PicturesToExe v4.30 beta #9

[Igor]

PicturesToExe v4.30 beta #9 is released

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr_beta.zip (1.4 Mb)

What's new in v4.30 beta #9:

+ Updated several language files.

* Fixed bug with thumbnails view of Slide list without text labels after PTE startup.

* Fixed bug of previous betas of v4.30 with "Play songs in random mode" option in not synchronized slide-shows. Music didn't repeat when playlist was fully played. It's fixed now.

[alrobin]

Thanks, Igor

The thumbnails in the slide list open properly now when starting PTE.

[HaroldB]

Igor,

WOW!!!!!

I've been away on business and vacation for the last six weeks, and what a pleasant surprise it was to see all of this wonderful work when I came back! I haven't a chance to play with all the goodies, but it seems like you have done an INCREDIBLE job adding all these new features to PTE!

I tried to re-think my workflow using the new PTE light-table features, and I'd like to discuss it with you, and possibly ask you for three very minor additional features. Additionally, I'd love it if anybody could help and suggest different workflows that might work better for me.

I do two kinds of presentations. One are quickies, and the other are more professional-looking, polished work. The quickies use original photos right from my camera, and the current light-table features seem perfect for this. But I'd like to focus in on what I do for a more polished presentation.

I typically start with a single directory of "original pictures" (representing the topic of the presentation). I then create a storyboard, ordering the pictures in the order I think I will use them (I may do this in sections for large presentations that lend themselves to a sectional approach). I then open pretty much each picture in PSP (a Photoshop equivalent), edit it, and possibly combine multiple pictures into one PTE frame or produce a series of PTE frames for some effect. I save these to-be-PTE frames in a directory associated with the slideshow I am building (my "edited pictures" directory), and then switch to PTE to add them to the slideshow and put them on the timeline.

It seems that with the new features of PTE, the first thing I would do is add all the pictures from my "original pictures" directory to the slideshow. I will eventually delete all (or most) of them, but they are what I will use to create the storyboard. I then shuffle these thumbnails around and around, and eventually end up with a storyboard I like. I see myself using the full-screen view of the slideshow for this.

So, here I see my first two minor feature requests. First, I need a way from the full-screen PTE slidehshow view to quickly see a picture much bigger to see if I really want to use it. I would prefer that double-click simply brings up a window that shows it to me pretty big, and waits for me to close the new window. If you'd rather bring up Customize Slide with the double-click, the Enter key would be my next choice, although any hotkey combination would really be OK. "View larger version of picture" should also show up in the right click menu. (I realize I could change the size of ALL the pictures on the full-screen view to make a single picture bigger, but that is very disruptive to workflow. I realize I could also right-click and click on Open, but that is very slow.)

Second, as I build the storyboard, I will be discarding pictures. I can hit the DEL key to get rid of them, but that makes them GONE. What I really want is to "put them on the side". Could you add a "move to end of slideshow" right-click command and hotkey? For a small slide show, I could obviously drag and drop it. But for a slideshow with lots of slides, that doesn't work.

Now, after I get my storyboard done, I presumably want to open each photo (or series of photos) in PSP, save the edited slide in my "edited slides" directory and then add the edited slide to the slideshow and delete the corresponding "original pictures" slide(s). This seems straightforward, but I would like what I hope is a minor feature enhancement to make it that much easier. When NOT using the full-screen view, could I drag a picture from the slideshow list into a DIFFERENT application (eg, PSP or Photoshop)? This would make opening the picture a snap and would save many extra steps.

That's it! With these three I-hope-minor features, my workflow would be dramatically improved with the new PTE!

Of course, I'm sure I'll come up with other usability thoughts as I start using the new PTE . What a great job you've done, Igor! You really do GREAT work!

Harold

[HaroldB]

Igor,

I hope you don't mind if I throw things at you as I find them.

1) When returning from the full-screen slideshow view to the vertical view, the slide last selected on the full-screen view shows at the top of the slideshow panel on the vertical view. However, the large picture in the middle panel is not updated to show this picture. Could you change that?

2) In my previous note, I suggested opening a new window for a larger view if I double-clicked or hit some key on a single picture in full-screen slideshow view. It occurs to me that it might be better (and actually easier for you, since you already have the code elsewhere) to simply show a full-screen view of that picture. Doing anything on that screen would return me to the full-screen view of the slideshow.

Harold

[alrobin]

Harold,

Welcome back! Good to see you active again, and be able to benefit from your valuable ideas.

I support your three suggestions - they would make very useful additional features.

In particular, being able to drag a slide to one's image editor would be useful, and this should not be a difficult feature to add, since there is already a menu function (right-click on the image) for doing this.

However, I notice that at present, if one uses this function, PTE, itself, closes. It would be handy if there were an easier way to open an image for editing, and when finished, have it appear immediately in edited form back in PTE.

[ronwil]

Al

Surely, when you right click on your image and select "Open picture" it will open the image in your picture editing programme, such as Photoshop, where you can alter to your hearts content, then save and close and you are back to PTE with your image updated. I know it works as it is one of the features which I have expressed my appreciation in a previous thread. PTE does not close.

Best wishes

Ron [uK]

[HaroldB]

Interesting. I had my association for .JPG files set to "Microsoft Photo Editor" because I thought that it opened faster than PSP. But I just tried it, and for now, I am leaving it associated to PSP.... it opens quickly enough. (Al, I don't have the problem with PSP closing when I do that from the PSP main screen.)

The main advantage of having drag and drop, I guess, is that you can choose where to drag and drop it. "Open picture" depends on a Windows association.

But I can certainly live with it the way it is now. Thanks, Al and Ron for getting me to go back and revisit my Windows associations.

Harold

[alrobin]

Hi, Ron,

You are fortunate - however, in my setup, for some unknown reason, PTE closes, and I have to go back and start it up again when finished working with the image editor (PS). Would appreciate advice re some setting I am missing out on in order to keep PTE open.

Harold,

Drag and drop capability would be a nice touch, too, especially in a dual-monitor arrangement.

[Ken Cox]

Al

while you were on vacation this file association thing came up - - i gave some suggestions to Ron to make the change and he had good luck

windows explorer

tools/folder options/file types

open with

I am always shaky when i get in this area so basically you are on your own -- years ago i screwed up bigtime messing with file associations, so now irfanview is default for icons and jpgs and windows system does the rest - at least nowdays most programs give on the option of association when installing them

Maybe go back a couple weeks in the search to see if you can find the exact thread for the details

good luck

ken

[alrobin]

Thanks, Ken

But it's not "file associations" I'm having a problem with. I can find my way around that maze fairly well, I think.

My problem is that when I click "open picture" from the new light-table, the image opens properly in Photoshop as I expect it should. But, at the same time, the PTE window closes. Windows Explorer doesn't close when I double-click a jpeg in it.

I think I remember someone complaining about a year ago that PTE wasn't "keeping the focus" under some situations. Maybe the problem has something to do with this??

[Ken Cox]

Well i had not played with the light table since it was instituted so i installed beta 9

2 problems have apppeared to me

the help file will not work

same is installed/unpacked here

D:\P2E Shows\v4.30 beta #9 prog

D:\P2E Shows\4.3 beta 3 program -- help file works fine

relocated beta 9 to

D:\v4.30 beta #9

help file still no good -Igor- right panel will not display same problem as a year ago -- but the relocation did not help

putting the help file here

D:\

it works

renaming the folder to

pte_v4.30_b_9

and placing here

D:\pte_v4.30_b_9

the help file works

and placing it back

to

D:\P2E Shows\pte_v4.30_b_9

help file works

think it was the # sign

beta 9 -- when i right click on a picture in the light table to open it -- irfanview opens it ok but i get an "access violation at address 00404732 in module'4_30 beta 9 apr.exe'. Read of address 00677062.

i click ok and the error goes away picture open and pte does not close as it does for Al

system

i opened a different show and the error messages did not come up when r clicking to open a pict

fun and games have begun

clean install xp home- pent4-2.8ghz-gig of ram

ken

[JSlugman]

Holy cow, Igor! I take a few weeks off to move from Alaska to a small island in the Atlantic and I come back to this...incredible!

I guess this means I have to get back to work...

Thanks!

James

Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal

[Igor]

I very glad to see you, Harold!

1) Fullscreen preview of a picture will be realized. Thanks that you told about this. Double-click or Enter already used and I can't change it. Maybe middle mouse button and some hotkey?

2) I'll try to add action to move selected slides to the end of slide list.

3) Dragging of slides to another application currently impossible and it requires some time to find a way to realize it. But maybe just I add a hotkey as temporary solution to open selected picture?

4) I'll fix that moment when preview is not updated after switching from full screen view!

However, I notice that at present, if one uses this function, PTE, itself, closes. It would be handy if there were an easier way to open an image for editing, and when finished, have it appear immediately in edited form back in PTE.

Al, thank you for this idea! Aleksey right today wrote this code for me!

Ken,

It's a peculiarity of Microsoft Help system. They require path to .chm help files without symbol '#' in the names of folders.

Al, I just sent you email with special test to solve problem with "Open picture" function.

[HaroldB]

1) Fullscreen preview of a picture will be realized. Thanks that you told about this. Double-click or Enter already used and I can't change it. Maybe middle mouse button and some hotkey?

2) I'll try to add action to move selected slides to the end of slide list.

3) Dragging of slides to another application currently impossible and it requires some time to find a way to realize it. But maybe just I add a hotkey as temporary solution to open selected picture?

4) I'll fix that moment when preview is not updated after switching from full screen view!

1) A hotkey will be great. Is the spacebar available?

3) A hotkey will be great.

Thanks a lot! I haven't gotten a chance to play much with the new PTE today, but I am really looking forward to doing so! I can't wait to see how the timeline with the waveforms works!

Harold

[Guest Techman1]

Igor,

I have a couple of items possibly associated with this beta version:

(1) If I create Hyperlinks in Object Editor and don't specify any text (only spaces) and have this cover my text that was created in Photoshop, I can create everything and all works well. But, if I exit PTE and go back in and try to edit using Object Editor my hyperlinks are all gone. I have to recreate them completely for them to show up again. I'm creating a Menu slideshow that runs other real slideshows from the main menu. Again, it all works fine if I create my executable, but the hyperlinks disappear after exiting and going back in. And yes I did do a save before exiting. I tried several times to make sure it wasn't something I was doing. Although it could be because the text is only spaces and not letters.

(2) This is an old issue that I've brought up before and I've seen a few others address it also. If you turn on the comments so that your file names are showing, but on certain slides you blank out the comments. After you do a save, the file name comes back into the comments again. This is a problem if you use an opening (like titles) and don't want the file names shown until you get to the customer files. For example, we create an opening that has our studio information and then show our client photos. We only want the client photos to show the name and not our opening information. Is there a way to have PTE not put the file names back after each save (or it could be after options have been changed again).

Thanks again for this latest beta and things are certainly always getting better and better with this program. I'm celebrating my one year anniversary as a user on this forum and with PTE and I must say, "I'm completely satisfied with the program & your continued enhancements". Keep up the excellent work and please pass along my thanks to your team!

Fred

[ccmanz]

(2) This is an old issue that I've brought up before and I've seen a few others address it also.  If you turn on the comments so that your file names are showing, but on certain slides you blank out the comments.  After you do a save, the file name comes back into the comments again.  This is a problem if you use an opening (like titles) and don't want the file names shown until you get to the customer files.  For example, we create an opening that has our studio information and then show our client photos.  We only want the client photos to show the name and not our opening information.  Is there a way to have PTE not put the file names back after each save (or it could be after options have been changed again).

This does happen when you go back into your options.

you still have the check box "Set comments for all slides as..."

Checked. So when we OK the changes we make. We are

also telling the options to add the comments again to all slides.

If you go back into and uncheck this box you can delete the

comments and they will not return everytime you go back into

the options.

[ccmanz]

Igor,

The new File preview is working very quickly now.

But to go along with what Harold has brought up.

If I make these changes.

-View

--Flie list Sort Order

---Reverse Order

The names of my files change to reverse.

But the thumbnails do not change.

They are showing the wrong thumbnails.

[Tripstrilles]

@Igor

1. I can confirm the same like ccmanz.

2. If I change to the last directory of a tree in the file-list, the name of this directory will not be displayed. There is every time only a folder icon with this label: <..>.

It would be helpfull to show the real name of the directory where the files are.

If there are subdirectories, all folder icons have their correct label.

3. The letters - T - V - F - for switching to another mode could be more larger and bold.

Especially the letter - V - is not shown full. A part of the - V - cannot be displayed. The top of the right slash is missing.

Greetings, T.

[ronwil]

Techman

I have created in Photoshop a set of rectangular blocks which I can use to cover over my text (or image - see my Intro Demo on Beechbrook) in Object Editor. Then, using right click on the "Cover" and Properties, check Main>Transparent Background then under 'Action on mouse click' complete the actions you have been doing up till now.

I have checked back on the sequences I have prepared in this way and they are still stable.

Good luck

Ron [uK]

[Guest Techman1]

Thanks Ron and Chuck! I'll give them both a try and see if this resolves the issues I addressed. It sounds like these will take care of problems. I appreciate you both taking the time to respond.

Take care!

Fred

[alrobin]

(1) If I create Hyperlinks in Object Editor and don't specify any text (only spaces) and have this cover my text that was created in Photoshop, I can create everything and all works well.  But, if I exit PTE and go back in and try to edit using Object Editor my hyperlinks are all gone.

Fred,

I think you will find that your hyperlinks are still there, but for some reason they seem to be resized to miniscule dots which are no longer visible, and hence useless for your purpose. I suspect that this is due to the lack of actual text characters. I use "empty" Text objects, and find the same thing occurs.

You can verify that they are still there by the object count at the top left of the object editor. Another way to verify that they are still there is to add hyperlink boxes on two opposite corners of the image, save, close, reopen, and then drag a selection rectangle around the entire image in the object editor. You should see a dotted rectangle around the perimiter of the image allowing you to group the two objects together, move together, etc.

I use this method to retain the relative position of objects for larger screen resolutions.

Igor: Would it be possible to add a "size" function to the hyperlink and text objects, similar to that for the "buttons", but without the border around the button. Conversely, could you add a feature to the "button" object whereby the border could be removed so that the button is completely transparent?

Another little glitch that I did notice is that for "hyperlink" objects, the option to not include underlining seems to be ineffective.

[JRR]

Better late than never......

Igor, I have been rather pre-occupied with other things the past few months, but Alrobin mentioned that I should pop into the forum and take a look at the new beta. (I have not looked at it since 4.20 was issued)

What can I say ?!?!?!?!?!?!?

You are continuing to out do yourself, where will it all end ??

Congrats to you and your assistants, and to all the users for encouraging you to continue to take PTE to new heights.

[dagrace]

Igor,

I have been gone for a few weeks and very busy the few times I am at home, so I have not gotten to "play" since beta 2 or 4. Every once in a while, I come to the forum and read a thing or two, and download the latest beta.

I am simply amazed. As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, this is exciting to me as I have never had any influence on any commercially available software product. You and you team are SO responsive. It's incredible!

Thank you for fixing so many things, caring about all the suggestins and bug reports, and listening to your customers.

I hope to get "back in to it" very soon, as I have the images for 3 slide shows in the queue now. I can't wait to try the new features. In the mean time I'll have to rely on all these great folks to ask for the right things.

Thanks again.

[markoc398]

Igor, thank you for the updates,

Small problem with adding text over an image. The text lands in different places on the image depending on the monitor resolution. Example, If I place it where I like it on an image and change the resolution it will be in a different place. This also occurs when I place graphic buttons that I created on my opening page. They are in different locations depending on the screen resolution. Same thing happens if I add the copyright logo and use the offset. Could you address this sometime and see if it can be fixed??

Thanks

Mark

[ronwil]

Mark

This has been discussed in a number of threads in the past and the recommendations have always been that you prepare your text etc prior to adding to PTE using a picture editing programme such as Photoshop.

Ron [uK]