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Ken, I'm sorry but I fail to see what benefit we get from having the option to turn Synchronize music and slides on and off. If the box is ticked then, when we Preview from Slide 1 the music plays from Slide 1 and when we Preview from Slide 5 (say 20 seconds into the show) the music plays from 20 seconds into the show. If the box is unticked then, when we Preview from Slide 5 the music plays from Slide 1. Unticking the box doesn't stop the music from playing. It stops it from playing in proper synchronization with the images. I ask the questions: Who wants this to happen? How does it help them build their sequence? I would have thought that, if playing the music alongside the slides causes problems and for diagnostic purposes we want the ability to turn the play of music off, then we need a "Mute" button on Project Options...Music tab that allows the playing of the music to be disabled without removing all the music files from the list. And while we're on the subject of music/sound files. Why do we need two ways of adding sound to an individual slide? Why do the two ways produce different results? This has been the cause of confusion in the recent past for some users. For those who aren't aware: in PTE v5.5 you can add music/sound to an individual slide by either Customize Slide...Music tab or by the Add sound icon on the upper toolbar of the main window of PTE. They do not give the same result. regards, Peter

Eric, Could you post an example of a 300dpi and 150dpi image that you have actually used? I find it hard to believe that simply changing the dpi value could have any effect at all on shimmering. As Malcolm has indicated, the dpi value is simply meta-data associated with the image file and has no direct bearing on the data content of the image file. regards, Peter

BB, In respect of the add-ons... You say your deadline is this coming Sunday. I would recommend that you keep things as simple as possible in order to meet your deadline. After Sunday you will then have time to explore all the various new features and be ready for your next event whenever that comes along. Good luck! regards, Peter

Mike, Yes, you can set a PC to have "dual boot" capability. I don't know how to or what the limitations might be. And I don't know whether you could get it set up that way from a major retail outlet like PC World. You might have to go to a local independent specialist. regards, Peter

Mike, I cannot make any recommendations only give you my experience. Don't be put off by Vista. I use it on both my desktop and laptop PCs and it gives me no trouble. If you do go down the Vista route then don't expect to be able to install all your existing software on to it. If a software product is known to be incompatible with Vista, Vista will not allow you to install it. For example: I was using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 on my XP laptop. Vista would not let me install this. I had to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. Also, Vista requires a lot of memory. I'm happy running it in 2GB on the desktop PC. I can see that the laptop is struggling at times running it in only 1GB. As soon as I can spare the time I'll be getting both PCs upgraded to 4GB of RAM. There's no point fitting more RAM unless you are considering a 64-bit version of the operating system. A 32-bit operating system can address only 4GB of memory. The only "problem" I experience with PTE under Vista is the known problem of "desktop flashbacks" running PTE sequences chained off other PTE sequences (e.g. off a PTE Menu sequence). There is a work-around if you are building primarily for digital projection as I am. I have published this elsewhere on the forum but cannot recall just where. PM me if you want more details. I'm picking up clues and hints that Igor is making in his replies to v5.6 beta problems that he might have "an ace up his sleeve" on this one. PTE v5.6 beta does not yet allow Run application function. As to the graphics card, the consensus on the Forum seems to be that nVidia is still the pack leader. And you should buy the best you can afford provided your PC system unit has the necessary power capability to drive it and the necessary cooling capability to keep it happy. regards, Peter

Gary, Your post #16 is making the same point that I made in post #5. The one thing that PTE's user interface must be is CONSISTENT. You've given one example where it is not consistent. Hopefully it is just such points that Igor wants us to identify. Your post #11 and my post #9 are also working in the same area. As I've indicated in my post, I need to get my head around this one again. Will try and reword things sometime tomorrow. regards, Peter

With regards to Gary's post (#8)... The instances of the button Set for existing slides are all in the Project Options so they should always apply to the entire project. Therefore Gary's suggestion to rename the button as "Update project file" is a good one. But let's consider this a little further... If someone wants to have a batch of images with a duration that is different from all the rest of the slides they already have Customize slide where they can make the change. If they want a batch of slides to have a different background to all the rest they already have Customize slide where they can make the change. If they want some slides to have drop shadow and others not, they don't have this option anywhere else. So... Add the drop shadow option to Customize slide and then remove the Set for existing slides buttons from Project Options. If the change is made via Project Options it applies to the whole project and is applied immediately. Any exceptions to the Project Options are dealt with via Customize Slide. That makes this area consistent with all other Project Options. regards, Peter

Auto spread slides along music When this option is ticked the durations of the slides should be recalculated and applied as if they had been changed via Customize Slide. This would then mean that the effect was seen during Preview, Preview from current slide AND in the mini-player. This would eliminate another source of confusion. The option to "Arrange all points" could also then be withdrawn, leaving just the one way to achieve this particular end result. regards, Peter

With regards to Gary's post (#14), I have to agree that it is misleading for a newbie. Let's approach this one from a different angle. Do we need this option? Under what circumstances would we NOT want the effect of this option? My understanding is that, when this box is ticked then a "Preview from current slide" plays with the music positioned to reflect the offset into the sequence. Isn't this what we all want to happen when we play from some point part way into the sequence? What I am suggesting is that PTE be coded to always operate as if this option was ticked and that the option to "untick" it be withdrawn. regards, Peter

Defaults, Options and Preferences There should be a clear distinction made between: - Preferences - settings that determine how PTE windows look and behave - Options - settings that determine how the PTE project looks or behaves - Defaults - the "as factory shipped" settings The commands should be: - File...Preferences - Project...Options I haven't really thought this through enough, but I'll post this much and see what reaction it gets. regards, Peter

O&A Window Object drag and drop It would make the O&A features easier and more intutive to use if it was possible to select an object, group of objects or collection of objects (click, Shift+click and Ctrl+click) and then drag them into a new place in the hierarchy. This something that I have wanted to do many times. Right now all I can do is copy and paste. But drag and drop is more intuitive. And with the addition of the new mask containers I can see the need to reposition objects in the object hierarchy increasing. Play/Pause and Stop buttons. Replacing the Play/Stop button with two buttons: Play/Pause and Stop would provide a much more intuitive, flexible and user-friendly interface. (This idea was mentioned in a recent thread by Jean-Pierre (JPD) - it is his idea not mine but I agree with him) I realise that both the above are new features but they would make PTE easier and more intuitive to use. And I think that is what you are wanting us to suggest in this thread. regards, Peter P.S. I'm deliberately putting just one or two ideas in each post so that others can add comments and refer to the relevant post by its number.

O&A Common tab What is the purpose of being able to change the "Time Range" values? If you use the up/down arrow buttons to alter these values, the changes are not made back into the project file. I can understand that they display potentially useful numbers but that is all they are. They are information. These numbers would be better displayed on the information line across the bottom of the window. Or have I missed something? regards, Peter

Igor, Consistency First and foremost, PTE must be consistent in its user interface. For example (and I'm not suggesting that there are any inconsistencies here) if I click on the Slide command in the command line I get a set of options in the drop-down menu. If I right-click a slide in the Slide List I should get exactly the same options. If I right-click on a "flag" in the Timeline, I should get exactly the same options. If any of these options have got a keyboard shortcut, they should have exactly the same keyboard shortcut in all three places. Deleting slides Staying with these examples: the Del key does behave differently in the Slide List and the Timeline. It should not. It should have exactly the same effect no matter whether it is used from the Slide List or the Timeline. If there are different delete actions needed then there must be different keyboard shortcuts. You have, I believe, six keyboard options available: - Del - Shift+Del - Ctrl+Del - Alt+Del - Shift+Ctrl+Del - Shift+Alt+Del How many different delete actions do we need? - delete the selected slide and close up the gap (by moving to the left all slides to the right of the deleted slide preserving their existing durations) - delete the selected slide and add its duration to the slide to its left (preserving the place on the timeline of all slides to the right of the deleted slide) - "delete" the selected slide and all slides to its right by moving them to the extreme end of the timeline (the "Cut Transition" option) These three options can be covered using: - Del - to delete the slide and close up the gap - Alt+Del - to delete the slide and add its duration to the one on its left - Shift+Del - to do the "Cut Transition" What do others think? regards, Peter

Jean, Thanks, your post has got my brain back in gear. Of course you cannot have a reduced image size and use pan/zoom/rotate as well. The image is going to move as you pan/zoom/rotate and so it's reduced size becomes meaningless in that dynamic state. It is possible to achieve the appearance of a reduced image size and still use PZR if you create a windowed mount png file and add it as an overlay to every image in your sequence. This is a technique I often use. regards, Peter

Eric, Sorry, should have added that moire shimmering is a function of what is in the image and not of the size or anything else. It comes about because of the particular subject matter and the animation (in terms of pan or zoom or rotate) applied to it. It's appearance can be combated by using the Blur option within PTE v5 O&A or the Mip-mapping option in v5.6 beta. This applies to the whole image. An alternative approach is to apply 1% Gaussian blur via Photoshop to just those parts of the image where the effect is being seen. regards, Peter

Eric (Yachtsman1), The dpi (which stands for dots per inch) has no effect whatsoever on the quality of a projected image or on the size of the image file. Dpi has meaning and function only for images that are being digitally printed. If you doubt me, look at the three attached images. They are all 1200 pixels wide and 1600 pixels high and saved at quality level 5 (medium) as jpgs. The only difference was in the dpi setting during the "resize" operation. There is no difference between them. regards, Peter

David, Just to be certain that I understand what you are saying... If you use the Preview button, the sequence plays correctly with all images at their reduced size. If you use the Create button, the exe file plays correctly with all images at their reduced size. But if you use the Video button to create a DVD file and play that back through your TV then images carring animation are shown at 100% size and not at the reduced size. Is that a correct understanding on my part? Finally, what version of PTE are you using? If you are using one of the beta levels of PTE v5.6 we really should move some of these posts to the PTE V5.6 bugs thread so that Igor knows that this is a problem with the new beta code (once I know the situation I can do those moves as a moderator). If you are using v5.52 or earlier then we continue the discussion here. regards, Peter

Igor, OK, thanks. I thought that might be the answer at present. Mike, As a possible circumvention, try transitioning into the portrait image and out of the portrait image using Swap-3D Top-Bottom (i.e a vertical motion for the vertical image). With the background set to black (default) the strips are still visible but much less intrusive. regards, Peter

Igor, I've made the background colour a dark red so that the problem shows more clearly. Swap3DProblem_Oct23_2008_14_46_39.zip regards, Peter

Igor, I'm sorry but your demo uses only landscape orientations as the main images that take part in the Swap-3D transitions. The only portrait orientation image is the small "picture in picture" that pans across the bottom of the screen. I think Mike means that he uses both landscape and portrait orientations as his main images and is trying to do Swap-3D from landscape to portrait and back again. When I try this, using Project Options...Screen...Fullscreen mode with image files sized at 1024x768 (landscape) and 768x576 (portrait) running on to a 1280x1024 monitor I can see the effect that Mike describes. The landscape images fill the entire monitor screen and so look correct when transitioning via Swap-3D. The portrait images have a black stripe either side (the default black background) and these two stripes and the image take part in the Swap-3D transition when, really, only the area covered by the image file should be doing that. regards, Peter

Steve, I'm using beta 3 and cannot recreate your first problem. Delete is working fine with Show real slide in mini-player turned on. With regards to your second problem, it would seem that the Display slides in random order item in Project Options...Main needs to carry the same warning as Auto spread slides along music. Both these options are applied at the point of "creation" of a slideshow. The mini-player doesn't create a slideshow whereas the Preview and Preview from current slide buttons do create a temporary slideshow which is then allowed to run. Hope that makes sense. regards, Peter

Hi David, To set a reduced image size for every image you use Project Options...Screen tab...Additional options. If you introduce this change after you have added slides to the sequence you need to click on Set for existing slides. If you are mixing image orientations and aspect ratios, you may find that you have to adjust the zoom value on some individual slides to get a more pleasing appearance. regards, Peter

Patrick/Igor, If the "Change image file for current slide" option was added to the "Slide" command drop-down menu and to the right-click menu for a selected slide, then it would appear in a place where the user might go looking for it. regards, Peter

Umberto, To delete a slide from the slide list whilst in the Timeline display you need to press Shift+Del. This will remove the selected slide and leave all the others at the time points they previously occupied. However, if you are using v5.60 beta releases, this function doesn't seem to have been re-activated yet by Igor. Be patient, it will be. regards, Peter

Steve, You only have to do the expand of the view once. PTE will re-open with that view next time you launch it. Or have I misundertood you? regards, Peter