Non sync show

[Marianne]

Hi,

I'm still busy with the making of a slideshow of old pictures of my family. I want to make a sync show of about 10 minutes and in addition to that, one which will be non sync because I'm sure my family will want to look at some pictures as long as they want. Now the making of a sync show is not the problem.

But: about 300 pictures - This means at least 300 mouseclicks. Isn't that a little bit too much? Has anyone ideas on how to shape such a show?

I did think of dividing it up in pieces, for example for each uncle or aunt a different show with pictures they are on. But I can't get the navigating right in my mind.

Furthermore I think many of them would like to have the pictures printed. So maybe I should provide printable images also.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Marianne

[Ken Cox]

for starters -- am sure somebody will add more

use the same show

unclick sync

enable navigation bar

save as family unsync.pte

create as family unsync.exe

all features of the synced show will be in your new show

the default setting is 4sec per slide

ken

[boxig]

Read this topic which can give you idea. In my opinion, when you have hundred of family pictures you cant do one show because in family album each member want to spend different time on different pictures. I think making a separat album to aunt/uncle, grandma/grandpa etc. is the best way, combining them all with a single slide show which will open the other exe's. See a sample of such index in http://beechbrook.com/pte/.

[think(box)]

Marianne, this is a slideshow type that I have created quite often. I suggest using a navigation mechanism since you said there are about 300 slides. You will receive feedback that getting to a slide far from the first is tedious if you do not provide a navigator. Igor is planning a native navigation control in the next release, such that you can jump to any slide. If you want to build one yourself to use now, here are some of the methods that I have used:

• 1 -- Clickable thumbnail photo index, about 70 thumbs per slide (5 thumbnail slides for your show)
  
• 2 -- Clickable thumbs section index, one thumb per subject section
  
• 3 -- Left-side vertiical, clickable navigation "bar" (any pic) with adjacent hyperlinks for section starts
  

Methods 1 and 3 are tedious unless you know and use a script or macro to automatically generate the .PTE file. The PTE GUI takes too much clicking to generate navigators using these methods. Perhaps method 2 is best since you do not make lots of this type slideshow. Make a number of thumbs on your first or home slide in the visual object editor and have each use "go to slide #" to get to section starting slides. Teach your viewers to use the following key assignments by simply adding a few words to the first slide:

• Left arrow key to view previous slide
  
• Right arrow key to view next slide
  
• Left mouse click to pause/resume slideshow (use 4 sec per slide as Ken suggested)
  
• Right mouse click or "Home" key to return to (first) navigation slide
  

Those key and click assignments make it a breeze to control the slideshow, and with the list of key and click definitions on the first or home slide your viewers will know what to do. The left/right arrow keys already work that way in non-sync slideshows, permanently coded that way by Igor. The left/right mouse click functions need your settings. Do this in Project options --> Advanced. Select "Pause" for left mouse click and "Go to first" for right mouse click.

Next, use PTE's navigation bar (check the Show Navigation Bar box in Project options --> Advanced). Click "Customize Navigation Bar" button and do the following:

• On the "Position" selector, use Right-Top for best button location
  
• Click "Remove" for all nav buttons except "Print"
  
• OK that screen. Then in Project Options --> Advanced check the box "Allow to restore pictures via Print button"
  

This will place only the "Print" button in top-right of screen, least obstructing the view. Teach your viewers that they can save a copy or print the picture using that button. A few words on first slide will cover this, or use PTE's help screen feature as I do, so that you can have a more verbose description of the four Print button sub-selections.

Have music in your non-sync slideshow. I use a method in which the music is a separate P2E slideshow, complete with full PTE nav bar, except no print button. This allows full, independent control of the music player. The picture shown is just a single deep color, pleasant background. The nav bar is positioned "Center". The show mode in windowed, 400x100 pixels. Set this in Project options --> Screen --> Windowed mode. While there, set "Caption of show" to "Music Player". Next, enable slideshow comment text. Name your music files as you want track names to appear. In Project options --> Comments, check the box "Set comments for all slides as" and select "Picture name". For text alignment click "Center". For text position click "Top". Select a light color text and common font to go on deep color background that you use for "slide image", selected previously. Make each music track a separate MP3 or Ogg file.

If you are making only one of a kind you may choose to not make a separate music player, but the independent control really is a hit with the viewers if you do. Just include a "Start music" button in the slideshow first or home slide that is set to Run application, and name the music player slideshow .EXE file for the action. This way your viewers can optionally decide to have music, and can change the track at any time by recalling the music player from taskbar (I use a more advanced method - just move mouse to top of screen to view or hide Music Player, figured out once and used in all shows).

Finally, use PTE's template feature to save the rather lengthy slideshow setups so that new photo and music player slideshows are a breeze to make. I save "blank" templated thumb slideshow as a .PTE file that works with external script/macro to make fully thumbnailed slideshows, but you won't need to do this if you select navigation method #2 from above.

Between these ideas and the ones just mentioned by Granot in the other topic thread you have plenty of options. Have fun!

[JRR]

Marianne:

I am doing a similar (well somewhat similar) show.

I have broken the images down into smaller groups (use whatever catorgization you want) of 25-30 (approx) and created a pte show for each grouping.(Make sure each show EXITS at last image) The PTE can auto advance, advance with mouse clicks, or advance using navigation bar.

Then I make up a one image PTE show with the one image being a plain background colour and links to each of the individual shows. Links via OBJECTS that run application i.e. one of the PTE shows from above.

You might want to use a representative image from each grouping as the OBJECT.

This lets the family members look at the images in small doses without going through them all each to get to where they left off.

One of the main selling features (for me) to PTE over the other software is the flexible use of the OBJECTS. (and IGOR is going to make the OBJECTS even more useful with the proposed scaling !!!!)

Hope that helps

[Marianne]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your very complete answer. I tried to make a music player but there are some things that I don't understand:

Next, enable slideshow comment text. Name your music files as you want track names to appear. In Project options --> Comments, check the box "Set comments for all slides as" and select "Picture name".

When I do this, the music filenames don't appear, but the picturenames. How do you give the viewer a choice to which track he wants to hear?

And the show on top should be a windowed show? Otherwise there is no way to get the music player back on screen but to escape from the other show.

Marianne

[think(box)]

Marianne, I'm sorry I didn't answer earlier but I just returned to the forum and read your reply. When I read your note I figured out what happened. I was recalling part of an earlier technique on the track name generation. So to be sure I just opened my most recent Music Player in PTE and here is the actual, working setup visible in PTE. There is a lot of detail. I could just email a .PTE file to you, but others may want to see the design ideas too, so here it is. It may help to print this note and use it for reference. Do this by left-mouse drag-selecting the instructional text that you want to print, then right-mouse click the selected text, select Print, and in the Print sheet that pops up click Selection in order to print only selected text and then click OK:

I created the background color as a photo file, Music.jpg, and used this for every slide. As a single color jpg that is reused for every track this adds a handful of kilobytes to a player and is insignificant in size. To make Music.jpg, if you know how to define colors in R-G-B, try 0-64-64. This is a deep blue-green. You can make specific colors such as this in MS Paint. In Paint's Colors menu --> Edit Colors, this preset color is four over, five down in the selector. FYI, the background color can also be made in PTE and used with a not-displayed one-pixel image. Use whatever method you want to get the background color.

Next, using Music.jpg for an associated music track, make a master slide ONCE as follows(!):

1. Add Music.jpg to Slide List once

2. Click Customize Slide and check the box to Use customized settings for this slide

3. In Main --> Timing, check the box Use own time preference

4. Enter time in seconds for the current music track, picking arbitrary value for the master slide (later get from Media Player or other music app for actual tracks)

5. In Comments --> Customize Comments, check box Use own text preference

6. Click Font and select Arial Bold size 10

7. Click Font color graphic and select color. I used a shade of yellow (over two, down two in selector)

8. Make Shadow color jet black if not already. I used shadow size 1.

9. Set position to Top and click Center for alignment

10. In Effects, check Use own transition effect, scroll down and click Quick (no transition effect) to be sure effects are disabled

11. In Music, check box Play new background music file(s)

12. Click Add and specify a music track (this is the master slide, so you will change music later)

13. Finally, click OK on Customize Slide #1 screen, completing the master slide

Next in Project Options set the following:

1. In Main check the box Use your own icon and set a 32x32 icon. I have two I can send you in email if you want - just email me to ask. One is a headphones graphic and the other is a musical notes graphic. Use only a 32x32 icon. The other size is unnecessary. Your icon file should be 32x32 pixels and 256 colors, with a file size of 2238 bytes. FYI some icon creation tools make unusable icons so that is why you should check them.

2. Click Repeat show until escape is pressed so that music player doesn't stop at last track

3. I have Display each slide for (4) seconds checked (should not be needed since custom slide overrides)

4. In Advanced tab, Action for left mouse click should be Prev. slide

5. Action for right mouse click should be Next slide

6. Check the box Always show mouse cursor

7. Check the box Show Navigation Bar. Under Customize Navigation Bar I have everything but Print in use, position Center

8. In Music, I checked boxes Play background music and Repeat music after playing. At least one of these checkboxes used to be required (a bug, since fixed).

9. In Comments, little is used. BE SURE TO UNCHECK Set comments for all slides as box, or else the comments (track names) that you enter in a moment will be erased when you save and reopen Music Player in PTE.

10. In Screen, check the boxes Fit to screen and Use smoothing so that any size single color jpeg fits. Set to 100% if not already.

11. Set Caption of show to Music Player

12. Click Windowed mode

13. Set Width to 400, Height to 80 (I had incorrectly mentioned 100 in previous reply)

14. In Background, click Solid color and select 0-64-64 as four over, five down. This is needed to prevent brief jet-black color at player startup.

15. In Effects you can redundantly disable effects (should not be necessary)

16. In Messages, you shouldn't have to change anything

17. Click OK to close Project Options screen

Now it is time to save all of this work! Do File --> Save as and pick a name like Master Player. This is the .pte save, not a slideshow create. You could also do File --> Templates --> Create Template from this Show.

Next, copy the master slide for each track that you will include in music player. Select it in the Slide List and press Ctrl-C to copy to clipboard. Then press Ctrl-V to paste as many instances total as you have music tracks to use for the player.

Then below the Slide List manually add the Comment to each "slide" (one per music track), as in the following example:

Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) - Watermark by Enya

Now for each "slide" or music track, select the slide, click Customize Slide and do the following:

1. In Main, enter the correct music file playback time (get from Media Player or other music app for each actual .MP3 or .Ogg track). This becomes the length of time that the (blank) slide is displayed and music is played. When one track (a slide) finishes, the next begins --- due to this setting.

2. In Music tab remove the dummy track and add the actual track for that "slide" or track number, corresponding to the slide comment that you defined below the slide list. Music file name and slide Comment can of course be different (this was listed incorrectly in previous reply).

3. Click OK to close Customize Slide #x screen.

If you would like, modify the PTE help screen text in Project menu --> Customize Help Message. It is available during Music Player operation through the F1 keyboard key or the "?" graphic button in the PTE navigation bar included in the Music Player per above instructions. Here is the text that I use, for example (slightly modified to remove references to my scripted mouse activation for music player):

--------------------    Music Player Help    --------------------

After selecting the "Music Player" for viewing and

control, the following keys and click actions apply:

<F1> keyboard key  -  Display this help message

<Home> keyboard key  -  Jump to  first track

<BkSpace, Up, Left> or Left click - Previous track

<Space, Down, Right> or Right click - Next track

<Pause> key or click "||" to change player mode:

Repeat play of current track  -or-  Play all tracks

<Esc, Enter> keyboard keys or click "X"

Exits Music Player, but does not exit show

General Music Player Help

Note that when you click "Start Music" it takes

from 1 to 3 seconds to load and start player from

your hard drive or a few seconds more from CD.

Click only once.

The Music Player can be hidden from view or

brought back into view during show.

You can use keyboard keys to change from

show to Music Player and back, as follows:

In the Windows taskbar, usually at the bottom of

your screen, click "Music Player" or show name

as follows:

Click "Music Player" to view/control Music Player

Click show name to hide music player & see show

If the taskbar does not appear when you move the

mouse cursor to taskbar edge of your screen, use

this alternate method of selecting any desired task:

Press the "Windows" key that is between the Ctrl

and Alt keys and click Music Player or show.  Old

keyboards may not have a Windows key.  If not,

use the following "Alt-tab" procedure:

Hold down the <Alt> key and press the <Tab> key

repeatedly until the Music Player, with the familiar

"headphones" graphic image, is highlighted.  This

is indicated by a square outline box surrounding

the familiar "headphones" graphic image.  Next,

release the <Alt> key to select the Music Player for

viewing and control.  You may return to the show

and hide Music Player in the same manner.

Once the Music Player is selected and showing,

click the "?" button for help controlling music play.

Afterwards select show name in taskbar to hide

the music player while watching the show.

Finally click Create and specify a preferred file name for the player. I just use MusicPlayer (no space character in name since some app's have trouble with it). Then do File --> Save as and specify Music Player (spaces are OK here) to save this player's .pte file complete with all track information.

By all means, modify any of the above procedure to suit your preferences. If you create any modifications that improve the player it would be great to share them here. Thanks