[Creating a 3 min 21 sec AV]

This Audio Visual was created last year when I heard about the Internationale 321 competition. I was too late to enter so apart from a few showings to a local photography and AV group has been un-played for most of this year. The idea came to me very quickly but the photography took several weeks and then quite a lot of time putting it all together. I hope you like it as this type of AV is to me what the medium is really about. Be honest with your comments else I wont know how to make a better one next time.

Thank you, Peter Hayward

Daffodils -zip.zip

[Sound files in PTE]

From the replies to my original thread on 'Holding the Timing Marker' I was lead to all these comments about sound editors.

I would like to add these thoughts. I am sure we would all agree that the editing of our pictures is the prerogative of software like Photoshop, not Pictures to Exe. Equally, the editing of sound needs dedicated software such as Audacity.

To most of us the audio is as important as the pictures and to combine our edited sound and edited pictures into an Audio Visual Sequences also required dedicated software; our prefered choice being Pictures to Exe.

My thoughts are that Pictures to Exe only needs the ability to manipulate the already edited sound in a similar way that it enables us to manupilate the already edited pictures.

Peter

[Holding the playback marker]

Thank you to everyone for picking up my thread. I didn't know it was a long standing item.

It came about trying to fit slides to parts of 'The Blue Danube' waltz where the music lacks positive beats and I was trying find which of the repeated phrases in the music best suited the transisiton.

I have coppied my original thread direct to Wnsoft and have received a ticket confirmation and am for waiting their reply.

Peter

[Holding the playback marker]

Thank you Yachtsman for replying to my query.

I have used your suggestion for initially setting slides to music but invariably there are some mistimed insertions. I don't know what you mean about the slide dropping back to fill the space when a slide previous to the marker is moved as I am talking about moving slides not removing them.

It's all bacause the timeline playing position marker jumps to the end of the fade time when a slide is highlighted, which is necessary before it can be moved backward or forward on the timeline. Sometimes this movement is less than a second or so.

This must be a problem for everyone who wants very accurate slide and music syncronisation without having to keep repeating playback.

Peter

[Holding the playback marker]

I am using version 5.6 and the Timeline to accurately set slides to music. When the playback is paused at a particular time in the music is it posible to hold the palyback marker in that position.

It will stay in position when a slide previous to the marker is moved forward to the marker but when a preceeding slide needs to be moved back to the marker the marker jumpes to the end of it's fade area, thus making it necessary to always make a paper note of the time the playback marker stopped at.

Thanks to anyone with an answer or is this a suggestion for version 5.7

[Templates]

Hi Peter,

As you have discovered, the "template" feature in PTE is really not a true "template". In old versions of PTE the template feature was a more primitive way of doing what the "zip" feature does today. The zip feature encapsulates the PTE file along with all the images so that you can later simply unzip it in a folder of your choice and continue with modifications or changes and additions to your project without having to keep track of the individual components and their locations.

What Hawk did was explain how it's possible to copy and paste segments or complete slideshows and incorporate them in other shows. When theDom or I or anyone else creates a so called "template" it's simply a way of allowing the user to substitute their own files for the ones in the "template" so that they can enjoy the same transitions, animations, etc., as found in the "template" examples. But to do this, it requires the user to rename their images, use the same number of images and in some cases, crop or resize them so that they are virtually identical to the ones in the template except for image content. This, of course, is not a true "template". A true template is a pattern which allows the user to re-create the design over and over again. A true software template would automatically rename, resize, etc., various files and place them in their proper places.

The reason Jeff and I did not spend a great deal of time with the template feature was that it would take many pages to explain to a novice user of PTE its rather convoluted use for the purpose you wish to use it for. We decided that the unofficial user guide was more suited to an overview of the features rather than a "tutorial" which many of us have created on various specifics of PTE use. The closest thing available to a true "template" is an Excel spreadsheet template done by Al Robins called PTE-5 Adjustor which you can read about and download here:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6767

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Lin,

Thank you taking the time to read my post about Templates and offer so much information. I have also found my printed copy of your 'User Guide' extremely useful.

Out of curiosity have already downloaded Al Robins PTE-5 adjustor so your link to information about it will be useful as I had no idea it could be used as a Template.

Peter

[Templates]

Hello Peter,

Here is the method Hawk provided (original post here : http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....mp;#entry31206)

Copy the slides of your template, do not close PTE, and open the project you want to copy the slides to.

Then paste the slides copied wherever you want in the slide list.

Hi TheDom,

Thanks for your helpful reply, it does work. I noticed in the user guide by Lin and Jeff Evens they say very little about templates, mainly that they have been superseeded by Zip Files. I see templates, like the one's available from your web site as a way of storing and re-using many of the sequences between a pair of slides or complex transformations using a number of slides that sometimes take quite some time to create.

[Templates]

I have created a 'Template' of a complex slide animation used at the start of a project. I now want to add the 'Template' with new slides later in the project. How can this be done, because every time I try the template open as it's own project.

I would also like to use one of The Dom's templates within one of my own projects; but again it always opens as it's own project.

Can 'The Dom'or anyone else help with this?

Peter John

[Slide animation]

Peter,

Maybe I'm not understanding what you are trying to do.

There are two ways to repeat a set of keypoints:

1. Highlight all objects in the object list, and use copy and paste to duplicate them. Then move the new ones to where you want them. You can use the detailed numerical values under the "Animation" tab to help set up the parameters to repeat the same effect as the originals.

2. Make a short show with two slides, and select "Repeat show until Esc is pressed" in Project Options.

Does this help you accomplish your objective?

I'm taking the oportunity of replying to both Al and Ken.

I've read all the threads you suggested and gained some very useful ideas about templates and copying slides and keypoints. Thanks to both of you with this additional request. Can you copy keypoints without copying the slide they are applied to, then paste the keypoints only to another slide?.

Back to my original enquiry. When I animated the slide in question it was the first time I'd used the O & A tab and didn't know the significance of 'keypoints'. I just moved the slide about, changed it's size and rotated it a bit. When I hit the play tab the slide did everything I'd just done to it. How? I hadn't set any keypoints.

Peter

[Slide animation]

Peter,

Welcome to the Forum!

Next time, make a note of the parameters for each keypoint (you can read them off of the "O&A / Animation" tab), and you will be able to duplicate the effect by simply adding the objects in the order as before, adding the necessary number of keypoints, and and then typing the numbers back in the appropriate input boxes for each keypoint.

It would be simpler to save the pte project file as a "template" and then copy each slide over to the new show, but if you lost the original, this obviously would not be possible.

Thank you Al for answering my message.

I now do what you advised and by keeping a record of the keypoints for each slide have created a montage of photographs all using the same effects.

What I did in my message was create a slide with various pan and zoom effects all between two keypoints, and repeat the effects when playing the slide. That is what I can't repeat.

By the way, Al what is the differance between saving as a 'pte' file and a 'template'?

Peter.

[Slide animation]

I have been trying out Beta 5.8r and inadvertantly created a slide with multiple movements of rotation, zooming and panning in the O & A screen without setting keypoint times for each movement.

I have not been able to repeat this effect.

Did I do something that should be a function of the O & A screen?

Unfortunately I lost the effect before realising it was not repeatable.

Peter.