Jimbo

My picks would be, in no particular order: Ability to resize added slides in Objects Editor Music fade-out (no fancy editing, just the fade in/out Pan & Zoom, preferably with options to control directions etc. Ability to syncrhonize music to length of show while showing slides in random order (without repeating any of the slides.) Be able to include a chosen font(s) with the exe

It sounds like you must have chosen to add a snippet of music to one or more individual slides via the "customize slide"option...you could either remove that customization or turn off the "synchronize music/slides" option. (Unless someone else knows a work-around to avoid this clash of options..I've bumped into it a couple of times myself and it would be nice to be able to have it both ways..) Jim.

Audacity is definitely the best of the freeware audio tools..perfect for preparing your PTE music. On a related theme--I have some MIDIS that I use from time to time but as you probably know many of the slide show making software can't handle that format so I found a handy converter that will allow you to convert the Midis into MP3s or WAVs and then you can use them just about anywhere. Of course the file size increases a bit from the tiny Midi but it's not too bad and you can select the MP3 bit rate to convert to. Midi-sounding tunes aren't suitable all the time because they're so, er, basic but there are some shows that need just a few simple notes added to them here and there and for this they can work well. I been using the trial version and it operates well and easily, it could be a handy tool for some. http://www.midconverter.com/ Regards to all, Jim.

That would indeed be a handy feature for PTE but in the meantime, as noted above by Dagrace, you can use AUDACITY to join your tunes together into one long string and blend them into each and overlap at the joins if you want that effect. Audacity is very easy to master and it's free, well worth a look. You'll find it with Google. (It also has a forum if you need help.) Jim.

I can remember once when it took me over 3 weeks to get a simple answer out of Roxio concerning some thing or other about their software....Igor takes less than 3 hours AND solves the problem. Just as soon as Bill Gates saves enough money to retire I would like to nominate Igor for his old job. Jim.

I have a slide list of almost 300 pics that I want to make play in random order--EXCEPT for the first slide and the last slide. Is this possible and am I just missing the simple control for it? As it stands now it seems to be an all-or-nothing affair. Also, would it possible to have a show where you could select the random play option BUT still have the show synched to the music length? One option now cancels the other out. It sounds like it would work if the program would only play each slide once (i.e. not repeat any slide so as not to increase the pre-determined running time.) Meanwhile I love the new version! PTE streaks ahead of the pack once again. Jim.

Fantastic! Well Done to Igor and all the team. Jim.

I also get a slight flicker as it fades to desktop...EXE as well as preview. Jim

DS..you could give PIXRESIZER a try, it's freeware--no Spyware etc--and it does the job nicely. And speedily. And easily. Its homepage: http://bluefive.pair.com/index.php Jim.

Indeed I am aware...the wonderful Igor and team continue to shower us with improvements, including the vaunted light-table. The Picasa app would be a useful tool for when you're not in PTE but you're doing a little sorting and seeing what all you have to pick from for your slide-show. It does limit the file types it can handle but probably for most people it covers the ones they deal with most. I see it being useful to sort out which pics you'd like to use in PTE from many different folders on your HD, it gives you a good over-view of what you've got..Jim.

I installed PICASA the other day...Google has recently bought it...and I think it might be something that PTEer's could consider for organizing their photos if they don't already have a program that they're happy with...it works very well--including having a "light Table" feature, something that has been mentioned here on the forum lately--and is easy to set up and operate. And it's free. Definitely worth a look if you're searching for an app to put your digital house in order. It doesn't do much in the way of editing but it does a good job with cataloging and displaying all the pics on your computer. Regards, Jim. http://www.picasa.com/google/

Michel..you're quite right, it is indeed a screencapture of Beta1! I confused the 3 different machines I work on..sorry. Sadly the same error message pops up when I use Beta2 as well. I'm using Irfan as the default opener so I will change that to another app and see what happens...it couldn't be a real serious error as everything actually works perfectly well and I can click the error message away without any further problems...we'll see. I'm using WinXP by the way...does anyone else get this message? Jim.

Igor...I've actually come across a small issue in the new Beta 2...If I right click a pic in the slide list and choose "Open picture" I get the attached error message from the OS..I click "OK" on it and everything works as it should. It might be a local problem with my computer, any ideas? Thanks, Jim. http://www.pbase.com/image/31165454

Great! The new thumbs/layout options are fantastic. In honor of your grand achievment Igor I have deleted 3 competing slide show programs from my computer..it's now All PTE, All The Time. I was going to start pestering you about the Pan & Zoom effects but in view of all your hard work on the latest betas I'm not going to say one word about them...I won't even mention how useful and fantastic they'd be or anything like that. Not a word. Terrific job, thanks, Jim.

Terrific! You're a sly old fox Igor, sneaking up with this Great Leap Forward while we we're all sitting around just wishin' and hopin' for some kind of third-party Light-Table deal. And speaking of renaming, I'm so pleased with the new Beta that I'm going to rename my first-born for you. (She probably won't like it though.) Thanks, great work once again. Jim.

bharkins..I would like to be able to drag the pics around on a light-table in to the order I want them to appear in--then immediately rename them so they'll stay in that order! I understand that the OS will reorganize them right back to where you don't want them if you fail to rename them so this renaming ability would have to be part of the program...file sorting software does some pretty amazing tricks these days, surely this can't be impossible for all the smart coders! AL: Does Excell have to be installed to run your sorting program? Jim.

I've got the DLL issue sorted out in the EXIF Viewer, thanks...but I am still unable to move the pictures about a la the "lightbox/lightable" method that has been mentioned--I've reached the conclusion that this program can't actually do that..I've seen Al's software refered to here and it sounds like it would do the trick but if I understand correctly I'd need to have a copy of MS Excell installed for it to work, which I don't. Is that the case? Being able to easily move pictures around to the required order would be a HUGE help in the organization of my slide shows, I've been using something called "Imagewalker" which is a big help and a great program and it does just about everything BUT reordering-without-first-renaming! Anyone else have any ideas about how to achieve this elusive goal?? Jim. BTW..I notice that I'm listed as a "Junior Member"...I registered my first copy of PTE back in 2000 or maybe even 1999 and I've been on the forum ever since---how did I get demoted back to the ranks?!?!?! Could it of been something I said? What's a fella gotta do to get promoted around here??

I can't get the thumbnails to display in the Exif Image Viewer.., just a white space holder appears. Any ideas? Jim.

Give "DEKNOP" a try, it's a very handy little button maker...amongst other things. Great program and it's free to boot. Jim http://home.hccnet.nl/s.j.francke/deknop/deknop.htm

Since it's not possible to attach a picture of the AV Breakthrough tool here in the forum I'll upload it to another site and add the URL ...check it out, it should inspire all PTE users and maybe even give Igor some ideas! Jim http://www.pbase.com/image/27688678

Hello all, I recently came across a small article about a new AV tool--in an October 1960 magazine! It's kind of funny to see it now and see how things have changed since then so I wanted to attach a scan of the article so you can see it (it's just under 50kbs) Is this possible? I don't see any way to attach anything here in the "post new topic" section. Thanks, Jim in LA.

Thanks Ken. My problem now is that I can't get the slides show to run when using the "start first slide from the desktop" option IF I choose to syncronise the music. It starts to run then stops about halfway into the the first slide and simply repeats its efforts to open.Endlessly! As soon as I turn off the music syncro opt. it works perfectly. I'm using the latest beta with the timing options set at Igor's suggestions and with the INI file changed as above. Is this "no music syncro" to be expected? Thanks, Jim.

Michel..on the OPT_FAST/SMOOTH changes to the INI file: do I add them both on the same line or should they be added one under the other? Thanks, JimInLA.

Hi Granot...just video would do me, do you think that including WMV would be possible? JiminLA

Joy..I THINK that SVCD is a slightly lesser quality form of MPEG2 (I.E. less than what you would get with a regular DVD production) but I could well be wrong too so someone more knowlegdable than I can set us straight on that issue..I, too, was under the impression that it was the same as regular DVD MPEG2 but that you simply can't fit nearly as much of it on a compact disc as you can on a DVD but a friend insists that this is not the case, it is in fact of reduced quality...Over to the experts??? I didn't have any problems with using Roxio's Movie Creator (I bought it on a CD) and I actually liked its output. Of course it's dead now 'till I can breathe life back into it. Roxio should definitely have told you about the lack of SVCD on their site. They should also alert potential buyers to the fact that some of their S/W might well interfere with already-installed versions of their other products WMV is a good codec to use if small file size is important but you have to be choosy when setting its compression/sizes etc. I found it starts to break up and look fuzzy at the higher screen size resolutions. See what the compression setting was that you produced your WMV file from, it might have been set at a, say, puny 320x240 then got enlarged to 720X when you produced the DVD from it.That would certainly make it look pretty awful. I use WMV a lot for simple video files that won't be put onto DVD and I've found that it looks fairly decent, with a decent file size, at 640x480. with KBPS set at about 750 to 1000. Good but NOT DVD good. I've rambled enough already......... Jim.