Start Preview from Current Slide

[RobertAlbright]

Hello everyone

PTE version 8.0 has greatly enhanced our ability to manage the sound elements of projects.

However I am stuck on something which was simple in previous versions, giving the options of 'the loaf of bread' or right click and 'Start Preview from the current slide'

Where is this option now please?

[Barry Beckham]

Robert

For reasons that escape logic, it's turned off by default. You will find a tick box in the preferences, but Ctrl+R does it too

[davegee]

Robert,

If you go to Settings / Preferences / Tools.

Turn everything on until you are sure which (if any) tools you want to turn off (hide).

You can also move any tool to any toolbar on screen and get everything where it is most comfortable for you.

DG

[RobertAlbright]

Thanks Barry and Dave. I had set up Settings-preferences but I'd missed the box 'Preview from Current Position'.

As you say, it would be much better as default on. Surely nearly every AV producer must use this function on a regular basis?

[nobeefstu]

Robert,

It's also possible just to right-click the mini player to start preview from the current slide.

[LumenLux]

Robert,

It's also possible just to right-click the mini player to start preview from the current slide.

Also, double-left-click will do it.

[Barry Beckham]

I wonder how helpful it is to give someone loads of different ways to do something that should be obvious from the start. A preview button should be up front and centre on both the main screen and the timeline so that any person opening the software for the first time should find it EASILY. It's not as though there isn't space.

Robert is not inexperienced with PTE, yet he missed the setting as we all do from time to time if we are honest. I am a fan of PTE and Igor, but in my view some things just don't make sense and here we have a prime example. By default we have that dreadful Navigation bar turned on when hardly anyone uses it, but here we have an option that all of us use and it's hidden.

If someone can explain the logic to that, take your best shot !!

[nobeefstu]

Barry,

but here we have an option that all of us use and it's hidden

Here is another possible/optional way to use Full Screen Preview from Current Slide ... and its in plain sight and not hidden. This option is also well documented in v7.5 p17 User manual when these features were first implemented in v7.5 releases. Reading the User Guide does help most of the time.

See attachment :

[Barry Beckham]

Really.......and its so obvious isn't it.:rolleyes:/>

[RobertAlbright]

I think this is missing the point. The user interface should be intuitive. Commonly used features should not require the customer to study the Manual in this way.

Experienced users will (me excepted) not find it hard to operate the system but more importantly, potential new customers will get frustrated and try another product if they cannot quickly find how to perform a common and essential function. 5 different ways of performing a task are no help if you cannot find one of them quickly.

The comparison I would make is with camera manufacturers who are increasingly going back to putting the key dials on the top plate of their products rather than expecting the user to use menu functions. And it's obvious what function they perform: A-aperture etc.

[Igor]

Hello Robert,

We changed this interface in the previous version 7.5.

I think that the old command and button to run a preview from selected slide is not intuitive for new users.

Please look on the first attached screenshot - to run the preview you need to click a "4 arrow" button below the mini-player.

This conception should be familiar to many users who worked with software video players or with online video players (YouTube). A button to switch the player to the fullscreen mode is located together with other controls of the player.

This new button also allows to run a fullscreen preview from any TIME POSITION which you select in the timeline view. See the 2nd screenshot.

With old command/button it was impossible.

So why to keep two buttons for same task on the screen?

Please explain me if we missed something important regarding the work of this function.

[RobertAlbright]

Hello Igor

It is interesting that the 4 arrow button is familiar to users who work with software video players or with online video players (YouTube).

If the majority of PTE customers fall into this category there is no problem. It is intuitive for them.

However the 4 arrow button is not familiar to me and possibly to many stills photographers. Is it possible when the mouse is pointed at the 4 arrow symbol for a text to show 'fullscreen preview from any timeline position' ? This would make the interface in PTE much easier for new customers. You already have this facility in 'start a new project', open a new project' 'choose a drive or folder' etc.

[nobeefstu]

Robert,

However the 4 arrow button is not familiar to me and possibly to many stills photographers. Is it possible when the mouse is pointed at the 4 arrow symbol for a text to show 'fullscreen preview from any timeline position' ? This would make the interface in PTE much easier for new customers.

This mouse-over feature of the 4 arrow button is already functional/available in v8. Feature was first implemented in v7.5

See Attachment

[RobertAlbright]

Thanks very much. Sorry to have been a nuisance.

Robert

[Big Kev]

Hello everyone

PTE version 8.0 has greatly enhanced our ability to manage the sound elements of projects.

However I am stuck on something which was simple in previous versions, giving the options of 'the loaf of bread' or right click and 'Start Preview from the current slide'

Where is this option now please?

Hi Rober,

As Barry suggested Settings/preferences/toolbars and tick the 'preview from current position' box

The 'loaf of bread' will appear in the top left toolbar.

Maybe this is not where you want it or are used to it being.

You can move the various elements into whichever position you are used to them being by dragging them within above box. Your settings can then be saved using 'save profile'

Hope that helps

John

[Barry Beckham]

I think the point is being missed here and I have lost track of how many times I have said this. You all want to be first to come up with solutions and workarounds. It's almost like a contest on who knows the most, but that is not the issue at all.

Some of the tiny buttons are not obvious to a newer user and that is something I do know about. I have a bit of software that prints labels onto CD's and there is no big button in the main screen that says print. The fact that you can do the same thing 6 other ways is irrelevant. Its a print program so a print button should be front and centre.

We use Slide Show software so a big button, obvious to all makes life easier for people to find their way around. All those little tricks we know about they will learn in time. With the greatest respect to software writers they are often too close to the woods to see the trees. What is obvious to them and the regular user is not to the newer user.

If relatively experienced users have problems finding a function they know must be there, what does that tell you.

Either that or I am out of step with the rest of the world, but something tells me not.

[JEB]

Hi,

I totally agree with the sentiments being expressed by Barry.

Points I have personally tried to express on many occasions in the past.

The KISS principle comes to mind.

John

[Lin Evans]

Hi Guys,

For people coming from or familiar with video software, the arrows icon is commonly understood. For others, obviously not. I think rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, that we might take a chapter from camera manufacturers and create a Quick Start manual for PTE which explains all the icons and what they are for.

There are already two icons to start preview from a given slide and several other ways. That's more than enough in my opinion. What we need is to make the new user aware of how everything works in a short, concise overview which can be easily translated into multiple languages and which is perhaps automatically downloaded with the original software.

Just a thought...

Lin

[wideangle]

I think a Quick Start guide is a useful suggestion as secondary support, but newcomers to the program, and current users for that matter, really want direct, immediate solutions onscreen within the program.

It's been raised a few times as to why the 'Preview from current position' is not displayed by default, since it is certainly a well-used tool. I would like to add my support for this as well.

However my main suggestion for onscreen help within the program would be to add pop-up tips to tools, which appear when you hover the mouse over a tool. The extra benefit of this would be that space is not needed for labels like 'Preview' etc.

Regards

Wideangle

[JEB]

Hi,

I'm sure many if not all of the suggestions for improving the usability of PTE for all users that we discuss from time to time are desirable. However, how they can be implemented is something else.

I recall some months ago Igor suggesting that Wiki was being considered as a vehicle for providing support. This seemed to me to be, potentially an encouraging solution.

I wonder how that is progressing?

Regards

John

[Lin Evans]

Actually, AFAIK the popup feature already exists. If there is no text explaining what the icon does, when you hover the mouse cursor over it, you get a popup text block explaining. Or, am I missing something else that you are suggesting?

Best regards,

Lin

I think a Quick Start guide is a useful suggestion as secondary support, but newcomers to the program, and current users for that matter, really want direct, immediate solutions onscreen within the program.

It's been raised a few times as to why the 'Preview from current position' is not displayed by default, since it is certainly a well-used tool. I would like to add my support for this as well.

However my main suggestion for onscreen help within the program would be to add pop-up tips to tools, which appear when you hover the mouse over a tool. The extra benefit of this would be that space is not needed for labels like 'Preview' etc.

Regards

Wideangle