fh1805

John, It is my understanding that soundcards for PCs deliver "line level" signals via their jack sockets (the same kind of signal levels that you find passing between the separate items of an old-fashioned, multi-box hi-fi system. Therefore you always need amplification of this signal. For A-V shows that means either an amplifier and passive speakers or a pair of active speakers (speakers in which one of the housings includes an amplifier). If you're going to be at Snods Edge on Saturday we can have a chat there and post a summary of our discussions; if not, we can keep this dialogue going on the forum. regards, Peter

Gary, Insert your own image as an additional independent object (not as a child of the Rectangle). Then "Copy and Paste" the existing children of the Rectangle to become children of your image. Finally, delete the Rectangle. Alternatively, add your image as a child of the Rectangle, move it to the bottom of the stack and then set the Rectangle's opacity to zero. I cannot see any way of adding music to the Start-up window (but that doesn't mean it cannot be done). I had never explored the Start-up window prior to this topic being created. regards, Peter

That's one helluva fast kettle you've got there! Peter

Keith, I think the simple solution might be to use Customize Slide...Main and change the button in the Timing section to be "Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide". Note that any music used in Project Options...Music will play only for the stated duration of this slide and will then stop. The music will resume when you click to advance into the rest of the sequence. An alternative is to build two sequences: The single slide sequence built with Project Options...Main set to "Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide" and with Project Options...More set to "Run Application" or "Run Slideshow"; and the main slideshow built as normal. Note that if you use "Run Slideshow" you must "Create" both sequences using the exact same version of PTE. regards, Peter

Glenys, If you still have the original PTE project files you will be able to "cut and paste" the slides (complete with their transitions, timings, any objects added via O&A, etc.) Read the FAQ about copying slides from one project to another. What you will not be able to do, unless your music items were each individual items listed successively in the Project Options...Music tab, is get the original editted music. Having said that, if you use Audacity as your sound editor and if you use MP3 files for your soundtracks, you can, surprisingly, open the PTE show's EXE file into Audacity and it will find the mp3 data and place that into Audacity ready for you to edit it. (This applies to Audacity v1.2; I have't tried this since I upgraded to Audacity 1.3) regards, Peter

Philip, Take a look at the PTE Project Reporter utility produced by nobeefstu. It is available from Beechbrook.com and also via the links in any of the posts made by nobeefstu on this forum. Why do you need to delete work simply to insert a missed slide? regards, Peter

Den, Do you have a sequence chained off a slide elsewhere in this sequence? This is the error message that you get if you try and do Run Slideshow or Run Slideshow with Return and the two sequences are built using different versions of PTE. Chained or menu-triggered sequences that use "Run Slideshow..." must be built using the exact same version of PTE. regards, Peter

Glenys, Go back to your laptop, open the project file there and do "File...Create Backup in zip". Then copy that zip file to your USB stick and from the USB stick to your desktop system. Now on the desktop system, create a new folder for your project and use WinZip or similar to extract the entire content of the zip file into that new folder. Finally, launch PTE and do File...Open and navigate to the PTE project file in that new folder. After that, if you want to have the PTE project use the copies of the images that already pre-existed on your desktop system, there is no alternative but to remove the exsiting images and introduce those from the desktop system. regards, Peter

Unfortunately, all your advice re Audacity relates to version 1.2 and I'm now using v1.3.9. I cannot find any of these various options and settings that you suggest. I'll take another look into it tomorrow. regards, Peter

Peter, Twice now you have implied that you have recorded direct from the web into Audition (i.e. that you have recorded the sound as it was streamed). Is that what you mean? Or have you downloaded and then opened/imported the downloaded file into Audition? I have not yet found a way of recording streaming sound using Audacity so have nothing to compare it with. Nonetheless, I am left wondering if this technique is, in some way, fundamentally flawed? regards, Peter

Perhaps, when we get the improved audio handling in the next PTE release, some of these problems will either not occur or will be found during build rather than after creation and export. regards, Peter

How very true! And there seem to be a lot of thirsty horses visiting this forum! Peter

Eric, It is as simple as copying the download zip and then re-installing. Don't attempt to copy the existing program folder. That will not work. regards, Peter

How to get the best from this forum When posting a new show to this forum (i.e. the Slideshows forum) you may be able to maximise the benefit that you get from the feedback by following the advice given here (Note: it is only advice and not, in any sense, strict rules) In the Topic Title field put the title or subject matter of your sequence In the Topic Description field put the following information: File size, Running time, Aspect ratio, Resolution, Intended Audience For example: Topic Title: Carnival of Venice Topic Description: 17.4MB, 3m42s, 4:3, 1920x1280, Camera clubs and AV groups Topic Title: Summer Holiday Topic Description: 34.5MB, 23m45s, 16:9, 1920x1080, Family and friends regards, Peter

Eric, Basically, yes! - as I understand it. Copy to your new PC the PTE zip file that you originally downloaded and re-install from that. Copy to the new PC the PTE keys file and re-insert the data into the registry. And - hey presto! - everything should work, or so I believe. You might want to download the Key Copy utility that nobeefstu developed and use this to extract a copy of your PTE keys from your current registry. I think it is available via Beechbrook. If you can't find anything, send me an e-mail and I'll forward a copy of his zip file. regards, Peter

Mark, What we are witnessing is the fundamental problem of all forums. That which has been discussed and agreed and documented is not read by new users before they jump in and make their first post. And, as I have discovered in the past, even if something is well-documented e.g. via a FAQ topic, there is still no guarantee that new users will read those before making their post. I'm sorry I haven't added the "How to get the best..." topic yet. I'll do that today. But I don't expect it to eliminate the problem. regards, Peter

Jean, Click on the word "here" in post #1 regards, Peter

David, What you suggest can be done already by setting up a manually controlled sequence and using "Go to Slide <nn>" as the action to be taken on mouse-click for any object that you programme it on. Such manual control cannot readily be incorporated into a synchronised sequence without destroying the flow of the sequence. If you are envisaging multiple automated sequences, each triggered by a mouse-click on some object or other then, this too, can be done already using "Run Slideshow with Return" as the action on mouse-click. The only missing function here is that I am not aware that you can "pause" the initial show at the point where you leave it and "resume" when the inserted sequence has come to its end. But I'd like to bet that it can be done in PTE by combining existing features; because you can chain sequences together using Project Options...More...Run application/slideshow on exit. regards, Peter

Following on from Ed's post about the steps to take in Norton 2005, here are the steps to take in Norton Internet Security 2009: Launch Norton Protection Center Switch to the Norton Internet Security tab Click on "Manage Quarantined Items" Click on "Go to Quarantine" button Under "Other Actions" click on the "More Details" button Under "Actions" is the button to "Restore Risk" N.B. This will move the selected quarantine item back to where it came from. DO THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE 100% CERTAIN THAT THE VIRUS ALERT IS A FALSE ALARM regards, Peter

Dan, You say in your post #3 that the sequence has been in the making for a year. So you must have some backup copies of it from your regular backups on to removeable media, right? So why not accept that you've lost the last few days' work and recover from the backup media? regards, Peter

Unfortunately, there is no way that any of us can know where it might have been saved, if it was saved at all. Have you tried using Windows' Search facility to try and find the files? Do you have a backup of an earlier version of the project? When doing anything long and complex on a computer, irrespective of what software you are using, it is a good working practice to save your work every 15-30 minutes. Better still let the software do this for you. In PTE use View...Advanced Options...Auto Save Project... regards, Peter

I had the good fortune to meet Jean-Pierre at a meeting of Diapostif forum members in May last year. His knowledge of PTE was formidable and his ability to combine his skills in mathematics with PTE produced some amazing effects. He will be a great loss to the French PTE community and to this forum also. My deepest sympathies go to his family and friends. regards, Peter

Ken, I try and keep my exe filenames as short as possible. I wouldn't want to clutter them up with filesize, resolution, aspect ratio etc. regards, Peter

Mark, When the forum was extended last year, I created that kind of entry for all the new sections. To my shame, I never thought to check that there was an equivalent entry in the pre-existing sections. You are right, it would make sense to have one so I offer this initial draft of the text for everyone to comment on: How to get the best from this forum When posting a new show to the forum you can maximise the benefit that you get from the feedback by following the advice given here (Note: it is only advice and not, in any sense, strict rules) In the Topic Title field put the title or subject matter of your sequence In the Topic Description field put the following information: File size, Running time, Aspect ratio, Resolution, Intended Audience For example: Topic Title: Carnival of Venice Topic Description: 17.4MB, 3m42s, 4:3, 1920x1280, Camera clubs and AV groups Topic Title: Summer Holiday Topic Description: 34.5MB, 23m45s, 16:9, 1920x1080, Family and friends regards, Peter

Wideangle, It's a throw-back to earlier releases of PTE, prior to the introduction of "Create Backup in Zip" feature. But it does have one use that I find of benefit to me. My usual "default" project options are not the "as shipped" values. So I have created an empty project that has all my preferred settings, saved it as a Template, and then made that my default template. Now, when I create a new PTE sequence, all my preferred settings are pre-defined for me. regards, Peter