fh1805

Igor, This new installation of the Forum has resolved another long-time bug. The Members tab now correctly links to the Members section of the database and not to the Personal Conversations part, as used to be the case. This will make Ken happy! regards, Peter

My own preference is for a portable digital sound recorder (Zoom H2, Zoom H4, Edirol R-09 or similar). Not only can these do the voice-over but they can also do location recording as well. Listen to some samples here. Whatever decision you make, this is one purchase where you really should do a "try before you buy". regards, Peter

Jill, This may be a case of "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted" but... have you made good use of Frames to group your objects together? If not, it is possible that you might be able to simplify this kind of problem for future animations (and even this one by doing some re-work). regards, Peter

Ken, I think you have jumped the gun by setting this topic to [COMPLETED]. There is still an outstanding issue over the language support. At present only English (USA) is supported. That might be fine for you and I (although I'd prefer the Queen's English rather than the strange flavour uttered in the one time colonies and dominions :) ) but many of our European continental users would, I am sure, prefer to see their native language support re-instated. regards, Peter

Igor, I'm back in the forum for my second visit today. Under "My Settings" I have the "View New Content Method" = "Show me all content that I have not read". I have not changed this value for many months. Clicking on "View New Content" showed me several topics including: "DROPBOX" in which the most recent post was one from user = "David P" timed at 12:23PM yesterday. I read this post yesterday and again this morning during my first visit of today. On that basis, this post in the "DROPBOX" topic is most definitely not "New Content". The forum software does not appear to be operating in the way in which I, and others, believe it should be. If I now repeat the click on "View New Content" after reading each item, that item disappears off the displayed list of topics. So, within this logged in session, "View New Content" appears to work correctly. But the status of "This topic has been read" does not seem to be propagated correctly from one logged in session to the next. regards, Peter

Igor, This morning, when doing "View New Content", I was shown three topics whose last posts I had read yesterday. The first truly "New Content" was timed at about 9:30. So, something is still not quite right. However, as you have made changes to the forum settings between my last visit yesterday and my first visit today, perhaps we should wait and let things settle down. I'll monitor the situation over the next few days and try and identify the precise nature of the symptoms of this problem. regards, Peter

Igor, Response times are certainly a lot quicker on this new server. regards, Peter

Gary, The maximum size the projector can deliver is 1400x1050 pixels. Any PTE executable built to a size larger than that will be automatically downsized to fit. The downsizing should preserve the aspect ratio, giving black bands at top-bottom or left-right, as needed to fill the rest of the projected area. Any MP4 played back through it will be played back in some sort of Media Player software, which will be running inside a Windows window. The media player software used (plus Windows) should take care of the re-sizing of the video stream. The key point to remember about a digital projector is that it is intended to project whatever is displayed on the computer monitor. So, if everything looks OK on the monitor, it should look OK when projected. There will be some image degradation arising from the need to downsize 1920x1080 to 1400x788 (or thereabouts), but that is likely to pass un-noticed except by the most observant of viewers. regards, Peter

Xaver, Whilst accepting that this would be a useful enhancement for some situations, it is quite easy to set up a spreadsheet to do the calculations to ensure smooth animation of an object across several slides. My Rubik's Cube sequence couldn't have been built without using Excel to do the calculations for me. And I know that the late JPD used Excel spreadsheets extensively to create his effects (as, I believe, does his protogé, Jean-Cyprien. regards, Peter

Gary, Dave's suggestion to "Mark all items..." is how I operate, and provided I do that at the end of each session I have no problems. If I forget to end a forum visit by marking all items then I see them again next day (and that then serves as a reminder to me to do the mark action after I've read the new batch). It may be a bug in the forum software but it is possible to implement a simple workflow that keeps the situation under control. regards, Peter

Why have you posted this a second time? regards, Peter

With reference to Xaver's point. I think the confusion comes from there being two "Lightbox" features. One works on the File List (the images present in the currently selected folder) and the other works on the Slide List (the images currently selected to be in the sequence). The latter allows the images to be moved around and deleted from the sequence. The former allows an image or selection of multiple images to be added to the sequence from the File List. regards, Peter

Bungy, You don't tell us what version of PTE you are currently using, so we don't know what features are available to you. You could try checking the values you have under Project Options|Screen. I use Fullscreen mode, Aspect ratio = 16:9, Virtual size = 1920x1080. And I then Create|HD Video for PC and Mac which I load onto a USB memory stick and insert that into the USB socket on my TV. The image fills the screen perfectly during playback - and looks stunning. regards, Peter

No offence intended. regards Peter

DaveG, The "old dog" is going to have to learn "new tricks"! Exercise for the brain is good for you. :D regards, Peter

Igor, The point I was making in my post above is that, a keyboard or command menu option is fine for the experienced user, but the novice user expects to find all the essential and really useful function available via icons. I think the best way to explore new software is by letting the mouse hover over the icons to see what each one is labelled. The user interface for PTE is, in some respects, still based on a typical interface from the late 1990s or very early 2000s. But we are in the second decade of the 2000s now; just think about the user interface as implemented on such as the iPad and other similar devices: it is icon-based. That is what the modern user is accustomed to; and is what I believe PTE should be moving towards - an icon-based user interface that is backed by command menus and keyboard shortcuts for use as the user's experience grows. regards, Peter

Igor, I think this new design will prove to be a great improvement, once we get used to it. However, I notice that the icon to show "Fullscreen view of slide list" is no longer present. During the course of the many demonstrations of PTE that I have given, I have been surprised how often existing users of PTE were unaware of this icon and of the feature to show all the slides on a "digital light box". I ask that you please consider re-instating this icon, perhaps alongside the new "X" button on the bar under the mini-player. And it might make its purpose more obvious to a new user if it was called the "Slide sorting tray". Having keyboard shortcuts is fine for the experienced user; but the new user will be looking for icons to perform the functions. regards, Peter

Stu, Thanks for the advice. Turning off D3D has done the trick! As I will not be using any animation features in this particular PTE sequence, that's no hardship. regards, Peter

Mark, I, too, share your concerns on this point. However, I think part of this "problem", if it is a problem, lies in the technology. With the widespread use of broadband connections and PCs that are "always on", it has become possible to use forums such as this in a manner similar to chat rooms. Such use, by its very nature, will tend to have a different tone and emphasis compared to the more traditional use. Is such use of the forum wrong? I don't have an answer, I'm afraid. Having given the users a tool (the forum), I think we must then accept that different users will use it in different ways. To my mind, the strength of this forum lies in the depth and breadth of knowledge held by the experience PTE users, and their willingness to share this knowledge freely and in a friendly manner with those who come here wanting to learn more about this wonderful product - a product which we, the users, deploy in so many different ways whether for business or for pleasure. Truly, variety is the spice of life when it comes to PTE usage. regards, Peter

I'm preparing a manually controlled show (Project Options|Main..."Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide" is ticked). The show contains some "chalk and talk" slides that were created with Powerpoint interspersed with some half a dozen or so images. Each image slide has been coded to "Run application or open file..." on mouse click on the image object. In each such case, the data input box in the O&A Common tab contains just the filename of that image file: e.g. SlideA.jpg. All the image files are JPEGs. I have the file extension ".jpg" associated with Adobe Photoshop Elements v9 on my desktop system. The EXE file and all the JPEG image files are stored in the exact same folder. When clicking on the first image, Elements is launched and the image file is opened into Elements, and control is transferred to Elements. Having used Elements to demonstrate some image manipulation, I then switch control back to the PTE sequence and advance through that to the next image slide. When I click on this next image, the image file is opened into the existing instance of Elements but control is not passed to Elements: PTE retains control. I have a work-around in that, if I press the Windows key on the keyboard and then click on the Elements task button on the Task Bar, I am successfully transferred to Elements. I can then do the demo of image manipulation, switch back to the PTE sequence, advance to the next image slide, click on it to get the file opened in Elements - but once again, PTE does not hand over control to Elements and I have to use the work-around. Is this a bug in PTE or have I overlooked some Windows setting somewhere? System is running Windows Vista Home Premium, PTE V6.5.7 and Adobe Photoshop Elements v9. regards, Peter

Jose, Compared to simple JPEG or PNG files, the use of masks places a significantly heavier load on the computer's resources. In a sequence I built last year, I tried to do things with masks, but eventually gave up because my system just could not cope with the resource demand. Instead I used JPEGs and PNGs, in combination, to achieve an almost identical end result - and the system ran it as smooth as silk. This reinforces the points that Lin has been making about each of us having to decide how much video and how big a video to include, bearing in mind the limitations of our own (and other users) systems. regards, Peter

To try and bring this discussion back to Lin's original question: What will we do with video? My preferred style of AV is that of documentary, and usually with a history theme. This gives me the problem of finding copyright-free historic imagery. IF I can find copyright-free historic video, I'll consider using it (probably in a "drop-in" window overlaying the main slide image). I will not be using any of my own video because I don't have any camera capable of producing video; and I have absolutely no interest in going down that route. The prospect of having a short video clip running as a "loop" in the background worries me. Because of our evolution as a species, our vision is highly tuned to detect motion. Having, as a species, a poor sense of smell and only moderate hearing, it was the only way we could detect approaching danger. I cannot help but feel that a moving background will be a major visual distraction. regards, Peter

Anthony, I have checked a sample of my sequences and find the same as you. The predicted EXE file size is different from the actual file size. My sample also showed that the magnitude of the difference increases as the EXE files increase: at 10-15MB the error was about 2%, at 50-55MB the error was about 4.5%. All these checks were done using v6.5 of PTE and I didn't find any "smaller than expected" EXEs. One possibility that might explain some of the difference is that of "decimal 1000" vs digital 1000". For example: let's assume that the total byte count in the exe file is 123456789. If we express that in KB by dividing by decimal 1000 we get (rounded) 123,457KB; and if we divide again we get 123.4MB. But a KB is not 1000 bytes, it is actually 1024 bytes (the digital 1000); similarly a MB is not 1000KB it is actually 1024KB. So if we do the division of our total bytes using the digital 1000, we arrive at 117.7MB. If the predicted value had been 117.7MB and the actual had been 123.4MB, that's a 4.8% difference. Could this be the explanation for the observed differences, or at least, for some of them? I don't know whether Igor will be able to shed any more light on this. For us users, in practice, we must accept that the predicted size is only an indication and will have a margin of error of 2-5%, this error increasing as the EXE file size increases. regards, Peter

Anthony, Good! No, I'm not. A simple experiment, noting the predicted EXE size before and after adding a piece of sound confirms that PTE takes the sound file size into its calculations. Like, you I do not know why you see a difference between the prediction and the actuality of the EXE file size. Could you supply some screen shots showing what you observe? regards, Peter

Anthony, I think Brian (Conflow) may have answered a question that was different to the one you asked. If I understand your original post correctly, you are seeing PTE predict a particular size for the EXE file and then when you Create that EXE file it sometimes turns out larger than the prediction. Is that what you were concerned about? The question that Brian answered was "Why is the PTE project file so much smaller than the EXE file?". The PTE project file does not store copies of the images or the sound files, when you Preview it reads them in "real-time" from their normal folder locations. When the EXE is created, all the image and sound files are included in the EXE file. If your EXE files have been created with different version of PTE you must also expect differences. To give just one example: PTE, at one stage, for text would use the fonts that were installed on your PC. If you then ran the EXE file on another PC that didn't have that font file, PTE choose a "default" and your sequence didn't look like you expected it to. Then Igor changed the text handling to store a copy of the font file in the EXE, so your sequence always looked the same on any PC. And then he found a different, and presumably better way, of encoding text font information. So three different versions of PTE have handled text font differently. Those three versions would almost certainly generate different sized EXE files for what is actually the exact same sequence. regards, Peter