PTE 5 Questions

[Barry Beckham]

Hello to all the PTE experts, I know you all congregate here

I receive quite a number of questions relating to PTE4 and now PTE5 through my web site at www.beckhamdigital.co.uk

I answer all these email queries and most of the time I have the answer to why this or that doesn't work or how to create a special type of affect.

I have started to receive a number of questions relating to PTE running on Windows Vista and not being a Vista user yet I cannot give them an answer.

I know that Igor and his team have had Vista firmly in their mind as they have created PTE5 and I know how he thoroughly tests his software before releasing it. I assume this includes Vista.

I have seen some references to vista in these pages, but I would be interested to hear from any knowledgable PTE5 users who are using it.

Are you finding any problems and if so, what?

I don't expect to get Vista for another year at least, but that is only because we will be moving home around 12 months time and I want to stay as we are with XP at present. I can then set up with new kit and Vista when we move. but in the meantime I would like to point people with a problem in the right direction.

Barry B

[Ronniebootwest]

Barry,

why don't you just refer the people, who are raising questions on PTE, to this forum? You won't then be acting as a 'third party' and get it wrong.

Ron

[Ken Cox]

I agree with Ronnie, the more questions Igor gets re vista the better off he will be in getting the bugs sorted out

and

we can always use "new faces" on the forum

ken

[Barry Beckham]

Ron

Well, it doesn't make the best of sence to refer someone to another website from one that has some commercial considerations. I would obviously like visitors who find www.beckhamdigital.co.uk to stay there

I freely answer any question I get and I can cope with 99%.

If all else fails I often do refer people to this forun because I know those on it are about as expert at PTE as you are likely to find.

I would also like to know about Vista myself ready for the inevitable questions I will get asked at Camera club demonstrations and talks

Barry

[Ken Cox]

Barry

this is the official pte forum

you are 3rd party

we recommend your site for royalty free music

lots of members have sent newbies to your site for training videos

are we to recommend your site for answers to vista questions associated with pte??

come on Barry we were not born yesterday -- how much free advertising do you want??

ken

[Barry Beckham]

Well I would like the knowledge myself too. I will have Vista at some stage and I will not learn anything if I pass everything off.

[Peter S]

Hi Barry,

I have to say I think your approach to this is quite wrong. I have bought many tutorials and royalty free music through your site and have recommended it on this forum but you do not have a forum on your site. If anyone asks you a question on Vista you will give them an answer if you can BUT it will not be readilly accessible to others. The answer to any question asked by any participant in this forum is avalable to anyone else who takes the trouble to search for it. I don't think you are loosing anything by telling people to look for answers on this forum. You could make it really easy for visitors to your site by providing exact links to the answers they are seeking.

The forum is one of the great strengths of PTE and the contributors have helped me enormously. I am sure, however, that none of them would feel happy if they thought you were effectively using them to make you look like the greatest expert on everything PTE.

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

Sorry to have upset you Peter

I do have a forum on my site where I keep people advised and answer questions and I also get many telephone calls as well. I also have some AV pages where I answer queries on line that I think will help others.

Come on mate I am PTE's best supporter, but when someone asks a question its nice to be able to answer it.

However, enough said.

[Igor]

Barry,

I just posted new article "Windows Vista and PicturesToExe" to "Tutorials and Articles" section of the forum: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....st=0#entry41106

[lathompson]

Ron

Well, it doesn't make the best of sence to refer someone to another website from one that has some commercial considerations. I would obviously like visitors who find www.beckhamdigital.co.uk to stay there...

... I would also like to know about Vista myself ready for the inevitable questions ...

Barry

Barry, referring anyone to PTE from your website can only reinforce your site since there are many references back to your site again. That's good for you.

I use Vista with PTE and have no issues, however, since you are being asked for advice by folks that are assuming you have that knowledge, it would be in your best interest to either turn them on to PTE directly or you should purchase Vista, load it onto another computer and become a hands-on knowledge base for those that ask you. IMO, that's about the only way to keep them on your site. First hand knowledge is better than being a 3rd party informant.

Larry

[Peter S]

Hi Barry,

I am not trying to be funny but I cannot find a forum on your web site! I and probably others would find it interesting to look at so could you tell us how to access it?

The above jpeg shows your web page as I see it after logging in. Can I get to the forum from here?

Bye the way I'm not upset and I expect I will buy more of your tutorials from time to time even if you are the other side of the world.

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Are you registered on Barry's site and logged in? The reason I ask is that I get a "Forum" link when I go there and I'm guessing that you may need to be logged in to see it. Here's the screen I see, including a pop-up banner which advertises PicturesToExe as well as other products....

Lin

Hi Barry,

I am not trying to be funny but I cannot find a forum on your web site! I and probably others would find it interesting to look at so could you tell us how to access it?

The above jpeg shows your web page as I see it after logging in. Can I get to the forum from here?

Bye the way I'm not upset and I expect I will buy more of your tutorials from time to time even if you are the other side of the world.

Peter

[Peter S]

Hi Lin,

When I find something odd I start to wonder what I have missed so I have checked again and found exactly the same screen. I was logged on and if you look at the screen shot I extracted you will see it shows the "log off" option. But as I say I logged on againg and checked again and it was identical. My screen looked very similar to yours and I did see the PTE pop up banner but no forum. I can't actually read the list on the left of your screen shot but this looks different from mine - weird?

Kind regards

Peter

[Ken Cox]

PETER

try

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/

Lins screenshot matches it

the pte ad is not a permanent mark - it changes to photoshop etc

ken

[ronwil]

Try www.beckhamdigital.co.uk and you will find Forum in the list on the left to open Barry's comprehensive forum.

Ron [uK]

[Peter S]

I almost started a new thread "Why are computers such fun"?????? You convinced me the problem had to be something connected with my PC...

Tried again same result. Tried a few options changing firewalls same result. Changed from Firefox to IE6 BINGO! I magically saw the forum. Thought No it can't be that. Switched back and forward a couple of times and found it really was the answer. I can't see the text in the left hand strip using Firefox unless I try to buy something. This forces me to log in but gives me a different strip with no forum. If I change and use IE 6 I can see a different strip of text including the forum without logging in.

Discovering how much my security suite slows down exe files was bad enough now I find my browser has been playing tricks on me too. We need government health warnings on some of these things!

Thanks for all your messages.

Apologies to Barry who does have a forum - good news.

Kind Regards

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Just a little information about reading the jpg. If you look on top of the jpg you will find a little text block to click on which make the reduced size into full sized. Most who post don't use this but rather make a tiny thumbnail to click on which actually makes more sense than the way I did it, but if you click on the text block the jpg capture of Barry's site will expand to full size so it can be read.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

When I find something odd I start to wonder what I have missed so I have checked again and found exactly the same screen. I was logged on and if you look at the screen shot I extracted you will see it shows the "log off" option. But as I say I logged on againg and checked again and it was identical. My screen looked very similar to yours and I did see the PTE pop up banner but no forum. I can't actually read the list on the left of your screen shot but this looks different from mine - weird?

Kind regards

Peter

[frets3]

I almost started a new thread "Why are computers such fun"?????? You convinced me the problem had to be something connected with my PC...

Tried again same result. Tried a few options changing firewalls same result. Changed from Firefox to IE6 BINGO! I magically saw the forum. Thought No it can't be that. Switched back and forward a couple of times and found it really was the answer. I can't see the text in the left hand strip using Firefox unless I try to buy something. This forces me to log in but gives me a different strip with no forum. If I change and use IE 6 I can see a different strip of text including the forum without logging in.

Discovering how much my security suite slows down exe files was bad enough now I find my browser has been playing tricks on me too. We need government health warnings on some of these things!

Thanks for all your messages.

Apologies to Barry who does have a forum - good news.

Kind Regards

Peter

Hello, Peter and all,

I've also seen display differences, too, depending upon my choice of browsers. I did, however, notice that the menu image that you posted said, "Account Menu" to the upper right of the orange menu. So I registered at Barry's site, found the "Account Menu," and noticed the same options as on your image (no "forum"). But I did find "forum" listed on the Home Page. So, I suppose that not all menus are created equal.

Barry, interesting site. And good news, according to Igor: Vista can't trip us up too badly.

David

[Barry Beckham]

Peter

I believe you were trying to access our shop and not the forum, but I also think you are aware of that now from the other posts. The forum does have a domain of www.beckhamforum.co.uk and it is listed in the menus to the left of every page on the site.

In addition if you click the logo from the top right of our main page it will link you directly to our forum and if you click the Beckham Digital logo top left it will link you directly to the PTE forum. I created those links for my own convenience mostly, but they might be useful to visitors.

Larry.

You offer some great advice about Vista, but I have a problem in purchasing right now and probably not for the reasons some may think. All our PC's are now a bit old and I could do with replacing all three of them to something more powerful and up to date. (not that these machines are completely past it yet)

However, we are planning to move permanently to Australia in about 12 months time so it makes no sence to spend that sort of money and set up three new machines only to have to pay to ship them out to Australia and lose them for up to 3 months while they take the low road (ship) and we take the high road (Aircraft).

As soon as we get a base in Australia we will get three new PC's all running vista, hence my reasons for the query in the first place. Now last time I told anyone of our plans, some jerk went away and wrote an article saying we were closing our Beckham Digital site and retiring to Australia. That is not the case the web site and all it does will continue if and when we get there.

Ken

If you knew just what I have done in the UK for PTE I don't think you would be so upset at my request for info regarding Vista. How much free advertising do I want? Well any business wants all it can get doesn't it, including wnsoft.

Well I think I have played quite a large part in the advertising of PTE myself with two or is it three articles singing the praises of PTE in the UK national Photo Magazines. In addition I have sold almost 700 copies and helped to set up another magazine article only yesterday and today.

A UK magazine is doing a test of 5 slide show software programs and the test is to take a batch of holiday pictures and output them to DVD. With Igors help providing product keys that test will now go ahead with PTE5 and not PTE4 via Ulead, which would be a disaster really. Most people apart from us enthusiasts find creating a DVD a nightmare via Ulead and I constanty get calls and emails asking for help. PTE5 solves all that and the quality issues too, so it was vital that PTE5 was included in this test.

Given the magazine lead times and with a fair wind, the artcle may appear just when PTE5 is launched and either way PTE will get a good slice of free advertising, because is should trounce the opposition particularly PSG.

In addition I hold full day seminars on PTE, visit clubs and societies and PTE is always demonstarated and slide shows played.

In addition to that I often spend time on the phone asisting people to get out of trouble with PTE and only this morning I have spent 30 minutes on the phone to someone who has re-installed PTE4 and got into all sorts of difficulties with the product key. He is now up and running.

In addition to that I refer 100's yes 100's of people to the forum for topics I can't deal with.

So, don't worry, I think I am doing more good than harm

[Peter S]

Hi Barry,

I was trying to access your sites main page but using Firefox. What happened was that I could see nothing of the left side menu part of the site. It was just a blank. I therefore clicked on a link that took me to the shop. The shop was the only place I could see any menu on the left and that did not have the forum hence my incorrect statement. When I switched to Internet Explorer 6 I could access your main page without any problems and the forum was visible. I have no idea if this is a common problem with Firefox users or not but it may be worth your while to have a notice of some sort suggesting that if people cannot see a menu on the left that they access the site via IE 6. I have come across other sites that specifically say use IE 5 or later or Netscape to access this site.

Kind Regards

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

Hi Barry,

I was trying to access your sites main page but using Firefox. What happened was that I could see nothing of the left side menu part of the site. It was just a blank. I therefore clicked on a link that took me to the shop. The shop was the only place I could see any menu on the left and that did not have the forum hence my incorrect statement. When I switched to Internet Explorer 6 I could access your main page without any problems and the forum was visible. I have no idea if this is a common problem with Firefox users or not but it may be worth your while to have a notice of some sort suggesting that if people cannot see a menu on the left that they access the site via IE 6. I have come across other sites that specifically say use IE 5 or later or Netscape to access this site.

Kind Regards

Peter

[Barry Beckham]

Peter

The site has been running for almost 3 years and this is the first I have heard of it. Firefox users make up only a tiny proportion of visitors, so I will probably allow things to float along as they have been.

You can always go direct to the forum on the link

However, thanks for telling me about the problem

BB

[Conflow]

Peter,

It may be that your "Firefox Browser Security Settings" are set too high ~ This is a common problem

both with IE.5 and IE.6 where people set the security Levels at 'Custom Level' instead of 'Medium Level'.

In these circumstances both IE5 and IE.6 deny access to various components on many,many,Websites

such as various FTP images and Java images and various Active X controls.

With IE.5 and IE.6 -->Select Tools-->Internet Options-->Security Tab--> followed by-->Privacy Tab and set

each of these to Medium. I'm sure that Firefox must have such similar Tabs, its worth a try.

Brian.Conflow.

[Barry Beckham]

Heres a thought

I have a very simple web site, nothing difficult or complicated about it, but with the wrong settings or perhaps another obscure reason it does not display perfectly for all viewers.

It does give you a little sympathy for software writers like Microsoft doesn't it?

I cannot see how they can possible get a product right without people using it and reporting back, just like we have been doing with PTE5. How can you make Vista run perfectly for all, be able to run all other software including quite old programs on machines of all shapes, sizes and types.

B

[Hatter]

The site has been running for almost 3 years and this is the first I have heard of it.

Your site works fine for me using Firefox, Barry.

Firefox users make up only a tiny proportion of visitors

Do you monitor statistics on that for your site? Most figures I've seen indicate that Firefox now has a 'market share' of between 15 & 30% - not something I'd describe as a "tiny proportion".

Gareth