Lin Evans

Hi Claudio, The best way to have a planetary body move smoothly is to create it via video rather than by gif or png images. Many, many years ago I created a smoothly rotating Earth animation by small PNG still images sequenced and using variable opacity for smoothness. It took over six hundred small PNG images to accomplish realistic smooth rotation. Video is so much easier. Either use Photoshop extended versions or if you don't have photoshop, download the freeware Celestia (link below) and use their capture video feature to capture Earth's rotation with or without atsmophere. Then use a circular mask in PTE to run the video in and put whichever type starfield or astronomical galaxy software you wish as the background. https://celestiaproject.net/ It's not possible, at least in my experience, to make realistic, fluid, wing motion when the wings are attached to the subject - at least not the type motion one could imagine for a mythical creature such as an angel which stands erect like a human yet flys like a bird. If the wings were firmly attached to the subject, the motion possible would be stilted and stiff and look much like animated, cardboard butterfly flight without the flexibility of real wing motion. Watch slow motion images of birds in flight and you see that their wings have multiple type motions moving both up and down in relation to the Earth as well as longitudinally along the axis of their own bodies. Depending on their flight patterns and their surroundings, there are wide variances in their motion. To get angel wings motion to look fluid, they must move not only forward and backward but also up and down. Since it's a fantasy creation - one must use imagination. Best regards, Lin

Sorry about the email link - it was a mistake which sent the viewer to my YouTube video edit page, which of course, only I have the ability to reach. Because the link worked for me I mistakenly thought it was good but after looking carefully I realized my mistake and posted the correct one which embedded the show. Best regards, Lin

Just the result of a boring, rainy night in Colorado with nothing else to do. I thought it would be fun to experiment with the color capabilities of PTE 9 and the result was fun... Lin

Hi Gary, Actually, what I was trying to determine was whether you simply moved the original exe file to a different computer (in such case it should work whether or not the Italianate font was resident) or whether you had made a backup in zip and "created" the new exe on the computer which did not have the Italianate font resident. (In such case it should not work correctly). Best to let Igor sort it out and determine whether or not the vector images of the font are being properly created in version 9. Best regards, Lin

Brief screen video to show problem Jt49 discovered... problem.mp4problem.mp4problem.mp4

There seems to be a rounding disconnect. If you enter the time via the slide options, what you report is correct. If you enter the time on the slide itself, the time you actually enter is saved and display also on the slide options. Best regards, Lin

Does the same exe file work on your computer which has the font installed? Not a copy of the exe, but the identical exe? I.e., copy the exe to a flash drive (thumb drive) and try it on all the computers. Lin

Hi Dave, Yes, perhaps I didn't make it clear. Once the exe is created on a system which has the font resident, the vector representation font is chiseled in stone. The text using the font which was on your laptop was translated by the exe file to vector lines. However, if you use the zip feature to backup the PTE file and all associated files, the "font" is not part of that backup. So if you then use that zipped archive to create the same executable file on a system which doesn't have the font resident, PTE has no way of creating the vector file because it creates it on the fly AFAIK. Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, This was just one example and some products work much better than others. Depending on your individual computer configuration, RAM, graphics card, etc., there may or may not be sufficient resources to both play an executable file and simultaneously screen capture smoothly. Always try a product on a trial basis before purchasing. The Movavi product will not function properly on my Win XP computer which has a decent video card and is maxed out for RAM - I haven't tried it on my Win 8.1 system so can't really comment on its suitability. The important thing is that whatever product you try it must capture in at least 30 frames per second to be useful. Best regards, LIn

Hi Carol, The software you found doesn't covert a true exe file to video format, it converts a special type of video having an exe extension to other video formats. The video file which has an exe extension is a special case where the video may have a player built in. Using the extension .exe for this type file is somewhat misleading because it really should be called a self executing video file rather than an exe file. Unfortunately it will not work for what you want to do. You don't want to try to use an optical video recorder to capture your shows. I mean a video camera capturing the actual screen. This causes all types of issues with synchronization problems such as artifacts (lines rolling up, etc.). What you need is video capture software which will capture at at least 30 frames per second. Here is an example: https://www.movavi.com/screen-capture/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Win Screen Capture - USA - En - MozzherinaSTOP_20_06_2016&utm_term=video capture software&utm_content=Video Capture Software (-screen) Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, Since an exe file is played (executed) by real-time instructions to the computer, there is no way other than by screen capture to convert an exe format to a video format. Using a really good screen video capture might suffice, but remember it will probably only work well if there is minimal animation in the shows and it will only capture at screen resolution. Best regards, Lin

You say you created a show - was it in exe format or video format? I'm assuming an exe format. Fonts are converted to vector lines by PTE in an exe file but the font must reside on the computer doing the conversion. If you used the ziped PTE archive to create the exe on a computer which didn't have the font installed then another font would be substituted. For example, let's say you created the exe file on your computer which had the italianate font then also created a "File" "Create Backup In Zip" file which you then transferred to another computer which had PTE resident but didn't have the italianate font resident. Then if you subsequently re-created the exe file and played it on any computer, the font would be substituted for something on that computer by Windows. Best regards, Lin

I can import a PTE file from PTE 8 which has a modified interval time and it works perfectly in PTE 9 and the "interval" is properly displayed. If I attempt to change the interval on an animated gif in PTE 9, it reverts to the original every time. The fact that it works properly when imported from PTE 8 means it's "possible" to have the interval changed from the default of the original animated gif when playing in PTE 9, but any changes made to the interval in PTE 9 will absolutely not "stick" it continually reverts to the original interval. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, O.K., now I understand what you have done, but the implementation is not really working very well IMHO. I created a small test file using an animated Gif that runs for 20 seconds. I duplicated the slide then loaded the identical animated gif as a video. In order to get the same number of repetitions in the video result in the identical time frame, I had to increase the speed of the video by 10%. It runs fairly smoothly under Preview, but when made into an exe file, the video implementation pauses slightly between each iteration. This difference between the smoothness of a preview and the smoothness of an exe file created from the same project is something which I've noticed for a long time, even as far back as PTE 7.0. Of course the logical work-around is to create a single slide video of the animation then insert that as the slide formerly holding the animated gif as video. That smooths things out, but it would be interesting to know why there is a marked difference between the preview and the exe created from the same project in terms of smoothness of animation? Below is a link to the small project - create your own exe and notice the difference in the second slide which begins at 21 seconds.. http://www.lin-evans.org/igor/testasvideo.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, If we load an animated gif, as a gif - it can be used for any length slide and will continue to animated for the duration of that slide whether for 10 seconds or 10 minutes. If the animated gif is loaded as a video, my assumption is that it will only animate for the specific number of frames in the gif then stop animating. So, if we want the animated gif to animate for say one minute and the native gif animation is only a few seconds, then when loaded as a video we would necessarily need to load it multiple times and adjust the offset to correspond for the length of the slide in excess of the actual frame time of the video. Is that correct? Let's say I create an animated gif which is composed of 40 frames at 30 frames per second. As an animated gif it would repeat forever but as a video would it not stop animating after slightly longer than one second? Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, If we assume that one of the objects of the animated gif is to loop so that there really is no specific run time limit and the animation is built using that assumption, then if the animated gif is added as a video, it must be added multiple times to get a result which plays beyond the run time of the number of video frames? If that is so we need to explain this in the instruction manual. Best regards, Lin

Yes, each different host has different rules and capacities, for example: "Google reserves the right to delete your account after a period of nine months if you haven't logged into it in that time. This does put your emails at risk if you are cut off from your account for an extended period of time. Google offers an Inactive Account Manager feature, enabling you to specify a list of trusted contacts who can access and download your messages and other content from Google products after a set period of inactivity. Open the Inactive Account Manager page to set it up." Lin

Hi Ron, All emails are initially housed on an email server if you use any email service such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, or private company. When you travel, you can retrieve your emails from virtually anywhere by logging onto the host and navigating to the email section. When you open your email at home from a software program such as Microsoft Outlook or a free email program such as the old Eudora or one of the above, etc., the email is copied from the server to your own hard disk where you can archive it if desired. After a suitable amount of time, if you haven't cleared your emails from the host server and you have read them, they are automatically deleted. So yes, if an email is deleted from the host it will not be available for download to your personal hard drive. If you contact GoDaddy they will instruct you on how to access your email (webmail) account directly on their server. Best regards, Lin

I fully understand your concern, but the harsh reality is that anyone who wants a photo bad enough to steal it from a slideshow at screen resolution will have the tools to do so. Simple utilities such as Irfanview, Fastone Image Viewer, Screenshot Captor, Duck Capture, SnapDraw, Lightscreen, Cropper, Snipping Tool, Screen Grab Pro, Jing, Puush, Capture it Plus, Capture View, Easy Capture, Foxarc Screen Capture, Gadwin Printscreen, Greenshot, Horizon33, Lightshot, MW Snap, Printkey 2000, PrtScr, Screen Capturer, ScreenHunter Free, Screenpresso, Shotty, SnapShot, VVCap, ZScreen, etc, etc, all bypass any possible security with PicturesToExe or any other presentation slideshow product. People need to understand that if they put their images out there at any reasonable resolution where they can be stolen and used for profit by another they can and if they are good enough will be stolen. There is absolutely nothing that Wnsoft or any other company can do to prevent that. Having an "anti-print screen" feature is functionally useless because people who are in the business of theft for profit will get your images if they want them. Best regards, Lin

The issue is that because there are so many free and economical screen capture tools available which are immune to anything which can be done in PTE code, this feature no longer assures anyone that their images will not be captured. If an image is displayed on the screen, it can easily be captured with or without the PTE's anti-print screen feature. My guess is that this is why it was dropped as a feature. Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, I'm a little confused. If I set the initial keyframe to sepia, or coloration, etc., for example, then create a new keyframe without a checkmark next to "coloration" the sepia is preserved in the second and subsequent keyframes. However if the "coloration" box is checked, the setting is not preserved... This on my Win XP... Is that the problem? Best regards, Lin

Excellent implementation !!! Best regards, Lin

LOL - Actually, the majority of us in the USA are quite happy with him. Much, much better than the alternative would have been.. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jenny, I created the safe for internet executable with your show including adding the blank image at the end, fading out the sound and I also added a blank at the beginning of your show to slow the onset a couple seconds and it all worked fine without reducing the size so I think you will be good to go as it is. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jenny, We all try to help one another here on the forum so no problem at all. PTE, like many (most, in fact) other application software programs is still a 32 bit software event though Windows has moved to 64 bit so the limit for executable code is an absolute 2 gigabytes but this also includes not only the internal PTE code but also what is needed by the operating system, etc. Videos are not so constrained, but executable code can crash when this limit is approached. When PTE show size gets above about 1.7 gigabytes, strange things can happen so try to keep your overall show size below that limit and as mentioned earlier, when making an exe show of significant size keep in mind that the "Safe Executable File for Internet" is a better choice because the executable file itself isn't so large and it greatly diminishes the chances that errors might occur. Videos, of course, can be larger than 2 gigabytes as long as they don't overwhelm the maximum operating system limitations. Best regards. Lin