alrobin

Yes, that is how I would visualize it working. Then you could add a keypoint to an object at the precise place where you wanted a sound. Of course, it would help to also be able to hear the sound while playing the O&A timeline, something that Igor has promised to work on.

Doug, The short answer is "no". However, you can set up your preferred defaults in a 1-slide "template", and then open that every time you want to create a new show and start from there.

One nice way to accomplish this would be to associate a sound clip with an object on the O&A timeline.

Lewis, you have to add some music first.

Hi, Paul, Welcome to the Forum! To display the slide numbers, go to "Project Options/Comments" and under "Set text comment for new slides" click on the "browse button" and select "Slide name" (or "Number" if all you want is a number - not the same as that appears in the EXIF data). See attachment below. Click below "Position on a slide" and select "bottom" to position the number below the image.

Note that you can also order the file list by date (from newest to oldest). This might help in some cases (e.g. travelogue, wedding, etc.)

Isabelle, Welcome to the Forum! Idiots don't ask questions, so don't worry. To turn the text on and off, click the "Text" icons - one for the "file list" at the top, and one for the "slide list" at the bottom (see attached screenshot).

David, It sounds like you will have no trouble running v.5 with those specs. Any new laptop, with gaming in mind, is likely to work fine. If you're really in doubt, just take along a few shows with you to try out before you buy. The video card is the most critical component - I would get one with at least 256 Mb of RAM in order to handle larger-size images. Don't worry about anything better than that being detrimental. Just be careful not to load it up with too many video and game programs, especially ones running in the background, that could bog things down. No need to wait for Direct X 10 (9 is sufficient). Best of luck!

Why, are you in prison? I don't think you'll need too much help catching onto v.5, especially if you have a good pc with a reasonable video card. But you will probably be able to show all of us a thing or two after you get up to speed on it! All the best!

If you are using version 5, open the timeline and select "Timed Points / Arrange all points". You can also check "Auto spread slides along music" if you want all the transitions to be spaced evenly over the timeline, to the end of the music.

Sylvia, Igor has indicated that he will add another option - to play a show to the end of the music. This will avoid premature truncation of the music in a synchronized show.

Igor, Personally, I don't see the need for an option to "run application" after aborting the first show - for me, pressing "ESC" should stop everything. If intended otherwise, the author could add the ability during the first show to jump to the last slide, in which case the next application would run as planned.

Good point!

Igor, that explains why my loop demo didn't work properly. My apologies for being so critical - I rearranged the timing of the slides, and everything works perfectly now. Thanks so much for this option - it is a great idea! Of course, my simple demo is not the best way to apply this feature - it is only to illustrate what is possible now. I've attached the new version. loop_menu_demo.zip

Jeff, It's another way to accomplish something similar - of course, if one simply holds the slide, in synch mode what should one do with the music? How long should it play? The looping is one way to hold the slide and should also loop the music once Igor gets the bugs worked out of it. You can still accomplish the same effect as in 4.48 by setting a very long duration time (say 5000 seconds). But in synch mode, this would still pose a problem similar to that encountered by using the old method. The looping is the best alternative for sync mode.

You don't have to use a dark slide - just add any old image you happen to have handy, and then delete it in O&A.

Dom, Very interesting! You are certainly the Master of special effects! The images are interesting, too! Keep them coming!

Alain, You can delete the main image in O&A if you just want the objects. Also it's easy to add a dark-slide. I keep one in every project folder.

I just noticed that the spreadsheet does not identify "synched" and "non-synched" shows properly. Just a minor glitch, but an obvious one. See revised model here: PTE_5_Adjustor.zip

Hi, Hartmut, You must be using "Default settings" for these slides. The model will only allow you to modify transition times where they have been specifically input to PTE, either by changing them on the timeline, or in "Customize slide". It's a problem with the script - Adjustor would have to make up a few extra lines and so far I have only made changes to the lines which are there already. Sorry about that. If they show as "greyed out" after you run "calc", you can't change them. But it's not difficult to adjust them in PTE, especially on the timeline.

I have finally completed the first version of my "Adjustor model" for PTE verson 5. (You can download it for free from the link below). Based on MS "Excel 2000", "PTE-5 Adjustor" is a spread-sheet-based interactive model for examining PTE project files and making basic changes to image names, and timing parameters. With it you can: a)view your "duration", and "transition" timing parameters in tabular form; b)identify which slides contain more than one keypoint; c)rename your slides; d)spread the transitions over the total time; e)pin certain times and spread the slides evenly between them; f)manually input actual times at which transitions occur, and have the other timing parameters recalculated accordingly; g)manually input new slide durations and transition times, and reflect these in the project timing; h)transfer new timing and slide names, etc., back to PTE project file format, and confirm the results in PTE. The second sheet of the model contains a brief list of instructions. Please contact me if you wish further information or assistance in using this model. Enjoy! PTE_5_Adjustor.zip

One way for Igor to get around this might be to add another action to "customize slide" to permit jumping ahead to a specific slide. Then one could add a neutral slide just before each possible choice for breaking away to, but not have to play the neutral slides if the show were to be played through "normally" without selecting a menu object. Hope this doesn't sound too convoluted!

Max, One thing you might consider, in order to speed things up, is creating one text object, changing the parameters to suit your requirements, and then cloning a bunch of additional text objects (using the "copy/paste" buttons at the top of the O&A window) where all you will need to do, then, is change the words and re-position them.

Jeff, It's a new method (in I think beta 14+) of "stalling" PTE over a certain slide to allow time for an object to be selected, for which an action has been given. It's a way to set up a menu within a show without having to create 2 shows. Select a slide in the "slide list" and click on "Customize slide". (see screenshot below)

I created this simple looping demo to illustrate how sound can be incorporated into a menu using the new "looping" feature in synchronized mode. Both sound and music are contained in a single sound file, and looping is used to separate the instruction from the music. However, due to a peculiarity in the program, the instructions, instead of repeating ad infinitum, just give a small grunt the second time around. I've added a second image to illustrate the timeline - slide 2 is the looped slide. loop_menu_demo.zip