JRR

Igor: a second small (?) refinement for OBJECTS: Can we have an option to have a coloured outline of the OBJECT on the slide ? When using the BUTTON OBJECT without any text (as the text is already on the slide and you are just laying the button on top of the text) sometimes it does not stand out as much as it could. Allowing for a coloured outline of the BUTTON OBJECT would be nice Thanks

Igor: A small refinement please in some future release of PTE. When you work through your SLIDE LIST, if a slide has CUSTOM SETTINGS, the "P" next "customize slide" turns a lighter grey. That is very helpful. But it would be VERY helpful, if it turned a lighter grey when there were OBJECTS attached to a slide as well. That would save you having to preview slides when checking to see if you have an OBJECT associated with a particular slide, if you are not sure which ones do have an OBJECT. If the "p" is reserved for "customize slide", then prehaps an "o" on the right side of "objects" ?? As I have said many times, the OBJECTS in PTE is the greatest thing in PTE since sliced bread (and I don't mean Al's slice of bread in the preview area ) and to my mind is one of the major features making PTE such a great product. Scaling them along with this refinement can only improve the wonderful utility of PTE. Thanks

I am running with 4.12 (I know I should be at 4.14 ) I discovered the other day that even with the mouse clicks set to "none" (Advanced options on Project Options) the scroll wheel seems to still be active. I wanted to control the advancing of the show by the navigation bar, so I turned "off" the mouse clicks. A viewer of the show (that involves a lot of text on the screen) absentmindedly played with the scroll wheel while reading the screen, and oops there went the screen onto the next slide !!! It would be nice if there was a third line under "mouse clicks" that would look after the scroll wheel. Personally I would be happy with the scroll wheel not bein active with the mouse clicks turned off, but you never know what someone else might want...

As I have mention in various others post, I have been working (for far too long )on a very large PTE project. It involves a Family Tree AV show with, at last count, some 85 individual PTE shows that "inter-link" via OBJECTS. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so I followed my usual procedure of having all 85 shows in independent folders, each folder having the images, sound file, pte and exe files for a particular show. I have always done that as it seemed to be a neat and tidy way to do it. That works great for standalone shows. But in this case, I think it has turned out to be very problematic. I did not expect it at the start, but a good many of the slides/images (i.e. carefully constructed family tree with names and "branches" plus photographs) have turned out to be used in more than one show. With all that data entry via PhotoShop, you can expect to make some typos etc etc. The problem comes with correcting an slide/image - I had to determine where else I had used that slide/image, or a version of it, and ensure I copied the corrections into all the appropriate folders. If I had used a single folder for all the images etc etc and have each applicable show draw the images from the "pool", as soon as I changed an slide/image all shows would fall in line. Of course in my case, that would mean a list of about 4-500 slides/images on the right (I mean LEFT SIDE! edited 9pm 03.10.23) side of each PTE set-up screen that I would have to search though for the images I want to use in that show. I hope for your sakes no one else tackles what I have, but if you are building multiple interrelated shows with similar images, you might want to keep this in mind and plan a process before you start.

RonWill at the PTE presentations forum http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...t=ST&f=3&t=1167 said: (oct 17 9:20am) "Pity about the use of 800x600 as I had the distraction of my desktop surrounding it. I don't propose to alter my settings just for that. However, in PTE, I have loaded a background and, using object editor, the *.jpg image 'Bohemian' and "Run application or open file", created my own PTE of your sequence" Ron, you appear to have saved my bacon. (and I don't mean our lousy Canadian bacon, I mean your good Brit bacon ) I am working on a huge PTE show that involves 80-85 other PTE shows linking off it via the use of objects. Until Igor comes up with OBJECTS that won't move with screen res, objects which I LOVE, have always been a challenge. But Guido and Al have assisted with showing me to reduce the problem by using windowed mode. That works to a point, until someone has a screen res greater than the window-mode you set up, and then they get to see their desktop at the edges. My show was set for windowed mode at 1152x864 on the basis that all computers would have this option and I would have people set their screens to this before viewing the show. Well..... I have hit all kinds of variations including screens that only run at 1600x1200. I didn't know what to do with my shows already to go (80 done now and a few more to come) Then you shone the light. I did as you said, created a one image show (1600x1200) with an object to start the shows which are all set at 1152x684 windowed mode. My objects appear to be staying still. I will have to more thoroughly test, but it looks as though that one jewel of an idea is going to save me a pile of re-working !! Thanks

I think anyone starting on PTE, or many of us who have been working with PTE for a long time, should all shuffle over to BeechBrook Cottage and download Al's PTE Tutorial 101. I wish I had it when I started with PTE. As great as it is, the even greater thing is the fact that Al is making it freely available to any and all. The work done on this show, and his very useful PTE ADJUSTOR utility represesent a very large investment of time and effort on Al's part. By the way, this is not a paid commercial by me for Al's show. He does not know I am posting this. (he will now of course)

I have not started shooting digitally yet - I am getting closer.... But I do have 25,000 ± 35mm slides that I store in plastic pocketed sleeves. Each slide is assigned a sequential number. I have a database (LOTUS APPROACH similar to MS ACCESS) that lists some 30 fields, each of which are "searchable" independently, or in groups of fields. That lets me find any image within a few seconds, no matter what the topic, age etc etc. I will be going with the same approach when I go digital. But I will be adding a thumbnail to the database. (as I should be doing now for the scans of the 35mm slides.) LOTUS APPROACH (my version anyway) won't let me add a thumbnail, so I will either use MS ACCESS, or THUMBSPLUS. I suspect it will be THUMBPLUS as it is a software specifically designed to work with images in this way. I won't need to pre-sort the images on "filing", just enter them sequentially. All images will be backed up (likely twice as I have had one or two problems with CDs) on CDs (and DVD likely in the future when I get a DVD burner)

"Unless you are an avid skier or dog musher, that is. (I'll probably get some hate mail now from fellow Canadians Some however would agree - especially the ones who go south for the winter)" (I couldn't get the "quote" thing to work today ) Al: Are you offering to mush over to my place and clear my driveway of snow, freezing rain, slush, while I am in the sunny, warm southwestern USA ?? (I really do enjoy our winters !!! If I did not have the 4 seasons, I would find it boring and miss lots of photo Ops) I too agree that PTE gives us a great chance at armchair travel !!! Keep it up everyone

Ron: Welocome to PTE, I am sure you will find it a powerful tool with lots of support available. I do my titles using images created in PhotoShop. While there is no animation per se, some of the transition effects can give you "animation". Also Boxig (http://www.thailandphotoalbum.com) has many many PTE utilities and seem to recall he has something that might give you what you want.

Terri: Based on the many discussions of this topic on the forum, and personal experience with a MAC user who was convinced he could run a pte.exe file, the answer, to my knowledge, is PTE and MACs do not talk to each other.

Gee Al, I had to crawl first But once I crawled, then walked, PTE is a piece of cake (until I try something new, then back to crawlling ) Jim

Jeasco: I can't tell you what PTE can do that the others can't as I don't know the others. I have tried a number of other products for AV that you did not mention and I keep coming back to PTE. Why ? Great flexible program that does what I need it do simply. Supported by a great bunch of users and a highly responsive development team. Find that anywhere else !!!!!!!!!!!! All the shows on Beechbrook are PTE show

Igor: Using 4.12, I got myself into a corner and had to CNTRL-ALT-DEL to get out of it. (and lost my work that had not been saved) I was working on the properties for an OBJECT. I told it to "RUN APPLICATION OR OPEN FILE". Then I discovered I did not have the .exe file created yet. (I am working on a project with about 50 PTEs running within one PTE show - I had the exe file listed as done, but oops !!) I stupidly left it it set to RUN APPLICATION but the application property was left blank. The OBJECT was created, but as soon as I want to do ANYTHING else I was told: "Access Violation at address 004D06F1 in module APR.EXE. Write of address 83DE3000" and could do nothing, no matter what I did I got the message. Could I ask that you change the coding to protect people like me and not allow the OBJECT to be created if it is not valid. Or at least allow the ESC key to get out. Thanks

I don't have XP, I have Me, but I know this has come up before. Windows in ripping the CD puts it in some Microsoft (whatelse?) file type. You need to get another ripper. There are many out there, lots free. dBpoweramp is a good free one, get it at http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm You can use it to rip to WAV or MP3. It will also convert WAV to MP3 Hope that helps

Marianne: I am doing a similar (well somewhat similar) show. I have broken the images down into smaller groups (use whatever catorgization you want) of 25-30 (approx) and created a pte show for each grouping.(Make sure each show EXITS at last image) The PTE can auto advance, advance with mouse clicks, or advance using navigation bar. Then I make up a one image PTE show with the one image being a plain background colour and links to each of the individual shows. Links via OBJECTS that run application i.e. one of the PTE shows from above. You might want to use a representative image from each grouping as the OBJECT. This lets the family members look at the images in small doses without going through them all each to get to where they left off. One of the main selling features (for me) to PTE over the other software is the flexible use of the OBJECTS. (and IGOR is going to make the OBJECTS even more useful with the proposed scaling !!!!) Hope that helps

Bill: Welcome to PTE, I am sure you will find it great. Many people seem to use it for their wedding photography businesses. There have been many discussions re this use on the forum. I think I can answer your question, but I prefer to let WnSoft reply so you get the REAL answer. I suspect you will have a reply soon, although it is the weekend, so you might have to wait until Monday Have fun with it

Igor: Sounds great !! I need the proportional scaling NOW!!!!! I am working on complex PTE presentation, that will incorporate about 30-40 (haven't finished counting yet) other PTE shows that start from precisely located objects on various pages within the main show. I will not have control over the screen resolution people will be running the show on. (You can only tell people, they don't always listen) So if this controls that, I will be a happy man. Happier if I had it within the next two weeks though Which I know is not possible

Barry: I have had a lot of questions, directly to me off-forum, on all those topics since I uploaded the Beekeeping and Petrie shows to Beechbrook. So yes there is a market, whether people will pay for it when they can get the information free from us on the forum is another thing. I would recommend that you deal use Audacity or Acoutstica as your software demo as not everyone has, or can afford Audition.

Guido: Your assistances are always so much more complete, so I'm glad you added yours

WaltJones Welocme to the Forum !!!!! This has been discussed several times before . Try doing a search and you should get a more complete answer. Essentially as Oleg says use SOUND MIXER software to do it. The two he mentions are VERY good, but quite $$$$$ Use AUDACITY (free) ACOUSTICA (cheap) They are downloadable off the web. Google them to find the websites Once you have the mix done to your satisfaction, convert the wav file to a mp3 and bring that in through PROJECT OPTIONS > MUSIC You may have to fine tune the mix a little to get the timing right on some transitions

Lenny: The creator's of these shows can give you specifics, but a lot of those effects are done with pages created in PhotoShop and then transitioned one into the next. OBJECTS can be used as well.

Maureen (and others) The IAC in the UK has been mentioned many times on this forum as a source for Royalty Free music. I have e-mailed them at least 4 times to express an interest, but have never been graced with a reply. And I hold a British Passport and live in a former colony that still swears allegance to the Queen

Sharon: Great demo Thanks !!!

I am sure BOXIG will come up with a utility for that (If he doesn't have one in his bag of tricks already !!) You can do it now, for each image through PhotoShop or as OBJECTS, but I suspect you are looking for an automatic way for all images.

LumenLux Adobe Première has a zoom in and out for still images. But I am not exactly sure that is what you meant.