PTE 101 Tutorial

[alrobin]

Terri,

You're welcome! Glad you find it useful.

[boxig]

Al

I made a utility for this task.

See program No. 129

Run the exe and see the sample.

You can Full size or minimize to top corner.

Maybe you like it.

I will post on forum too.

Granot

[alrobin]

Granot,

Thanks for doing this, but I would prefer to put the narration text right on the slides themselves, as the "open space" on the slides is different on different slides, and one would be continually having to move the text box around or minimizing and maximizing it in order to see the underlying tutorial slide. It would be quite easy to put the narration right on the images, (in a different font or colour to make it stand out), if one were organized and could do it at the time of image creation.

One way around this, of course, is to increase the resolution of one's screen, as the tutorial is in windowed mode, so can be moved to one corner, with the text in another, but this would not be suitable for the "elderly" people who apparently like to have their shows seen at maximum screen size.

Some things I found when I opened your utility: When I load it, the "help" file is included in the list - not sure if this was intended. Also, instead of the text showing when I click on "Slide No. 1", etc., the pathname for each appears in the text window, not the text itself. Lastly, it would be more convenient if the overall text window could be minimized to the top centre of the screen instead of to the top left, where it covers up the name of the main tutorial window.

This utility may be useful for people who are hard of hearing, or where the narrator's voice is difficult to understand (like mine, perhaps), or for persons of different linguistic backgrounds, in which case a translated text could be used.

[boxig]

Al

Ok, it is up to the creator to decide. This is the best way if you have a place.

The help file is only a sample if someone wants to put instruction foreword.

As for seeing the path and not the file content, this is mystery since on my win98 it works fine, and since you could see at least one file (the help) so I hope to get some more feedback about this, if someone else will try my utility.

[alrobin]

Granot,

Even the help file shows up as the pathname to the file, not the text itself! Maybe it's just my pc acting up?

[boxig]

Al

Are you using the origial folder which includes "FileList.txt" and sub folder called "Files" with 7 txt files inside ? Since it supposed also to copy the full text of the file to clipboard, can you check if after selecting a file you can paste the whole text or only the path ?

This program is very simple with few script lines and since it works on my computer I suppose it is something to do with... XP ?

Granot

[alrobin]

Hi, Boxig,

Sorry, I missed the part about putting the text files into a separate folder. I had just unzipped everything into one folder, and that's why it didn't work. Now that I have created the sub-folder, "Files", it works fine.

Now can you make it automatically move to the next file when the next slide comes up in PTE? Then you would have something really useful.

Thanks very much for providing this utility - I'm sure someone will find it useful.

[boxig]

Al

Now that it works, I can make it roll up to middle screen. I don't know how to synchronize it with the show, where slides can be changed at any time by user. Since you have number of page at corner, user can just follow with the scroll bar of the utility, rol it up when not needed.

Anyway, I'm glad it works and I as you said, someone may find a use to it.

Waiting for your next tutorial.

Granot

[Monty]

Al,

Are you game for having the PTE 101 show translated? If so, I'd be happy (assuming I can get a couple of my friends to help) to start the voiceover.

The show is so good that it deserves an incredibly wide audience.

Cheers! (& many thanks!)

-Chip

[alrobin]

Hi, Chip,

Thanks for the offer - I'm usually game for anything!

By the way, what language did you have in mind? (It's already in English! This reminds me of when I was in Vietnam once. I told someone I didn't speak Vietnamese, and could he please try it in English. His reply was "I am speaking English!" )

Seriously, though, I guess we could try it in one or two different languages. Only trouble is, the whole show would have to be duplicated, and that's a lot of megabytes if we're dealing with several new translations. I wouldn't have room for it on my web site and I don't know if Bill (Cottage) would have room either.

If someone were to do the sound-clips, and the names were kept the same, it wouldn't be hard to import them into the present show. The timing for each slide would have to be checked and some readjusted for the differing times it might take to say each one in different languages. The written narrative is already translated into French, thanks to Gerard.

One other negative (and I hate to bring negatives to a "green-light" session), is that whenever Igor changes the program, all the other versions would have to be changed, too. This could get out of hand.

Let me know what you think.

[Gérard de Lux]

For the different reasons well explained by Al, I doubt that translated versions of his tutorial would be feasible.

And there is one more problem : I don't know if you realize that the images in the show are those of the English version (of course) but that the various linguistic versions of PTE use other words - and sometimes there are big differences !

To make the French translation, I had to go back and forth to the French version of PTE to check how the various buttons, options, etc., were translated into French in the program. Now, just to give an example among many, if you have on screen an image of "Project Options" or "Music" and if the voice-over says "Configurer" or "Son A" (this is how they had been originally translated) people can get quite confused...

Another point: The translation I've made into French is meant to be read; if it has to be spoken, it would have to be adaped because, as you probably know, there are differences between a text written to be read and a text written to be spoken.

This is why I think that the solution of a written tranlation is much more versatile. Very easy to change too if Al makes changes or additions to his show (which he already did, in fact, and I changed my translation very rapidly). And this is also why I decided to leave the original English text, adding the translation below so that people can still follow the English if they so wish; it doubles the number of pages but the file remain small - 30 kb zipped - and this brings more comfort to the reader.

I learned today that another friend proposes to make the translation into Dutch (he knows English and French very well and he has also a very good knowledge of PTE). Good news

[alrobin]

And there is one more problem : I don't know if you realize that the images in the show are those of the English version (of course) but that the various linguistic versions of PTE use other words - and sometimes there are big differences !

Hi, Gérard,

This is a good point. Of course the same problem exists for the translated-text option. But it is not as serious since, as you pointed out, the English text is immediately above, making comparisons fairly easy.

Too bad in the tutorial one can't just press a button and have everything in a different language as one can now with PTE, itself!

[Monty]

By the way, what language did you have in mind?     (It's already in English!         This reminds me of when I was in Vietnam once.

Oddly enough, Vietnamese!