PTE Show Menus

[jevans]

In previous versions of PTE, I have set up a show project menu with a single slide having a series of button to call up various shows. If I created this project on my desktop and then transferred the whole folder with the PTE show slide application together with exe copies of all the shows called up, the path reference for each button had to have its drive letter removed in order to work on another computer. For example a button may call up a show called "Lanercost" and the path reference on the original computer might be ;

"C:\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe"

and to ensure that this would still run on a second computer I would remove the drive letter reference so that the path reference becomes ;

"\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe"

This does not seem to work with Version 8.1. In specifying the button operation, I am using the action "Run Slideshow with return" and the show I am calling up was created in Version 8.1.

Does anyone have any ideas how to make this work?

Regards

Jeff

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Jeff you can only do that with shows made in the same version of PTE, I believe. currently when constructing a menu in 8.1 if I try to use exe's from other versions & use the run slideshow command, I get a pop up saying use run application or open file. It's a long running saga relating to desk top flash backs which has not been addressed yet.

Eric

Yachtsman1

[davegee]

Jeff,

There are probably numerous ways of doing it.

This is just one - V8:

When I have "finished" working on a show I create a TEMPLATE from it in my Default Template Folder.

I then create an EXE in the Template Folder of the show.

Do the same with the Menu - Once the Menu is complete create a Template and create an EXE in the Template folder. I use "Run Slideshow With Return".

Transfer the Menu EXE and the linked EXEs to a memory key or portable drive etc.

Plug said memory key into another computer and away you go. No flashbacks etc. No link problems.

DG

[jevans]

Jeff you can only do that with shows made in the same version of PTE, I believe. currently when constructing a menu in 8.1 if I try to use exe's from other versions & use the run slideshow command, I get a pop up saying use run application or open file. It's a long running saga relating to desk top flash backs which has not been addressed yet.

Eric

Yachtsman1

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your reply but if you look carefully you will see that my test used a show which was created in Version 8.1. I was aware that you could not call up previous version's shows and have to use the "run application..." command. However that does not work either. The problem is that when you move the folder to another computer, the file path information seems to be retained from the original machine. I am sure that did not happen before as I have prepared show menus in the past.

Regards

Jeff

[jt49]

For me it works while running the menu exe-file, either with or without quotation marks ("\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe" or \PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe). It does not work when running the preview of the menu project. In the preview you seem to need the complete path ("C:\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe").

Regards,

jt

[jevans]

Jeff,

There are probably numerous ways of doing it.

This is just one - V8:

When I have "finished" working on a show I create a TEMPLATE from it in my Default Template Folder.

I then create an EXE in the Template Folder of the show.

Do the same with the Menu - Once the Menu is complete create a Template and create an EXE in the Template folder. I use "Run Slideshow With Return".

Transfer the Menu EXE and the linked EXEs to a memory key or portable drive etc.

Plug said memory key into another computer and away you go. No flashbacks etc. No link problems.

DG

David,

I accept that you must have tried this method and that it works but I am not entirely sure I follow the logic. Why you should create exe in template folders. What difference does that make. If I understand correctly you are suggesting creating an exe files in the templates directory for each show you want to include in the menu.

I have tried my method and it works "as long as you keep the exe files and the menu exe on a flash drive attached to the new computer. as soon as you download the folder onto the new computer, the path information is lost. Don't think this used to happen in Version 6.5.

Jeff

[davegee]

Because creating the Template strips out the Drive information that you speak of and creates EXEs which can be moved around at will - provided that you move the Menu and Target to the same location, obviously.

DG

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your reply but if you look carefully you will see that my test used a show which was created in Version 8.1. I was aware that you could not call up previous version's shows and have to use the "run application..." command. However that does not work either. The problem is that when you move the folder to another computer, the file path information seems to be retained from the original machine. I am sure that did not happen before as I have prepared show menus in the past.

Regards

Jeff

Sorry Jeff

I was doing this on my Hudle & reading it again on my desktop, I had got the wrong end of the stick. However, just to add a little more, I have 4 menus for future shows on my PC at present, each menu has around 12 shows. I went back to one of the menus to remove one of the exe's & add another, I did that, authorised the newcomer with run application as the others, then checked the menu through & found all the other exe's had lost their links. Didn't think anything about it at the time thought it was an "Eric". Now this has happened I wonder if something has changed.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[jevans]

For me it works while running the menu exe-file, either with or without quotation marks ("\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe" or \PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe). It does not work when running the preview of the menu project. In the preview you seem to need the complete path ("C:\PTE Shows\Main Menu\lanercost.exe").

Regards,

jt

jt,

Thanks you have got the answer. If you try to run the menu PTW in the preview mode without creating an exe file, it does not work. However if you create an exe file, it works however the path is defined. Thanks again. This might be a change that has come into being as a result of changes in 8.1

Regards

Jeff

[PGA]

Jeff,

All this talk of paths, drive letters, templates etc. is unnecessary complication. You already understand that using "Run Slideshow with return" means that all the EXE files have to have been created using the same version of PTE (in your case I think you mean v8.0.1 - not v8.1 as you have written).

All you need to do is Publish all the target EXE files into the same folder. Then set up your menu project with each target EXE launched simply by its file name e.g. Abcdef221.exe. Publish your menu's EXE into the same folder. That folder can then be copied to a USB memory stick and taken to any other PC running Windows and the entire set will run as it did on your own master PC.

regards,

Peter

[jevans]

Jeff,

All this talk of paths, drive letters, templates etc. is unnecessary complication. You already understand that using "Run Slideshow with return" means that all the EXE files have to have been created using the same version of PTE (in your case I think you mean v8.0.1 - not v8.1 as you have written).

All you need to do is Publish all the target EXE files into the same folder. Then set up your menu project with each target EXE launched simply by its file name e.g. Abcdef221.exe. Publish your menu's EXE into the same folder. That folder can then be copied to a USB memory stick and taken to any other PC running Windows and the entire set will run as it did on your own master PC.

regards,

Peter

Peter,

Thanks. This of course works correctly. The reason I did not use this initially was that perviously I have prepared a show menu file in which the various exe files were called up from their respective directories and thus required the file path information. My memory tells me that this worked in previous versions but I cannot be sure. Putting all the called-up exe files into one directory together with the menu exe file is of course the obvious answer. Thanks again. This issue (for me anyway) is solved.

Regards

Jeff

[Cedric Dawnhawk]

In case anyone reads this topic again, I would like to point out that things are even simpler than PGA suggested. You can set up your menu with the target exe files anywhere on your hard drive without publishing them to the same folder. Obviously you need to enter the full paths to the target exe files. The menu can then be tested. To run on another PC, copy the menu exe file and all the other target exe files to the same folder on the other PC. You don't need to change anything in the menu exe file as if it can't find the target exe file at the path specified, it looks in the current folder.