PicturesToExe v4.00 beta #2

[Igor]

PicturesToExe v4.00 beta #2 is released

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr_beta.zip (1,25 Mb)

Now you can start preview from any necessary slide.

What's new in beta #2 since beta #1 released:

* Fixed the old bug when presentation run in the synchronization mode. The music

started a little earlier, if first slide contains very large JPEG picture.

However all other slides are shown *exactly* at specified time.

Now the first slide also will be shown exactly with begining of music.

* Fixed several bugs

+ Improvements in the Visual Editor of objects

+ PicturesToExe will correctly informs in case of show if damaged or incorrect JPEG images

+ Now you can start Preview of presentation from a necessary slide:

> Main window of PicturesToExe:

1) Select necessary slide in the slide-slide and then press Ctrl+R;

2) or select necessary slide in the slide-slide, click right mouse button

then find "Run Preview from a current slide";

3) or select necessary slide in the slide-slide, and find a little button,

located at the right-bottom of picture preview area.

> In the "Customize synchronization" window:

Select necessary transition point and then click "Preview" button ( or press Ctrl+R).

+ Improved Customize synchronization window:

> You can start Preview of a presentation from a necessary slide ("Preview button");

> Added vertical graphical lines between sound tracks on the time-line.

> You can adjust zoom of the time-line. Click "View" button or press Ctrl+F11/F12

> Improved work of the horizontal scroll bar

> Added new hot keys: Play/Pause - Ctrl-P, Stop - Ctrl+S, Delete - Del, Add - Ins.

> Little improvements in the interface

The full list of new features:

-----------------------------------------------------------

* Fixed the old bug when presentation run in the synchronization mode. The music

started a little earlier, if first slide contains very large JPEG picture.

However all other slides are shown *exactly* at specified time.

Now the first slide also will be shown exactly with begining of music.

+ Fixed several bugs

+ Preview of large images works much faster now (with same quality) in

the Main window of PicturesToExe and "Customize Synchronization" window.

+ Improved quality and speed of full-screen viewer of images (Main window).

+ Improved quality of gradient filling of background, if screen in Hi-Color (16-bit) mode.

+ Improved shadow for the main picture:

> It looks much smoothly now;

> You can adjust opacity of shadow behind the main picture. (Project options |

"Screen" tab | "Opacity". From 0 of full transparency to 255 of opacity;

> The shadow can surround picture around all sides (see "Offset" parameter).

+ New default an icon for newly created .exe file of presentation.

Also the main icon of PicturesToExe is improved.

+ Added new option: "Auto hide mouse cursor" (Project options | "Advanced" tab)

+ Some improvements in "Main" and "Advanced" tabs of the Project options.

+ Visual Editor of objects is vastly improved:

* Fixed several bugs;

> Added support for transparent GIF pictures (as objects of slide);

> You can call "Properties" dialog for a some object by double clicking of mouse;

> It's possible to cancel dragging of a object by pressing of <Esc> key;

> To select/deselect several objects, click on an each necessary object holding <Shift> key;

> To select all objects, press Ctrl+A;

> Added "Undo" button to cancel last modification;

> Added Copy/Paste functions (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V)

> Improved popup menu when you click right mouse button on the object(s)

> Added hot keys for all actions (see popup menu above)

> And some other helpful improvements.

+ Produced presentations will start faster now.

+ "Preview" of presentation starts faster

+ PicturesToExe (main window) opens projects much faster

+ Improved Customize synchronization window:

> You can start Preview of a presentation from a necessary slide ("Preview button");

> Time-line graphically displays effect duration for the transition points;

> Added vertical graphical lines between sound tracks on the time-line.

> You can adjust zoom of the time-line. Click "View" button or press Ctrl+F11/F12

> Improved work of the horizontal scroll bar

> Added new hot keys: Play/Pause - Ctrl-P, Stop - Ctrl+S, Delete - Del, Add - Ins.

> Little improvements in the interface

+ PicturesToExe correctly informs you, if you add damaged JPEG image

+ Various improvements in interface of the program

[alrobin]

Igor,

Thanks so much for the new beta. There are some very nice new features. I particularly like the dual scroll options, and the "Ctl-P", "Ctl-R", etc, capability on the timeline. Also, the zoom capablity makes the synchronization previewing very smooth!!

Just a couple of negative observations, if you will allow me:

- the new beta still comes up showing "beta 1"

- I don't see how to change the duration time of a transition effect from the timeline screen (I can change the time of the start of the transition, but not the time of the end - i.e. the duration time).

- when you set a customized slide to a "quick change", there is still a grey bar on the transition line equal in length to the default duration time of the transition. However, the preview does "cut" as it is supposed to.

Overall, however, lots of very nice cosmetic changes. Thanks again!

[ronwil]

New preview systems great and working satisfactorily. Thanks. I also am getting it still showing as beta#1.

Ron [uK]

[ltdedorc]

Igor,

Thanks! I tried the preview from any slide feature and it's great. Now I can check my special sequencing of slides with different slide duration time, no transition time & transition effect time, using the Customize Slide option w/o having to go thru the show from the beginning. I would still like to see the ability to turn off the Project Option | Advance | Navigation Bar when Customizing Slides in a special sequence...Harvey

[Igor]

Sorry, I didn't updated the caption of the main window to "...beta #2". Will upload corrected build in several minutes right now.

- I don't see how to change the duration time of a transition effect from the timeline screen (I can change the time of the start of the transition, but not the time of the end - i.e. the duration time).

There is an one little difficulty with this feature. If it will be allowed to change duration of an effect directly on the time-line, then that slide automatically becomes as Personalized. Or other way - apply change to common effect duration (for all slides).

- when you set a customized slide to a "quick change", there is still a grey bar on the transition line equal in length to the default duration time of the transition. However, the preview does "cut" as it is supposed to.

Thanks, I'll check it.

[Guest guru]

Many thanks for your great work, Igor.

I noticed a little bug in new "zoom" feature (by the way, a great feature): when I zoom from "View" menu I can only zoom in, and I cannot zoom out or zoom back. All right, on the contrary, if I use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + F11, Ctrl + F12).

[alrobin]

There is an one little difficulty with this feature. If it will be allowed to change duration of an effect directly on the time-line, then that slide automatically becomes as Personalized. Or other way - apply change to common effect duration (for all slides).

Igor,

Would it be possible to have two boxes (or alternatively, sliders), one for "default" transition duration times, and one for "customized" (Personalized) settings.

If the slide is not already "customized", then just ignore the entry until one goes back to the customize menu for that slide and sets up proper "customization".

The main requirement is for a way of editing the length of time for those slides which are already customized, to avoid going back and forth from one window to another. This can be very time-consuming.

Thanks again for a great program, and all your work in perfecting it. It's looking really good!

[Ken Cox]

could i so bold to ask

where has the thread for beta gone to -- never never land -- i cant seem to find it

ken

[alrobin]

Looks like Igor just wiped it out and started fresh with the new beta .

[HaroldB]

Igor,

Beta #2 seems great to me. I've got the same problems Al and Guru have already reported, but outside of that, it really seems to work fine. And it's a GREAT IMPROVEMENT!!!

It's nice how in the synch wondow, when you press the Preview button while it's playing, it will switch to full-screen preview from where it is up to!

[From Al:] I don't see how to change the duration time of a transition effect from the timeline screen (I can change the time of the start of the transition, but not the time of the end - i.e. the duration time).

[From Igor:] There is an one little difficulty with this feature. If it will be allowed to change duration of an effect directly on the time-line, then that slide automatically becomes as Personalized. Or other way - apply change to common effect duration (for all slides).

I think that if somebody changes the duration for a transition on the synch window, the slide should become Personalized. And I think adding this feature would be a Really Good Thing.

While you're at it, I think it would be really good to also be able to change the transition type (let me choose from a drop-down list box) in the synch window. Same thing goes here.... if the user changes it in this window, the slide becomes Personalized. That allows one to experiment with different transition types without going back and forth between dialog boxes.

One tiny thing, but only if it's easy to do: could we go directly from the main PTE window to the synch window and back? You could gray the button out if the proper option isn't selected on the Project Options dialog. I'd be so bold as to say that if you make this change, there is no need to go to the synch window from Project Options, although you might want to keep that for people that are used to it.

Great work!

Harold

[Danabw]

Igor:

Just amazing. Thanks. PTE continues to rule the PC slideshow world.

Please, please, please consider porting PTE to a DVD-capable version some time in the future.

Or maybe you'll bump into someone who'd like to license your code? :-)

Thanks for the great updates!! The zoom and preview from slide are perfect.

Now I still want in the slide list:

- ability to select more than one slide at a time

- slide numbers

Dana

[HaroldB]

Igor:

One minor, minor problem, that IMO is not even worth fixing unless it's real easy to fix.

In the synch window, I don't see a way to do a preview from the beginning of the show!

As I said, I don't think this is worth dealing with unless it's real easy for you to do.

Harold

[Igor]

To Ken Cox

You can find topic about beta #1 on the second or third page of the forum.

We never delete topics, to the exclusion of very much rare cases.

To HaroldB

I think it can be available if no transition point is selected?

So if some point is selected, the preview will be started from that slide, otherwise the presentation starts from begining.

To Danabw "slide numbers"

I'm searching for the way how easily to do this feature.

To guru

I fixed that small bug with zoom feature. Thanks.

[Ken Cox]

Igor,

thks

ken

[alrobin]

Thanks, Igor!

Is that version of Beta posted somewhere now?

[Leif]

Is that version of Beta posted somewhere now?

Just scroll to the top!

[HaroldB]

I think it can be available if no transition point is selected?

So if some point is selected, the preview will be started from that slide, otherwise the presentation starts from begining.

But there's no way to get all transition points unselected once any transition point IS selected.

OTOH, one can always simply exit and re-enter the synch window.

As far as I am concerned, this is good enough, unless you can come up with something really easy that works better.

Harold

[alrobin]

Is that version of Beta posted somewhere now?

Just scroll to the top!

Thanks, Leif,

I knew the old Beta 2 was there, but I was wondering if that was now the link to the new beta, instead.

The reason I was wondering was that when I re-loaded that file, and tried it again, the "zoom out" still "zoomed in". Igor had said in his note to Guido that the zoom problem was corrected in the new Beta.

Also, the grey bars still show on the timeline for "cuts"

[Igor]

Just I fixed the bug, but I didn't publish the new beta yet

[mandarinfish]

Just wondering if the auto hide mouse function is supposed to be fully functional? It doesn't seem to work for me. I have it autohide after 3 seconds. The cursor shows for 3 seconds and then hides (whether I'm moving it around or not), and I cannot get it to reappear. Maybe I'll try this on another machine with a different type of mouse; the one I'm using is an optical USB mouse.

[mandarinfish]

Hmmm, I think something more fundamental is wrong with my setup. Other functions, such as start preview from slide, also don't seem to work for me. When I have the timeline up, and I select a slide, the preview button goes from grayed out to normal, but when I click on it, nothing happens. Also, right-click doesn't seem to get me anything with the slides. I'm running XP. Any ideas?

thanks...

[mandarinfish]

Update: I did a clean install of PTE on a different PC (Win2k, PS2 mouse) and noticed the same two problems. Mouse never comes back from autohide, and no way to preview from a particular slide. So I don't think it's my setup. Any suggestions?

thanks

[alrobin]

Linda,

No problem with PTE on my laptop, equipped with XP (home edition). Can't offer any suggestions as to what might be wrong.

By the way, has anyone noticed the little slice of bread at the bottom RH corner of the main slide image window yet? It works now even with synchronized shows!!! Tremendous improvement, Igor!

[Igor]

To Dana

I just added (as option) feature which show slide number in the slide list.

For example:

1. C:\art\forest1.jpg 57 KB

2. C:\art\winter4.jpg 47 KB

3. C:\art\forest3.jpg 77 KB