Barry Beckham

Xaver Why would I want to do that?

Igor After reading the thread started by Peter on borders I realized that I didn't know how two of the tabs worked. I had long since given up on PTE borders, because I found them confusing and long winded. However, as a result of the thread I took another look to try and find a use for them and I still find them confusing. The canvas size when tried seems to work a bit like a crop tool. When you move the top and bottom sliders, you can see some sense in it, but when you move the left and the right sliders it all goes wrong. The animation tab is also baffling, not sure why its there or what I can do with it. As we have seen few examples demonstrated, many others don't either. I agree that this is an area that does need to be re-designed and my view borders need to be :- 1. Placed on the inside edge or the outside edge of an image/object 2. Be placed on one image or all of them in one operation 3. After No2 above, the ability to remove the border from a strategic few images/objects. (forum members, yes I am aware of work arounds, but that is not what is needed here) I also think the ability to add arrows was a good suggestion by Walker76. I also still want to see the ability to add texture/noise to objects/backgrounds. Computer colour is just too smooth and unatural.

Comoz In Camtasia, if your mixing various videos they must be all me the same resolution and format. Recently I selected an intro to a video I was creating in Camtasia and then added a number of other takes to that intro the same as I had done many times before. I was a bit baffled when the resulting video showed black borders top and bottom. When the penny finally dropped I realised that my short intro video (tacked on the front) was the wrong one and not the same resolution as the others. As you mentioned Camtasia, could that be the cause of your problem ?

Xaver F3 brings up the File List, F4 brings up the Slide List. You can drag and drop images in the slide list, but not the file list, that is for selecting images for the slide list, if you want to use that method

Yes, I am aware of that, but this is a suggestion for something more convenient and something a new user will spot easier. Its not a request for help or it wouldn't be in the suggestions section.

Igor Just a couple of issues 1. Over the past few weeks, I have had 2 emails and 2 phone calls from less experienced users of PTE asking where the lightbox in PTE has gone. Yes, I appreciate its easy to bring up with F4, but seeing as we are using large screens and there is so much space in the main window of PTE, could you give some thought to putting it back on the main page as an icon? 2. Personally I very often like to use the Ctrl+W option to open up more than one image from PTE. Is that a feesible option to create?

http://www.epson.com.au/products/projector/EH-TW9000W.asp Epson 1920*1080 resolution Our club finally bought the projectorabove, we shopped around and found one that didn't have the wirelessspec (not needed for club use) and that was a few hundred dollarscheaper. We had a guest speaker at the club, soI didn't risk playing with the settings of the projector, just incase I screwed up his night. I never saw the projector till clubnight. We plugged in the HDMI cable and theresults straight out of the box were superb. Our guest speakerMichael Snedick is one of the top wildlife photographers in Queensland and he commented that it was the best projector he had ever used. Thecolours were bright and accurate and its so easy to line up on thescreen. Its a big machine but super quiet too. Some time between now and next clubmeeting I will investigate the settings, but first impressions weregreat. A couple of PTE slide shows we played looked pretty good too

Igor. I think Daniel has a point here. I did raise this myself a long time ago and I think it got lost in some hysterics on the forum. Its not an uncommon way to work and I find myself having to go through what Daniel describes a lot of the time. It is tedious to have to do this and if it is possible to do, I would love to see a setting where I could import an image and not have it made 300% of the size I originally made it.

Orizaba Its a quirk of PTE, change the video, then close PTE and relaunch and all will be well

Lin I think the PTE Manual is a great thing, but those of you who made it have your work cut out, if its to reflect every current version. I have almost stopped making tutorials for Photoshop Elements because they change it so fast, as soon as I complete a reasonable range of videos, they are out of date. For many users, these changes would not make the videos useless, but some people do need to be taken to the button they have to press or they cant cope. Move the button and they are lost. I always say its like getting into a car and there is no handbrake in the usual place. We know it has to be there somewhere, just need to look. I think the manual should cover as few subjects as possible, because its better to have 10 pages fully up to date, than 100 where 90 are not. The trouble is, we like to help and we feel as though we should include detail that then makes the whole thing unmanageable. No easy answer?

However I believe when one buys software there should be a comprehensive manual included. Its not that simple and I would bet the manual would then become far more of a problem to produce than the software itself. What does the manual writer include, the basics of how to do things? Something a bit more creative ? Or, the top end of any software ? How can a manual help creativity or how you creatively use the software. I will bet that Igor sees his software used in many ways he never imagined as he developed it. How does that get included in any comprehensive manual. Thinking about it, it would take more than one person to cover a wide enough latitude. Then the biggest part of all, keeping it up to date. It would be an almost full time job for something that comprehensive and still you would have some people who could not fathom how to do things. Its like buying some woodworking tools. In my unpractised hands they would be as good as useless, but in another pair of hands beautiful furniture can be produced. What is it that I lack and the Carpenter has. Experience, skill, creativity, a flair for working with wood. You have to practice to get good at anything and a comprehensive manual on your set of woodworking tools would not help you one bit. I see some people so scared up upgrading their software that they allow a number of versions to pass them by. When they inevitably have to upgrade, they now have a small mountain to climb when it could have been a steady walk through smaller less significant changes. Manuals or tutorials cannot remain fully up to date all the time. There isn't enough time to produce them so that every button they refer to is in exactly the place they said it was. The user has to use their eyes and common sense to bridge these little gaps themselves. A manual can only ever be a rough guide to point the user in the right direction, the rest is up to you.

Tom I used PTE for the vast majority of what you saw because that was the purpose of the Promo. To show what PTE can do, although to make a show like that without an image editor would be impossible. I used a background slide, along with a piece of artwork in the shape of a long film strip and the rectangle options. The effects are just delicate 3D animations with some opacity to get them to look appealing. I needed to spice up the screens that were showing mainly text and that did the trick quite well.

Check your PM

Glad many of you seemed to like the promo. As a PicturesToExe promotion, members should feel free to show it where they feel it will benefit PTE. Camera clubs or other places. All the images are mine and Igor has the copyright to use the music so there are no copyright issues. Of course I would like a plug for my web site if you play it, but that's all www.beckhamdigital.com.au

Well I have done demos for years, first with twin Kodak Carousel projectors, disolve unit, 4 track tape deck, amplifier speakers and cables galore. Now the same with laptops and speakers, desktops and speakers, keyboards personbal mike and all the myriad of cables that are required. Never had a cable let me down, so you have to put these things into perpective don't you. I once had two punctures in my car, but I don't carry two spares just in case.

I think cables are a rip off to be honest, over priced and you would never tell the difference between one that cost $80 and one for &10. I know because I have both and now know how I was fleeced when I bought the $80 one. The cheeper one does the same job and how often does a cable fail???

The cost of this Projector in Australia is $3700 and that converts to £2371. No doubt due to the strength of the Aussie currency at the moment. Our Camera Club was fortunate to get a grant for the projector, which makes the purchase even less painful A couple of years and they will be half the price, but then we will want whatever replaces them won't we?

Yesterday I visited Aussi HiFi close to Brisbane where this http://www.epson.com.au/products/projector/EH-TW9000W.asp projector was set up in a darkened room. We watched a movie for a while and it was so good the wife wanted to dump our TV and buy one of these for our TV room. I was also able to plug in my laptop and the images looked perfect to me. Great contrast, great colours, miles above anything we have now. Our club will definately be buying this model.

Jeb IMHO, 4:3 format doesn't look that attractive in comparison to 16:9/16:10. Make your shows widescreen format and live with a black band top and bottom on the iPad. Its no great shakes really and who wants to make a 16:9 show for TV and/or monitors and another at 4:3. Its not always a simple conversion.

I have seen a Canon in operation with one of our Nikon sponsored speakers recently and it was impressive, but a bit out of our range. I will have another look at what is on offer with the Canon icos range later though, because the Aussie dollar is strong at the moment, it does make kit like this a bit more affordable Been looking at this one http://www.epson.com.au/products/projector/EH-TW9000W.asp Anyone know of it, have experience of it. My thoughts are that you can't go too far wrong with Canon or Epson. Thanks for all your suggestions, keep them coming if you can

I know this topic has been discussed many times, but its difficult to get very interested until your about to buy, as our photo club now is. Can I ask anyone who uses a HD format Digital Projector in their own club to tell me what you purchased and your views on the projector for club competitions. I suppose I am most interested in the make and model (although the models change so fast) and also how it handles the colour balance between the club laptop and what you see on screen. Any other views/suggestions gratefully received.

I think my knowledge of PTE was the cause of me not understanding the auto spread of images. I expected to see the same thing as you would if you used the times points method which is what I have used for years. That is the images all spread evenly along the time line Perhaps a newer user of would take the label at face value and not have any issues because they would not know about the other method. Gary, you have to ignor what your seeing and play the show, that was Peters first explanation which is right. The show will spread the slides along the time line, it just doesn't display them that way. It works a treat, but hard to fathom

Xaver Sometimes to be able to make a very quick automatic show has its appeal. After all PTE is not only used to carefully sync images to music in a traditional AV. I have a slide show playing in a local printers and framers for customers to view images, so this option is perfect for that. I am not the most intuative person and I miss the abvious sometimes, but you have to ask the question :- If an experienced user of PTE cannot make head nor tail of an option it needs some changes made to make it better to understand.

Peter Thank you for enlightening me, but how confusing is that? I expected to see the images spread along the time line.

In the Project Option > Main Tab >there is a tick box that says Autospread slides along music, but I can't get it to do anything. Iexpected Auto spread slides along music to take my 60 images and my 3minute music track and spread the slides evenly through the length ofthe music. Or, if there was a need, spread 4 images evenly through a10 minute music track, but it doesn't appear to do that, or if it does I can't seem to find out how. We CAN auto spread slides along the music,but we have to do it via the time line, selecting all the images andgoing to the Timed Points button. Then we can choose Arrange allPoints. I must be missing the obvious here and perhaps someone can assist me, but I cannot see any use for the Project Option > Main Tab Autospread slides along music option. Does anyone use it and for what purpose please?