JRR

Ken (APLman) If you customize some as (the other) Ken says, that will leave random on the non-customized ones, but I think you will find that that it won't be same transition each time they run. They are randomized each time. (Unless someone corrects me..... ) So I am not sure that is what you want

Eric S-video was certainly a much poorer quality image when we tried it working on other issues last spring

I plead guilty to being the person who used the word "automate" in an earlier posting to this thread. I didn't intend it to mean a mandatory automate, just an optional one as Peter is saying. One always needs to retain control. (I am in the middle of working on a 22 minute show with 93 sound bites and just getting tired working on the editing of the sound . 95% of our shows are under 10 minutes) I also mentioned that I never in a moment dreamt, or expected, to have such a feature.

Eric: I believe it was me (in another posting here) that mentioned connecting two computers to one projector. I don't have our club projector in front on me, but our Canon Realis projector has two inputs, both DVI I believe, and we have buttons on top to allow a choice which as to source to access. A PC was connected by a VGA/DVI cable and a MAC connected by whatever their output connection was to the second DVI (VGA ?) input on the Projector. But they could have set up two PCs. Essentially it looks somewhat like your set-up, so I suspect you just need to go through the manual a little bit more, do some silent swearing, and you'll get it working.

BINGO !!!!! I ran an .avi file from a menu created in ver 6. If the D3D is ticked on, the avi runs behind the screen, if the D3D is ticked off, then it runs in front of the menu screen. Eric: To remedy the situation for now, see what happens with the launch of the other shows if you have D3D turned off. You might get a momentary flicker as the show starts (which Peter will certainly see :) ) but few others might. Or set them up using ver 4.49. again you might get a (even less) momentary flicker. Or run the show from a desktop shortcut, after you have shown the others that launch OK.

I don't have the knowledge that nobeefstu or Conflow have, but I thought I would chip in a couple of thoughts I have one show that I run off a menu that requires WMP to run. It is a .avi file not a wmv. The file type should not matter at all, but I have not had any issues with it when using a ver 4.48 menu. I will try it with ver 6 and see what happens. A second related issue re the issue of WMP opening behind the menu screen, reminds me of your tests Peter a few weeks ago. In some combinations you had shows running behind the screen, is this perhaps the issue here. While your tests were with exe files, maybe the wmv is reacting differently. The troublesome issue might be the HARDWARE ACCELERATION factor (or lack thereof in the wmv file). In an earlier thread Ed Overstreet and I brought up an issue we had at our club with (all exe) shows opening behind the menu screen, After discussion in the thread the issue was narrowed down to the D3D not being activated for the menu show. Maybe Ed will come along and refresh my memory if I have mis-spoken here.

Eric: Stu is right with his posting above, but just FYI what I was talking about was using the FILE > CREATE BACK-UP IN ZIP See pic below

Eric: I understand your concern, but zipping for back up does not copy the exe files. (Or at least doesn't for me) Do it for yourself, check what is in the zip file.

Xaver Depending on how it might actually would work, I think APLman's suggestion is a good one. However never for a moment am I dreaming that Igor will offer anything like that. Like you, multi-tracks with elementary editing was all I am hoping for. 95% of my shows use voice over so any EFFECTIVE automation of lowering the background would be welcome. Right now I am in the middle of a 22 minute show with 93 sound clips and it would be nice to say: "PTE do your thing". But as I say, I would only use it if it were truly effective.

Eric: Can't tell much from a screen shot, how about the zipped pte file ? I launch to WMP frequently using a menu show.

Johann: No need to worry about the path, PTE will look after it for you. If you want to open a pdf (or any file) from PTE, create an OBJECT with the ACTION ON MOUSE CLICK on the COMMON tab set to "Open application or file". The using the drop down box below that point to the pdf file. Include the pdf file in your folder that the other person will copy to their computer. I assume the tutorial is a manual show

Paul: I haven't tried it with ver 4.49 yet, (oldest version I have available), but in current version, when you put music on main show via PROJECT OPTIONS>MUSIC, that music stops when you go to one of the shows accessed via the menu page. It starts up again where you left off at when the show ends and returns to the menu page. Does this not work with 4.43? I can try it with 4.49 tomorrow if not

Andrew: There are a few variations that I know PTE'ers use, but if it is a single slide menu show, or if it is the last slide in a show, I use PROJECT OPTIONS > MAIN >when show ends keep last slide on the screen. Hope that fits your situation

Thx Peter Well that negates any findings that I had with regard to TASK BAR being "OFF", I will note that in my posting above. As Ken says, Igor has noted the issue and will I am sure resolve it in time. I am not surprised that you are menu'ed out !!!

Peter: I ran your sequences on the laptop with Windows 7. The results were mixed. Overall the Task Bar was in view more often. (By TASK BAR "off" I interpreted that as meaning turning off the LOCK TASK BAR when right clicking on the task bar) I also found that sometimes, very briefly, the hourglass showed before the sequence started. It was there for maybe half a second. I did not track that. There were a number of times that I got different results on the first run vs the second or third. I have attached my results with my different findings in red. I used your your VISTA test run pages as the "norm". EDIT PS: See Peter's posting #13 below. The results in the attached spreadsheet are not valid for TASK BAR = "OFF" as I did not turn it OFF correctly jrr_Test Results.zip

Peter: I got it downloaded tonight. Will find sometime tomorrow to work with it

Peter: Not sure what is going on, but I can't download the file. All MEDIAFIRE does is open up a bunch new ads when I click on DOWNLOAD ! Might be a glitch at MediaFire (I hope) I tried copying it to my MediaFire Accounts with no luck there either, although I can download my own files (or at least two that I tried)

Peter: Thanks for doing all the research. It will be of great benefit to many of us !!!!

Peter: I don't get the corrupt message on ESC if I have created a EXE version of the Menu. It is only if I am working on the menu show, not having created the exe version yet. (which I normally don't do until I am happy with my "production")I have checked when this happens that I am pointing at the exe version of the individual show. xxxxxxxxxx Regarding the other aspect of launching non PTE shows. I have always used ver 4.48 to create my menu shows and I have over the years launched PTE, PSG, .avi files, ppt, and PhotoShop from, there with no problems. Yes once ver 5.6 came along and I launched a show from a 4.48 menu page, I sometimes noticed a very minor flicker when starting that 5.6 show. Few others noticed it. I have converted all my shows to ver 6 now and am using a ver menu page (RUN SLIDESHOW AND RETURN) and it is very smooth. I have launched non ver 6 shows from the ver 6 menu page with the RUN APPLICATION AND RETURN option and things seems to go OK. I'll be interested to hear your results.

I should mention that I do a virus check with every show I download from anywhere. I admit I have not done a spybot (or whatever it is called) search for a while on my computer, But I have done them since this issue started happening and nothing turned up.

Geoff Not in my case, I just get a dialogue box that comes up in the middle of the screen and I have to tell it to go away. The PTE show carries on throughout the "interruption". If I can tell it to take the same action next time before closing the dialogue box, then I don't think it comes up again. But often my patience level is such that I opt for the one click to close the dialogue box rather than the two clicks. As I say, mine tends to be random and does happen wth other softwares at times

Is it normal that when setting up a menu show in Ver 6 (in my case that means a single screen show with OBJECTS that are used to launch other PTE exe files) that you can not ESC normally out of one of the shows started from within the menu in PREVIEW? I am told the file is corrupt. However so long as I have created an exe file, then I can ESC normally normally running in PREVIEW mode.

Peter: No this on my PC system. Windows XP. Sygate Firewall Haven't had the issue on the new laptop with Win 7, or either of the other two laptops with WinXP (none of the laptops have a specific firewall installed)

Geoff: I do get the same thing happening on my own PTE shows. It also happens sometimes with other programs. It has been happening on a random basis ever since I got my present computer. My techie has looked at it and said don't worry about it.

Joy: I don't have an easy answer for you, but have you got the grid turned on in the O&A window? That should make it much easier if you haven't. If you don't, the grid is the little square in the centre (well a little to the left)at the top of the O&A screen. Click on it and a grid will come up across your screen. It can be adjusted size wise by then clicking on the down arrow. Hope that helps a little I am sure someone will come along with a better way for you.