nobeefstu

I personally believe if you first "nip it in the butt " immediately by ignoring/disabling the multiple clicks ... PTE would not need to go thru the process to detect/stop multiple instances of other files that may get launched from its button actions. This would take into account any and all files launched within Pte ... and not just pertain to launching the Pte executable itself.

Welcome, DELSUPSERVE Sorry to here of your first experience with PTE is a bit frustrating. Have you taken time to read all of PTEs Help and Faqs documentation ? I dont quite understand this comment : Are you saying you have created a START-UP window thru PTEs check box option to use a customized start-up window? If so ... it will not autorun past the START-UP window till you click the button. You have to disable the START-UP customization window to have your Show continually run thru its course. And this comment : Are you running the Show executable (.exe) you created or the .pte file you used to create the Show executable ? The only way a user can see and access your PTE files and pictures ... is if your running the .pte file and supplied and burned all your relative PTE program files to the CD? You need only to create a exe of your Show and distribute it ... nothing else is required. Lets begin there ... and then continue

The need to limit multiple running instances of a SHOW has actually been lying around in the suggestion box for quite some time now. I believe the occurance of this issue must have been happening with less frenquency due to Igors later versions implementing better optimization and faster loading of the executable ... therefore many users may not have experienced this issue to comment on it. swan_atn, just a few questions. Is this a XP optional system setting or what OS do you have ? If you have this setting enabled ... does it also work within your PTE button actions and not just the executable itself , thus stopping the multiple instances of any file run from the PTE button action ?

swan_atn, As I prevously stated : Multiple clicking (whether once or dlbclick) button actions will still promote this problem. User habits/conditioning are really the controlling factors here. MS conditions a user to click once in some program access situations ... but also conditions them to do dblclick in others. So usually when a user is in doubt of how many clicks to perform .. their reflex is to over click . Note: Ever wonder why in your BROWSER window you cannot overclick and get multiple pages ? This is because its designed to detect/ignore over clicking. I think this function is what you really reqiure.

Al, It is amazing. Most problems I usually encounter is from CLICK HAPPY users. Maybe I should have said the best resolve is to detect/ignore click happy/impatient users.

Hello swan_atn, I have to pretty much aggree with Al on this clicking discussion. Whether Its 1 or 2 clicks ... it still has the potential for problems. Most Users today are pretty much aquainted to their BROWSER functions ... which is only a 1 Click operation. So I think its a common practice everyone gets use to. The real issue to address to is restrict/detect muliple clicks and ignore them ... its not going to be resolved by enabling or allowing more clicks.

Welcome Diana, As Ken has quoted to you from PTE FAQs ... their is a 32000 picture limit and a max overall file size of "The resulting EXE file cannot be larger than 2100 Mb" The real limitation here if using these maximum limits to make your show is the Clients patience/endurance to review such a huge show. With that aside ... the real limitations are the Clients PC capabilities. By your comment do I also assume you want to distribute and play it from a CD ? By using this CD medium you also set more limitations that directly effects how your show will perform on another Clients PC . Basic Run Requirements I follow : 800 x 600 Screen Size JPG : (100 -150 kb Size) MP3 Music( No WMA music) Reasonable Tranisition Timing - (or set to no Transistion effect ... use no demanding Fades - these can be CPU intensive) No Demanding Slide Timing (Nothing too fast ) I use a old test Pc to perform my tests. Using these settings from a CD Disc on a P2/233/66h w/96 memory and (4X CDrom/2MB VideoCard) I recieve no issues from my Clients. These are pretty much BASIC for all PCs Ive encountered. Most likely if you did a search of SHOW PROBLEMS or something similar in context ... you will find out lots of what not to do ... and how to resolve it.

Truelight, As with any multiple image compostions ... this can be alot of work depending on the complexity of your objective ... whether its thru the normal process of cutting and pasteing your main image into several sections or pieces or using the alternative method Ive described. The method Ive described requires no cutting and pasteing of your main image into several pieces and then adding these pieces back into the slide as Objects. The MASK method only uses the main image as the photo/slide and a BITMAP OBJECT (added as a Picture Object in Object Editior) as the MASK. You can use the same BITMAP OBJECT 1 time or 20 in the same slide pending your needs. So all this only requires 1 main photo image and 1 BITMAP MASK ( .bmp,.jpg,.gif) ... with no cutting/cropping and pasteing time spent in your image editior. So the end result of sequencially fading mom, pop, and baby is only 3 or 4 slide positions, 1 photo containing mom, pop, and baby (in the same photo), and 1 BITMAP MASK(used as many times as you like). I find this method very fast in particular situations ... and a great space saving of images used (less mb,kb used in overall exe). Its simple , effective and less work. But again , all methods require work depending on the needs and complexity of your effects desired.

Jim, You are correct about the alignment/positioning of OBJECTS when displayed in different screen sizes other than you intended. However, you can oversize the BITMAP OBJECT to some varying degree to help compensate for this alignment problem. Since this object is used as a MASK ... size requirement need not be absolute. If your Mask position is critical and is dependent on perfect alignment ... the user must use a windowed mode with solid background color and a not a full screen mode setting. NOTE: If you go to this link and download Boxigs sample ... this is a perfect example of using this object mask method. Thanks Boxig ...great timimg to post this. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...t=ST&f=2&t=1030

Bubba, I may have used the term BITMAP OBJECT a bit to loosely in my previous message ... so I will try to explain a bit more in detail. The BITMAP OBJECT I refer to is this : Its any Image file ( this can be a .bmp, .jpg, .gif) that you create. You can open MS Paint or any Image edting program and create it to your size and single (or 2 )color you require. You can use this new bitmap as is , or you can convert it to a jpg or gif if you like. Now, to use this Image file (.bmp, .jpg,.gif) in PTE as your MASK on top of your current slide/photo : Open PTEs "OBJECT EDITOR" (from PTE main window) and then select the PICTURE(button) to add your new Image file to the current slide. Move your Image file to your desired location that you need to MASK ... if using a 2 color Image file then select the properties of the Image file to be transparent for 1 of the colors used. So , in simple terms ... you have now just added a BITMAP OBJECT to your slide. Remember though, the Size and Color of the Image file is all dependent on your MASK needs ... as theres no preset requirements here. Once you get the basic idea of this BITMAP OBJECT mask method ... you can then experiment using 2 color Image files or multiple Image files ... as I say , the possibilites are endless.

Welcome to PTE, Wayne Another simple alternative other than cropping your full single Image into several sections is to try this method also : Add a BITMAP OBJECT on top of your full single image.... and move the BITMAP OBJECT around to any direction or position to reveal what portions of your full single image below to reveal. Each positon the BITMAP OBJECT is moved will be a new Slide (timed to your needs). This requires that you use a plain background color in your slide show ... so your BITMAP OBJECT (use same color as background) would look to be invisible, as this would work like a mask ontop of your main image used. Also, you can also get quite creative in a simple, fast way as to use a 2 color BITMAP OBJECT with various shapes and sizes ... then making one color transparent in your settings. As example, say you have a BITMAP OBJECT that is all black and a white circle in the middle. Make the white transparent. So now you have a round mask that you can move around to create a spot light effect. The possibilites are endless. This method does not require any image editing . Plus PTE reuses the same image file as many times as you need it without adding mutiple files of the same image ... thus saving valuable kb,mb space. Its real simple to do.

ckfox, Any Network or Remote Drives most likely wont be visible until you MAP THE DRIVE to your PC that PTE is installed/resident on. Once MAPPED ... the new label you created will be visible and accessable in PTE. Or is it that you cant just see any files or folders but still see your firewire drive label in PTE ?

David , You should have no problem creating a button to access Boxig's Screen Saver Installer . Whenever working from CD's ... Make sure all your Button/Object paths are only RELATIVE (use no drive destinations in your path string) Examples : USE ------ \FolderName\yourshow.exe FolderName\yourshow.exe yourshow.exe DO NOT USE ------- D:\yourshow.exe E:\yourshow.exe D:\FolderName\yourshow.exe NOTE: If you create a SYNCRONIZED PTE SHOW ... your buttons will not work ... as PTE does not allow mouse intervention in SYNC MODES. If you use SYNC MODES to create your exe ... you must use the :

Boxig, No, I didnt forget. As that may only be the most reliable way to use multple running applications. Even then the creator has to use proper show building techiniques ... otherwise its freeze frame and muliple skips and stutters. I was was just making a general point as to unexperienced users creating mutliple synch music shows running from a CD ... and wondering why it doesnt function correctly. Oh well, have a good weekend !

Boxig, I guess as with all features ... the X,Y setting may come about in time. It may really be a bit too soon for X,Y possibilities .... since many members have enough to learn with 1 show running correctly. Can you imagine how many more will have issues trying to run 2 or more at the same time ... and from a CD ! But Im game

Boxig, Nice brief fable about the old pixel slide. What happens if you rub 2 pixels together ?

Bob, Best to use the 8.3 file naming convention. Use no spaces, use no special characters ... more or less keep it basic and simple. Some OS sys and CDRom Drives can only read short file names (8.3) while some can read long file names also. Autorun is more or less a DOS excuted command ... therefore your OS/CDRom may not read correctly your filename used. So to be assured all your CD's autorun in all PCs (when and where ever, as you never know) ... use the 8.3 file name rule. It never fails. Example : Dads80th.exe

Of course you already have a CD -Burner and some CD-Discs ? Begin by following Alan's comment about creating your slideshow to exe ... you have no need to copy any images or music individually ... as the exe contains everthing for your slide show to play. What you do need if you want your slideshow to autoplay on CD insertion is to have a AUTORUN.INF file on the ROOT of the CD. You will find all the needed info (and more so ) to create this autorun.inf, if you do a topic search in this forum ... as many beginners have had the same questions as you. Its not that hard ... once you know what to do. If you still have problems we will still be around to help.

photographer45, PTE did change it sort order processing a little differently in the latest v4.11. There was a topic disscussion on this matter which implemented the sort change. The change I believe was in the FILE DATE sorting. Is this the setting you used previously when your images sorted correctly in the previous PTE versions ? I believe your image replacement process ... : ... is causing the new sort issue. Could supply the detail of what information is written /saved to identify the image file (name ,date, creation, time etc, etc.) ? and what changes occurr in the file information when moved into these deleted blank spots ?

Bill I too have wondered about this new player when launching from CD at runtime : Since PTE no longer extracts its music file to TEMP and solely uses its own player... I wonder if this has any influence on this skip behavior and also when a outside program is being introduced/detected in the overall play of things. So running from a CD may create more issues now ... than encountered with previous versions of PTE

I would have to aggree with Boxig and Guido on this JPEG 2000 file format. Also : I dont use JPEG 2000 files ... but I did a simple file comparision/ information view in Irfan View just to get some inital idea. Here's the results using the same bmp when saved to : JPEG2000 - Wavelet- loseless compression file size = 139 kb memory size = 556.64 KB (570000 Bytes) * Load time = 539 milliseconds ------------------------------------- JPG/JFIF - no compression file size 122kb memory size = 556.64 KB (570000 Bytes) * Load time = 42 milliseconds (* Load Time will be unique/ vary per a pc own individual capability) Since PTE timing is so influenced and critical of file size and load times of its images used within the show ... initially by the above results JPEG2000 may promote more harm than good during runtime on various/different users pcs capabilities ?

Liz, By your comment ... seems your using a older vesion of PTE. Latest PTE version v4.11 no longer requires or uses this setting. Using this latest version you may find your Show runs better. However, a 600 mb exe running from a Cd is alot to ask for on older, slower pcs and older, slower cdrom drives ... its all a matter of read speed. Also its a bit much for any pc/cdrom which is also running other background applications .... you would be surprised how many users are unaware of all those extra running items they have going at the same time.

mannybr2003, I dont believe anyone here is offended ... were all openly dicussing the current matter and not enforcing a policy for someone to adhere to. As for this copy subject only applying to showbusiness and samll time businesses mostly ... it really applies to every and all busineesses and manufacturers ( even more so). I dont think you see a repackaged (exact copy) with the same exact parts, design and labels etc. and sold as ones own property. They use and require patent lawyers to even begin their production process. There are many patents on parts, processes, designs that must be researched to obtain/ grant release/rights to use any such parts or processes. Someone or some company holds/owns the copyright/patents of most of those bits and pieces ... of which you must apply to be granted use.Once they have all releases/grants ( usually at a big $ )to use such patented parts/processes in their own product ... they then apply for approval of a design patent to protect their own property/product. Its alot of research to perform so that you do not infringe on anyone elses property/patents ... or they will find themselves in a courtroom.

mannybr2003, I believe we both got somewhat the same perspective of this point. Your quote : My point exactly. So when a Client comes to me and asks me to duplicate the music for "some other ear's satisfaction" (example, 300 wedding cds)... I would want : The release is to qualify/identify the material submitted of which Im copying for the client . It shows the client had supplied /selected the music content and had the rights to use/copy the material. This signed release is not a aggreement as to not copy/dupilcate the work I produce for them. (Whether this be for 1 or 300 wedding cds ... you must assume they will or can possibly copy it)

mondello, Its quite normal for a PTE screen saver to react the way your experiencing. Screen savers are not meant to be user interactive ... they are just suppose to play and then close on mouse activity. The checkbox option to disable does not apply to screen savers. Heres a Tip: If you want a interactive screen saver ... If you want your PTE screen saver (.scr) to act like a PTE executable (.exe) : create/compile your show normally as a .exe file ... then just rename the extention to .scr. In many cases Windows will load and play it like a screen saver ... but it will react to user input like a exe and not close on your mouse activity.