aplman

Hello Jill ... I am delighted with your response, glad to know a little more about you, and quite excited to find that a PTE user as experienced as your good self shares my view on slide styles. How, I wonder, might we go about encouraging Igor to rethink the matter? To me, it is as if a deputy designer concocted styles while Igor was on a holiday - the implementation is not consistent with the usual Wnsoft quality that we expect and appreciate. All things considered, I think I shall start the new year with a clean slate in Version 10, and hope to rekindle my fondness for that 2015 adventure in Argentina and Chile. Thanks again Jill. I would enjoy further discussion with you on technical aspects. Would a private message be more appropriate? Regards Ken T.

Thank you very much, Jill, for your contribution. As a Windows user (and programmer) from "way back", I find it natural and desirable to be able to open a file for further processing by double-clicking on the file name (with the appropriate extension displayed in my list of files, of course). That is a fundamental feature of windows that I am most reluctant to forego. Now I have a new problem when I try to adopt your suggested approach. If I first run PTE 9 and then open the PTE file I want to work on, I find that I am indeed using PTE Version 9.0.22, but a click on "Help/Online User Guide" brings up the Help for PTE AV Studio. As I am rather rusty as well as geriatriically challenged, that behaviour seems neither correct nor helpful. Furthermore, on trying to resurrect a project that I put aside several years ago (uncompleted), I have found other mysteries. Of the 800 slides that I had carefully animated, there is a batch of a hundred or so in the middle where all my wonderful animation has been lost, apparently due to an accidental application of a grey scale style that was intended for a single image. That must have been the point in my career when I decided that slide styles were a poor idea!!! The latest annoyance with this project is that every slide has the textual slide number designated as "main object", not the image. Could it be that I have somehow bungled the installation of version 10? If I unistall it, can I get Version 9 back? Should I abandon that project and re-do all my work in Version 10? All suggestions welcome - thank you!

Hello Igor ... I thank you for your interest in my dilemma. I needed to make changes to some older shows (version 9), but also to learn version 10 gradually. All my shows use exe files, including for menus, and I have been careful not to mix PTE versions. I have also realised that my brain (now 80 years old) is stuck in the PTE 8 era, so I have not yet mastered the latest version 9 developments in the O&A side of things. I might even be stuck in the Version7 era, as I have not yet learned to appreciate styles. I thought the first implementation of styles was poor, useful only as a first step before adding text and animation. I have avoided styles ever since. Therefore I found your specific mention of slide styles in your reply very interesting. Possibly my latest effort (that caused me to seek help in the forum) may have been due to my doing things in the wrong order (saving as .PTE10 and defining the pte10 file name extension). I appreciate very much your interest in my query, and any advice that may follow. Ken T.

I would like advice please on how to conveniently use the latest PTE AV 10 for new projects whilst keeping my many older projects on PTE 9. I have defined a new file extension ".pte10" and specified (to Windows 10) that files with that extension are to be opened with the latest PTE AV 10. The standard extension ".pte" opens existing older files with PTE version 9. Just one problem so far ... "Save As" with the pte10 extension does not save the slide list. Any ideas please?

My belief is that most slide options could usefully be allowed as project options, and vice versa. Life could be easier that way. Ken T.

In my first attempt to organise a fully manual show, I discovered some PTE quirks. Here is one of them. Thinking slide durations were not wanted, I tried to set them all to zero. However, PTE adjusts the time for each slide to 0.001 seconds. However, in Project Options it is possible to set Default Slide Duration to zero, and then to Apply to all slides. If I then try to Preview from a particular side, the program appears to lock up, preventing any further interaction other than closing.

Thank you all for trying to help. Here is what I have now found; No other program interfering. In Project Options/Control/Keyboard, both "Wait for keypress …" and "Permit control …" are ticked. Most slides have "Wait for keypress to show next slide" ticked. Is this bunch of settings appropriate for a show where I want to linger on each slide, and be able to go forward to next slide, or back to previous slide? Thanks again Ken T.

My exe show has been behaving quite erratically. Sometimes left/right/up/down keys work, sometimes not. (Windows 10) Ken T.

I must be getting older AND dumber! I cannot seem to control a show using keyboard to go back as well as forward. Is there a way to define key actions as there is for mouse control? Ken Travers.

Suppose we have a slide presentation that flows nicely without intervention, except for certain slides that may sometimes need to wait for a keystroke. I would like the ability (in Project Options) to specify that a visible sign must appear on the screen when an individual slide is waiting. Please help if you can suggest a convenient way to achieve this.

I've been out of action a while, so not familiar enough with Version 9. In O&A, when I add a frame, I want to adjust width an height independently, using the handles on top and sides. The aspect ratio of the frame seems to be maintained, regardless of the setting of the sync X/Y control. Am I missing something? Thanks to all. Ken.

My PTE usage is almost entirely for producing travelogues from my trip photos.. I use one audio track for background music, another for my voice commentary. These productions tend to be shown to local senior folk, some of whom have better hearing than others. Some audiences are more interested in the scenery, others in my voice commentary. Some appreciate the background music, for others it is irrelevant. Often I find myself wishing for the ability to adjust the volume of a single track while the show is running. May I request this feature please? Or is it achievable in a way I have not thought of?

I refer to the audio file time shown when we click (in the toolbar of the main screen) on the audio file name attached to a slide. It shows the duration of the audio clip only to whole seconds. It would use up very little extra screen space to show a couple of decimal places of seconds. May I request that please? Thanks! Ken T. (aplman)

May I please request that the item "Add audio or record voice" in Preferences / Toolbars should be separated into two distinct options: "Add audio file" and "Record voice". I am currently using several hundred audio files with eight PTE projects. It has been tedious having to click "Add audio or record voice" and then click "Add audio file". As I never need to record audio whilst in PTE, I would like to simplify my Toolbar and save myself hundreds or thousands of clicks. Thank you Igor! Ken T. (aplman)

Ken, I wish you had not done that! My original post was a request for help. Most of the replies relate to my original query, and are not about suggestions for new versions. I have now started a new thread under Suggestions. Are you able please to put the old thread back where it belongs? Thanks ... Ken T.

Hi again Dave ... I will happily settle for drag-and-drop or right-click. I see advantages in both. From a programming viewpoint, I would think that when either method is implemented, the other would be very simple. Let's have both please. Ken T. (aplman)

Thank you Barry, interesting thought (as always!) My work pattern goes the other way, actually. I record a single commentary in one session, to get uniformity of sound volume Then I chop it up using AVS Audio Editor. There are two reasons I prefer individual clips attached to slides. One is that I often need to produce multiple projects of different lengths, to suit different audiences. Creating the long version to my satisfaction then allows me easily to pick and choose for each shorter version. The second reason is that I often find a need to make minor alterations to timing and to slide sequence. For these reasons, I am totally addicted to separate voice clips attached to slides. By the way, I have just posted my suggestion in the "Suggestions for Next Versions" sub-forum. Cheers! Ken T. (aplman)

Dear Igor and Wnsoft ... There are at least two ways to add an audio file to a slide, e.g. the "Add Audio or Voice" button on the main screen, or right-click on a slide, "Audio Comment / Add Audio File". The drawback with both of these, however, is that one has to find the audio file in the list of files presented in a new dialogue box. As one can already display a list of audio files in PTE's File List, I would really appreciate being able to right-click there to choose a file. Currently the right-click menu offers "Add All Files to Project" and "Add Selected Files to Project". The latter would seem to be appropriate in my case, but it does not link the audio file to a slide. May I please suggest an extra right-click option for audio files in the File List: "Link file to current slide". That would save me much time and annoyance in future projects. Presumably many other folks would benefit too! With great appreciation for your superb efforts ... Regards Ken Travers (aplman)

Hi Lin ... Thank you for your interest. What you suggest is exactly what I have been doing. However, after hundreds of repetitions involving multiple mouse clicks, and often time-consuming scrolling through the list of audio files, I felt there must be a better way. I shall try to put forward a good suggestion in the appropriate sub-forum. Regards ... Ken T. (aplman)

Thanks Dave for your interest. Only one MP3 per slide, and not every slide. I don't like using the time-line for this purpose. I'm not fine-tuning, just wanting to drop each MP3 effortlessly onto an appropriate slide, and *** Most Importantly *** have the MP3 linked to the slide. It would be nice additionally if the slide duration to be increased if necessary to avoid any conflict with an MP3 on the next slide. It's a pretty simple need, but making it happen using "Add Audio" is a tedious business, especially scrolling through an ever-increasing number of MP3 files. As nobody else has responded, I assume others are happy with the situation. But it could be made much simpler - I shall put a couple of posts in "Suggestions for Next Version". Thanks again. Ken T. (aplman)

I have over 400 mp3 voice files that have to be inserted into 8 PTE project files. I have used "Add audio or voice" plenty of times in the past, and it seemed tedious. Nevertheless, I survived! Now that I have many more files to insert, I would like suggestions for an efficient process. I wonder how the experts do it? I have all my voice files showing in the File List, and there I can play them, to confirm what I am about to add. My slides are showing in the Slide List. I can drag a voice file onto a slide, which is great. However, this does not link the audio file to the slide. I think it should do that. Is there some way that I have overlooked?(I will mention this in the Suggestions forum). I can click "Add audio or voice", then click "Add audio ... but finding the audio file can necessitate a lot of scrolling. Drag and drop would be so much easier. Any suggestions will be appreciated - Thank You!

Dave, thank you so much for the pointer to that helpful article. I had no idea I was so far behind the times. I guess I will skip the registry fiddling, and adapt m thinking to the new world. Because it is now possible to have Windows sequencing work in two different ways, it might be useful for PTE to cater for the choice in Preferences. I would obviously opt for Traditional Sort Order, not Intuitive. Ken T.

Hi again Dave... May I thank you for your nicely mild response to my last. I was afraid I might have offended you. Anyway, I respect your great knowledge of PTE and will always be happy to learn from you. What I do need to learn right now is how to respond privately. I would have preferred to make my previous post private, but could not find the option for that. Can you steer me in the right direction please? Best wishes ... Ken T.

Hi Dave ... Of course I forgive you! But I cannot agree with you. No matter how files are named, the name is always a string of characters. Digits have their place in the sort order, as do letters and other characters. In a file name, the character 0 (zero) is a character, not a number. I have no wish to be difficult, nor disagreeable, nor to take a "high horse" position! But I was a professional software developer for 50 years, and have programmed many different sorting tasks. File names should be sorted as a character sort. I shall refrain from using the term "Windows error". If Windows is behaving as the designers intended, then I shall call it a "Windows Design Flaw". Cheers! Ken T.

Thank you DaveGee for both responses. Very interesting! It's clearly an error in Windows. I suggest Wnsoft should have PTE do its own sorting properly, to overcome the Windows silliness. "Sort by File Name" should mean what it says, not "Sort By Silly Windows Sequence". Meanwhile, I have learnt something - thanks to you again. I shall of course follow your excellent suggestion of alphabetic suffixes. Ken T (aplman)