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Nice one John! And there are even the "Up" and "Down" buttons on the Project Options ...Music tab to allow Jerry to resequence the files if he gets one in the wrong order. All he needs now is a good, solid naming convention for his files (both images and sounds) and he's "away with the mixer" as we say locally. regards, Peter

Jerry, Since you already have each voice-over as an mp3 file, it would be a straightforward matter to combine them into a single voice-over file using sound editor software such as Audacity (free) or Adobe Audition. You would then, as you already know, be able to add this file at the project level and see it in the Timeline. However, you are quite right in that it would be so much easier if we could see all the sound clips whenever we view the Timeline. regards, Peter

XR400R, Welcome to the Forum! Try ticking "Don't interrupt sound comment when next slide appears" in the Project Options...Main tab and unticking "Synchronize music and slides" on the same tab. I think this will give you what you want except when you have two successive slides both with voice-over and the first not having a long enough duration. regards, Peter

Those who use Audacity sound editor software can recover MP3 files from a PTE exe file simply by doing Project...Import Audio and selecting the PTE exe file. You might find there's some garbage sound front and back but this is easily removed using Audacity's editting tools. It might even recover WAVs but I've never tried that. regards, Peter

Just downloaded MultiExtractor version 2.8.0.1 via Cnet. Norton Internet Security 2008 with all latest updates applied reported nothing during the download process. regards, Peter

All, DaveG is quite right in his statement (above). Those of us who are individual producers of AVs in furtherance of our hobby are, almost certainly, not going to appear on the radar of the Copyright investigators. Their returns in fees and fines would not cover the costs of their investigations. However, Bill at Beechbrook might be in a different position. He is hosting AVs for download from his server. If these AVs contain "illegal" content, he might find himself targetted - just as those individuals and organisations that host illegal copies of music files for download have been and are being targetted. Moreover, he lives in a country that is somewhat notorious for its "litigation"-driven way of life. regards, Peter

Well done, Ken! That's the thread I was referring to. Thanks, Peter

John, You wrote: You and me both! I can change the help button caption. I can change the Title bar of the window that opens when I click on that button. But I cannot find a way of adding either directly keyed text or a link to a pre-keyed text file. I've even tried browsing the project pte file in Notepad and cannot find any obvious references there (other than the ones I've already used) Over to Igor and his team to explain this one.... Peter

Ken, Earlier this year there was a long discussion that developed on the subject of menu sequences (I'm not sure the original subject reflected the discussion that subsequently developed). As far as I recall one of the regular contributors to that thread was Cor from the Netherlands (userid CorvdK or similar). Cor's input was very detailed and, as I recall, it stemmed from a public exhibition that a Dutch organisation was putting on. When I get to my next coffee break I'll try searching it out myself - but I'm multitasking today: household chores, gardening, paperwork, staying abreast of e-mails and forum posts, etc. And the sun's shining and I'd rather be out with the camera!!!!! Peter

John, All opinions are welcome here! I don't think anyone is advocating a removal of the feature. It's just that, as Barry identified, it doesn't all seem to work as some of us believe it should. I have a lot of sympathy with Barry's views that a feature should either work or be removed if nobody is using it. If you read my post #7 you will see that I propose a restructuring of the options so that the feature is retained, but all in one place. There's a similar discussion going on in another thread about Preferences. The tone of that discussion is the same as this one: yes, we need the function, but it should all be in one place and one place only. I feel very strongly that, with any software, the user interface has to be totally consistent, with each option existing in one place and one place only. If that option has a keyboard shortcut then that shortcut should have exactly the same effect no matter in what context it is used. If the option is associated with a Toolbar icon, then no matter where that icon appears the function should be identical. In the past PTE seemed to suffer occasionally from the fact that it has evolved as much as it has been designed - by which I mean that sometimes new function seemed to be added without a thorough rethink of how this was going to impact on the user interface. The development team's work on PTEv5.5 was an excellent job of cleaning up the user interface. They now have the product heading in an excellent direction as far as the user interface is concerned. But I suspect that there are still one or two bits and pieces that could still be cleaned up. The startup menu - and the user interface to its various settings - looks like it might be one such item. regards, Peter

Earlier this year there was an active thread running concerning the building of "menu" sequences or "chained" sequences - for example, where one sequence has on it objects that when clicked with a mouse, cause another sequence to run. I never really got anything to work to my total satisfaction. Don't get me wrong - I can get the new sequence to start whenever it's trigger object is clicked and I can get the menu system to tick away in the background and still be there at the end of that triggered sequence. The problem that I have not been able to resolve is, I believe, an issue to do with the way PTEv5 interfaces with the graphics card when running on a PC that uses Vista. I build my sequences on a Vista desktop PC and I use a Vista laptop to drive the projector when I'm "on the road". In my latest attempt to resolve this problem I was building an "endless loop" sequence that would automatically trigger other sequences in turn. This is to be run "hands-off" onto a rear-projection screen in one corner of the room where my local photographic society is holding a fund-raising event this coming Saturday (2nd August 2008). The end result will be running on an XP platform PC. The triggered sequences are a mixture of PTEv4 and PTEv5 sequences. I chose to use PTEv4 to build the loop sequence. Everything works just fine on my Vista desktop and also on my old XP laptop; except that some of the v5 animations in the triggered sequences are a bit jerky on the XP laptop. I knew this would be the case. That was the reason I had to retire the old XP laptop from PTE work. Its on-board graphics could not handle the more complex PTEv5 animations. The club's XP-based desktop system will be used to run the loop on Saturday and has successfully run each of the triggered sequences before so I don't expect any problems (its got an nVidia 8600 fitted). Having got everything built and working OK for Saturday I suddenly thought: what happens if, on my Vista desktop system, I now open that PTE4 loop project in PTEv5, (saving it under a new name of course!)? Well, the problem hasn't gone away. It still manifests itself as a short, repeated flicker (often involving brief flashes of the Windows desktop) at the start of the triggered sequence and again at the end of the triggered sequence. It seems to me that it might be something to do with handing over control of the graphics card from one sequence to the other. I have had to make the following setting changes from the PTEv4 project: - disable hardware acceleration (there is no animation in the loop project - only in the triggered sequences) - turned off "Pause when window of slide show becomes inactive" (otherwise the timing of the loop project went all to hell) The "programming technique" that I have used is that recommened in the original thread (by Cor, I think it was). A blank slide of 1 second duration set to "Run application", a blank slide of 2 seconds duration to allow time for the next sequence to load, a slide with text giving the author of the sequence just seen with a duration set to a few seconds longer than that sequence. As I said above, the PTEv4 versions works fine on both XP and Vista. The PTEv5 version shows flicker at the start and end of each triggered sequence on the Vista system. What the PTEv5 version does on an XP system is irrelevant to me since my XP system can't handle the animations of PTEv5. I seem to recall that in the original thread Igor acknowledged that there was a problem with PTEv5 code design in this area and that it would be addressed in a future release. It would be nice to have an update from the development team on this issue. regards, Peter Edit: to correct typo in Title

DaveG, No you didn't miss it. I never got around to posting my more recent findings. Now I've got to find the original thread (or start a new one). I think I'll start a new thread. (msg for Ken Cox: once I've got the new thread up, if you then happen upon the original thread in your archives, could you please put in a link from the old to the new? Cheers) regards, Peter

Xaver, Your use of English is just fine! I am always impressed by the ability, of those for whom English is a second language, to get across complex ideas that are understandable by those for whom English is their only language. Ken, As I said above, I've never used this feature. When I have seen it used by others I have always felt that it came across as "amateurish" and "unprofessional". I much prefer to transition from a menu system to the first image in each show (usually a black slide but sometimes a plain background). regards, Peter

Xaver, The buttons referred to in the Messages tab are those used on the Start-up window. This is something that can be optionally added to a project. I've built a short example sequence and loaded it to MediaFire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ykmghuzdtlz. The file is about 2.4MB in size. regards, Peter

Prompted by discussion in another thread, I've come back to this one to offer a further thought... The "Preferences" need to operate at two distinct levels: Level 1 - Via a new command "View...Preferences" We should be able to edit and save a complete set of preferences that are stored at the PTE level. In other words they are the values that apply each time we create a new project. Level 2 - Via Project Options We should be able to modify any or all of these values and have them stored at the Project level. In other words these are the values that apply only to that specific project. regards, Peter

I agree with you on this one , Barry. Either the Startup screen options in the Messages tab should work as we would expect them to, or they should be removed. Perhaps a suitable solution would be to have the Project Options...Main tab simply show the tick box "Show startup window", remove the Startup Window section from the Project Options...Messages tab and introduce a new Project Options tab "StartUp window" to hold these values. regards, Peter

Tony/David/Bill, I don't profess to be an expert on this subject (and, Bill, I can speak only for the situation in the UK) but my understanding is as follows: In respect of a commercial recording of a piece of music there are at least three seperate elements of copyright: - the rights of the original composer(s) and librettist(s) in the written down form of the piece - the rights of the recording artist(s) in the performance captured in the recording - the rights of the record company in the commercial product (LP, tape, CD, etc) Unless you have copyright clearance for all three then any copy you make of a commercial recording is a breach of all three. Whether you do anything with that copy or not, the moment you make the copy you are in breach of those copyrights; and are consequently open to litigation. I believe that the above is the general situation world-wide as far as copyright is concerned. In the UK, copyright clearances are granted by the IAC via their agreements with the MCPS, BPI and PPL organisations. These clearances come with some restrictions as to use. The licences are intended solely for amateur film, video and AV makers. The finished product (in our case the AV sequence) may be shown only to: - family and friends - members of the film/video/AV club to which the individual belongs - at meetings of other similar interest groups - in local, regional, national and international competitions - at public meetings organised for and advertised as being for the purpose of raising funds for a registered charity (I think I've got those details about right) Any other use of the copied material is still a breach of copyright. Now we come to the Internet and how these licences might or might not be interpreted. Remember, I'm not an expert. There are lawyers out there who make their living by dealing solely with issues of copyright infringement. Copyright law is one huge "can of worms"! In my very personal opinion, it could be argued that our PTE Forum is an online "club" for AV enthusiasts. To join the forum we have to "subscribe" to it just as we would subscribe to a camera club. Therefore showing our sequences to other forum members seems to me no different to showing them to a club in its meeting venue. Our meeting venue is the Internet. The problem, as I see it, is that non-members of our forum can view the forum contents. Therefore they can see the links to Beechbrook or MediaFire or wherever the sequences are being hosted. Therefore they can download that sequence; and the moment they do they are in breach of copyright law as well. One solution that possibly could be argued as being compliant with the law but applied to an Internet environment, would be to have a hosting service that was accessible only via login through the forum; i.e. a site that only registered and logged in users of the forum could access. Then the sequences would be viewed only by "club members" and the terms of the copyright licence would have been adhered to. But as I keep stressing I'm not an expert of this law and I'm not a lawyer. Just to get one other related thing completely clear: there is no such thing as copyright free music. All music carries copyrights - the three mentioned at the beginning of this post. What there is, is royalty-free music. The royalty is the monetary fee that the copyright holder is entitled to levy for each copy and/or each separate use of each copy. Some individuals waive their right to this fee by including a "limited use" licence as part of the sale of that music. Before buying royalty-free music (or the mis-leadingly advertised copyright-free music) you should always check the limitations as to usage set out in that "limited use" agreement. For example, the "limited use" agreement that applies to the royalty-free music that Barry Beckham sells via his website is published on his website for all to see. I hope this has helped all members to improve their understanding. If I've got anything seriously wrong I'm sure someone will point it out. regards, Peter

Barry, Further to my post above... if I now go for Project Options... Messages tab I do NOT see the data that I keyed in to the Start-up window fields via the Project Options Main tab route. Either one of these routes is redundant or there is a bug in the code somewhere.

Hi Barry, I'd never used this feature before but all I did was: Project Options...Main tab Tick "Show startup window" Click on Customize startup window button alongside Keyed in my name in the Author field and soem text in the Comments field OK'd twice Preview ...and I got a little pop-up that showed me the data I had just keyed in some fields. is this what you are trying to achieve?

ferrolux, You wrote: You are absolutely right! It should be "AV". Both the images ("V") and the soundtrack ("A") have to work together to provide a pleasing whole. This means that any music used must match the mood of the images and any images used must match the mood and tempo of the music. I find that it often takes me ten times as long, or more, to find suitable music as it does to pick out the images and put them into the order that I want. Any commentary/voice-over/narration must also complement the images and the rest of the soundtrack. The words should add to the viewer's knowledge by giving information that is not obvious from the images alone or they should draw the viewer's attention to specific and important details in the images. An AV sequence can be as simple as a well-matched set of images with complementing music or as complex as any documentary program produced by a television company. But whatever kind of sequence it is, the most important part of all is that the person creating it gets a sense of achievement from doing it - and enjoys doing it!

Royo, I currently work on a 17" monitor that is driven by a graphics card that operates at 1280x1024 pixels. If I was having to replace the monitor I would probably consider a 19"; anything bigger than that would be a struggle to fit in on the worktop.

DaveG, Two minds think alike...but I managed to find it myself!

Gary, Perspective Correction for Zoom Try this thread from earlier this year: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....erspective+Zoom

Gary, Do you mean that you use O&A Zoom values to reduce the slde size to 95%? If so, have you thought of setting your images against a coloured background that fills the screen? It can look much more pleasant than showing them against a plain black background.

John/DaveG Obviously there will be preferences that we would like to set that apply to various different parts of PTE. I agree that having them all under one function is a good idea. Any requirement to group them logically can be satisfied by placing them under separate tabs within that one central function. View...Preferences... seems as good a place as any to have them.