fh1805

Steve, I don't have a single method of working. I adjust my work method to the needs of each sequence. Some sequences are built as an image sequence first, and then suitable music is found. With other sequences, it is the music that comes first and the images are added to that. Images first: music second I would use the "digital light box" to lay out the images in the approximate order that I felt was right. Each slide would have the Project Option default duration, the default transition effect and that effect would be at default duration (for me, that would be 4 to 7 seconds per slide depending on the tempo of the music, Fade effect, transition lasting 1500ms). I would then search for some music of an approximately suitable length and of a suitable mood. I would then play that music through whilst stepping through the images on the digital light box. In this way I would build up a feel for which images were in the right place and which were out of place. I would adjust the order of the images on the digital light box until I was happy with the order. (At this stage I might be discarding images or finding alternative ones). This phase gets repeated until I am satisfied that I have the main elements firmly fixed in my mind. I would then switch to the timeline view and position the images at approximately the required place on the timeline using the waveform display to guide me and making use of the mini-player to do an in-window preview. Then I would Preview the sequence for the first time. After that it is usually just a case of refining and fine-tuning; getting the slide positions precisely on the beat of the music (if that is the effect that I want), choosing a more appropriate effect and deciding how long the effect should last. All of this I would do using the Timeline view and the mini-player. Music first: images second I would listen to the music several times to fix in my mind where the "must have" slide changes had to go. I would then identify which images I thought should go at these "must have" points. These would be positioned using the timeline view in conjunction with the waveform display (default effect and default effect duration as in the previous method). I think of these as "anchored" images. I would then fill in the gaps between the "anchored" images using the Timeline view and the waveform to guide me. As and when necessary I would switch to the digital light box in order to check on the visual flow of the images. Then I would give the sequence its first Preview. After that it is refine and fine tune as in the previous method. And sometimes I find myself switching back and forth between the two methods of working. Whatever I am trying to achieve, and however I am trying to achieve it, I can always find a feature of PTE, or a combination of features, that helps me get the job done. The v5.5 user interface is very different to that of earlier versions and it does require time to become familiar with what it has to offer. When it was going through its beta releases there was much heated debate on the forum about it - and about perceived loss of function. But I feel sure that none of us would now be willing to go back to the previous user interface. This one offers so much more. regards, Peter

Steve, I do all my final tweaking in the timeline. I can easily change the duration of a slide (by dragging the numbered "flag"), the duration of a transition (by dragging the grey bar) , the actual slide image (by using the "Change image" icon on the upper toolbar) and I can see the waveform of the soundtrack to help me identify the musical emphases points. I can see a preview image of any selected slide in the mini-player area; and by using the mini-player, I can see and hear my changes straight away without having to switch between the Timeline window and the Main window as used to be the case. If I need to I can zoom in on the timeline to see the tenth-of-a-second "tick marks" more clearly for better precision of placement of slides and transitions. I find the v5.5 user interface a great improvement over the previous version. regards, Peter

A nice touch would the ability to choose between Timeline replacing SlideList in the main window and both Timeline and Slide List visible together one above the other. On a 5:4 aspect monitor you could probably work with both in view; on a 16:10 you might not want to do that. But having the option...now that would be nice! regards, Peter

Gary, I have to agree with you. If the user has ticked Auto spread and then either adds or removes slides, PTE should, ideally, re-spread or at the very least, give the user a pop-up reminder that the slides need to be re-spread. regards, Peter

Steve, I'm baffled as to what you are actually seeing. With the Slide List (thumbnails) visible across the bottom of the window you should have above that three "panels": from left to right they are the tree structure, the file list (also thumbnails if the files are image files) and the mini-player area that gives the preview image of any slide selected in either the Slide List or the File List panel. This mini-player area sits just above the Customize Slide and Objects and Animation buttons. Do you not have this screen dispaly? regards, Peter

Gary, Yeh, you and I have been here before! Timeline/Timed Points/Arrange All Points applies, on a permanent basis, the effect that Auto spread slides along music gives on a temporary basis. This means that if you have a show built with, let's say, a default time interval of 4 seconds and you do only Auto spread then, when you save your project, the slide intervals remain at 4 seconds. If, instead, you do Arrange all points, the durations are re-calculated and these new values will be the ones saved when you do the save of the project. If you do only Auto-spread then the effect can be seen only when you do a full-screen preview. If you do Arrange All Points you have actually changed the slide duration values and therefore the results can be seen in the mini-player as well as in full-screen preview. regards, Peter

Ralph, It works under Vista as well. regards, Peter

DaveG, Following your last post above, I've just tried again, building a new screensaver (four images, Run until ESC) using PTE v5.52. Also played safe and made its name an 8.3 format name. Everything worked as you described. I then opened the project file and created a second screensaver file. This one I renamed to a long form name and then installed. Again everything worked just as you described. Will try this one again with PTE v5.6 beta after Igor has got the "Run until ESC" bug fixed. I confirm that you are right and that there is no need to place anything into any of the System folders; and no need to use System Administrator privileges under Vista. regards, Peter

DaveG, I presume these instructions are based on Windows XP? Because I've just tried to follow them on Vista and the screensaver didn't kick in. I used search to find where the existing screensaver files are stored on Vista - and they are in C:\Windows\System32. So I copied my screensaver file there (needed to OK the use of System Administrator rights as we went). Now it did try and kick in but, because of the bug in v5.6 beta with regards to "Run until ESC is pressed", everything just hung and I had to go to Task Manager to break in and kill the not responding tasks. I'll give it another go on Vista once Igor has got Run until ESC working correctly. regards, Peter

Steve, The basic screen layout of PTE v5.6 beta is exactly the same as that of PTE v5.5. You can view either the Timeline or the SlideList across the bottom of the window - but not both at the same time. You can close the tree view if you want to. If you then click on one of the numbered "flags" in the Timeline view, that slide will appear in the "mini-player" area. The only point to bear in mind is that there may be some features of v5.5 that have not yet been re-activated in v5.6 beta (for example: Wait for a key press or mouse click... was re-activated only in beta10) regards, Peter

DaveG, Agree entirely with the need to manage files and folders. That's exactly how I work. Each project has its own top-level folder. Each project folder has the same sub-folder structure. If I want to use an existing image in a new project then it first gets copied into the relevant sub-folder for that new project. This applies even to the BlackSlide file and the Background image files. At the last count I had over 50 BlackSlide files!. regards, Peter

endevil, Can you give more precise details of just what exactly went wrong? What was supposed to happen at the point where things went pear-shaped? And what actually did happen? Does the sequence still behave correctly if you open it in beta9? Remember, the entire purpose of the PTE beta programme is for the user population to use the product in the way that they usually do in order to flush out the bugs that the developers don't find. You may have found a bug in beta10. So it is important that we get as clear a description as possible in order that Igor and his team have the best possible chance to identify and rectify the problem. regards, Peter

Hi Ray, To insert a slide just drag it down from the File Panel (the middle one of the three panels across the centre of the main window). It will be assigned the default time as defined in the Project Options...Main tab. To change the duration of a slide, select it in the Slide List (the strip across the bottom of the window) and then click on the Customize Slide button that is just above the Slide List. The Main tab here allows you to set the duration as you want it to be. I would suggest you download the PTE User Guide - and read it! It will answer many of your, as yet unasked, questions. See here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7202 regarads, Peter

Ken, I've just checked v5.52 and you cannot do that. Whatever it is that Igor uses as his "clipboard" it isn't the system's clipboard. regards, Peter

Daniel, No need to apologise. We've all been through the learning process that you are now going through! When you get stuck or frustrated just do as you have done, and ask the question here on the forum. regards, Peter

Ron, I'm a cynic, sceptic and pessimist - I expect it will be more likely to create a whole pile of new problems than solve any of our current ones! "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (which I believe translates approximately as "the more things change, the more they stay the same") regards, Peter

Daniel, Is "View...Fullscreen of Slide List..." (also via F4 and via little icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the main window) what you are looking for? This gives you a "digital light box" on which you can sort out the order of your images. regards, Peter

DaveG, I agree, there is the increased risk of confusion with regards to missing images or images that have the same name but different content. But surely with all software products, there comes a time when the user has to take responsibility for their actions. Perhaps, if Igor ever does implement a "cross-project copy and paste" capability, the user should be warned whenever they try and copy an image into a project and there already exists in that project an image of the same name but from a different folder path. And, of course, "Create backup as Zip" will always pull everything together into one place. regards, Peter

Ken, No, Ralph's technique hasn't been eliminated. It is still very valid. But, at present, we cannot copy across multiple projects all open at the same time. And that is what this thread is discussing; having multiple projects open at the same time (which is currently possible) with the ability to copy and paste images between them (which isn't currently possible). regards, Peter

Picsel, You can "drag and drop" a slide from the File List to any point in the Timeline but I'm not sure that you can "Copy and Paste". regards, Peter

Ron, The "Run Slideshow" and "Run Slideshow with Return" actions are available only in v5.6 and require that all the sequences (the menu and the targets) are built using v5.6 (or higher assuming that Igor keeps on developing PTE). "Run Slideshow with Return" is the option to use for a menu+targets arrangement. All the targets are built as normal using PTE v5.6 - no special parameter settings are needed. The menu is also built using PTE v5.6 and it must use the action command "Run Slideshow and Return". "Run Slideshow" is the option to use to chain sequences together in a fixed, linear chain (Show A calls Show B calls Show C). In Show A you would use Project Options...More...Run application/slideshow on exit...Run Slideshow and nominate Show B.exe to be run; and so on down the chain. The visible benefits are realised for those of us who have Windows Vista as our operating system. The disruptive and annoying "flash-backs" to our desktop view are totally eliminated. If you've never seen this phenomenon, think yourself fortunate! If the operating system is XP then the existing "Run Application or open file" and "Run application and exit" options are still there and work just as they used to. And the XP users will not know what I'm talking about when I talk of "desktop flash-backs" because it never happened on XP. regards, Peter

Hi Tony, I'm not sure which one you need to tick/untick but have a look at the View...Timeline Options... to do with auto-scrolling. Hopefully one of these will get PTE to work the way that you want it to. regatrds, Peter

Ralph, Ray & Igor, I've just downloaded Igor's test sequences and run them on my Vista PC. Results as follows: Ran Show1 not from menu - all OK Ran Show2 not from menu - all OK Ran RunApp and ESC - all OK Ran RunApp and launched Show1 from menu - all OK Launched Show2 from menu - all OK Launched Show1 again from menu - not OK!!!! Show1 ran twice and then without any intervention by me, Show2 also ran twice and then control was returned to the menu. Definitely a bug in there somewhere. regards, Peter

DaveG, Provided that you enter in the input field for the "Run Slideshow..." actions just the show file name without path details (e.g. Show1.exe and not C:\My Documents\My AVs\Show1.exe) and provided you keep all the exe files together in one folder, then you can move them (or their folder) around just like any other group of files or a folder and PTE will run the menu and targets exactly as you want it to - any where, any time, any PC - including Vista! regards, Peter

This request has my support. I, too, find it frustrating to have to scroll backwards and forwards to position myself on the same image that I left when I switched views. regards, Peter