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Jean-Claude, Thank you for improving the translation from French to English! I regret I am not bilingual and have to rely on translation tools. Yes, objects can be built as parent-child links but they do not have to be built this way. They can be added as "independent" objects. In this mode they appear exactly as in Photoshop: a simple stack of layers. But it is the parent-child feature that gives PTE its immense flexibility and that allows us users to programme highly complex animations into our sequences. regards, Peter

These are examples of what I now believe is fundamentally wrong with the design of this part of PTE's user interface. It relies far too much on multi-key keyboard shortcuts that are not documented anywhere within the program's user interface. What about the average new user; who maybe doesn't use this forum at all and may not even know of its existence! How is that individual expected to discover that these features are embedded on those keys? Windows works on the basis of "select something and then drag it and drop it" - all done with just the left mouse button. For more complex operations Windows allows "select a large group and then drag and drop them as a group". And for even more complex operations it allows "select a group, then deselect individual items, then drag and drop those that remain selected". In all cases there are three phases of activity: select, drag and drop. And in all cases, the drag and drop is done using just the left mouse button. The complex keyboard shortcuts come in only at the select stage (Shift+Click, Ctrl+Click). PTE does not conform to this model. regards, Peter

Umberto, Hover the mouse over the vertical bars that separate each part of the PTE window and drag over to the left. regards, Peter

I have recently been exploring the new audio handling features within the Timeline view and would like to make some suggestions for improvement. The first time I muted and locked tracks I did not immediately see any on-screen indication of that change. Eventually I spotted that the warning symbols appeared way over at the extreme right hand side of the track. This placement struck me as rather odd. The filename information is shown aligned over at the extreme left hand end of the track. This was where I was looking for the Mute/Lock information. I also found it difficult to move tracks up or down and still retain their precise alignment against the timeline. I think both "problems" could be overcome if each audio Track had a small, fixed header at the left hand end. This header would be where the symbols would appear and would also be where the vertical drag could be applied in a manner that guaranteed no sideways motion. This concept of a "header" could be implemented at Track level or, better still, at clip level. regards, Peter

Hi Umberto, I also think that is what Claude is referring to. A PTE Frame object is just a PTE Rectangle object with its opacity set to 0%. A PTE Rectangle object is just a PTE Frame object with its opacity set to 100%. The Rectangle and the Frame are the same object. Because the difference is achieved by using the opacity value, opacity cannot be an inherited attribute for child objects. To have opacity inherited by a group of child objects, you must place all the objects within a Mask Container object. You can then fade in or out all of the objects at the same time by fading in or out the Mask Container object. regards, Peter

Moderator note: I have split this discussion out into a new topic. regards, Peter

Hi Igor, Partial success! If I select a different slide in the Slide List, the time gets updated and the slider gets repositioned. [Two problems solved] If I click on the time value it resets to display zero value [Third problem solved] However, when resetting to zero time, the currently selected slide remains selected in the Slide List and the Slide List remains positioned showing that slide. It should, of course, reset the selected slide to be the first slide and it should scroll the Slide List to show that first slide. [Fourth problem not yet solved] regards, Peter

Yes, it does! Thanks, Igor. regards, Peter

I,too, would like to see something along these lines. Although I do not usually build sequences with a great number of slides or with extremely complicated slides, I am doing one such at present. It has nearly 200 slides (1920x1080) and takes a significant length of time to build the thumbnails that are to be displayed along the Slide List, on the "digital lightbox" (Fullscreen mode of Slides view) or in the Timeline view. regards, Peter

In the Timeline view, at the far right of the middle toolbar is the check-box for "Time Points". When this is chosen (i.e. ticked), a numbered "flag" appears on the timeline at the start of each slide. This flag is a mouse-selectable object (by which I mean that the mouse pointer changes to the "finger-hand" when the mouse hovers over the flag). I suggest that clicking on the flag should produce a pop-up window in which that slide is displayed in the same style as it is displayed in the Slides view - with an AB button, a transition duration field and a slide duration field, and that these items should be interactive in the same way that they are in the Slides view. regards, Peter

Moderator note: The dialogue initiated by Robert Albright has been moved to a new topic: Peter

Robert, It sounds as though you have not added a second track but have added a second audio file to the first track. If you want your sounds to run in parallel (as a mix) you must, doing things the way you did, first "Add Track" and then "Add audio file" to that new track. I cannot offer any advice on sound from video clips as, at present, I shoot silent movies and dub the sound afterwards. regards, Peter

Robert, It should always show in Fullscreen mode and will even show in normal mode if you have dragged the boundary of the soundtrack area up to make more tracks visible. If you haven't done that, there should be a vertical scroll bar at the right of the audio tracks that will allow you to see the "hidden" ones. regards, Peter

A "Zip" will have applied compression to each of the individual files. As far as I am aware, the "Template" will simply have copied all the files - no compression. regards, Peter

Your PTE project file (the .pte file) is a text file that can be edited with any text editor. Peter

That is perfectly correct. You had modified the dimensions of that rectangle, making it tall and narrow. The values that it has are percentages relative to its parent. If it is an independent object then its "parent" is the entire slide. You then copied that rectangle object to the clipboard and then pasted it as a child of the first rectangle. Its values are now applied relative to the parent. Hence the rectangle gets even thinner. If you want that right-hand rectangle to be identical to the left-hand rectangle, you need to paste it as a child of the same parent as the left-hand rectangle. A child inherits its parents attributes and then applies its own attributes on top of those. This concept is what gives PTE its marvellous flexibility to produce complex animations of multiple objects, such as those produced by Lin Evans or my Rubik's Cube sequence. regards, Peter

Eric, Somehow or other you create two identical topics. I have deleted one of them. Peter

Gary, I cannot recreate this problem using v7.5.3. My steps were as follows (please confirm these are EXACTLY what you did): - Opened a new project - Insert Blank Slide (by right-click in Slide List area and taking the option) - Into O&A window - Add Rectangle (from toolbar icon) - Re-sized by Shift+Left-mouse drag of one corner - Re-positioned to centre-ish (by simple drag) - Selected the rectangle in the Objects list - Ctrl+C to copy to clipboard - Ctrl+V to paste from clipboard This resulted in the second rectangle being a child object of the first and appearing overlaid on its parent and reduced in size proportionally. If I repeated that sequence of actions but un-highlighted the rectangle object between the Copy and the Paste I got the second rectangle as an independent object that overlaid exactly the original rectangle. No problems whatsoever. I have customised my Settings|Preferences and I have stored my choice of Project Options in a customized default template. Do we need to compare our Preference and Project Option settings? I have no reason to believe that any of my Settings|Preferences or my Project Options will have altered PTE's behaviour doing any of those steps. regards, Peter

Yes they are! Peter

Hi vicbrasil, I build all my PTE sequences on my external J: drive (USB device). I then copy the EXE files to a USB memory stick (thumb drive) which is known as external drive M:. I then take that to my laptop and plug it in (where it comes up as drive F:) and run the EXE off that with no problems whatsoever. Using an external drive is not, of itself, the cause of your problems. There is something else going on in your system and your procedures that is to blame - but I don't know what. regards, Peter

Excellent photography and very apt choice of music. When a sequence is not telling a specific story, the aim should be to have the images moving in harmony with the music. I found that the abrupt "stop" on each of your zooms broke the flow of your sequence. To elaborate on Mick's comment about your use of zoom: a zoom should have a purpose. Usually it is done to go from a strong image to an even stronger image (think of it as cropping but done dynamically). It can also be used to emphasise which part of the image the narrator is talking about in sequences that have voice over. I felt that one image jarred against all the rest (maybe that is what you intended); and that was the image of the shop mannequins. All the other images of "people" were of real people. One final point... There was just a suggestion of a "false ending". As you neared the end of the sequence you introduced some lovely sunset shots. OK, they may have been sunrises but coming towards the end of the sequence they felt like sunsets; and it felt like the show was closing off beautifully. Then you went back to some brighter shots before returning to your final "sun behind flag" image. Again the flow had been broken. For a first attempt this is very commendable, indeed. regards, Peter

In any field of enterprise, if a supplier upon whom you depend goes out of business you have a potentially major problem. If no other supplier can fill the gap then you, too, are probably heading to extinction. If technology changes and your existing supplier fails to respond - again, you have a major problem. Both those scenarios are outside the control of the user. So there is little point in wasting nervous energy worrying about "what if". regards, Peter

Looked at coldly and rationally, "digital" is not an archival medium. It is no good ensuring that you have layer upon layer of "backup copies" of the data in a multitude of file formats. You must also "Archive" and "Backup" the software, and also the hardware technology on which the software runs. You must then, periodically, bring that hardware up to operating state and confirm that everything is still working. You must then periodically access each and every item of data to ensure that no "digital decay" has set in. Our Victorian ancestors, working on glass plates, paper and celluloid, have left us a wonderful legacy that, 110-170 years later, brings their era to life for today's generations. I strongly suspect that future generations (50-100 years down the road) will find only a damned great gaping hole in the archives when they look back to the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Even if the data is intact, the technology to view it probably will not be. We must accept that we live in a society that is obsessed with the "here and now" and has no thought for the long-term future. regards, Peter

I have found these in v7.5.3. The time that is displayed between the slider and the Play/Pause and Stop buttons on the mini-player's control bar does not update as it should in response to mouse events. - If you click on this time value it does not reset to zero like it used to in earlier versions The sequence is correctly repositioned to the first slide ready for the next playback but this fact is not reflected in the position of the Slide List or in the choice of the selected slide in the Slide List. Resetting the mini-player to Time=0 should reposition the display of the Slide List to the first slide and this first slide should become the selected slide. - If you pause the mini-player and then select a different slide in the Slide List, this time value does not change. - If you pause the mini-player and then drag the slider to a different position, this time value does not change. Also, if you start the mini-player, the Play/Pause button correctly changes from the Play icon to the Pause icon. If you then Stop the playback, the Play/Pause button remains on the Pause icon when it should revert to the Play icon. regards, Peter

It might be worth checking what you set as the Properties of each video clip (use the Properties tab in the O&A window and see what you have for "Do not include file for EXE"). If any of the video clips have this box checked (i.e. ticked) then PTE has not included that video clip in the EXE file. When you published the Mac version, PTE had to include the video clip because it wasn't going to be present on the Mac system. But for the Windows EXE files it will have been omitted. That would account for the show working on the system where it was built and on the Mac but not on any other Windows system. regards, Peter