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Laszlo, Ok, let's take it step by step: Launch PTE software File...New to create a new PTE project file (give it any name you like) Drag one image file into the Slide List (the area across the bottom of the screen where the thumbnails appear) Click on this thumbnail Click on Objects & Animation Confirm that you can see the green border line, the corner handles and the centre spot handle Hold down the shift key and at the same time, click on the centre spot and hold this click down, too(it needs reasonably careful mouse pointer positioning. In v6 you should see a pop-up "Shift" button that confirms you have the shift key held down and the mouse pointer will change from a white arrow head to a white arrow head plus a white rectangle when you have actually got hold of the centre spot - assuming a standard theme for your Windows implementation) Now drag the centre spot away from its original position. You must keep both the shift key and the left-click held down throughout the drag. At what point in the above sequence do things start to go awry for you. regards, Peter

I, too, would welcome this change to the default if it can be made possible. regards, Peter

Laszlo, At the risk of Lin and I getting to the point where we start giving you conflicting advice, I would suggest that the most likely source of your problem is that you are not selecting the object that you think you are. Please try Lin's suggestion of clicking on the "Ignore objects not selected" option of the Tools button in the O&A window. After you've done that, select the object whose centre you wish to move by clicking its name in the Objects list and then try and move the centre point. regards, Peter

Laszlo, Hold the shift key down and click on the centre point marker of the object and then drag the centre point out to where you want it. Then study the effect of doing that on the Pan coordinates and on the Center coordinates. Play with some coloured rectangles before you try it out on a "real" object. regards, Peter

Hi Lin, Smooth as silk on my nVidia 8400GS. But no summer? How about some desert scenes with animated dust devils? regards, Peter

Hi Nancy, Try using nobeefstu's KeyCopy utility to extract the key data from your old PC and then copy those file to your new PC and add them to the registry. The utility can be downloaded here: http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/index.asp?categoryid=2&view=View KeyCopy should appear as the top right entry on that page unless the page has changed since I checked it. regards, Peter

Rest assured, John, it hurts! regards, Peter

Hi Betsy, The simplest way to shorten a piece of music is to use a sound editor program (such as Audacity - which is a free program available for download here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net) and apply a fade out over the last 5-10 seconds of the piece that you want to use. PTE does not currently support any form of manipulation of a sound file. regards, Peter

Once again, this old dog has been taught a new trick! Thanks, Scorpion. regards, Peter

Barry, If you are prepared to spend time doing it, open each sequence in PTE v6 and do Create of a new EXE file. Then change the button actions to "Run Slideshow with Return", pointing the action at these new exe files. This should eliminate the flashbacks. And then, if you wanted to, you should be able to turn hardware acceleration back on in the menu sequence. regards, Peter

Eric, If you do come to the AV group meeting on Friday, bring the image on a USB stick and I'll show you how to manipulate it. regards, Peter

Also check what e-mail filtering your workplace or service provider imposes. The keys for PTE are supplied as updates to the Windows registry. Quite a lot of businesses bar such data from passing along the line in order to protect their business PCs from unwanted corruption by malicious code. regards, Peter P.S. WnSoft do not ship malicious code.

Jim, This would be better posted as a Support request via the www.wnsoft.com website. The forum cannot supply replacement keys. Only WnSoft can do that. regards, Peter

Spot on, Jim! Eric, sorry my instructions were unclear but I thought you would have the necessary understanding of Photoshop Elements. As Jim says, at step 5 you need to activate the image created at step 1. In this way you are then working with an image that is based upon a transparent background. regards, Peter

Igor, The new release code has solved the problem. Well done to everyone involved! regards, Peter

Barry, There's no reason why you cannot build a multi-slide menu sequence that is manually controlled. Build just one menu sequence that has several slides in it, as follows: Slide 1 - Main Menu - with buttons to take you to each sub-menu using "Go to Slide n" action and an Exit button Slide n - Sub-menu - with thumbnails, buttons or whatever to launch the individual sequences and an extra button that takes you back to the Main Menu using "Go to Slide 1" You have full control over how you navigate from page to page within your menu. You could even have a standard row of buttons across the bottom that take you to any sub-menu from any other. Turn off the mouse buttons in Project Options...Advanced tab and the only way through the menus is via the buttons and the only way out is via the Exit button. regards, Peter

Eric, You have to save as a .PNG in order to preserve the transparency of the background. A JPEG will convert the transparent part to whatever your default background colour is in Photoshop (usually white). regards, Peter

Barry, I've had a look at your sequences and would make the following observations as to where your technique differs from mine. I have no experience of Windows 7 so can offer this advice only as suggestions for changes that might resolve your problem. Firstly, I build all my menu sequences as manually controlled sequences; by which I mean that I have "Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide" ticked in Project Options...Main tab. I also have "Close Show after last slide" ticked. I also have all effects turned off on all menus. If you are in a position to do "Create" of all sequences at the same version of PTE (not a major problem if you keep all your project folders and files) then I would suggest changing the button action from "Run application or open file" to "Run Slideshow with Return". Igor introduced this feature to eliminate the problems of the flashback to the Windows desktop. This problem was caused by two programs (Windows Aero interface and PTE) conflicting for control of some of the graphics features. Using this new feature causes all of the PTE sequences to be executed under a single, resident copy of PTE which can retain its control over the graphics features between sequences. As I said, I cannot guarantee that these changes will resolve your problem but it will be the work of moments to try them. Good luck. regards, Peter

Eric, To create the moon image proceed as follows: Create a new image in Elements 6 ensuring that "Background Contents" is set to "Transparent" Open the moon image Select all of the moon image (Select...All) Copy the selection to the clipboard (Edit...Copy) Switch to the new image Paste the clipboard contents (Edit...Paste) Use the Magic Wand Tool to select the moon Invert the selection (Select...Inverse) Delete the selection (Edit...Cut) Save this image as a .PNG file regards, Peter

I believe so. The "upgrade" means an upgrade from "Standard Edition" to "DeLuxe Edition" (i.e. the purchase of the two-year licence for the Video-Builder feature). You do not have to buy a fresh licence for the "Standard Edition" that is still a "licence for life". regards, Peter

Gilbert, Proceed as follows: Use the Windows Start button (bottom left corner of a standard desktop layout) and click on "All Programs" Navigate through the list to find the Pictures to Exe program (not the folder, the program within it) Right click on that and select Copy from the pop-up list Navigate to your Windows Desktop display and right click anywhere in it Select Paste Shortcut from the pop-up list Drag the shortcut icon to where you would like it on the desktop and rename it as well if you want to regards, Peter

I, too, am not familiar with the Symantec product that is mentioned above. However, just to give the opposite side of the coin to that implied by Ronnie's post, I've used Norton software (currently Internet Security 2009) on all my home PCs since 1995 and have had no problems such as this. The only problem I had was when Norton gave a "false positive" to one of the PTE code routines during a PTE beta programme. That was very quickly eliminated by Igor and Symantec working together. I've never had a "false positive" on any of my slideshows. regards, Peter

Boogie, You need to export the zip file contents to a folder on the second computer. An alternative approach, which works if you are meticulous about storing all the image and sound files under a master folder for each project, is: simply copy the project folder from computer #1 to the USB stick. You can then open the pte project file on any other computer and process the project in any way that you want. regards, Peter

Colin, I think the root cause of your problem lies in the contents of that glass that you're holding in your hand. Too much loopy juice, perhaps? regards, Peter P.S. It's not often we get so much humour in a single post as in your previous one, so I'll let this dialogue remain on file. P.P.S. You established your credibility a long time ago. I think it will survive this momentary lapse.

Colin, A "typo" in there me thinks! Audacity - an image editor ???? If you correct your post I'll then delete this post. regards, Peter