Best practice workflow question

[iwaddo]

I was looking for some guidance about best practice workflow for managing assets that are used to create a new slideshow.

Using the PTE browser I can pull in images and other assets from anywhere on my disks but I was wondering if it was considered best practice to copy all assets into a single folder or under a single project folder so that you have them in one place for future use and edits?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[goddi]

Greetings,

I am sure others will have different opinions but I believe that you should have all of your files in one place. I copy all files into the project folder so there is no way of wondering where anything is latter on.

Gary

[iwaddo]

Gary

That was exactly my thinking, thank you.

So to my next question. If I have already created a project with the assets scattered all over are there any tools or utilities to read the PTE file and pull all the assets together into a single folder, or is this a manual exercise?

Thank you for your support. 
 

Regards, Ian. 

[goddi]

I haven't used it much since I always have all file in my project folder. But I believe 'File/Create Backup in Zip' will put together all your scattered files used in the project into a zip file. Then, just create a new project folder and unzip in that folder. Others may correct my thinking.

Gary

[iwaddo]

Excellent, Thank you, I will give that a go.

Thank you for your help

Regards Ian

[davegee]

A Template will do the same thing without all of that Zipping and Unzipping.

DG

[jkb]

Agree, use a Template.

This also has the advantage of being available within PTE, so is easy to select.

Jill

[iwaddo]

Thank you for the help.

I have created a template from an existing project and PTE pulled a copy of all the assets for the project together into the specified template folder.

This has saved me hours of manual messing about. I am so please I asked on the forum and very grateful for the very prompt and helpful responses.

thank you so much Stay Safe

Ian

PS, I am sure I will be back soon with my next question ;-)

[wideangle]

Hi Ian

The template method and the Create Backup in Zip method both do the job for you.
 

One slight advantage of the latter, if relevant, is that it gives you a quick way of transferring a project, say between a desktop and a laptop.

Regards

wideangle

[iwaddo]

Hi, yes, that is a great point, thank you.

Regards

Ian

 

[jkb]

So does the Template. Just transfer the .pt folder to the Template folder on the laptop and again it will be available from within PTE.

The backup zip is useful if you need to send to someone else over the internet.

Jill

[iwaddo]

Hi, is it considered ok to work on a project directly in the templates folder or should I really move it to my projects folder? The latter feels good practice and tidy but I’m not sure it matters. 
 

Thank you for your help. 
 

Regards, Ian. 

[jkb]

If all of your files are already in your Template folder, then you can work on the project and save the .pte file. If you resave as a template again it will make another folder.

 

I find it best to set up a new folder in a dedicated place and bring everything into there, with subfolders for images, sounds etc. 

Save the .PTE file regularly with a new name as you work. Say project1, project2 etc. That way you can easily go back a step if you don't like what you have done in the latest changes.

Then once I am happy it is complete I then save as a template.

Jill

[iwaddo]

Jill, thank you, I will do as you suggest as it will keep things tidy and I do like tidy 

Thank you for your help. 
 

Regards, Ian. 

[wideangle]

Hi Ian

I am sure that everyone has their own preferred approach to a workflow, which they are comfortable with.

My preferred approach is to use the Backup in Zip method, which I would argue is much simpler and quicker than making use of templates.

This is my approach.
I start a new project and insert components from wherever they may be stored on my computer (which could be from many different folders.)

I then do a Backup in Zip, which automatically collects together a copy of everything I've used, into one zipped file.
Why spend lots of time setting up a dedicated folder and then looking for all your files, and putting copies of them into that folder, when Backup in Zip does it in one click!
As I develop my project I will occasionally do a new Backup in Zip to bring it up to date.
The other advantage is that I automatically have an instant independent security backup copy of my work, and it is already compressed to save space.
I have a folder which I use for all of my PT AV Backup in Zip files, so I just save them into this one folder each time I do a project.
So this one folder contains a zipped backup for security purposes, of every PT AV project that I have ever produced.
That makes it easy, if I wish, to copy over to a second drive, for even added security.
 

While there are certain merits to the use of templates in PT AV, in my view they are somewhat misnamed.
To me, a template should be a structure with blank placeholders where you can drop items in to create a new finished product.

Let's consider an example in PT AV Studio of a basic slideshow project with, say, 100 slides each consisting of one image.
You save that as a template, and then decide that you want a second slideshow but with 100 different images.
With a true template you would just fill the placeholders with the new images (often with drag and drop)
With PT AV, you load the template, then have to visit each slide, replace the file with the new filename etc.......a lengthy process.

There are a few occasions when I may use the templates.
For example, let's say I have a project with a good general  introductory sequence, and similarly, a good concluding sequence, both of which I may want to use again sometime.
I would delete all the intermediate slides in the project, just leaving the start and end sequences, and save that as the template.
I see no advantage at all in saving a whole project as a template, when Backup in Zip does a better job.

.............but, as I said earlier, everyone has their own preference!

Regards

wideangle
 

[iwaddo]

11 hours ago, wideangle said:

Why spend lots of time setting up a dedicated folder and then looking for all your files, and putting copies of them into that folder, when Backup in Zip does it in one click!
As I develop my project I will occasionally do a new Backup in Zip to bring it up to date.

I have to say this makes a lot of sense and does seem to be a time saving approach.

11 hours ago, wideangle said:

While there are certain merits to the use of templates in PT AV, in my view they are somewhat misnamed.
To me, a template should be a structure with blank placeholders where you can drop items in to create a new finished product.

This explains why I was unable to reconcile the use of Templates, I tend to agree they are misnamed.

Thank you everyone for your help, I will keep developing my workflow and see what feels more comfortable.

Thank you for your support.

Regards, Ian.  

[Aleina Show]

My friends, in the process of work I often have to create videos of the same type, in which only the photos change. I made a so called template for my personal needs.  So I decided to share my experience with you, perhaps this will help you save time.
I created a separate folder (no matter in which directory), added the required number of photos to it. And renamed them to 01.jpg- 99.jpg (any quantity). Then I created a project with these photos, added an intro, an ending, applied the necessary styles, transitions, color correction, etc. to them. I saved this as a project. And that's it, my template is ready. When I need to replace the photos, I delete the photos from this folder and add new ones, renamed 01-99.jpg again. If extra, blank slides appear, I delete them. If there is not enough room for new photos, I copy a few slides, paste them at the end, and replace the photos with new ones. This way my work is much faster.

Aleina

[wideangle]

Hi Aleina

Yes, I use that method from time to time as well, because it is much quicker than making the changes from within PT AV's template.

However, the problem with it is that if you want to have your second set of photos in a fixed order, you have to take care and spend time making sure that this particular photo is named 23.jpg, and that particular photo is named 37.jpg etc etc. Alternatively you would have to spend time dragging slides around in the slide view to achieve the correct order.

Regards

wideangle