Craig

Photo add, can you read French? If so, you can order a comprehensive and extraordinarily helpful PTE manual at http://www.objectif-photos.net/photos/publications/index.htm. At 188 pages, it illustrates every aspect of PTE in detail and provides step-by-step tutorials. It should be most helpful to you or anyone else who reads French. Good luck. -Craig

Well, I tried again today and it seemed to work well to adapt a PTE file to 830 x 312 dimensions, setting both the Project Options and HD Video output to 830 x 312. I have attached the test mp4 that I created using Dave's amazing new "waving flag" style that he posted over the weekend. I'll keep doing Facebook cover videos and will certainly report back if I experience any more formatting problems! Thanks again to Lin and Dave for your thoughts and help on this issue. -Craig test waving palm tree PTE 830x312.mp4

Thanks so much, Dave and Lin. I will continue playing around with this to see if I can get the Facebook interface to cooperate with my video(s) and will report back as soon as possible. -Craig

Hello, and Happy New Year. I am trying to create a Facebook cover video. The dimensions are quite specific: 820 x 312 pixels, while the recommended size is 820 x 462 pixels, and I cannot crop the cover video within Facebook's interface. When I specify the recommended pixel settings in PTE's Project Options (under Main | Aspect Ratio | Custom), neither the PTE edit screens nor the resultant mp4 video reflect the custom aspect ratio. I used the PTE HD Video option and tried several different settings, such as Pan Scan enabled (and disabled), etc. I am still using PTE 9.0.13, if that makes any difference. How can I create PTE projects of, say, 820 x 462 pixels and then publish them as mp4 in that same aspect ratio? Thanks! -Craig

Thanks so much, Igor.

Hello...in trying to analyze a project made with PTE 7.5, I see a plus sign (+) next to every initial keyframe time in each O&A screen in that project. I suspect it has to do with the image fade time, but cannot figure this out, nor can I replicate it in a PTE 9.0.10 project. Otherwise, all parameters appear to be the same in the older version as in the new project that doesn't have the plus sign. Is this plus sign next to the KF time still used in the current PTE version? I am wondering if it invokes any kind of subtle formatting change. Thanks for any clarification. -Craig

That's a good solution! Thanks so much, Igor!

Hello, is it possible to use "curly" quotation marks within PTE's text editor? It seems that only basic "straight" quotes are available. This is not a big issue, but if curly quotation marks are available, I'd like to know how to invoke them. Thanks! -Craig

Excellent! Thanks, Tonton Bruno! It's working for me! -Craig

Hello! Is it possible to modify multiple objects at once to apply the same parameters to all the selected objects? For example, the attached sample slide shows the text "PicturesToExe" as six different text objects so that the smaller letters dissolve into the initials "PTE." I would like to change the zoom (or the pan, or the opacity, etc.) of all six text objects at once. When I select all the objects and try to apply the changes, only one object changes at a time. How can I apply the same parameters to all six objects at the same time? Thanks. -Craig PTE Text Alignment.zip

Thanks again, Lin. You're right...there are a lot of moving parts in this project, which gives me all the more respect for what Jean-Cyprien created with this Rubik's Cube, and for what you and many others continue to create with PTE. -Craig

Hi Lin- With your help, I have managed to change the frame. With frames shaped and sized like Jean-Cyprien's original frame, the new frames work pretty well, though a small portion of the upper-right corner of the new mirror frames often show a brief overlap (such as in your demo file at 00:10). I am attaching sample file in which I used an oval shape as the mirror. Is there any way to have the background photo conform to the curved edges of this oval? I am not sure if conforming the background photo to the curved edge would be a Photoshop or a PTE function. Thanks! -Craig Rubik Cube with Oval Frame_Jun4-2017_13-54-50.zip

Nice example, Lin...I will look at your instructions from 2014 and try to emulate your new frame. Thanks again. -Craig

Thanks, Lin. I am not too adept with Photoshop, but will see if I can follow your directions to adapt the frame. As always, thanks for your help, and best regards. -Craig

Hello...I really like Jean-Cyprien's amazing Rubik's Cube style. Is it possible to insert a different frame around the mirror? Thanks so much! -Craig

Three years ago, davegee posted a nice-looking Tetra style, which I recently found in searching this site. However, when applying the Tetra style in PTE V9, some of the triangle's sides disappear after a few rotations. Puzzled by the disappearing sides, I went back to PTE V8.0.20 and it ran just fine. Now, when I need to use Tetra, I will just run it on PTE V8. Just the same, are there any settings I should tweak to make all the sides of the triangle appear properly under V9? Thanks! -Craig

Nice, cgbraggjr. Your two-slide workaround works great and I will put it into use! Thanks so much. -Craig

Bingo! Thanks for laying this out, Lin. I appreciate your quick help with this (as with so many other questions). To avoid any potential future confusion over version used, next time I will start a new thread instead of piggybacking onto a very old thread. Thanks again. I hope my elementary questions might be helping others who might also be newer to PTE, because your patient answers are certainly helping me! -Craig

I am trying to fade in objects in V9 using keyframes, but it doesn't seem that each new object has its own keyframe, so I am having trouble modifying the opacity of objects using keyframes. In the attached example, I am trying to fade the zebra into the corner of the photo, but the keyframes (or perhaps the modifiers?) are confounding me. This is admittedly a very basic question (which seems to be a specialty of mine) and I appreciate anyone pointing me in the right direction. Thanks! -Craig Fade in_Apr19-2017_15-12-11.zip

Thanks, Gary. No, I was hoping for a simple right-click solution that would avoid having to open the [PTE] program and then navigating to the preview function. The right-click option makes it much more efficient to quickly review many files in presentation mode, one after the other, rather than opening each file separately. This is not an urgent request, but a possible nice tweak for a future version. Thanks again. -Craig

A very useful feature of PowerPoint is the ability to right-click on a slideshow (.pptx format) and choose “Show” to view it as a presentation instead of converting it to .pps (presentation) format. This is handy for quickly previewing many editable PowerPoint presentations. In PTE, it would be very useful to preview a slideshow by right-clicking and choosing “Show,” or perhaps “Preview.” Would it be possible to add this functionality to PTE? Thanks. -Craig

Thank you, Denis! It's time for me to master the many options that make PTE so powerful. I appreciate your help. -Craig

Hello- When I add a blank slide and then insert an image into that slide in the O&A screen, that image is not recognized when I subsequently apply styles in the main screen. Is this a bug? The images (and styles) are recognized fine when I insert the slides from the main screen. Thanks. -Craig

Lin, your time lapse cinemagraphs are entrancing and I hope to learn more about Photoshop masking techniques to create similar cinemagraphs from my own photos and videos. Thanks for sharing these fascinating effects! -Craig

That did the trick, Gogs! Thanks so much for your quick help! -Craig