Is there a way to automate the O&A settings

[mightec]

I have a major task, I am producing a slideshow and using TheDom's Photo Album template. I have reconfigured it to show a video effect. This means that I have to configure 2600 slides to show a new video picture frame on each slide, this will then run at 40 Mses to represent the video. What I would like to do is be able to do this automatically, by the press of a button or via an external programme. Any ideas!!!!!!!!

[Lin Evans]

Could you post a zipped PTE with only about 4 slides showing the effect you are using so we could see how it's set up. It may not be possible to do this because there is no way that I know within PTE to apply a common attribute to slides if this attribute resides in the O&A. So to make sense of it and get a definitive answer it would help to see the set-up.

Best regards,

Lin

I have a major task, I am producing a slideshow and using TheDom's Photo Album template. I have reconfigured it to show a video effect. This means that I have to configure 2600 slides to show a new video picture frame on each slide, this will then run at 40 Mses to represent the video. What I would like to do is be able to do this automatically, by the press of a button or via an external programme. Any ideas!!!!!!!!

[luno]

Exactly the same problem I have, Mike!

See http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7278

Would be great if someone would find a solution.

Thanks.

[Hartmut Scherer]

Some time ago I used "macromaker" for some common tasks on my computer. It is a freeware program and able to work within other programs. Perhaps it will help you, Mike. I didn't try this program with PTE.

http://members.ij.net/anthonymathews/MacroMaker.htm

[mightec]

Hartmut

Thanks for your response, this does sound interesting, I have downloaded and will try tomorrow to understand the software. Cheers

PS - Hartmut, is this software safe

[mhwarner]

If nobody is able to suggest a possible solution, you could try editing the .PTE file directly. It's not necessarily intuitive but if you can add your new effect to, say, the first slide, then save your project. Make a backup copy of the .pte file for the project and then edit the file with Wordpad or Notepad. See what additions have been made to the first slide that differ from the other slides and then copy/paste this into each slide in the appropriate place for each slide. Try it first with a small show with 8 or 10 slides and see how it works. I have used this method to modify some of Dom's templates as well and it has been particularly useful to change the names of his default picture files to the directory structure that I use.

Maybe not the best solution, but perhaps a bit speedier than editing each slide with the O&A editor.

[mightec]

Mary

Now that is interesting, I have tried this and whilst it looks daunting with the use of Find Next, I think that this is a way forward.

[mightec]

I thought that I would give an update on my task to configure 2600 slides in PTE.

MY THANKS GO TO MARY, her suggest to use Notepad is a winner. I have tried a number of external programmes, Macro Maker, Macro Scheduler, etc, all of which require a lot of understanding, time that I did not have. I therefore followed Mary's suggestion of using Notepad and it works very well.

The system that I am using is to copy and paste nine or ten slides in PTE. Then open up Notepad, find the slide I need to change, then use replace to identify the particular aspect that I need to change.

Thanks Mary you are a STAR!!!!!!!

[jfa]

Mike, I'm not sure if this would work but have you tried Al Robinson's excellent "Adjustor for PTE" tool to do this?

[mightec]

Hello John

No, I did think about it but I don't fully understand how it works and what it does. Perhaps someone else may have a view, but thanks for your comments. Only another 1,600 slides to go.

[alrobin]

John,

Thanks for your kind words!

However, I doubt that in this case Adjustor would be useful, escept maybe to show the PTE project script, which Mike is already able to do with Notepad. (Or you can also load the PTE file directly into MS Excel, too, and perform find/replace operations).

Maybe someday I'll get around to including a few more "object" functions in Adjustor - but I think it would still require a fair amount of manual effort to change the references to 2600 slides.

[mightec]

Al

How would I load the PTE file into Excell, is this as a text file?

[alrobin]

Yes - as a text file. Just open Excel, and drag the PTE file over from Windows Explorer, or My Computer and drop it into the open spreadsheet.

When you make your changes, save the file as a "prn" file, and then rename it, changing the suffix to ".pte" so that you can open it in PTE. Use a different name than that originally used, in case you want to revert to the original pte project file.