JRR

Jim: Others more expereinced than I might correct me, but if you have all the applicable .exe file in the root of the CD, then it should run OK. But I have been wrong before.... Jim

For me, I am not sure I would want/need a "CREATE MAIN MENU" to start various shows from. There would still be manual work to select the shows you want to run from there and what flexibility would there be with backgrounds to make it look good etc etc. All which would be done "manually". I find the use of the Object Editor on a single image PTE show gives me ultimate flexibilty, and little manual labour to create a "launch page" for my shows (and other exe files) that I might be using for various presentations. But I am sure others have different needs and views. Jim

Ian: Are the two pieces of music one mp3, or two ?? Are they made with the same specs ? If they are two separate files, you might have better luck putting them into one mp3 with spoftware mentioned in many other threads: Acoustica mp3 audio mixer, or Cool Edit 2000 and STudio plug-in. Both can be found on the web through GOOGLE. Acoustica is a basic program and will do 90% of what you may ever want to do. It is quite cheap. The other has many bells and whistles which you pay for. You migth also have a problems with transitions on the images being too close to each other at the sametime as you are changing music. If you are using 4.0beta and the synch timeline, you can check this by looking at the gray markings on the timeline. Hope that helps Jim

Must be nice to have the $$ to use Adobe Premiere as a audio compresser !!! Jim

I have lost more CDs than floppies Nothing is safe, back it up several places.... Jim

Al: Thanks for the fix !!! (Sorry I had to be the one with the "old" EXCEL version and found it ) BTW, I used the PTE Adjustor for a purpose you likely never expected - I still maintain a stable of 35 mm analog slide shows on ARION equipment. I had created a PTE version of one of the existing 35mm shows. I tweaked it in PTE, liked it better. So I ran the PTE_ADJUSTER and was able to print out a listing of the start, transition and on-screen times (my terms) to go back and adjust the "old fashioned" version. Thx again Jim

Wellybob: Changing the resolution really has no effect, but I suspect you really did was change the pixel dimensions of the image. See my post (and others) at Mega Project 380mb (1) at http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...f=2&t=289&st=20 Jim

Al Robin, in his 9:24pm Jan 31st on this thread, felt that my comments re dpi and file sizing might be confusing for some. So let me try to say it in a clearer way: I leave all of my images (from a scanner) at whatever dpi they are scanned at. The dpi does NOT matter in the resultant file size (measured in bytes). The bottom line measurement is the pixel dimension e.g. 3000x2000 or 800x600. The more pixels you have the bigger the file is in size of bytes. The file type (e.g bmp, tiff, jpg) and any compression of that file will also factor into the final (byte) sizing. I was trying to state that you don't need to adjust the "dpi" as so many people seem to think they have to reduce a file (bytes) size. Hope that is clearer Jim

I leave all of my images at 1200 or 2400 dpi as this has nothing to do with the (electronic) file size of the image. The file size is determined by (1) the pixel dimensions and (2) the degree of compression. I find I spend a lot of time "discussing" this with people who argue I am wrong, but so far all have walked away convinced... I know you can batch size images in IRFANVIEW or PhotoShop (Thumbs Plus will as well, but it seems to want to drop the res to 72dpi !!!), but I tend to do the sizing idividually on critical images so I can ensure I get the exact "line-ups" I want for the dissolves one pic into the next. Not every one is critical thank goodness as sizing can get tedious. Jim

Thanks Stef: That does work well - so long as I remember to set the deafults to the 20ms when I set up a show with "cut" being the default (Not that I do that much as I usually use the FADE as default.) I can usually remember when doing individual slide customization I mentioned the "bug" to Igor when we spotted it just after the beta 4 came out, so maybe when the final version comes I won't need to worry about my "senior moments" when forgetting to set the cut to 20ms. Jim

Hi Welcome to the forum !!! I see you are not having much luck with getting answer to your question. I can't answer it either, but don't get discouraged, someone will pop in with the answer for you. I have not asked a question yet for which I did not get a helpful answer Jim

Thanks Granot Looks interesting, curently I use a autorun CD that starts with a single image show with OBJECT EDITORS linking to the various shows on the CD now. Click on the link and away it goes. (double click and away it goes twice !!! ) Yours sounds like a little more to set up, but might be more friendly to viewers. Jim

Welcome to the forum !!!! I only use FADE as well, I use PTE as it has the best FADE I could find for digital slide shows. I think you likely have a couple of "problems" The FADE is very taxing on CPU processing, you need a relatively new computer (minimum P3, 256 RAM, etc) for it to work well The file size of 300-500kb sounds a bit large, but to me just as crucial is the image size. 800x600 fades beautifully on my computer, if I take the same file size, but make it a 1200x900 image, the fade shutters badly.(depending on the transition time-see below) My files are 800x600 at 150-200kb (Quality 5 jpgs from PhotoShop) The transition time you are asking the FADE to run in is a factor as well. I can run a fade at any speed on a 800x600 file and it is OK, but others with less powerful computers find they need to extend the transition time to 3-5 seconds to get it smooth. It also sounds as though you might have some of the transitions too close to each other. You need to allow the transition to completely finsih and then give it a fraction of a second longer, before transtioning the next image in. If you are using PTE 4.0beta, there is a grey marking along the custom synch timeline that shows you the transition timing vis a vis the on-screen times. Alrobin's excel utility See (http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=201) on page two of the forum-look for the heart can also help you with the timing issues. Hope that all helps Jim

Jeff: (I told you there would be more knowledgeable people than I who would help !!) It didn't click that you had 4 separate MP3 files. Putting them together is easy, you'll see elsewhere on the forum that Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer (inexpensive) or COOL EDIT with the STUDIO PLUG-IN (more expensive)are amongst the best softwares to do that. If you have used the timeline synchronization for the show, PTE v4.0 beta has grey markings on the timeline to show the transitions times (except a cut shows up with 1500ms). That may help to adjust the timings, or you could use alrobin's nifty excel routine. You can find a discussion on it at Page two of the forum (as of today) look for the heart) http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=201 Jim

Jeff: Welcome to PTE and the forum, I think you will find lots of good hints in here on all kinds of issues. As to this specific problem, I have not hit it (thank goodness - but I have had others ...) and there lots of others on the forum with more info on this particular issue than I. But what specs were using with the MP3 file ? Is it a problem on one computer only ? Or with others ? I doubt it very much, but if you are starting the show from a button made via the object editor and you click on it twice, by force of habit, the show plays twice at the sametime and the music can be "jumpy". If you don't know what I am talking about, then that is not the problem <grin> Object editors will come with course PTE 201. Jim

Re the copyright issue... Wasn't there a thread going a few days ago about trying to stop someone copying images from the PTEexe file ??? Didn't the discussion go on for some length as to how to stop it. Guess when it is someone else's copyright to be infringed on it is OK ?? ??

Igor Nice of you to continue spoiling us !!!! Thanks for all your great work ! Jim

Steve: It sounds as though you want a light table within PTE. Yes that would be nice. Right now, I use ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com/) to do my sorting. I move the images into a gallery within ThumbsPlus, sort them, run their basic slide show to check my sorting, then re-name the images sequentially (all within ThumbsPlus) then pull them into PTE and away I go with creating my PTE show Jim

Michel: I am not sure I understand exactly what you are looking for, ( your anglais is still better than my français ) but I think you want the option to do minor customizations on a non-synchronized show. I am biased here as I only do fully customized shows (comments already went the rounds on that in an earlier post ) but you can make a customized show with very little customization now by only using a few features so I think you have what you want now. Except for a way to set time by %'s by which I assume you mean you want image 1 on screen for 15% of the show, image 2 for 10%, image 3 for 5% ? I am not sure how many people would use that function. Jim

Ken: I am one of the "old guys" (not one of the young guys either ) so I don't recall what you are saying. But I can tell you that if it were not for the fade and the cut, I would not be using PTE. For my type of AV shows, those are the key !!! That is what brought me to PTE, as PTE has the best fade that I can find anywhere. Yes, computers more than 2 years old sometimes struggle with the fade, but that is not enought to deter me. Take them out and I am gone from PTE (plus about 5 others that I can name off the top of my head) Jim

Helmut: I have not figured out "Timed Points" or "Auto Scrolling" but: "New Transition" when clicked adds a transition at the time the music was at when you clicked New Transition "Delete Point" is used to delete a transition, merely click on a transition triangle and click delete point "Start" starts the music and preview appears in the right hand box of Custom Synch "Stop" stops the music and returns the cursor to strating point When music is playing, "start" becomes "pause". Use "pause" to temporaily stop the music without the show going back to starting point. When the show is playing you can go to any point on the timeline, click, and the show will jump to there - great for previewing I am sorry but I don't understand the second question. Jim

Sharon: I downloaded it and let install over top of 3.8. Worked fine. Someone the other day did not want to lose 3.8 so they were advised to install 4.0 in a different folder within Program files. Jim

Jules: I am sure you checked this, but were the speakers on and functioning on the other computer ?? Did you check the speakers with a normal audio CD ? I had a similar but worse experience I posted a few days ago, my show started, displayed one image, continued with the sound for about 20 seconds and then died. That happened on only one computer (a new one) out of 5 or 8 I tried it on. The suggestions was that the problematic computer had a resources problem. Try it on a third computer perhaps, as new a one as you can find with as much processing power just to be sure it was not this one computer. Good Luck Jim

Igor: There seems to be a minor glitch with v4 beta. When I am starting a new show, I bring in the folder with the images in it on the left side of the screen. If I am not using them all, I click on the first one I want, then CTRL+click on the rest individually. But the first image I picked drops off the selected list. I have to click on it again (CNTRL+click) and then I add all the images. Not a big deal, just wanted to let you know. thx Jim

I decided I must be blind as I could not find the slice of bread, so I called Al Robin (he lives in the same city as I do). It seems my seeing eye dog must have eaten it It is not there on screen. I am using v4.00beta. Is there another version of beta 4 ?? Is anyone else missing Al's slice of bread ??? Jim