JRR

Fried: Welcome to PTE, once you get yor sound issues sorted out, you will enjoy it. I can not assist on the WMA and DRM issues, but to capture (a.k.a. "rip") your CD tracks as MP3, one program to use is dBpowerAMP. You can get it free from here I find it very easy to use. If you want to use more than one music track (i.e. a longer show with two pieces of music) you can load them both into PTE, or a better way is to mix them in a music editor so you can get a nice join between the two. An easy one to use, free also, is AUDACITY. You can get it here. Pls note you will need to get a "lame.dll" file to save files as mp3's. The audacity site explains where to get it and what to do with it. A good tips site for PTE is: Guido's site Good luck

backing up your files as described is good, but as BOXIG pointed out he lost his computer in a fire. So don't have your only back-up located next to your computer, store your back-ups off site. STREAMLOAD offers an excellent service if you want to back them up online, but the glitch here is to find out what bandwidth your ISP allows. Mine offers 60gb a month which might seem like way too much, but if you have a problem you may need to download that much and more, but in my case I can't go over 60 gb without having my account suspended until the next month, there is no option to buy extra bandwidth.

loris: I can't find the relevant forum postings on this issue from a few weeks ago (maybe ken Cox will he is so good at searhing for stuff !! ) but with e-mailing shows, as Michesl says, make sure they are small and in realty can only really be sent to people with hi-speed connections. As Michel says it is better to zip the .exe file If the .exe file (zipped .exe file) is much bigger than 5mb, then I would use another option as many ISPs will not accept attachments larger than 5mb. www.dropload.com provides an excellent free (donations welcome) service. You upload your show to their website, they tell your client there is a file waiting for them and they download it. Of course if your client does not have a hi-spoeed connection this is not practical either. Remember though that uploading is musch slower than downloading click here for the DROPLOAD website

alexva: This has come up many times. Aside from a lecture on proper back-up of files (We all do that right ? ) there is a forum member "boxig". He has many utilities that work with PTE. I think he has a utility that will let you recover you images. click on membesrs top right of this page, find Boxig and then go to his website

Ron According to Babelfish website it says: It is absolutely agreeable with the author of this topika! Igor, program IT IS OBLIGATED to prevent about the rerecording of file! Honestly speaking, I be surprised, why this Gluck, elevated into the discharge of "special features", so not was corrected in all years of existence PicturesToExe. Greatly I hope that you will nevertheless give to this time. Thanks.

Don't forget Guido has lots of music on his PTE site click here

Sergio: Welcome to the PTE forum. I am not into DVD (yet) so I can't help you directly, but there is a PTE video forum where you might want to post the question. You can find the forum by clicking here

Ckefford: Welcome to the PTE Forum as Ken says Two ways to add narration: 1. Mix it with the music track in a sound editor 2. add it to individual slides using the SOUND Line under the preview pane on the main page of PTE. Option one is better as you can control the volume level of the music when adding the narration. But it is tricker getting the narration lined up in the right spot. If using Option 2, make sure that on the MUSIC tab of PROJECT OPTIONS that you check on the "Don't interrupt sound...." If you using the timeline to watch the preview in the small window at top right of the sound line, then under Option 2 you won't hear the voice over. You have to use the full screen preview. Under Option 1, you'll hear the voice over no matter which preview you use.

Igor: sounds as though you'll be dazzling us with all sorts of new options to learn and experiment with. Great !! But don't forget to take a vacation too !

Thurwanger: I think this has been discussed on the forum before, but I can't recall the answer. I have a suspicion that you are out of luck... Do a search, bottom right of the forum, for "itunes" you might find something

jacobs: DaveG is right on, but just a couple more hints about that: On PROJECT OPTIONS>MUSIC tab make sure you have ticked the little box "Don't interrupt sound when next slide comes on". If this is not ticked the voice over will abruptly end when the slide changes. Ticking it allows you to change the image while the voice-over carries on. (give the viewer another angle of the same subject etc etc) Also be aware that you won't hear the voice-overs when using the TIMELINE to check out your show, you have to use the full screen preview. Igor is hoping to fix this in an upcoming new release I understand.

Roger: I am not a computer whiz so I can''t help with an answer to the slow downlaod, but I can confirm Tim's note that it is a VERY slow download

Jamie: Most of us do the title in PhotoShop and use it as one of the slides

The piece of bread/toast is at the bottom right of the large pane image preview screen. It looks more like a parallalagram (spelling?) slanted rectangle) with a dent in it. Hopefully Ken will get the screen print to you You can increase/reduce the size of the thumbnails in the light table by using the the slider at the bottom right of the light table screen. I am not sure you can set PTE for Optimize Screen res, but I suspect you might be able to achieve the same thing by playing with the PROJECT OPTIONS>SCREEN and take a look at windowed mode. That might not be what you are looking for (and it has problems as you (sometimes) see the desktop behind your show if the person's screen res is larger than the window established) I understand what you are saying about the moving etc of the images along the timeline. SOmeone might have found a solution for your spacing question and will heopefully post it. We all work a little differently in setting up our slide shows, that has not been a problem for me, but I likely would have different problems in other areas. The latest release of PTE made some major improvements in moving the images around on the TIMELINE, but more refinement would always help. I think someone did a PTE show that demos all the transitions, you might want to check Beechbrook as that might help you a little. (I just tried any that sounded like they might work for the odd situation) I hear what you say re the FADE, I am happy with having to do it in an external sound editor but that is with the work routines I use for my types of shows. I know many have asked for this in the past. (Personally I like the Adobe Premiere sound editing - but that is a MUCH more expensive software and has some issues that PTE does not have)

Roger: Thx I am in the process of preparing a Tutorial as well for use locally. I'll take a close look at yours.

Tim: There is an excellent tutorial by Al Robinson called "PTE 101 tutorial" available at www.beechbrook.com/pte. While Al has not had time to keep it current with the latest releases it will give you many basics. Fastest way to find the tutorial within BEECHBROOK is to click on "View download stats" at the top of the first page. Al's tutorial is about the 3 or 4th from the top. Click on it and the downlood will start. A more current thorough help file would certainly help for those that actually use HELP files ( <grin> ). There are no sound editing facilities with PTE. This has been discussed many times on the forum. All sound editing has to be done outside the program. You can add "sound bites" separate from the background track, by using the SOUND line on the main page. Make sure to click "DON'T INTERRUPT..." on the MUSIC TAB of PROJECT OPTIONS. Also be aware that you won't hear those sound bites when working with the show through the timeline, you have to use the preview function to hear them when working on the show. Igot has indicated that this will be fixed in an upcoming release. On the timeline, you can do almost whatever you want with a group of selected images by using the normal "cntrl-click"/"shift-click" method one uses with windows to select files. Once the slides are selected, track them around as you want and/or right click for CUSTOMIZE slide. I think Ken has answered the other questions. Just to elaborate slightly on the "preview from anywhere" answer, the "piece of toast" Ken mentioned is in the bottom right corner of the large image preview section of the main screen. clikc on the image across the bottom line from where you want to start previewing, which puts its image in the image preview section, then click on the small icon (piece of toast or bread it has been nic-named) and the full screen preview starts from there. If previewing from the TIMELINE, click on PLAY to get the preview running, then click on PAUSE (not STOP) and click on the time bottom of the TIMELINE will move the blue triangle to where you want to start it and then click on PLAY again. If you accidently or absentmindedly hit STOP, then yes it starts from zero again.

The way I would do it in PTE is to present the images as OBJECTS, two to a page. Would work OK vertically, but not sure about the horizonatl proportions Jim

Tim: Welcome to the world of Fantastic customer servce !! Igor is always on the spot and and solves problems such as yours immediately if not sooner. And at the same time he keeps improviong the software constantly. Find another software developer who does that even for the mega $$ software !! Why do we love PTE......?

Tim: Pan and Zoom are coming soon to PTE I saw a post from IGOR that he hopes to have it available in about 2 months in beta format for us to test to death. (Personally I am dreading its arrival as I have seen the transition over-used in competing softwares to the extent that the producer is showing off the software not the images and making us all dizzy in the process. Of course PTE producers are much better and we won't see any examples of that when Pan and Zoom is available ) (Don't get me wrong, pan and zoom has its place, but used only in situtations that call for it) No PTE can't make MPEG files. The .exe files can be played on virtually any computer except a MAC, although if you do a search of the forum you will find that someone did finally get a PTE show working on a MAC, with a numbers of hoops and jumps.

Ron: I tend to think of MP3 and WAV in the same vein as jpg and psd/tif files I wouldn't do anything with an MP3 file that I would not do to a jpg file in terms of compression and re-conversion etc etc

Amanda: Not sure why the last slide won't stay up if you have the appropriate Show Setting checked as you say. Is the problem in the Preview mode ? or after you have created the .exe file ? If you close PTE down and then open it again, is the appropriate button still checked "on" ? I assume everything else works fine with the show ?

I agree that PhotoShop can be used to achieve "multiple projector/independent transition" effects, my suggestion was to see if we could do it within PTE. Could it be done by adding an optional second timeline and appear just above the single timeline we now use, in the same dialogue box? The even number slides could be on the top line, the odd number on the bottom line. A "transistion out time" would have to be added of course. Each line would be fully functional but independent. Again, this would be an option the producer would activate if they wanted to use it.

Igor: A suggestion for a future release: Independent transition times for outgoing slide from incoming slide. That will let the producer have more flexibility with the "third image". Edit added after initial posting: Think of it as two (or more) slide projectors working independently

Ray: Check out SNickles "360 degree panorama" at Beechbrook click here watch the show and read the txt file contained in the zip file see also the PTE presentations forum discussion of it at: here

Jeff: Good idea importing into Premiere, mixing it there and then bring it back to PTE. My wife uses Premiere and I must admit that I do drool with the ability to mix the sounds on screen with the images Next time.... Using the Soundline for me has been the compromise compared to trying to do it all outside of PTE in AUDITION and not quite getting the mix right, back to Audition etc etc I prefer to write the script for the images and record them before starting in PTE. Then if the script, after editting and more editing, is still too long per image, I go and find a second or third image to let the narration roll across. If I can, I like to keep the narration to a minimum and let the images speak for themselves. The theory is one thing, the practice is something else..... Glad things are working out for you Jeff