alrobin

This is a good example of some of the capabilities inherent in the new v. 5 features and how they can be put to good use in a travelogue-type slideshow. Nicely done!

Gary, If you de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, then you can add slides to the slide list without having their transitions displayed on the timeline. However, even if the slide were added to the timeline, it wouldn't necessarily be arranged so that all slides were equi-spaced, particularly if you had already manually rearranged the existing ones. "Arrange all points" doesn't change the length of any transitions - just the spacing between the transition points on the timeline. Hope this doesn't confuse an already tricky subject any more than it is already.

Ken, I agree that this would be a useful addition to the capabilities of PTE. However, I would not like to see Igor spend a lot of development resources on it, particularly before all the usual features have been programmed in, as it is possible to apply it while "dressing up" one's images for inclusion in a PTE project. The progressive blur idea is an interesting one, though, if it were possible to work it into the program without an undue amount of effort.

I like the automatic "quote" system very much, as it is a quick way to address a specific comment or question so that the context is maintained. It is very easy to delete portions of the quote that are not applicable to the reply. But, if I don't want to include a quotation, I simply use "Add Reply", as both Brian and Ron have indicated.

You can also move slides around to where you want them by "grabbing" their little transition "rectangles" on the timeline, and sliding them backward or forward. Then (as mentioned by Dave) you can select groups of slides and automatically spread them evenly over their own selection of music.

Gary, The difference is that if you have extra slides on the slide list, and have not yet added transitions to them on the timeline, "Arrange all points" will spread those slides represented on the timeline already, whereas "Add arranged points" will first add the additional slides to the timeline, and then spread them all evenly.

Ray, Igor hasn't finished developing the synchronized mode in the new beta. For example, I set up my music to start about 5 sec into the start of the show, and the images are all late by 1 sec., relative to their beats in the sound file. This is with fast "cuts" and reasonably small image files (wide-screen) 5 seconds apart. When the show recycles it is even further delayed relative to the sound. However, as you experienced, in the timeline view everything is bang-on.

K, Welcome to the Forum! This is just a beta version (See HERE ), post #21 by Igor. There are only 2 transition types activated so far.

If you make IrfanView the default viewer for GIF's, and insert the name of the animated GIF on the "Run external application" line in "Customize slide" for an image, then the GIF will open in an IrfanView window when the slideshow arrives at that image. PTE will continue playing, so you would have to make the image duration longer as well to give you time to deal with the animated GIF and close IrfanView when you are finished with it. Don't know if this is of any benefit for you, though. There are command-line options for IrfanView, but I don't know how to reference them from PTE. ------------------------- Did some more digging, and found this: To open an animated gif using "Customize slide / Run external application", enter something like: "C:\Program Files\IrfanView\i_view32.exe" c:\ca_flag.gif /hide=15 . Then, to close the animated gif, on the next PTE slide enter something like: "C:\Program Files\IrfanView\i_view32.exe" /killmesoftly on the "Run external application" line. Here is a SAMPLE ANIMATED GIF you can try it out with.

Sorry, no animated GIF's yet. Unless you can find a way to satisfactorily open a window in HTML format from PTE, as an "external application", and run the GIF that way. You might have to manually close it though. Might be worth experimenting with.

MBE, Welcome to the Forum! Audacity is probably the simplest (and less expensive) solution for basic audio editing. To check the linking, you first have to "create" each show (to ".exe" format) that you want to reference from the "Introduction" slide.

Lin, Very nice. Along with all the capabilities Igor has built into the program, the use of masking has some neat possibilities.

John, You're welcome - glad you liked it. The sound via "Customize slide" or the "sound" line doesn't seem to be activated yet. You can link all your sound files together and add the finished file in "project options", though.

In Photoshop, select "File / New", making sure that the background is transparent and that the size is correct (at least as large as the screen size will be, and 2 or 3 times as large in the case of the circular mask). Drop in the shape you want (if rectangle, just "draw" a selection the correct position and size, select "inverse", and fill the inverse area with black. Then save as a "png" file. For a circle, select the ellipse tool and draw a circle on the same type of transparent background as before. This will create a mask layer with a black circle on a transparent background. "Rasterize" this layer, and use the "magic wand" to select the area within the circle. Then use the "magic eraser" to erase the dark circle. Select "Inverse" in the "Select" menu, and use the "paint bucket" to fill the area around the circle with black. Save as a "png" file. Someone more adept with Photoshop than I may be able to cut some corners off this method, but it seems to work for me.

Dave, They are one in the same. It seems that the main critical requirement in a video (graphics) card is the amount of on-board video RAM (128 Mb seems to be a minimum requirement, but 256 Mb would be better).

Cèlou, Very interesting effects - nicely done!. Marco, I noticed only a slight change in pace on the initial multiple zooms, and a very slight "flickering" on the 4-image scene (most noticeable in the top-right quadrant (perhaps because there was more contrast there with the branches against the sky).

No problem! See HERE . This is the 1280x768 rectangular version only. I'll try to add a circular mask later. Granot, I posted my source files too. Lin, that's a good looking moon! Here's the above demo with the circular mask added: http://www.alrobinson.com/mask-demo1_May14-2006_14-25-35.zip (Note: I have modified this demo to properly reflect the wide-screen format).

I tried out the mask technique last night, and it works like a charm! Very easy to implement, too, and you can use it to cover any jpeg - your image doesn't have to be a "png" file. It also opens the door to other applications - for example, using a circular mask, you can move it back and forth across an image and achieve the "spotlight" effect commonly seen in "flash" animations.

Could you use a black mask with a transparent rectangle "cut out of it" in photoshop and saved as a "png" file? Then as you zoom in on the image "under it", you also enlarge the size of the "mask" until it displays 80% of the image.

Michael, I should have mentioned that one way to force the images into the arrangement you have shown for horizontal and vertical formats is to add them as objects in "Object Editor". Having done that, you can copy the objects and paste them into the next slide, and the image will line-up as in the previous slide. Then change the name to the image you want, and it will appear, formatted the way you want it to be.

I agree with this recommendation. Maybe a "hand" cursor when one clicks on the centre point. Also, when one clicks on a "hot-point" of the selected object, the focus in the list of objects on the right switches to the foreground image and the outline of the image disappears, even though one can still implement the change in size or rotation.

Michael, welcome to the Forum! You would have to do it one slide at a time as the program cannot distinguish a vertical from a horizontal. However, you could set up two template slides, one vertical and one horizontal, and copy the one you want to the new-slide position on the slide list as required, and then change the parameters to reflect any new comments, or browse for the correct image. Not sure if this would be faster than doing each one by hand, but at least it would ensure that each slide was in the same format as the others, whether vertical or horizontal, and that the objects used were in the same place relative to the others.

Robert, If you highlight an image object (or rectangle), everything on it (both keypoints and sub-images), can be copied to another slide. Click the "Copy" button, and "Paste" everything onto the next slide (in it's own O/A window). Make sure you highlight the object you want to paste to. Having copied all the keypoints and sub-objects, it is a fairly simple matter to delete whatever you don't want. I don't think you can copy only some hitpoints associated with an object, and not others, but I could be wrong.

Robert, Can you not use the "undo" button at the top? It will do multiple "undo's". Don't know if there are any restrictions.

You're welcome! - Let us know how everything goes! All the best!