JRR

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

Clive: Yes it is can be done quite easily. I use an autorun.inf file and Shell.exe file BUt I think there is an autorun utility at Beechbrook cottage http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ If that is not suitable for you, send me an email (click on "e-mail" below and I will send you a sample AUTORUN.inf and Shell.exe Jim

Bob: The ability to do that came with v3.8. I use it all the time for my synchronized shows I click on PROJECT OPTIONS - MAIN - CUSTOM SYNCRONIZATION and put in my transitions. When I want to preview them, I click on START in CUSTOM SYNCHRONIZIATION, the show starts (watch it in the small thumbnail to the right) and then click on the time line where you want to preview from. The images and music jump right to it. You can continue to click on the time line and the show jumps to that spot. If you hit PAUSE, the show stops but you can restart it wherever. If you hit STOP, the show goes back to image one, but just do the above again and you are OK Jim

RJM Look at AL Robin's post http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=201 re Automated EXCEL routine. (Page two of the forum (as of Jan 26 1:15pm EST)) I think you will find you can do what you want using it. You can e-mail Al if you are not sure. Jim

Very minor point, but the "Allow to restore prictures (Via "Print" button on the Navigation bar)" that you find on the Main screen in Project Options. mentioned by ccmanz is on the ADVANCED tab of PROJECT OPTIONS (I looked and looked for it on the MAIN tab) Now I know what I can use it for. thanks Jim

The question is more "what don't we like about it ?" Not much. Always room for improvement in anything, but for many people's needs it is almost all here, and the updates (v4.0 beta has some very nice helpful new features) along with utilites created by users are great. Everyone helps everyone. What more can you ask for ? Jim

Oaky: I don't think they are default "blocked". I use one or other as defaults frequently. I will never use the other transitions as defaults as they are too "cheesy" for my style of shows. But I do use one every now and then if it fits a particular image The fade in/out is the best of any that I have seen on other software. But it is suspectible to "shuddering" depending on the power of your computer. I have not found a computer less than 2 years or so old that could not handle the fade in/out on a 800x600 image VERY smoothly regardless of the transition time. I have a P3 probably 300-400 MHZ, 256 RAM and it will smoothly handle fades as short as 800ms. The more powerful the computer, the larger the image that will fade smoothly at faster speeds. The "cut" (hot blocks) works fine too. Jim

Oops!!!!!! I forgot to mention dBPowerAMP MUsic Converter, available as FREE download, also gives good flexibility in chossing the MP3 specs Jim

A user of PTE that I know has been making shows of 3-5minutes length in very small files. (less than 5mb) He has been using low quality MP3, but unless you are listening on high quality speakers, I can't tell the difference (but then I have a tin ear ) Cool Edit 2000, while not as inexpensive as Acoustica, gives you tremendous flexiblity in choosing the MP3 output quality. You need the Studio plug-in to mix music, but you can record, adjust volume, tone etc etc with the basic package Jim

Guido Thanks for the thoughts. I will try #1 next time I am there. The first image is black, so I guess I really meant the second image is what shows and then disappears. The second image starts with the music, after 3 seconds of silence to give everything a chance to load and set up. I had it starting after just over a second of lead in and the second image never made it to the screen as it was too busy loading everything. The second image has a 3400ms fade in and is on the screen, from the start of the fade in to the start of the next image, for 4 seconds Jim

I have run into an odd situation with a PTE show. I have done six shows, five of 3-4 minutes each and one educational presentation of 10 minutes. I have tried them on several different computers (some 5-8 of different ages and with various chips), and have been pleased (with the exception of one computer that is starting to show its age in terms of today's demands) the shows-all with custom synchronization-work flawlessly. Well almost. The five short ones work fine, but the 10 minute one does not work on one computer. The computer is a Hewlitt Packard, with a P4 1.6Ghz, 512mb RAM, a nVidia TNT2 M64 Graphics card with 32mb SDRAM video memory (whatever all that means ). I could not find any specs for the sound card. The show starts fine, but the images disappear off the screen after the first one is finished, then the sound track starts to fall apart after 10 seconds or so and the show quits. The computer does not freeze, in fact the show quits and normal screen returns on the monitor. The problem showed itself when we tried to run it from the CD drive, so I loaded it on the C drive thinking the connection between the CD drive and the computer was too slow, but it performed exactly the same. The 10 minute show has an .exe file of 29mb. There are 97 images with a mp3 file of 14mb. The first image comes on fine, so I assume there is enough space for the show to load and start, I had added a few seconds at the start to give it a chance to breathe. One of the shorter shows has an .exe file of 33mb; a 3mb MP3 file and 99 images. It runs fine on the problematic, and other, computer. Any one have any thoughts. (Try to make it non-technical for this luddite please ) Thanks Jim

Bill: If you really want to use all 200 photos (See discussion elsewhere on the forum )..... It is very easy to blend the end and start of music together. Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer can do it easily. Just type Acoustica into Google to find it. It is quit cheap, about $25-30US. Cool Edit 2000 with the Studio plug-in will do it a with a little more finesse, but that finesse costs about 4 times as much. Type Cool Edit into Google to find it. Both are eay to use, Acoustica somewhat easier as it has fewer bells and whistles. Jim

Thanks Ian !!! It works well BUT do be careful when creating the .exe file. As Ian says use the CREATE AS function Jim

Thanks Les Guess who has WinMe ? Me damn it !!!! Jim

Sorry about the last post, Somehow I hit a short cut I did know about and it was posted before I was finished. Truelight 1. This has nothing to do with Russian translating to English. I tried to summarize in the last (but one post) that it is an issue of one term (project) being used for two purposes. SAVE and SAVE AS work the same in PTE as they do in MS WORD (Not that WORD is a best software in the world) 2. I understand IGOR looks at all posts and he has done, and is doing a great job with the software. I have seen his comments on many posts. Considering the price we pay for this software it is a freebie, then consider the constant improvements that we get based on requests from users who use PTE for many different uses and thus ask for the sky. I have NEVER come across a software that can do so much, be so responsive in terms of changes for users and yet give it away. Maybe you would like Microsoft or Adobe to take this software over? The price would go up 20 to 30 times the current price and updates would have to be paid for. Jim

Truelight: 1.

One last word on this (from me anyway) As there is some confusion as I might not have stated it properly and Al Robin clarified something to me. The real issue here is that there seem to be two things called PROJECT, that get intertwined. When you go with a new show, you hit FILE-NEW and you are asked for a "project" name. This is the name that goes up at the very top of your screen. Lets assume I give it the name "FARM" As you work though your show and SAVE it as you work, the .pte file is named FARM.pte. No problem, But when you decide to make a slightly different version and want to keep both, you do a SAVE AS and call it FARM2.pte. The name at the top of the screen is still FARM, even though you are working with FARM2.pte. The only way you know whether you have FARM.pte or FARM2.pte active on the screen is to do a SAVE AS and see what file name shows. The initial Project naming of FARM is the overall project you are working on. The FARM.pte and FARM2.pte are really 2 files within the project. Unfortunatley they are called project files as well. Hence the confusion. Using PROJECT- CHANGE PROJECT NAME changes the overall project name but not the underlying .pte files. (and will not clobber either of the two versions of the show providing you have saved both versions before. I incorrectly stated that before and have re-confirmed that.) What I (and Guido I think) would like to see is BOTH names at the top of the screen. The overall project name and the individual .pte file that we are working with. Or better yet, simply the .pte file active at the moment. In my examples above, The overall project name is FARM, the individual files are FARM.pte and FARM2.pte. The top of the screen would be better to say FARM-FARM.pte if FARM.pte is active, or FARM-FARM2.pte if FARM2 is active. (Or simply drop the "FARM" and go with FARM.pte or FARM2.pte. Hope that clarifies it

Thanks Ian, but it really does not work as Guido says. If I use the SAVE AS route, I get both "A" and "B" saved, but only A shows as the project name at the very top of the screen regardless of which one I have open. If I save A, then tweak it and SAVE AS "B" then use PROJECT CHANGE NAME to "B" I lose "A" Jim PS: I am always amazed at how great this forum is, so many people keep and eye on it and jump in to help !! Thx

I just tried changing the name through PROJECT - CHANGE NAME, it deleted the old name and gave it the new name. As an example I had "A" saved, tweaked it and then used PROJECT - CHANGE NAME to call it "B" "B" was there, but I lost "A". I need both A and B, but I want the top line to show which one I am working with. Maybe I am asking it to do something for which there is a better way to do it ?? Should I go back and set up a new project when I do the tweaking ?? Jim

Found it Guido thanks But.... That actually changes the name of the existing .pte file I already have the pte file saved as "B" I am trying to get "B" to show on the very top line when I have "B" open. Is this making sense ??? Maybe I should be changing the name of the project using this route rather than SAVE AS when I tweak "A" to "B" ?? Jim

Thanks Ian That sounds what I am looking for. But, says he sheepishly, I can't find the "change project name" button in Project Options. Which tab is under ? Guess I need to be lead by the nose right to it. thx Jim

I am not sure if this is a problem with me or the software. I think it applies to previous versions, but not sure as I only have the beta 4.0 loaded now. When I create a new show I give it a project name of course. Lets call it "A". Then I will often tweak it a little for various reasons and not want to lose the original project "A", so I do a SAVE AS and call it "B". It is saved as "B" (I can see it in my folder) and if I hit preview, "B" runs. But the project name at the top of the screen is still "A". Even if I go FILE OPEN "B", it still shows as "A". I suspect I am not understanding something here so if someone could point me in the proper direction on this I would be very happy. It is very confusing now I as I have double check to try figure out what version I have loaded. Thanks Jim

Hi Al: I am using MS IE 6.0. I find if I am patient and click on the small button indicating there is a new reply, read the new reply(s), and then click on "back to pictures to exe" at the bottom, then everthing behaves as it should, the little button on that topic is gone. If I am impatient and run through all the little buttons, clicking plus SHIFT key, I get many new sessions of MSIE going and I can look at all the new stuff very quickly, but when you finally come back to the main page, some of the little buttons are gone, some aren't. I usually REFRESH at that point, or LOG OUT and LOG IN again. Jim

Have you looked at http://www.findsounds.com/ (Not all royality free though) To get a feel, click on "need examples" below the search box. or http://www.acoustica.com/mp3-audio-mixer/s...?src=newsletter (these are royality free) Jim Robertson

Igor: You asked about loading times for large files with the new 4.0. The largest show I have right now is 10 minutes, 99 images with a 14MB sound file. Exe file is 26MB. I have not noticed an appreciably shorter load time from either a CD or the hard drive compared to 3.8. It takes about 1-3 seconds. (not a problem) I have a P3, 256 RAM, 400hz (?) Not sure if that helps you any. Jim Robertson