PGA

Jose, Copy/paste via the clipboard works only within a single computer. I think you will need to use a backup-zip to transfer one project to the other computer - and then do your copy/paste. regards, Peter

DaveOR, You have two problems, at least, to overcome. Firstly, most ISP mail gateways set a maximum size limit on any attachment (I'm on ntlworld, and last time I checked it was set at 20MB as I recall). A typical AV, even in EXE or ZIP form, will exceed this limit. Secondly, all ISPs use anti-virus scanning software. Depending upon which they use it might generate "false positives". This is especially true of the "big league" products because they operate in the corporate marketplace. Their major customers want them to trap a virus even before it is known to be loose "in the wild". These products seem to take great offence at any small piece of code, whether harmless or harmful. Within each EXE file produced by PTE there is just such a small piece of code. Its purpose, of course, is to interpret the instructions which you have carefully assembled in your PTE project file, and apply those instructions to your images, videos and sound files during playback. I am not sure that there is a truly "foolproof" way of distributing your finished article these days. Even if you use a host service in the cloud, such as Dropbox, Mediafire or Beechbrook, each indiviual PC that downloads that file has to be able to accept it without any anti-virus software kicking in and objecting to it. regards, Peter

Colin/LumenLux, Thanks for your comments. regards, Peter

Jim/Bill, Thanks for your kind comments. Mick, I found your first sentence enlightening. It would seem that I have drawn you into the story even though the subject was, as you admitted "not really my thing". As far as I am concerned, that means the sequence is a success. Thanks! regards, Peter

Ken, Thanks for viewing. Barry, Praise from a master craftsman, is praise indeed, thank you! regards, Peter

This sequence was assembled using v8.0. The soundtrack was assembled and mixed entirely in the Timeline. I have provided links to an executable version for PC users and to a HD video on YouTube for Mac users. If you choose to watch the video version, please ensure that you change the settings in the YouTube playback to 1080HD and expand the playback to fullscreen. PC EXE file HD Video for Mac users I've been around the AV circuits long enough now to have developed a thick skin, so all comments are welcome. At little background: the location is the coast just north of Loftus, in north-east Yorkshire, England. The sequence has been created in readiness for the bicentenary of the subject's birth next year. regards, Peter

Dave, Why make things so complicated? Simply rename abcd to wxyz and then rename wxyz to ABCD. Job done! regards Peter

Believe it or not I agree with both of you! I also believe that all software should be as simple as possible to use. It should do, automatically, those things that the user expects it to do, and not do anything that the user doesn't expect. Unfortunately PTE fails on these criteria when it comes to Keep Full Screen Duration. To understand why you get the results that you do when the option is turned on, you have to be an expert user of PTE. And some expert users hate this feature because it does what, to them, is unexpected. If expert users can struggle to get their heads around this feature, what chance has a less experienced user? regards, Peter

I was unaware of this until you posted. I am now asking myself: why do we need KFSD in the Settings > Preferences? The feature adds value only for those slides whose main image is a video clip, where it ensures that the video runs smoothly from beginning of in-coming transition to end of out-going transition. Would it not benefit the user more (especially the newer user), if PTE set KFSD=ON automatically on such slides and OFF automatically on all other slides? regards, Peter

Denis, I confirm this on my system, too. regards, Peter

If that is the case, I am sure there would be less confusion if the label for that field stated that with absolute clarity. In otherwords, if KFSD is turned on the label were to read "Default Full Slide Duration" and if KFSD is turned off, "Default Slide Duration" - with capitalization exactly as shown to stress that these are phrases with specific meaning. regards,

Dave, Thanks for that reminder as to how it all got started. They could also do it manually with KFSD turned OFF. I do!

To recreate these anomalies, please follow these instructions precisely, using v8.0.1: - Launch PicturesToExe - Do Settings > Preferences > Project >Keep Full Slide Duration = ON (ticked) - Do Settings > Preferences > Project > Show Full Slide Duration = ON (ticked) - Close PicturesToExe - Launch PicturesToExe Attachment PTETimingBug#1 shows the values, on my system, immediately after launching PTE. - File> New > type a name for your project > click OK - Do Project Options > Main > Default slide duration = 6.0 - Do Project Options > Transitions > Transition effect duration = 3.0 [in accordance with all the discussions that have taken place here on the forum, the combined effect of those two values is that each slide, by default, will have a Full Slide Duration of 9 seconds = its own slide duration plus the transition duration of the next slide, if that next slide exists] Attachment PTETimingBug#2 shows the Default slide duration as 6.0 seconds. Note that this does not say that it is the “Default Full Slide Duration”. The implication, therefore, is that the Full Slide Duration will be 9.0 seconds. - Select Slides View - Ctrl+click three images and drag this group into the Slide List Note the total sequence time at the far right of the mini-player’s control bar: it is only 12 seconds! Attachments PTETimingBug#3 and PTETimingBug#4 show the Slides View and also the Timeline View for this project at this stage of development. In no case is the Full Slide Duration 9.0 seconds. Furthermore, unless the Project Options > Main value “Default slide duration” is now to be interpreted as “Default Full Slide Duration”, the Show Full Slide Duration feature is not working correctly since it shows only 6.0 seconds instead of 9.0 seconds. I am left with the impression that the forum users may have, inadvertently, come up with definitions for Slide Duration and Full Slide Duration that are not aligned to the behaviour of the program code. If this is the case, the user population is being seriously misled and confused. The alternative is that the definitions are correct and the code is not working in accordance with those definitions. If this is the case there are some serious defects in the code. regards, Peter

Re my posts #5, #7 and #12. This is damned frustrating! Yesterday I could replicate the problem whenever I wanted to with KFSD=OFF. Today I cannot replicate the problem at all with KFSD=OFF. My apologies to one and all for opening up a can of worms that has now vanished as quickly as it came. However, I do think there are still some errors with KFSD=ON. I will open a new topic to document them with a full, step-by-step script and some screengrabs. regards, Peter

I was considering starting a new topic on this subject myself but I think the question that I have in mind fits within the existing topic title. Show Full Slide Duration (SFSD) Found in Settings>Preferences>Project, this is well named as it does exactly what it says it will. When working with SFSD = ON, the slide duration as shown in the bottom right-hand corner of each thumbnail in the Slide List in the Slides View, is shown as Slide Duration+Transition Duration of next slide. When working with SFSD = OFF, the slide duration on the thumbnail is shown as Slide Duration only of this slide. There is little scope for confusion here. Keep Full Slide Duration (KFSD) Also found in Settings>Preferences>Project, this is confusingly named, in my opinion. "Keep" implies to me the preservation of something. Thus this setting implies to me that, once set, the Full Slide Duration cannot be changed. But this is not the case. The slide duration can be changed. So what exactly is being "kept"? And in what way is it being "kept"? And why is it being "kept"? If these questions could be answered here on the forum, and then incorporated into the product documentation, I am sure that everybody's understanding of KFSD would improve. They would then know what was being affected, how it was being affected and why it was necessary to have it so affected. Armed with that understanding they could use KFSD, or not, with confidence that they had made the correct decision for their situation, and that the results would be as they expected. regards, Peter

Are you resetting the mini-player to time zero (by clicking on the time field to the left of the mini-player slider) before clicking the Play button? This will automatically reset the selected slide to the first. regards,

I was not switching during a project!!!. Each time I changed the settings I closed down PTE, relaunched the program. With Slide Duration defined as 6.0 seconds I created a new project. What should a project of 3 x 6 seconds end up as? When I went to school, and on every calculator that I possess, the answer comes out at 18 seconds. Why then, does PTE give me either 21 seconds or 27 seconds? If that is not a BUG, I'd like to know why it isn't a bug. This not about any prejudice for/against KFSD on my part. Nor is it about a lack of understanding of KFSD on my part. It is a straightforward error in the mathematical calculations performed by PTE. 6 x 3 = 18 .....FACT!!!!!!! regards, Peter Appleton B.Sc(Maths)

If you right click that first audio file and take Customize Audio Clip, what values are in the Start time and Offset fields? Are they, by any chance, non-zero? For the piece to start from its beginning at time zero they both must be zero value. If both are already zero then, if you delete that audio clip and drop in a fresh copy, does that resolve your problem? To do the replace in this particular instance I would drag that existing piece down to a new track and mute that new track, then drag the fresh copy into the empty hole in the existing track. Also, remember that PTE maintains a history stack of the changes you have made. You can always, whilst that same instance of PTE is open, Undo (toolbar icon or Ctrl+Z) each and every change you have made during that session. regards,

Dave, The setting of Show Full Slide Duration is irrelevant to the point I was making. I accept that, by setting Show Full Slide Duration = ON, I then see the same durations in both Timeline View and in Slides View - but they are not the correct durations! My Project Options were set to a Slide Duration of 6.0 seconds. I created a new project with three slides. I get a sequence duration of either 27 seconds or 21 seconds, depending upon whether Keep Full Slide Duration is active or not. Both are wrong! The sequence duration should be 3 x 6 = 18 seconds. This has to be a bug! regards,

That is not an intuitive way of ensuring that my chosen durations are preserved. In any case, when we take somebody else's style and apply it to our work, we should expect it to apply the entirety of the author's intentions. To do anything else is disrespectful of that author, who may have spent hours carefully crafting the Style. Just my opinon. regards,

André's post caused me to do a little test and I think he may have found a minor bug. My Project Options are set to Slide Duration = 6 secs, Transition Duration = 3 secs. With Keep Full Slide Duration turned OFF, I created a two slide project. The Slide List correctly showed both slides as having a Transition Duration of 3.0 and a Slide Duration of 6.0. I changed the Settings > Preferences to Keep Full Slide Duration = ON and closed PTE. I then launched PTE and created another two-slide sequence. The Slide List now showed Slide 1 at 3.0/6.0 but Slide 2 was shown at 3.0/9.0. The last slide's duration was including the transition time of a slide that didn't exist! The definition, let's say for slide X, of "Full Slide Duration" is that it combines the Slide Duration of slide X (which includes the Transition Time for slide X) plus the Transition Duration of slide X+1 (because slide X is partialy visible during this transition). Based on my simple test, PTE has a bug when it comes to calculating the slide duration of the last slide in the sequence. Also, with Keep Full Slide Duration = ON, I started another new project and dragged three images into the Slide List in Slides View. They showed as 3.0/6.0, 3.0/6.0 and 3.0/9.0 and the mini-player showed a total sequence duration of 21 secs. Based on my earlier tests, this was what I was expecting. I used Undo to remove them, switched to the Timeline View and dragged the same three images (which were still selected) into the Timeline View. They showed as having 9.0 seconds duration each and the mini-player now showed a total sequence duration of 27 secs. I find this highly confusing! Why is the sequence duration different? If I have correctly defined "Full Slide Duration" above, each of these slides should have a full duration of 9.0 seconds, assuming that there is a following slide. But slides 1 and 2 in my project now have a full duration of 12 seconds. If I have my Project Options set at Slide Duration 6.0 secs then, whether Keep Full Slide Duration is ON or OFF, when I create a new project by dragging three images into the Slide List or into the Timeline, the sequence duration should always be 18 seconds. It isn't! There has to be a bug in here somewhere! regards,

Tom, I'm not sure that we can recreate the Dolly Zoom effect fully in PTE. Reading that Wikipedia article I was left with the understanding that it involves changing the camera's position relative to the various subject items (using the focus dolly) and also changing the focal length of the lens (by zooming the lens in the opposite direction). But, when the focal length changes during the lens zoom, the depth of field also changes (wide angle = deeper depth of field, narrow angle = shallow depth of field), and I suspect this is crucial to the final visual effect. In PTE we can simulate the focus dolly (using Pan Z in 3D) and we can simulate the changing focal length as far as it affects the angle of view (using 2D Zoom). What we cannot do in PTE, as far as I know, is change the depth of field (i.e. the zone of sharp focus - unless dynamic blur used in combination with a mask would give us this). An interesting challenge! regards,

Vilara, As I understand it, when you apply a style, its code becomes part of the .pte file. Therefore, when you create the backup in zip, the style has already been applied and its effect will be included in your project on your second computer. What you will not be able to do on your second computer is modify that style. If you want to be able to modify the style on the second computer you must export it on the first computer and import it on the second. regards,

That has solved the problem. Thanks! regards,

I recall some discussion earlier this year. From memory, the outcome was that Igor withdrew this feature because it was impossible to calculate the value with reliable accuracy. regards,