Shows overwritten by PTE

[cjdnzl]

I have encountered a serious problem which hopefully might be my fault, but I fear it is not.

I have several shows stored in separate folders on my E: drive; the original images for each show are in their own folder together with the project1.pte file, and the finished exe file for the show.

A show I finished on Thursday last was in a folder called 'Middlemiss', a genealogical show for use at a reunion on the weekend. It went well, and several persons requested a copy which I undertook to deliver on a CD.

During the weekend, I was delegated to take the 'official' photographs, which I did, about fifty shots, placed into a new folder called, surprisingly enough, 'Reunion Images'. I called up PTE, changed folders to to the new folder, removed the images of the reunion slide show, and added the images I took that day, set the duration to 7 secs each, set PTE to loop until stopped, and hit 'Create', expecting an exe file to be placed in the current folder with the camera images.

The exe creation was instant, without offering a chance to say where I wanted it, or to name it. I was astonished, and then dismayed to find that the project and exe files had been written to the 'Middlemiss' folder instead of the current folder, and had wiped out both the exe file and the project file for that program. All the work done for that show was gone. Yes, I should have backed it up, but I finished that show at 3.00 am, and had to be on the road the next morning, so it didn't get backed up.

If it is my fault, what did I do wrong? and has anyone else encountered this problem?

Colin

[fh1805]

Hi Colin,

Seems we're both going through a rough patch with PTE!

When you launched PTE it opened the last project that you had worked on - i.e. "Middlemiss". You then set about modifying "Middlemiss" by changing the images, the durations and other settings. And then asked PTE to Create. It thought you were wanting a fresh version of "Middlemiss" and so just went ahead and did it.

What you really were doing was using "Middlemiss" as a template and so you should have done a "Save project as" and "Create slideshow as" in order not to overwrite your existing project/EXE pair.

User error, I'm afraid!

A safeguard, if you are using PTE v5 would be to follow every create with a "Create backup as zip". It takes only a few seconds and captures all the essential items into one place. When "disasters" like ours happen, we have to learn from them and adopt new procedures to ensure that either it never happens again, or if it does we can quickly recover the situation.

I sympathise with your anguish at losing all that work.

[xahu34]

Hello Colin,

Sorry for your disaster. My experience is that PTE stores created exe-files to the folder where it did this action the time before; the same holds for saving project files (locations for .exe and .pte must not coincide). I myself do not trust commands like “save” and “create” (in all Windows applications), I always us “save as” and “create as” in combination with new names referring to shows and versions (“Show4711” will be stored in a way looking like “Show4711-v1.pte”, “Show4711-v2.pte”, etc.)

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[Ken Cox]

use the zip and template features religously -- name the files different -the zip does change the name -template has to be changed -- when your creativity is over delete the ones not needed

and

saveas /createas so that you see where the normal program is going

ken

[cjdnzl]

My thanks to all who answered so promptly, and as I guessed in my post above, it was probably my fault.

However, usually with a Windows program, such as Word, Excel, Wordperfect, and numerous others, if one starts a new file that is un-named, hitting 'save' causes the program to ask for folder and filename before saving the file, they do not simply write to the last known filename, so I feel in this case that PTE perhaps should do the same. In this respect I feel that PTE is non-standard

It is a great program, and I do not like criticising.

Thanks again,

Colin

[Ken Cox]

Colin

if my memory serves me right pte save as as Project 1 as default

a new document in WORD saves as the first line in the doc and subsequent saves as that first line

are you asking that every time one does a save in pte, it becomes

Project 2 etc as default ?

myself i do a ctrl+s every couple changes unless i want a new name then i have to save as and give it a new name

from early computing days it has been prudent to remember the old axiom "Jesus Saves"

ken

[xahu34]

Hello Colin,

I fear that you had opened the project file that is now lost and that you then changed and saved it. In this case the save commend does not ask for name and location, whereas in case of new projects it does so (PTE version 5.1). So the behavior of PTE seems to me quite standard.

Kind regards

Xaver

Munich

[fh1805]

Colin,

I am in agreement with Xaver on this. When you launched PTE it automatically opened the last project file that you had been working on. This comes about because of a PTE system setting that you will find under View...Advanced Options...Load Last Used Project. If you don't like PTE doing this then simply untick the item. Given my recent experiences with losing hours of work following Out of Memory problems, I now not only Save As regularly but also close PTE from time to time in order to free up memory. So I am very happy that it launches straight back into the last project that I was working on.

[Conflow]

Sorry Colin,

I have to agree with Ken, Xaver and Peter ~ it appears that you just 'transposed images' expecting

PTE to uptake these and auto-create a new Show as if it were an Auto-File Templated System with

auto-save.

Windows is not designed to do this and never was, that irrespective of any Program you are running.

Windows is designed to run a 'Single Focus' object at any time. You may have 10 Windows Folders

on the Desktop but only one is actually open ~ the one with the "dark-blue" Title Bar.

The 'Save Command' command simply saves to an (open) Focus object - that which is active open.

The 'Save As Command' instructs the PC to create an auto-Copy of the (open) object and allows you

to either 'overwrite' the origional or create a renamed/edited object from the origional.

Yep, done it myself many time - you expected the PC to do the thinking for you - no it cant !

Apologies for the long winded explaination ~ but it may help others to avoid the same mistake.

Brian.Conflow.

[Henri.R]

Hello Colin,

I know of your problem with saving and/or making an exe file. When you make and consequently save a new exe file, PtE is looking for the folder you used the last time and then overwrites the existing last file, using the same name! I think the problem here is that for making and saving the exe file there is no possibility to choose 'Save as'!!

I have a workaround now by placing the first exe file immediately in a new folder with a different name; however I may suggest that Igor provides a neat 'Save as' command for making and saving exe files...

regards.

Henri.

[fh1805]

Henri,

What you want already exists its File...Create Slideshow As....

[cjdnzl]

Thanks again to all of you who took the time to add a reply to this thread. This is a great forum, one of the best!

Yes, I accept that I made the mistake of not setting up a new filename in the required folder, and I did just open PTE and delete the show therein, replacing the images with the new ones, expecting a new show to be created.

However, I have learned the lesson. From now on I will always use the ' Create backup in ZIP' option ( I have done sometimes ), and I will use the Save As option as well. Funny though, I generally use Save As when in Photoshop, so why I didn't in PTE I can't say.

I am about to start rebuilding the lost show, it's all good practice, and you can bet your last dollar I won't lose it again.

Kind regards to all,

Colin

[Henri.R]

Hello Peter, you're quite right, I always and only saw the button 'Create' and there is no 'save as' option.

'Create slideshow as' is the way to go. Thanks, one's never to old to learn...

regards,

Henri.