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Hi kbg, To capture a copy of the screen image showing your ghostly triangles, press the "Prt Scr" button when they appear on the screen. Provided you did not tick "Dont allow <Print Screen> to copy pictures" in Project Options...Advanced tab, then this will place the screen contents into the clipboard. You can then copy the clipboard into a new image file in Photoshop and save that as a jpeg to attach to your post to this thread on the forum. regards, Peter

Please give consideration to allowing some form of macro to be recorded that can be played back to streamline repetetive tasks during sequence assembly. Something along the line of Photoshop's "Actions" or Microsoft Office suite's macros is what I have in mind. regards, Peter

On the question of CS3 - I cannot help you. I use Elements v5. On the question of PTE probably the simplest approach would be to create a sequence that contained just the five images with the animations and get this working to your satisfaction (something like the sequence I provided but refined to do exactly what you want it to). You should then save this as you would any other sequence. Then, when you want to include this kind of "transition" in some other sequence proceed as follows: Open this "quadrant transition" sequence in PTE, select the slide that carries the animation and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C). Then, keeping this instance of PTE the active window do File...Open...for the sequence into which you want to add the "quadrant transition". Find the point where you want this transition, select the image after that and do Ctrl+V to insert your "quadrant transition" image. This action will include all the object images and all the keyframe points for the animation. Now, select this "quadrant transition" image and go into O&A and onto the Properties tab and use this to change the five images to those that you really want. For any other instance of the "quadrant transition" in this sequence all you need to do now is to copy any of the existing instances of it, insert the copy where you want it and then change the five images via the O&A Properties tab. It sounds complicated but once you done it and mastered it, it is very straightforward - just time-consuming. Unfortunately, the current version of PTE doesn't allow us to record "macros" to automate repetitive assembly tasks. (Thinks: maybe I should post that as a suggestion on the "Ideas" forum.) regards, Peter

Nettleton/Xaver, It can be done! In Project Options...Main tab - untick "Synchronize music and slides" In Project Options...Music tab - tick "Don't interrupt sound comment when next slide appears" Add the sound file via the little loudspeaker icon up at the top right of the main window and NOT via Customize slide button ...and remember that you made these changes when you come to incorporate this bit into the bigger project (you might need to reverse these two actions, depending upon how you assemble the big sequence) regards, Peter (Edit: to include the use of the icon rather than Customize slide to add the music to the slide)

Whilst working my way through the folders on my hard-drive I came across this poem that I originally wrote in 2005 as a contribution for the Newletter of my local Photographic Society. MY CAMERA AND ME It seems such a long time, together we’ve been, The faraway places, the things that we’ve seen. We’ve walked beside rivers, along sandy shore, Through forests and woodland and very much more. We’ve been to some places where strange things are found. We’ve even been brave and gone deep underground. All over this wide world together we’ve roamed. Along local beaches together we’ve combed. We’ve photographed Huntcliff at Saltburn by sea We’ve done this together – my camera and me We’ve been good companions for many a year We’ve travelled all over and shown little fear. We’ve confronted wildlife that’s wanted a fight We’ve huddled together from things in the night. We’ve been to the deserts where air’s hot and dry. We’ve been where the mountains reach up to the sky. From Antarctic ice-cap where snow meets the sea To Canada’s arctic- as cold as can be. Africa, India, and the “Land of the Free”, We’ve been there together – my camera and me. And now we’ve a new pal, a digital friend Who makes it quite easy, our pictures to mend. He takes away dust and the scratches that show He brightens the colours – but you’d never know. He works well with music and images too. It seems there’s no limit to what he can do? The world is our oyster as onwards we go Collectively building our next AV show. Where once there were two of us now there are three Those good friends: my laptop, my camera – and me. regards, Peter

Hi walter.sk, Welcome to the forum! As I think you have already worked out, the effect you want isn't available as a transition type in PTE. It can be done but will require some preparatory effort on your part. Let's call the two images A and B: A is the one that is going to break into quadrants and B is the one that is going to be revealed. You will have to prepare the four quadrants of A as separate image files using e.g. Photoshop. Then in PTE you will define image B as the main image and the four quadrants as objects. I've done a mock-up of what I think you are trying to achieve. Extract the contents of the zip to a folder and open the Quadrants.pte file. To keep things simple for me I have used five different images . You would use the four quadrants of A plus B. Be aware that, to get the exact position of the four quadrants overlaying the B image, you will possibly have to use the decimal point places of both Pan values and of the Zoom value. My example is just a "quick and dirty" one to get the basic principle across. regards, Peter Quadrants_Aug21_2008_7_16_46.zip

Igor, Version 5.2 never happened, you combined all the new user interface code and everything else into v5.5. But the resolution of this problem wasn't included in v5.5. Do you still have plans to resolve it? if so can you give any indication of when the solution might be available? See also the thread that includes the following post: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=55730 regards, Peter

Brian, When it comes to PC technical matters, praise from you is praise indeed. Many thanks! regards, Peter

Xaver, Thanks for the compliment! I had to pension off my XP-based laptop when PTE v5 came along because its graphics just couldn't handle the PZR animations. So I never tried to run any PTEv5 menu sequences on an XP machine. It's nice to know that SP3 for XP has resolve some of the problems on that platform. regards, Peter

Ray, Thanks for the confirmation that it works for someone other than me. regards, Peter

As of 20 August 2008 the problem of flashbacks to the desktop seems to have been resolved, see here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=55730 regards, Peter

As of 20 August 2008 the problems of flashbacks to the desktop between sequences running under Vista seems to have been resolved, see here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=55730 regards, Peter

As at 20 August 2008 a possible solution to the "flashback" problem has been documented here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=55730 regards, Peter

DaveG and all, I've checked and re-checked and everything seems to behave consistently and as I want it to on both my Vista PCs. A new zip file is attached. TestMenu_Aug19_2008_20_07.zip Remember - the purpose of this exercise has been to find settings in PTE v5 that will allow a Menu driven slideshow to project with no flashbacks to either the desktop or the menu image at the start and end of each driven sequence when run on a PC that uses Windows Vista Home Premium as its operating system. The sequences are therefore built to a resolution of 1024x768 (the resolution of my projector). The key settings to note are all in Project Options...Screen... and are: - "Windowed mode" - window size set 1024 x 768 - "Without borders" This technique has not been tested by me on a Windows XP system as I have no interest in this platform any more. The zip file contains all the image files, the pte files and the exe files. Therefore anyone interested in trying this on XP can do so and can use my work as the starting point for their own investigations on the XP platform. I'll now try and track down some of the old posts on this subject and add a new item to each of them pointing to this entry. regards, Peter

DaveG, I have no idea what will happen on XP. The whole purpose of this exercise has been to resolve a "problem" running Menu sequences on Vista that came in with v5 of PTE. You are right; I didn't put any exe files in the zip - just the pte files with which to create them (I should have made that clear in the post with the zip attached). You have done the right thing by creating all three exe's and placing them all in the same folder. For the test just before my last post I copied the three exe files to my Vista-powered laptop (16:10 aspect ratio monitor) and everything ran OK there in the middle of the screen as expected. It was that setup that I used to drive the projector successfully. I'll spend some time tomorrow (Wednesday) double-checking everything and post an updated (and complete) zip file. regards, Peter

EUREKA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perfect, flashback-free, hardware-accelerated (when needed) PTE v5.5 menu and driven sequences running through my digital projector. It's been a long, long trail to get here - but thanks to all the input from all of you who have contributed to this - and other - threads on this subject since v5 was released we've arrived at a working solution. The key ingredients in the solution are: Project Options...Screen...Windowed mode selected (rather than Fullscreen) Project Options...Screen...window sized to match the resolution of the digital projector Project Options...Screen...Without borders selected I think all other factors that have been mentioned along the way are "red herrings" and can probably be ignored. Now all I've got to do is rebuild 20+ sequences in Windowed mode. Ah well, it'll keep me occupied for a day or two of my newly arrived-at retirement (which started today). Once again, my sincerest thanks to everybody who has contributed to the discussions along the way. regards, Peter

And no, I didn't dream it. It really did happen! I've now gone one more step and reduced the window size of all three sequences to 1024x768. The menu and the two driven sequences still behave exactly as I would wish them to - totally free of flashbacks. Now they occupy the middle of the 1280x1024 monitor with part of the desktop and icons being visible all around them. I'm quietly confident that this setup will project exactly as I would wish through my Dell digital projector (1024x768 resolution). If so, we have a viable circumvention! I'll do that final test just as soon as I can and make a final report back - but I think it's looking very hopeful! regards, Peter

And so we move into the next chapter in this saga... I have just re-built the three sequences but with the following changes made to all three: - in Project Options...Screen tab - "Windowed mode" - size of window set to 1280x1024 (the size of my monitor) - "Without border" selected and lo and behold! Everything runs just as I always wanted it to!!!!! This test was done with: - TestMenu.exe set with Hardware Acceleration turned OFF - GradBlue.exe set with Hardware Acceleration turned ON - GradRed.exe set with Hardware Acceleration turned OFF ...and I didn't have to run the "Prepare" button BlackSlide.exe first! I think this approach will solve the problem for everyone who just wants to watch sequences on their Vista PC monitor. Now all I need to do is work out how to get this result on the projector. I'm hoping that "Windowed mode" 1024x768 "Without borders" will do the trick. I still don't believe what I've achieved. I'm off to run the test sequences again. Just to confirm that it really does work. regards, Peter

Hi all, I believe I have a working circumvention for the "flashback" problem when running Menu-driven slideshows on a PC that runs under Windows Vista. It has come about as a result of a combination of tests suggested to me by the discussion above with Brian and a chance discovery as a result of clicking the mouse in the wrong place! Some background first: I develop my sequences on a desktop PC system with a monitor that is 1280x1024 but build the sequences to 1024x768 (ready for the digital projector). So in PTE my settings on the Screen tab of Project Options are "Fullscreen" and "4:3 PC/DVD" and in O&A all my images and objects are "Fit to Screen". These settings mean that when I view my sequences on the PC monitor there is a narrow black band top and bottom. These two bands are not present when the sequences are projected. From the tests I have just completed it would seem to me that the multiple flashbacks occur at their worst on the very first sequence launched off the menu. If that sequence is launched for a second time (this was the accidental mouse click that unlocked this secret!) the only sign of flashback is in the two narrow bands of black at top and bottom of the screen. If a second and different sequence is launched off the menu then only the brief flashbacks in the top and bottom black strips are seen. Following this discovery I then added a "Prepare" button to the menu to launch a sequence consisting of just a "Black Slide". Now, if I run "Prepare" first, then all the other sequence launches run with no major flashbacks. And since the remaining flashbacks are visible only beyond the 1024x768 boundary of my sequence, I'm hopeful that when I project this test menu there will be no projected flashbacks other than those deliberately induced by running "Prepare". The "Prepare" button must exist on the main menu slide for this technique to work properly. Please note that all of the sequences involved in the tests have Hardware Acceleration turned OFF. I have also tried with Hardware Acceleration turned on in one of the driven sequences and this does re-introduce some flashback. I've attached a zip file which I hope includes all the necessary files. I'd be grateful if some other member who uses Vista would give this a checkout on their system to see if the results are repeatable. regards, Peter TestMenu_Aug19_2008_8_19_24.zip

Brian, Thanks for your reply above. For the benefit of other forum members, let me make it clear that in all the tests that I did with Iconoid it did everything it said it would. It was easy to install, to run and to customise. It's just that on Vista it doesn't solve the problem of "flashbacks" at the start and end of PTE sequences. It never claimed it would and nor did you claim it would. regards, Peter P.S. I'll spend some time today exploring the Vista properties. I noted yesterday whilst testing Iconoid that there is one panel of properties that presents a long scrollable list of options to tick/untick. The solution or a circumvention might be lying in there. I'll report back in due course.

Hi Jean-Pierre, Your comments about v4.49 got me thinking. I created with v4.49 the equivalent Menu sequence that I had previously built using v5.5. When I execute this on my Vista system the driven sequence (which was still the v5.5 one with Hardware Acceleration turned OFF) now launches with absolutely no flashbacks of any kind at any point in time. Rebuilding the driven sequence in v5.5 to have Hardware Acceleration turned ON resulted in the multiple flashbacks at both the start and end of the driven sequence. So, for Vista users the current "best" solution seems to be: - build the menu with v4.49 - build the driven sequences with which-ever version you want but turn off Hardware Acceleration if you are using v5.5. Your comment about a black screen for a little time before the second slideshow starts is, I would have thought, the time delay required to open the slideshow file, virus-check it and get it loaded into memory ready to start execution. I don't think there's much we can do about that. It's all system processing overhead that we have to accept. regards, Peter

An update.... With the assistance of some friends (and their next-door neighbours) we have now established that when the sequence is run off the DVD through a TV the following occurs: - if the TV uses CRT technology there is visible barrel distortion - if the TV or computer monitor uses flat-screen (LCD) technology there is no distortion of any kind Unfortunately we have not got an old CRT computer monitor between us to make the test on but my prediction is that there would be barrel distortion. Conclusion: There's nowt wrong wi' PTE-VideoBuilder! regards, Peter (Translation of the Yorkshire dialect for those who might need it: There is nothing wrong with PTE-VideoBuilder)

Brian, I've tried all the options and settings that seem to be likely candidates to have a beneficial effect - all with no positive outcome: - Hide (both of them) set to zero, short non-zero and long. - Delay set to zero, short non-zero and long I've tried with "Keep taskbar on top" selected in the Taskbar Properties and I've tried with this option deselected. I've tried with my wallpaper set to solid black (This helps mask the problem but the problem is still there because I can still see the "Windows" button in the lower left corner in the flashbacks). I've tried with Hardware Acceleration turned off in Project Options...Screen and with it turned on. Having it turned off in the Menu sequence eliminates all the flashback at the start and the end of the Menu sequence. This is fine if you don't want any animation in the Menu sequence (which I don't). Having it turned off in the driven sequence reduces the "flashbacks" to a quick flash of the desktop and a quick flash of the Menu slide before the start of the driven sequence and again at the end of the driven sequence. Having Hardware Acceleration turned on in the driven sequence results in multiple flashes of both the desktop and the Menu slide at both the start and the end of the driven sequence. So I conclude that, for PTE users who want to build Menu sequences and run them on a Vista system, this software tool from www.sillysot.com does not provide the answer. From my tests I conclude that all the following can have some degree of beneficial effect: - Set your wallpaper to solid black - Deselect "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" in Taskbar Properties - Turn off Hardware Acceleration in the Menu sequence - If you have no animation in your driven sequences, turn off Hardware Acceleration in these also I further conclude that the root cause of the problem would appear to be some kind of conflict between Windows and PTE for control of the graphics card. I can only hope that Igor and his team of software magicians can work out a solution to this problem at some future date (It would be nice if it was going to come in PTE v5.6, wouldn't it?) regards, Peter

Brian, Many thanks for bringing this to the attention of the forum members. I've given it a try out this morning and, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to address the problems of "flashbacks" associated with running a "Menu" sequence under Vista. If anyone can make it do this job on a Vista machine, please let us know how you did it. regards, Peter

Gary, For some users it seems that doing right-click on the Taskbar, then selecting Properties and unticking "Keep taskbar on top of other windows" resolves the problem some of the time. It doesn't seem to be a consistent solution for me on Vista but it might help you on XP. Worth a go? regards, Peter