alrobin

Igor, That sounds really promising! We're all looking forward to these improvements. Jason, I realize I didn't answer your question completely. Yes, if you disable the synchronization, the program will ignore the timeline, and use the default times. To bring the timeline back, simply check the "Synchronize slideshow to music duration" radio button again, under "Project Options".

Jason, If you click on "Project Options", check "Synchronize slideshow ...", and then select "Customize Synchronization", you will see the timeline, with two options, "Automatic synch ... " and "Customize synch ... ". You should also see small shaded numbered rectangles along the bottom of the timeline, just below the grey horizontal lines. Each rectangle indicates the starting point for the transition to the slide of that number. The grey line indicates the length of the transition. If the transition line runs into the next slide, you should either back it off, advance the following slide, or change the transition length by going out of this dialog box and clicking on "Customize Slide ..." for the slide in question. (someday Igor is going to give us the ability to change this parameter without having to exit the timeline. ) Good luck.

Barry, Welcome to the Forum. It looks like you have been busy creating shows, too. I checked out your website - very nice professionally-designed site! There's lots of substance to it, too! I particularly like the dark background! (sorry, in-joke! ). Looking forward to seeing more slide shows in the future.

The following string also works: open=notepad.exe filename.txt (i.e. without the "\". Keeps things simpler ). Make sure "filename.text" is on the root of the CD, or else include the full pathname.

Hi, Jason, Welcome to the Forum! Yes, it's a common problem, usually caused by not allowing enough time for certain slides to implement their transitions. Are you synchronizing the show, and if so, are you using the timeline to customize the timing? If so, look on the timeline for tight transition/delay times (indicated by the grey horizontal bars along the timeline), and adjust the times for those slides which are showing when the music skips. Another possible problem might be image files which are too large, and take too long to load, thereby interfering with the playing of the music. You should keep the images to no larger than around 1024 x 768, compressed to jpeg at about 50% quality level. There could be other problems related to the music player you are using, but the transition interference is usually the cause. If so, Igor is redesigning the internal player, and this might help in this case. This common problem will only really be resolved when Igor changes the program to have it over-ride transition incompatibility, and move on to the next transition when a problem occurs. Hope this helps.

Hi, Granot, I had the impression from reading the description that it stayed on-screen. (it pays to try it out before one puts one's foot in one's mouth! At least to read the fine print! ) Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Bill, You are a wealth of information! Amazing what is available on the net these days. By the way, what version of Windows did you try it on? I get an error message, "mixerGetLineInfo() failed", when I try to run it under Win Me. Sounds like a function call in a C++ program not compatible with all versions of windows. It works fine under Win XP. Granot's app sounds good, too, but for a slide show you really need to be able to remove it from the screen once it has been activated.

That's correct. However, if it persists, the best way to eliminate it is to combine the music selections into a single file with Audacity or Cool Edit 2000.

Clive, One thing you could do is reduce the quality of the jpegs (e.g. use 20% instead of 50% or whatever compression ration you are using now.) And, by using MIDI instead of mp3, you could cut out another meg (provided the choice of music is not critical).

Dana, Try adjusting the transitions for images near the point of the music transition, and see if that makes a difference (could be a tricky transition occurring at the same time as the music changing, especially one with not quite enough time before the next slide kicks in?) Try adding a little more time to the time on screen for those images, or if it's a non-synched show, try temporarily removing a few images.

Oleg, There's a link to a trip to Romania on my web site, where I have posted one of our songs in mp3 format, recorded on a friend's web-cam. Someday I'll post a slide show from the trip.

Manny, Yes, it is possible to retain all past versions of PTE in fully working order in separate folders.

Hi, OGL, Thanks for the links. By the way, your English is much better than my Russian and I had a year of studying it at university, many years ago! We also sing many Russian hymns in our choir (in Russian, but using phonetic translations). I even put one into one of my slide shows. Good luck with PTE!

Hi, OGL, Welcome to the forum! (Igor, can you please translate for us? )

Dan, You can probably find all you need to know about setting up an autorun CD here in this thread: Autorun

Chemistry? Film cleaner? I thought that's what Photoshop is for!! Seriously, though, it might pay to do a scan first, and then clean, just in case you lose it.

Igor, As both Granot and I have discovered, you cannot copy to a temp file in Win XP (under program control), and then delete that file. (unless you have a secret way of programming that for XP ???? )

Hi, Lee, You apparently have either not allowed sufficient time for the slide show to set itself up (you have to allow at least 3 seconds before you invoke the second slide) , or the transition times for the first couple of slides are too long for the time available. Since you are synching to music length, with all slide times the same, I suspect you may have too many images, with transitions too long. You may have to use a customized synch, allowing a little more time for the first couple of images, just to get the show started. Or, you may have other processes running in the background, taking up valuable computer resources when you need everything you can get for PTE. Hope this helps!

Hi, Charles, Can you use the "File / Templates / Create template from this show" function in the menu to save a few slides with the objects you want on them, and then use this template whenever you create a new show?

Michiele, It may be a problem with the file not being copied properly onto the CD. Usually windows will copy the whole file when you drag and drop from an external drive such as a CD or a floppy disk, whether you press "Control" or not. Try cutting another cd with a different file, and see if the problem still exists. Also, make sure you are "left-clicking" on the files.

okiediver, This subject was a hot topic a few months ago - see this thread: Copy protection The short answer is that it is impossible to completely protect an image from being "lifted" from one's show.

Igor, I prefer option 3. Option 2 would be too frustrating and confusing. Thanks for considering this improvement!

That's great, Igor. All of the other thumbnail makers I've tried out take much longer than that. Sounds like you have found an ingenious algorithm! So, I think that is even more reason for you to add a complete light-table to PTE. However, I agree with Dana that that is not the top priority - I would like to see more transition control on the timeline first.

Bob, As I see it, the "file window" is there in order to present a list of possible slides to be selected for a show, not to make the final selection, or to sort them into a particular order. Presently in PTE, this sorting is typically done in the "slide list". The slides in the file window are there by virtue of selecting a particular directory containing images you want in your show. Now, the images had to have been selected and put into that directory before opening PTE. So, if you want to see what images you are selecting originally for a particular directory, and hence, for the file window, you can use Win ME or XT to see the images, or a thumbnail editor like Easy Thumbnails, as they don't have to be in any particular order. With a light-table feature, the image names wouldn't even have to be "imported" into PTE in order, as the ordering would be done on the "light-table". To display the images in the file list would involve some overhead, as it normally takes 1/4 to 1/2 sec per image to create a thumbnail, and this would have to be done for every image in every directory you clicked on in setting up the list of slides you want in the "file list". Every time you click on a different directory, my understanding is that you would have to wait for PTE to create the thumbnails. My own main use for a table of thumbnails is in arranging the selected images into some particular sequence. Once the original selection has been made, the "slide list" becomes fairly stable, and the thumbnails would be created only once, except for those slides which are added to the list as the organization process proceeds. There would be some advantage in being able to select images for the show from a table or list of thumbnails, but IMHO, the advantage would be offset by the overhead added to the process. It is very easy to do this first selection right in Win Explorer, as you can already see the image for each file you are dragging into a special folder for the PTE show. In other words, don't do your preliminary searching for the slides for a show in PTE, itself - do it in advance, using the tools already available. This is the way I see it, anyway.

Igor, This would be a most useful feature in PTE. As you probably know, I added a thumbnail capability to my "PTE Adjustor" model, and it is the feature which I use the most as an aid to putting together a PTE show. I would be happy to beta-test this feature in PTE for you to see what features you are thinking of providing. No need for thumbnails on the file panel - it would just slow down the program too much. And it should only be provided for the Slide list on demand, again so as not to slow down the operation of the program unless the user needed to use a light-table to rearrange the images. Just adding thumbnails to the slide list, opposite the names, would not be too useful - they need to be on a separate window and spread out so it is possible to see all of the images. The ability to zoom in to a smaller portion of the light-table would be nice, too, so as to see the images better. By the way, what do you mean by "two to three placements"? Thank-you for considering this valuable tool in the program.