goddi

Greetings, In earlier versions, when I would copy/paste text from one slide to another slide, I thought that the pasted text would appear in the same relative location and the same font size in the new slide. Maybe I am wrong about that. But, in a current slideshow I am making with Ver. 5.52, I am having great difficulty doing this. I am inserting text in one slide. I then want to copy this text to the next slide so that it appears in the same relative location and the same font size. I am getting mixed results. Sometimes it seems to work. Most times not. One thing I noticed is if I copy text from a landscape image and paste it to a portrait image, it pastes way off the image. Some times the font size changes. I notice that if the image is selected in the original, and then I do a copy of the text, and then select the image in the new slide, and then do the paste, it sometimes works as I want. Is there any trick to copying and pasting text from one slide to another slide and keeping the exact font size and pasted to the same relative location in the new slide??? I’ve tried using the settings in the Animation tab, but that does not seem to work to get the text to match. I’ve tried using the Grid, but that is not as exact as I need. Thanks, Gary

Greetings, As I discussed in the general comments, I would like the 'Set Defaults' buttons, which are at the bottom of each of the Project Options tabs, to affect the settings for only its own tab. Currently, when 'Set Defaults' is selected, it changes all the settings in every tab. I believe it would be more useful to narrow the effects of this button to its own tab. Thanks... Gary

=============== Peter.... Thanks. I gave it a try and it worked just fine. Thanks for the steps. I had never tried it before. Gary

=========================== Yes, thanks... I think I will. Gary

======================== Lin, Yes, I did play around with some of the settings; probably bold and drop shadow. However, that is why I selected the 'Set Default' hoping that would clear up anything I messed up in the Comments tab. And I did hit the 'Set for existing slides'. But, nothing cleared up the blurred filenames. It was really strange. The only thing that I did that I think might have cleared it up was I went to window just above the mini-player that has the Comments shown and I just opened it and closed it. Then, the problem disappeared. It just looks like the setting got stuck or something... Gary

======================= Peter... Yes, I use pretty much the same settings for starters on each PTE show. I have not tried the Template method but when I get some courage, I will try it. I try to keep things simple. I use the Comments tab when I want to display the filenames or slide numbers while I am building the slideshow. It helps me in the editing process. It was just really strange how the text of the slide names became very blurry and in some cases, I could not even read it. I happened to click on the 'blur' just to see what would happen. But I took it off. Maybe it just went crazy for a while. Never happened before. I've been having other strange happenings and error messages while working with PTE so I reinstalled the program. I'll let it rest awhile and see what happens. Thanks.. Gary

==================== Yes, but my point is what if you make some changes to the settings and press OK. Then, you find out you want to just bring back the defaults of only the Comments tab and start again, without having to redo ALL the tabs. This is why I think the Set Defaults should apply only to the tab you are in. Maybe add a separate 'Tab-only Set Default' button. Gary

Peter... Yes I have a tendency to find/create problems that no one else has had. You know, even though I have used PTE for years, I never really notice that the three buttons are the same at the bottom of each tab. Sort of, can't see the forest for the trees, syndrome!!! I had never used the 'Set Defaults' button before. Now that you have opened my eyes, I see what you are saying. However, I still think that the resetting of any defaults with the 'Set Defaults' button should be contained in its own tab. What if I just wanted to do was to reset the defaults of the Comments tab (which is what I wanted to do)? It, however, reset all setting in all tabs and I had to go back and do a lot of work I did not intend to do. Doesn't my idea make sense??? Gary P.S. Any idea what cause the Filenames to get blurry?????????

Greetings... Using the 'Comments' tab, I added filenames to be shown. I have been getting some strange results. The text is blurry and larger that normal. Also, some of them are unreadable. I looked at other projects and made sure all the settings were the same, but it did not help. So, I hit the 'Set Defaults' button on the Comments tab. Here is my next problem: I expected it to reset ONLY the settings on the Comments tab but it also removed all of the music I had set for the show and it reset the settings on Effects and most of the settings on the Main and Advanced tabs. This, I think might be a bug, or at least this should not happen. I think it should only affect the Comments tab's settings. Am I wrong about this? Ok, so after hitting the 'Set Defaults' button, I added back the 'filename' setting in the Comments tab and the blurry and odd sized text for the filenames came back. So, my 2 problems are: 1-The 'Set Defaults' button in Comments tab resets most everything else to default. It should be contained to just the Comments tab(?). 2-I can not get rid of this blurry, larger sized font for the Filename setting in the Comments tab. Now.... Just before I sent this, I fiddled around a bit more and did something to get rid of this blurry, incorrect sized text. I just opened and closed the Comment window above the mini-player. I really hate when I fix something and don't know why it is fixed. Has anyone else had this problem??? Anyway, I'd still like to know if the Set Defaults button in the Comments tab is supposed to dump more settings than those in the Comments tab.... Thanks... Gary

Well.... I did some more testing... I found another way to make the problem disappear: I had the Comments to show the FileName. I openned the file and before I did anything to it, I first went to the Comments and changed it to show FileNumber, instead of FileName. To my surprise, the problem went away. I tried this several times and each time this also did the trick (as well as the previous thing I did of deleting and recreating the text blocks in the first several text-only slides). Not sure how these 2 'fixes' have to do with each other but I hope Igor will determine what is going one. Gary

I did have many of the images larger than normal. I have not reduced them yet. However, I just dumped all of the images except for the first 10 images, which all now are reduced. But I still get this problem of the mini-player getting stuck on the 2nd slide. Music plays but the image stays stuck in the mini-screen. The cursor drops down to each slide as it normally does but will not display the image. And then I can not get any of the other images to display in the mini-screen, even if I stop the mini-player. If I close the program, it clears up until I start the mini-player again on the first slide. It is reproduceable every time. I have found that if I dump the first 3 text only images, the problem goes away. I'd really like to know what caused the corruption or the problem. Gary Added later: P.S. I just tried somemore testing. I tried to just edit the text blocks in the first text-only intro slides. Problem did not go away. Then...I deleted the text blocks and re-made them and the problem DID go away. So it seems something to do with how PTE created the text blocks that created the corruption. I hope Igor will look at the file and tell me what happened.

I've noticed where the 'glitch' seems to be. I had made some intro text-only slides by deleting the image and putting in text. I did this about 5 times for introductory text slides. When I start the mini-player at some other point than these intro text slides, the mini-player plays fine. However, when I have it start on the first slide with the mini-player, the mini-player get 'stuck' on the second slide. It continues to play the music but the image of the second slide stays on the screen. I tried dumping the 5 intro text slides but it would not clear it up. I closed the program and reopened it and then I was able to dump the 5 intro text slides. It appears there may be some corruption with the second slide. But I did nothing that I have been doing normally in the making of text-only slides. I will try dumping all the text-intro slides and redoing it but it does not make me feel comfortable if we can not figure out what is making the program crash. So any advise will be welcomed. Thanks... Gary

Greetings, I have been working on a 5.52 PTE slideshow. When I was adjusting some text in O&A, it crashed and I got the following error messages: "Canvas does not allow drawing". Then I got: "Access violation at address 004D6573 in module 'Apr.exe'. Write of address." I was able to clear out all the program and start it again. But, again, I got same or similar error messages. I also got a strange screen with "madException non commercial edition". And I also got "Access violation at address 7C918FEA in module 'ntdll.dll. Write of address 00000010". I closed it down, rebooted. But, I was able to recreate the initial error messages when I tried to play the show with the mini-player. Got the "Canvas..." and an "Access violation..." error message. Something else has been happening before all the above started. For some time, it has been happening but I've ignored it until now. What has been happening is that when I make some changes and run Preview (without doing a Save or Create first), the PC and the keyboard locks up. I have to wait several minutes; then the Preview runs. Not sure how to diagnose these problem. Can someone give me some ideas??? I will poke around some more to see what happens. Thanks...Gary

==================== Brian... No, I don't think so. I have purchased the program. But it will not let me capture an image off of a video file. I tried it on an AVI and it just gave me the entire file as the output. Also, I want to capture images off of my personal movies I have made that are played using the 'video_ts.ifo' file but it does not recognize the file. Am I missing something here??? Maybe I am not using the program correctly. Let me know...please. Thanks... Gary

=========================== Thanks... But they work on AVIs, but not on 'movie' type files, which are almost all of what I would use it on. Not sure the technical term but my files are the ones that are played when you run the 'video_ts.ifo' file. I guess they are regular DVD file types. Anyway... I discovered that I have a program, InterVideo Win DVD4, that has a capture button. So this is working fine, except the quality is pretty bad. It saves the files as a BMP and I resave it as a JPG. Not good but it is the best I have found so far. I tried the Softdepo decompiler on an AVI file but its quality was similar to the InterVideo program. Thanks... Gary

Greetings, I would like to extract an image from some of my video files that I have made. I'd like to get them into a PTE show. I have converted a lot of my analog tapes into digital 'video_ts.ifo' files. Some are AVI files. I'd like to be able to do something like a 'print screen' while they are playing to capture an image, but as good a quality as possible. I realize the quality will not be great but I'd use them as smaller sized images in the PTE program. Is there any way to do this? Thanks... Gary

======================== Bingo...!!! Thanks. I could not remember how I did it before. It would be nice if the Desktop would appear in the line of Drives in PTE, but this will do. Thanks for the help. Gary

Greetings, I had this question a long time ago and someone, I think, answered it. However, now I can't seem to be able to do it, even if it was ever solved. I can not remember. I want to be able to select an image that may be on the Desktop. I am in the Classic View and I click on the One Level Up button but it does not get me to the Desktop. I know I can right-click in the file list and bring up Explorer but that does not let me Add an image to PTE. I'd just like to be able to get to the Desktop while in the PTE program to access images. Is there any way to do this? Thanks... Gary

Greetings, Last year around June, Lin was very helpful in providing the following explanation concerning 'Timeline / Timed Points / Arrange All Points': "If you want to see the slides equally spread on the waveform do not use "auto spread slides along music" feature - leave it unchecked (in fact it may now be obsolete and due for possible future removal). Instead, go to the timeline (from the main menu) and click on the "timed points tab" then click on "arrange all points". This will automatically do what the old "auto spread slides along music" feature did. If you want the music play in synchronization with your currently selected slide, then go to Projects Options Main Tab and put a check beside "synchronize music and slides" and the music will then play in its proper synchronization with "start preview from the current slide". If this block is not checked, music will play from the beginning regardless of which slide you may be on when you click on "start preview from the current slide" icon." It was good for Lin to provide this clarity on these menu items. Recently there were posting on the fear of making PTE too complex for beginners or average users...like me. After recently making a new slideshow, a problem that I keep having with the 'Arrange All Points' came up again. And I think my following suggestion will help make it less complicated for new and average users. I can not understand why the 'Arrange All Points' has to be only in the Timeline menu. Most 'average' users would probably not use the Timeline menu, except maybe to look at the Waveform. When I first started out (and still do), I just wanted the images to be equally spread across the music as the old 'Auto Spread Slides Along Music' did in one click. I keep forgetting that I have to go through the Timeline to get to the 'Arrange All Points' to have the images spread across the music. New users, I would presume, would have a difficult time figuring this out. To help clarify this confusion, I would like to suggest that 'Arrange All Points' also be placed in the 'Project Option's' Main tab right next to the 'Synchronize Music and Slides' and 'Auto Spread Slides Along Music' choices. Please let me know if I am missing anything here. I think this would help to more easily make 'normal' (not too technical) slideshows. Sincerely, Gary

Peter... I took a look at that but it is not just the Taskbar that shows but the entire Desktop. And it did not change anything. Gary

Peter... No, I am still using my Windows XP. Maybe it is some setting I have that I need to change. But I can't seem to find any thing to change to get rid of the very short view of the Desktop. Gary

Lin's way is one way. And it depends on what you mean by "merge". Another way to "merge" 2 PTE shows is to play one right after the other. By going to Project Options and then choose Run Application After Last Slide (pointing to the second show) will effectively "merge" the two into "one". I am sure Lin can be clearer on this process but see if this does what you want. Then each show keeps its own timing and music that you have already set up. I just tried it. However, this time I got a bit of a delay before the second show started. Not sure why because I am pretty sure in the past when I tried it, it did not have this delay showing the computer's screen just before the second show started. Maybe Lin know how to get around this delay...if possible???? Hope this helps.. Gary

Igor... I found 2 cents laying around so I thought I'd give my opinion, too, on this matter of complexity with PTE. It is a wonderful program. One of my favorite! I ran into a brick wall when the Keyframes in Pan/Zoom came out, until someone in the Forum let me see the forest for the trees. I think that one solution, at least for me, is that I need to understand more why I should select a menu item or not select it. Most are understandable but many in the O&A menu items need more explanation. What might help is to have Mouse-overs that bring up a window that gives an explanation as to 'Why' and 'Why Not' I should use this button or menu choice and what the effects might be. The use of these Mouse-overs should be able to be turned off if one is beyond the 'learning' stage. I have used the great User Guides that have been assembled. But many times my eyes glaze over from so much info. When we are in the program and we are at the cross-roads to pick a menu item, it is nice to have more Help at that very moment to assist us with our choice. A Mouse-over with selections from the User Guides that pop-up could be a way to uncomplicate it a bit. Not a techie...but just with an opinion from a happy user. Thanks...Gary

Now I understand. You are in the Timeline. I tried your steps but it did not cause any problem. Hopefully, someone will come up with a solution. But thanks for the tip. I had never tried that method of editing/viewing the slide sequence!!! Gary

What's confusing here is you said you opened the "full-screen view of thumbnails." I see either the "Fullscreen View of File Panel" or "Fullscreen View of Slide List". And there is the "File Panel as Thumbnail" and "Slide List as Thumbnail," but not what you point out as a menu item. Only the menu choices with "....Slide List..." in them will allow you to change the order of the slides. Both worked for me with no error messages. The menu choices with"...Thumbnail...", only change the filenames to actual thumbnails for only viewing, not changing the order. So I am not sure which menu item you actually were trying but it seems to be just a one-time occurance. I too have on rare occasion received an obscure error message that I just attribute to the moon being in the wrong phase... Let us know if it happens again with more information.... Gary PS Let me know if my analysis above in incorrect.