Converting Conventional Slide Shows to PTE

[Guest Yachtsman1]

I am converting a conventional slide show to PTE, the sound track is pre-recorded. I have scanned the 200+ slides and edited and reduced their sizes, I have also converted the analogue sound track to MP3, added the slides to a PTE show with basic slide times of 10 seconds. Now comes the problem, A) do I have to customise each slide to suit the sound track, *all acher! or is there a way of making sure the slides change at the correct times? I haven't sufficient PTE expertise. While I have been doing it the *all acher way, a thought occurred, in the next version, would it be possible to run the show as a manual change by mouse click while listening to the sound track, clicking when the slide should change, then adding the sound track to PTE and converting it back to an automatic show??? Sorry for the long winded explanation of what I would like. There are three further shows to convert which I am dreading if I have to do it the *all aching way. The original show was set up via clicks added to the analogue sound track which activated the projector to automatically change the slides.

Yachtsman1

[fh1805]

Eric,

Take your show into the timeline display, select all slides and then click on "Cut transition". This moves all the images to after the end of the music. Next, turn on waveform display and play the show back in the miniplayer. Whenever you want a slide to appear, click on "New transition" and PTE will move the next image to that point in time.

You will still need to fine tune the timing because your reaction/anticipation will not be spot on. When you have finished, click on "Timed Points" and do "Set end of last slide at end of music". If you have any kind of paperwork that documents your original timing, have that by you - it will help with the reaction/anticipation.

regards,

Peter

P.S. yet another instance of the interface being non-intuitive.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

Take your show into the timeline display, select all slides and then click on "Cut transition". This moves all the images to after the end of the music. Next, turn on waveform display and play the show back in the miniplayer. Whenever you want a slide to appear, click on "New transition" and PTE will move the next image to that point in time.

You will still need to fine tune the timing because your reaction/anticipation will not be spot on. When you have finished, click on "Timed Points" and do "Set end of last slide at end of music". If you have any kind of paperwork that documents your original timing, have that by you - it will help with the reaction/anticipation.

regards,

Peter

P.S. yet another instance of the interface being non-intuitive.

Hi Peter

Fell at the first fence! how do I select all slides?

Regards Eric

[fh1805]

Scroll right to last slide and click on it. Scroll left to first slide and Shift+Click on it.

This is a standard Windows technique. Click selects one item, Shift+Click selects a range of items, Ctrl+Click will pick up a collection of scattered items (you keep the Ctrl key pressed every time you click to pick up another item)

regards,

Peter

P.S. A clear case on non-intuitive use; this time courtesy of Bill Gates!

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Scroll right to last slide and click on it. Scroll left to first slide and Shift+Click on it.

This is a standard Windows technique. Click selects one item, Shift+Click selects a range of items, Ctrl+Click will pick up a collection of scattered items (you keep the Ctrl key pressed every time you click to pick up another item)

regards,

Peter

P.S. A clear case on non-intuitive use; this time courtesy of Bill Gates!

Hi Peter

Haven't tried what you said yet, just back from re-recording the Church Choir, then had to watch Louis win the world champs, what a race, needed oxygen afterwards. Will give it a go tomorrow.

Regards Eric

[fh1805]

Yeh, he did cut it close didn't he. I wonder what the closest margin is in the F1 title race? 200 metres will take some beating.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi All

I have successfully added the time points using the method suggesred by Peter, however I have found a snag with my methodology. I added the soundtrack to the PTE show, which was an MP3 version of the original slide show st with bleeps denoting the slide changes, these showed up well on the waveform. I carried on up to slide 100 when a call of nature meant I had to pause the show. When I re-started the slide change points, the bleep had gone out of sync with the waveform indication, (about 3 seconds behind). So I stopped the show and tried again, but got disinterested and stopped it again as my confidence had diminished. I then realised the sound track with bleeps was 23 seconds short of the track without bleeps. So I loaded them both into Audacity to see if I could find where the where the extra seconds were on the track without bleeps. This is where the methodology went out of kilter. The tracks started together OK, then after 4 minutes they were out of alignment by 3 seconds, after 20 minutes the misalignment was reversed. I put this down to stretch in the original taped recording. I have made 3 screenshots to illustrate what I mean. This may not mean a lot to anyone who is working with totally digital material.

Anyway, thanks Peter for pointing me the correct way, I've now asked the owner of the show I'm trying to produce to let me re-record it digitally and cut out all this pratting about.

Yachtsman1.

[goddi]

Eric,

Take your show into the timeline display, select all slides and then click on "Cut transition". This moves all the images to after the end of the music. Next, turn on waveform display and play the show back in the miniplayer. Whenever you want a slide to appear, click on "New transition" and PTE will move the next image to that point in time.

You will still need to fine tune the timing because your reaction/anticipation will not be spot on. When you have finished, click on "Timed Points" and do "Set end of last slide at end of music". If you have any kind of paperwork that documents your original timing, have that by you - it will help with the reaction/anticipation.

regards,

Peter

P.S. yet another instance of the interface being non-intuitive.

====================

Peter...

Yet another revelation revealed!!! I was just browsing around and found your posting. I've been using PTE for years and stayed away from the Timeline because I could not figure out what the heck to do with the options it has. Thanks much for shedding some light on this mystery. Now I might even try to do something more fancy with Timeline. And...in trying out your suggestions, I discovered that I could stop/start the miniplayer with the spacebar, which makes inputing the New Transitions much easier. Wow!!!

But I am wondering if having the "Auto Spread Slides Along Music" check makes any difference when using these steps. I practiced your steps with a slideshow that was already "Auto Spread...". I assume it is better if it is unchecked but your steps seem to work whether it is checked or not...only dimmed when checked. Though it might not be logical to have it checked, what is the effect of keeping it checked?

Sincerely, Gary

[fh1805]

Gary,

As I understand this (and I have never used auto-spread in anger, only dabbled with it), if you have "auto-spread" ticked:

- yes, you can set up your carefully timed, meticulously positioned sequence using the timeline to drag each image to precisely where you want it

- and these settings will be applied to the slides (and if you use Customise Slide to look at each slide's duration and transition duration, I believe you will see the proper values there)

- yes, you can save the project and these settings will be saved

BUT... if you Preview or Create, your sequence will use the auto-spread timings; if you mini-play, you will get the proper timings

Which, if I am right, is actually quite a neat way of preserving what you've already got (the auto-spread) whilst you work on it to make it even better! Two versions of the sequence in one project file - "buy one get one free!"

regards,

Peter

[goddi]

Gary,

...BUT... if you Preview or Create, your sequence will use the auto-spread timings; if you mini-play, you will get the proper timings

Which, if I am right, is actually quite a neat way of preserving what you've already got (the auto-spread) whilst you work on it to make it even better! Two versions of the sequence in one project file - "buy one get one free!"

regards,

Peter

=============

Peter...

Yes...I gave it a try. Very interesting. There are lots of "quirks" in the program that are not so obvious. Thanks for the tip.

Gary

[goddi]

Gary,

As I understand this (and I have never used auto-spread in anger, only dabbled with it), if you have "auto-spread" ticked:

- yes, you can set up your carefully timed, meticulously positioned sequence using the timeline to drag each image to precisely where you want it

- and these settings will be applied to the slides (and if you use Customise Slide to look at each slide's duration and transition duration, I believe you will see the proper values there)

- yes, you can save the project and these settings will be saved

BUT... if you Preview or Create, your sequence will use the auto-spread timings; if you mini-play, you will get the proper timings

Which, if I am right, is actually quite a neat way of preserving what you've already got (the auto-spread) whilst you work on it to make it even better! Two versions of the sequence in one project file - "buy one get one free!"

regards,

Peter

=============================

I think I just found the answer to my question about the effect of having the "Auto Spread..." box checked when using the Timeline:

"But I am wondering if having the "Auto Spread Slides Along Music" check makes any difference when using these steps. I practiced your steps with a slideshow that was already "Auto Spread...". I assume it is better if it is unchecked but your steps seem to work whether it is checked or not...only dimmed when checked. Though it might not be logical to have it checked, what is the effect of keeping it checked?"

I just put together a slideshow trying to transition the images based on the beat of the music. Using the Timeline, everything went well. When I played it in the miniplayer, the transitions were spot-on. However, when I used Preview, the timing was off. After much fiddling, I found that when I unchecked the "Auto Spread...", the timing in Preview was then correct. I think there should be something that would warn the user that if you are using the Timeline to set the images to the music, the "Auto Spread..." box MUST be unchecked in order for the mini-player AND Preview to play as you expect.

It has only taken me a few years to figure this out, so a new user might get as frustrated as I have been until he gets this figured out. I am not sure how PTE should be modified to avoid this problem but I think it should be addressed. Am I correct in my thinking here???

Thanks... Gary