Wider box for file/picture name in O&A Properties tab

[mhwarner]

A small request, but it would make life easier in using templates or copying slides. It's a bit annoying to always have to move the cursor right or hit the "End" key to see the full file name of a picture object. There seems to be enough room to maybe drop the entry box to the line below the "Picture" label and make it the full width of the Properties dialog area.

Thanks, Igor, for any consideration!

[nobeefstu]

Mary,

Maybe Im misunderstanding your full filename visability need in O&A.

However, at the bottom status bar ... the full filename is also displayed of the selected image object.

See attachment :

[mhwarner]

Hi,

It's not actually a question of "seeing" the full filename, but rather one of changing it. In the simplest example, I might be copying a slide (which is fairly complicated and has many objects) and I want to change the main picture by perhaps one digit in the filename. If the path/filename is fairly long, it will only show the left part. To change just a digit at the end of the filename, I have to click into the box, then hit the "End" key, then click again to actually change the new number. Yes, I know I can click on the picture icon and bring up the file selector, but sometimes that's more of a PITA. Also, sometimes I want to copy the entire path/filename to another object on the slide and I have to go through virtually the same procedure. It doesn't seem like moving the box down one line and making it wider is that big of a deal. I understand that it might not always show a REALLY long path/filename, but in most instances it would suffice. Thanks for listening.

(I might add that when I have a lot of filenames to change, I often edit the PTE file in Notepad++ and do a find/replace, which makes the job significantly easier.)

[davegee]

The answer might be to keep all images pertaining to a particular project etc in a folder in the root directory of a USB drive i.e.

Z:\PTE\Image001

DG

[mhwarner]

The answer might be to keep all images pertaining to a particular project etc in a folder in the root directory of a USB drive i.e.

Z:\PTE\Image001

DG

Thanks Dave, but that really has nothing to do with my request. I just want an easier way to manually change the filename for one or more picture objects in templates (or even pieces of templates) that I use. I know most of the tricks for keeping project files together. I am just asking for a wider file name entry box for the reasons stated above.

[davegee]

Mary,

With the GREATEST of respect, my reply had absolutely nothing to do with the "good housekeeping" issues of PTE. Of course you should keep everything in one folder! But I was dealing with the LOCATION of that folder.

I merely suggested that you could help yourself by keeping folders that were the MOST important in your computing life i.e. those containing PTE images, sounds etc at the top of the tree. Hence, their "addresses" would be shortened and much easier to change in the existing little box that you find so irritating.

NEVER keep data, scratch discs, temp files etc etc on your C drive and keep the most imortant, current data near or AT the top of the tree!

As my grandson keeps reminding me: It's not rocket science! ........ and I'm sure that Igor has more important issues to "address".

DG

[nobeefstu]

Mary,

I now have a better understanding of your needs as it relates more to file editing.

As you say ... "I understand that it might not always show a REALLY long path/filename, but in most instances it would suffice." This is always a problem for many users cause of their deeply nested long filename work habits. Maybe a Rename Window pop up on double-click (always shows full path and filename) would do the trick ... or better yet just make the O&A GUI window panels resizable (like the main GUI window panels) to accommodate users viewing needs (stretching the panel would allow the user to see lengthy full paths and filenames)

The current method I use :

This senario only works if all your foldernames and filenames have no blank spacing contained in its full filepath. Most of my entire PC foldername and filename structure is already setup this way ... this could be quite a chore for those starting from scratch with their existing file structure.

I exclusively use the underscore character ... as all other file systems have no problem with this character

Example: E:\1_Images\2_Bmp\Menu_panels\pwm_screen_small.bmp

If you dbl-click the the Picture filename editbox ... the full filepath and filename are selected and the cursor jumps to the very end of the filestring.

Note: If there is any blank spacing contained in the full path\filestring ... the cursor will stop at the blank space.

[mhwarner]

NEVER keep data, scratch discs, temp files etc etc on your C drive and keep the most imortant, current data near or AT the top of the tree!

Thanks Dave. Appreciate your response. I long ago developed the practice of backing up my files. I have 16 external backup drives ranging from 80 gigs to 1.5 TB (as well as a multitude of DVDs). My photos and data are backed up multiple times on different media and some are stored offsite. My photos are stored with the folder naming convention of "mwpics\2010\20101118\IMG_whatever.jpg" (the second and third folders are year and date taken, respectively and are created by my downloading program automatically). In addition, I create templates from each of my PTE shows and back them up separately as well. It never hurts to be redundant!

[mhwarner]

Mary,

I now have a better understanding of your needs as it relates more to file editing.

As you say ... "I understand that it might not always show a REALLY long path/filename, but in most instances it would suffice." This is always a problem for many users cause of their deeply nested long filename work habits. Maybe a Rename Window pop up on double-click (always shows full path and filename) would do the trick ... or better yet just make the O&A GUI window panels resizable (like the main GUI window panels) to accommodate users viewing needs (stretching the panel would allow the user to see lengthy full paths and filenames)

...

If you dbl-click the the Picture filename editbox ... the full filepath and filename are selected and the cursor jumps to the very end of the filestring.

Note: If there is any blank spacing contained in the full path\filestring ... the cursor will stop at the blank space.

Thank you sir! I typically do not put spaces in my folder or file names (a carryback to the old DOS days when they weren't allowed). However, I see that when I installed PTE several versions back, there is a space in the install folder "PicturestoExe 5" which is exactly where the selection stops. I often use a number of TheDom's templates which include many objects beyond just a single picture slide. And I usually have to duplicate the slides multiple times or copy/paste from multiple versions of the template to add several hundred additional "slides". This is where a lot of the renaming comes in. Obviously, this is not something that a lot of regular users do. I typically create a copy of an existing template in a new folder in my "PicturestoExe 5\Templates" folder and go from there. So until Igor might considering implementing my suggestion, or either of the two that you have suggested which would work equally as well, I guess I will think about reinstalling PTE into a folder that has no spaces. Or maybe it would be easier to just change the location of my "templates" folder and move it higher up the tree.