JEB

What I want to be able to do is to temporally LOCK certain slides to specific locations on the timeline so that whatever may be added or removed before that point the LOCKED slide will STAY at that point. It's simply an editing aid. To some extent I'm surprised this hasn't come up in the past as it seems to me that it may be a useful facility. John

Hi Jean-Cyprian, Thank you for the time you have taken to respond to my question. I don’t think I have explained myself clearly. I have several clips of a video (showing musicians playing instruments) contained in masks within several slides. These particular (video) slides are interspersed with still image slides. All slides are carefully synchronised to the music taken from the original video and contained on a separate audio track within PTE. The audio will eventually be muted on the video clip within each slide, though it is useful during the build work. The music has a very strong rhythm which lends itself to accurate and rapid placement of the interspersed still images (approximately 300 images I’m guessing). I am finding that any timing adjustment carried out with the still images affects the placement and therefore synchronisation of the video containing slides that follow. Were it possible therefor to LOCK these particular slides to the timeline life would be much easier! What I am having to do is take careful note of the positions of these slides and adjust them manually as necessary. I had just hoped that there was a function that I was not aware of that might have made life easier but alas not so. C’est la vie. Regards John PS - Phil, your post has come in while I have been composing this reply. Yes I did think of that and may well end up adopting that procedure. I tend to get carried away with the creative juices rather than thinking it through properly! Cheers John

Hi Folks, I wondered if there was any way of locking a slide to a fixed point on the timeline. I know you can link an audio clip to a slide but that’s not quite the same thing. I would like to be able to position (and lock) several slides to specific points on a master timeline and then insert a variable number of additional slides between these locked slides. Any ideas? John

Hi, I have been using Parallels on my Mac for several years now and it works very well. As Tom says you have to make the additional investment in Parallels and Windows and in the case of Parallels also purchase their upgrades that appear to be required every time the free Mac OS is upgraded. Undoubtably a Mac version of PTE would be great provided it does not become a poor relation of the Windows version in terms of updates etc. I would like to believe that developing a Mac version would not hinder future development of the basic PTE Windows product. Were that to be the case I would much rather keep what I've got. Regards John

Thanks Michael, I have found them. I think i'll persevere with PS for the moment. It seems to do what I want. John

Hi Lin, Thanks for your reply. I think I'm beginning to see sufficient light to proceed. One of my problems is selecting the correct encoder and format in the export dialog within PS. I've identified a couple of instruction/training documents that have been of help so I am experimenting with encouraging results. As video is now pretty well standard on cameras nowadays I'm beginning to find reasons to use it. However, I am finding that when I incorporate it into my show which is 99% still images the video needs to be adjusted for exposure etc. Being a subscriber to CC it seems to make sense to use it. Though as you state you don't use CC your favourable "understanding" of its capabilities are encouraging. Having no experience myself of this subject my post had to some extent been intended to see if it generated opinions from those in the know. So if anybody out there has a view I would be interested. Cheers John

Does anybody have any advise on using PS to edit video? Exporting rendered video for use in PTE is giving me headaches at the moment. john

+1 Always in favour of this kind of improvement.

While it is possible to apply a volume %’age to an individual clip (file) in a track it does not appear possible to apply this to a group of selected clips or even the entire track. I certainly would find this very helpful were it available. As an example I presently find myself with a couple of tracks ( music and commentary ) with 30+ commentary clips and 8 or so music clips. having made the “relative” adjustments of lowering the volume of the music when the commentary is playing on the timeline I now feel that I should lower the volume of the entire music track a little. Rather than make the adjustment on the time line I will use the slider in Project Options/Audio on each clip independently. I think it would be a useful addition if this facility could be applied to a “locked” track. From what I can see it is not possible to apply this to a group of selected tracks. Regards John

Igor, I don’t know if there would be any support for the following suggestions to be implemented at some stage? I find the following annoying when working in the slide list view and changing the order of slides. I occasionally drag the border to enlarge the slides to get a better view of one of two adjacent slides but even though a slide is selected it disappears from view and I have to drag it back into view. It would be great if the selected slide would stay in view, ideally in the centre of the list view. I hope I have made this clear. Another similar improvement would be if PTE could be made what I believe is called “sticky”, like Lightroom. I know that when opening PTE it opens the last used sequence but personally it would be so much more convenient if it opened at the point at which it was closed instead of the beginning each time. I tend to work on sequences over a period of days if not weeks for short spells at a time, sometimes closing and opening several times a day. Being “sticky” would be much less frustrating. Best Regards John

Hi, Well done both. Anything that can be of assistance to a new user has to be good and I think this will achieve that. I believe that it will help new and perhaps not so new users to be able to go into O+A and see how things have been put together. Perhaps there could be even more advanced procedures that could be included? Good luck. John P.S. I am beginning to get exited in anticipation of things to come!!

HI, i came across this thread today as I have a need for generating a route in a sequence I am working on and wanted to be reminded of the process. I have to endorse what has been said above about Route Generator. SUPERB ! In my opinion this is the only way for me and it is FREE ! Only downside is you need to convert the file to MP4 - I used Camtasia but no doubt there will be other, perhaps even free products available. I have still to explore further into this product. All I want on this occasion is a developing line but presumably a moving dot will be possible. Well worth a look. Cheers John

Lin, Agreed, but would it not be better if PTE automatically produced a different icon, thus avoiding confusion. Then using ones own icon (always assuming you have the knowledge to create it) would be a bonus. I just think not having a different icon is, to be blunt, sloppy! These little things, in my view, are just as important as the big things. This is a quality product, technically, without doubt but there are some small things that can always be improved that seem somehow to get overlooked. No harm in highlighting them from time to time. Cheers, John

I'm sure I have found this to be a bit of an irritant too. Along similar lines, I would like to see a different icon for a Mac show rather than the same as for a PC show. These are I think an example of some of the little improvements that could make a big difference for presumably little effort. Cheers John Nice to have a little moan now and again!

Hi Gentlemen, Thank you for your responses. Lin, As you will see from the attached screen shot I have adapted your method to give me some accurate control over the size of the border and the Mask/s via the sizing controls. Yachtsman1, it is always interesting to see how people "skin the cat", thank you for that. Regards John

Hi Folks, Perhaps this is presently possible and I've not been able to work it out yet! Equally perhaps nobody else would find this beneficial but here goes! I would find it useful to be able to provide a border round a Mask. Quite regularly I use a Mask to show different areas of the same map on individual slides throughout a sequence. These are set alongside one or two other conventional images on the same slide each of which have had a border added in PTE. The alternative would be to crop individual portions from the master map in PS. However, the benefit of using a Mask is that I can make minor alterations to size and area at will. Just a thought, not a must have but a would be nice to have. Any takers? Regards, John

HI, Sorry I can't help directly but there are a number of very good Lightroom forums where I,m sure you will get an answer. Try - http://www.lightroomforums.net/forum.php Good Luck John

Hi Lin, I'll need to have a wee play later but I think once again I'm confused! Its an age thing! I will have a look later this evening. Cheers John

I guess I have probably raised this before but don’t recall what, if any response it obtained but it is something that I find a constant and regular source of annoyance. I would like it to be possible that every time I load an object into a slide it have the “transparent to selection” option selected. I suspect that it must be the way I work but I can't recall ever finding a time when I would benefit from NOT having this selected quite the opposite. Clearly there must be some reason for this being the way that it is but I haven't found it. I’m not suggesting that this should be changed, too many people are used to how it has been for too long but I am suggesting that surely there could be an option controlled from preferences. Any views? Regards. John

I guess I have probably raised this before but don’t recall what, if any response it obtained but it is something that I find a constant and regular source of annoyance. I would like it to be possible that every time I load an object into a slide it have the “transparent to selection” option selected. I suspect that it must be the way I work but I can't recall ever finding a time when I would benefit from NOT having this selected quite the opposite. Clearly there must be some reason for this being the way that it is but I haven't found it. I’m not suggesting that this should be changed, too many people are used to how it has been for too long but I am suggesting that surely there could be an option controlled from preferences. Any views? Regards. John

It wouldn't surprise me if it was i who asked it then.........but I'm admitting to nothing!!!! John

Hi Dave, As you say not elegant but better than nothing. I thought there must be some way of doing this. Thanke very much. Cheers John

Hi Peter, That's pretty well what I do. Its just that it would be nice to do it within PTE. John

Hi Frans, Thanks for getting back so promptly. I will probably have to resort to something like that, though a Mac / PC version ideally as I run Windows as an app on my Mac. What I was hoping for was that there might have been some method of using keyboard options while displaying text in PTE O&A without having to go through the process of selecting individual styles independently. Perhaps if others would also find it useful it could be something that Igor could introduce in the future? Regards John

Hi, Does anybody know of any quick method of displaying the various text styles temporally to facilitate selection? Cheers John What I would like is to be able to run through them in sequence rather than have to select one at a time.