PicturesToExe v5.00 beta #2

[ronwil]

In my experiments with 5.0 Beta#2, I have been reconstructing our AV Group’s Intro for our annual presentation to the Club in the autumn. It involves outline portraits spinning through 360 degrees ending up in a position around the Club logo. (It was these portraits which prompted me to ask the question and receive an answer in a recent thread of how to name them.) In my original version of the Intro, composed in 4.47, I used the Object Editor, an invisible mask over individual portraits and “Run application or open file” to open that persons sequence.

At the moment whilst the Button, Images etc are there in the tool bar, is it intended that the facilities available in 4.47 be included in 5.0 once the gradual development has been completed.

No doubt Igor will answer this one (by the way thank you to you and your team for this excellent development of 5.0) or maybe Ken will point me to where my question already has been answered.

Ron [uK]

[thedom]

Btw, I think I found an other (minor) bug / something not implemented yet :

in projects options, screen tab, the cover screen mode doesn't seem to be applied to the slides (always "fit to screen").

Am I the only one to have the problem ?

Thanks.

[ronwil]

thedom

I am wondering if the reason you are not getting a response to your question is your use of the term "cover screen mode" and whether it is the translation from your mother tongue, which is causing a problem for someone to give an answer. The term is not familiar to me as part of my PTE software.

Ron [uK]

[Adda]

Am I the only one to have the problem ?

Thanks.

I also have the same problem, but I think, it will be solve in future betas.

Adda

[ronwil]

So what is Cover Screen, Adda?

Ron [uK]

[Igor]

Quite often (at least, it's my case ) I need to pan or zoom on an object and this adjustement is completely linked to the position of an other object in the next/previous slide (especially with "cut" transition).

But in the O/A window, you only can view the animations of the current slide

(Or may be I missed something ?)

I added your suggestioon to our TODO list. Good idea. I can't promiss exactly when it will be added, but it is in our plans.

in projects options, screen tab, the cover screen mode doesn't seem to be applied to the slides (always "fit to screen").

If you created slide-show with aspect ratio 16:9 and see it on your 4:3 display you see black strips. With "Cover screen" option slide automatically will be proportionally enlarged and will cover entire screen. On 16:9 screen no difference. Alternatively you can enable this mode for any slide-show using command line. Type pteshow.exe -cover for example

We'll add speeds (Linear, Smooth, etc) to Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects.

Ron,

Buttons, Hyperlinks and Text objects are not included to beta #2 and still not actions like "Run application". We're working on these functions.

[ronwil]

Thanks Igor, I appreciated that Buttons, Hyperlinks and Text objects could not be included in this early stage of development of 5.0, but it is reassuring to know that it is part of future developments.

Ron [uK]

[thedom]

Igor,

Thank you so much for those great news on the future improvements ! Ron and Igor, about "the cover screen option" problem , I think I understand how it should work but I really think that's there is still a little problem but maybe I'm not clear.

Here is what I do :

- File > New Project

- In project options, in the screen tab, I choose "cover screen" in the list box.

- I add a picture in the slide list.

- I select this slide

- I click on "Objects and animation".

- In the "Properties" tab, the display mode is "Fit to screen" and the picture doesn't cover the screen.

I can change this mode in the list box and choose "cover screen" (and it does) but I suppose it should be already set to "Cover Screen". Am I right ? Ron, could you please make the test too ?Thanks.

[alrobin]

Thedom,

I find that the "cover screen" option in the O/A window has no effect. If I select "cover screen" in Project Options, then the images out of proportion are cropped to fill the screen whether I have selected this option for individual images in O/A or not.

I can visualize a danger with this option in that if an AV maker sets it by mistake, unknowingly, he or she may not notice it if the aspect ratio of the monitor is the same as that of the images, but it could pose a problem for certain viewers. So, we also need a command for the viewer to "-uncover", as well as "-cover".

I also feel that this option is an unnecessary complication, and I don't think I would ever use it if it meant one of my images would be cropped. I prefer to do my cropping in Photoshop. If a viewer wants to crop the show because he or she is using a different aspect ratio to view one of my wide-screen productions, then that is up to him or her (bearing in mind that important parts of some images may be lost). But, as an option for the AV producer - I'm afraid I don't get it. Anyone else feel the same way? Or am I misunderstanding the situation?

[jevans]

Thedom,

I find that the "cover screen" option in the O/A window has no effect. If I select "cover screen" in Project Options, then the images out of proportion are cropped to fill the screen whether I have selected this option for individual images in O/A or not.

Al,

Can you just check the statement above. I find that the option to change the screen appearance in the O/A window works fine, "Original", "Fit to screen", "cover screen". But the option slected in "Project Options" has no effect on the slide in the O/A window.

Jeff

[thedom]

I find that the option to change the screen appearance in the O/A window works fine, "Original", "Fit to screen", "cover screen". But the option slected in "Project Options" has no effect on the slide in the O/A window.

Exactly the same thing for me.

[alrobin]

Al,

Can you just check the statement above. I find that the option to change the screen appearance in the O/A window works fine, "Original", "Fit to screen", "cover screen". But the option slected in "Project Options" has no effect on the slide in the O/A window.

Jeff

Maybe not in the O/A window itself, but have a look at the "cover screen" option in the "Preview" window.

Please check your "PO/Screen" settings and let me know what is the value of the aspect ratio you are using, and also the screen resolution of your monitor.

[bharkins]

OK, I'll put a question in this thread to keep it togther with the other 9 pages.

I am trying to sandwich 3 layers together - a ground image, a cloud image and a title. The ground is fixed and the clouds roll by. So far so good, but when I bring in the PNG title image, I get the indented image which is locked to the previous "parent" image. Thus the title cannot be manipulated as it is locked to the parent. So, how can the child image be unlocked from the parent? I haven't seen the button for that function but I'm sure it's around somewhere. In some cases, adding images do not indent in the image list. How can we easily control the image list? I'm sure at least a half dozen gurus will know!

Bill

[alrobin]

Bill,

The easiest way to "unlock" an indented object is to copy it and paste it as a new image where you want it, and then delete the original.

[alrobin]

Jeff and Thedom,

Further to the original topic of this thread, you are both correct, provided you have selected an aspect ratio the same as that for the monitor you are using to create the show.

However, I am using a monitor with aspect ratio 4:3 to create a show in 10:6 aspect ratio with wide-screen images 1280x768. When I set "Cover screen" in project options and run the preview, all the wide-screen images are croppped to fully cover the 4:3 monitor. And, of course, the 4:3 images fill the screen without requiring cropping.

But, if I set PO to "fill screen", and O/A to "cover screen" for all images, save the show, and then run it on a wide-screen monitor, none of the images, even the wide-screen images, fill the screen - all are cropped to fit a 4:3 aspect ratio.

So, instead of cropping to fill any screen, it appears that the cropping is only carried out for monitors set at the intended aspect ratio. This is not as serious as I had originally thought - that the "cover screen" option would crop for any size monitor, regardless of the intended aspect ratio.

In other words, the originator, by having control over the aspect ratio, does have control over which images will be cropped, and by how much.

Igor, you are still one step ahead of us!

[JPD]

So, how can the child image be unlocked from the parent?

A good way would be to have a rectangle has parent for all objects, it's what I did in one of my test. The problem is that to day a rectangle is always about 200 x 200.

So I resize the rectangle in the PTE file (1920 x 1080 in my test) and put all the objects as child of the rectangle.

If I want "fit to screen" I just have to put the option on the rectangle.

It's the reason for which I hope Igor will put an option in order we can choise the size of the rectangle .

[Lin Evans]

OK, I'll put a question in this thread to keep it togther with the other 9 pages.

I am trying to sandwich 3 layers together - a ground image, a cloud image and a title. The ground is fixed and the clouds roll by. So far so good, but when I bring in the PNG title image, I get the indented image which is locked to the previous "parent" image. Thus the title cannot be manipulated as it is locked to the parent. So, how can the child image be unlocked from the parent? I haven't seen the button for that function but I'm sure it's around somewhere. In some cases, adding images do not indent in the image list. How can we easily control the image list? I'm sure at least a half dozen gurus will know!

Bill

Hi Bill,

Let me give you another way to do this. First, change the view to something very low in percentage such as 10%. Now you can actually "see" where you are inserting things (objects). Forget about clicking in or on the "Objects" list, just right click in the grey area completely outside any bounded rectangle up in the grey area surrounding the postage stamp sized image.

As a sample, just put in any object in the conventional way that you have been doing. Then change the view as seen in my two samples to 10% and right click out in the grey area choose your file and it will go into its own layer underneath the present object.

If you accidentally click inside "any" rectangle shown on the screen, you will be inserting the object under or attached to the content of that other object. So what you want to do is go totally "outside" all the rectangles in the "grey" area to do this.

Doing it this way will obviate any parent/child relationship and you won't have to delete, copy, paste, etc.

Lin

[thedom]

Jeff and Thedom,

Further to the original topic of this thread, you are both correct, provided you have selected an aspect ratio the same as that for the monitor you are using to create the show.

.............................

Al,

I'm not sure to fully understand your explanations (not your fault I guess, I really have to improve my english ! )

Anyway, what I wanted to point out is that if you choose "CoverScreen" in the Project Options, each object that you add in the slideshow should automatically have this option set by default in the O/A screen, no matter your aspect ratio you choosed for your slideshow and no matter the aspect ratio of your screen.

Do you agree ?

[alrobin]

Thedom,

From what I can tell, "cover screen" only applies to the aspect ratio chosen in POptions. In this case, you are correct in that the option does work in the O/A window. However, setting this option in POptions does not automatically set it for all objects added in O/A (at least on my system). Also, for those viewing using a different aspect ratio, this option can possibly give some undesirable results.

However, I'm still in the process of testing, and will report my findings when completed.

If you accidentally click inside "any" rectangle shown on the screen, you will be inserting the object under or attached to the content of that other object. So what you want to do is go totally "outside" all the rectangles in the "grey" area to do this.

Lin,

I found a handy way to move and resize objects "under" other objects. If you highlight one of the "hidden" objects, click in the pan or zoom box on the right (with the numerical values), and then click on one of the corner points (little rectangles, if the object is highlighted), you can use the arrow keys to adjust the size or position of that object. "Leaning" on an arrow key will move the object until you un-press the key.

[jevans]

Jeff and Thedom,

Further to the original topic of this thread, you are both correct, provided you have selected an aspect ratio the same as that for the monitor you are using to create the show.

Al,

Here is some more information along the same lines.

Original image : 3264 x 2448, ratio 1.333:1 or 4:3

Monitor size : 1280 x 1024, ratio 1.25:1 or 5:4

New project. Set PO to "cover screen" and aspect ratio 5:4 to match the monitor.

Add image and in the O/A window, the screen setting is "Fit to screen". I think this is wrong since setting the Project Options at the beginning should surely set all the default options for all slides. Then you would hange each slide to fit its apecific requirements.

Now with "fit to screen", as you would expect the width is adjusted to be correct for the width and there are black lines at the top and bottom. (1280/3264=0.392 and 2448 x 0.392=960, so there are 32 pixesl missing at the top and bottom).

With "cover screen", there is a small amount of cropping at either side of the picture. Again this is what you would expect (1024/2448=0.418 and 0.418 x 3264=1365), i.e. 42.5 pixels are cropped from each side.

Apart from the OA window not defaulting to the setting in PO, I do not think this small cropping is significant as long as you realise that it will occur. Generally I crop all my imgaes in Photoshop, to either 1024 x 768 or, more usually 1280 x 960 to maintain the same aspect ratio as my monitor.

Jeff

[bharkins]

Thanks Al and Lin for the issue of using images without locking them. Going outside the screen area is not too intuitive, but it works fine and that's the goal. Now for clarification, what is the "child" object used for and how to indent an object when needed? Also, what is the function of the "Main image" box in Properties?

As I get answers, I am working them into a nice slide show about ballooning which is looking good. Now I have to go and take more balloon pictures this weekend at out annual Balloon Festival.

Bill

[alrobin]

.........Apart from the OA window not defaulting to the setting in PO, I do not think this small cropping is significant as long as you realise that it will occur. Generally I crop all my imgaes in Photoshop, to either 1024 x 768 or, more usually 1280 x 960 to maintain the same aspect ratio as my monitor.

Jeff,

Thanks for the info - that's basically what I have been experiencing, too.

But, if you are building shows for aspect ratio 5:4, and using images 5:4, or other ratios adjusted in Photoshop to 5:4, why would you need to use "cover screen" at all?

In my case, I'm aiming for a 10:6 aspect ratio, so the cropping on a 4:3 image would be quite severe, and I would therefore not use it. I would do any required cropping in Photoshop.

Even if I did set the option to "cover screen", and I gave the show to someone with a 4:3 monitor setting, the option would not help them view the show any better, either.

... Now for clarification, what is the "child" object used for and how to indent an object when needed? Also, what is the function of the "Main image" box in Properties?

As I get answers, I am working them into a nice slide show about ballooning which is looking good. Now I have to go and take more balloon pictures this weekend at out annual Balloon Festival.

Bill,

A child object is one "subordinate" to another object (i.e. indented). It is just another object on the screen, but one which you want to have the same "Pan, Zoom, Rotate" (PZR) characteristics as the one to which it is "attached", or "subordinate".

You indent it by first highlighting (clicking on) the name of the object with the actions you want the new object to take on, and then click on "Add image" or "Add frame", depending on what type of object you want.

The "main image" function is used to indicate which object in the "O/A" list you want to be displayed on the "slide list" in the main window. You don't have to display the first image in the list - you now have a choice, if it helps you remember what objects are included with that slide. Hope this helps.

I can't wait to see the balloon show - I can just imagine balloons careening through the sky all over the place!! Should be a good application for v.5!

[bharkins]

Thanks Al for that clarification. I have to immediately test the functions as I can't remember the words in print for long.

I can't wait to see the balloon show - I can just imagine balloons careening through the sky all over the place!! laugh.gif Should be a good application for v.5!

Unfortunately, I do not have a website to post my shows at this time. I have that in my To Do list to also be able to post to Beech Cottage. However, I need to screw up more courage to show any of my stuff to the gurus of the Forum!

Bill

[Lin Evans]

Thanks Al for that clarification. I have to immediately test the functions as I can't remember the words in print for long.

I can't wait to see the balloon show - I can just imagine balloons careening through the sky all over the place!! laugh.gif Should be a good application for v.5!

Unfortunately, I do not have a website to post my shows at this time. I have that in my To Do list to also be able to post to Beech Cottage. However, I need to screw up more courage to show any of my stuff to the gurus of the Forum!

Bill

Hi Bill,

You should "never" feel intimidated about posting your shows. We are all "students" of both this presentation slideshow topic and this program and here we all feel that we should strive to help each other learn as much as possible. No matter how long some may have been at it, we all can learn more and improve our presentations. Constructive criticism is always welcomed and that's the mechanism by which we all improve so put that show up there dude!

Best regards,

Lin

[Igor]

We're working on beta #3 now and also we're testing PicturesToExe 5 under Windows x64, Windows Vista and Windows Vista 64-bit. All is OK and work is successful.