fh1805

Dave, For the target shows I probably will not even do a Save As. All I will do is open the pte file into v5.6 and then do a Create to give me a new exe file. Because of my Folder discipline, the new exe will go into the same folder as the pte file. I will then check that the exe plays correctly in stand-alone mode. Then I will copy that exe file to the same folder as the menu exe (which I will have built using v5.6 and "Run Slideshow with Return") and I will check that the call from and return to the menu is working correctly. After I've done two or three without any problems I will then, almost certainly, cease doing the checks every time and just get the production line running. I'll check a sample of the sequences just to reassure me that things are going as I expect. regards, Peter P.S. I will not be making any changes until the stable release of v5.6. In my opinion, a beta release is for playing with and not for serious use.

Igor, I've just finished checking out the "Run Slideshow with Return" feature and confirm that it completely resolves the issue of "flashbacks" to the desktop on my Windows Vista system (Home Premium SP1). A big well done to all those involved in achieving this!!!! I also explored what would happen if a target sequence was not built with v5.6. I tried a PTE v4.47 sequence as the target and got a pop-up box warning that there was an error. I got a similar pop-up but with different words when I tried a v5.52 sequence as the target. The error-handling code behaved correctly. For me, it is not a problem to Create again all my sequences using v5.6 so that they will all run cleanly as targets on a menu (I have all the projects stored on my hard-drive). But it would be nice if, at some future date, your wizards could find a way around this limitation. Once again, my thanks for this wonderful achievement. regards, Peter

I think it still exists but in a different place. On the "Information bar" at the bottom of the PTE window, just to the left of the slide size is a box that contains either blank or P. In my experience, the P indicates that the slide has been customized in some way (excluding O&A activity). regards, Peter

Synchronize music and slides, when ticked, will ensure that, if you begin your Preview from a slide other than the first slide, then the music track is positioned to the proper place. For example: you begin a Preview from slide 5 at 45 seconds into your sequence; the music begins playing from 45 seconds into the music. Auto spread slides along music, when ticked, means that your slide timings (as set by Project Options...Main tab or by Customize Slide) will be ignored and PTE will take the number of slides and divide this into the length of the music in order to determine how long each image will appear on screen. The effect of "Auto-spread" cannot be viewed in the mini-player area of the main window. It ca only be viewed during full-screen Preview or in a Created file. regards, Peter

And that's how I do it, too! regards, Peter

Igor, That's excellent news! I look forward to exploring this feature when you release beta 9. Does this mean that only the menu sequence has to be built with v5.6 and that the called sequences can be built with any version? regards, Peter

Mike, You need to add your extra two projects into the Video-Builder project list before you burn the DVD. regards, Peter

Pedro, A very simple and yet very moving tribute to all those who died. An excellent sequence - and one that does not need any music or voice-over. Just one small suggestion: give some thought to slowing down the pan. I think the overall effect would be improved if you could get the apparent speed of the pan to be closer to the apparent speed of the zoom. For me, the pan moved faster than the zoom had done and so I felt as though I was being hurried along through that part of the sequence. Also, during the zoom I saw some instances of interference patterns; but this might be an effect that occurs only on my system. regards, Peter

Igor, If you can provide this feature it would make things so much simpler for us all. It would mean the target sequences could be just normal sequences and all the complexity is placed where it should be, in the menu. I hope you can make this happen. Good luck to the programmers! regards, Peter

Igor/Ralph, I don't whether my suggestion is codeable or not but... If we had an execution time switch (-Next=xxxxxxx) so that we could launch the target show by "TargetShow.exe -Next=Menu.exe" then we could build all the target shows as "stand-alone" shows and leave it to the menu show to provide the return address to the target show at the time of calling the target show. Hope I've made myself clear enough there. If this is possible then I would suggest there should be two data entry fields available when the "Run Slideshow..." option is activated for the "Action on mouse click". The first would prompt for the target Slideshow name and the second would prompt for the Next show name. If this second field was left blank then the target sequence would have to provide this information if it was required. In this way, with the second field blank, it would still be possible to build chains of slideshows. regards, Peter

Igor, We already have the ability to assign a "label" to any object via the "Name" field on the Common tab of O&A. Why not use the contents of this field as the label name? All you then have to do is add "Go to label..." as an extra option in the "Action on mouse click" drop down list (with an input field below it for the actual target label name - just as we have the extra input field for the target slide number if we choose to do "Go to slide number..."). The responsibility for ensuring that the label did exist and was unique within the project could be left with the user. But it would be better if PTE did these checks whenever the user asks for a "Go to label..." action. Internally in the code and project file you might also want to assign a flag to the target slide to indicate that it is the target of a "Go to label..." action so that you can alert the user if they try and replace or rename the image file (which I'm guessing could, in the existing code implementation, cause the name in the "Common" tab to change ? ). Hope this helps with your design of the solution. regards, Peter

Igor, The new "Run Slideshow" feature is excellent. Now my Menu-driven presentations to audiences can be delivered free of all desktop flashbacks! Superb! Thanks very much for this feature. Whilst in the area of the O&A Common tab and the Actions on mouse click... Do you have any plans to introduce a "Go to Label" feature and the ability to assign a Label to a slide? This would make the building and programming of complex, manually-controlled sequences so much easier. You and I did talk about this earlier this year in either some posts on the forum or via PMs - I forget which. At the time, as I recall, you agreed to the idea but made no committment as to when it might appear in the product. regards, Peter

I'm all in favour of this, too! I find it a real hassle having to constantly re-position the Timeline/Slide List displays. When switching the currently selected slide should be placed centrally in the SlideList/Timeline area. regards, Peter

Andrew, You say that you have successfully installed v5.03 but cannot get later versions to install successfully. If this is the case, you do not need to re-install any keys. Just install the latest version v5.52 alongside v5.03 and it will locate and use the key that v5.03 is using. Your PTE key is a "key for life" and will work with all future versions of PTE. (I'm running on a key that was supplied with v4.47). If this solves your problem, you can then choose whether or not to Uninstall v5.03. If you do Uninstall it the key will be preserved in the registry. regards, Peter

Stu, Everything was working just fine until a few days ago. The solution turns out to be the same as for Ed's screensavers. I renamed the ico file to an 8.3 format - and everything resumed working again. It must be a change brought in by a recent Microsoft update. Perhaps this is just the "thin end of the wedge" and they are embarking on a programme to withdraw long filename support over the coming months. Now there's a horrible thought!!!! Anyway, your tip solved my icon problem as well as Ed's screensaver problem. regards, Peter

Have you tried renaming out the old screensaver and renaming in one of your new screen savers but using an old name? regards, Peter P.S. I'm having a similar problem with associating icons to desktop items. I have a weblink on my desktop that shows the icon that I want in its properties but shows the standard IE shortcut icon actually on the desktop. Running Vista Home Premium SP1

Mary, That is exactly the point I am making. In these fields, PTE should not display values in anything other than whole numbers. And values input into these fields must be limited to whole numbers (this latter, based on your experience, is already the case). Pixels cannot exist in fractions - only in whole numbers. regards, Peter

Brian, In your post above you suggest getting 6GB of memory and Vista 32-bit OS. What is your rationale here, please? I was always taught that the maximum memory that could be addressed by a 32-bit number was 4GB. regards, Peter

Mary/daveG, Sorry to do this but I've got to re-introduce my "hobby horse topic" - intuitive. That window is titled Size/position in pixels of parent (My italics and underscore). Pixels exist only in whole numbers. They do not exist in fractions of a pixel. Therefore those fields should accept as input and display as a result only whole numbers. If there is a bug in PTE it is that PTE displays a value (a decimal fraction of a pixel) that cannot physically exist. When PTE prevented you from keying in a decimal value it was behaving in a manner that I would call intuitive. When it displayed values in decimal fractions it was not behaving intuitively. regards, Peter

Mary, Just think for a moment about what you are asking PTE to do... Your computer displays only whole pixels. You are asking it to position an object to a fraction of a pixel. It is impossible to have less than a whole pixel! regards Peter

Ian, At some point in time you have done one of the following: - renamed this music file - deleted this music file - moved this music file to a different folder location PTE does not take a copy of the image files and music files into its project file (the .pte file that you open into PTE). It simply makes a note of where they are located. So, if you change the name or location of a file, PTE can no longer find it where you said it was. You will need to track down the missing file on your system and put a copy of it back where PTE is looking for it. This kind of problem can be overcome by some simple "folder discipline". When you first set out to make a sequence, create a folder for each sequence (e.g. MySequence#1, MySequence#2, and so on). Place all the image files and all the sound files for that sequence in that folder. If you want to use the same image or the same music in two sequences, place a copy of the image or music in both of the folders. In this way, you will never lose track of any of the elements of any of your sequences. The sequence folder itself can be repositioned anywhere in your folder structure. This act does not destroy PTE's ability to find everything. regards, Peter

John, This is PTE telling you that you have either renamed some files, moved them to another folder or deleted them. All you need to do to correct the problem is find those files and put them back where they were under the names that they had originally. This is not a bug in PTE; rather it is evidence that your working methods have a flaw in them. In future, to guard against this problem, do a "File...Create backup in zip". At any point in time thereafter, you can then extract the contents of the zip into a folder (call it folder X). Now when you launch PTE and open the project file from folder X, all the image and sound files will be there and you will not get any of these "blue band" error messages. regards, Peter

Robyn, It would help enormously if we had some details. What exactly are the symptoms of the problem? Does it not start at all? Does it play only the images and no sound, only the sound and no images? Without some greater detail we cannot, realistically, give you any advice. regards, Peter

I, too, would like to wish you a very happy birthday! And I add my voice to those above who have suggested you should take the day off from PTE and make it a special one, one that is just for yourself. kindest regards, Peter

Xaver, Project Options...Screen...Screen Options...Windowed Mode...Without borders (tick/untick) already exists. Is this the option you want to have included? If so, it's already there. regards, Peter