Igor

Please don't worry! Our web hoster is changing the server. It will be ready in 24-36 hours. We're already uploading files of our web site into new server. But updating of DNS takes these 24-36 hours. By the way, as you can see the forum works fine, because it uses special hosting with own domain name.

I just uploaded improved beta #3 which fixes all those problems. Please visit http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=842

PicturesToExe v4.10 beta #3 http://www.picturestoexe.com/apr_beta.zip What's new in this beta: * Fixed minor bug of beta #1/2 when new button to choose application in the "Customize slide window" didn't work. * Fixed very old bug when you copy slide it didn't remember color of text comment in the personalized slides * Fixed two bugs of previous v4.10 beta #1 and beta #2. New music player didn't work under Windows NT 4.0 and it had a problem with playing of MIDI under Windows 95. Both problems are fully fixed now. p.s. please let us know how new beta works.

Thank you all for testing! think(box) I've fixed that old bug when color of a text comment in personalized slide was not copied. RNB I just sent you email. I hope that we quickly fix that problem with MIDI playing. About spinning of CD disk in a CD-ROM drive. Yes, because presentation reads music continuously directly from CD disk to don't create temp files on the HDD drive. But it's not a problem, we can create special option to copy all resouceres to the temp folder (as one file!) and CD-ROM will not be used at all. p.s. by the way, now in v4.10 any presentation starts immediately and there are no glitches even during direct playing from CD-ROM drive.

I just prepared and uploaded corrected beta #2 http://www.picturestoexe.com/apr_beta.zip * Fixed bug of beta #1 when button to choose background color didn't work. * Fixed very old memory leak. Presentation might fall with "Out of system resources" message under Windows 9x, if many slides contained large objects (pictures or transparent buttons). To Adda To think(box) These two bugs are fixed now. Thank you for the help! To Mike Oh, excuse me for this skipped place! In the beta #3. p.s. also we're working on WMA support and got working code with the new music player. So it could be added even in v4.10

Please try to with v4.10 beta. I hope that it will solve that problem with music playing!

"This problem may occurs under Windows 98, because you've used too large pictures (1600x1200). This is unpleasant limitation of Windows 9x. No problem for Windows NT, 2000 or XP. But I'll think how to optimize work with such large pictures under Win9x." I was not right, - that is our bug. So using of 1600x1200 pictures shouldn't case any problem! It happened because a great number of slides contained huge pictures-objects (in 1600x1200). Thank you, Bill, for the example of presentation you've sent me. I'll fix it tomorrow. In current versions of PTE large pictures 1600x1200 as main picture of slide *will not* case "Out of system resource" message. Only if slide contains object (picture with 1600x1200 points) and presentation has 20..40 such slides.

v4.10 beta #1 is available now See http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=828 Also there is no problem even if presentation has 2, or 10, or 100 music files in various formats (MP3s, MIDIs or WAVs).

PicturesToExe v4.10 beta #1 is released http://www.picturestoexe.com/apr_beta.zip (1,3 MB) I hope that it doesn't contains large bugs, but v4.10 has several fully rewritten components (music player, customization of a slide). So please use this first beta only for testings to check up your presentations with v4.10. If you find bugs, please let us know and we'll prepare new beta versions with fixes. What's new in v4.10: * Fixed two old minor visual bugs in the main window of PicturesToExe. * Fixed old visual bugs on the time-line in case of long music track (40 minutes and more). * Fixed bug of v3.80 and v4.00 when music plays however, even if you've turned off "Play background music" option ("Music" tab of Project options). * Fixed old bug when PicturesToExe showed error messages if it was added incorrect or damaged JPEG or GIF picture * Fixed old bug with creating of template. Some main pictures of slides or music files were not copied into template's folder if "Show picture" or "Play background music" were unchecked. * Fixed old small bug when name of an opened template was added into "Recent Projects" list. * Fixed old bug when in the Preview mode hyperlink or button assigned to run HTML file didn't worked. * Fixed several other minors bugs. + Added support of JPEG pictures which have unusual .jpe extension + Ctrl+A is assigned now to select all pictures in the file panel, instead of "Save As" + This version contains new improved music player: > You need not to choose between "Internal" and "External" players more. New music player provides high quality playing and exact synchronization; > It fully compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP; > New player can work even under Windows without installed DirectX or Media Player; > Even presentation with 500 Mb of music files starts immediately now; > Improved support of various types of MP3 and WAV music files; > MIDI music instantly starts playing under Windows XP; > Fixed rare cases of music glitches on some configurations; > Many other improvements. + Added fine customization of a slide. Earlier if you wanted to set own time of showing for a slide it was necessary to make all this slide personalized. Now you can assign own time, but keeping background preference or font of text comment according common settings from the Project options. This feature will work and with your current projects. + Improvements in the Customize Synchronization window: > Double-click on a transition point to show "Customize Slide" window; > Status bar always displays current position of the cursor; + Imporovements in the Visual Editor of objects: > It's possible to cancel dragging of object(s) by pressing of the right mouse button; > You can move selected object(s) pressing arrows of cursor on the keyboard; > You can call popup menu by clicking of right mouse button or special key on the keyboard; > To switch between objects press <Tab> key on the keyboard; > Some other improvements. + Added new option "Slide List: Show file names only (without full path)" (see Main menu | Advanced options). And this option is turned on by default, but of course, you can set the old view with displaying of full file path. + And many other various improvements.

You will able to double-click on a transition point to call Personal settings of the slide and select necessary effect. Also I hope to make visual adjusting of the effect duration on the time-line. (Maybe not in the beta #1, but later.)

v4.01 in comparison with v4.00 contains only small fix of one bug. In v4.00 you can't start preview from some slide for not synchronized presentation. But you're right - we have to upload v4.01 to the Simtel.net p.s. by the way, our forum is located on separate web server and with own domain name.

We plan to complete PTE v4.10 beta #1 on Monday, July 7th. p.s. now I'm working to make more fine customization of a slide. E.g. if you want to assign only custom effect for a slide, it will able to keep default time options or background preference from the Project options for this personalized slide. I think it's a very important ability.

We're apologize for this trouble! It's a temporary problem of web hoster of WnSoft.com. The slow access may takes 2-3 days. Please use mirrors to download newest v4.00: http://www.simtel.net/pub/dl/63011.html

Now with help of RegNow we've prepared automatical system for sending of registration keys. So customer after he've ordered on-line, he will receive the key usually in several minutes. And no delay during 12-24 hours more. And the customer can starts work with PicturesToExe immediately after purchase.

Thanks for your suggestion. We very good know this interesting format, and STM, and especially XM, too. (By the way, I have wonderful .xm file with a music which is only 13 Kb.) Only I'm afraid that only a small number of users will use this format, because we can use only ready compositions. Now we've fully finished work on the new music player and in the nearest future we will think about OGG and other formats (optional) support.

Excuse us for this trouble! Just it's an incorrect key (which contains only name of the license) which was automatically sent by RegNow. We'll send you correct key manually tomorrow. Or please write me to igor@wnsoft.com (don't forget to let me know your Order ID and full name) and I'll send you the key immediately. p.s. we're working now with RegNow to make possible sending of the registration keys instantly for orders made online. It will solve an old problem of 12-24 hours of waiting after ordering.

We're closely working now on the new mp3 player which should solve known problem with music playing. And it provides high quality of playing. By the way, it's available smooth sound stopping (which takes 30 or 100 ms.) when you close presentation. And no glitches more, - partially they were caused because of DMA mode is not turned on by default in Win9x/Me. Anyway, as we've tested, this problem will not appears more.

Thanks for your comment! p.s. I don't believe that Microsoft will remove MP3 support. Anyway presentations with new mp3 player will be played OK, because they have own MP3 decoder.

PicturesToExe copies music files into default temp folder of Windows. On closing of a presentation, it deletes all these temp files (even under Windows XP). There is no difficulty with this. Just I use GetTempPath API function and then create a sub-folder there, and after delete this sub-folder.

I think that we could add checking when presentation runs from hard drive or from CD-ROM, and in last case copy music into temp folder.

Tripstrilles New mp3 player plays and should show length correctly of VBR mp3 files. We tested it on several files. think(box) Yes, new mp3 player can play mp3/wav/midi files directly from .exe file of presentation (we'll make it optionally on choose of author). So any presentations starts instantly. I shall test how it will work on the slow CD-ROMs (600 Kb per second), but they are enough for smooth playing, because playback takes 16-32 Kb per second only.

We have completed new mp3 engine for the PicturesToExe. Now it requires a long period of careful testing. And we finally add this player into PTE *only* if it will not cause any problem. This player should solve all known problems, because it has maximal compatibility with all mp3, wav and midi files under any version of Windows (even first version of Win95 without IE, without MediaPlayer, without DirectX). It provides excellent quality of playing, because it uses high quality MP3 decoder. Also only this engine gives ability to add video output feature (for the sound channel). For maximal stability and compactness of the code it doesn't use DirectX, and there is one difficulty with it. Because WMA music files support not included. It requires to use DirectSound for playing of such files. We wouldn't wanted to add this support, but if it really necessary, we could write special separate code for the WMA support. Currently PTE supports WMA format. Please let us know about your opinion about this.

Many thanks for your replies! Third variant (displaying of file names) will be used by the default settings. And, of course, an ability to set previous view with full file path.

Let me know, please, what you think about displaying of items in the Slide List. Currently it may happens file name can be shown because of a long picture's file path: www.wnsoft.com/SlideList_FullPath1.gif And I have two ideas how to improve this situation. This way provides ability to always see file name of a picture and beggining of the file path: www.wnsoft.com/SlideList_FullPath2.gif And final variant I like it more, - it is to display file name only, without full path where located the picture. Anyway user can look at the full path below when he selects the slide: www.wnsoft.com/SlideList_FilenameOnly.gif We can add ability to set any one from these variants, but which is better by default settings? Just I'd like to make more comfortable using of the Slide list.

To alrobin Preparing of thumbnails (on my Athlon XP 1600+ for pictures at 1024x768) takes only 300 ms. (1/3 of second) or so only 1/30 of second per each image. And it load in another thread, so interface is responsive anytime. Because for small thumbnails we can load large JPEG image with scaling - 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 or 1:8. So loading can be in 8 times faster. In PTE v4.00 we've added this algorithm for the preview of pictures in the main window and Cust. synch. window. To Dana Yes, I also plan to work in same sequence. Thanks.