positioning objects for different resolution screens

[El*Pea]

I'm new to PTE, and I'm using it to provide proofs of wedding photos to my clients. In order for them to navigate quickly to specific parts of the wedding (e.g. the ceremony, the group photos, the reception etc.), my first slide has a set of buttons which jump to the appropriate images. It also has text instructuions.

When I view the slide with my screen set to a different resolution, the buttons are in a different position relative to the text, and often obscure it. This is a pain, because I don't know what screen res my clients will use.

Is there any way of fixing the position of the buttons relative to the text, or is there a better way of doing what I'm trying to achieve, i.e. providing the ability to jump to a named image without the user having to know its number?

[Lin Evans]

I'm new to PTE, and I'm using it to provide proofs of wedding photos to my clients. In order for them to navigate quickly to specific parts of the wedding (e.g. the ceremony, the group photos, the reception etc.), my first slide has a set of buttons which jump to the appropriate images. It also has text instructuions.

When I view the slide with my screen set to a different resolution, the buttons are in a different position relative to the text, and often obscure it. This is a pain, because I don't know what screen res my clients will use.

Is there any way of fixing the position of the buttons relative to the text, or is there a better way of doing what I'm trying to achieve, i.e. providing the ability to jump to a named image without the user having to know its number?

I believe this will be implemented when version 5 has all the features added and version 5.0 is released. (perhaps two to three months) Right now there is no way to control the position of the object when screen resolution is different.

Lin

[Limey]

I'm new to PTE, and I'm using it to provide proofs of wedding photos to my clients. In order for them to navigate quickly to specific parts of the wedding (e.g. the ceremony, the group photos, the reception etc.), my first slide has a set of buttons which jump to the appropriate images. It also has text instructuions.

When I view the slide with my screen set to a different resolution, the buttons are in a different position relative to the text, and often obscure it. This is a pain, because I don't know what screen res my clients will use.

Is there any way of fixing the position of the buttons relative to the text, or is there a better way of doing what I'm trying to achieve, i.e. providing the ability to jump to a named image without the user having to know its number?

El Pea

Assuming you are using PTE 4.xx.

In 'Object Editor' Select 'Preview in' and select lowest screen resolution you think will be used. Group your objects and text so thay all are visible. Then select all objects, Left click/Ctrl and then select 'Group'.

The objects will now stay in the same position relative to each other with no overlap.

Limey

[El*Pea]

Thanks Lin, thanks Limey,

Now I've been playing with PTE a bit more I'm starting to understand what's happening and I've found a workaround.

I'd decided that 1024x768 was a reasonable sized image for an on-screen wedding proof, so I resized all of my images to that. The slide that I was having problems with was the first slide, where the jpeg image contained a few brief instructions, with my own navigation buttons superimposed in a gap near the bottom.

I was getting the problem because I normally work with a screen res higher than 1024x768. At this higher res PTE was keeping the buttons in the correct positions relative to the dimensions of the screen, but (of course) it didn't scale-up the jpeg image to anything above its original size of 1024x768. The buttons were therefore in a different position relative to the text in the jpeg.

Once I realized what was happening the answer was simple - I saved the jpeg (containg the text) as a 2048x1530 pixel image (I don't think that many people have higher res that this). When the slide show is viewed at lower resolutions than 2048x1530, PTE scales both the jpeg image and the object positions by exactly the same amount, so everything fits where it should.

Did this make sense? It's obvious when you see it, but it's a bit mind-bending to explain. Anyway, in a nutshell, PTE will scale the position of objects UP and DOWN to suit the resolution of the screen, but only scales images DOWN and not UP. The solution was to save the image file at the highest expected viewing resolution, so PTE should never have to scale up.