tomg

I have a picture in a slide show that is 3000 x 2000 pixels. In objects and animation I keep the image at 100% size while I float in a couple of PNG text images. At this point I want to zoom into the image so that the picture is just 25% of the original size. In zooming, the original two PNG text files will have disappeared from the upper edge of the image. I then want to float in another couple of PNG images to finish with the final image. I can get as far as floating in the original two PNG images but I don't know how to carry on from there. Can anyone help? Tom

Thanks for your very detailed answer. I will try out your ideas. Tom

I have burnt a DVD with four PTE 5.6 AV's and they look fine on the TV except that the pictures seem to have expanded on the TV. An annoying effect of this is that titles and lettering that are on the outer edges of the pictures are cut off. What has gone wrong here ? Tom

I am considering buying a new small laptop with Linux operating system. Will PTE work with Linux ? Regards, Tom

Hi All, I tried out a "one page menu" today with projector and laptop. I have to press Fn and F5 to switch the LCD screen off and transfer the signal to the VGA output to the projector. I didn't set this up - I just have to do it or the signal isn't transferred. Anyway, getting back to the "one page menu" - I actually set it up twice, firstly with PTE 4.48 and then with PTE 5.1. The former worked pretty well with just an odd loss of signal but the PTE 5.51 version wasn't good at all. So I am reasonably satisfied with the outcome. Answering Peter, yes I did have the settings as you mentioned. Thanks for all your contributions. Regards, Tom

Ron I did create a "one page menu" , similar to the way you suggest in your tutorial, except that I used "object" windows rather than small pictures derived from photoshop. I tried it out in my living room with screen, projector etc and found it didn't revert to the menu page at the end of each AV. That was why I used the simple system of just having the PTE.exe files on the desktop. I was annoyed to find that the "simple" system behaved just as badly on the night of the presentation. Having adopted Brian's suggestion I am going to try the "one page menu" again and hopefully it will work this time. I browsed through your website, Ron - it is nicely laid out and I enjoyed lookingat your pictures. Best Regards, Tom

Brian The "turn off monitor" setting was 1 hour which I thought would have been adequate. I changed it to 4 hours, however, and set up the screen, projector and laptop in my living room. Strangely enough, it seems to have cured the problem. There was a slight flicker as the picture returned to the desktop as the AV's ended but it was quite acceptable. So thank you, Brian. Regards, Tom

Hi Brian and Colin, I will check out the settings as you suggest, Brian, and report back. Out of interest, my laptop is a Philips X52 with on board graphics, an Intel 945 GM Express chipset. Regards, Tom

Hi Brian, The laptop was powered from its mains adaptor. Tom

Last night I gave a PTE presentation to a local camera club. I had ten PTE 5.1 AV's on the laptop desktop and I clicked each one in turn to give the show. It all went reasonably well except that when each AV ended, instead of reverting immediately to the laptop desktop, my BenQ 7221C projector lost the signal. It regained it eventually after a minute or so but this was an aggravation I could have done without. Earlier in the day I had tried out the AV's just on the laptop ( not projecting them) and there was no problem - as each AV ended it quickly reverted to the Desktop. If anyone can explain why the projector interferes in this way I would be really appreciative. The laptop has XP Home by the way. Regards, Tom

I don't think Colin2's suggestion of buying and installing a copy of XP would work. The Vista installation includes not just the operating system but all the drivers for graphics, sound etc. I would suggest asking Dell if you can exchange the laptop for a similar model but with XP. Tom

Problem resolved! I have just downloaded from Barry's link in about 30seconds! Why I couldn't do the same from WnSoft remains a mystery. Answering your question, Brian, I connect to the internet from a computer in my lounge that is wirelessly connected to a router upstairs. That has a DSL connection via BT. I'm sorry I have been unable to express this in the terms you used in your message. So,well done Barry - I'll be on to your site later to pay you some money for the upgrade. It is lovely and sunny here in Devon. Best Regards, Tom

Hi John, I do crop down to VGA size, except for the odd image that I want to pan or zoom. In my case PTE works more or less with Vista - it's just that some EXE files hang at the end, when they are programmed to go back to the desktop. There is also a slight stuttering with some of the transitions. Another problem, not related to PTE, is that the calibration profile for the Vista laptop takes an age to appear - unlike my XP laptop. I've calibrated both laptops using a Spyder3. Regards, Tom

Hi all, I guess it was obvious but I incorrectly refered to Microsoft saying XP had a problem with some graphics programmes. I meant Vista of course. Tom

I want to upgrade from PTE 4.48 to 5.1 deluxe. On Barry's site ( Beckham Digital), the directive is to download 5.1 deluxe from the WnSoft site - then, to get it to work, buy the registration key from Barry's site. The problem is that I am finding it impossible to download 5.1 deluxe ! I have tried half a dozen times, with the same result. My download speed, normally about 300Kb/sec, rapidly reduces to about 5Kb/sec and then the whole download process grinds to a halt. I download things regularly and this is the only time the download has failed. I know I am nott he only one having this problem as others have mentioned iton the Forum. What is the solution? Regards, Tom

Alex, We discussed this issue at length a month or so ago. I think the basic problem is that Vista is resource hungry and to run PTE successfully you need a good graphics card and plenty of memory. The technical manager at my local PC World store said to me, as a generalisation, that where you could get away with 1Gb of RAM with XP, you need 2Gb with Vista. Having said this, Igor did say that he was working on "a fix" - something to do with using PTE in windowed mode. Microsoft have admitted that XP has problems with a number of graphics programmes ( including PTE) and I understood that they were planning to issue a service pack to address the issue. I bought an Vista laptop for my camera club : I thought it had a decent spec but it suffers from the Vista/ PTE issue. Regards, Tom

Brian, My computer is in my study, a room roughly 15' square, carpeted and with bookshelves from floor to ceiling on two sides. I suppose it is as much a Library as a Study. It is a quiet room, the only noise comimg from the computer. The computer was built for me by my son in 2003. He is not an expert but is quite good at assembling PC's. He lives conveniently near Scan International, where he buys the components. The case is Coolermaster and the motherboard Asus A7nX2, the processor being AMD 1.79Mhz. The Graphics card is NVidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200, AGP 8X with 128Mb video RAM. The system RAM is 1.5 GB and there are two hard drives, 76Gb and 120Gb. The noise comes from the cooling fans. My intention is to give this computer to a family member and replace it with a fanless computer, if that is possible. I have seen occasional articles in magazines about water cooled computers etc but I have a hazy understanding of it. Naturally I would like to beef up the spec. at the same time. Best Regards, Tom

I have decided to replace my noisy computer. Can anyone recommend a quiet PC that is powerful enough for PTE work and for handling large ( 100mb + ) image files in Photoshop. I guess a good sound card would also be needed for use with my new speakers. Regards, Tom

Well, from the responses it seems clear that the speakers to get are the Acoustic Energy "Aego - M -System". It was mentioned that they are now £100 but looking at the website the price quoted is £129.95. Am I looking at the right system? The speaker set I'm looking at comes in either black or white. Stands for the satellite units are available, too, at £29.95. They do look useful - has anyone used them ? Regsrds, Tom

I am giving an AV presentation to a group of 40 people in a large room ( not quite a "Hall"). I'm using my Laptop and a digital projector. I currently have some powered speakers - a bass unit with a couple of satellite speakers but they are not very good. Can anyone recommend a decent set ? Regards, Tom

Peter and Al, Thanks for chipping in to this dialogue. I'll try out your ideas and see how I get on. It's exciting new territory for me. Best Regards, Tom

Lin, I am now familiar with your hyperlink tutorial. I thought your thorough, step by step, method was excellent and I can certainly see me using it in the future. It didn't exactly meet my current need though, Lin, which is as follows. I have a landscape on the screen, which I will call "base". On this picture there are 20 squares ( not necessarily transparent), labelled 1 to 20. I click on 1 and a new landscape fills the screen. I then use the left mouse button to click from one landscape to the next in a sequence. I may, from time to time, use the right mouse button to go back to a previous landscape. When I reach landscape 20 I then announce to the audience " we will revisit landscapes 3, 7 and 13 ( for example). I then click on a key combination to take me back to "base". I click on square 3 to take me to landscape 3, then the key combination takes me back to "base" where I click on square 7. After the visit to lanscape 7 I go back to "base" and finally go to Landscape 13. How can I achieve this, Lin ? Best Regards, Tom

Lin Your tutorial is excellent ! I have been through it just once and will have to carefully try it out myself before I have fully grasped the ideas. Thanks to Peter, too. It really is good of you to help in this way. If I have any problems I'll report back. Cheers, Tom

I have a landscape picture on screen. Sitting on the pictue are 20 little squares, named 1 to 20. If I click on a square, another landscape picture springs to life on the screen. There is a different picture for each of the squares. So each little square acts like a hyperlink to a picture. Does anyone know how I can achieve this effect with PTE ? Tom

Colin,Brian,Peter + The problem isn't confined to Vista Home Basic. The Laptop I have been having trouble with has Vista Home premium. I'm going to live with it by recreating the AV's on the laptop that I've initially made on my XP Desktop. No doubt Microsoft will issue a fix eventually. Tom