JEB

Dave, Let's keep politics out of this. Come to that, however, I will mention football and Scotland's rugby tour of Argentina and what's more both in the same sentence! John PS I have voted by the way.

Thanks for your reply Lin. It doesn't give a problem with a smaller gif but that then limits the size that it can be displayed without degradation. I will, as you suggest, bring it to the attention of Igor just in case there is an issue that he would like to address. Regards John

Hi Lin, Sorry if I am about to hijack your topic but as you appear have some experience with Xara and unquestioned experience of PTE perhaps you could cast some light on a problem I have been having. I have noticed that if I use a larger animated gif PTE freezes and I have to use task manager to proceed. I created an animated gif similar to yours using the settings you kindly suggested and saved at 1024 x 768 (1.14 MB) in order to get a logo to fill a slide without degradation. In fact my preferred image size is 1400 x 1050 but that didn't work either as you would suspect. I am running Windows 7 x 64 and have 3MB Ram. The attached is the error message I get. Any ideas or suggestions? Yours in anticipation. John

Hi Lin, Looks like Xara3D6? If so what settings did you use in Xara when saving the Gif? It ran very smoothly for me but when I have tried it myself I must be using the wrong settings as I often get some juddering on more complex animations. Regards John

Ken, Just out of curiosity, what was winavigator? John

Thank you Gentlemen, What would I do without you? I did not unzip the folder. On locating the zip folder I simply opened it and selected the XXX.pte file without unzipping the folder. I can now sleep easy tonight. Thanks again. John

Hi, It has always been my understanding that by “Creating a Backup to Zip” (BUZ) it was possible to move that Zip folder and open it within PTE on a second PC. In fact I am quite sure I have in the past done this. Recently I have purchased a new PC (W7 64) and have taken the opportunity of rearranging my files to the internal drives using external drives for backup. On my old PC the internal drives were quite small so I virtually ignored them and used externals for main and backup. I have had occasion to go back to an old show saved as a BUZ and find that it opens with the dreaded blue banner across every slide even though the copied images are within the Zip file. PTE is looking for the images on the old “M” drive not on the drive “D” where the zip file is now located. Can anybody confirm whether my understanding of the way in which BUZ works is correct. If it did work for me in the past as I'm sure it did I can only assume that on that occasion the drive letters were identical on both machines. I would appreciate the views of others who may have been down a similar route. Clearly not all is lost as the images are still in the zipped file but there is a lot of work to put it all back together again. Is there some way of altering the directory path within the PTE file? Regards

Hi Barry, I hear what you are saying regarding button titles and have some sympathy with your thoughts, however I think you have also provided the solution that should answer all opinions as to the correct form of wording and that surely is your idea of tool tips. John

Just a thought Barry, Do you think one of these utilities that can strip audio out of a video file would do what you are suggesting? John

yachtsman1, It is possible you (and others) are missing the point. It is my understanding that PTE's new audio facility has NOT been designed to replace Audacity. I understand that the features being provided are simply to give us greater control over the synchronization between audio and images than is possible using the likes of Audacity remotely. Audacity should be regarded as another great preparation tool in much the same way as Photoshop is for images. Clearly, there is, and no doubt increasingly over time there will be more overlaps. I don't think it has ever been claimed that this would be a "sound editing" version. Audacity will always be the tool for that as is Photoshop for images. I certainly have found that using PTE's new facility has given me much better control than I could achieve working with two programs (PTE/Audacity) independently. Neither must we lose site of the fact that we are still working with a Beta version and if I am not mistaken Igor has also indicated that there will be further more sophisticated developments with the next issue (6.6 or whatever). Regards John

Hi, I have found a related anomaly. If you have a sound clip recorded in "Added Sound" and then make changes such as altering the slide timing, or effect the clip is removed as is the notification. I think this is for you Igor! Regards John

Hi, I am using Beta 6 on Window 7 64 I am trying to get to grips with the various options for adding sound, but more of that perhaps on another occasion. My immediate concern is that I have found that under certain conditions the "file route indication" at the top of the preview window for “add sound” is removed, yet on playback the audio is still there. Part of my experimenting is to establish what link there is if any between “Add Sound” above and adding sound under “Customize Slide”. What I have discovered in relation to the problem I have encountered as described above is that if I open the music tab in Customise Sound and use the small back arrow to work through the slides over a slide that contains “Added Sound” the route indication is removed from that slide. John

Peter, Thanks, I didn't look there as but should it not also appear on the music tab of "customize slide"? Ken, Peter, In any event I can't get it to play the either of the two narrative clips. Should something be selected in Proj Ops? John

Ken, I don't understand the problem. I have opened your project and find that out of the three music clips only one is loaded (the music) in Project Options. I have also checked under "Customize Slide" but there are no clips there either. Perhaps you can explain further. John

Hi, I think I understand the concerns being expressed by some regarding the development of PTE beyond its traditional base. However I'm sure we can all think of numerous products in all sorts of fields that failed to develop and no longer exist. I don't think we could forgive ourselves if we encouraged that to happen with PTE. Let's not forget that we are in a unique position to influence the evolution of this superb product and ALL views are valid and I'm sure appreciated by Igor and his team. We must not bury our heads in the sand and yearn for the past but embrace the future and participate in its development. I know that we can all recall the reticence of many towards digital photography and perhaps some of us shared these views at some stage, but the fact that we are participating in this debate surely proves that we are capable of accepting change. More specifically we should remember that, as I recall, Igor never made a claim that he would provide an audio facility that would replace the likes of Audacity but a tool that would make the synchronization of images and audio more user friendly. From what I can see from playing with it he has achieved that to a large degree. Yes, a few enhancements may provide additional improvements but surely that in part is what the beta process is all about. Perhaps some day it will evolve further to the point where the likes of Audacity plays a lesser or no part in our work process. I am sure that few will disagree that the PTE developments in recent years have restricted those that don't want to use them from staying with their “traditional” methods. Personally, for various reasons, I am not excited about the provision of a video facility. However, if I can some day justify the upgrade to a Canon 7D I may just take a different view! Regards John

Thank you Igor for this latest advance. I'm most impressed with what I have seen and understood so far. Perhaps some of the Forum members would care to comment on some of the points below. I do recognise that this is still early in the beta process so some of my comments may be superseded in time. My understanding is that the objective is not to provide all the functionality of a product like Audacity but simply to make synchronization of audio and image simpler than it is at present. Human nature however makes most of us greedy for more than we're offered and I'm no exception. Am I to understand that some sort of graphical interface will be provided at some stage during the beta process? That would be wonderful, though I must say that I am beginning to get the hang of things working in the timeline mode. The ability to move an audio file up or down a list of files within a track as is possible in 6.0 would be most helpful. Perhaps this has not yet been included in this early beta but is planned for later. Will it ever be possible to vary the volume of a track over a number of different time intervals? (not sure of the terminology but perhaps this is what is referred to as an “envelope”). Somebody has indicated that they would like the ability to add silence at the end of a track. I think this could be done by simply entering a pre recorded “silence” track at the end of the sequence. Regards to all. John

Hi Peter, I think our needs are very similar regarding software. Like you I ditched PS3 over a year ago in favour of PSE6 at the time (now upgraded to 8). I was given a copy of Lightroom around the time of my change from PS3 and thought that it together with Elements was the answer. However I NEVER use Lightroom but DO USE Elements and DON'T MISS the full Photoshop. However I would love to afford some of the bells and whistles of PS5 but truthfully don't NEED them. Regards John

Igor, Words almost fail me! What more can I say than a BIG THANK YOU. John

Hi Igor, May I also add my thanks for your diligent attention to the wishes of your users. Can I assume that you will also be addressing the automatic naming of text objects as I have referred to in this thread and elsewhere in the past? Regards John

Hi Ken T, You've fallen for it! An old pet hate of mine. This gives me another opportunity to make my case - thanks. What I'm getting at is the naming of Text objects. If you use several text objects on the same slide, for identification purposes when applying individual key points to these text objects, it is essential to give them a unique name otherwise you don't know which is which in the objects list as they will all be named "text". One method of naming each text object is to copy it by right clicking on the text or part of the text in the Properties Tab then opening the Common Tab and pasting it into the name box. Another method is to move as above to the Common Tab and type a name. In both cases an unfortunate need to move from the Properties to the Common Tab to achieve something which I believe could be done automatically. I believe (though I am no programmer) that it must be possible for PTE to be programmed to automatically place say the first ten characters into the name box with the option to change that when necessary or alternatively simply to place Text 1, Text 2 ...... etc in the name box. This may not be an irritation to those who do not use multiple text objects frequently but for those that do it seems to me to be an unnecessary hassle. Regards John

As somebody who uses text objects frequently I am also in favour of a radical overhaul of the way text is handled within PTE. John

hI, What am I missing here? I thought that since Vs6 PTE automatically took care of the pre Vs6 need to use the "Rasterize to PNG" button and that both these methods were solutions to ensuring that the selected text was always displayed, no matter what computer was running the completed show. The above apart, we still have to select the type font we require EVERY TIME we create a text object and I can't believe that this has to be the case. So PLEASE CAN THIS BE ADDRESSED in future versions. Regards John

Hi, This is an area where I also think some benefit could be gained by changes being made. Related to this would be automatic naming of text objects in O&A. However regarding the ability to create ones own "Options" we do have I believe a way of achieving much of what is being asked for. I confess not to use this method so it is a question of "Do as I say, not as I do" !! Have a look at "Templates". It would appear that this may be the way that Igor would like us to go as far as creating ones own "standard". However it still doesn't handle the VERY CLUMSY method of naming text objects. Regards John

Hi, This program has been brought to my attention by a friend. It has been recommended to him as a superior and inexpensive option to Audacity. Personally I am very happy with Audacity but I would be interested in any opinions on this product.

Peter, I suspected I was barking up the wrong tree, but thought I should ask. Look forward to having a chat on Saturday. John.