PGA

To give you pertinent advice we need to know a little bit more about what you are doing. What size are your images (in terms of pixels by pixels, and also in terms of KB or MB)? How many objects on each slide? Are any of your objects video clips? Although you have given us some details of your PC, you haven't given us the crucial piece of data: what graphics card is installed and how much on-board RAM has it got? To give you some idea of what PTE can handle, I have two sequences that feature heavy animation on every slide: one is built of 1024x768 images, the other of 1920x1080 images. Both have over 250 objects on each slide and all those objects are in motion at the same time. My graphics card is from the bottom end of the performance scale but with extra on board RAM. It copes with both these sequences - just. regards, Peter

When I first visited the forum today, with my working mode set to "New since last visit", and asked to "View New Content" I was offered two topics; one of which was this one. Over at the left side, this topic had the star icon, the other had the circle icon. When I hovered the mouse over each icon, the tooltip was the same "Go to first unread post". At the right hand side was the userid and datestamp of the last post in each topic. So I have three options: I can click on the topic title and be taken to the very first postI can click on the star/circle icons and be taken to the first unread postI can click on the date stamp and be taken to the very last postWith regards to viewing new content, the forum software offers all the useful function that could be wished for. regards, Peter

Gary, When I hover the mouse pointer over a circle icon I get a tooltip that says "Go to first unread post". If I click on that circle I get taken to the first unread post. Does the tooltip (and the behaviour) depend upon the mode in which you are operating, I wonder? I operate in "Content I have not read" mode. "New since my last visit" shows you only those topics that have posts made (or topics that are themselves new) since you last visited the forum. It does not show you those topics which have unread posts that you ignored on your previous visit(s). As far as I can see, the forum options are doing exactly what they claim to be doing. I do not see any logical problems at all. regards, Peter

One further observation: The circle appears as a star if you have previously posted into the topic. Peter

Igor, That small circle will be very useful on a highly active topic! In the past I have used the date link to go to the last post of all and then scrolled backwards to find the last post that I thought I had read. Using that circle link will save a lot of time. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. regards, Peter

Gary, Just because it is working differently doesn't mean that it is working incorrectly. PTE v8 works differently to v7.0 but it isn't working incorrectly. Sometimes, with new software versions we, the users, have to adjust our working techniques. It is possible to see the result that you want with the new forum software. The first attachment below shows what I see when I go into the forum website. Note that any sections with unread items are shown in bold font. So I immediately know where the unread content is. The second attachment shows what I see when I use "View New Content". Those topics with unread material are the only ones shown to me and they are also shown in bold font. To see the most recent post in either of those topics I go over to the right hand side (see third attachment) and here I click on the "Today, <timestamp>" link. That takes me straight to the most recent post in that topic, which is what you are wanting to see, if I have understood your previous posts correctly. regards, Peter

Correct, it came with v8.0! Peter

Jim, The big expansion in file size (over an EXE) comes about because the video file has to contain every single frame. So, if you have a video made from 40 slides, running for 5 seconds each at 30frames per second, that is equivalent to having 40x5x30 = 6,000 slides in an EXE sequence. Add to that your soundtrack, which could be anywhere between 1MB per minute (MP3) to 10MB per minute (WAV), and you see how the file size can quickly build up to something big! You're right to recognise that video is a whole new ball game and requires time to grasp its technicalities. Unfortunately, it is also a whole supermarket full of cans of worms. There is no such thing as a uniform standard (equivalent, say, to JPEG for images or MP3 for audio). Every manufacturer does their own thing - and they change what they do each time their technology takes a stride forward. In that respect it is not unlike RAW files for still cameras. The manufacturers bring out new cameras with new features and encapsulate that in a new incarnation of their proprietary RAW file format. Adobe then have to play catch-up to support the new cameras in their software. Welcome to the future! (Or perhaps you favour - bring back the past!) regards, Peter

Jim, That's not suprising if you think about it. Let's assume you're transitioning from fully black to fully white (or reverse). At 30fps you can step through 30 shades of grey; at 60fps you can step through 60 shades of grey. So the transitions will look smoother regards, Peter

Just a few observations that might help anyone who is struggling to adjust to the new forum software. "Content I have not read" shows those topics that are either new topics that you have not yet read, or old ones that have entries that you have not yet read. These will continue to display until you do read them or "Mark Community Read". "New since my last visit" shows those topics that are either newly created or have had new posts added since the last time you visited the forum. For example: For me, right now, Barry's recent post about his March newsletter appears if I choose "Content I have not read" because I have not yet read that topic. But it doesn't appear if I choose "New since my last visit" because it was there the last time I visited. If, while looking at the hit list of topics, I click on one of the date links over at the right hand side (underneath the poster's userid), I am taken to that specific post (which is, of course, the latest post for that topic). This is exactly the same behaviour as the previous forum software. If I choose from the left side, "Past 24 hours", topics that I have not yet read are in bold font, those that I have read are in normal font. regards, Peter

Take a look right down at the bottom of the webpage. There is a link called "Mark Community Read". Is this where it has been hidden? Peter

Jim, I do not produce video files on a regular basis. So when I do, I always take whatever defaults PTE has offered me. I've not yet been disappointed with the end results. regards, Peter

Jim, At our age isn't the question: do we need to understand it all? regards, Peter

I show what it will look like to a guest user. ("A picture paints a thousand words")

I have been following this thread without actually participating until now. The kind of flexible control that Jim is looking for can be provided, at least in part, by having a video-style Navigation Bar activated (Project Options > Control > Mouse cursor = Show or Auto hide and Project Options > Control > Show Navigation Bar ON and set to Style = video player) In this mode, the EXE file can be "fast-forwarded" or "fast rewound" by dragging the video player slider right and left as desired. The slides change as you do the dragging so you can, reasonably easily, find any specific image that you want. The Pause/Play toggle control can be used to "freeze motion" to talk about a specific image. Perhaps there is a suitable solution to Jim's needs there. regards, Peter

Mike, Your friend should go to www.picturestoexe.com and there will see, in the top right corner the following: Follow the onscreen instructions to register a userid. regards, Peter

If you try to use "Run Slideshow..." variants you will need to Publish all the sequences using the same version of PTE (i.e. all in v7.5). That can be a bit of a chore. The upside is that you will get truly seamless integration of all the sequences. Peter

Here are some things to check: - do all the sequences have "Close show after last slide" set? - are you using "Run Slideshow...", "Run Slideshow With Return..." or "Run Application or Open File..." to launch each sequence - are you single-clicking or double-clicking the button to launch each show? If you are not being consistent in your technique, that might be the cause of some of your problems. regards, Peter

Tom, You're a genius! Copy and rename has done the trick. Many thanks! regards, Peter

I have been asked by one of our local museums to re-package their training video. This currently exists as a DVD that plays in a fairly old DVD player. It has two folders: AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. There seem to be no files in the AUDIO_TS folder but several files in the VIDEO_TS folder. The majority of these (especially the larger files) are VOB files. I have tried launching PTE (v8.0.2) and navigating it to the VIDEO_TS folder in the Tree panel but it shows no files when I do so. Can anyone suggest a way in which I can load these VOB video files into PTE? regards, Peter

Having tried it from time to time today, it is significantly and consistently faster. Peter

Mike, It sounds to me as though they have dragged the top edge of the Slide List too far down. When I do that in v7.0, all that I then see is the AB button and transition time overlaying the slide duration, plus the slide number and filename (which matches what you have described). All they need to do is find the top edge of the Slide Panel (the mouse pointer changes to a double-ended vertical black arrow with double horizontal black bars) and then drag it up a bit. The latest version (v8.0) does not allow the Slide List to be reduced to this unhelpful point. regards, Peter

Firstly, it is essential that those highlighted words are read carefully and properly understood. The soundtrack was assembled - not recorded - in the Timeline. Let's just step back a moment and look at how I approach the whole operation of producing an AV sequence. The images I use are, typically, captured as RAW files by my digital cameras, prepared in Lightroom to TIFF files, passed to Photoshop Elements where they are prepared to JPEG files. It is these JPEGS that are then passed to PTE for the sequence assembly. Similarly, my sound files are captured as WAV files either by my Zoom H4 digital recorder or by CD track rips. These files are then prepared in Audacity and exported as WAV files. It is these WAV files that are then assembled in PTE. I can see where Tom is coming from but I'm not 100% convinced that his workflow is the one that will yield the best results. If you are sat in front of your computer while doing a voice recording, you run the risk of capturing all the extraneous sounds that your computer makes: discs powering down when energy-saving mode kicks in, cooling fans starting/stopping, etc. If you forget to turn down your loudspeakers you will also record every "ding" that signals newly arriving e-mails, software updates, etc. But there is, I believe, an even bigger weakness in Tom's proposed workflow. Once you add voice-over to a sequence, the pace of the voice-over dictates the entire timing of the sequence. It would be wrong, in my opinion, to try and fit your voice-over to the existing timing of the slides. I feel that a better workflow would be to build the sequence using fixed times (say 4-6 seconds) simply to get the images in the preferred order. Then write a script (in Word for example) of what you want to say. Record this outside of PTE. Then remove all the "out-takes" and clean up what's left. Export each part of the script as a separate WAV file. Then re-build the sequence, attaching each sound file to the correct slide, adjusting timings as you go. At the end of doing that, you will know how long your sequence runs (don't forget to add time for your title slides and any credits at the end). Knowing the total length you can now start looking for suitable pieces of music that match the mood and fit the length. regards, Peter

jt has it right. I fell foul of this just before Christmas when I rebuilt a menu and used some Frame objects. One Frame object overlaid two of the buttons. Of course, the Frame being an object with opacity=zero, I could still see the buttons. But, after I Published the EXE, these two buttons could not be used because the Frame wasn't set for Transparent to Selection. "Ignore objects not selected" means that, when you click on an object in the Object List, even if it is hidden by other objects, you can still grab its bounding box and drag it around. regards, Peter

Under Slide Options > Transitions Tab it states that these options are the same as those in Preferences - and the link takes you to Preferences. It should state Project Options > Transitions Tab and the link should take the user to that part of the Wiki. regards, Peter