Cover Screen, Slide and Aspect Ratio

[fh1805]

...only now do I understand the term parent/child... this term... is totally irrelevant to its function...

Yachtsman1,

I don't want this thread to be hijacked but I have to say that, if you think the parent/child term is irrelevant to PTE's function, then I'm very much afraid that you still do not understand it.

In human terms the child inherits attributes from its parents (DNA, genes, all that sort of thing). In PTE terms a child object "inherits" the attributes of its parent object.

Specifically, if the parent object is zoomed, panned, rotated or 3D transformed, then the child inherits these actions and will move in time with and in spatial relation to its parent. For animation within a sequence, this feature is very useful since it allows the use of a Frame (which is simply a zero-opacity rectangle) as a parent for several child objects. So we can program the animation keyframes on the Frame object rather than on each of the individual child objects. This greatly reduces the complexity of the animation programming - just one set of keyframes rather than dozens of sets.

The only attribute that cannot be inherited is that of opacity. And speaking purely personally I think this is a big "negative" for PTE animation. I understand the flexibility of having opacity not included as an inheritable attribute - but there are times when it would really simplify the programming of animation if there was an option to declare that the children of this object on this slide did inherit the opacity of their parent.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Peter I'm not saying the functions are irrelevant, it's their names that don't bear any relationship to photographic terms. I would have got my head around their function long ago with different terminology. Think outside the box, including newcomers, older users & foreign translations.

Regards Eric.

Yachtsman1.

[davegee]

Xaver,

The Options/Screen dialogue is where it all comes together and makes perfect sense.

The top section relates to your "SCREEN and SLIDE" settings.

It tells you that your DISPLAY (SCREEN) is, for instance, 16:10 aspect ratio. It could be improved and would, perhaps, make things clearer if it also told you that the resolution of your display was, for instance, 1920x1200.

It would also make a little more sense (to me) if it were placed at the top (above the SLIDE settings).

The other settings refer to the dimensions of the SLIDE that you are going to place within your DISPLAY or SCREEN.

In default mode it offers you a 4:3 SLIDE with a 1024x768 resolution.

An improved scenario (to me) would be if the OPTIONS could read my computer's MAIN screen and set all of the defaults to suit.

For example:

My Display (SCREEN): 16:10 (1920x1200) - Fullscreen as default

Aspect Ratio of a SLIDE: 16:10

Virtual Size of SLIDE: 1920x1200

Fixed Size of SLIDE (in Pixels) and Hardware Acceleration both TICKED as default.

The difference between SCREEN and SLIDE is clearly marked out here.

If AND ONLY IF your SCREEN and SLIDE dimensions are the same then "Fit to Screen" and "Fit to Slide" are one and the same thing.

In all other scenarios the two phrases do not mean the same thing.

DG

[cgbraggjr]

Barry said at the beginning, "Format and resolution is the biggest obstacle for newer users of slide show software, it needs to be simple for the new user to throw in some images and have them fit their 1280*1024 screen and also their friends 1920*1080 screen too."

Of course it is simple to do this as long as they don't mind black bars. If the choice is between black bars and bad cropping, I would choose the black bars, and IMHO a new user would feel the same. I mean, do you want Aunt Dora's head cut off on your wide-screen TV? Pretty amateurish, don't you think? As all of us hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings know, good cropping is an essential part of photography. I don't like doing the work to make a 5x4 show into a full-screen 16x9 show, but unless Igor puts an AI module into PTE, there is no shortcut.

The black bars will tell the new user that there is room for improvement in his/her technique, and the motivated user will learn the program. To me the terminology is already adequate; rather than change it, I would prefer some drop-down hints/help on the setup screens. PTE is a terrific program, but referring back and forth to the user guide or online help is a bit kludgy.

[goddi]

PicturesToExe Beta 3

As I understand things, we can now apply much higher resolution images into our slide shows so that they work on all monitors. There is less need to do any resizing of images inside an image editor. Then, In project options we can apply unsharp mask, which is great. The trouble I have found is that if I apply images in this way, some of the images are not the right format to fill the entire screen and will have a black bar somewhere around the edge.

So, now I have to go into each image using O&A to select the cover slide mode (which should be renamed to cover screen by the way. We are not covering the slide, we use the slide to cover the screen) If your intention is to remove the need to resize images and give us unsharp mask options in the project options window, surely we need to be able to select Cover Slide (Cover Screen) at the same location and for the entire slide show. There seems little point in saving one job if it has to be replaced by another.

In the drop down Aspect Ration Box, can't there be an ALL setting that applies the Cover Slide option for the entire show.

Format and resolution is the biggest obstacle for newer users of slide show software, it needs to be simple for the new user to throw in some images and have them fit their 1280*1024 screen and also their friends 1920*1080 screen too.

=========================

Greetings,

Though now we are in Beta 6, Barry made the request back in Beta 3 to make Cover Slide a global function, but the posts got more into the naming convention, as opposed to its function. I'd like to raise this point again. Originally, I did not grasp what Barry's point was about because I never used 'Cover Slide'. When I make a slideshow with an Aspect Ratio of 16:9, I have to input a zoom value of 120% for each slide to expand the images to eliminate the left and right black areas. The next step would be to move the image up or down to get the best crop. Moving each image is not a problem because each image requires its own decision. But inputting 120% for each slide is a bit tedious.

Then I just discovered that Cover Slide has the same effect as my setting each image at 120% zoom. But there are a few problems associated with this function. If you select Cover Slide for a slide, and if you change your mind later, there is no way to 'un-select' this selection. So my first request is to make Cover Slide selectable and un-selectable for each image.

Now, my next request is to make it a Global choice, as Barry stated above. However, this presents a problem for images that are not landscape. When Cover Slide is selected for a portrait formatted image, it is not a good result. I would only want the Cover Slide global selection to be applied to only images in the landscape format. This probably is not possible so, perhaps, if there is an 'un-select' choice, we could just un-select those particular images that are in portrait format, as mentioned above.

So my question is, can this be done? Make the Cover Slide a global choice and have it so that it can be un-selected for individual slides? Or is there another way around this problem?

Thanks... Gary

[fh1805]

Gary,

You can set your 120% for all slides very simply. Just go to Project Options|More and change "% of slide to show main images" from 100% to 120%. If you already have slides in the slide list you will need to Set for existing slides. Then go to the images that you don't want to have this size and set your preferred size on each of those (via O&A Animations Zoom values.

regards,

Peter

P.S. In PTE v6.5 you will find the "% of slide" option under Project Options|Screen

[goddi]

Gary,

You can set your 120% for all slides very simply. Just go to Project Options|More and change "% of slide to show main images" from 100% to 120%. If you already have slides in the slide list you will need to Set for existing slides. Then go to the images that you don't want to have this size and set your preferred size on each of those (via O&A Animations Zoom values.

regards,

Peter

P.S. In PTE v6.5 you will find the "% of slide" option under Project Options|Screen

======================

Peter,

Well, you have saved me a boat load of tedious work!!! And it works well for both landscape and portrait images. It is amazing what I don't know even though I have been using PTE for years. Great solution and better than using the Cover Slide function. But I don't know why it is 'hidden' in the 'More' tab. I would think it would be in the 'Screen' tab or the 'Main' tab close to the 'Aspect Ratio' selection.

But, I also think there should be a way to un-select the 'Cover Slide' function for individual slides. Don't you think so???

Thanks, Gary

[fh1805]

Gary,

I've never found a need to alter "Cover Slide"

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

For myself, I have never used the cover slide function. I set my slide sizes when edit my pictures. EG crop to 10x8 set size to 1280x1024, or visa versa if a portrait shot then animate to show full screen if I don't want black sides.

Yachtsman1.

[goddi]

Gary,

I've never found a need to alter "Cover Slide"

Peter

=====================

Peter,

Yes, and I don't use it, especially now that I have a better alternative to accomplish the same results. The main reason for not using it is that once you select it for a slide, you an not undo it in a simple easy manner. I think Igor should at least make it easy to un-select Cover Slide or get rid of it. I don't really see the need if you can just choose 120% zoom and get the same result and you have much more control over it. Maybe it has a use but I don't see it, yet.

Gary

[Barry Beckham]

Argonaut

I may not have made myself clear with what I said. That it needs to be simple for the new user to throw in some images and have them fit their 1280*1024 screen and also their friends 1920*1080 screen too. Perhaps the use of 1280*1024 and 1920*1080 was too broad to use as an example. I think you need to accept that not all users are keen photographers who care much about cropping.

Think of it this way. PTE can now handle images straight from most cameras (in size I mean, not raw) and as long as we don't expect the image to dance all over the screen a great slide show can be made. The user is encouraged to do this because now we can sharpen on the fly and deal with any moire effect with the smoother option. Most cameras produce a 3:2 format and most people now seem to be using 16:9 or 16:10 format screens. You cannot drop an image straight from your camera into a slide show and have it fill a 16:9 and 16:10 screen. This is where a global cover screen option may be good. Not for you or me who understands the complexities of slide shows, but for those who don't yet, but still would want to get a slide show made quickly, and for those who don't care much about AR, resolution or cropping.

What prevents more users from taking up AV is they fear the learning curve of the new software, but find a way to allow them to throw together a slide show in minutes and they will take the plunge. Once they see how much fun it is, then they may explore the complexities a little further. Its getting them to take that first plunge is what my suggestion was all about.

[tsksimentsk]

I appreciated the comments from A PTE User very much. I am always frustrated that after creating a slide show (just a simple one containing landscape and portrait photos of about 3:2 ratio, without any objects added) that well fits at least 2 sides of my screen of 1920 x 1200, the slide show does not similarly fit into my friends' screens of 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 1024, or 1024 x 768 etc. It leaves black slips at all 4 sides of many of the slides!

Ironically, the above problem did not occur when I used PTE version 4.48 a few years ago. In that version, there is no need to set any screen or slide size or aspect ratio. The slide show created simply fits into at least 2 sides of any screen of whatever ratio. That's simple and perfect. I noticed that the Administrator seemed to acknowledged this in one of his replies in April 2011. It is due to such convenience of version 4.48 that I still prefer using that version now scacrificing the other advanced functions offered by subsequent versions.

I sincerely hope that the great advantage of version 4.48 will be revived in version 7.