Using the Timeline function.

[goddi]

I have been using the pre-Beta versions for some time now but have been intimidated by the Timeline function. I have always used the Sync to Music because I never have been able to understand what the heck I was doing with the Timeline. But now, I feel I had better get a grip on the pre-Beta version's Timeline before I get serious with the more involved Beta version with its animation. So here are a few questions that, I hope, the answers will get me on the right track and clear up some of my confusion.

1- When I open the Timeline, the “Automatic synchronization” button is selected. However, when I hit “Play”, the selection moves to the “Customize synchronization” .button. If I reselect either “Not synchronized” or “Automatic synchronization”, the “Customize synchronization” gets automatically reselected. Why do we have the “Not synchronized” or “Automatic synchronization” choices when they cannot be reselected?

2- When I first get into the Timeline, no Timed Points show up. So I go into the “Timed Points” and click on the “Add Arranged Points.” Then all the transition points show up spaced as expected to the length of the music. Why don’t they just show up automatically without have to go through these steps? I feel that I might be missing something else that I can or should do other than click on “Add Arranged Points”. What am I missing???

3- I see many really interesting slideshows that are more than just sync’d to music. I see shows that are timed to the beat of the music. So my question is if I want, say, to have the first part of my show to be timed to the beat of some music, then the remaining slides just spaced out evenly to the remaining length of the music, can I choose “Synchronize slideshow to music duration” but then go into the Timeline to choose certain slides independently to be timed to music?

I’d appreciate it someone could clue me in on the philosophy of using the Timeline so I can get more creative. It seems to me that I should first choose "Sync to music", then go into the Timeline to, say, move images closer together to match the beat of the music. But then there is lots of music left at the end with no images being shown, just music. So the choice would be to add images to fill in the music space or edit down the music's length in Audacity. It this what is normally done or am I really off the mark??? Thanks… Gary

[jevans]

Hi Goddi,

This is too difficult a subject to give a quick answer to and anyway there are several answers. Here is a quick try.

You have to decide whether you are adding slides to a pre-determined piece of music or whether the slides come first and you are fitting the msuic/commentary. Generally my shows are based on a set of slides which iIwant to show. I slect the slides, arrange them in the right order. At this point they are not added to the slide window. Now I record the commentary for a number of slides. I have a slide list and a default slide duration and I record the individual commentaries in Adobe audition on the timeline at the correct intervals. when completed, I attach the completed commentary file to the PTE project, and using the "insert slide" button, I add each slide at the appropriate place. Finally I add the bacjground music in Audition as a separate track, merge the commentary and music tracks and replace the original commentary file in PTE with the composite commentary/music file. Finally I make small alterations to the slide positions/transitions/durations etc to finish off the show. I DO NOT add all the slides in one go, because this means a lot of shifting around which is tedious.

Alternatively I could have a piece of music to which I wanted to add slides to match. In this case I would put the music into Audition and make a timing list of the slide insertion points. Then I would add the msuic file to PTE, go into the timeline and add the slides one by one.

If you have many slides, adding them one at a time might be too slow. Then you can add them all at once(just put then into the slide window), add your music/commentary file (or a blank sound file if you want to do a first edit) and eventually adjust the slide positions.

There are several features of the timeline window to help you organise the position of slides. I wrote a step by step guide to using the timeline features which you can find here

http://www.bishopthorpe-camera-club.com/Re...s/resources.htm

The file is rather large and the instructions only apply to version 4.43 of PTE. But it will give you a good idea of the general principles.

Remember there are probably as many ways of preparing a PTE show as there are forum members, so just look at the above examples as possible ways.

Jeff

[goddi]

Jeff.... Thanks so much for your reply and the PDF instructions. I have read them and they helped quite a bit. The thing that still puzzles me a little is the differences between: Add Arrange Points and Arrange All Points. It seems that both, whether the delete all points or not, will "add at equal intervals over the length of the music files." I am still missing something here, but I am way ahead of where I was. The PDF instructions were great. Thanks... Gary

[alrobin]

The thing that still puzzles me a little is the differences between: Add Arrange Points and Arrange All Points.

Gary,

The difference is that if you have extra slides on the slide list, and have not yet added transitions to them on the timeline, "Arrange all points" will spread those slides represented on the timeline already, whereas "Add arranged points" will first add the additional slides to the timeline, and then spread them all evenly.

[goddi]

Gary,

The difference is that if you have extra slides on the slide list, and have not yet added transitions to them on the timeline, "Arrange all points" will spread those slides represented on the timeline already, whereas "Add arranged points" will first add the additional slides to the timeline, and then spread them all evenly.

Al, I feel I should be writing 100 times on the blackboard that "I am dense". However, I confess that I still do not grasp the difference between these 2 choices or when/why I should use them.

1- You stated "The difference is that if you have extra slides on the slide list, and have not yet added transitions to them on the timeline,...".

How can there be 'extra' slides with no transitions? When I put slides in the Slide List, the transitions I chose from the Project Options/Effects, usually the Fade In/Out, have already been applied to all the slides in the Slide List and the Timeline.

To test this, I changed the Effects for one slide from "Fade In/Out" to "Quick (no transition effect)." Then I chose "Arrange All Points" but the transition for that slide in the Timeline did not get change from "Quick" to "Fade..." as I thought it would. Since that slide was already "spread", I assume the only thing that "Arrange All Points" would do would change the transition from "Quick" to "Fade". But it did not.

2- You stated ""Add Arranged Points" will first add the additional slides to the timeline, and then spread them all evenly...".

When I add a new slide to the Slide List, it is automatically added to the Timeline with its transition, without any need for "Add Arranged Points". I assumed that, in para. 4.7.1, in Jeff Evan's PDF, the "Auto Adding of Transition Points" has to be deselected for this to occur. However, when I deselected "Auto Adding of Transition Points" , and then added a new slide to the Slide List, the image automatically appeared in the Timeline with the Fade In/Out transition. So I still don't see what "Add Arranged Points" is supposed to do.

Apologies for beating a dead horse. Gary...

[alrobin]

Gary,

If you de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, then you can add slides to the slide list without having their transitions displayed on the timeline. However, even if the slide were added to the timeline, it wouldn't necessarily be arranged so that all slides were equi-spaced, particularly if you had already manually rearranged the existing ones.

"Arrange all points" doesn't change the length of any transitions - just the spacing between the transition points on the timeline.

Hope this doesn't confuse an already tricky subject any more than it is already.

[goddi]

Gary,

If you de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, then you can add slides to the slide list without having their transitions displayed on the timeline. However, even if the slide were added to the timeline, it wouldn't necessarily be arranged so that all slides were equi-spaced, particularly if you had already manually rearranged the existing ones.

"Arrange all points" doesn't change the length of any transitions - just the spacing between the transition points on the timeline.

Hope this doesn't confuse an already tricky subject any more than it is already.

Thanks, Al, I now, I think, get your second point on "Arrange All Points."

However, when I de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, and add a slide to the slidelist, the new slide and its transition effect DOES display in the timeline. Obviously, I am missing something. But for now, I will just stay away from these choices. I don't think I am creative enough to dabble with these 'esoteric' commands....

Thanks much, Gary

[alrobin]

However, when I de-select "View / Auto adding of new transition points ... " in the Timeline window, and add a slide to the slidelist, the new slide and its transition effect DOES display in the timeline.

Gary,

Don't give up - it's complicated, but after working with it for a while, you will "get the hang of it" as they say.

You're right, the new slide may appear on the timeline, but only because it displaces another one. If you add it to the end of the show instead of somewhere in the middle, I'm sure you will find that it does not appear on the timeline under this option until you "manually" add it by clicking on "new transition" in the timeline window.

Be sure to position the cursor to where you want the new transition, however (i.e. near the end of the timeline). If you place the cursor between two slides, a new transition will appear there, but it will not be the "new" slide unless you move the new slide to that relative position in the slide list as well. The timeline always displays images in the same order as on the slide list (for obvious reasons).

[goddi]

Gary,

Don't give up - it's complicated, but after working with it for a while, you will "get the hang of it" as they say...

Al.... Thanks for your patience. I am now smiling because I now got "the hang of it". I played around with a show with just one slide, added slides, and poked around using your instructions. I am always amazed that someone can write a program that includes stuff that I didn't even know that I would want to do. I think that is what makes it difficult sometimes to understand what some functions do. It is like someone trying to teach me new words but I have never seen what the words really represent. It takes a great leap...at least for me. Thanks... Gary

[LumenLux]

Al.... Thanks for your patience. I am now smiling because I now got "the hang of it". I played around with a show with just one slide, added slides, and poked around using your instructions. I am always amazed that someone can write a program that includes stuff that I didn't even know that I would want to do. I think that is what makes it difficult sometimes to understand what some functions do. It is like someone trying to teach me new words but I have never seen what the words really represent. It takes a great leap...at least for me. Thanks... Gary

Gary, I think you have sometimes expressed your appreciation for someone saying something more clearly than you thought you did. But I think your description above is a "very well said" version of thoughts I have had on Igor's ability to anticipate so many eventuallities.