Music Synchronization

[Rooskidiver]

I'm trying to time a slideshow and am just not understanding how to use the music synchronization feature. Right now I have it set in project options to play five songs and each slide is showing for about 6 seconds. I would like to be able to have the last slide play for 8 seconds but can't get it to work. Thanks for any help.

[kirk]

As long as you have the "Synchronize Music" box checked, you won't be able to make individual slide modifications. However, try making a duplicate slide of your last entry, with no transition between the two. This will have your last slide show for approximately 12 secs.

[alrobin]

Rooskidiver,

Welcome to the forum.

One thing to remember is that if you have synchronized to music, the show will stop when the music finishes. As you probably know, there are two ways to synchronize to music: 1. Automatic synchronization, and 2. Custom synchronization.

If you have selected automatic mode, each slide, including the last one, will stay on-screen the same length of time. So, there is no way to extend the time of the last slide without selecting automatic mode, and moving the start of the transition to the last slide back 2 seconds in time. Then the time on screen for the previous slide will be shortened by 2 seconds.

Kirk's suggestion is a good one - however, if you add a slide, and then rearrange the time points on the timeline by clicking on "Timed Points" and selecting "arrange existing points", each slide, including the last two will be on-screen the same length of time, a time which is slightly shorter than the previous time, because there are now more slides to accommodate. And the last slide will appear twice, for almost 12 seconds, not the 8 seconds you desire.

There are at least three ways to correct this. One is to manually rearrange the last few slides of the show so that all of them, except the last one, is on-screen for a slightly longer time, and set the last one to be on-screen for only 2 seconds.

This may not be acceptable. If not, there are two other ways to solve the problem. The first, is to use a music editor to lengthen the music by two seconds, and use it to replace the music already selected, without touching the timeline positions.

If this is not suitable, and if you have MS Excel 97 or better, you can download my free Adjustor spreadsheet model and use it to precisely adjust the timing in the show so that the last slide stays on for the desired 8 seconds. This can be accomplished by "pegging" the time of the transition to the last slide at the value desired, and then automatically spreading the remaining slides over the rest of the time. If you need some assistance in this, feel free to drop me an email.

[Rooskidiver]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try showing the last slide twice with no transition and see if that works. It seems like the easiest thing to do and I'm a little pressed for time. I've been using PTE for several years and have always stopped and started new music on individual slides. But more and more folks are having sound problems when playing my slideshows so I thought I'd try the synchronization for this one and see if that helped. Thanks again!