PTE Multiple Pictures on one slide vs PPT

[wa3pyi]

Hello everyone, I have had PTE for a number of years now but only use it on rare occasions when I need to create a quick slideshow.

I have used Powerpoint since 2003 to create slideshows. I had never used Powerpoint before this but I had just returned from a trip to Ecuador and I needed to put something together for our church. I struggled for days getting nowhere until I discovered the Custom Animation section & activated the Advanced Timeline. I could now insert any picture or graphic and have full control over the entrance effect and the exit effect including the timing. It was still slow going, especially getting music & narration synchronized but after a few weeks I had a very nice slideshow complete with narration and music that ran “hands off” from beginning to end. Over the years I’ve created many other slideshows in this manner using Powerpoint. It’s slow and cumbersome but it get’s the job done.

Ever since I discovered PTE 5.0 a number of years ago I had wanted to do the same thing with it that I had used PPT to do, but whenever I would try to create a similar slideshow with multiple pictures on a slide and full control of the entrance & exit of each picture like I had created with PPT I never seemed to get very far with PTE. I’ve since tried version 6.5 and just downloaded version 7. It seems that I always end up going back to Powerpoint to create a complex slideshow.

I know that PTE has a number of features that PPT does not and the pictures on PTE are so much cleaner looking. But will PTE allow me to put 2, 3, or 4 pictures on a slide and control the entrance & exit effects independently? I often would have a dozen or more pictures on one PPT slide – Two may come in with separate effects and after a few seconds fade out while maybe 4 more would come in with different effects, stay for a few seconds then exit with different effects while 1 picture enters the screen with an effect – and on it goes. I would try to fit as many pictures as I could onto one slide because in PPT, transitioning from one slide to the next didn’t give you as many effect options so I would try to stuff as many pictures as I could onto one slide since I could control each pictures entrance & exit effect on the Advanced Timeline.

Will PTE easily allow multiple pictures on a single slide with independently control over the entrance & exit effects of each? Or is it more difficult to do this than in PPT? Maybe I need to forget what I’ve learned to do in Powerpoint and think about this a whole new way? Right now I have to put together a slideshow presentation consisting of 30-40 photos each from 8 seniors who will be graduating from school this year – with music & perhaps some narration. I’ve always done this in the past with Powerpoint although I’ve tried a few times to do it with PTE but became frustrated. Can it be done? And can it be done easier than Powerpoint? Maybe someone could point me to some good tutorials about how to do this.

Thanks!

Lee

[davegee]

Add an image to the slide list.

Copy and paste the slide so that you have two copies.

Double click on the second and it opens in Objects and Animations. Place and size the image.

Make sure nothing is selected in the Objects Panel - (RHS).

Click on the Add Image Icon in O&A - top left.

Add a second image and place and size as required.

Repeat this (Copy / Paste / Add Image) as many times as required.

You can customize the transition effect for each slide or a number of slides in CUSTOMIZE SLIDE.

DG

[Jean-Cyprien]

I don't know PPS, but with PTE it's not easy to do. Already difficult with - say - 3 or 4 pictures per view, and only with simple transitions (not 3D, not curling of page)

[Lin Evans]

Hi,

If you could create and post a link to a short PowerPoint show demonstrating what it is that you wish to achieve, then it might be much easier for us to show you how to do this with PTE.

The difficulty is that describing in words sometimes makes it unclear exactly how and what you wish to see. PTE is a very powerful tool and there are multiple ways to do most everything depending on your needs. One slide with the effects you want to achieve would then make it much easier to give you a straight answer.

Best regards,

Lin

[Barry Beckham]

Ever since I discovered PTE 5.0 a number of years ago I had wanted to do the same thing with it that I had used PPT to do, but whenever I would try to create a similar slideshow with multiple pictures on a slide and full control of the entrance & exit of each picture like I had created with PPT I never seemed to get very far with PTE. I've since tried version 6.5 and just downloaded version 7. It seems that I always end up going back to Powerpoint to create a complex slideshow.

Lee

PicturesToExe is a completely different animal all together when compared to PPP. Its not designed to do what PPP does. Yes it can do all you want and far better than PPP, but you can't come home with a batch of images, open up what is a relatively new bit of software to you (PTE) and create a complex show. You have to do some learning of PTE first and if there are any time constraints on what you need to produce, then you may become frustrated.On this occasion you may be better off using the software your familiar with (PPP) and then spending a bit of time learning PTE when the pressure is off.

There are many guidance notes about PTE on the forum and I have lots of video tutorials via the links below, but as I said, perhaps PPP is your best option for this project and then you can take a look at PTE in more detail for your next.

[wa3pyi]

Thanks everyone for your quick replys - especially to a newbee.

DaveG, I'll give those steps a try - although I am not quite understanding them until I get home and have PTE open in front of me.

Lin, Here is a link to a .mp4 piece of a PPT show I did last year for our graduates. It's about 8.6MB & takes a few minutes to load. It includes the opening sequence and a sequence of the the twins that graduated last year. Everything is on 9 Powerpoint slides. I captured it with Camtasia Studio - and many of the pictures were older scanned photos from the parents so the quality is not the best.

Barry, I've looked at some of the shows on your website - some of the effects are just amazing! But, I realize that learning to do effects like those takes some time & learning. I also started back in the days when my only tools were dual slide projectors, a dissolve unit and a 4 track tape recorder. When I started with Powerpoint my goal was to reproduce those kind of shows. I wish I had found PTE sooner!

I am sure that PTE is a far superior slideshow program than Powerpoint. I just need to learn how to use it - and learning it when there is not the pressure of a deadline would probably be better.

Lee

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lee,

Unfortunately, I can't get the link to work. I suspect you would be better off for the short period, as Barry suggested, by staying with Power Point until you have some time.

If you could double check the link - I think what you want to do can be done, but need to see what you have.

Best regards,

Lin

Later - O.K., I got it to work outside of the forum. Lee, what you have done with PowerPoint is actually quite simple to do with PTE. There are a number of ways to do it, but the "easiest" way to create your opening page is, as Jean Cyprien suggested, with masks. By masking you can more easily control the "position, size, opacity and time of display for any single slide with multiple objects." The thing which is not possible is having other than simple opacity fades or 3D transforms of some sort for each "object" on a single slide. I will make you a quick sample using screen captures of your MP4 to show you how it can be done. It's not "necessary" to use masks, it just makes it "easier"....

Give me a half hour and I'll post a link. What you will get with PTE is much "smoother" actions and much higher quality images.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lee,

Here are the links to a similar thing in PTE. These are both the exe and the PTE project so you can see how it was done. I wouldn't attempt it if I were you for something due soon - there is a learning curve.

http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/Lee.zip (zipped exe)

http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/Leepte.zip (zipped pte project)

Best regards,

Lin

[wa3pyi]

Lin,

Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! I can now study how you did everything which will help me understand what is going on. One of the ways I learn the best is by "taking apart" other presentations to figure out how another person did something and this is the perfect opportunity to do just that. The fact that you did this fairly quickly confirms my belief that PTE can easily do WAY more than Powerpoint once I take the time to really start learning how to do things - and un-learning Powerpoint.

I'll check out some of the tutorials too...

Thanks again,

Lee

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lee,

Yes, do take it apart and if you have questions, let me know and I'll try help get you on the right track.

The "actions" of the individual photos can be found by observing the keyframes and 3D transforms, specifically the X and Y axis values between these keyframes. The "position" of the photos are controlled by both the position of the mask rectangle within the mask and the position of each image inside each mask. The "Container" position will "move" the position of the image and mask rectangle, but they were not used for this purpose, just set to encompass the entire image.

The text position for the individual letters is overall under the control of an invisible "frame" but the individual child letters each have their own positions set via keyframe and "Pan" values. Their "Zoom" values determine their size. The individual letters were created in the text mode then "rasterized to individual PNG" objects and for the "contour" appearance, I took them into Photoshop and set contour in the FX settings. This just gives them a bit more "zip" than the plain PNG output by "rasterize to PNG" feature in PTE.

The "roll-up" on the introduction is one of the PTE transitions, but I also did a screen snap and placed it on the "back side" of the main image so there would be more than just the lavender "color" on the roll up.

Timing between individual appearances of the five images was accomplished via keyframe.

In all, doing this type thing isn't really what PTE does best, but you "can" do it once you are thoroughly familiar with how the program works. Even if you discover that other possibilities offer ways you have not yet discovered, taking apart the sample is, as you say, a good way to learn what the program does.

Best regards,

Lin