Timed Points - from here forward...?

[bddorsey]

Is there a way to manually set a bunch of transition points in a timeline (say the first 10) and then have P2E calculate and arrange the rest of the slides for the duration of the music? Then if I change the music (and hence the duration) I can delete all but those first 10 points and then do it again to the new music duration.

[it's not as simple as just doing an arrange all points and then fudging with the first bunch and moving the back bunch together since you'd actually need to contract the timing b/w transitions on the back bunch).

Thx.

~bd

[alrobin]

bd,

Yes, the new version 4.4 of PTE provides several new features which make this type of arrangement possible.

Before adding any images to a new project, and after adding the music selections, uncheck "Auto adding of new transition points ..." in the "View" menu of the timeline window. This will allow you to add images to the "Slide List" on the main window without adding their transition points to the timeline.

Then add the slides you want to manually position on the timeline (i.e. the first batch).

Open the timeline again, and manually add the transitions for these slides. Check "Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the View menu and close the timeline using the "OK" button.

Select the remaining slides and "Add" them to the slide list. Open the timeline again, and you will notice that these new images have been positioned arbitrarily on the timeline, after the first batch. Delete the last transition from the timeline (without deleting the image itself), position the cursor at the end of the timeline, and click "New transition". The transition to the last image should now appear at the end of the timeline.

Highlight this last transition, and "shift-click" on the transition point for the first image of the new batch of images in order to highlight them all. Then in the "Timed Points" menu, select "Arrange selected points". Hope this works!