Can I have music SYNC & RANDOM

[jgayman]

I'm putting together some high school sports slide shows using ver 4.2 and I would like to somehow have the slides displayed randomly AND yet be synched to the length of my music track. So far I can only figure out how to do EITHER sync or random.

If PTE does not have this ability does anyone know a simply way to randomize a list of filenames such that I could easily put them on the timeline ?

Thanks !!

- John

[dagrace]

Can't help you with the first part, but randomizing a list shouldn't be hard.

ONE of many possible answers:

1) Put the list in Excel, one name on each row

2) In the cell next to the name, type in =RAND()

3) Copy that cell down for the whole list. This will give you a random number between 0 and 1 for each name.

4) Sort the list by column "B" (the number column).

Hmmm... Is this a possible enhancement to Al's Adjustor?

[jgayman]

How would I then take the generated random list and get my slides back in to PTE ? I have a list of 350 slides that will play over a period of 9-minutes. I would like them matched to the music length yet random. Does PTE allow importing of file lists ?

[Limey]

"Project Options". "Main". Select "display slides in random order" This option is Grayed-out if Synchronize is selected.

However, with the ability to "display each slide for" xx seconds it's not a difficult calculation. One caveat is that non-synchronized shows can play differently on different computers.

Cheers.

[alrobin]

You should be able to do this with Adjustor. Following along David's suggestion, create your random numbers in a separate unused column (e.g. col. "V"), sort the slide-name column ("B") according to the resulting random numbers, and then send the data to the "ptesource" spreadsheet (by pressing "Transfer to ptesource.xls" and then "Save as a .prn file").

Unless you also modified some of the times in Adjustor, the new text file, when renamed as a .pte file and opened in PTE, should display all the slides in the new order in the slide list, with all the timing intact as before.

This will only result in a single random order - every time the show is run, the order will always be the same.