am i doing the slide show correctly?

[tommy]

hi all. i was wondering if some of you might look at the way i am doing a slide show and tell me if i am on the right track or not. i selected the 250 slides and added them to the play list > chose the 7 music tracks> in project options i selected the first music > at the chosen slide to change to the next music i went into customise slide and selected the music > i repeated these steps until the end of the show > i then went to file > save as > i named the show and saved it in my documents. possibly all ok so far i think? at least , when i double click on it it opens and plays as i want it to. i should add i never touched the create button at all as i do not know if this is required or indeed what it does. the next part is unexplored territory to me > do i purchase ulead dvd factory and install it on my computer and then hopefully import the saved file in to it and then after burning it i will have a cd that i can play on a computer and more importantly others can play on their dvd's? as i am new to P T E and confused by the time line i went through the laborious steps of selecting the music and adding more (or less ) slides to 'pan' out the music. i can now see from this exellent forum the timeline is a great asset once understood. i never thought i would be too interested in slide shows being a landscape lover but i am geting more and more hooked. i hope you good and well informed people will be gentle with me as you are with other newcomers even though you will have no doubt gone over these requests too many times to remember. thank you, tom

[JRR]

Tom:

If it works the way you want OK, but you have gone about it a rather unorthodox way.

(by the way 250 images is along show, hope you have a captive audience )

Normally we would take the music and link them together in one sound track, via a sound editing software such as Audacity(free) or Audition(not free) ) and add the music through the Project Options TAB and then custom synch the show.

I assume you are at least saving the .pte file

If you want to create a DVD, then I suggest you go here for further help

[alrobin]

Tom,

You might find my PTE-101 tutorial HERE on Beechbrook (free download) useful - it's a little out of date, but the fundamentals are the same.

When Igor releases version 5 it will be even more out of date!

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Tom, and welcome,

PTE, like anything else, has its own learning curve. You will soon become familiar with the program (which is still the best) Can I suggest that a show containing 250 slides is not going to be the best, it will be very boring to most audiences. In order that you can learn the fundamentals of PTE - stick to making slide shows with about 25 images.

You will definitely want to discover the importance of the 'Template' option, this will keep all your show details, i.e. images, music projects and exe all in one place/folder.

Don't forget to resize your images in an editor before using them in a slide show.

An excellent tutorial is available from Barry Beckham Here:

Good luck with your endeavours!

Ron

[tommy]

Hi Tom, and welcome,

PTE, like anything else, has its own learning curve. You will soon become familiar with the program (which is still the best) Can I suggest that a show containing 250 slides is not going to be the best, it will be very boring to most audiences. In order that you can learn the fundamentals of PTE - stick to making slide shows with about 25 images.

You will definitely want to discover the importance of the 'Template' option, this will keep all your show details, i.e. images, music projects and exe all in one place/folder.

Don't forget to resize your images in an editor before using them in a slide show.

An excellent tutorial is available from Barry Beckham Here:

Good luck with your endeavours!

Ron

hi Ron, this is where you start to wonder if i am on the same planet as you. do you mean all the pictures can/should only be a certain size to work efficiently? what size is the best? regarding the template option. can you instruct me in the most simplest of terms what i have to do. i have one of Barry Beckams tutorials but not the one i need now i suspect. i think i have dived in at the deepend without understanding the fundamentals of PTE. i will probably just play the newlyweds the cd with the photos and some background music on another cd for now until i understand more.

[ContaxMan]

You might find the introductory tutorial on my site useful. See below.

[Ronniebootwest]

Hello Tom,

The Tutorial CD you need is available Here:

It will deal with the matter of sizing your images correctly for the best presentation within PTE. It also has a host of other information that you will find useful.

When you created your wedding slide show you will have saved it as a project file and also as a slide show (.exe) file. It is this .exe file that you will burn to a CD for your friends to watch on their own computer.

When making a slide show it is best that you place all components of that show in its own folder and one of the easiest ways of doing this is via the 'Template option' within PTE. You will find this on the main menu under: File>Templates>Create template from this show. Using this option will place the images, music, project into a separate folder (you can also add the .exe file if you want). Then later on, if you want to recall the full details of the slide show, all you will need to do is open the 'Template' from the template option and you will have all the details immediately to hand. It is well worth it Tom, especially if you move either the images or the music to another folder in your computer.

Ron