Highlighting Text

[MervynWigg]

I have copied a 35mm slide presentation with synch sound to PTE. A number of the slides are of documents over 400 years old and the original presenter would use a hand pointer to indicate particular paragraphs and phrases. I would like to leave the whole page readable (difficult with ye olde English quills!) but somehow highlight the paras/phrases/words in question. There are a quite a number involved and I wonder if there is a fairly simple way of doing this?

The sound track I copied with Audacity but I find that the sound is "woolly" when playing in PTE preview. I have increased treble and reduced bass when recording and all sounds fine when played using Windows Media player or Audacity on same system, but still get this almost muffled sound when running in PTE. Is there any reason for this?

Freddy.

[fh1805]

Hi Freddy,

This post addresses the first of your queries - highlighting part of a document. I'm not aware of any way to do this easily with PTE. I've recently finished a presentation about my grandfather's service in WW1 and the final section of that was told using his own words, from the letters and postcards that he wrote home from the Western Front. I scanned the documents and then used Photoshop to set up cut-out masks of 50% opacity black to highlight the words on the letter that I was reading out in the voice-over. I can give you more details on this technique in Photoshop if you would like them.

[MervynWigg]

I scanned the documents and then used Photoshop to set up cut-out masks of 50% opacity black to highlight the words on the letter that I was reading out in the voice-over. I can give you more details on this technique in Photoshop if you would like them.

[fh1805]

Freddy,

Here we go, then...

I am assuming you have some basic familiarity with Photoshop (or whatever image manipulation tool you use).

To create the mask on an image, first open that image

Then create a new, empty layer

Select the Paint Bucket tool

Set it to have an Opacity value of 50%

Set the foreground colour to Black

Fill the empty layer with 50% black

Now select the Marquee tool, rectangular form

Make sure that its option is "Add to Selection" and set a Feather value of 10 px.

Next, staying on the black layer, select the parts of the document that you wish to be fully visible. (You'll be able to make them out through the black mask layer). You may need to make several selections to cover the different bits. That's why I recommend using "Add to Selection" option.

Once you are happy with the selection, simply do Edit Cut - and hey presto! Don't forget to save the file!!!!

You may want to experiment with the opacity of the Black from the Bucket and with the Feather value of the Marquee - but the values I've given should put you somewhere in the close vicinity of what you want.

Hope you can follow this. If not e-mail me direct using the e-mail in my signature.

[thedom]

Freddy,

Here is a very simple PTE project attached that shows how to highlight successively different zones of the screen.

Actually, it's just a simple animation of the mask fh1805 explained above.

But you could animate a hand pointer as well, depending on what you want to achieve exactly.

Hope it helps.

ForFreddy.zip

[fh1805]

The Dom,

You're a wizard! That is so beautifully simple. I really must learn to "think out of the box" as they say.

[Tomuk]

Hi! Freddy,

I have been thinking of your requirements and came up with this.(see attachment).

I hope it's what you require as this was achieved entirely in P2e.

If you require my project files. Please e-mail me or send a PM.

Tom_1.zip

[MervynWigg]

Freddy,

Here is a very simple PTE project attached that shows how to highlight successively different zones of the screen.

Actually, it's just a simple animation of the mask fh1805 explained above.

But you could animate a hand pointer as well, depending on what you want to achieve exactly.

Hope it helps.

The Dom,

Thank you for your interest and reply. Whilst I am able to create the mask as per reply from fh1805 I have to confess that I cannot make your animation work and as there are many pages to edit it would be a big help to be able to use it. I simply cannot get picture and project together either in PTE or Photoshop so perhaps you can kindly assist further with the steps to be taken. Many thanks.

Freddy.

[MervynWigg]

The Dom,

Thank you for your interest and reply. Whilst I am able to create the mask as per reply from fh1805 I have to confess that I cannot make your animation work and as there are many pages to edit it would be a big help to be able to use it. I simply cannot get picture and project together either in PTE or Photoshop so perhaps you can kindly assist further with the steps to be taken. Many thanks.

Freddy.

The Dom,

The penny has just dropped and now up and running. Thanks again for your help.

Freddy.