Maureen

Do you mean screen res or screen size Steve? Screen resolution changes depending on your source of viewer e.g. monitor or projector, etc . BW Maureen

Hi Trev Try putting a stroke of 6 pixel width in your colour eg yellow. Then add a second stroke of 3 pixels in black Both borders set to inside, with mode set to normal and opacity at 100%. The yellow will then stand out all around your image. Sometimes the opacity is set lower than 100% and if the border is set to inside, as the border colour goes over part of the image the border will appear fainter or darker depending on the colour below Let me know if this improves things. I'm using Photoshop CS - which version do you use? Hope this helps. Best wishes Maureen

Just to say Bart sends his best wishes. Thanks to everyone for all the e-mails he has received, which unfortunately he doesn't have time to answer them at the moment, and is not always near a computer. Family health matters have to take top priority as you will understand. He'll post a message when he is able to put the site back up again. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing him and his family very best wishes for a full recovery. We look forward to seeing him back on the Forum one day soon. Maureen

Lidl also has some PCs and laptops coming on offer next week - anyone interested see http://www.lidl.co.uk Alan I also know Roger - he regularly comes over to our RPS Wessex meetings. Best wishes Maureen

Hi Alan I use the Western Digital 120Gb external purchased from PC World a few years ago. However I am a great fan of the Aldi special offers regarding their computer equipment. Bought their PC, laptop and also their external hard drive Medion 160 Gb. The Aldi external hard drive needed to be formatted before use (which Ian did for me -Thanks!) and so it is also now split into two drives. I use the WD external and husband, Robert uses the Medion. If you are near an Aldi store and can wait for their offer Alan, might be worth your while doing so. See their web site www.aldi.com & subscribe to the weekly e-mail newsletter which sends you the offers ahead of time. Best wishes Maureen

Hi Alan I find using an USB external hard drive very useful. I Keep all my digital AV folders on it. When starting a new PTE sequence, I always create a new folder within my digital AV folder with sequence name eg Summer.Then create three folders withing that labelled - summer-images summer-sound summer-docs Keeps everything handy and when the sequence is completed I can save all folders onto a CD as backup. If I lost my originals I'd know to create the same folder pattern again. The external hard drive keeps my main computer free and so it works better. I have also got into the habit of creating templates which save time resetting initial projects to my preferences, etc. Hope this helps in some way. Best wishes Maureen

Hi Bart has asked me to post a message on this Forum just to let everyone know his http://www.multimediamatrix.org/ site will be running again soon. He has had some problems with his mother who is very unwell. So please be very patient, Bart will let everyone know when it is back up and running again. It is a great site. Best Wishes Maureen

Hi David I always use Photoshop (method 2) I seem to recall reading somewhere on this Forum (way back !!!) that as different viewers / monitors/projectors etc project at different resolutions, sometimes the placement you choose in the object editor may alter on different screens. This may not be correct in the new PTE version - perhaps someone can correct me on this one. I do use the object editor but not if the placement is critical for a dissolve, etc. Ken's tip about the rule of thirds is a good one but if something doesn't fit into this rule ........... I will use Photoshop to cut out the main focus and paste it where I want it, correct the background (copy background) and then put on a Gaussian blur. As I'm working on the copy of the background I can see the amount of blur I want and delete if I'm not happy. The main focus will stay sharp on a layer above the blurred background. Remember to make sure the main Focus has a feathered edge (I always use layer masking techniques) The eye will be drawn to the sharp main focus and forgive the blurred background. But then again rules are often meant to be broken (not laws!) and the results can often still work ! Best wishes Maureen

Thank You, Diolch, Danke, Merci............. I am delighted ........especially with You are a STAR Igor ! Well done. Best regards to you and your Team Maureen

Please forgive my dumb sense of humour - twisting words around for fun. but no getting away from the fact that Bart has an outstanding site & I look forward to contributing ......... once our village has been dug up (again) and British Telecom fix our phone fault and I can have "normal" internet connections again. I'll be quiet for a while til they fix it. BW Maureen

Many Thanks for all the advice & I look forward to being able to choose the template location in later versions of PTE. Yes I'll be in Cirencester in September (only 20 minutes from home for us - so very handy!) . Look forward to catching up with other PTE users there too. At present our normal phone line has a major fault and the telephone company will have to dig up our village to correct it. So I can't use the Internet or read e-mails unless I use another computer for about a week - am very upset as I'll have to do housework now! (or maybe finish off lots of AVs.!!!) love Maureen

I usually create my sequences on my main computer (i.e. with Pictures to Exe in C drive ) but I always store all my files ie images, sound and created pte and exe files on a large 120Gb external hard drive. I have saved my preferences and created templates which I open up to save time etc. When I am sometimes demonstrating, I work with my laptop (again Pictures to Exe is on the C drive) and all files on the usb external drive , but I now realise that all the templates are left behind on my main computer at home. Is it possible to save the templates to a folder location we can choose? At the moment it saves to C\Program Files\ptev44.30beta2\Templates location. I am sure someone could tell me how to easily change this location? I know if I want the laptop PTE to recognise my file paths to the images when my external hard drive changes from drive M (home computer) to drive F (laptop) I just need to type in............ Start Run type cmd return C:\> etc appears, then type in .......... subst m: f:\ where my usb external (usually drive m) is plugged in as f drive Can I type in any code to change the templates folders too please? Many, many thanks for all the hard work creating the super new upgrades. I think they are great Best wishes Maureen PS As I download and install each version of PTE into its own new folder. I now realise that all previous templates I created are stored in the template folders of previous versions of PTE. This obviously doesn't happen if we always save the new download to overwrite the previous one. So now I've collected all my older templates together in the latest PTEv4.30beta#2 template folder but would prefer to have them stored automatically with my other files on the external drive. Is this difficult to set up? I know it will be easy to copy files across to the new location but if I try to open the files I get a message I/O error 103

Thank you Igor It looks very impressive and works well on my system without any glitches I can find. Well done. I feel spoilt for choice now and keep switching views! Best wishes Maureen

or a daft rave section? love M

THANK YOU Igor It all looks very impressive and works very well on my machine. Already been creating new sequences with it. Hope you can relax and have a rest now. Best wishes Maureen

Hi I recently received a DVD of PTE sequences from a friend and when I played it, all the pictures, dissolves etc worked but no sound. I was disappointed as I thought I'd miss all the music. I played around with settings on my DVD recorder and just before giving up, I opened the player reinstalled the DVD and BINGO ! Perfect sound and pictures! Have you thought about testing the CD or DVD on another player or just check out the settings etc. Just a thought - hope it works. Best wishes Maureen

Many many thanks for all your hard work Igor! Awaiting excitedly to see the latest version when you are ready but don't overdo things. Take time to smell the roses.......... and enjoy life too! With very best wishes Maureen

Hi Excellent tutorial programme is PTE 101 Tutorial created by Al Robinson. It is available from Cottage Site PTE 101 - click on link Have a look at Pictures to Exe Presentations where Ken Cox has pinned links to P2E members sites - lots of people have produced excellent utilities and tutorials. Hope this helps. Maureen

Congratulations and Many Thanks Al for all your help and support. Hope you are celebrating.......... ....we'll also help you......... by celebrating here in UK ! Love from England Maureen

When I used Roxio 6 it "appeared" to burn successfully but my DVD player would not recognise the DVD disc (minus DVD) Am I using the wrong type of DVD discs? Main computer only burns DVD minus but laptop will do plus and minus types. Used DVD Builder but I did delete their menu...? Harry does this mean you did not import directly from PTE to Roxio6 Builder as I was doing? BW Maureen

Answering Igor's original question personally.... 1. I would like to see it in future versions but currently (for me) external sound editing software is enough 2. Would be low on my personal priority list (but not at the bottom) I agree with Ed & others' points and also especially Mike's ....... Lots of digital AV users have a great wish to view the images in some way as they build up their sequences. At present that could be a bigger "sales factor" than the wave display. Also agree........ Thanks for asking our opinions and even more Thanks for working so hard to continually improve an excellent programme BW Maureen

Congratulations and Well done on creating your sequence Ron But .......am I missing something ... is this subject now spread over THREE different web sites? It would be nice if we complimented quietstorm on his excellent site and also used it Yet this thread all needs to be read over THREE different sites. But Ron doesn't like reading things in two different parts of the same site? I totally agree Ron that threads should be kept together or confusion occurs I guess I've lost the plot on this thread though. Totally lost & confused

We'll be tasting the Jamiesons ...... but it usually makes me feel green the next day ! Maybe I should stick to Baileys. Enjoy St Paddy's day!

Stumffl I assume is the official Yorkshire translation of Stumpfl

Think there is a real need for AV workers to have the ability to "see" the third image - which would otherwise not exist in "real life". This is something which separates AV into it's own special category. Moving one image after another can become the realm of video / cine but individual images creating the new Third Image is AV. This can be done slowly or very fast - depends on the sequence. Personally I feel using digital AV means we are released from simply dropping one image after another (although this can produce spectacular dissolves!) but can if we wish work on creating our third image. I have found using photo editing software to do so, has, for me, produced my best "third images" in digital AVs. There are a vast number of techniques for this and the editing software need not be Photoshop (although I love using Ph CS) I know Peter & Ian made superb sequences a couple of years back with the challenge to use 5 (or was it less?) slides. (OK guys I never got around to it - one day maybe?) So you should have lots of freedom with twelve images. Main thing is have fun and enjoy your creativity ! Maureen