and not just certain specific items. Try going back to the original piece from the CD, and convert to mp3 without making any adjustments to sampling rate or number of bits per sample. Also, you could try it as a .wav file, too, to see if that sounds any better. What audio editing program are you using?

No, the music would have to be the boss, as we can't allow anything to interrupt it or slow it down, etc. But PTE does give us the music timing. Now all we need is something to make the slides and transitions act the way we want them to, either synchronized to the music (which Igor has given us, and which works quite well, thank-you ), or else non-synchronized, in which case they would be timed more or less independently of any music. Or, there may not be any music at all. Or, it could be a narrated show, with the narration keyed separately to each slide, and could end before the designated time on screen for the slide itself. But we should be able to know all along, the impact of our designated times on the total time for the show in these non-synchronized cases. Right, Michel?

Yes, I suspect that may be your problem. Your slide show "Tundra" ran almost flawlessly on my pc. There was only one minute glitch, caused, I suspect, by too tight a timing between one of the transitions and the time allowed. Nice show, though! And set in one of the most beautiful places on the globe! (but then I'm somewhat biased!)

I think it would still be useful to see the numbers. Then one could add in a correction factor for one's own pc configuration. It may not be 100% accurate, but should be pretty close, and at least give one a feel for what to expect. I don't know why allowance for some of this overhead can't be programmed into PTE. If it is possible to sync a show, which uses timing from a music track, then it should be possible to design PTE so that a show exactly follows one's time commands, even if they are only the default ones. My pc clock is off by a few seconds after a few days, but this shouldn't be enough to throw off the timing for a show.

Alan, I agree with you re encouraging more discussion on the creative aspects of AV - i.e. how to use PTE more effectively in capturing the mood or message one is trying to suggest. This is one reason I have been favouring more than 6 topics in the new forum - to have some topics for the applications of PTE, not just the technology behind it.

deep6, Is Windows Media Player the default player on your system?

Harold, The time shown now in PTE is just the music duration. What Michel is requesting, and it could be easily given, is the sum of all the default and customized times, plus any transition times, in the case of a non-synchronized show. This would even be useful in a synchronized show, in comparing the programmed times with the music duration. (Of course one can get an idea by looking at the timeline, but only if custom timing is selected).

Michel, I agree with you - this is something that could be useful, and would be very easy to add. (In fact, I recently added it as a feature in my "Adjustor" model. Of course, it's a natural feature to add to a spreadsheet.) Along with the information about the transition rate, the total time would be a useful addition to the time-line synchronization window.

Igor, You are influencing the vote by calling the third category "Much more than 6. I voted for it, but I didn't vote for much more than 6, only "more than 6". People might be turned off by the word "Much". You need another category, "7 to 10", and then list the items.

Hi, Sandy, Welcome to the Forum! Do as I did and download a trial version of PicturesToExe (PTE) and it won't be long before you will be hooked on it like everyone else here. Especially if you like a good smooth "dissolve" between images and the ability to synchronize them to music. And that's just the beginning. New features are being added every week. I sound like a beer commercial!

Hi, Frank, I use a neat little freeware program called "Easy Thumbnails", found at www.fookes.com, to convert the images to thumbnails once I have them organized in a particular folder. Then I can even use them in the "Adjustor" model, for sorting on the "dark-table", in place of the larger images. Someday I'll add a feature in "Adjustor" for pulling in images from a folder like "Easy Thumbnails" does, and then be able to manipulate the sequence, saving them out in a format convenient for PTE to use. I also find "Irfan View", another freeware program, useful for manipulating images. Apparently Thumbs-Plus is also useful, but I find it too expensive for all I need it for. As far as searching for images is concerned, Windows XP has some handy thumbnail preview features, too, and you can always do a "Search" by title to find the image you want. And if you're handy with MS Access, you can always whip up a database to help you do more sophisticated searches and even display thumbnails, etc. Nothing like being organized on a large hard drive, or on CD's though. That's my ultimate goal, now that I'm getting more deeply involved in digital.

Doesn't sound like an antiquated codec problem since you are using XP and other mp3's seem to work ok. Might have something to do with the fact that it's a P-II, or a video card with not enough RAM, and putting too heavy a load on the processor, so that it can't handle both pictures and music. I'm afraid I've run out of ideas - maybe someone more knowledgable can help??

Hi, MikeRadio, Welcome to the Forum! Now, Igor, there's a challenging piece of programming for you!! (I'm sure you meant random order of slides, and not random number?) I personally wouldn't be interested in this, but there may be some demand for it. Maybe as a screen-saver? What is your application? Knowing that might stimulate some interest, and also give Igor more incentive in designing it. Anyway, welcome to the lineup waiting for new features - it starts way back there somewhere! Interesting idea.