Edit .pte file with Notepad

[rakn]

Hi folks,

I guess we all are watching the forum like alligators these days, with the hope of finding a new version and not far away the release of V5. At least I do.

In the meantime, I woluld be greatful for some know-how regarding manually editing the .pte project file.

Let's say that I open a .pte file in Notepad and locate the slide of interest. It may look like this :

[slide103]

ShowPic=1

Picture=D:\Documents and Settings\rk\My Documents\My Pictures\illustrationer\black.jpg

CommentsCount=0

Sound=@

CurrentTime=15000

UsePersonal=0

object black:MainImage

GUID={EFA2E594-CC18-4ECC-BD2D-24715AFC07BF}

ImageName=D:\Documents and Settings\rk\My Documents\My Pictures\illustrationer\black.jpg

object KeyPoint1:KeyPoint

end

end

If I change the name of the picture or the path where it is stored, I just get error messages regarding several missing pictures and also missing sound files (!) when I open the file in PTE.

(The above is just an example, if I needed to do such a change it would be easier done from within PTE).

And does anybody know what the "GUID={EFA2E594-CC18-4ECC-BD2D-24715AFC07BF}" is ?

Just curious ...

Regards

Ragnar

[alrobin]

Ragnar,

What happens if you take away the pathname, and just leave the name of the image, and then put those images in the same folder as the "pte" project file?

Before, if you did this, and then opened the file in PTE and re-saved, the project file would pick up the new pathname, and the images could then be moved to a new folder if necessary.

[rakn]

Hi Al and Tom,

Well it was a bit like I suspected - the GUID is a unique reference to the image name.

And I suppose it is easier to use some of the workarounds mentioned instead of running special utility programs to change the .pte file.

Thank you for your support !

Ragnar

[JPD]

If I change the name of the picture or the path where it is stored, I just get error messages regarding several missing pictures and also missing sound files (!) when I open the file in PTE.

You can change path and name, put you must have a file with the good name in the good path.

An easy way is to put all the files in the same path as the PTE file and put at the beginning of the PTE file (line 8) "IsTemplate=1", when you open the pte file, the files which are in the same directory as it will be used by PTE.

You can also use the zip function of PTE, then unzip the file and put the template where you want or use template function.

[Maureen]

When I create my PTE shows I always have the same pattern of

creating a show folder e,g, if I was creating a new sequence called "myshow" I would have "myshow" which then contains three sub folders "myshow-images", "myshow-sound"

and "my show-docs" which contains the EXE file, a copy of the templates, and ideas I have, scripts, source info etc. I try top avoid capital letters and using spaces. Previously had problems with web sites not recognising these in some instances.

I have an external hard drive plugged into my main PC and these show folders are always kept in the same AV folder there.

On the occasions when I wanted to work on the show on another computer I unplug the external hard drive and plug it into the new host computer. However then your drive letter shows up differently so I simply use the following............

Changing Path in Pte for drives

First check which drive letter is allocated to your external hard drive on the new host computer.

In this example my usb external drive which is usually drive m is then plugged in as f drive.

Change the letters m and f in the example below to suit your computers.

Go to Start

Run

type in cmd press return

C:\> etc appears, then type in ..........

subst m: f:\ press return

When you open PTE you will now find that it shows you both drive f and drive m.

Work with the original m drive and you don't get the error messages.

Hope this helps someone.

This is a bit of a side track from Ragnar's query about editing the PTE file in notepad,

so sincere apologies for that but keeping to the above pattern I have found I don't need to then edit notepad.

I have always automatically got into the habit of creating a template version each time I create a pte file which is a kind of insurance if I do move things around, etc.

Also advisable to tell PTE where you want it to store the templates so each time a new beta comes out the templates are stored in the same place and you can find them quickly. I leave the originals there and then copy them to the relevant docs folder .... belt, braces and insurance policy for new clothes ! They are by default stored in ......... C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\PicturesToExe5#8u\Templates

I always save each Beta version of PTE into a program folder with its new beta name the templates created with that version have a new home too. So I then change that home so they'll be with all the others & away from the main PTE folders. So if I lose my external drive, I've still got templates on my C drive and these have also been saved off onto DVDs.

These notes were previously up on my old www.digital-av.co.uk site so will repost this version up there soon.

Best wishes

Maureen

[Igor]

If you editing .pte file, please care that each object in a project contained unique GUID. This GUID just a unique randomly generated number.

[rakn]

It's always nice to have some different tricks in the bag, so thank you all for your suggestions.

I have not used templates before, but now I feel like I have to check it out.

You can change path and name, put you must have a file with the good name in the good path.

An easy way is to put all the files in the same path as the PTE file and put at the beginning of the PTE file (line 8) "IsTemplate=1", when you open the pte file, the files which are in the same directory as it will be used by PTE.

You can also use the zip function of PTE, then unzip the file and put the template where you want or use template function.

If you editing .pte file, please care that each object in a project contained unique GUID. This GUID just a unique randomly generated number.

Talking about good path and filename, and unique GUID ...

I have opened a perfectly working .pte file in Notepad, and changed just these two lines for a specific slide :

Picture=somepath\someimage

ImageName=somepath\someimage

As the image to be replaced was in the same directory as the new one, I simply changed the image name and let the path stay as it was.

As the GUID was unique to begin with, it should be as unique after my changes.

But ... It didn't work. I got error messages regarding several missing image files and also missing sound files.

Perhaps it's not a must to do these kind of changes, but it would be nice to know how things works.

Did I do something wrong (probably, but what) ?

/Ragnar

[Igor]

PicturesToExe currently (v4.48 and up to v5.00) doesn't support relative paths, all paths to files in .pte project file should be absolute.