alrobin

Hi, Kelly, Welcome to the PTE Forum. You don't have to load the key when you upgrade. Just save the new version to the same folder as the previous one, using the 7 files contained in the zipped file to replace the previous ones, and the new version will use the same key information as before. If you want to retain the old version as well, just copy the old folder and its contents, including the "key" file, "PTE.KEY", and install the new version in the new folder, again replacing the same 7 files.

Hi, teefot, Welcome to the Forum! My best way for title slides is to create them as overlay layers in Photoshop, and then import them into PTE. If you save one slide without the title, and the same slide with a title, then when you use a transition in PTE to go from one to the other, it will look like the main slide is stationary and only the title dissolving or wiping or whatever transition you are using. You can also use text in the Object Editor but this has the disadvantage that not everyone has the same font as you have used (unless you stick to only a few of the most popular), and also, in different screen resolutions, the text could move to a place on the image where you might not want it to be. Sorry, I just noticed your other post with all the other replies - please forgive me if I have repeated anyone else's reply.

There is a work-around for this problem. I used something similar in my PTE-101 tutorial to give the listener an option to stop the background music. What you do is copy the last slide on which you have your buttons as many times as there are buttons. Then for each button you use the option "go to slide # ....", and on each of the copied slides, set the option "run external application "show1.exe" or "show2.exe", etc., in "customize slide". Also, for each copied slide, check "play new background music", but do not add any music. This will cut off the music that is playing, and the slide will direct the viewer to the next show, "show1.exe", or "show2.exe", etc.

I believe some of the other slide show and maybe the video editing programs, too, will let you include small still photos and make them into an "avi" file. A quick check of features on their web sites would probably reveal whether they have this capability.

Michel, I understand now what you were suggesting, and I agree with the recommendation 100%. Ed, The problem with the comments is an old one and one mentioned many times in the past. It would be nice if a more user-friendly way of setting and retaining comments could be found. There is a "work-around" but it involves doing things in a certain fixed sequence which unfortunately one sometimes forgets to follow, and goes back into "Project options" and thus loses all the custom work. The way comments work is as follows: - Suppose you go into Project Options and set comments as slide number. - You can now exit PO and preview the show and see the slide numbers just as you instructed PTE to show them. - If you go back into PO and un-check "set comments for all slides" and preview again, the slide numbers will still be shown. The way to clear them is either to reset the option to a different set of comments, or click "clear comments". - If you have "slide numbers" set, for example, and then go into "Customize slide" and enter a custom comment, this will be cleared every time you go into PO for something else unless you first set up the option and then uncheck "set comments for all slides". This way the slide numbers will still appear except for any custom comments you have set up on certain slides. The moment you check the comment option in PO again (for example, in order to change to another option), or click on "clear comments", you will lose all the custom comments. Hope this helps.

Vernon, If you want avi's on a web site, buy a MiniDV camera. If you want great-looking photos on a web site, use ordinary "jpegs". Anything else will probably be too large and bulky for convenient viewing on your site.

I downloaded it OK yesterday for the first time - very well done! IMO, it raises the bar on digital image quality for competitions. I would like to show it to our club too this season.

All the best, Bart!

Kevthewev, Maybe your logo is too large for the image you are superimposing it over. Once you have it created you don't need to go back to PS to edit it. Just position it in the Object Editor by dragging it around with the mouse. Did you try applying it by using the copyright feature in the advanced menu, now that you have a transparent image that works? Don't know what else to suggest. To copy it, just open object editor for the slide to which you added the logo, highlight it and press "Ctl-C". Close Object Editor, and open it for the next slide. Click "Ctrl-V" and you should see the object in the same position as on the other slide. Or, you can add it to a slide and then copy that slide as many times as you have slides in the show. Then for each slide, change the name to the name of the slide you really want by using the browse button toward the bottom of the main window, to the right of "Show Image". It takes a little work, but is not really too difficult (unless you have 10,000 slides in your show! ) Hope this helps.

Michel, Doesn't "autoscroll2" work the way you are suggesting?

Igor, Speaking for myself, I would be quite happy if the new "pan" were as smooth as the current "push".

Hi, Kevthewev, Welcome to the Forum. If you create a jpeg of your copyright text, with anti-aliasing disabled (see below), and "save for web" as a transparent GIF (using "diffusion transparency dither"), it will appear as text with a transparent background in the new advanced "copyright" feature in PTE. Another way to add a "transparent" copyright is either in Photoshop to each image, as Ken and JRR have been describing, or as a transparent GIF object in the "Object Editor", overlaying each image. Once added to an image, it can be copied over to all the other images. The problem of the ragged light spots around the text in the transparent GIF against a dark background can be resolved by using a font without any anti-aliasing. To turn off anti-aliasing in PS7, select "Layer / Type / Anti-Alias None". Hope this helps!

In FP import a show ".exe" file the same way you would do a jpeg file, create a link to it on one of your web pages, save this page, and upload the new page and the .exe file to your web site. Presto! Instant slideshow that anyone can right-click on and download.

I'm assuming that by transparent image, Duncan is referring to an image where certain areas of it are transparent so that the background image will show through it in those areas. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The best way to simulate this would be to set it up using different layers in PS.

I think you can only use transparent slides as objects. But you can simulate this by using photoshop (or other image editor) by superimposing another image on the main one, and dissolving from one to the other and back again. In PS, you could give the appearance of transparency on the main image by changing the opacity of one layer against a white or black background.

Ron, I don't seem to be able to replicate your problem on my Win 2000. Doesn't mean I don't believe you, but it is probably something peculiar to your own particular setup. And, I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions, either, as to how to resolve it, except for maybe reinstalling PS, making sure no other applications are open, as you said you were going to try. These tricky problems can be very frustrating. Good luck!

Copyright laws also vary from country to country. In Canada at one time, and I believe this still applies, everything published was automatically copyrighted (unless, as Cindy says, one could prove prior publication or formal legal copyright).

Duncan, Welcome to the Forum! This sounds like another one of those "oxymorons"??? Or do you mean a transparent GIF? In that case, you just add it as an object to a slide, click off "Show image" in the main window, under the slide list, and then dissolve that slide into another. I haven't tried it, so maybe this won't work as you want it to, or maybe you are trying to do something different.

Glenys, You can add a "voice-over" in the "Sound" line at the bottom of the main window, but this is only good for the duration of that slide. When the next slide comes up, the voice-over, if still active, will be cut off. However, if you plan things right, it can be quite useful.

Hi, Dibilio, Welcome to the Forum! No, #1 and #3 are not possible yet, but you have hit on two excellent suggestions for Igor for the next version of PTE. Igor, hope you're "listening". #2 is possible - but you have to do it in "Object Editor", and be careful as in different monitor resolutions the images may move relative to each other.

Igor, That was a short rest - just a "cat-nap"! However, we're not complaining! Well, here goes with my wish-list: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Ability to add overlay narration via the main window "sound" line which spans more than one slide. 2. Ability to globally add "customized" parameters such as slide duration, transition effect and time, comment, etc, to all slides highlighted either in the slide list or on the light-table. 3. Ability to have zero time (or almost zero) between transitions without causing a "glitch". 4. Scaling of objects so they don't lose position in different monitor resolutions. 5. Ability to change transition times in the sync timeline window by highlighting a transition and typing in a number. 6. Ability to change transition times by dragging the grey horizontal lines with the mouse. 7. Ability to highlight several slides in the timeline window (by clicking on the first and then "shift-clicking" on the last), and then move them forward or backward as a group by dragging them with the mouse. Tom's suggestion #2 for relative "scaling" of the times could be included in this as an option by holding down a certain key while dragging with the mouse. 8. Ability to zoom out until the entire timeline (and sound waveform) can be seen. 9. Ability to make an object button completely transparent. 10. More control over the design of the navigation bar. 11. Ability to select a specific slide and go to it from the navigation bar. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That should do it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll add it later. However, I'm sure it will be covered by someone else in the meantime! This is shaping up to be a very good Christmas this year! Thanks so much for giving us this opportunity to input to your wonderful program!!! We really appreciate it! Sorry, Marianne for repeating your suggestions. I hadn't read yours before posting my list.

Bring it on!! We even have a spare bedroom if anyone wants to stay overnight. By the way, thanks to you and Phil, I also have some photos from Glencree in my entry to the international competition. And thanks to advice from Kieran and Mary, there are also some shots from the Burren and the Dingle peninsula. Once the competition is over, I'll add the show to my website.

Alan, I hope you don't have the shot of us in your show - you'll lose the competition for sure!! Not that it is a bad photo - thanks to you and Phil, we even have a copy of it mounted and displayed in our living room. But, as everyone is saying, I agree that getting to know each other better really helps in understanding each others' points of view and makes the Forum a friendlier, more helpful place to meet. Too bad we can't have annual conferences where we could meet and compare notes, slide shows, software, spouses, ... Bussty's site is a good place to start. We had a great time in Dublin, but the highlight was meeting Alan and Phil, and also Brian (Conflow) and Mary, at Davy Byrnes pub. (The beer wasn't bad either! )

Beth, If I may add one other possibility, if you are using synched mode, the last slide will stay on-screen until the music is finished. So, if your music has a long interval of silence at the end, or if the music is much longer than the time for which you have added slides, the last slide will stay on too long. To verify whether the problem is in version 4.30, try loading one of your previous shows that worked properly into the new PTE 4.30.

Do not include the pathname for the external application, and if the other application is another slide show, make sure it is in the same folder as the PTE exe file.