JudyKay

You guys focus a lot on the professional world. Many P2E purchasers may not be professionals. I am not a professional. But I love tinkering with many of the things P2E will do. That is why I bought the program. Most my slide shows aren't worthy of being posted, but they are still really cool and fun. Family and friends love them. The rules you provide as a result of your experience and knowledge are great guidelines for those of us who are learning. Applying healthy imagination along with general guidelines results in some really awesome slide shows. Here are some pet peeves: 1. Slide shows that move too slowly. Better to have it go a bit fast and make folks want to see it again. 2. P/Z that make you dizzy. 3. P/Z that leaves you wondering what the point of the picture was. Pet Likes: 1. Bright shiny twirling objects now and then. Sometimes effects is what P2E is all about. Flaunt it! Think "The Dom." 2. Pictures that tell a story. Or a slide show that has a clear interesting story. Then leave out the shiny twirling stuff. 3. Fast or slow--depends on the context. Remember the fast jerky cool "Macarena" slide show? I loved it! It had a story I wanted to know. I try not to think too much about what "I want" unless it is just for fun for me. (Lot of twirling shiny fading objects). Better is to think what does my audience want. This is my gift to them. Anyway Igor and you guys are my heroes. So keep up the good work. jk

Thank you for sharing Peter. I really like it. It is soft and gentle and relaxing. Thank you for coming up with all the bird names! Do you just know them? Or do you have to look them up? The music and sound effects are very soothing. This is a slideshow to put in my "To Keep" Folder. I like how your photos have a consistent color tone and softness throughout. The alligators made me a little nervous, but they look harmless enough in the pictures. Now I want to go visit a swamp! jk

I have been happy enough with Microsofts' Power Toy Re-sizer. It is very fast and convenient and you can right-click to get the job done. For Email quality pics its fine. http://download.microsoft.com/download/whi...wertoySetup.exe or if you have trouble... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx jk

Well...... (looking down, toes pointed anxiously at each other), I really should back up, but don't. I have never tried saving a template, because it always sounded too much like MSWORD templates which I hate. Maybe I tried it once back about version 2.0 (?), but I didn't know what it did, so promptly ignored it. Can we call it something else? I know someday there will be a terrible disappointment, if I don't back up. On the bright side, I do back up all finished slideshows. Once I have finished a project I like to leave it alone, Its done, and I am off to the next thing. I have some old shows that were very very simple. Oh, and remember the "Dance the Macarena" slide show? I still have it and love it, but still can't reproduce what they did in that show. Just enjoy the nostalgia and move into the future. Bottom line, I could probably figure it out on my own, but haven't. I value the tutorials you folks have made hugely (even though I hate manuals in general--I like to learn the hard way). So if you make one, I for one will be grateful. jk

I assume (?) it's OK to let my family listen to a CD that I purchased, even though the kids didn't actually buy it. I assume it's OK to let my friend who comes for tea and listen to my new CD, even if she did not buy the CD. I don't struggle with much guilt when I rip a CD for my mp3 player. I assume there is not too much guilt if my friend and I share a pair of headphones and listen to the ripped mp3 together. I assume that if I put some pretty pictures together to look at while I listen to the music with my friend that I am not stealing anything. I also think that if I was a struggling musician (or a rich musician) and someone rationalized a way (even in gray areas) to cheat me out of money I worked hard to earn, that I would think what they did was wrong. If someone uses copyrighted music to sell or advertise their own product, or make any kind of profit; that seems like stealing to me. But what if you use copyrighted music in a slideshow used to raise awareness for orphans? Or to obtain funding for among your neighbors for the republican party (or tupperware)? What if you put together wedding pictures for friends (for free), but you realize your friends are likely to reproduce and share quite a few copies? Well I don't do that, so now that I stirred the bee's nest, I'll just skip along now. Probably common sense, an honest conscience, and the Golden Rule are pretty good guides. If you are worried what you are doing might be pushing "fair use" to far, or if you worried about who might come through a bolted door, then you probably shouldn't do it. Set a standard and then keep it for yourself. There will always be someone else taking more liberty than you do, but "someone else" isn't the standard. The rationalization slope is very slippery in my experience. 5 cents worth jk

I am playing with some zoom techniques like zooming into a building then blurring for a second to simulate the effect of moving "through the glass" and then being inside. I think this could work with the squirrel. For example you could zoom in, then blur a bit as if you were going through a patch of grass. And there! Behold! is your squirrel! Then you can zoom right on on her little nose holes. Zooming out could be done the same way. Maybe you could even zoom "through a chimney" or any excuse to blur the picture long enough to load another image much closer up. What else could you zoom through? Water, a person's eyes, a photo, glass, a door; any obstruction like a tree, car, or frame such as a doorway where the objects inside could suddenly emerge from inside of the frame. It works in my imagination, now let's see if it works in P2E! jk

Please don't even check your Email. Just have a real vacation. You have my permission. jk

I am very happy (and a little embarrassed) to tell you, that after updating Office 2003 with all the latest goodies, PTE adjuster works wonderfully. So if anyone wants to know...there may be some issues if you are not up-to-date with service packs. Thanks to you all--I might have given up if you hadn't kept encouraging me. A Happy Camper:) jk

Thank you for your patience with me:) I have gone through settings and they seem ok. Security is set to "Low" But I cannot open the "VB references" in the macros as it is grayed out. The VB Project is password protected. Could that be why? I am not able to edit the macro's or vb code. My system hangs at the point of attempting to choose a directory opening a directory. I click on ":Choose A Directory" and then select any directory (I have tried several choices). The little fingers just strum forever (nothing happens). I use Norton AV --I have tried disabling AV. / Office Pro 2003. I do NOT have SP2 installed. Maybe that has something to do with it. I will keep tinkering. Thanks you so much, jk

I use office 2003 and cannot open pte files. The system just hangs and I have to use Ctr+Alt=Del. jk

Smooth as a whistle! What a cool idea. It was like riding in a hot air balloon with controls and having a piano in the basket just behind me. But....what are those rug-looking things? Rugs? jk

Here is one more....k? PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS (Out of 5) The pictures were sooo sad! It felt like a wise stately old man no longer appreciated by the grandchildren. It also made me wish i was 12 a could discover a place like that for a fort! What a wonderful scary delightful place for a secret garden and 4 neighborhood kids to explore! Then there was that one picture of vines around a window--it looked like Jesus crown of thorns. SOUNDTRACK (Out of 5) I don't know if it was the pictures or the music tha made me almost cry. The music was so B-I-G and deep and open--like the pictures. TIMING (Out of 5) Just right. Sad shows can seem soooooo long and I get tired really quickly. this one wasnt like that. It was interesting, sad and told its story and was over. I almost wished there were a few more pictures, but if there had been there would have been too many. So instead I watched it again to see if it was like I thought it was. It was better the second time--I saw a lot more. PTE MASTERY (Out of 5) Fancy stuff was minimal--used to emphasize the photos instead of emphasize fancy tricks with video. I like that. WATCHABILITY - Couldn't finish / Watched Once / Would watch again / Would watch many times Probably won't watch more than twice, but I am really glad you shared it. I want to use it to show children and make up stories about who lived there, what life was like and imagine having a secret club there. OVERALL SCORE AND COMMENT (Out of 20) Why does Europe get all the best abandoned houses? I am really glad you had that last picture of teh original mansion and ended with it. It was what saved the whole thing for me and made it real and made me want to see it again.

Hi! PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS (Out of 5) Five. I really loved your pictures. They seemed so--not flat. Know what I mean? Rock and sky and sea pictures are hard to take and make them seem like a real place and not a flat painting. You kinda did that. But I think you had a gajillion pictures maybe and picked the best? How do you choose! That is so hard for me! I just throw them all in cuz I cant bear to part with them. But you really selected well SOUNDTRACK (Out of 5) I don't know anything about teh music--but I liked it and thot it fit well. FIVE TIMING (Out of 5) I think what you did with the mosaic thing and teh music was really original and cool. I give you a bonus point for that. Six. PTE MASTERY (Out of 5) Anything anyone does in pte looks like a five to me. Five WATCHABILITY - Couldn't finish / Watched Once / Would watch again / Would watch many times I looked,, then had my family come look, then put it in my special "too Keep" folder. It has to be FIVE to make it in there! OVERALL SCORE AND COMMENT (Out of 20) 21 if I added right. jk

Here is my nickels worth PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS (Out of 5) FIVE I actually gasped a few times. I LOVE every single picture. SOUNDTRACK (Out of 5) Five for me. Just really cool. It didn't steal my attention--it just added dimension to each image. TIMING (Out of 5) Five. I am not hard to pleaes, but I don't like shows that are too slow. Give me a fast one and let me watch it twice. I like this one. PTE MASTERY (Out of 5) Five compared to me (a teensy little 1). WATCHABILITY - Couldn't finish / Watched Once / Would watch again / Would watch many times I watched it. Then got my family to watch. Then I put it in the file where I keep all the BEST shows. YEAH! that would be a FIVE. OVERALL SCORE AND COMMENT (Out of 20) 20. Thank you for sharing. I want SOOO bad to go ballooning. I like how you told the whole story. Funny, scary, delightful, beautiful. I almost can feel that basket dipping and swaying under my feet.

I have an idea....what if we remember this "formula," and if you make a show available, add a little note with it inviting a critique. Like at Beechbrook where you write the author's notes. Or on this forum. Then...if I am really sensitive about my presentation I can say "LEAVE IT ALONE!!!" Or I can say, "Like or it not, I couldn't really care less." Or, "OK, I am holding my breath, let me have it!" (This is an invitation to blast away with accolades or criticism. Personally I welcome the criticism more than accolades. But appreciation is kinda heart-warming too--especially if you spend all night making what you think is a masterpiece. People like me that are not professionals, just kinda flies on the wall watching the Big Boys, really appreciate the chance to hear from you guys & gals that really are creative and experienced and have a eye for doing things cooly. Is "cooly" a word? jk

I don't know much about programming and all that. But I really like big, pretty icons. I just think that a program as awesome as PTE should be able to use higher quality icons. But you are right, it is a little thing. I would rather the "smart people" invest their times on more important things Here was my original idea: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ic=6458&hl= JK

Wanted to be sure this made the list Can we please have icons with more than 256 colors? Thank you, jk

Thank You Al! It works! you are so smart! jk

My idea: On the OA page, the objects could be shown as Thumbnails or could be renamed (like objects or layers in PS). This would really help people like me that often use meaningless file names. Free 2 cents worth--- I think this is so cool how we can talk to the people at the very top and know they hear us! They even write back! I really thank you for a fantastic piece of software and for how it has grown into something so amazing. I remember when I bought a license several years ago, I thought that free upgrades was a really nice idea. I also wondered what the catch was--because software this nice...well, how can you do all that work and then give it away? I think the software is almost a whole new piece of software from what I bought--and yet I still get upgrades. Well I can say a hearty "thank you." I have also encouraged several friends to buy the program (and they have). jk

By the way, thank you for the awesome images of mountains and clouds. The colors are splendid. I really like the peaceful movement--like slowly turning my head to take it all in. It feels partly like a dream and entirely real. I could feel the cold morning air on my face and the warm sunshine on my cheeks. Best of all, the images inspire the poet in me (even if the poet isn't too gifted). Thank you !

Hi, The link at Beechbrook doesn't work for me....but the one on this forum does...thought you might want to know. jk

On the Objects and animations page, on the bottom corner where the list of Objects appears, I suggest that the Objects optionally appear as thumbnails. JK

I am SOOOOO happy with the new beta 9!!! Thanks you so much. I am dancing all over the furniture I am so happy. This is such a tiny unimportant thing to ask--but, I kinda like fancy icons. Is there a simple quick way to allow for 32x32 icons with greater than 256 colors? Like Full color? I know 256 colors is websafe, but I don't care if my icons are safe on the web--I want it to look pretty on the desktop. With all the fine quality I have come to expect from P2E! Blessings to you all, (I am so sorry Mr. Dom about your website! ) JK

Thank You all. That is why I asked...you are the folks who really know. I will just stick to the puff-of-air method till I can get a kit to do it right. Thanks You all very much. JK

Thank you all for your help. My challenge is that I don't often get to a place to buy such kits--maybe not for for several more months. I did obtain a makeup brush, will boil it and try to charge it by blowing air on it. Unless someone tells me I am crazy. What risk do you think their is in simply using (very carefully) a swab and some very clean lens tissue with regular lens cleaning fluid? Probably no one is enthused about doing it that way...but has anyone tried it?