PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.5 Release Candidate 5

[Barry Beckham]

Barry,

It has been pointed out here that now there is a one-to-one correspondence between the members of the slide list and the corresponding points on the timeline.

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

Sorry Xaver, I don't understand what your telling me !

[xahu34]

Sorry Xaver, I don't understand what your telling me !

Barry,

Sorry for using this mathematical expression (you may look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-to-one_correspondence if you like). Here it means that in the new version of PTE a slide can only exist if it has a transition point on the new timeline. If you kill the point, you kill the corresponding slide.

Best regards

Xaver

munich

[potwnc]

Potwnc, the pixel size is now shown in the "status bar", (left of centre in the status bar), and is updated as the images are previewed in the mini player.

John, thanks for pointing that out. Somehow I'd just never noticed it in the new version.

Anyway, here's a bug that will happen only using very large images and a large number of them. We concluded in a previous thread that this was a Windows limitation but now I'm not so sure.

In my show slide 50 (of about 100) is 4993x3240 pixels. PTE 5.1 handles this just fine - the preview works, the .exe works and the output .avi works. The same .pte file in 5.5 beat 8 stops at this slide in the mini-player and continues to play but shows no more transitions. If I then switch to the timeline I get an access violation followed by a popup saying "can't draw on canvas" (or something like that, I forget the exact text). This popup comes up again and again and I have to kill apr.exe from the task manager. I can recreate this easily. If I try to just output a .avi from that same .pte file I get a very small .avi file that is the correct length (in minutes and seconds), but has just the image that is too big and no transitions.

[Guest Fly]

John, thanks for pointing that out. Somehow I'd just never noticed it in the new version.

Anyway, here's a bug that will happen only using very large images and a large number of them. We concluded in a previous thread that this was a Windows limitation but now I'm not so sure.

In my show slide 50 (of about 100) is 4993x3240 pixels. PTE 5.1 handles this just fine - the preview works, the .exe works and the output .avi works. The same .pte file in 5.5 beat 8 stops at this slide in the mini-player and continues to play but shows no more transitions. If I then switch to the timeline I get an access violation followed by a popup saying "can't draw on canvas" (or something like that, I forget the exact text). This popup comes up again and again and I have to kill apr.exe from the task manager. I can recreate this easily. If I try to just output a .avi from that same .pte file I get a very small .avi file that is the correct length (in minutes and seconds), but has just the image that is too big and no transitions.

Read PM from me.

[Igor]

Beta 9:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe_beta.zip (5 MB)

+ Added "Auto Save Project every ... minutes" option. (See Main menu | View | Advanced options).

+ Faster work of Undo/Redo if a project contains slides with many objects.

+ Changes in hotkeys: Del key performs "Cut transition" and Shift+Del removes the slide when you work in the timeline

[fh1805]

Igor,

Thanks for adding the "Auto-save" feature so quickly.

To test it I opened a project file into beta9 and then did nothing. Before closing down PTE I used Vista's Search facilty to look for copies of the project file. The only version I could find was in the expected project folder. This file had a timestamp that was just a minute prior to my running the search and some 30 minutes after I opened the project under beta9; which all suggests to me it was the auto-saved version. Please confirm into which folder, and under what name, does the "Auto-saved" version get saved?

If what I found was the auto-saved version then, whilst it represents a step forward, it also means that if I do a heavy edit session and then, at the very end decide I don't want to keep the changes after all, I cannot now simply exit out of PTE with a reply of No to the save, because the auto-saves have destroyed my original start point.

I feel it would be better if PTE did the "auto-save" into a folder of its own and using a file extension different from .pte. Perhaps PTE could open a new folder "Auto-Save" as a sub-folder in the folder from where the project file was opened or as a system folder. If you were to use the same file naming technique as for the Create backup in zip function - adding the date and time to the file name at each "auto-save"- then, when PTE is closed down cleanly the Auto-Save folder can be deleted. If the software or hardware crashes, there will be a choice of recovery points in the Auto-Save folder.

To make use of one of these "auto-saved" files I think a "File...Open Auto-Save..." would be a useful additional command.

[denwell]

Peter/Igor

Or what about saving to a temporary autosave folder that is deleted by PTE on a 'clean' shutdown, having already saved (or otherwise) the preferred project file in its desired location?

Maybe this is what happens now - although I haven't installed or tested beta 9 yet!

DEN (NE UK)

[jfa]

Igor/Peter/Everyone,

The user should be able to nominate the folder that the auto-save file is saved to.

I too am concerned if the auto-saves has destroyed my original start point as Peter believes.

Igor, also is the history destroyed when the auto-save is done?

Please confirm into which folder, and under what name, does the "Auto-saved" version get saved?

I too would like an answer to these questions.

Thanks for this useful addition to PTE, I'm sure when we know how it works we all will appreciate your work adding this function.

[davegee]

If you want to BACK UP as opposed to SAVE, would it not be better to call it AUTO BACK UP?

Save would then do what it says - SAVE - and AUTO BACK UP (if Igor could configure it that way) would back up to a user nominated folder (or NOT - that's important too).

Having multiple versions of the said back ups COULD create a problem but if you have unlimited HDD space - why not?

DaveG

[xahu34]

Hello,

there are other products which save the last (say) 10 back-up files in a system folder, and make them accessible via the file menu. I think that this would also be a good solution. On the other hand: The auto-save function as in Beta 9 has the advantage of being simple; I myself could easily live with it.

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[Igor]

John,

Igor, also is the history destroyed when the auto-save is done?

No, this feature just saves current project, and it keeps full Undo/Redo history.

I wouldn't like to add more new function to version 5.5, auto-backups or reserve copies features should be carefully thought-out, I need time to work out these options.

As temporary variant, please call "Create backup in ZIP" periodically.

[fh1805]

Igor,

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I've just found a new bug in beta9 (it may have been present in earlier versions, I haven't checked yet)

I was building up a Credits slide using frames and text objects. I had almost completed my work when the phone rang. By the time I got back to the PC an auto-save had taken place and I could no longer see the Pan, Zoom, Rotate fields in which to key the values.

The attached file contains the project. Just open it into beta9, select the Grey Card slide (#2) and take that into O&A. Observe the contents of the Animation tab for all the objects. Wait until an auto-save has taken place and then look at the Animation tab contents again.

RustyG_Credits_May13_2008_9_32_44.zip

[Igor]

Peter,

1. Can you repeat this problem again?

2. What will happen if you press call saving pressing Ctrl+S in Objects and animation window? Auto-save should perform similar action.

[Igor]

Beta 10:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe_beta.zip (5 MB)

+ Minor visual improvements.

+ Updated languages files.

* Fixed bug with deselecting a keypoint in the timeline when Ctrl key pressed.

[fh1805]

Igor,

Try as I might I cannot reproduce the problem this evening.

This morning the problem occured twice and was, at that stage, reproducible (which is why I zipped the project and added the zip as an attachment). I had also noted that as I closed down my work with PTE this morning, the Slide List was showing the correct file names but the wrong thumbnail images.

This evening, in anticipation of the thumbnail images being incorrect, I started taking screen-grabs. But this fault has not re-appeared this evening, either.

I can only assume that some "glitch" had occured this morning that was causing my problems (it's that or else I'm suffering from hallucinations!).

I'll keep an eye open for any signs of reoccurence. If either problem comes back I'll try and ensure it is reproducible and that I have screen grabs to give evidence of the situation.

[goddi]

Igor... While I was trying to do a copy/paste of some text from one PTE show to another PTE show, I got a few error messages. I can not remember if I was in Beta 9 or 10 when this happened. It might just be my system (Windows XP Pro), but just in case, let me pass some of the error messages I got. Maybe it will mean something to you.

-"Exception EAssertionFailedin module apr.exe at 000D58F4"

-"Access violation at address 004648CF in module apr.exe. Read of address"

-"Access violation at address 7C918FEA in module NTdll.dll write of address 00000010"

After getting out of the error message, everything continued Ok.

Hope this helps... Gary

[Igor]

We have just found one reason of various possible problems with error messages. The problem happened when PC was locked (by Win+L for example)and then unlocked to work again. We'll fix it in beta 11 and I hope it will solve reported above cases of problems.

[goddi]

We have just found one reason of various possible problems with error messages. The problem happened when PC was locked (by Win+L for example)and then unlocked to work again. We'll fix it in beta 11 and I hope it will solve reported above cases of problems.

Super! I told Fly that I tried to reproduce the problem but could not. Hope you squished the bug. But, what is "Win+L"?

Thanks... Gary

[fh1805]

Gary,

I suspect it is Igor's shorthand notation for pressing the "Windows" key and the "L" key at the same time (Like "Ctrl+Alt+Del" or "Ctrl+C"). The Windows key, on my keyboard, lies between the Ctrl and Alt keys to the left of the Spacebar.

[Igor]

We have discovered that it's a bug in DirectX 9. Not a bug of PicturesToExe.

But we will fix it.

[Igor]

Beta 11:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe_beta.zip (5 MB)

+ Added Farsi language.

+ Various minor improvements.

* Fixed bug when PicturesToExe could work incorrectly or show error messages if PC was locked by user (Win+L for example).

[stevemul]

Missing Image Files in Project.

I opened a project which has 5 missing image files out of maybe 80 files. However I can't read the full file description in the Error dialog box. The dialog box isn't big enough.

Could you make the dialog box sizable please or provide some alternative solution so I can see what the files are especially when they are in a fairly deep folder structure.

Many thanks.

Steve.

[fh1805]

Steve,

Work your way through the images in the O&A window and you will get a much bigger error box for each missing image (even if it is an embedded object image) that might help you find them.

[thedom]

Steve,

The solution fh1805 will perfectly work. The image are replaced by a blue rectangle with the path and the name of the image inside this rectangle in yellow.

You can read the information perfectly... unless your image is displayed with a small zoom (10% by example).

In this case, in the Objects and Animation window, select your image in the objects list and the complete path and name of the image will be displayed at the bottom of the Objects and Animation window.

Hope it helps.

But I agree with you, it would help if the Error dialog box could be resizable because some of the names might be truncated right now and you can not read them even if you scroll to the right.

[stevemul]

fh1805 and The Dom,

Many thanks for your suggestions. If I understand you correctly you are suggesting I step through a show slide by slide until I find the missing image file. This is very tedious and time-consuming if the missing slide is towards the end of a long show, say 99th out of 100.

I do think the dialog box should be re-sizable and also scrollable to the end of the file descriptor; another helpful aid would be a tool-tip showing the full file descriptor when the mouse is over the missing file(s) in the dialog box.

Best regards,

Steve.