nickles

Lin: A very nice skin variation with a personal touch..... thanks for sharing..... ken

Lin & Granot, What y'all thinK? MultiShow in Leather ken

OK Granot! I love your background....what do you think Lin? How about a similar background for the Playlist Selection window. Don't know if it is feasible or possible...but can the displayed text be slightly bolder to compensate for the background? You're a good guy Granot.... thanks for the update...along with your efforts. For others: Here's how the latest version(2.0.0.5) appears with the txt.jpg that Granot created: MultiShow with Text Background ken

Thought you might like the following thread: A DPreview Plug Posted on other sites as well.... ken p.s. keep up the excellent work!

Lin: I think the background idea would be a very nice addition. Let's hope that Granot can pull it off. Ken

Granot: The latest of MultiShow2003.exe works great. Thanks alot! Others: If you run the latest version of MultiShow from a folder thats on your hard drive(HD) I suggest that you set "Install Presentations=2" in the cfg.ini file. If you run MultiShow from a CD set "Install Presentations=0" or "Install Presentations=1" to permit the shows to be installed on the HD. "0" will temporarily store the selected presentation on the HD before it is run. "1" will temporarily store all slideshows on the HD that are on the CD prior to running any of them. ken

Ron: This should get it: MultiShow2003 Download ken

Boxig, I tried the MultiShow version that displays the "loading show". The "loading show" message did not appear while the show was loading but appeared after the show had played and MultiShow reappeared. If the message is included it should immediately appear in the window and maybe flash "on and off" a couple of times while the show is loading, as the message is not real obious. Immediately after the show has played the normal slideshow descriptive text should reappear in the window, unless another slide show is loading. Has anoyone else tried this version out? sincerely, ken

Ron, I mentioned to Barry about how much I liked his show called 'The way things used to be'. I was wrong about the name, it started with that subtitle. I notice it's on Barry's website and it's called Black Country. You can find it here: Black Country Hope Barry forgives me for misnaming his wonderful show. ken

Granot: Great! Great! "MultiShow2003.exe" fixes one of my complaints. Now my grandkids(who are visiting this week) will not be able to make a second copy of the slideshows that are already on my HD. Although I gave them detailed instructions the first time that I discovered they had inadvertantly copied them to a different HD partition. Thank you....mucho...mucho Have a good day. sincerely ken

Hi Granot, Boy you're quick to respond! I'll download the test version and let you know. No but that's a good idea. I was thinking that you could use the bottom "slideshow information" window to indicate the slideshow is loading. Like replace the text with: ..........Slideshow Loading....... I guess you are right. All my shows run full screen and MultiShow doesn't appear when the show is running. If the show is not full screen I assume that MultiShow still appears and one could click on another show while one is running. Yes, you misunderstood. I have about 100 shows on my HD in a subfolder with MultiShow. I have a desktop Icon that points to MultiShow in these folders for my families convienience. This many shows will not fit on a CD. When they run MultiShow it is running from the HD, but MultiShow still asks the question to store shows on the HD when there really is no need to as they are already on the HD. Hope you're having a nice vacation. sincerely ken

Ron, Use windows Notepad to create the descriptive text file for the show then store the file in the Shows folder with the identical name as the slideshow except it should be a ".txt" instead of ".exe". Notice my text names here: Shows Directory When you create a CD make sure that the Multishow files are in the root of the CD with only two folders, "Shows" and "Skins", as I depict here: CD Root Directory Regarding "Skins", if you look in the Skins directory, Granot has supplied 2 differen skins, Basic Skin.jpg and Skin06.jpg. If you copy(not move) one of these skins in the same directory with Multishow.exe and then rename it Skin.jpg that skin will be used for a different color of the player. I have a folder of about a dozen different skin colors you can download here: Skins Download Let me know if this skins link doesn't work. Hope this helps ken

bbdigital (barry), Just one other comment. I've been a user of PTE for several years. Made very simple slide shows. And then....I downloaded a PTE slideshow called "The Way Things Used to Be" by an obsure artist name Beckham. What an amazing piece of work! It revitalized my PTE activities and caused me to look at slideshows in a whole different light. I find all your work to be highly creative and I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned from the shows that you have posted. But I must say, not wishing to offend any of the many excellent PTE slideshow creators that participate in this forum, "The Way Things Used to Be" is still my all time favourite PTE slideshow. Thank you for sharing your shows. They definitely impacted my PTE work. sincerely ken

Malcolm, Thank you for your response. I will investigate your suggestions. BB, I wouldn't dare say I'm not obsessive about some things. I find it hard to delete a photograph thats lousy to me thinking that it might be interesting to someone else. You make some very good points. I would much rather be out shooting photos than process and file them. I've probably wasted a lot of time scanning in film and photos from my younger years( before digital), thinking that they will be valuable to somebody...at some time. I do have a lot of old family photos that date back to the turn of the century and have made a lot of reasonably nice PTE slideshows of them for relatives. I normally don't have a problem finding a photo. It's my family that has the problem...my wife or daughters or son are always asking me..."where do I find that photo of........?". You know what I mean? I've tried to develop a filing scheme which will better enable them to find it. Using unique folder and subfolder names seems to work best for them. They are all familiar with Paint Shop Pro's reasonably fast thumbnail browser and can normally find what they are looking for without assistance from me. Unfortunately, they haven't mastered photo printing yet. Although to me, I prefer a PTE slideshow over a printed photo album. sincerely ken

Just some wishful thinking: I catalogue an extremely large music (MP3) database. I always use ID Tags that are actually imbedded into the MP3 files. These are totally editable by me. If someone renamed all my music files...I can quickly recover the music from the internal ID Tag as most Music Cataloging software uses this tag and disregards the actual file name. In the tag is Artist Name, Song Title, Track Number, Album Name, Genre, etc. Unfortunately, the only internal information available in a photo file is the EXIF information, if preserved. There is very little in this file that I can edit and nearly all cataloging software relies on the File Name and not the EXIF data. I've found EXIF Viewer to be excellent for sorting through this EXIF data and permitting a very quick view of the photo. Unfortunately it is a Viewer program and has no cataloging functionality. Most photo cataloging software requires management of an external database and does not imbed data into the actual photo. Maybe oneday the software guru's will come up with a better technique for photos like the music freaks have. Is anyone aware of software that will permit reasonable entries into the EXIF data...such as File Name, Subject or something more identifiable than date shot, exposure settings, etc. ??? ken

Ronnie: I'll try to step you through it. When you downloaded MultiShowPlayer and unzipped it a folder waqs created that looked the following: Root Directory of CD I added the subdirectory called "Shows"(It must be called Shows). The "Skins" subdirectory was placed there by Granot when you unzipped his file. I then copy the slideshows(in this example I placed 3 of my shows in the folder) and a descriptive text file into this "Shows" subdirectory. My example looks like this: Shows Directory Now when I double-click "MultiShow.exe", then MultiShow player displays the 3 shows I had placed in the Shows "subfolder". Looks like this: 3 Show Example Notice that I've hi-lited the show called "A Fall Walk in the Garden" . The descriptive text file I placed in the "Shows" subdirectory is displayed in the bottom Slideshow Information window. At this point if I depress the "Run Selected Shows" button the hi-lited show will run. If I hold down the Ctrl key while I select show with my mouse I can hi-lite or select multiple shows to run. I've not used MultishowTool so I can't discuss. Also notice that Granot has placed a very good help in the directory. Just double-click "MultiShow Player Help.exe". Also you can replace the Logo that comes with your own logo.jpg but it must be precisely 700w x 530h pixles. Here is one I made for myself: logo.jpg This is the generic logo provided by Granot: logo.jpg Hope this helps. Once you figure it out....I think it's an exceptionally program. I'll attempt to answer any other questions you might have. Just post. sincerely ken

I presently have in excess of 17000 of my personal photographs residing on my computer, including jpgs and raw. Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with the most straight forward filing method. About the best I've done is create a multitude of folders and subfolders that are typical as follows: My Immediate Family .....Daughter 1 ............Grandaughter 1 ............Grandson 1 Scenics .....Flowers .....Mountains .....Old Houses Vacations .....Disney ..........2001 ..........2004 etc. This at least creates general categories and subcategories that my family members can find particular photos of interest fairly easily. Some software that I use a lot for file remaming is CKRename that links itself in Explorer and using a right click on a folder I can quickly rename in a very flexible method and highly quick. CKRename can be downloaded free here: CKRename Download This is one of the best and most straightforward renaming programs that I've come across...I've used it for several years...It seems to be totally bug free but you must be careful when renaming because it's a little difficult to backup once youve renamed several hundred photographs in "one fell swoop". A difficult task to catalogue at best. Hope this offers a little insight. ken

About six months ago, Granot released a very nice PTE slideshow player called "MultiShow". For newer PTE users that are not familiar with this software....a screenshot can be found here: MultiShow Screenshot I and several friends have used this software to distribute our slideshows on CD's to friends and relatives (I'm just an amateur photographer that uses PTE to bore my acquaintances with my work). The program can be downloaded from Granot's Website here: MultiShow Download After several months of usage...I have a couple of very trivial modifications to the software that I would like to see Granot implement. I will use this thread to solicit your opinions and if you have any suggestions for other modification please speak out. 1. When MultiShow starts it generates the following message: "You can temporarily install presentations and run them from your Hard Drive. This may take few minutes to install and will result in better performance. Do you want to temporarily install presentations?" "yes or no ?" Unfortunately many of the people I send CDs to aren't very computer saavy. I've had a couple of people call me an ask what to do? Of course I tell them if the show plays ok when you answer no don't worry about it. I would like this message to be optional. One suggestion would be as follows: If in the cfg.ini we set the following line: Install Presentations=0 Which indicates that the shows are not to be installed on the HD...can you prevent this message from appearing, if the above setting of 0 is made? Many people that I distribute PTE slideshows are confused by this message and aren't sure how to respond. Every one that I deal with have CD players that are fast enough without installing shows on their HD. Another option would be to automatically install the show and indicate that the show is loading in the slideshow information window. I've got about 100 slideshows on my HD and have a desktop Icon to MultiShow. My grandkids view them all the time. I've had them reply yes to this question and resulted in all 100 slideshows being copied from the HD to another partition which is a "pain" and consumes considerable time. Another alternative would be for Granot to sense that the shows are on a CD prior to posing question. I solicit your thoughts concerning this. 2. On most multimedia players a "double-click" on an item in the playlist window will result in that item playing. This would be a nice convenience as most users are used to this method of operation. At present a user must highlite a specific item in the play list then then depress the "Play Selected Shows" button. Regardless of whether these modifications are made, I will continue using this nice program that Granot has so graciously created for us. sincerely Ken

Ken Cox, When you said you used IrfanView to play music....I thought oh! no! Ken's mixed up or "went over the edge." I'll be darned! I opened an MP3 file with IrfanView and a player came up and did an excellent job of playing? I've used IrfanView for photo work for several years....but never realized...music!...you live and learn. thanks for the insight Ken Also I suspect you have tons of music like me...but I don't know. If you do have a large archive, try out MediaMonkey...It's a bit of an over-kill for small music archives...but for large archives I think it will totally amaze you...even though it's free...I'd have paid good money for all it's abilities. ....ken

Thanks for the reply Granot! I downloaded EasyMP3 and it's a slick little program...didn't know you had it. To others...I am very well aware of Granot's genius...I as well as many of my friends utilize Granot's MultiPlayer for all of our CD PTE releases to friends and relatives...unfortunately his utilities on his web site are so voluminous...it's easy to overlook the obvious. I 'm impressed by EasyMP3 now that I'm aware of it. Billy is still a very good and simple player also. I directed it to an external hard drive where I maintain a music volume exceeding 10,000 mp3s...it found and placed all 10,000+ pieces in the playlist and began playing in 9 seconds with no burps or misses. Just curious? How many PTE users utilize Granot's MultiPlayer. I maintain nearly 100 PTE slideshows on my computer and I've found MultiPlayer a godsend for sorting thru and playing these shows. I send a lot of shows to nephews, nieces, brothers and sisters and always produce a CD with an Autorun for MultiPlayer. Most are not computer literate but they quickly catch on to MultiPlayer. The only problem I've had is the meassage when MultiPlayer starts that asks "Do you wish to temporarily store the slideshow on your hard drive?". This confuses many. I suggested to Granot that he provide an option to remove this message, as most CD players and computers are fast enough to keep up now days. Evidently, this is not an easy option to implement. Again regarding MP3 players...as I maintain a very large music database...it can become very difficult to manage...a music database software I use to manage and sort through is free and called MediaMonkey (there is a Gold version that isn't free)...I've found it to be absolutely fantastic and it is located for download here: MediaMonkey It will do just about anything from mass creation of ID Tags, mass renaming, to burning...by the way 99% of my music was encoded from original music that I own including LPs, CDs, and Cassette tapes. Thanks for the responses.... ken

I discovered a nice little free MP3 player....the ultimate in simplicity...and plays beautifully. You can copy the program over to a CD with an MP3 folder and it will play beautifully with no install on any Windows computer. It's called Billy and consumes about 2/3 mbytes...no skips or advertising...but remember it's simple...and Oh! how I love simplicity in this complex world. You'll find Billy here: Billy Download Page Just thought I would pass it along.... KEN

Merry Christmas Patrick I could not criticize such an excellent show. You added some nice warmth to a very frigid day. Wonderful photography....sometimes a guy's or gal's camera can't shoot a bad frame...an just 24 hours of shooting. I think God helped...at least with the wonderful scenes. Thanks for sharing and have a very Merry Christmas. ......ken For others reading this: If you have not yet viewed this show you need to...could give you a better mood for the day.

Nice show. ken

JRR: I doubt if it is copyright free but you can contact the artist through her web site and ask if you can use in slideshows: Cynthia Jordan She points to the free downloads on her site and also sells some of her other music there. .....ken

Ron: That's strange I downloaded all of her Christmas music and it was the full songs, the longest was 5 minutes. ....ken