alrobin

I agree! There are too many improvements and new features yet to be added to PTE to attempt to include audio editing as well. IMHO, there is more "mileage" to be obtained by maintaining PTE as the best "slide-show / video" program in the world than by adding on a lot of "frills", unless, of course, such features are absolutely required in order to keep PTE competitive with other similar software. But as JRR said, there is one feature that is an absolute necessity in order to make the present PTE system more useful, and that is the ability to have the overlay sound spill over onto another slide. ContaxMan, this is not a requirement for making presentations, as I agree with you about "live" presentations. It's required in order to facilitate the making of tutorials. It's the only thing holding me back from making another more-advanced PTE tutorial. You have no idea how frustrating it was, while creating "PTE-101", in having to constantly go back and adjust the time of each slide in order not to cut off the narration recorded for that slide.

Norbert, I believe that in Irfanview when resizing you can specify a maximum size for both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, so that if your photos are all proportional, they can be resized without rotating.

Great! I'll look for them in your next tutorial show.

You can re-install over the present one if you want, but if you are concerned about the present installation being defective, it might be best to re-install. Sorry, Ken, I didn't notice your reply - got busy on something else and forgot I had the reply box open still.

Hi, Norbert, Welcome to the forum! And, thanks for your kind remarks. Glad you are finding the tutorial useful. I, too, am enjoying very much the many many excellent features of PTE. And they just keep getting better as Igor adds new improvements to the program. Like you, I also enjoy all the creative opportunities in Photoshop. The feathered mouse pointer in my tutorial is one of the PS brush shapes, modified for my own use.

Hi, John, I have that reference in my version too - must be a "vestigial remnant" left over from some early fiddling with the program. I don't think it affects the operation of the program though, and I don't even remember why or how it got there! I am also having problems loading Adjustor into Excel 97 in my new machine - might have something to do either with the new "hyperthreading" memory system, or the dual-monitor setup, or even XP, itself. I am also experiencing problems with the thumbnail feature in Adjustor on my new machine, even in Excel 2000. However, the "dark-table" feature seems to work OK, so I would recommend that those with fast high-end P4 machines not bother with it and just stick to the regular images, even though loading-up takes a bit more time. Or else, create the thumbnails and rename the temporary folders manually. I just resolved a conflict with my sound card and Cubase SX, my new audio-editing/MIDI program. I found some new drivers for the sound card that seem to work better with hyperthreading. All these new technologies are posing serious design challenges, some of which I may not be able to resolve! Sorry, guys and gals! I think I can sympathize with Igor a little better now! It's called the "bleeding edge"

Ed, There will always be a way around it by those who really want to steal your photos. Just have to do a print-screen or photograph the monitor. Best to limit distribution to lesser-quality images and roll with the punches. After all, you can't take them with you into the next world!

John, Sorry about all the problems you are having. I'm afraid I don't have any more suggestions to offer. Now that I have my new pc up and running in XP, I'll try it out using Excel 97 and let you know if I have the same problem. Might take a few days, though, as I am still attempting to clean the old files off my old HD's after my old pc decided to pack it in. (it was jealous! ) It worked OK on my laptop in XP, but as you indicated, different pc's react differently. The only solution might be to upgrade to Office 2000.

Sam, I doubt if fragmentation is the problem. Try deleting the shortcut, and then find the correct PTE file in Win Explorer and drag it over to the desktop with the right mouse button held down. Then select the "shortcut" option, and you should have the correct icon on your desktop. If this doesn't work, do a search for apr.exe, drag each one over to the desktop (with the right mouse button), make a shortcut, and try clicking on each to find the right one. Then delete all the others.

Hi, Gilligan, Welcome to the Forum and to PTE! I enjoyed your underwater images - that must be an exciting world down there. Hope you post some slideshows featuring underwater sights. If you are not synching a show, the total time does not appear anywhere. And, the timeline is not useable unless you have some background music already installed. (Guido, just for you, that "music" can also be a length of recorded "silence" ) You can see the total length of customized and default times for a show in my Adjustor model (available on Beechbrook), or you can go through and add them up by hand. Alternatively, as in Adjustor, you can load the PTE file as a text file into a spreadsheet program, and set up the spreadsheet do the math. In a non-synched show, you should be aware that even though you have chosen certain duration times, different pc's will experience different times for showing the slides. The only way to maintain the slide show time precisely is through synching to the timeline.

Barton, PTE 101 is available HERE. Let me know if it doesn't help you solve your problem.

Ralvis, I like your simple nav bar - I think it is more attractive than the present one in PTE, too. Maybe an added feature would be the ability to hide it if so desired by the viewer. Also, we should still retain the option for the show maker to exclude it if he or she prefers not to use it.

Welcome to the Forum, Barton! You don't need to add a navigation bar or buttons if you don't want to. Just put together a simple, ordinary show and "compile" it as an ".exe" file. Then copy it onto a CD, either with or without an autorun feature.

Guido, What's music to one's ear is silence to another's. And even silence can be "music to the ear"! But, joking aside, point well taken! Guido, you're always so precise, even when you're "joking"! Just goes to show, 4 ears are better than 2!

Gary, Welcome! In addition to Guido's excellent information, I just want to remind you that you also need to have some background music selected under Project Options / Music, or the timeline won't function

AL, It sounds like you may not have sufficient pc resources available to handle both the PTE show and the movie. Please give us some more details about your system (processor, RAM, OS, available HD space, etc.) Also, what size is your PTE background image? Are you keeping the last slide on screen while you play the movies? Do you have any other programs running in the background while all this is going on?

Sorry, I can't help you with this as my DVD burner is still on order. However, perhaps if you post the same message on the "How to create video" forum someone there may be able to help.

Igor, Bravo! And thank-you very much for all your hard work over the past few months! It has been truly productive, and very much appreciated! Hope you can now take a well-deserved holiday!

Panury, I believe the trial version is the latest "official" version of PTE. What version number do you see when you open it? The latest features such as "Show first transition from desktop" are available only in the later "beta" versions of 4.20.

Panury, Thanks for the info on the "pause" key. However, in a synchronized show, I find that it also immediately pauses the background music. Maybe you were referring to sound added via the "sound" line. I also find that if you press a back or forward arrow, the images and music start playing again without waiting to be started again by pressing the pause key again. I have asked Igor for a change to the music feature using the "Sound" line so that music or narration will continue on to the next slide, but so far he has not elected to provide for this capability. This would be very handy when doing tutorial-type shows. Igor, are you listening?

Oleg and Carol, Great tutorial! Judging from past queries here on the Forum, there was a real need for a show like this, and you two have risen to the challenge and produced a very valuable masterpiece! Thanks so much for doing this!

Worked fine on my old P3 Celeron 400. And I could even tell that there were two whales! "Flash" is wonderful, isn't it? This was a good application for it.

I agree wholeheartedly, Bob! However, it is easy to comment on a show like "Vietnam", but not so easy to comment negatively on other shows where certain negative critique may be warranted (and equally beneficial to the author). The real challenge is to find a way to start a discussion similar to the one in this thread for these shows, too, without discouraging anyone from submitting.

See here: Cawl. I, too, do not go in much for AV competitions (although I helped judge one once). Except, maybe, as Maureen said, for the purpose of obtaining constructive feedback from audience and judges.

Bob, I have been thinking of moving up into a P4 machine with XP, but have been holding off until now as I, too, have a SCSI scanner (an old Agfa Duoscan) which I am worried will not work satisfactorily under XP. So, I have decided, now that I need XP (or Win 2K) in order to run Cubase SX and Photoshop CS and other future software upgrades, to keep the old system and dedicate it to scanning and any other time-intensive tasks such as CD copying, etc., which can run concurrently with other work on the new XP-based pc. Will let you know how I make out.