Running Exe files automatically from core show

[fergy]

Hi

I have a query regarding automatically running a previously produced EXE when a slide ends, rather than having to create a button

I am trying to do a round the world presentation - with a simple PTE showing a map and a plane moving between various world locations. I have several presentations (only EXE files, not project files), prepared by club members on differnt versions of PTE, which I would like to run automatically when the slide, showing my plane arriving at the destination, ends. Very "Indiana Jones, I know, but it looks good. eg I have a slide which tracks the plane from UK to say Venice - when that slide ends I would like to automatically run the Venice show, and then ideally return to my original show on the next slide showing the journey continuing to another destination.

At present I am having to use a hidden button, which a need to click, to "run application", and I am having difficulty returning to my initial core show.

Can anyone help, please ?

Ian

[Conflow]

Fergy,

I used the following utility regularily when presenting 'Travelogue-Shows' with Pte 4.49 and I cant

see any reason why the 'process' wont with Windows XP as its a basic platform with NT.Articture.

The script 'process' comes from Microsoft with reference to Windows 95, 98, 98se.etc.

1)

You need to get all the Shows into one Folder and give that a title XXX.

2)

Open 'Notepad' and type in the Instructions shown in the 'attachment' and then 'Save As' title XXX.bat.

(The dot bat (.bat) replaces the usual Notepad.txt (.txt) and it becomes a machine instruction.

3)

Place that within the XXX-Folder containing the Shows. You can even put a Shortcut-Copy on your desktop

for easy access.

See the attachment below with a Link to the Microsoft Paper here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/198044

Best of luck with it...

Brian (Conflow).

[fergy]

Thanks for this - I used to deal with .bat files many years ago and had forgotten about this approach

Now is when I'll find that my friends EXE files don't close but remain on screen after the last slide - ho hum

Again many thanks for this simple low-tech approach

Ian

[fergy]

Brian

Just tried it - a couple of things make it less than ideal

When moving between shows, the screen briefly switches back to the Dos window, while at the same time there is a gap in the background music - I can "smooth" this gap by doing a bit of work on the sound files so change feels less abrupt, but not sure how to prevent or hide, switch to dos and back to show

Any ideas

Ian

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ian,

On the slide from which you wish to run the external PTE show, if you click on the "Customize this Slide" button you can choose under Advanced Options to Run an External Application which would be, in this case, the external exe file to be run. After this external file is closed then PTE will return to your slide and continue. This assumes that you have the slideshow located on the hard disk of the system being used to run PTE so you can properly inform PTE of its location. Unless I misunderstand your need, this should be a satisfactory solution for you.

Best regards,

Lin

[fergy]

Thanks Lin

This is great

I misunderstood that option - I'm almost there

Now I've got a sequence working, needed to put in an extra black slide after my "flight" slide reached destination and used that to run the external application. When that external show ends it reverts back the slide which started it running, albeit very abruptly, and then lets me continue with the core show and the next "flight". I'll need to sort out the background music etc but that's small beer

Really only two questions left

- is there any way I could fade in the return - rather than it snapping back to my black screen

- any ideas how to automatically force an end (thus return to the core show) to already created EXE files which have been set up for last slide to remain on screen - I am not sure if I can get everyone rework their shows.

- I've also got a few Proshow Gold users so I may have some other questions if this doesn't work with their shows, but I am pretty sure it will

Your advice is much appreciated

Ian

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ian,

With a blank slide, I don't know any way to prevent this. Why don't you use some "special slide" which can be used for all your transitions to other shows and set the display time for that slide to a bit longer time, then use the first keyframe to set the opacity to zero and fade it in after a few seconds with opacity set to 100%. If it works the way I think it will, then the screen will snap to black after leaving the externally run slideshow and fade in to your "special slide" and continue from there. This special slide could have something indicating your club or whatever and be used over and again rather than a black screen. It's unavoidable to have the black after exiting the last show, but this black would fade in to your slide and I think it would look more professional this way.

If there is a way to force an end to a show where the last slide remains on screen I'm not aware of it. It would have to be done with an external program which works within the operating system because there needs to be an "interrupt" signal to end such a show. This is generally done with the "ESC" keyboard command, etc.

Best regards,

Lin

[fergy]

Lin

Thanks for your advice

I think that with your help I can now put something together which will look good

Ok there will be a few rough edges, but I suppose that while we strive for excellence, and see all the little flaws, those people who see the shows tend to be pretty d****d impressed

If I solve the problem of terminating shows, I'll post it, but in the meantime I'll go back to the members to see if they can amend the shows to exit when they end

Again, thanks for all the help. It really shows the value of these forums, or should we call them fora ?

Take Care

Ian