JEB

Barry, I would like to add another penny worth to the debate. As I stated in an earlier post I think the show is fantastic. This opinion was based on watching it like others at 1024x768, my preferred setting. I was too lazy to change my settings. I have since taken the troubleto change my settings to 1280x1024 and have to confess that it was well worth the effort. However having viewed the show I've switched back again! Another observation I would make is that I think the closing titles would be better if the script used was more in line with the script of the old signs and adverts featured in the montage. Regards John P.S. I'm working away with PS layers trying to get my tiny mind round the techniques. Keeping in mind the various options and permutations is a nightmare!

Hi Tom, I'm not qualified to contribute anything more than has been said by the previous responders all of whom are stating previously discussed and well proven facts. However there MAY be a possible temporary, short term and less expensive solution. You state yourself to be a novice so forgive me if I ask you if you, have downsized your images to something like 1024 x 768 at about quality 6? If not and you are working with images directly from your camera downsizing could make a big difference. Others may wish to comment lest I have given you false hope. All the best John

Carol, Barry, The trouble with you two is that you keep changing the boundary! Just when I think I can see the light it dims a little. That was a beautiful show. Thank you both for sharing it with us. Your efforts are really inspiring to others. Regards John

Hi, Perhaps it's just me that's useless!! Thank you Igor. Yet another example of what makes this programme stand out from any other that I have come across. I know of no other service provider that can respond in such a positive way and I bet nobody else could think of one in a month of Sundays. FANTASTIC! Regards John

Hi Igor, I think I asked the same question some months ago and got the same answer. I am surprised that others don't miss these controls as I do. I tend to build my shows working from a pool of likely images initially sorted into one folder which I display in the "directory window". I then select images either singly or in small groups and add them to the slide list. I prefer using the slide list in its linear view rather than its light box option as I believe I get a better "feel" for the project. The downside is that when I wish to move (drag) a number of consecutive images up or down the slide list I cant drag them further than the number of images currently displayed on the list. Why has this control been removed? I can't believe that there are technical reasons. If so PLEASE CAN WE HAVE IT BACK? John

Peter, Thank you. I wish I had read this a year ago. However it's never too late. John

Brian and other Guru’s!, This is slightly off topic but I recently acquired for my CC a new Desktop PC specified to a large extent with the help of Brian and others on this forum. We intend to put it through its paces on Tuesday night by processing some HDR images in PS CS3. I would also like, with your help, to identify the most demanding PTE show (demo) available. Several come to mind, Lyn's Jigsaw of the sheep (goat?), Barry Beckham's Balloons and Igor's examples. But if anyone can think of anything that is particularly testing I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction. Regards John

Jerry, Unless I am missing something along the line I think all you need to do is insert all 100 slides (definitely at 1024 x 768 or equivalent) in the Slide List then - Under Project Options set a slide duration of 333 ms (remembering to click on "Set for Existing Slides" Also ensure that under the "Effects" tab there are no effects selected. Then select every 10th. slide in the "Slide List" using "Ctrl" and click and select "Customize Slide" and set the required time under the "Main" tab ensuring there is a tick in the box. This will apply that setting to the 10? selected slides. As regards transitions under "Customize Selected Slides" make sure that you have a tick in "Use own transition effect" and that the "Quick(no transition effect) button is selected. I have tried this out and it works well for me. The benefit I see is that you don't have to use Objects and Animation. Hope this helps. John

Hi Glenn, Welcome to the forum. You will find many helpful and knowledgable people at this site. I can't answer your question specifically but it strikes me that 500 slides is a lot, to put it mildly. Even at 5 seconds per slide that is over 40 minutes. A long time to hold interest. The other point I would make is that if you mean to have each and every slide have the identical zoom and pan your audiance will be gone within 5 minutes! We have all been caught up in the enthusiasm for P&Z and I think most have come to the conclusion that for most shows it is a fantastic option but should be used sparingly. Have a look at some of the shows produced by our members and see how they utalise P&Z. Also consider why the host of other transitions available, other than fade, are sparingly used. I imagine some sort of template (or short cut) could be developed to do what you describe but I will leave this to others more techie than me to discuss. I hope this hasn't sounded too negative. All the best - and have fun! John

Thanks yet again Brian for your input. I must admit that I, like Ron, had been a little concerned when I looked at that report. The service provided by ALL who participate in this forum is very much appreciated by those of us not equipped to take these important decisions unaided. I personally find the input of differing views most interesting and hopefully I'm learning! Regards John

Paul/Barry That is exactly what I was trying to describe. John

Paul, I'm sorry but I can't be of much help. Initially I thought RegCure was free, AVGFree certainly is, but now I come to think of it I may well have paid something but it can't have been a lot or I think I would remember. I went on to the web site and couldn't find anything regarding cost. All I can suggest is you follow the registration links until it gets to costs (if any) and take a decision to proceed or opt out at that point. Good luck John

Hi, I certainly don't pretend to understand half of what has been said in this thread but I am greatly in debt to those people have been contributing, particularly Brian, as he with others assisted me in getting rid of Norton a couple of years age. I have been with AVG free since that time and have found an increasing number of people out with this forum who have gone down the same route and are very happy. Having run RegCure last night and having had a couple of very short visits to email and this site since, I thought I would run it again now. The result was 114 errors (17 Path File Refs, 95 Empty Reg Items). I have absolutely no idea what these things are nor, I suspect, do I need to know but clearly they are better not to be there. Thanks again to all you folks who give your time, knowledge and experience. It is very comforting to us lesser mortals. John

Barry, I think there may be something wrong with the frame in the 1024 show. My screen is set to 1024x768 and I am seeing the frame's extreme (outside) left and right edges with the underlying images extending beyond these edges to fill my monitor. Hope I've explained myself. Regards John

Hi Folks, I thought I should update you on where I have got to regarding screen saving. Having looked at (I think, all the suggestions) I have gone with Brian Conflow's suggestion, ScreenPrint32. My reasons are as follows, it does what I want, its easy, fast and simple to use and its free! Thank you all for your contributions. Almost forgot I didn't look at Colin's suggestion - 'Bulent' s Screen Recorder', simply because I had by then settled on ScreenPrint32 and don't at this time foresee the need for the extra features 'Bulents' offers - but who knows what's round the corner! Regards John

Thank you all for your replies. I will have a look at these and select one that I fancy. Regards John

Folks, I use Irfanview for this from time to time but as far as I can establish it does not let you select specific areas for capture only frames (Windows). I did have another freebie product at one time that did this but have lost it and can't remember its name. It was recommended by one of you knowledgeable people out there so can you please do the needful again? Thanks in advance and a very Happy New Year to all. Regards John

Folks, Is it me or has nobody answered the last part of Antbrewer's question. "'Start up' window appears with the desktop and icons etc visible around the edges". Perhaps there is no solution. I have always just accepted that my desktop would be partially visible. If there is a solution to this I would love to know what it is. Yours hopefully (as ever), John

Jean-Claude, I would like to add my thanks for the obvious effort and thought that has gone into this proposal. I don’t pretend to fully understand all of the features but on the face of it appears to address many of the ideas raised by members over recent months. Something I find a bit frustrating concerns adding Text in O&A. At present whenever the “T” button is pressed, unless you are at that time in the “Properties Tab” you have to manually navigate to that location. It would be great if you were taken automatically to the text entry point on the “Properties Tab” whenever the “T” button were pressed to enable you to start typing immediately. Also at present in order to then label and identify each text item and apply drop shadow etc you have to move manually from “Properties Tab” to the “Common Tab” and type in a name for that text. It would be much simpler if that could be done on the same tab location. Indeed, if as a default, the first 10 or so characters of the typed text were to be automatically assigned as the label that would be even better. Just a thought! John

Bruce, Perhaps I misunderstand your reply to Lin and Igor, but I think you will find that converting text generated in PTE to PNG is VERY simple. All you need do is tick the box labelled "Rasterize text to PNG image" and save with your other images. Hope I got the right end of the stick! John

Igor, I have just noticed that the small up and down arrows for moving a slide within the slide list are not in latest Beta. John

Folks, I’ve been following this thread with interest and experimenting with PTE to see how I could make this work for the way we operate at our club. Dave, I had identified the problem you describe with under sized images. Can I ask you what you mean when you say “actual” pixels? Do you mean “original” under the mode option within O&A? Or am I missing something? Ian, Do you mean, “Fit to slide” when you say “fill screen” and why not “original”? All, Am I correct in saying that it is not possible to adjust O&A settings such as Mode (Fit to slide etc.) globally? It would be nice if one could! Thanks John

Gentlemen, Thank you all for your contributions. Peter – Your situation is very similar to my own personal situation and its comforting to know I am not on my own! Dave – You also are confirming my own thoughts, thanks. Ken / Brian / Colin – Nice thought but as Colin points out this would both be too expensive and impractical for our club. However, this information will be useful to me, as I will soon have to upgrade my TV. We start the cut-off of analogue and move to digital within a few months in my part of the UK. Returning to my initial concern. The decision has I think been made for us in that it turns out the wide screen monitor option can’t be set to 1024x768 whereas the “square” monitor can. So we will go with that. Thanks again for your contributions John

Folks, Some guidance please regarding the choice of a monitor screen size for a desk top PC to be used by my camera club principally for projecting demonstrations of Photoshop (HDR in mind) and running PTE shows. Recently a number of you kind and knowledgeable folks provided much appreciated assistance in enabling us to specify and select the PC we are almost certainly going to have built by “pcspecialist.co.uk”. For your information the basic spec. is as follows :- Intel® Core™2 Duo E6550 (2 X 2.33GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache 2GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR DDR2 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1 WINDOWS® XP Home (inc. Genuine CD & License) 160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm) 20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM 320MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER Comments on any major flaws would be appreciated. However as I have said my principal concern is with the choice of monitor, bearing in mind our requirement being for using it in conjunction with a projector, which has a native resolution of 1024x768. To date we have been producing PTE shows at 1024x768 though with the advance of wide screen TV and most of our members wanting to burn to DVD I feel we have to try to cater for present and future needs. We also have a space storage problem so the smallest physical size is also important. The monitors available from our supplier are as follows:- 19 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1280 x1024 8MS D-Sub, DVI, Audio Wide 17 inch TFT 1440 x 900 8ms D-Sub I understand from the supplier that the 19” can be set to display 1024x768 but that the wide 17” can’t. Bearing in mind present and likely future needs which way would you go? There is perhaps another option, to source a monitor elsewhere but we would be reluctant to go down this route unless for a very good reason. I look forward to your comments. We hope to take a decision and place an order this week if possible. Thanks in anticipation, John

Peter, Firstly may I thank you for a beautiful and emotional production, particularly at this time of year with Armistice Day approaching. As someone who lost a father at Anzio during WW2 I know these cemeteries well. To other matters. Having, in the not too distant past, been responsible with others, for putting together a 25 minute documentary on the history surrounding our local river – from its source to its outflow - I can appreciate the need for as much detailed planning as possible. To a degree we did plan ahead, however the script was drafted and re-drafted during the period we were gathering images and knowledge – a period of about six months! I used Adobe Audition as I found its layout very easy to use. We used a lot of voice-over some sound effects and music in the background. No way would I have wanted to do all that in a version of PTE. I did as I suggested earlier run them side by side on two separate machines till I was happy that I was close enough to the desired level of synchronization. However, for small shows I still think that a slightly improved degree of music control within PTE would be helpful. Thanks again for your show – perhaps you should post it on the Show section of the Forum for others to see at this time of year. Regards John