PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.5 Release Candidate 5

[jfa]

I have been working in the timeline view matching a number of slides to a complex audio track which needs very precise timing. The way the screen is now setup with the preview, timeline, etc is much improved, thank you Igor for this big improvement in PTE.

However there is a very annoying features in the timeline that was not in v5.1 but has appeared in v5.5 that I am hoping that you can do something about.

When selecting a slide with the left mouse button, (on the "To XX" symbol), with the intention of holding the button down and moving the slides position the timeline will jump to reposition the selected slide in the middle of the timeline display thus I then have to reposition the mouse pointer and select the slide again to move it.

This is very frustration when making small, precise adjustments to the slides position or when doing a lot of reposition of slides to match audio changes or when rearranging the slide order in the timeline. As the level of zoom is increased in the timeline view this becomes even more frustrating.

Perhaps this auto repositioning of the timeline display may be of use in some situations, (I haven't found a use yet where this is the case), so if you don't wish to remove the repositioning function in the timeline, (back to how the timeline functioned in v5.1 when a slide is selected), could we have a button or menu option to turn it off/on as required please?

**EDIT -- 1022Hrs.

After a little more testing and comparison of the difference in function in v5.1/v5.5 it would appear in v5.1 the preview position marker, (blue vertical arrow), moved to the selected slide. In v5.5 the selected slide jumps to the position marker, which remains in the centre of the timeline display.

The v5.1 functionally is much easier to work with.

[fh1805]

John,

It isn't the slide that is moving to a new position; it's that the position marker (blue arrow) is placed differently. The position marker now appears at the end of the transition for the slide that you have selected. I'm using beta11 and if I left click on a "To xx" tag in the Timeline and then keep the mouse button held down I can drag the slide to where I want just as before.

But there is an aspect of PTE's behaviour here that I find very annoying: when I am working in the Timeline display and have selected a slide (via the "To XX" tag), if I then switch to the Slide List, that display is not positioned to the same slide. It is positioned to where I last had it positioned. The same behaviour occurs if I first select a slide in the Slide List and then switch to the Timeline: I get the Timeline shown as it was when I last used it and not at the Slide I have just chosen.

Perhaps we need a new Project Option of some kind e.g. "Synchronise Slide List and Timeline displays" which if left unticked gives the present PTE behaviour and if ticked will cause the selected slide to be centered in the display when we switch to the other display.

[jfa]

Peter, I beg to differ. If you left click, (select), a slide on the "to XX" tab and hold the button down, (which is what I have been doing), the slides position stays in the correct relationship to other slides but the position in the display jumps to the centre of the display where the position marker is. I understand that the position marker now appears at the end of the transition for the slide that I have selected, that is not the issue.

If you try this on a slide well to the left or right of centre of the timeline display, (somewhere in the middle of the show with some zoom in on the timeline and the audio track displayed), you will see the problem. It is as I described earlier, in v5.5 the selected slide jumps to the position marker, which remains in the centre of the timeline display, in v5.1 the position marker, (blue vertical arrow), moved to the selected slide.

On your other point I agree this would be desirable.

Perhaps we need a new Project Option of some kind e.g. "Synchronise Slide List and Timeline displays" which if left unticked gives the present PTE behaviour and if ticked will cause the selected slide to be centered in the display when we switch to the other display.

[fh1805]

Hi John,

I think I see what you mean. I didn't do any zoom in on the Timeline ('cos I don't know how to do it!) but when I selected a slide at extreme right of the Timeline, the display changed to position that slide at extreme left of the display (so far to the left that its "To XX" tag was no longer visible and I had to scroll left to see it and click on it to then drag the slide to where I wanted it).

Is this what you're "complaining" about? Because if so, you've got my support, too!

Sorry I misunderstod your previous post.

[RayC]

Hi John & Peter,

Not sure if this is any help but take a look in View>Timeline Options you will see there are two Auto scroll

options Auto Scroll 1 & Auto Scroll 2 these do work differenty on the timeline.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

All the best Ray

[jfa]

A few screen-shoots to hopefully illustrate the problem.

Scenario A.

I wish to select slide No7 (to7) and adjust it to the 17 second point. (see - A Start).

The mouse pointer is placed over "to7" and the left button operated resulting in the second screen-shoot where the timeline display has repositioned and the slide is no-longer under the mouse. (see - A Click) Problem 1.

I can release the mouse, move to the slide and make the adjustment however this is a double operation to perform a very basic operation, one we do many, many times in building a show. Problem 2.

If I move the mouse, (still holding the button pressed), the result is the slide is now moved out of position as shown in the third screen-shoot. (see - A Move) problem 3.

Scenario B.

I wish to select slide No7 (to7) and adjust it to the 10 second point. (see - B Start))

The mouse pointer is placed over "to7" again and the left button operated resulting in the second screen-shoot where the timeline display has repositioned and the 10 second point is no-longer visible on the screen, thus removing from view the timing relationship. (see - B Select) Problem 4.

There are a number of other scenarios where the timeline display jumping around will cause operational problems for the user. I have only illustrated 2 here.

The timeline display needs to function as it did in v5.1.

[Igor]

John,

I think this question is located in area of logic. To display correctly preview of a selected slide in the mini-player we have to set a position cursor to end of selected slide (right after transition effect). And if you moved a slide, we move the cursor.

But really there was another bug with incorrect choosing keypoints in the timeline when "Auto Scroll. Style 2" enabled. I'll fix it today in nearest update.

[Igor]

Release Candidate 1

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

* Improved reliability of PicturesToExe (main window).

* Fixed problem with selecting keypoints in the timeline when "Auto Scroll. Style 2" option choosed.

* Improved quality of text objects displayed on small slides in the Slide list.

* Fixed bug with displaying of textured background when hardware acceleration disabled in Objects and animation editor.

+ Updated languages files.

[S Buckley]

a tiny tiny observation:

The copyright notice in the VideoBuilder 'about' splash screen says Copyright © 1998 - 2007 by WnSoft

[Igor]

Please note that it's Release Candidate build.

It sets an association with .pte project files,

Creates a program group and shortscuts without "Beta" prefix in the Start menu.

VideoBuilder starts without quick flashing of a splash screen.

And if no further bugs more, it will be marked as a final release. I hope we'll officially release version 5.5 within 2 weeks.

[Igor]

I remember there were at least two new messages (by Lin Evans and another) yesterday after I've announced Release Candidate.

Lin, did you delete your posting, or it's an fault of the forum?

[fh1805]

Hi Igor,

I've just come across a problem with Release Candidate 1 (RC1) but I cannot re-create it. It is a problem that I have seen perhaps two or three other times since beta9. I never experienced it on beta 8 or any earlier beta. The latest occurence came about as follows:

- My start point was that the installed version of PTE was beta11

- I downloaded and installed the RC1 version and let it take its settings from beta11

- I launched RC1 and it opened the last project file (AVSeq1) that I had modified in beta11

- At this point, the Folder panel is pointing at the Images sub-folder of the AVSeq1 folder

- The File panel is showing these images

- The Slide List is showing the images that make up AVSeq1

- I Previewed a part of this sequence starting from a point part way through and pressing ESC after about 10-12 slides

- I then did File...Open...AVSeq2 (this resides in a folder different from AVseq1)

- The Folder panel remained unchanged (as I expected)

- The File panel remained unchanged (as I expected)

- The Slide List was changed to show the images from AVSeq2 (as I expected)

- I Previewed part of this sequence from the beginning and then pressed ESC after about 10-12 slides

- I then did File...Open...AVSeq3 (this resides in a folder different from both AVSeq1 and AVSeq2)

- The Folder panel remained unchanged (as I expected)

- The File panel remained unchanged (as I expected)

- The Slide List was changed to show the image file names from AVSeq3 (as I expected) BUT...

...the images displayed in the Slide List were all from AVSeq2. This was not what I was expecting.

I closed down PTE, re-launched it and ran through those same steps again. This time everything behaved exactly as I expected it to - no sign of any problem. As I said above, I have had the problem of the Slide List showing the right filenames but the wrong images happen perhaps two or three times since beta9 was released but I have never been able to recreate the problem consistently. When beta10 and then beta11 were released I tried to re-create the problem but didn't succeed - and then suddenly it would happen. I would immediately set about trying to recreate the problem - and each time I never succeeded. It was so very intermittent that it wasn't causing me any grief. It was just annoying.

As an ex-IT technical support person myself I know how frustrating it is to try and diagnose an intermittent problem. If I can get to the point where I can consistently recreate the problem, I'll package all the files up and send them as a zip so that you can take a look at the problem for yourself.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Igor,

I thought I had found a problem in O&A with "Scale Keyframes" but decided it was my fault so I quickly deleted the post = not a fault of PTE or the forum.

Lin

I remember there were at least two new messages (by Lin Evans and another) yesterday after I've announced Release Candidate.

Lin, did you delete your posting, or it's an fault of the forum?

[Igor]

Peter.

Thanks, I'll try to reproduce this problem and will inspect that code of PTE.

Currently I've found only one new line of a code I've added to Open function. But it was added to Beta 8.

- Are all three projects have same aspect ratio (4:3 for example?)

- Do you use Auto Save option and if yes, what interval in minutes? (This option was added in Beta 9).

[fh1805]

Igor,

Yes, all three projects are built to 1024x768 pixels.

[Igor]

OK, and what about "Auto Save" option?

[fh1805]

Set at default = every 7 minutes. The whole sequence of commands took less than 7 minutes so I don't think any Auto Saves will have taken place (but the option was turned on if that fact is significant to the logic of the code you are checking out)

[Igor]

Peter,

You're right, of course.

I think I'll prepare a new version with some changes tomorrow.

[jfa]

* Fixed problem with selecting keypoints in the timeline when "Auto Scroll. Style 2" option choosed.

I have just loaded RC1 and the problem with selecting key-points in the timeline has indeed been fixed, as always a big thank-you Igor, it was driving me crazy trying to make fine adjustments. I had neglected to tell you I was working with Auto Scroll. Style 2 selected, (my default choice).

There is no issue with me as far as the position of the position cursor, either right after transition effect or before. That was never part of my problem.

[Igor]

Peter,

Please send three .pte files of these projects where you've experienced the bug with not updated Slide list. No other files are necessary, only .pte projects.

[Igor]

Peter,

I think this bug with Slide list is fixed now. I've inspected the code of updating of Slide list and reproduced one situation when Slide list was not updated correctly. I've fixed it. Thanks!

Release Candidate 2:

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

* Fixed bug when in some cases Slide list displayed old images after opening of another project.

[fh1805]

Brilliant debugging, Igor!

I've sent you the three pte files you asked for, but I guess you don't need them now.

[mhwarner]

Sorry not to have posted sooner, but I haven't been able to test much with 5.5. However, I noticed this other day but wrote it off to possibly being related to someone else's template I was using. However, I noticed it again with one of my own shows and I have gone back to 5.1 to verify that it did not exist there.

It was definitely present in 5.5 beta 5 (the earliest I tested and which I just reinstalled to be sure it still had a problem) and is present in beta 11 and RC candidates 1 and 2.

Anyway, here's the issue. I set my screen to display the slides as a horizontal list. I have a slide (multiple slides actually) that have animations. There is a backround image with 4 secondary images which "fly" onto the background. I have selected one of these secondary images and checked the "Main Image" checkbox. In version 5.1 of PTE, that secondary image/object correctly shows in the slidelist. However in 5.5, including the latest RC2 only the underlying slide/background shows in the slidelist. The animation window does correctly show the whole animation. Here are some screen shots to illustrate what I mean.

I do hope that this is not a new "feature" as it makes it very difficult to tell what I have on a slide just by glancing at the slide list. If it's a new "feature" for some reason necessitated by the new animation screen (I hope not), then the check box for "Main Image" needs to be removed from the O&A window.

[fh1805]

Mary,

I think you may be overlooking the fact that animations take place over a period of time. Ask yourself the question: which point in time does the Slide List show?

In the Slide List, PTE v5.5 shows the image at the point in time where the transition into the main image has finished. If your animations start after that point they will not appear in the Slide List - and they cannot appear in the Slide List because that is displaying each slide at a fixed point in time: the end of the transition.

You will see the animations only when you use Preview or play the sequence in the mini-viewer.

When you wrote: "...it makes it very difficult to tell what I have on a slide just by glancing at the slide list", you were absolutely correct. It is impossible to know what you have on each slide just by looking at the Slide List. It always was in earlier versions: and it still is in v5.5. But, if you do have other objects on the image that are visible from the start of the transition, you do now see those in the Slide List thumbnail.

I hope this explains what is happening.

[mhwarner]

Mary,

I think you may be overlooking the fact that animations take place over a period of time. Ask yourself the question: which point in time does the Slide List show?

In the Slide List, PTE v5.5 shows the image at the point in time where the transition into the main image has finished. If your animations start after that point they will not appear in the Slide List - and they cannot appear in the Slide List because that is displaying each slide at a fixed point in time: the end of the transition.

You will see the animations only when you use Preview or play the sequence in the mini-viewer.

When you wrote: "...it makes it very difficult to tell what I have on a slide just by glancing at the slide list", you were absolutely correct. It is impossible to know what you have on each slide just by looking at the Slide List. It always was in earlier versions: and it still is in v5.5. But, if you do have other objects on the image that are visible from the start of the transition, you do now see those in the Slide List thumbnail.

I hope this explains what is happening.

I still think it is a bug. And if you had taken the time to look carefully at the images I posted (including the red circle annotations I added), you would see that it is definitely NOT how it worked in 5.1! I specifically went back and tested in 5.1 before posting, and the behavior is quite different.

Why bother to have the check box for "Main Image" then? What is that for? I personally don't agree with showing only the background image -- which in my case is what is there when the transition STARTS -- not when it finishes. When it finishes, the background and all 4 of the "fly-in" objects are visible. That would be an even better solution, as far as I am concerned, but I am happy to live with at least allowing me to select one of the objects/images to set as the main image. Thanks for jumping in here, but I'll wait to hear Igor's explanation on whether it is a bug or whether the functionality has changed and if so, what the "Main Image" checkbox now is used for. And I would personally think that someone like Dom, who sells lots of interesting templates, would be annoyed to know that the horizontal slidelist for all of his templates now shows nothing but a bunch of black slides. So now you have to click on the list to find out what a particular slide contains to know whether it is something you want to modify in the O&A editor. A large step backward as far as I am concerned.