fh1805

Ivor, It sounds to me as though you already have some serious instability on your PC. If I was experiencing these kind of problems I would proceed along the following lines: - cease all other work on the PC - make sure my firewall software was up to date - make sure my anti-virus software was up to date - make sure my anti-malware software was up to date - make sure my registry clean software was up to date - physically disconnect from the Internet - run a full anti-virus scan - run a full anti-malware scan - run a full registry clean - uninstall/delete (as best I can) the previous version of PTE - re-connect to the Internet - download a fresh copy of PTE from www.wnsoft.com - install the new copy of PTE ...and then take it from where-ever that leaves you. The suggestion of raising a support "ticket" is a good one and worth doing. It is possible that WnSoft support have seen this or similar problems before. Contact them via the www.wnsoft.com website. regards, Peter

Umberto, I think that is an excellent suggestion! I hope Igor adopts it. regards, Peter

Dave, I've checked them until I've started to see numnbers spinning before my eyes! I know that the programming is correct; as witness the fact that it works properly if I open it in v5.52. I am working to a deadline on this talk but I can continue building in v5.6 and then switch to v5.52 to check the programming of the buttons. If necessary I can do the Create in v5.52 as well. But that still leaves Igor - and all us users - with a bug in v5.6. regards, Peter

Manually controlled shows are possible. In Project Options...Main ensure that the box "Wait for a key press..." is ticked. With regards to the Netbook PC, if you keep everything simple - just use Fade in/out or Quick transitions, then you shouldn't over-tax your PC's resources. You should consider using Photoshop or equivalent software to resize your images to a maximum of 1024 on the long axis and a maximum of 600 on the short axis. Don't forget to apply some Unsharp Mask afterwards to restore the "lost" sharpness. Good luck with the presentation. Antarctica is a wonderful place; I've very happy memories of my trip down there. regards, Peter

I am experiencing some problems with the "Go to slide nn" action. I've uploaded the PTE project as a zip file to MediaFire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?wxmdnoz20m2 The problems are as follows: On slide #11 the Continue button is programmed to go to slide #21 - but it does nothing On slide #20 the Return button is programmed to go to slide #11: it goes to slide #28 On slide #21 the Continue button is programmed to go to slide #28 - but it does nothing On slide #27 the Return button is programmed to go to slide #21: it goes to slide #28 On slide #28 the Continue button is programmed to Next Slide: and this works On slide #29 the Continue button is programmed to Next Slide: it goes to slide #39 On slide #30 the Continue button is programmed to go to slide #39: it goes to slide #28 On slide #38 the Return button is programmed to go to slide #28: and this works The same project file, when opened under v5.52 of PTE behaves exactly as I have programmed it to behave. regards, Peter

Both sequences ran OK on my 18-month old Vista Home Premium system. regards, Peter

If improvements in the audio handling capability of PTE were to be made, it seems to me that it will be necessary to be able to tailor the appearance of the PTE window with even greater flexibility than is currently possible. One such change could be to allow the Mini-Player to be "undocked" - and floated as an independent window. While in its "floated" state it would then be possible to re-size the Mini-Player window independently of the rest of the PTE main window. If the File Panel could also be Hidden/Unhidden then it would be possible to have complete control over what appeared in the PTE window. It could, if the user so desired, be devoted entirely to audio-tracks and the Slide List, with a floating Mini-Player. I stress that I would see these as options with nothing being forced upon anybody; just like the display of the Folder Tree can be switched on or off at present. regards, Peter

Eric, I am asking only for PTE to be made what it already is claimed to be: the best AUDIO-Visual software. As I pointed out in my earlier post, PTE currently has no audio capability other than allowing the introduction of or removal of sound files. Right now PTE isn't "A-V software" it's "let's look at pictures in a gee-whizz style software". What's wrong with being able to position sound files at precise locations on a timeline? What's wrong with being able to define "audio transitions" between one sound file and the next? I am not wanting any editing capability for these sound files. Just the ability to do with and to sound files that which we can already do with and to image files. Thus turning PTE into true "Audio-Visual" software. In any implementation of audio timelines, I would expect Igor to make the display of the audio timelines a switchable option. So you would not lose any of your valuable screen space if you didn't want to. I would also like to see the File Panel and the Mini-player as switchable options in the display - but that's another story and I'll open a new thread for that discussion. regards, Peter

It still doesn't work for me. The most I can get is one Prt Scr per launch of Elements 5. Once again I am left with the feeling that there is some other, as yet unknown to me, setting that needs to be changed in order to get the consistent behaviour that I would have expected. As it isn't something that I want to do on a frequent basis, and as I have a work-around (albeit a cumbersome one), I am not going to invest any more of my time on this. regards, Peter

Eric, But can you then move to a different slide in PTE, go into O&A on that, Prt Scr to the clipboard and create another new file in Elements without closing down and re-launching Elements? I can't! regards, Peter

Ah ha! If I first launch Photoshop (Elements 5 in my case), then capture the PTE O&A window with Print Screen (using shift key), then do File...New...Image from clipboard in Photoshop I get nothing pasted. If I Print Screen from O&A window before I launch Photoshop, I can then do File...New...Image from clipboard successfully. There isn't a Purge option under Edit in Elements 5. There is a Clear option but the "Clipboard contents" is greyed out. So, even though I have just successfully used the clipboard contents to create a new image, Elements says there is nothing on the clipboard. So, I can get a copy of the O&A window onto the clipboard and use it in Photoshop Elements; but I have to close down and re-launch Photoshop in order to get the next O&A window capture. Photoshop isn't exactly the quickest starting software, so this is a right p.i.t.a! regards, Peter

Ed, Jim, DaveG, Stu, Limey and all, It doesn't work for me either. Vista Home Edition SP1, PTE V5.6 in O&A window, Shift+Prt Scr = nothing goes to clipboard Vista Home Edition SP1, PTE V5.6 in main window, Shift+Prt Scr = image goes to clipboard I've always used Shift+Prt Scr because, as Ed stated elsewhere, "Prt Scr" is on the upper half of the key ("Sys Rq" being on the lower half). By the way, my understanding of "Sys Rq" is that it stands for "System Request" and was used in "the good old days" to generate an "interrupt" into the software to let the software know that it should start reading the input device's (keyboard's) buffer. Now who's showing their age! regards, Peter

Way too long, buddy!!! regards, Peter

Hi Ed, I would suspect, but do not know for certain, that if you are running the sequence as an EXE file in "Windowed mode" (as opposed to full screen) and you switch to a different software product's window, the PTE sequence will pause at that point and await you re-activating the EXE file's window. regards, Peter

Spot on, Frank! PTE is widely acclaimed as the best A-V software and yet how much of its function is apportionable to the two aspects: - Visual - 99.5% - Audio - 0.5% and that's being generous! The only "Audio" that PTE can do is to add or remove sound files. Within PTE I would like to be able to handle sound files with the equivalent function that I can apply to image files. I would like to be able to place as many sound files as I want on the timeline, either alongside one another or overlapping (this implies multiple "timelines" or "tracks"). I would like to be able to control the precise position of a sound file on its timeline and see it in its position relative to any other sound file. I would like to be able to control the transitions from one sound file to the next (i.e control the fade in/fade out). I would like to be able to control the volume of a sound file between keyframes which I place on its timeline (i.e. equivalent to controlling the opacity of an image file in O&A). This isn't sound editing - this is Audio-Visual preparation. I will always do my image editing in Photoshop Elements - that product is designed for that specific task. I will always do my sound editing in Audacity - that program is designed for that particular task. I will continue, for the time being, (out of loyalty and on cost grounds) to do my audio-visual building in PTE - but that software concentrates solely on the "gee-whizz" of the visual side and has, so far, completely neglected the audio side. regards, Peter

Hi Ed, I've pondered on this subject area , too. I agree that it would be very useful to be able to see the waveform in the O&A window. And I also agree that it would be useful to see points from more than one object at the same time. My personal opinion is that it would be nice to be able to select one or more objects in the objects list (up to a maximum of, say, five) and then have a Right-click menu option for that selection that was "Show all keyframes". This would then show the keyframes for each selected object but would colour code them (all the blue points being the keyframes for one object, all the red points being the keyframes for another and so on - could also use different "bullet" shapes too). Igor experimented with colour-coded keyframes at one point in 5.6beta programme (around b8 or b9 I think it was) but discarded the feature in the following beta level. I think such a feature, if applicable to a limited number of objects, would have great benefit for those users who wish to make more complex sequences. regards, Peter

Personally I see little point in this feature as it is so simple to create a blank slide (or background, etc.) in Photoshop or whatever, as a JPEG file, and then use this in the PTE sequence. And this techniques gives vastly more flexibility with regards to the content of the blank slide. Where would the requests for "image creation" features end? Wouldn't we run the risk of this being the "thin end of the wedge" in a drive to turn PTE into an "image editing" tool? regards, Peter

Organmorgan, Project Options...Music tab will show you the length of the music file. The Timeline will show you the total length as per the sum of your slide durations. This time is also shown under the bottom right-hand corner of the mini-player preview area. It is quite normal for these not to be the same. If you want everything to align neatly at the end of the timeline you need to select Timeline...Timed Points...Set End of Last Slide at End of Music. regards, Peter

Can we please keep this discussion on topic? This topic is about improvements to the way PTE handles sound. I mentioned Wings in the original post simply to indicate that I had seen a better way of doing the sound handling. If you all want to discuss the merits of Wings over PTE then go join the Wings forum. Now let's get this topic back on track. What improvements to sound handling should be added to PTE? regards, Peter

Hi Tony, I don't understand what you mean by the "fist". You can still launch a sequence from a Text object in v5.6. Just add the object as usual and then go into the Common tab and set the "Action on mouse click" as you would for a button. That's how I would have done it in previous versions: to me v5.6 is no different. Re the flicker; it sounds as though you are seeing what I have always believed was an issue with running under Vista. But you say you are using XP. Don't forget that your anti-virus software is probably kicking in each time you launch a sequence's exe file. regards, Peter

Tony, Are you using Run application... or Run Slideshow... to trigger the sequence off the menu? If the former, try the latter (but be aware that both the menu and the called sequence have to be "Created" using v5.6 (that's "Created", not "assembled") regards, Peter

Hi Tony, Are you running the sequence from a menu sequence, or straight out of a folder, or off the Windows desktop? regards, Peter

This post is in reply to Brian(Conflow)'s post #84 on page 5. I’ve now followed the steps that Brian (Conflow) asked me to do (to document the refresh rate of my graphics cards). Out of interest, I did it on all my systems and not just those tha I use with the projector. On the Fujitsu laptop I did it with the projector attached and not attached; and when the projector was attached, I did it with the laptop monitor active and not active. And the results?... - The HP Desktop computer operates at 75Hz (I don't connect the projector to this PC) - The Acer laptop operates at 60Hz - The Fujitsu laptop operates at 60 Hz - The Dell projector reports the incoming signal as Analogue VGA 1024x768 60HZ in color mode sRGB in all situations. The Fujitsu gave the same value (60Hz) no matter what the state of the connection to the projector. The projector gave the same (detection) result no matter which laptop I used and no matter what the state of the monitor on the laptop. So, it would seem that the Dell projector thinks that all the incoming signals have the same attributes. It would seem that both laptops think they are delivering the same frame rate; and the Fujitsu thinks it is delivering the same signal irrespective of whether the projector is attached and irrespective of whether the monitor is active or not. And yet the projected image is different when the Fujitsu's monitor is not active. So something is happening that is different. WHAT IS IT? I feel that the answer to that question is the key to unlocking this puzzle. regards, Peter

In December last year I was privileged to see Erhard Hobrecker demonstrate how he made his AV sequence "The Forest of Tane Mahuta". He uses Wings Platinum and it grieves me to say this but Wings is light-years ahead of PTE in respect of handling sound files. In Wings it is possible to have as many sound tracks as you want. Each track can be muted individually so that it does not appear in the final EXE file (like hiding a layer in Photoshop so it doesn't end up in the final JPEG). It is possible to position the sound files along the timeline. Each sound file can have its volume level adjusted either along its entire length or between two "keypoints" (identical in concept to the keyframes we use for animation). This latter technique allows the creation of fades in and out. The wave form of the sound can be displayed. It is possible to run an in-screen preview (like our mini-player) but with the sound files visible and the cursor tracking along the timeline. A very impressive piece of software indeed. OK, I realise that it costs a lot more to buy than PTE. But this, or something very similar, is what PTE should be aspiring to be. Having seen how sound can be handled in an AV software product I now present the following as my wish list of functions to be added to PTE: - the ability to have several tracks of audio (with the waveform displayed as an option on each track) - the ability to position the audio items along the timeline (each item having two default keyframes: the start point and the end point) - the ability to add extra keyframes to each audio track - the ability to set the sound level of the audio at each keyframe - the ability to mute any selected audio track - the ability to hide from display any selected music track regards, Peter

I am opening this discussion because I am losing count of how many times I have helped PTE users resolve problems with their sound files. I am coming to the view that Igor, in his attempts to provide flexibility, has actually gone too far and left a state of confusion in the minds of many users. As well as the main "soundtrack" audio files added via Project Options...Music tab (which all users understand) there are two ways to add sound clips to individual images: - via Customize Slide...Music tab - via the Add Sound icon in the main window But these two options behave very differently. When using Customize Slide, you cannot have Synchronize slides and music ticked in Project Options...Main. So, if you try and Preview from Selected Slide, your soundtrack plays from the beginning and not from the selected position. Does anybody want it to do this? If so, please explain why because I do not understand why anybody would want this behaviour. When using Add sound it is possible to have Synchronize slides and music ticked and get a proper preview from any slide. I feel there is a need to rationalise things here. I would suggest removing the Music tab from Customize Slide. Alternatively, make the Music tab have the same result as the Add sound icon. I see these as short term measures. What we need is better control over the sound files withing PTE. I will open a separate topic to carry the discussion about the long-term solution. regards, Peter