alrobin

Thanks, Igor, This is a real improvement. Would it be possible to also change the colour of the icon for each category when all the messages are read? There is a "greying out" of one of the categories, but even though I have read all of the messages, the icons for the other two categories are still darker. Also, if you step up to "WnSoft Forums", the "Navigator" forum is no longer available. I see the same items under "WnSoft Forums" as I do for "PicturesToExe Forums". Thanks again for giving us another new category.

Hi, Terry, Welcome to the forum! What some of us do is open the music up in a sound editor while working on the PTE slide show, and then follow the music in it in order to determine the exact timing for certain transitions. You can enter the exact time for each transition in an input text box in the timeline window if you wish. It's almost as good as having the wave form visible as part of PTE.

Ralph, My Beta 3 tell me "Beta 3"! Maybe you don't have Beta 3.

Pete, I've noticed this quite often, myself, but have not been able to pin it down either as it is intermittent as you say. I use Win Me, and have noticed it in every version of PTE since 3.7 at least.

Hi, Tom, Yes, these special ASCII characters (e.g. è, ç, é, etc.) do display properly in compiled ".exe" mode. They are built into the main-stream fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, etc), so there is no problem.

And that's why we have so many fonts nearly identical in design. Developers who don't want to pay royalties, or who cannot avail themselves of a particular font will often design their own similar font.

Hi, Astro, Welcome to the Forum! As you noticed, the font problem has been around since day one, and will likely be with us for a while longer. It's best to restrict your use in the Object Editor to the more common fonts, and add any of the fancier less-common ones in your image editor.

Hi, Igor, I would love to help you out here, but I gave up my 2-processor mode a few months ago as I got tired of switching between it and Win Me for my Cubase MIDI and sound editor, v. 3.01. It wouldn't run in Win 2000. Then I bought an upgrade to Cubase that requires either Win 2000 or XP, and so far have been unsuccessful in restoring the Win 2000 system. It seems to be incompatible with my ATA/66 drives for some reason, and I can't figure out how to solve it! My system has been acting up lately, too. It won't re-start, and when I shut down, I have to keep flicking the reset button when I go to start it up again. Could be a BIOS problem. Since the new Cubase works best on a P4 (or Mac) with lots of HD space, a new pc is high on my Santa want-list! I will probably go fo Win XP when I do upgrade.

Igor, I thought you weren't monitoring "igor@wnsoft.com" any more because of SPAM? Or was it a different address?

Hi, John, Welcome to the Forum! One way to accomplish this, other than by just calculating the time of each section, and then "dropping" the slides on the timeline accordingly, is to use my free "Adjustor" spreadsheet model (available as a download here on Beechbrook). With it, you can specify certain "break" points, and distribute the slides evenly over several different intervals defined by these break points. Let me know if you need further information.

Tom, Since you indicated that you plan to "run" the show in project mode, and since you are obviously not interested in synchronization to the music, why don't you just delete the "offending" slides at run-time from the slide list, save the new PTE file under a different name, and go with that? You can always recall the original file later when it is required.

Tom, Jim and Stu are right - there's not an easy way yet to do what I think you want to accomplish. One note in addition to Stu's last posting - you can add a button, make it transparent, remove the caption, and then resize it to the same size as your image, thus solving the problem of knowing where to click if you want to activate it. One problem, though - it leaves a border around the button. This may or not be acceptable. You could make it coincide with another border around each image if you wanted to make it totally invisible. You could also add your image through the object editor instead of via the slide list (i.e. click off "show image") and then program the image to advance or retreat to the desired slide when clicked.

Just a bit of clarification on the use of this feature. While this method will keep the image from showing, its custom effects are still there. Everything will go black (except for any objects selected) until the following slide. This may not be what you want to happen - you may want to remove the slide from it's place in the list completely, and then move it back when required again.

Hi, Tom, Three possibilities here: 1. Click on the slide and "drag" it to the bottom of the show. Then replace it with another slide. You will have to set up the appropriate custom parameters for the new slide, though. 2. Just change the name of the slide, where it appears on the "Show Image" line below the slide list, to the name of a replacement slide. The new slide will retain all the customizing of the first. 3. Click off "show image". Then add another image in Object Editor. Hope this helps.

I agree wholeheartedly with all that's been said in this thread so far. Igor said something about a separate section on tutorials - the same arguments could be made in support of a separate "video" section.

Jan, Just to follow Ron's excellent advice with another option. If you do as Ron suggested and put all your background music into one file, and leave a silent interval where you want the special slide-specific selection, you can add the special sound clip using the "Sound" line on the front window, making sure that there is sufficient space in the background music file to allow for different speeds of different pc's. This way the new sound clip will not interfere with the background music and the background music will start playing at the end of the special slide. Of course you might not be able to use the navigation controls, unless you are in synch mode, as if you pause the show, the background music will start in again before moving on to the next slide. If you add the special music using "Customize Slide" it will cut off any other background music you are using, and the new selection will become the "background music". The first method is most effective if your show is synchronized. Another way to do it would be to split the background music into two parts, one for the period up to the special slide, and then a second part programmed to continue at the start of the slide immediately after the special slide (using the music option in "Customize slide".) Hope I haven't confused you too much!

Guido, Rick, & Rainer, I don't want to carry this discussion on forever, but HERE is a news item I came across today as further proof that there is continuing convergence already between TV and computers.

Stu, That's correct, all the Object functions are now available in sync mode as well. Bill, just add an object button to your slide and program it so that it will go to a particular slide. You can add text to it to notify the user of it's intended action.

Hi, Garris, Welcome to the Forum. To see the button as it will appear in the preview, just click somewhere else in object editor and the colour will change from the "in focus", or "highlighted" colour to it's normal colour in the show. When you click on it again, it will appear darker again.

Guido, Given the exponential rate of change for new technology, it won't be long! One of the hot high-ticket items in N. America this Christmas is the digital projector by means of which one can watch large-screen DVD productions (and also PTE shows). I've been watching TV on my pc for some time now. And, one of the greatest fears of present TV distributors is that TV channels will soon be delivered via a high-speed internet connection. No, it won't be long!

Ken, Are you creating a synched show? If so you also have to check "Permit the control of show" in Project Options / Main.

Aw, shucks, Ron: You're being far too magnanimous!

I think you have to define "TV screen". Someday it and a pc monitor will be one in the same.

Hi, Rich, Welcome to the Forum! One way to shift everything ahead 30 sec (or whatever) is through my "Adjustor" spreadsheet model (available as a free download from the Beechbrook site). Then, you add the new slides to the top of the list as Alan described, and add the sync points for them on the timeline between zero and 30 seconds. If you are not proficient with the use of Excel spreadsheets, or do not have that software (you need version 97 or 2000 or later), then Alan's method is the next best method. However, as Alan says, you will need to add in the new transitions, and you may also need to adjust the timing for the existing slides since you have already synched them to music and the new slides will have taken on the sync characteristics of the old ones, moving the old ones 30 seconds along the timeline.

Ed, Try the template option - this should allow you to save and retain all your custom default parameters. Edit: Sorry, Ron, I either missed your post, or you hadn't posted it yet when I started mine. Glad we were consistent!