Timing Points (Newbie)

[Brooks]

I am new to PTE and need help with my first presentation. I have 3 pieces of music to be used in sequence. I have 50 slides for the first music selection, 70 slides for the second one and 35 slides for the third one. I am OK with an equal timing for each slide within each piece of music.

What is the best way to accomplish this task?

Thanks,

Brooks

[Ken Cox]

Brooks

welcome to the forum

why not put show together and check the sychronize box not the customize box

permit control of show - show navigation bar

i think you have to show cursor

-put the slides in order and the music in the order you want it to play

save as

create as

play the exe and see how it looks

then you can fine tune things

ken

[Brooks]

Thank you, Ken.

Where would I find help in the fine tuning process?

Brooks

[Ken Cox]

on the forum

but try what i said and then ask specific questions

tip

use mp3 files for music

try and keep your picts <200kb each jpeg

ken

[Brooks]

Ken,

Thanks for the tips. I will follow your suggestions and write again in a few days as this comes together.

Brooks

[alrobin]

Brooks,

Welcome to the Forum!

1. Add the first music selection in "Project Options / Music".

2. Open the timeline and make sure "View / Auto Adding of new transition points for new slides" is checked on.

3. Click OK to close the timeline, and select the images in the file list that you want to associate with the first piece of music. Click "Add" to add them to the slide list.

4. Open the timeline again, and the transitions for these images should be present on the timeline. Select "Timed Points / Arrange all points" to spread them evenly over the first music selection.

5. Click OK to close the timeline.

6. Add the second music selection in "Project Options / Music".

7. Add the second batch of slides to the slide list.

8. Open the timeline, and you should see the second batch of transitions equally-spaced over part of the second music selection. (There should be a blue vertical bar at the end of the first music selection).

9. Position the last image at the end of the second piece of music. (if the music is not long enough for the number of slides, you may have to do some manual adjustment to make sure they are all included along the second music selection). Click on the last transition marker and "shift-click" on the transition for the first slide of the second batch that was just added in order to select all images in between.

10. Select "Timed Points / Arrange selected points" to evenly spread the second batch of images across the second music selection. Be sure to click "OK" to close the timeline and preserve your settings.

11. Repeat this operation with the third music selection, and then manually adjust the transitions until you are happy with the way they are synched to the music.

Hope this isn't too confusing - be sure to write again if you still have questions or if this procedure is not clear. All the best!

[Jean-Claude]

What is the best way to accomplish this task?

I don't know if this is the best way, but you can also realize three separate PTE projects and then, simply merge them with Sy(P) freeware.

[Brooks]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. Al, I tried your instuctions and my test program worked perfectly, Thanks! How Valuable!

The program will be projected to a group of about 50 guests. My music will last about 12 minutes and will have about 150 jpg images. I have read on the Forum that mp3 is the best format and that images should be 200-300kb. Will these settings give me the sound and picture quality that I need?

Brooks

[alrobin]

Brooks,

Glad to hear it worked out OK.

The parameters you quoted sound fine, too. Suitable image file-size really depends on the vintage of the computer you plan to use and whether you will be playing directly from a CD or not. I find with my P4 desktop setup that image file size is not as much of an issue as it used to be on my slower systems. For projection, jpegs 1024x768 pixels in size, compressed by 50 to 70%, seem to be the optimum images to use, both for quality and speed of processing. If you have access to a more expensive projector that will handle up to say 1400 pixels in width, then go for even larger images.

Mp3's are the preferred way to go with the music, as the file sizes are smaller, and they seem to perform well in PTE shows. Good luck with the show!

[momoftwo]

I've got a similar problem- but I already have all the pictures added to my show and am wondering if there is someway I can do this without starting all over.

I have 9! Songs altogether. And I want my first set of pictures to be evenly dispursed over 3 songs, and then the next set of pictures to be dispursed over the NEXT 3 songs, and the last set of pictures dispursed over the last three songs.

(IF that makes sense)

It is getting way more complicated than I want it to be.

Is there somewhat to adapt with this set up?

Thank you for any help , In advance. I do appreciate it.

Alison

[alrobin]

Alison,

If you are using PTE version 4.4, it is quite simple to accomplish this, even if you have your images already loaded.

Click on the "timeline". Rearrange your first group of slides so that the last image in the group is positioned at the end of the third music selection. (as you probably know, the end of each music piece is displayed as a blue vertical bar on the timeline; alternatively, you can see the breaks between music pieces on the waveform).

Click on the first transition point (the small blue rectangle). Then "shift-click" on the slide you positioned at the end of the third piece of music. This will highlight all slides in the first group. Then select "Timed Points / Arrange selected points". All slides in the first set should now be equi-spaced over the first three music selections. Repeat this process with the other two sets. Let me know if you have trouble making this work.

[momoftwo]

Ah Man, Alrobin!

I could kiss you!

If it is really that easy you saved me lots of time, headaches, and screaming at my computer!

Thanks!

If I have trouble I"ll be back!

[momoftwo]

I'm backkkkkK!

Your directions make perfect sense....seems like it should work, but here's the trouble.

Ex/ Slide 180 should be the end of my 3rd song. So I either have to drag ALL 180 points way back down the time line til 180 is lines up at 9 minute mark and then follow your shift directions (which by the way work swell when I get to that point) ....OR, if I just try to drag the 180 slide down, passing others on the way, 180 now becomes slide 130 (or whatever). And then it's all screwed up.

This *^^$#@#& slideshow is taking me WAY too much time.

Please, help!

Thanks!

Alison

[Jean-Claude]

Please, help!

I don't know if this is the best way, but you can also realize three separate PTE projects and then, simply merge them with Sy(P) freeware.

See recent thread here

[alrobin]

momoftwo,

I'm back for another kiss! (I'm blushing).

I was afraid that bunching up the points might be a problem. However, there are a couple of things you can do to alleviate the problem.

1. First of all, you probably know that you can move several transitions at a time by clicking on the first one of a group, shift-clicking on the last one, and then grabbing and moving them all together with the mouse.

2. If you highlight all the transitions in the first group, and select "Timed points / Set time of points ..." (or "Ctrl-T"), you can bunch them all up by inputting a shorter slide duration value such as 1000 ms. Select a value that puts the last image approximately at the end of the third music selection (a quick calculation will give you the value required). Then you can easily position the last image of the group and follow the directions in the previous post. Then repeat this process with the transitions in the second and third groups.

Hope this helps!