fh1805

You are blessed with some spectacular landscapes in which to do your hiking. The golden glow of those aspen trees is such a beautiful sight. Makes me yearn to visit the States in the fall and experience it for myself. I'd go along with Dave Peterson on some of his points. It would be nice to have a map that set it into its geographic context and perhaps a little information either as voice-over, captions or by photographing information boards when you come across them. But, that said, this is your show built in your style. In my book, you should always do things so that you enjoy doing them. If others then enjoy the fruits of your labours, that's a bonus!

Dan D., With the exception of my "Whitby Abbey" sequence, all others that I have posted have always asked for feedback. Based on the download stats at www.mediafire.com where I upload the sequences, less than five percent of downloaders actually bothers to post any feedback. I suspect Barry has hit the nail on the head when he suggests that "...most people visiting this site see the regular members as experts and they will not feel they have the knowledge, skill or experience to be able to make a constructive comment on the work ..."

It's time I chipped in my views to this discussion. I, too, have been disappointed at the lack of feedback to the various sequences that I have posted. Those who did post comments invariably made points about aspects that I might otherwise have overlooked. When I offer my work for others to view, whether via this forum or to an audience at a local organisation, I like to know what they think about my work. As feedback seems to be rarely given on this forum (measured as a percentage of the number of downloads) I can see very little point in continuing to upload my sequences.

Xaver, Thanks for the instructions. They mapped directly to Photoshop Elements. I'll spend some time this weekend experimenting with this technique.

Xaver, Thanks for your friendly and helpful comments. I'll give them some thought. I use Photoshop Elements v5 to prepare the images. Do you know if it has the high-pass sharpening algorithm that you mention? If so, how do I find it?

Brian, Thanks for this tip-off. However, all my friends use Windows platform machines.

Brian, I hadn't taken it as criticism - I developed a thick skin many years ago. But I had taken note of your comments to the effect that other readers of these posts might take them as Gospel. You are right on that point and so I do need to take a little more time to prepare my words when posting a piece of "fact". Xaver, Yes, I agree that there are times when the spontaneity of the post is appropriate; and , indeed, it gives liveliness to some of the debates. But Brian's point about how other readers interpret what we post is also valid. Don't worry, I'm not going to change my style dramatically. I've always had a tendency to "shoot from the lip" (hope your command of English grasps the meaning of the phrase). It has, occasionally got me into trouble but I just have to live with it and be aware when it might not be appropriate to be so outspoken.

Brian, I will take more care in future to be as accurate and precise as you are in your posts.

Brian, I understand and agree with you re the absence of well defined standards for the Fn key combinations. The point I was trying to make was not that Fn+F5 would always be the monitor/projector toggle on all laptops but that the toggle would most likely be a three-position, wrap-around toggle. My reference to Fn+F5 was directed at Tom who had found that that was the combination on his laptop that controlled the monitor/projector outputs. I was undoubtedly influenced in my choice of phrasing by the fact that both my laptops (an old Fujitsu Siemens Amilo and a new Acer) use Fn+F5 as the key combination to control the monitor/projector outputs; and both are three-position wrap-around toggles.

Hi Barbara, You can download the latest release of PTE V4 from this link: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....hl=engine+vista

I've been running menu-driven sequences for over two years now and have never had any problems. I've used menus built using PTE v4.47 and ones built using v5.1. I've run them on an XP laptop and on a Vista laptop. I might be tempting fate in saying this, but I've never had a menu problem. I cannot help but feel that any problems being experienced are going to be attributable to something being amiss in the combination of settings in the menu sequence and the driven sequences. For a menu sequence built using v5.1 I would recommend the following Project Options settings: Main tab - "When show ends keep last slide on screen", "Wait for key press or mouse click" Advanced tab - Mouse buttons set to be Left=Next, Right=Previous (relevant only if you have more than one page in the menu) and "Always show mouse cursor" Screen tab - If you are not using animation in the menu sequence, turn off Hardware acceleration In the sequences being driven off this menu I recommend the following settings: Main tab - "Close show after last slide" Advanced tab - "Hide mouse cursor during show" Screen tab - " Turn "hardware acceleration" on. The mouse action on each button in the menu sequence should be "Run application or open file" and not "Run application and exit". The action for all main images and all other objects should be "None".

Tom, You will almost certainly find that the Fn+F5 key combination is a wrap-around three-position toggle: Display only on the computer monitor - Display on both the computer monitor and the projector - Display only on the projector and then back to Display only on the monitor.

Xaver, You can do exactly what you want as follows: - Open a new project in PTE: no need to add any images, in fact it's best if you don't - Work through all the Project Option tabs, setting the values that you prefer - Save this project as a Template by doing File...Templates...Create Template from this show, giving it a name of your choice - Then set your newly created template as the default by doing File...Templates...Manage templates - In the pop-up window, ensure that the box "Default template for new projects" is ticked - Use the button immediately under that box to choose your new template You can set up as many different templates as you like but only one can be your default template.

Ken, In the situation you describe, you had no option but to customise each image on an individual basis. In Colin's case he was trying to get a common look and feel throughout his sequence. I, too, have had been through the process of adding a piece of text to every one of 245 images in a long sequence. It can be a real pain; constantly having to reselect the font and the colour. And, yes, I know you can use copy & paste to speed things up. But surely, anything that adds "ease of use" in some situations without adding more work for those who work in a different manner has to be a good thing, doesn't it?

There has been some discussion recently about the need to constantly reselect text font, colour etc when using text objects in O&A. See thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8151 I hope Colin doesn't mind me hijacking his thread like this but I support his suggestion that it would be nice to make our choice "stick". Perhaps we could have a new Project Option where we can specifiy our preference for text font, colour, bold, italic, underscore, etc when working with text objects. Then we would need to change this only when we wanted a different text style on a particular object. Having such an option would make the choice of text font in a text object like the choice of transition effect. We set our preference and then can over-ride it if and when we want to. Over to the programming wizards!

Colin, If you are making your boxes using Objects you have two options for replicating them: - select all the items comprising one box by using the Ctrl+click technique then Copy and Paste using the O&A buttons of the same name or... - first place a frame on the image using the O&A Insert Frame Icon and then place all your box objects as children of the frame This latter approach has the benefit of enabling you to resize, reposition, etc all of the items within a frame just by working the frame (the PTE "kids" inherit their "parents" attributes - just like the members of your family tree but without the teenage angst!)

Tom, Have you got the Project Options...Main tab setting of "Close show after last slide" selected on each of the sequences except the menu sequence? In the menu sequence have you got "When show ends keep last slide in show on screen" selected? Not getting these right can give problems with return to menu at end of each called sequence.

Colin, What you are experiencing is a known problem running PTEv5 on Vista. As at PTEv5.1 there is no solution to the "flashing back" to the desktop. As I understand the situation, from previous threads that have discussed this problem, the root cause is to do with the way in which Igor and his team have programmed control over the graphics GPU under Vista. Igor has, in previous threads, indicated that he accepts that his team need to resolve this problem. I am hoping that the resolution will come in v5.2 which, again based on Igor's replies to other threads, he and his team are currently working on. At present he has not indicated any date for the release of the first beta of this new version. Rest assured, if Igor says a problem will be fixed, it gets fixed. We'll just have to be patient. Past experience shows that the wait is well worth while!

Mike, Could you create a zip of your menu project (use File...Create Backup in Zip) and post it as an attachment? I'll take a look at it to see if I can spot anything obvious that you've overlooked.

Ken, See my reply to Anthony above. It was a "PTE-Vista" compatibility issue that Igor's patcher utility has resolved.

Anthony, Hole in one! Running the exe through the 449Patcher utility solved the problem. Now I need to take the patched exe to the XP machine and check it works OK there. If it does, I'm rocking and rolling! Thanks for the tip, I'm not sure I'd have thought of that one.

Ken, The driving show already is unsync'ed. It has no music.

Hi Colin, You've found a method that works for you - and that's all that matters. Hope the family reunions go well.

I'm using PTEv4.47 to try and program an "endless loop" sequence that can play unattended during our photographc society's forthcoming coffee morning. I have the Project Options...Main item "Repeat show until ESC is pressed" selected but the show does not repeat. The sequence comprises: - a "Welcome" slide - a slide to trigger the first member sequence via "Run external application" - a "You have been watching...the next sequence will start..." slide - a slide to trigger the next member sequence via "Run external application" - a "You have been watching...the next sequence will start..." slide The sequence runs entirely as expected, with the linked sequences running and control being returned to this driving sequence up until this last slide at which point the driving sequence just sits with that slide on the screen. It doesn't repeat like I've told it to. Anyone able to offer any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong? N.B. This isn't a time-critical issue - yet! I'm using PTEv4 because I don't like the constant flicker to and from the Windows desktop that one gets with PTEv5 when linking exe files from another PTE exe. The PC used to build the sequence runs Vista. The PC that will be used to playback is running XP. I have access to an XP machine for final testing. But until I crack the repeat problem there's no point thinking that far ahead.

Peter S, It wasn't Colin that queried the blur vs feather, it was I. But thanks for the comprehensive answer. I understand how and why you've done it the way that you have. No need to send the template file, thanks.