Barry Beckham

These settings probably don't appear as much of an issue to most PTE users, but in the past weeks I have made 28 slide shows that are tutorials on a disk on how to use an SLR, so I am beginning to find those areas that really get on your nerves after a while. This is one of them. Text effects will be expanded in the future I am sure, so perhaps it and all that goes with text needs its own tab.

I get frustrated that when I add text I get a shadow like it or not, then have to go to another tab to edit the shadow. I would like all text effects in one place

Yes I agree and wouldn't it be great if the Objects list in the O&A screen worked like Photoshops layers. You could change the stacking order by dragging and dropping the relavent layer, or lock them to prevent movement.

Colin Please relax a little, my post wasn't in reference to the content of your slide show, I posted while downloading your show, then forgot it all about it until I spotted it on the desktop a day or so later. I posted because I feel there is a problem on the forum with regard to feedback on our slide shows. Those who would be prepared offer feedback are frightened off by those who wish to jump all over anyone who do not share their views. If you need evidence of that you only have to read this post again. I am not sure this is very good for the poster, because in most cases they don't get a fair response, all they get are those who are willing to back slap. We all hope for a positive comments when we post a slide show. Or we wouldn't post them would we. It can be disapoointing when things are not as positive as we like, but thats the nature of photography. Now before you all start trolling through every post finding examples of less than perfect comments, I remind you this is a general observation. You will always find some exceptions. And while I am on my soap box, if a member doesn't understand a post, why not ask the writer of it to clarify, rather than filling in all the blanks themselves and then spitting feathers. I say again guys, relax. Surely we are all here to get better at what we enjoy arn't we?

Colin You havn't had many replies, do you ever wonder why?

Ian It sounds like you will need to find them yourself, at least for the first time. Later versions of PTE do now remember where the images are, so when you open the project file, the images you used (if kept in one folder) will be located for you. If you open up your project file, the slide show should run OK via your preview button. If that is OK, then use the file tree to navigate to where you stored the pictures for that slide show. Once you have them showing in PTE, resave your project file, probably a good idea to renaim the project file too, keep it identifyable from your old one, at least until your sure all is OK. Next time you open that project file the images will be located for you.

Easy answer, you did something wrong without realizing it. It happens to me sometimes.

Its not always best to use a single click. I often update 3 images in one go and then a re-launch is quicker, but that isn't really the point. I would like it fixed if possible.

I agree there are ways to get around that, but I find it odd that when you over write a image, with PTE open, it will show you the previous image. I am now used to it, but it could be very confusing for a new user. If it is an easy fix, then it should be fixed. Doing the amount of work I am doing for a new project, even a work around is becoming tedious

Dave Your sounding like my wife, when I don't understand her, its because I am stupid When she doesn't understand me its because I didn't explain it right

Its not just the slide list, mine don't refresh in the mini player either. I take an image from PTE, change some words on it in Photoshop, save it back into Photoshop, overwriting the original file name, but when I open PTE and run the new image, I still see the old one. I don't mind hiting a key to refresh, but I do this too often to be that interested in work arounds. Even a work around becomes tedious when you do it enough times.

I am using PTE extensivley for tutorials now and I want it to pick up the new file without imput from me, otherwise even that workaround gets tedious.

I find it very frustrating that any time I make an adjustment to an image in Photoshop and overwrite an existing image in PTE with that new image, PTE still shows me the old one. I have to close PTE and relaunch. Perhaps I am missing something, because usually f5 refreshes, but in PTE that starts a preview.

Respect to Jose, but you don't need any other software to do this Xaver and Anthony have the answer, Add the slides on the fly while listening to the music, you might have to adjust one or two, but most of the time, its pretty easy.

If you just click in that box that Xaver mentioned and leave the cursor flashing in the box, you can use the up and down arror keys to make small movements and the Page up/down for larger ones. In fact that method works well in all the PTE fields including animation. I find that way most convenient.

I think this makes a lot of sense if it can be accomplished. I would like either an AVI or WMP option just like the Mp4 option we now have.

We will soon see if Mp4 is OK for Macs, my customers will tell me.

For PC users WMV are far smaller with almost no loss in quality from an AVI. With AVI I struggle to get what I want on a DVD disk. Mp4. I don't know how robust that is as a cross platform video and with WMV, why fix what ain't broke? I don't even know if it is a solution for Mac users yet

Brian You said you convert your slide shows to WMV, are you talking PTE here? I assume your doing that via the AVI video file option, but what settings have you found best. Thats quite true but then you are not considering the "other guy" ~ in particular the vast majority of Pte-users who wouldn't know where to get the 'plug-in' and if they had it they wouldn't know how to install it nor where. Unlike yourself I had already considered that and its the reason why I suggested the (bespoke) WMV-to-Mac Converter but that in itself would need a compatible AVI-WMV utility created in Pte in the 1st instance. This line sums up forums and why they can be so annoying. I see this in many of the answers to peoples questions here. The person answering assumes the person asking the question has the same or similer knowledge to them and they answer it at the wrong level. It's what sorts out good tutorials from bad. Well Said If Igor can produce MP4 files then a simple button for a WMV does sound like a good solution. Crossfade Thank you for the info in iSquint, its not something I would ever think of checking up on.

Crossfade There is no way I am going to buy some tatty old second hand Mac that I would never have total confidence in. Secondly, I don't want to become like most people I see, so bogged down with technology the produce little photography worth viewing. I don't want a mac, even if I could get one cheaper than $2000. I already have enough computers around the house, I don't want a Mac thanks. Tom It's actually how most people are with computers. Your first word processor is always your favorite, no matter how ancient. It has nothing to do with that at all. I produce interactive tutorials for PC, that is how I got into this, I can't create those on a Mac, I can't run my CD/DVD menu software on a Mac. (Please don't tell me to run dual software) So I would always have to have a PC even if I switched over fully to Macs. It just ain't worth it, it has nothing to do with the Mac, I accept is probably a great tool for many people, but not me. Brian That sounds like a good solution. I don't don't want to be buried under technology, it saps your energy and creativity, especially if that part of Photographys isn't your thing. Thanks for the solution, its something I could include on my DVD's for Mac users. Someone also told me a few years ago about ISquint. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/applemac.htm

Peter Thank you, that was the reassurance I was hoping for with this post.

Ken I hadn't seen that particular post, but we knew it wasn't an easy job. I sort if expected a year at least. I think I questioned a while back whether the committment would be repaid in Mac sales, but Igor is the one to make that call. Crossfade Didn't you have a problem a while back where the sound was garbled on a Mac (I think it was you)? Thats what Im talking about. That was an isolated thing with the Beta Mac version of PTE, which igor adressed pretty quickly. I think it was picked up on one of my shows, simply because I was pretty quick to start creating them for Mac use. its executables crashing or not playing properly on current Intel Macs. Well PC users will only know that if Mac users report these issues, but my knowledge at the moment tells me they seem to work fine. I have had a fair bit of feedback by Mac users saying how well the slide shows played. What has made the difference to me is that the slide shows I have included on my disks in the past were bonus extras really. They entertained, spread the PTE word and spread the word about my tutorials. If they failed on a Mac, I would not have a great concern, because its the videos the person has purchased and the quicktime videos are like WMV, they play fine. Now I am branching out more into how to use a Digital SLR and I find PTE shows make superb tutorials where Photoshop is not providing the visuals. The only solution is to include on the DVD a Mac exe, which will be 1920*1200 and if that fails, they will have a mp4 video at 1024*640 as a fall back. explain the logic to me where you offer a Mac executable, but you dont know if it plays properly or crashes. Do you test the shows on different versions of Windows? Not really no, because that isn't necessary for PC's. I have had years of experience with PC's for XP, Vista and W7 and thousands of disks are running on these systems and they are fine. I started off making Videos for Digital PhotoFX and then Digital Photo Magazine in the UK they have never been an issue Ive downloaded a couple of mac shows that have crashed. They were free downloads so I didnt really care but if I paid for them, Id be pissed and wanting a refund. Well, why do you think I posted in the first place? To try an ascertain if this is a rogue Mac or I need to do something else for Mac users. If I can't find a solution, but the Mp4 seems to be a good one from where I am now, I may have to go back to what I have done in the past and create for PC only, but then the mac users whinge at me for not supplying mac users. What I am not going to do is spend $2000 dollars to earn $500 Its 1-2 years away. I'm not surprised, its obvious they aren't spending much time on it. Run the current version in vmware. You will have Mac users foaming at the mouth for saying that I have already been lectured on this forum about how mac users don't wish to soil their precious Mac with those nasty PC programs. I think they just get a bit over protective and like to have a bit of a fume, it makes them feel supior. Funny really, because I think every Mac user I know runs a dual system

Bill The most recent news from Igor though isn't too promising for we Mac users Which recent news are you referring to

Crossfade As I see it, there are the techno buffs who seem to know all there is to know about everything, but rarely produce any photography or slide shows worth looking at. I spend hours putting these disks together and they have been very well recieved for some years now. I stayed away from Macs, for the reasons stated and if I have to, I would rather pull the plug on the mac users and stay with the PC. The last thing I am going to do is spend any more hours than I already do to cope with one person in a hundred who might have a steam driven mac. All I wanted from my post was reassurance that what was reported was an isolated case. WMV or QuickTime movies should play fine. The problem is PTE executables crash sometimes. If you dont have a Mac, how do you know the executable works? Explain the logic to me where I spend more than I make to buy a Mac to make sure Mac users are happy, and do I buy two macs and old one and a new one. Get real for a minute please

but felt this piece of music was appropriate, especially as I am sure a lot of people saw the movie "Titanic" Sometimes that is a good reason to avoid the obvious music. Most people will have the superb movie in mind when they hear that song and we can never live up to the quality and impact of that in a PTE show.