fh1805

Organmorgan, What was the Sample Rate and Sample Format of the original sound file when you opened it in Cooledit? And what were the values of these same fields when that same file was opened in Audacity? regards, Peter

Mark, A PTE beta is not at all like a beta from other software companies. It is usually rock-solid code for all the function that previously existed and close to rock-solid on all the new function. Igor and his developers release the beta versions so that we users can exercise the code the way that we use it normally rather than the way the developers thought we might use. You don't get "unstable code" from WnSoft - not even in a beta release. The best analogy I can think of is the first sea-trial of a new ship. It floats, it moves, it steers without any problems - but there will be little niggles that need to be found and ironed out. That's a PTE beta release. regards, Peter

Eric, Are the items that you think you are watching ones where the last post date is more than 30 days ago? There is a date cut-off of 30 days as a default on all displays of posts and topics. My watched list is steadily shrinking due to this aspect of the forum's behaviour. regards, Peter

Gary, You've got it! Only the Menu sequence needs D3D turned off. regards, Peter

Xaver, I agree. But I was replying to Gary's specific situation. For the situation described by Ed in his original post there is no alternative but to use Run Application to launch off the Menu sequence - with all its possible problems of "desktop flashbacks" etc. that have discussed at length in other topics on the forum in the past. Whichever feature is being used in the Menu sequence, the "safe" option is always to turn off D3D in this sequence. Then there cannot be any conflict for control of the graphics features. regards, Peter

If you use Run Slideshow with Return or Run Slideshow then you must use the exact same version of PTE to do the Create of all the exe files. If you use Run Application then you can mix the PTE versions but may get a non-smooth transition from Menu to Sequence and back from Sequence to Menu. Note that it is only the Create that has to be done all with the same PTE version. The shows can be built using any PTE version. The "same PTE version" must be one that supports the Run Slideshow feature (which I think came in at v5.6) That is what I think of as animation, too. A change in values between two keyframes that forces the 3D Hardware Acceleration feature to be used if enabled - and probably runs very jerkily if D3D is turned off.. Yes, there is but it is vastly more complicated. The Run Slideshow with Return technique is far and away the simplest technique for a Menu - if you can accept the need to Create everything using the same PTE version. regards, Peter

Gary, Yes, you have that right. As I understand the technology, only one program can have total control of the 3D Hardware Acceleration feature on the graphics card. If two programs try to take control (a Menu squence and one of the sequences driven off that Menu, say) the the results are "unpredictable" and almost always totally unacceptable to the viewer. If you want animation on the Menu and in the driven sequences, you must then call each driven sequence using the "Run Slideshow with Return" option. This technique uses just one copy of PTE's graphics driving routines and so does not cause any conflicts for control of the 3D Hardware Acceleration feature. The downside is that all sequences (Menu and driven) have to be created using the exact same version of PTE. Having now established a workflow to handle this last restriction, I don't find this a problem. regards, Peter

Ed, It strikes me that this user was naive in the extreme. They cannot have even attempted to test the menu prior to showing it on the night. I guess they just didn't read any of your excellent advice on your club's website! regards, Peter

Ed, Yeh - I've been there, done that, too! I second both of your suggestions. regards, Peter

Dom, Why do you think this is a better solution than having separate text objects each with their own font and colour? regards, Peter

Betsy, I think you have added a piece of music to a specific slide via the Customize Slide...Music tab. Find this slide and remove the music from the tab and, instead, select the slide in the normal slide list and then add the music via the Add Sound icon on the top toolbar. This should solve your problem. The safest way of adding sound files is either via Project Options...Music tab or by Add Sound icon. Avoid adding via the Customize Slide option. regards, Peter

Geoff, I think what you require is achievable in PTE. Add a rectangle in O&A and change its colour to your choice. Reduce its opacity to your desired level. In the Zoom settings, "pop" the little button up. Reduce the X and Y values to suit your needs. Add a Text object as a child of the rectangle and set content, size, font and colour to suit your tastes. Controlling the size of the text across the images might mean you need to prepare all the text first to get everything to a size that you like and then add the rectangle as a child of the text. regards, Peter

Betsy, The neat and tidy solution is to use a sound editor program to bring the two sound files together, saving the result as an MP3 file or a WAV file. Many of us on this forum use Audacity (a freeware product available here: http://audacity.soundforge.net) An alternative would be to associate your second piece of music with slide 79 via Add Sound (main screen, top right). You may wish to read the FAQs on the subject of adding sound (see here) regards, Peter

Hi Betsy, The PTE Project Reporter tool can be found here: http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/downloadfile.asp?id=1689. It was written by PTE forum member nobeefstu regards, Peter

Daniel, As I understand the situation your "bug" is not a bug. The scenarios you have described in the past all include an action (for example: the create of an exe file) that causes a change to the data recorded in the project file. The project file stores within itself the name of the "Created" exe file. So, if you create an exe when none previously existed, this is a change to the project and PTE will prompt you to save the project file because it has been changed by your actions. regards, Peter

Hi John, What format is your sound track file? WAV? MP3? OGG? something else? What software did you use to create it? There have been several other reports of this kind of problem in the past and they have usually turned out to be issues surrounding the specific audio codecs used to create the sound file. I, personally, have created MP3 sound files in Audacity that played fine in Audacity and Windows Media Player but showed up as zero length when imported into PTE - and wouldn't play at all. regards, Peter

Gilbert, If you are thinking that you have created your icon with PTE - you haven't! PTE cannot create the icon file. You have to do that with an image editor program such as IrfanView. PTE simply allows you to associate an existing icon file (xxx.ico) with your PTE exe file. regards, Peter

Jean-Claude, You have, indeed, opened up a potentially interesting discussion. I find myself in agreement with much of what you say. I particularly like your attempt at improving the definition of what a Slide, Image and Object are within PTE. I think your suggestion is very sensible. I am a little wary of using the word "container" though, because Igor has already introduced this word in conection with the mask feature. I think of the Slide as being a "virtual image" that has no existence other than within PTE. This virtual image may be a "real image" or it may be a collection of objects, each of which can be either a real image or a virtual image (Rectangle, Frame and Text would be examples of virtual images). I feel that it should be impossible in PTE to physically delete any "real image" file or to physically rename any "real image" file. PTE should be able to rename and delete only "virtual image" entities. After all, I don't expect Microsoft Excel to be able to delete or rename Microsoft Word files. I don't expect Adobe Photoshop Elements to be able to delete or rename PTE project files. So why should PTE be able to delete or rename our image files? regards, Peter

Topic moved and renamed to give better clarity. regards, Peter

Gary, Further to my last post... Using Photoshop Elements as my working software then, when resizing a file, the "Resolution" field where the value 300 or 72 would appear is part of the Document Size information. Note that word well - Document; and then think a "document is a piece of paper". Those three fields have meaning only for the printed image. The two fields above those (in the section headed "Pixel dimensions") are the only two whose values you need to play around with. You also need to consider whether or not you do want to constrain proportions. The same guidance will apply to the equivalent fields in any other image editing software. regards, Peter

Gary, DPI = dots per inch and has meaning only for printing your image. For a projected image the only thing that matters are the pixel by pixel dimensions. If all you are going to do is project the image (or display it on a PC monitor) you can resize at 7dpi or 7million dpi; it has no effect on the final file size (or image quality until you try and print that image). regards, Peter

Gary, My reason for resizing is to keep the image files as small as possible (whilst also keeping them as large as necessary) in order to minimise the stress on the graphics card when doing fancy transitions and animations. I used to (and at present still do) resize my images to fit within the maximum resolution of my digital projector (1024x768). But I am seriously thinking of trying to "future proof" my sequences by building them at 1920x1080 (HD resolution) and then letting the laptop/digital projector workout how they're going to downsize those at the time of projection. The next sequence will be built this way to see how things work out. Like you, I currently shoot only JPEG (3008x2000 from my Nikon D70) but have pondered whether to switch to RAW and use NX2 to do the initial processing. I even got as far as an off-forum dialogue with Ed Overstreet on this subject. I'm still pondering... I know I'm not too old a dog to learn new tricks: but I'm also a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" And right now I have no reason to believe anything is broke. regards, Peter

Gary, Download IrfanView and give that a try for batch resizing. Lin Evans used to give it pretty massive plugs - and if it's good enough for Lin... (need I say more?) It is freeware. regards Peter

This is how I use the forum. The method allows me to see quickly the new posts and to skip over the posts that I have no interest in. I log in to the forum and click on View New Content. This shows me all the topics that have new posts since my last visit to the forum. I select all those that I wish to read by clicking on the date of the most recent post. Once in the topic I then scroll up and down reading the new content. When I think I have read all the new posts on all the topics that interest me, I click on View New Content again. Once I am satisfied that I have read all the topics that interest me, I click on Mark all items as read. This removes all the remaining topics from the View New Content list. I then quit the forum. Everything is in a clean state ready for my next entry to the forum. This method works for me. It may work for you too. regards, Peter

Kalain, File/Create backup in Zip will place all the image files and all the sound files that you have used into a zip file, together with the PTE project file. What Ken is pointing out is that, to guard against missing sound files, you should copy your sound files into your projects working folder before you begin work on that sequence (more precisely, at the time when you decide to use each sound file). regards, Peter