PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.5 Release Candidate 5

[Barry Beckham]

I also notice that while working on the time line, if you highlight a transition point and hit the delete key instead of the cut transition button, the slide is not only removed from the time line, but also the slide list.

I have done this a number of times and accept that it is probably because I am not familiar yet with the new layout, but I wonder if the delete key can be used as a cut transition while we are in the time line and not remove the slide from the slide list. It is the most natural thing to do, to highlight a transition point and hit the delete key.

Bunching Transition points

When I am 20 images into a sequence and copy some more images into the show, then drag them into the slide list. Why do they all have to appear on the timeline bunched up. I constantly have to keep hitting, cut transition before I can continue adding transition points.

Do images selected for use in the slide list, but not yet added on the timeline, have to appear anywhere in the timeline at all? It's not natural for them to appear there because we havn't hit the new transition button yet.

File Panel

Often I want to get rid of an image completely from my show, I have decided it has no place in the sequence, but if I highlight the thumbnail, hitting the delete key does nothing, can it be made to completely remove the image to the recycle bin?

[ADB]

I think what would be very useful is to have the option that when previewing you can turn the preview of animations on or off so if you want a first run to record transition points on the fly you can turn off "animations preview". Once the initial transitions are recorded you can then turn "animations preview" back on and make any tweaks.

Igor

I thought I had found the solution in unselecting View / Advanced Options / Show real slide in mini-player but when I do this I am unable to record transitions on the fly as the mini-player control buttons (stop and play) are grayed out.

[jevans]

Jeff,

With the Timeline view active, just drag an image from the Slide Panel to wherever you want to have it inserted in the Timeline. All the other images and their transition points remain as they were - and you can then customise the transitions of the new image to suit. You no longer need to position the blue triangle to be your insertion point - just drag what you want where you want it.

Thanks Peter,

I was sure that there would be a simple answer.

Jeff

[Igor]

Barry,

I am using Windows Vista and just got the attached message when I installed Beta 5

1. It happened only once, or Beta 5 doesn't start under Windows Vista at all?

2. Did you try previous beta versions under Vista?

3. And how version 5.1 works?

p.s. I'll reply on other questions tomorrow. Thanks!

[Barry Beckham]

It popped up twice, once on install and automatic launch, when I closed the panel, PTE closed too, I opened it again and did the same, and have not seen the message since.

It only happened with Beta 5 and I have not seen this with 5.1 or any other Beta

[Urmas]

Tested Beta 5 (Vista Ultimate) and everything seemed OK. Like the new features. Thanks, Igor!

[jfa]

I think Al raised several good points and would like to second the two below.

2. On the previous timeline, hitting "stop" returned the maker to the very beginning of the show. I always found this to be a nuisance, as I would often hit stop instead of just pausing the show, and have to navigate back to the place on the timeline where I was working. So, the new "tape recorder" system of buttons is a pleasant relief. However, as on a recorder, there still needs to be another button to return the maker to the very beginning of the show if he or she desires to go there. One can move the slider, but that is more awkward than simply hitting a "return" button.

A simple play from start button on the mini recorder would be very useful as it would return the pointer to the start, (then using the stop button would allow working at this point), and also give the preview from start function on the mini-player.

Better still just add go to start and go to end buttons to the mini-player.

3. The music still gets cut off at the end of the slides unless one calculates the duration from there to the end and adjusts the duration of the last slide accordingly. This would be simplified if one could drag the vertical "end of show" line on the timeline with the mouse, just as one can drag the end of each transition to extend it for individual slides. This would tell the show to keep playing until the end of the music is reached.

Being able to adjust the last images timing this way is very useful as this is often a title slide and adjusting it to the music fade out is almost always needed at the end of every show.

[jevans]

Jeff you can insert a slide while the soundtrack is playing by pressing the insert key at the desired position and the next slide in the list will be added at that point. I am at present creating several slideshows with a total image count of 1400 and would really like the select slides to the right feature in the right click menu in the timeline ( shift + home does this but also takes you to the end of the timeline which is a pain) I'm using the last version 5.1 as these shows are the results of a national competition and I can't risk using beta versions as I'm working to a deadline. From what I have seen of 5.5 it looks great can't wait to get this project over and start using it.

Well done Igor and the team.

Regards

Geoff

Geoff,

Peter has given me the answer as to how to add slides. But looking at your answer, I thought I would try this method. I added a music track to a new project, then added the first slide (which you must do to make the mini-player active). Then a started the mini-player and pressed the "insert" key. The next slide in the slide window was added but then the mini-player stops and you cannot add another slide. Next I tried adding the last slide to the end of the timeline and tried again. this time when you press the "insert" key, this last slide just moves up ti the insert point and the min-player stops again.

I am not sure why I would want to use the method of inserting slides as the music is playing, but it does not seem to work for me.

Regards

Jeff

[jevans]

Some further questions on operation of Version 5.5 Beta 5 :

Barry has posted some comments on issues he has found when trying out the latest beta. One of these points relates to bunching of slides on the timeline when a number of slides are added in one go. I have tried this in two ways. One adding a number of slides after the last slide on the timeline and adding a few slides in the middle of the slides already on the timeline. In neither case do the slided bunch up but are added at the default time intervals. HOWEVER, I notice that if you change a slide time, say from 10 secs to 4 secs, and then start anew project without leaving PTE, the slide remembers the altered time, so that it overrides a new default time interval in the new project. This did not happen with Version 5.1.

I second query concerns the adding and removing of transition points. Again Barry has mentioned this in his previous posts. I do not understand the requirement to do this. I either want to add a slide or remove a slide. If I add a new transition in the middle of the timeline, all that happens is that all the slides to the right of the insertion point move back to this point. The attached three images show this. The first image shows 4 slides a 10 sec intervals. The second image show the insertion point a 16 secs. The third image shows what happens when you add a new transition point at 16 secs - the last two slided move back to this point. Can someone explain how they envisage using the "new transition" feature. In version 5.5 this button and the "delete point" button were redundant unless you were wanting to remove a slide from the timeline BUT NOT from the slide list.

Regards

Jeff

[stonemason]

Hi Jeff this used to work fine in older versions of PTE but I have to admit I'm guilty of assuming it still worked in the newer 5.5 betas. as you can see from my post I'm busy with lots of AV's at present so haven't had time to experiment with 5.5. I also assumed that this is what Barry has been talking about in other posts as I remember him using the "insert key" method at one of his lecture days. Sorry if I misled you.

Regards

Geoff

[alrobin]

I think Al raised several good points and would like to second the two below.

A simple play from start button on the mini recorder would be very useful as it would return the pointer to the start, (then using the stop button would allow working at this point), and also give the preview from start function on the mini-player.

Better still just add go to start and go to end buttons to the mini-player.

Yes, this is what I had in mind - you put it much more succinctly!

I second query concerns the adding and removing of transition points. Again Barry has mentioned this in his previous posts. I do not understand the requirement to do this. I either want to add a slide or remove a slide. ...........snip..............Can someone explain how they envisage using the "new transition" feature. In version 5.5 this button and the "delete point" button were redundant unless you were wanting to remove a slide from the timeline BUT NOT from the slide list. [/quote ]

Jeff, if my reply is way off-base here it's because I misread your remarks, and if so, please let me know. Like Barry, I used the "new transition" button all the time in the older versions of PTE. I, too, like to clear the timeline of transitions and then add them on the fly. You can't add them from the file list in this manner, as they all have to be placed in order ahead of time, i.e. on the slide list. Then you simply add the transitions for these selected slides as the music plays. It's a much easier way of synching a show than fiddling with them once the transitions have been added, IMHO.

[jevans]

Al,

In Version 5.1 you have two buttons in the timeline - "New Transition" and "Delete Point". If you add slides to the slide list, they will also appear in the timeline. Now if you click anywhere in the timeline and click the "New Transition" button, nothing will happen. If you select a slide, then click the "Delete" Point" button, the slide will disappear from the timeline but NOT from the slide list. You can now select a different point on the timeline and click "New Transition" and the slide which you removed from the timeline will be re-inserted at the new location. This feature was a hang over from Version 4.48 and I indicated in the user guide, was probably obsolete due to the change in the way the timeline operated.

Now in Beta 5, there is a "New Transition" button and a "Cut Transition" button in the timeline window. However these do not seem to work in a logical fashion. If I add some slides to the slide list/timeline and click anywhere in the timeline and click the "New Transition" button,, nothing happens. If I use the "Cut Transition" button it merely removes the nearest transition point and shuffles the images along the timeline. I cannot see any purpose for this.

What may be required is the ability to remove an image from the timeline but NOT from the slide list and then re-insert the image in another position. However the way Igor has written the program, I doubt if that is possible.

Both you and Barry refer to using transition points. I do not understand the difference between slides and transition points. I have slides with their associated transitions which I need to insert in the timeline at selected points. Why do I need to differentiate between the slide and its insertion point.

Maybe in trying to achieve the requirements which forum members have specified in this thread, Igor has altered the program incorrectly. What we may need to do is very clearly identify how we use it to create a new show. Maybe I am getting old and thick, but I have not been able to follows Barry's methodology, although of course he produces magnificent shows so obviously knows exactly what he is doing.

Regards

Jeff

[fh1805]

Jeff,

Let me see if I can explain Barry's methodology - as I understand it.

He first sorts his images into the order that he wishes them to appear by dragging them into the Slide List from the File List (and also possibly by using the "digital light box" to get them into their proper order).

He then adds the music to the project.

Next. he removes all the transition points from the timeline. Note that the transition points in the timeline can be processed independently of the images in the Slide List.

Now he commences playing the project (i.e the music) and clicks on "New transition" at every point where he wants a slide transition to occur. Each time he clicks the button, PTE assigns the next slide in the Slide List with that particular transition point.

At the end of the music the AV sequence will be properly synchronised to the musical emphases that Barry wants to use. (Or at least, he'll only have some fine tuning to do if he was a touch early or late clicking the "New transition" button any where).

Barry, I hope that is the gist of what you do, even if the mechanics of how you do it might be a little off. Please correct me if I'm wrong because your methodology is one that I feel I ought to try at some point. (Andrew, Al and others: I assume your technique is similar).

[Davidh12]

I have not worked with 5.5 a lot but from what I can see the new timeline will need a bit of time to get used too and can be a bit confusing.

I operate like has been discribed in the post above. Moving the slides into the slide list. Going into timeline clicking on the first time point going to the last time point, holding down the shift key and clicking to highlight all the time point then clicking on 'cut transition' and all the timed points go. Except they don't, they move to further down the right of the timeline.

However what you can do is ignore them. Proceeding at the start (taking as read you have added the music) press play on the mini player and when you want to add a slide click 'new transition' and your slide is added when all the slides are done the ones that were to the right have disappeared. I hope I have described that well enough. Try it and you will see what I mean.

From what I can gather from conversations the program must have a timepoint for a slide. Although FH1805 stated that the transition points in the timeline can be processed independently of the images in the Slide List is true, what's confusing is that they are linked more than previous versions so if there is a slide it must have a time point. Even if when you cut transition it gets temporarily placed on the timeline on the far right.

Perhaps others can describe it better, or tell me I am on another tree somewhere it is late here, but that's how I figure it and it seems to work for me. Just don't let the cut points being still there confuse you.

David

[Maureen]

Well done Igor on yet again working so quickly to update the new Betas of version 5.5

Thank You once more for your hard work.

Like Barrie, Al and others I work by clicking the transition points on the fly with the soundtrack.

I have tried and enjoyed using v5.5 very much and like David I now simply ignore the fact that the transitions are hidden way off to the right ready for use until I want them.

Best Wishes

Maureen

[jfa]

Jeff and everyone, this link is to a tutorial Barry posted in another thread in the forum and shows the way he works on the timeline, (among other things), about 26 minutes into the tutorial. I hope it will clear up any confusion on his working method. The methods many of us use is close to, or the same as this I believe.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player...ctid=1497932147

Barry I hope you don't mind me putting this link up here.

[jevans]

Re methods of working, timeline and transition points. Thanks to all who have replied to my queries. All is now clear and I now understand how others are using the transition points. Most of my av's involve the use of commentary with music and I have been in the habit of creating the commentary file and adding each slide individually at the relevant commentary point. It works for me but I can see how the interactive method would be quicker and easier. One of the things that was causing me a problem in Version 5.5 was that the cut transition points do not disappear as in Version 5.1 but merely go to the end of the timeline.

Regards

Jeff

[alrobin]

Both you and Barry refer to using transition points. I do not understand the difference between slides and transition points. I have slides with their associated transitions which I need to insert in the timeline at selected points. Why do I need to differentiate between the slide and its insertion point.

Jeff,

I agree with your description of how the two versions of PTE work. While it is an inconvenience to have all of the slides in the slide list move off to the right on the timeline, it can be used as a workaround to position them on the fly, as Igor and several members have described.

To me, a "transition", as indicated by a little rectangle on the timeline, represents the point in time where the transition effect for the next slide first begins to operate, whether it be a fade, wipe, cut, etc. It's just a transition point for the slide which it represents. The slides themselves are shown on the slide list, independent of their transition times or types.

As you know, there are three times which are important for any particular slide: the time of the start of the transition to that slide, the transition time itself (indicated by the horizontal grey bar on the timeline), and the duration of the slide (the time between the start of the transition to that slide and the start of the next transition. Note that, even for non-synched shows, with version 5, the duration time includes the transition time, as it always should have, as it is consistent with the timing of synched shows.

Everyone has a slightly different way of putting shows together, and for some, these points about the timing may not be pertinent (for example if one never syncs a show, or if one automatically spreads slides over the timeline, etc.).

[jevans]

[quote name='alrobin' date='Apr 19 2008, 07:05 PM' post='52581'

Everyone has a slightly different way of putting shows together, and for some, these points about the timing may not be pertinent (for example if one never syncs a show, or if one automatically spreads slides over the timeline, etc.).

[Barry Beckham]

While putting the Week in Scotland show together I also had the attached happen, although I have had this before with earlier versions of PTE5 too (well prior to 5.5).

My time line shows me that I have 500 minutes of music, when in fact it's little over 8 minutes. I can't find out how to get the music showing correctly. If I open the project file in 5.1 I get the same problem. It makes the scroll bar difficult to use to find the part of the time line you actually want.

Anyone else ever had this?

I suspect it may be something to do with these time points being thrown up the end of the time line. When I started the project I didn't have 500 minutes of music and it sort of grew every time I added images and cut the transition points.

[fh1805]

Barry,

If your suspicions are correct (that it is tied in with "Cut transitions" activity) then, did you do about 60 such cuts (simple maths - 500 minutes of music divided by original 8 minutes = c.60)?

[Barry Beckham]

Putting this slide show together one image at a time, chopping and changing I am cutting images from the time line all the time.

All technical difficulties aside, I would like the time list to show nothing until you select a new transition.

[ecps]

Thank you for yet another version with its developments/improvements on what is already very fine software. I see that work is still being done on the Objects and Animations window. Is there any chance that this will include the waveform?

Eddie.

[davegee]

Time to put my head above the parapet once more!

I'm not sure that I like the way that the discussion about the time line is going?

Good shows (especially Barrys) owe more to the quality of the images than the way they were put together on the time line.

I wouldn't want to see changes made which lean towards one persons way of working more than any other persons way of working.

I am quite happy with the time line the way it is.

DaveG

[Igor]

Thank you for all your responses, suggestions and bug-reports!

I'll reply step by step on all messages.

Barry,

The bug you described in post #121 with selecting and dragging keypoints or slides:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....ost&p=52471

I have already fixed in Beta 5. It happened when an effect duration is equal or longer than duration of its slide.

Al,

2. <...> button to return the maker to the very beginning of the show

I'll add this function to mini-player.

1. I agree with Barry and Busty about the missing ability to clear the timeline of transitions and add them on the fly - moving everything to the end just doesn't cut it with me either (on my first attempt, I guess I hadn't highlighted everything, and only some of them moved past the end of the music. The new "workaround" is too easy to screw up.

I can't do it technically. After integration to the main window, timeline is only alternate view of Slide list. If slide exists it should be displayed in the timeline, impossible to hide keypoint of a slide.

4. There appears to be some wasted space on the slide view window (see attachment) when one moves the dividing bar upward to increase the size of the images on the slide list.

Thanks, I already know about this problem and thinking how to fix it.

3. The music still gets cut off at the end of the slides unless one calculates the duration from there to the end and adjusts the duration of the last slide accordingly. This would be simplified if one could drag the vertical "end of show" line on the timeline with the mouse, just as one can drag the end of each transition to extend it for individual slides. This would tell the show to keep playing until the end of the music is reached.

I'll make moveable this vertical red line to ajudst duration of a slideshow. I thought about an option with automatical adjusting of duration, but it causes various logical problems if add new slide to the end or re-arrange slides.

5. <...> I agree with the suggestion in a previous post to have the light-table for the slide list accessible from the timeline.

I'll try to make it possible.

One would think that with the high-resolution modern-day monitors there would be plenty of room to include both together.

Technically it possible, just I have to add one more layout. If it really necessary, I'll make it in the next version(s).