"Size/position in pixels"

[JEB]

Hi,

I wonder if somebody could explain (in as simple terms as possible - I'm quite thick when it comes to numbers) what the “Size/position in pixels of parent” box in the “Common Tab” of O&A is all about. I have ignored this up till now as I have never been able to work it out. I have a very basic idea of the parent/child concept but have never found a use for it in my work. Can it be used to assist in obtaining a regular font size across selected slides.

To explain a little more. I regularly have a need to use captions or tittles in some but not all slides of some of my shows. I use the same font in each slide and aim to position captions at the same location of these slides.

I had hoped that 5.7 was going to address this issue, perhaps it has, but it's not apparent to me.

Am I alone in finding this a problem?

I would very much appreciate an explanation of my initial question regarding the “size/positioning” box even if it does not address my titling issue.

In any event any advice on the titling issue would be greatly welcomed. The technique I do apply is copying and pasting a text box from one slide to the next and over-typing the text. This works quite well provided the original has not been rasterized as this leads to naming problems. However now that there is no need to rasterize perhaps that particular aspect has gone but it is still very messy and time consuming.

Regards

John

P.S. I am going to be “off air” for a few days so please forgive me as I will not be able to reply to all these solutions!!!

[JEB]

Hi,

I'm back!

I am surprised that there has been no response to the above and hope that I have not offended by sounding too presumptive by expecting my problem to be resolved in my absence. I certainly do not wish to give that impression.

However, my problem remains and would very much appreciate help in an explanation of the "Size/position in pixels of parent" dialog box particularly in relation to the text box in O+A.

I find it VERY difficult to believe that others do not have a problem with positioning text accurately over different slides and live in hope that there is a solution that so far has passed me by.

Regards and in hope,

John

[fh1805]

John,

I apologise for not replying. I noted your comment about being "off air" and so did not set about replying straightaway (my fault!).

Let me explain how I deal with text captions on main images. Firstly you need to recognise that the position of any object is given relative to its centre. So, I select my first image, go into O&A and Add Text as a child of the main image. I then set this text object to have the words that I want (Properties tab), in the font that I want (Properties tab), in the colour that I want (Properties tab) and at a size that I want (grab a corner and drag). [Aside: wouldn't it be nice if we could declare our preferred font and colour and have them remembered throughout our project (and even across our projects)?]

Next I switch to the Animations tab and adjust the Zoom value to be a nice round number.

I now drag the text object to where I want it and then set the x and y Pan coordinates to be nice round numbers.

Now I copy this object to the clipboard. I then select the next image on which I want text and paste the clipboard contents as a child of the main image. I then go to the Properties tab and change the words.

This approach seems to give me all my text at the same size (and, of course, all the same font and colour). I agree with you that it would be nice to have, as an option, the ability to set a fixed font size - but then if you choose to zoom the text, the font size becomes irrelevant. And I suspect it is for this reason that Igor chose not to offer us fixed font sizes.

If you want to align all your text objects by the same edge rather than the centre, then while working on your first text object, simply move the centre point to the desired edge. Now when you copy and paste it, it will carry its offset centre value through in a consistent manner.

Using my approach, I set all the characteristics on the first text object and then simply copy and paste onto the other images, changing the text as required. If any of the images produce a colour clash with their text then I simply change the text colour for that one instance.

I'm not convinced that "Size/position in pixels" would offer any advantage over my method. I suspect you would end up modifying these values for each individual text object.

Hope this helps. If you're unclear on anything don't hesitate to ask.

regards,

Peter

[JEB]

Good evening Peter,

Thank you for your reply.

I follow much the same method as yourself though with a couple of variations. I'm not quite as organized as you.

Having been caught out in the past by failing to rastorize, my work method changed to ensuring I did so on each occasion I created a text object and as you know this requires a unique name being allocated to each text object. As I also tend to allocate captions as I work through a show rather than all at the one time, this has in the past, lead to naming problems. However now that we have the new text method in 5.7 that issue has been eliminated I presume.

The other point you make of making the text a child of the main image is something I have deliberately avoided only because of occasionally using Pan or Zoom. I very often use a frame so I suppose it would make sense to make the text a child of the frame.

Its a great shame that only you and I appear to have this problem and consequently are not able to influence Igor into addressing it - or perhaps he will pick up on this and give us his views - are you listening Igor?

Regards and thanks

John

P.S. Hope to see you in Carlisle on the 18th of July.

[Limey]

Hello John,

Perhaps I have misunderstood your requirements, but is there any reason why you can't add your slide titles via the "comments" box in the main window. Then set font, size, location etc. in "project options".

P.S. I'm using PTE 5.5 if that makes any difference.

Regards,

Limey

[JEB]

Hi,

Limey,

From what I can gather this (Comments option) doesn't work for me as I require a different caption/title on each slide and your suggestion puts the same caption/title on each slide with no way of editing a comment on an individual slide. Good try! Thanks for your input.

Tom,

Thank you. Your suggestion works in part. It enables you to set a standard size/colour etc but it only works if you set the caption at a central position horizontally on the slide so that captions of different lengths extend equally to either side of the center point. If you require a caption on the LHS as I often do in a portrait format situation it extends disproportionately outside the frame (hope that's clear!!).

Peter,

Playing with Tom's suggestion got me thinking if part of your solution (moving the center point to the LHS would work but for the life of me I can't work out how to move the center point. I'm sure I've done it when playing with objects in the past but ..... Perhaps you can advise.

Thanks all,

John

[Limey]

John

My suggestion does not put the same comment on each slide.

Main Window, top of screen "Comment" (Caption/Title). Whatever you put in here is only for the displayed slide. Progress through your slides adding comments as required, not necessarily on every slide. You can return to the Main Window at any time to edit a comment.

In "Project Options" you can then set the attributes for all of the comments; position, font, size etc. "Set for existing slides".

Limey

[fh1805]

Playing with Tom's suggestion got me thinking if part of your solution (moving the center point to the LHS would work but for the life of me I can't work out how to move the center point. I'm sure I've done it when playing with objects in the past but ..... Perhaps you can advise.

John,

To move the centre point of a object proceed as follows:

- In O&A window, select the object in the list of objects

- Hold down Shift key

- Carefully click on the centre circle and drag the centre to where you want it

- Switch to Animations tab and set the Center values to nice round numbers

I think it should be possible to achieve the same result by simply setting the Center coordinates but when I've tried this it didn't seem to give me the result that I wanted. Perhaps that was a bug in an earlier beta version of PTE v5 and I devised this way of working to get around it. I'm sure we all do things "our" way because it works and we're comfortable with it.

Hope this helps

regards,

Peter

[JEB]

Limey,

You're quite right!

I had forgotten about that little comments box above the main window. And by deleting and/or substituting text I can achieve a consistent position on selected slides. As you say by using the "Position on Slide, Line Spacing, Offset and Size" controls in PO/Comment/Tab you can locate the title/caption to virtually any consistent location, i.e. away from the safe TV Zone.

There is one limitation however, in that you can only allocate one "start" point. Correct???

I very often use frames so the way I title at present is that when I have portrait images I title them in line with the bottom left hand side (sometimes this requires two or three lines of text, 20-25 characters/line and the bottom line is lined up with the bottom of the image). Your method handles that very well. However, I generally title landscapes centrally under the image i.e. a second "start" point.

I'm sure I can alter that and title portraits and landscapes bottom center.

Mike, Peter,

I will do some work on your ideas but one thing at a time for this old brain!!

Regards to you all,

John

[Limey]

Hello again John.

It is possible to set different Comment attributes for each slide.

Set your requirements in Project Options for your landscape slides and DO NOT select "Set for existing slides". Title your landscape slides with these settings. Change attributes and do your portrait slides.

Hope it works OK,

Regards

Limey

[JEB]

Limey,

WONDERFUL !!!!

Yes that does it for me. All I need to know are the attributes, set them once and if need be, again for any last minute additional slides.

Thank you very much for being so persistent.

Peter

If you haven't had a try with this I think you may find it worth while doing so.

Thank you all again.

John