Igor

Thank you!

This ability will be possible in the next version (4.20). Please wait for the first beta! Produced AVI video file can be easily burned as DVD-Video or miniDVD (on usual CD disc!) using special software, e.g. Ulead DVD MovieFactory2.

Thank you, James! Nice photos and "video" effect! To all by the way, you can find more info about vivid auroral displays on the famous Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031030.html

Sorry, I missed your message dated on October 25. Thanks for unusual idea with customizable buttons in the Nav. bar! I plan to closely work with Nav bar in the nearest time. Also we've recently discussed your second idea about embedded .exe presentations in the .exe of main show. This is possible, and we've found a lot of new capabilities for in this direction (possible ideas for future versions). So I think embedding could be added in the new version. I'll try. But the only limitation - all these .exe files should be produced in one version of PTE (e.g. in v4.20). Only this limitation fine solves difficulty with deleting of temp files if second app is still running, and the main app is closed.

Dear Ron, 1) Tell me about configuration of your PC and version of Windows. 2) What exact version of PTE do you use. 3) Please read advices (in a message, above). 4) What place the problem occurs (e.g. at 3 min. 10 sec.)? Is it constant place? 5) Try to temporary replace your mp3 music file with another one and let me know concerning result.

Al, thanks for advices! Dear Eric, What CPU is installed in your PC? Fade effect may works slowely for pictures at 1024x768 size on PC with 700 Mhz or lower. But good news, we will vastly improve (in 2 times) smoothness of this effect in the next version! So it will provide much more better work for this effect even on such PCs.

OK, I think it will possible in v4.20 By the way, also what about optional disabling of keys for next/prev. slide (cursor arrows, Space, PgUp/PgDown, BackSpace)?

Hello Ron, Please couldn't you let me know: 1) Installed version of PicturesToExe; 2) Configuration of your PC (CPU, memory size, video card, sound card and version of Windows); 3) What size of your JPEG pictures (in Kilobytes and in pixels); 4) Will the problem occurs with another effects or only with Fade in/out effect?

Dear Al, We're grateful for your great work you've done! That's so wonderful to see such detailed and full tutorial for PicturesToExe and even created in PicturesToExe! Also I with pleasure watched and listened your advices and descriptions We'll recommend to our customers (including our Web site) to use your tutorial. With kindest regards!

Hello! Please let me know exact version of PicturesToExe. The newest released version is 4.14. This problem happens with different mp3 files? What file size of such mp3 file, and its duration, and bitrate (128 kpbs, 196 kbits)? Will the problem occur on another PCs? And what configuration of your PC (CPU, memory size, version of Windows, sound card and which CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive)? Does the problem come for the places in show where no change of slides for a long time (20 sec. or more) - only playing of music?

The only future possibility - running of produced AVI video file of slide show on the Mac. You will able to place .exe file and AVI file to the CD disk.

Also I'm improving the Print feature (in a presentation) now. The picture will be automatically fit (rotated if it is necessary) into whole page (not half of page as earlier). Also I set changeable space of border parameter. Print Dialog also will be available (to set quality and other parameters). p.s. it's a obviously to have these capabilities, which should be much earlier.

Dear Barry, We're working now and on AVI video output feature. I can suppose that we'll complete it in two-three months or so. Produced AVI file can be easily written as VCD, S-VCD or DVD-Video disk e.g. using the Easy CD Creator 6 or Nero Burning Rom 6. The only limitation - there will be no interactive DVD menu, but linear playback. (We make only AVI output because it adds only 30-50 Kb to the size of the program. But own MPEG2 encoder and CD burning features fully are not suitable, because they increase size up to 4-8 Mb and higher.) Retail sales look interesting, but we have no current plans concerning this. Maybe in the future Thank you!

In the next version you will able to fully control show in sync'ed mode.

1) Please inform me about version of PicturesToExe; current screen resolution of your display; and size (in pixels and in kilobytes) of Jpeg images. 2) Couldn't you try to run this presentation under another PC? 3) Will the problem still occurs if you temporary create this presentation with 2 slides only? 4) Will the problem happens if temporary remove the music files? 5) And finally, please try to reduce all pictures with graphical size not more than 1024x768 pixels (or 1024x960) and file size up to 300-500 Kb.

Thanks for your responses! I'm closely working now on the first described feature (control on sync'ed show). Of course, it's linear show in order of sequence of music files in the playlist. But you can switch between slides or call necessary slide e.g. using button or hyperlink. Also sound comments to slides also play. Keyboard, mouse, objects fully workable. Apparently, the Pause function will also pauses music (maybe optional not to stop music). I think there won't be fast-rewinding (2x, 3x, etc). Because it's not simple task to provide good stability for this function. There will be usual switching from a slide to a slide. Navigation bar is fully available with all functions - navigation, help, print, pause, etc. I also plan improve Navigation bar and add new interesting capabilities. Probably and some kind of menu, too. Thanks for idea of Slide Counter! I also think that optional Slider Control (as progress bar in the "Loading..." window in past versions) could been implemented into Nav. bar, too.

I'd like to discuss two possible features: Full control of slide show in synchronized mode (as an option) With this option it will possible to go onto any slide (also backward or forward); use Navigation bar; use objects; pause. Note: because the music depends on slides, it will rewind if e.g. you will go backward. Exactly as you rewind DVD film. Proportional scaling (as an option) As you know currently PTE uses all possible screen place (normal or wide screen 16:9) and it doesn't scale main picture and objects in different screen resolutions. It's a best variant for simple slides with main picture only and simple text captions - to use all place of the screen. But if slide contains many related objects, menu it better to keep all proportions in all screen resolutions. It looks exactly as image of video film. Note: it will use proportions of screen which creator prefered. E.g. because our displays have usual proportion 4:3 (1024x768) or 5:4 for LCD 17" and higher (1280x1024), there are will be two black not used places (at left and right) e.g. if user have wide screen (16:9). You can see similar effect when watching wide DVD film on 4:3 display (two black strips at top and in the bottom).

It's a really strange problem. Probably this problem in sound drivers or in the CD-R disk or in CD-ROM drive. Windows can't normally read some places on the disk and then skips occur. I just created test show with 21 photos (2,5 Mb, 2240x1680) and several MP3 tracks (256 kbit/s) - 70 Mb of EXE file and it plays OK under Athlon 1600 and even on Pentium 233 Mhz, 64 MB RAM, 50x CD-ROM drive. However I very want to help you solve this problem! First please try this writen CD-R disk on another PC. Also try to write the CD-R disk with speed not more than 16x and use high-quality CD-R disk.

PicturesToExe v4.14 is released http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr.zip (1,3 Mb) What's new in v4.14: This version contains only one improvement in comparison with previous v4.12. We've improved MP3/OGG/WMA playback to fix very rare cases of music skips under some PCs. It could happen with some Pentium 150 - 400 Mhz and I know only one case with Athlon 2000 Mhz.

I'm glad that this test version helped to solve music skips! (We'll publish this updated version soon.) About cursor. I didn't change it in that version. But I seen similar difficulty and in previous versions. I'll try to fix this small visual bug. Please fully disable the cursor and set it always on.

Dear David, I think this problem can be solved! Please let me know your PC's configuration (CPU, memory size, screen resolution). Also I just sent you a email with special test version. And I will wait for your response about result.

Terri, Navigation bar doesn't appear in teh sychronized mode when you exactly assigned time of show for slides on the time-line. Please let me know if you used this mode for showing slides and what time interval between two slides. Also I'd grateful if you could send me project file (it's a small .pte file only) of your presentation to igor@wnsoft.com When you make changes in a presentation, you always need to click "Create" button to produce updated .EXE file with your show. I advice you to press Ctrl+F9 and it produces new .EXE file and automatically runs it. p.s. you said that your presentation is 630 Mb and it's very large file! Probably you've used WAV music files or not reduced BMP or JPEG images from digital camera? I recommend to use mp3 music files and JPEG images with resolution 1024x768 or 1280x1024 at 100-300 Kb per each image file. Thanks you for your patience,

Hello Terri! It's a very strange problem. Did you tried to save your project file (Main menu | File | Save) BEFORE clicking of the "Create" button? As minimum it will save all your settings and you will able to continue work with earlier composed project of the slide show. After you've saved your project, press "Create" button and then try to run produced .exe file (via Windows Explorer, not from PicturesToExe). Will this .exe file be successfully started and played? If not, try to remove music in the PicturesToExe and produce new .exe file again. If it will help, then please let me know the following: 1) Version of PicturesToExe; 2) Version of Windows; 3) Your PC (CPU, memory size, screen resolution) 4) Usual graphical size of your pictures (in pixels), file size (in KBytes) and type (Jpeg or BMP). 5) File size of music files (and is it mp3 or wavs?)

I'll reply soon!

Dear Granot, Thanks for your utility! Yes, Bill is right - to correctly find fonts' folder we should to use function from API or just read this path from the Registry. And it works under all versions of Windows: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders "Fonts"="C:\WINDOWS\Fonts" It is necessary because even for Windows 95 user can choose another path of installing. E.g. many years ago I always assign C:\Win_95 p.s. probably we will add installing of fonts in the next versions (on the fly with deleting after exiting of show).