finding lost slidestyles

[Rosemary A]

I have updated my computer and I now find that my slide styles have not transferred over to PTE. Luckily I have the slide styles in a separate folder but do not know how to get them back into PTE. I have lots of styles so would prefer to add them all at the same time if possible and not individually. Can this be achieved and if so how?

Thanks everyone,

Rosemary

[SeismicGuy]

I don't have an answer but have also found the slide style thing to be somewhat inscrutable in terms of where they are saved (I have found them in more than one folder on my computer) and then the ways the folders are named with a bunch of numbers and letters.  

[jkb]

I never use Slide Styles, but if you look in File/Templates/Manage Templates it show where they are stored.

If you copy this Folder to your new computer to the same place then I think they should then all show.

Jill

[Rosemary A]

Thanks Jill and SeismicGuy. Your idea would probably work, Jill.  Unfortunately, we have found out that my drive is  not working and was storing its contents on my back up drive. More investigations are needed!

Rosemary

[Rosemary A]

Hi, I have got my new drive installed and it seems to be working well! I still don't know how to get PTE AV Studio to recognize my slide styles which are in a separate folder. When I open the folder of styles all I see are numbers, no names. Can anyone help me to access them through PTE. I am using Windows 11

Thanks,

Rosemary

[SeismicGuy]

Again sorry no answer from me but this is defintely one area that can bear some improvement with this program.  The way I interpret the workings of this is that when a "*.ptestyle" file is imported it genererates the various folders with useless names:

Then if you look in one of these folders you see something like this:

 

Then if you look at the xml file you see something like this:

Where you can discern that this is some circling style and that is about it.  

 

It would be wonderful if the Folder Name can actually be the name of the style or at least some hint at what it does.

[Rosemary A]

Seismic Guy, I couldn't agree more! I have a lot of slide styles and followed the excellent  advise to store them in a separate folder in case of need. Now I need them but cannot work out how to get them back into PTE. Definitely needs attention.

Rosemary

[davegee]

If you go to Settings / Preferences / Templates you will see where they SHOULD be. It is either the PTE Default Folder or a folder that you have previously designated.

 

If you navigate to that folder it should look like the one below.

 

If, for some reason, they are not in this location, then transferring them to this location "should" sort it out. Once in the correct location you will see their titles in Styles and Themes. Editing the Styles i.e deleting etc, can be done in Tools.

[davegee]

Further thoughts.

If, as in my case, you are transferring Styles from a Desktop PC to a new Laptop PC you can use the facility to Export an individual Style or a Style category as a .ptestyle file and Import that Style on the new PC.

Right click on either the individual Style or the Style Category to Export.

All of this information is available here: Slide Styles [PTE AV Studio]

DG

[davegee]

  On 3/28/2025 at 1:20 AM, Rosemary A said:

Seismic Guy, I couldn't agree more! I have a lot of slide styles and followed the excellent  advise to store them in a separate folder in case of need. Now I need them but cannot work out how to get them back into PTE. Definitely needs attention.

Rosemary

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Rosemary,

Is it possible that the "excellent advice" that you were given referred to storing the .ptestyle files in a separate folder?

DG

[Igor]

Dave,

You rightly suggested Rosemary to copy and replace "Styles and Transitions" folder. Copy this folder from an old PC to a new PC.

PTE AV Studio should be closed when you replace this folder.

In future version 12 we'll add import & export commands to help with this task. PTE AV Studio will create a single ZIP archive. It also can be used to backup all styles and transitions and recover a broken storage to previous state by importing a previous copy.

[SeismicGuy]

On my machine the files are frequently in more than one location--for example:

I suppose this is because I was first trying/using PTE 10 and eventually upgraded to 11.  I would really prefer to have these all in just one folder location and perhaps I can just delete the ones that are extraneous?

[davegee]

Are you running PTE10 and PTE11?

Check that the Location in Settings/Preferences/Custom Slide Styles and Transitions is IDENTICAL.

[SeismicGuy]

Not using 10 anymore so I guess it would be best to uninstall it.  I wonder if that will also delete the miscellaneous other folders.  

[Rosemary A]

Thank you so much DaveGee and Igor. I have tried to follow your clear screen shots, Dave but alas, no luck with PTE recognizing the pathway. I have found where I think PTE is storing the slide styles. They are on one drive but all that is there is the slide styles which come with the program. I have tried to create a pathway to my folder of the complete list of my  slide styles on my F drive - not successful. I have copied the slide style folder to C drive which is where the PTEAv Studio is installed. Still only the styles which come with the program can be accessed. 

Rosemary

[SeismicGuy]

I don't think you can just move around the folders with the styles.  I think you actually have to go through the importing of each style while using the program, but I may be wrong.

[davegee]

  On 3/29/2025 at 5:07 AM, SeismicGuy said:

I don't think you can just move around the folders with the styles.  I think you actually have to go through the importing of each style while using the program, but I may be wrong.

Expand  

Yesterday, I copied the Styles and Transitions folder on my Desktop PC to a portable SSD and transferred it to the correct location on my new Laptop PC. I now have identical Styles and Transitions on both PCs. Around 400mb and it took literally minutes. 

I will create a simple Style on my Desktop PC today and locate its folder. It should be easy enough to locate by date. I will then transfer the individual folder to my Laptop and see what happens.

DG

[davegee]

  On 3/29/2025 at 8:30 AM, davegee said:

Yesterday, I copied the Styles and Transitions folder on my Desktop PC to a portable SSD and transferred it to the correct location on my new Laptop PC. I now have identical Styles and Transitions on both PCs. Around 400mb and it took literally minutes. 

I will create a simple Style on my Desktop PC today and locate its folder. It should be easy enough to locate by date. I will then transfer the individual folder to my Laptop and see what happens.

DG

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I tried the experiment described above and at first failed to see the newly created Style. Then I noticed that as well as creating the folder in Styles and Transitions the Styles.ini file had also been written to. I transferred the Styles.ini to the Laptop Styles and Transitions /Styles folder and the new Style was immediately recognised on the Laptop.

So, if you create a Backup of your Styles folders you need to include everything.

DG

[davegee]

  On 3/29/2025 at 4:57 AM, Rosemary A said:

Thank you so much DaveGee and Igor. I have tried to follow your clear screen shots, Dave but alas, no luck with PTE recognizing the pathway. I have found where I think PTE is storing the slide styles. They are on one drive but all that is there is the slide styles which come with the program. I have tried to create a pathway to my folder of the complete list of my  slide styles on my F drive - not successful. I have copied the slide style folder to C drive which is where the PTEAv Studio is installed. Still only the styles which come with the program can be accessed. 

Rosemary

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Rosemary,

When you created your backup of Styles Folders did you include the styles.ini file as shown below? Without it your backup is useless.

DG

[Rosemary A]

Hi DG. I think you have solved my problem. No I did not include the 1st 3 items that you have highlighted. I guess there is no other solution other than trying to manually enter each slide style into PTE. I have 1600 of them. 

Thank you,

Rosemary

[SeismicGuy]

He's right.  Just after posting my last post I remembered about the styles.ini file and other ini files.  Again in my case I have styles.ini in 7 different locations, probably from previous versions/installs.  If you can read the ini file it basically ties together all of the weird named folders with data about what each does, author, etc.

[Rosemary A]

Unfortunately, in my case I didn't copy those 3 files. So I shall try manually installing each slide style.