CorVdK

Hello Peter, Fine to read that you are making progress. I just try to help for what it is worth. Have you checked: 1) the EXE-show is started and ended with a black slide 2) in <Project Options> <Show Settings> "Close show after last slide" is ticked, otherwise you have an endless loop, or you must push "ESC" 3) in <Project Options> <Advanced> "Hide mouse cursor during show" is choosen I have experienced these settings for the EXE files are very important. It is important, I think, to keep every file of your project in one folder and launch everything from your hard disk. To avoid the flashes to the desktop, is it possible to put a "black" for a "certain time" to make calculations possible, or did you have this already? I don't want to be a creep or boring, but there is were I tried to find the solution with "the chain" and launch everything from the same folder on the hard disk. "By chain" I mean: Make copies of the Menu, the background with the buttons (buttons with titles of the shows), as many as you have EXE files. Construction: After your intro SLIDE 01 A black slide (time 2 sec) SLIDE 02 The Menu with buttons (every button has the action "Go to slide number..."; the first button has reference to SLIDE 04) SLIDE 03 Black slide (time 3 sec, 1 sec transition) (to take time to load and calculate) SLIDE 04 Black slide (time 2 sec) with <Run external application> annex the first EXE show After playing the show it returns to SLIDE 05 The Menu with buttons (every button has the action "Go to slide number..."; the second button has reference to SLIDE 07) SLIDE 06 Black slide (time 3 sec, 1 sec transition) (to take time to load and calculate) SLIDE 07 Black slide (time 2 sec) with <Run external application> annex the second EXE show After playing the show it returns to SLIDE 08 The Menu with buttons (every button has the action "Go to slide number..."; the third button has reference to SLIDE 10) SLIDE 09 Black slide (time 3 sec, 1 sec transition) (to take time to load and calculate) SLIDE 10 Black slide (time 2 sec) with <Run external application> annex the third EXE show After playing the show it returns to SLIDE 11 The Menu with buttons (every button has the action "Go to slide number..."; the fourth button has reference to SLIDE 13) SLIDE 12 Black slide (time 3 sec, 1 sec transition) (to take time to load and calculate) SLIDE 13 Black slide (time 2 sec) with <Run external application> annex the fourth EXE show After playing the show it returns to... ............. SLIDE xx Black slide SLIDE xx End credits SLIDE xx Black slide You can push the buttons at random to start the right show. This method must avoid the flashes and keep you free of desktop problems. Maybe there are other solutions too. Good luck. Greetings, Cor

Hello Lin, Peter, Yes, I know. But my fault, I had to give more explanation. When you have 3 text lines, with different length. You highlight one of the shorter lines and choose "Left, Right or Center" then BOTH (shorter) lines are moved. Not alone the one you have highlighted. Greetings, Cor

I just do one more try to explain that the "method" I have used in practice, for an audience of 150 people, has no flicker, no jumps, no interfearing, no flashes, no..., And can be perfectly projected with a beamer of 1024 x 768 pixels. Just read the posts and try it out, you will see it is working on VISTA and XP. The most important point is to use a recent videocard. All the other methods and suggestions in this topic I have tested myself in the past, the black slides, the memory stick, the 1-pixel slides, with or without menu, with or without intro, with or without buttons, with or without... They are not working with PTE v5.1 as described! The only thing that may be a problem is the configuration of your computer, but when one uses a recent machine, it must work for you as well. So far I did not see much reactions on my post about the effectiveness of the project, beside Peter. 1154 readers of this topic, 87 downloads of my MediaFire: TEST Chain show and ".pte" ZIP files. Did somebody else tried it out? Am I alone in this matter? Are you looking for an other implementation? Does nobody believe me? Greetings, Cor

Igor, For your info PTE Deluxe 5.5 Beta 7: After "Add Text". The "Left, Center, Right" text navigation is not working anymore in <Objects and Animation> <Properties>. The "Blur" is working fine now. Greetings, Cor

Henri, Off tick "Pixels" and you can adapt X and Y from 1 to 20 columns and/or lines. Greetings, Cor

Hello to All, For all Dutch speaking members and users of PTE deluxe 5.5 beta 7, included VideoBuilder, who are interested: 1) MediaFire: Nederlands.ini 2) MediaFire: Nederlands.lng NOTE: If you already have downloaded "Nederlands.lng" for the beta 5 version; in this version beta 7 are no changes in the text for VideoBuilder. Upload the files from "MediaFire" 1) copy the "Nederlands.ini" file in the "WnSoft PicturesToExe/5.5 Beta 7" folder 2) copy the "Nederlands.lng" file in the "WnSoft PicturesToExe/5.5 Beta 7/VideoBuilder/Lng" folder confirm for both files replacement. Enjoy , Cor

I am deeply saddened to hear about the death of Ron. My condolences. Cor

Peter, The only thing that you have to do is replace the title slides that I have in "my chain", with "dummy" slides with buttons if you want this. You click on the button and it send you to the show. When finished it returns in the "chain" and come back to an other "dummy" with the same list to choose the EXE files. When the audience choose a show, you click the corresponding button in the list, the show start, at the end you come back in the "chain" and..... Make a "dummy" for every show you have to show. Make an EXE file of this and put it in the same folder as your shows. I have done it also and it worked perfect. It even worked without a monitor. The beamer connected to the computer and you can click your shows, or your buttons on the screen. Without flickering, flashes, and no "double flash" at all. Check this: Some very important basic tips before starting with a project like that, all providers of a EXE show must be sure that: 1) their EXE-show is started and ended with a black slide 2) in <Project Options> <Show Settings> "Close show after last slide" is ticked, otherwise you have an endless loop, or you must push "ESC" 3) in <Project Options> <Advanced> "Hide mouse cursor during show" is choosen Greetings, Cor

Peter, Yes. With PTE 5.1. build it with: VISTA Home Premium on HP Pavilion m8180.be; Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz; Physical Memory: 3070 MB; DirectX: 10.0; Video card: NVidia Geforce 8600 GT 512 MB ram VGA DVI; Monitor: HP f2105 Wide Flat Panel Monitor - res.: 1680 x 1050. tested it on: VISTA Home Premium (same computer as above) & Pentium 4 2 GHz; Memory: 1 MB; Nvidia Geforce Graphics n card with 128 MB & Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2. Peter, you tried my "TEST Chain Show", did it work for you? If yes, you must succeed to make your own "chain".Geoff, If you have followed the above posts, this is not what we want to do, we want a complete automatic "chain show", without manipulating buttons or whatever. The only thing you have to do is click your screen once to start the "chain" with the EXE shows, if you have an intro. Maybe you must do that with your system with the buttons, but I repeat it for the second time, you must NOT turn off hardware acceleration (with PTE v5.1), because all your chained shows, the "support" EXE file with the instructions (and the optional intro if any) will begin to flicker, the quality of your presentation will be zero if you have some animations, and in the worst case your show will end in a mess.To all who are interested, For the 50th anniversary of our camera club I made a complete lay-out of a chained sequence of EXE-files. Those EXE-files are not alone done by PTE, but also by m-Objects and Photodex-ProShow EXE-files are involved. About the flicker or other "waiting" problems between the shows: It's all depending on the power of the computer and mainly the video card. The only flawty with "my methodology" is that before starting each show you see a fraction of a second the cursor on a black background (XP) or the "turning ring" of Vista. Some very important basic tips before starting with a project like that, all providers of a EXE show must be sure that: 1) their EXE-show is started and ended with a black slide 2) in <Project Options> <Show Settings> "Close show after last slide" is ticked, otherwise you have an endless loop, or you must push "ESC" 3) in <Project Options> <Advanced> "Hide mouse cursor during show" is choosen MediaFire: TEST Chain Show Start the show by clicking on "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.pte" this will open PTE v5.1 with 2 slides. This is the intro I made for the 50th Anniversary of our club. Start preview. There must be an endless intro on the screen. Let it run 10 to 30 sec. (whatever), move the mouse, it must be visible on the screen now (on the background slide), click once (at random on the background slide), then the "chain" is activated with the title backgrounds and logos. To get out of the chain you must click twice on ESC. Sorry, all the titles are in Dutch, but that is not important. From this project we make an EXE file, it's called "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.exe". In the folder "TEST Chain Show" is a file named "Reeksen.exe" this is the EXE file with all the "dummy" slides, titles, black slides needed. It is directing the finished EXE shows of the club members. It must be in the same folder as "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.exe". This is the PTE file of "Reeksen" (Reeksen means the Slide Shows of the members of the club): MediaFire: Zip file with slides to use in the "Chain", blacks, title slides with logo,"dummy" slides to connect your EXE files Just click "Reeksen.pte" and PTE 5.1 is opened with all the slides used. These are (possible) backgrounds with titles before every show, after these again a black slide -timing 3 sec.- taking care of the loading of the next show, again a black slide (timing 2 sec.) with <Customize Slide> <Main> "Advanced Options" here you enter the name of the attached "Run external application". The same combination is used of "support"-slides for every show you include in the chain. You end with a black slide or a slide with end credits. I made a new folder with the name "REEKSEN" and put all the complete EXE shows of the members of the club in it. This folder must be in the folder were "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.exe" and "Reeksen.exe" is in. I tried it with real EXE files (complete shows, EXE made with PTE, m-Objects and Photodex-ProShow), no flicker, no glimmering, or whatever on my machine. Perfect projection with a beamer with resolution of 1024 x 768. If any questions... Greetings, Cor

Filip, With pleasure. Have you tried this? Mediafire: TEST Chain show Please start the show by clicking on "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.pte" this will open PTE v5.1 with 2 slides. Start preview. There must be an endless intro on the screen. Let it run 10 to 30 sec. (whatever), move the mouse, it must be visible on the screen now (on the background slide), click once (at random on the background slide), then the "chain" is activated with the title backgrounds and logos. To get out of the chain you must click twice on ESC. Is this running OK on your computer? I tried it with real EXE files (complete shows, EXE made with PTE, m-Objects and Photodex-ProShow), no flicker, no glimmering, or whatever on my machine. Perfect projection with a beamer with resolution of 1024 x 768. Greetings, Cor

Hello to All, Herewith I want to show my gratitude to Brian.Conflow in name of myself and in the name of all our photoclub members. Thanks to the extensive, concrete, clear explanations; concern and involvement of Brian, we succeed to solve the problems we had with the Samsung flat-screen. We really appreciated your help. Greetings, Cor

Igor, For your info PTE Deluxe 5.5 Beta 6: 1) After "Add Button". The "Button opacity" is not working anymore in <Objects and Animation> <Properties>. 2) After "Add Text". The "Blur" is not always reacting right after tick off "Auto font quality" in <Objects and Animation> <Properties>. After tick off "Auto font quality" and sliding to a value, ticking the "Blur" has no reaction. Greetings, Cor

Peter, Thank you again for the extra efforts. I'm going to put in place all the real EXE files (shows) now and when that is working fine, I think we have a solution. After the tip of Jean-Pierre, I put 2 separate black slides after the title background in "Reeksen.exe". So that there will be a possible recovery timing after every EXE file (show).The first black slide with -timing 3 sec.- will take care of the "recovery". The second black slide -timing 2 sec.- with <Customize Slide> <Main> "Advanced Options" path to the "Run external application". And that for all of the "support"-slides before every show included in the chain. I end with a black slide, with or without end credits. The show will be projected with a beamer, resolution 1024 x 768 pixels. Fingers crossed. Greetings, Cor

Stonewall, Is it necessary that the audience can read the text in the book? If it are only some shots in a slide show, with timings of a few seconds, nobody can read the text then, or the slides of the pages will be very long on the screen. Just take some shots of the pages of your book, "blur" the text in an image editor, or put some unreadable text in place, as: Pjksfdj khgfgekg hhdnlh ieu ieu kd heiud geiugeiu, dgcg uycg ugc gcm. Just an idea. Greetings, Cor

Jean-Pierre, Thank you for the suggestions and ideas. Thank you for testing.Greetings, Cor

Peter, Thank you very much for testing my sample show. That's good news. Yes, that's "normal", I made it that way.Peter, is it possible to do an other try? Please start the show by clicking on "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL.pte" this will open PTE with 2 slides. Start preview. There must be an endless intro on the screen. Let it run 10 to 30 sec. (whatever), move the mouse, it must be visible on the screen now (on the background slide), click once (at random on the background slide), then the "chain" is activated with the title backgrounds and logos. To get out of the chain you must click twice on ESC. Is this running OK? Greetings, Cor

Jean-Pierre, Merci bien, thank you for "Album et EXE de démo". J'ai aussi pu mettre en pratique vos conseils, et en effet, ça marche très bien... I succeeded to put your suggestion into practice, and indeed, it's working fine when I use the 1-pixel backgrounds with attached EXE shows, and when I hide the Windows taskbar (otherwise it is shown all the time). It's seems to be "solid" so far (no tilt or popping of the black background). But still there is a flickering between 2 shows when I put a title background between the shows. Jean-Pierre, as I read the French topic right, did you make the original demo with PTE v4.48? Did you ever tried the same with PTE v5.1? Greetings, Cor

Dave, 1) I do not doubt about it.2) HP Pavilion m8180.be Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz Physical Memory: 3070 MB DirectX: 10.0 Hard disk total: + 1 TB Video card: NVidia Geforce 8600 GT 512 MB ram VGA DVI Monitor: HP f2105 Wide Flat Panel Monitor - res.: 1680 x 1050 VISTA Home Premium I also tried the demo on a XP machine, Pentium 4 2 GHz, Memory: 1 MB, Nvidia Geforce Graphics n card with 128 MB. With the same result, with or without hiding the Windows taskbar. Why is it not working for me???????? Peter, I completely agree with you, also have my Vista computer for about 5 months now. No problems for me as well.Has somebody already tried my "TEST Chain show" please? Link: Mediafire Greetings, Cor

DaveG, DJH David and Xaver, Thank you for your answers and efforts. DaveG, I tried your "Menu.exe" but there was a big blink between every "show". Also the Desktop showed minimum a second between the shows. Sometimes parts of the black background are in pieces. It was about the same manner that I did my first tests. This way, when you will put complete EXE files in place of the small EXE files (shows of 5 to 12 minutes, in a row of 5 to 10), in the best case the chain will stop or if the worst comes to the worst will block your computer completely. It all depends of the power of your videocard. DJH David, I also tried your "Start menu with candles". Your solution is not what is realy wanted. It's not a show that is controled by buttons. We want to present a complete automatic show, that runs several EXE files in a row. Please is it possible to do a small test for me. In the ZIP folder TEST Chain Show.zip you find a .pte file "FESTIVAL 01 FESTIVAL". The background is 1024 x 768 pixels. Run the file in PTE or run preview, let it play 10 to 15 sec. or longer (it's an endless loop). When you move your mouse the arrow will be visible, click on the screen, the shows must now show one after one (only the title and logos). Sorry it's in Dutch. Just let me know if it flickers, have some breaks, does not run, or whatever. Thanks in advance. Greetings, Cor

Jean-Pierre, Why we need that "Hidetaskbar" for? In <Project Options> <Advanced> when you tick off "Show Navigation Bar" it is not shown. Besides that, the chain of shows is moving one after another and there is no need to show a bar. You don't have to control that if everything is shown automatic. I missed something here? Greetings, Cor

It seems to me there are a lot of speculations here, but not facts. So far I have seen no example put into practice of all the suggestions that are mentioned. I mean a usable .pte file.You can not achive any result by doing "a simple test". You have to put 10 or 12 completed EXE shows in a chain and then you can see what you get. That is not the same as putting some blacks in a chain with some slides attached.What's more, you must NOT turn off hardware acceleration (with PTE v5.1), because all your chained shows, the "support" EXE file with the instructions (and the optional intro if any) will begin to flicker, and the quality of your presentation will be zero if you have some animations. Must the chained show run on a computer with Windows 98? I did not read that in any post.Is it possible that someone post a finished .pte file of his findings to try it in practice. That will be a big help. Thank you in advance. Greetings, Cor

Hello Filip, Hello to all, It can be done with PTE 5.1! I made for the 50th anniversary of our camera club a complete lay-out of a chained sequence of EXE-files. Those EXE-files are not alone done by PTE, but also by m-Objects and Photodex-ProShow EXE-files are involved. About the flicker or other "waiting" problems between the shows: It's all depending on the power of the computer (we did it with a XP-computer Intel Pentium 4 3,2GHz, graphic card ATI 256MB Radeon x1950). The only flawty with "my methodology" is that before starting each show you see a fraction of a second the cursor on a black background (XP) or the "turning ring" of Vista. Some basic tips before starting with a project like that, all providers of a show with PTE must be sure that: 1) their EXE-show is started and ended with a black slide 2) in <Project Options> <Show Settings> "Close show after last slide" is ticked, otherwise you have an endless loop, or you must push "ESC" 3) in <Project Options> <Advanced> "Hide mouse cursor during show" is choosen If I get it straight, Filip want an endless projection of the shows. Some questions Filip: 1) Do you want an intro, label, name of your camera club, first? 2) Do you want a break or pause in between? Give us some more details please. 50th Anniversary of our camera club intro This is the intro I made for the 50th Anniversary of our club. It's an EXE-file, that contains a background and the same background with the logo's, the titles of the shows, on that same backgound a button to launch the shows, in <Objects and Animation> <Common> "Action on mouse click - Run application or open file..." and point to (path) an "other" EXE-file to launch the shows. Zip with .pte-file and used slides That "other" EXE-file contains then, a black slide, possible backgrounds with titles before every show, after these again a black slide -timing 3 sec.- taking care of the loading of the next show, again a black slide (timing 2 sec.) with <Customize Slide> <Main> "Advanced Options" path to the "Run external application". You use the same combination of "support"-slides for every show you include in the chain. You end with a black slide or a slide with end credits. If any questions... Greetings, Cor

Hello Ron, Since a few months I am the proud owner of: HP Pavilion m8180.be Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz Physical Memory: 3070 MB DirectX: 10.0 Fixed Hard disk: 320 GB Fixed Hard disk: 500 GB External Maxtor One Touch: 250 GB Sound card: Realtek High Definition - ASUSTek LNA Tiger Hybrid Capture Device Video card: NVidia Geforce 8600 GT 512 MB ram VGA DVI CD-rom stations: DVD writer HL DVD RRW - DVD-rom ATAPI DVD D Monitor: HP f2105 Wide Flat Panel Monitor - res.: 1680 x 1050 VISTA Home Premium I must say, maybe not the top of the line configuration, but so far, without any problems of crashing, "white or blue" screens, freezing, or what so ever. So far no problems with VISTA and PTE. I even run Microsoft Office 2000, a Windows 2000/NT/Windows 98 program, and various photo and video programs. About the NVidia graphics card, I don't know the type you will have, but I think it will be better than a "ATI-card" to avoid some existing problems with video and also PTE (as I read this forum). We at our photoclub also have problems with a Samsung flat-screen and a ATI-card, but that's an other story. The HP f2105 Wide Flat Panel Monitor is connected with a DVI cable. I also have used a Sony beamer on the VGA entry without problems. The experience I have with ATI contra NVidia: NVidia is more obvious in set up properties. My opinion you will have a nice configuration that will last also for more years to come. Have fun with it . Greetings, Cor

Giel, Henri, Graag gedaan . You're welcome . Groetjes, Greetings, Cor

Dag Frans, Graag gedaan. Enige tijd geleden heeft Luc Moreels uit België een PowerPointpresentatie gepost. Hij schrijft zelf in zijn post: "Je hebt niet de mondelinge uitleg die er bijhoort, maar je kan veel opsteken van de figuren." Volg deze link: PTE5 Cursus Groetjes, Cor