wideangle

Hello I've just come across an inconsistency between a photo slide and a video slide. The following example illustrates it: 1. Started a 1920x1080 new project 2. Set up some project options as follows: Screen tab : solid colour white background Defaults tab : 90% of slide to show and Apply to all slides set. Defaults tab : Display shadow behind slide ticked and Apply to all slides set. Customize distance set to 12, Size set to 3 and Opacity set to 100% 3. Adding a few photo slides displays the shadow as expected. 4. Adding a 1920x1080 video slide gives a shadow, but not as expected, even though the shadow settings are correct if checked in the Objects and Animation. Regards wideangle

Thanks for that davegee As a matter of routine I would normally do what you suggested in the last point, but, as I say, I was just playing about, and stumbled on the anomoly. Regards wideangle

Hello Just playing around with adding video clips to PTE and came across this situation : 1. Started a blank project 2. Added a 5 minute mp4 video clip 3. PTE asked if I wanted to convert it - I chose Yes. 4. Repeated steps 2 and 3 for another three mp4 clips, each between 3 an 5 mins in length. PTE completed the conversions of all four clips but here's the thing. It automatically replaced the fourth clip in my sequence with its converted version. The first three clips in the project were left as my original versions. (All four clips were shot at the same time in the same way} My question is why? What is the point of recommending that a clip be converted but then not using it? (I'm just curious rather than desperate to get an answer, as the project wasn't important) Regards wideangle

Barry Many thanks for that kind offer - much appreciated. Regards wideangle

Just a report back. Played with a few of the above ideas. PGA's idea of cropping off the excess transparency in each of the png's solves the problem I was experiencing, but does involve a bit of fiddling about in PTE to position the separate pieces. Barry's approach of doing the planning of building the jigsaw in Photoshop and saving each stage as a separate jpg to use as a slide in PTE seemed to be the best for me. My method so far is: Use Photoshop with a Panos action to create the separate pieces as individual layers. Hide all the layers to start with. Switch on one (or more) layers to display a piece. Save as a jpg. Choose another layer to switch on to display the next piece. Save as a jpg etc until the jigsaw is completed. (This stage seems to be crying out for a suitable Photoshop action, but I'm not into that yet!) So now I've got a sequence of jpgs ready to put into PTE as separate slides, which is where I am at the moment. The next bit of the learning curve is to add some music and get the slides to appear on the beats. Does anyone know of any free (instrumental?) music with good definite beats which might work well? I'm not too concerned at this stage whether the music matches the jigsaw content! Regards wideangle

A few good ideas to chew on here. Thanks to everyone. Regards wideangle

Thanks to both of you for that. Davegee - That's kind of what I thought I'd heard somewhere before, so it's back to the drawing board I guess! Yachtsman - the png's were 1920x1080 with most of each png being transparent apart from the little jigsaw piece itself. I planned to add a keypoint and make several pieces appear at the same time by setting their opacity to 100%. Regards wideangle

OK - here's the scenario. I'm playing around with simulating a jigsaw. I started with a 1920x1080 image and split it into 100 png images to represent a 10x10 jigsaw.. Each png image is 1920x1080 and represents a single piece on a transparent background. My idea was to use PTE by starting with a blank slide, go to Objects and Animation, use Add Image to add the 100 png files, set the opacity of each one to 0 then switch individual opacities to 100 as and when I wanted a piece to appear. However my stumbling block was the first step! If I go to Objects and Animation, click on Add Image, highlight the 100 png files and click on Open, I get only about 50% of the pieces appearing. It isn't the first 50 either - seems to be rather random. Can anyone offer any ideas please? [i suspect I may be hitting some kind of size limit here. A typical single png is around 65 KB, and all 100 take up about 6.7 MB] Many thanks wideangle

Suppose I have a basic slideshow where the slides consist of single photos (and/or videos). I want to put, as a simple example say, a thin coloured border round each one. There is no global setting for borders, so I would have to use Objects and Animation for each and every slide. I could create a slide style to define and apply a border, but this would change the duration of each slide and video clip to the value in the slide style definition, which would destroy the show. I would like to apply a slide style with, say, a tick box option to retain the original slide duration, so that is my request. It seems like a straightforward option to build in but who am I to judge!!!! Regards wideangle

That's a touch of common sense, Barry - something that seems to be lacking a lot in today's world. Regards wideangle

Gary I entirely agree with you. I raised this very point months ago but didn't get any support for it. While Peter and davegee have offered possible solutions, they are not options that newcomers would be familiar with, and we have regularly had comments about making PTE as logical and friendly as possible. As you say, a global setting for shadows already exists so it just seems a natural step to include a global one for borders as well, in my view. Regards wideangle

Hi Lin/Peter If someone owns two licenses, that allows them to install on two desktops and two laptops - more licenses then even better. The Adobe system, as described by Barry, sounds very flexible and sensible, and surely would satisfy most people. Another possibility for Igor to consider, is to build into the licensing system the option to activate on more than two machines (at extra cost) just as is done with say some antivirus packages. Regards wideangle

I've no problems with it - it's a fairly common approach with many software packages these days, and isn't a big deal. If it helps to cut out pirate copies of the software, then so much the better! Regards wideangle

Hi DaveGee Thank you for that - I was just looking at the idea of adding a bit more variety to the front end of my DVDs. Regards wideangle

I've just been burning some DVDs with VideoBuilder and I used some of the 7 Menu designs on offer within the program. The manual says that you can use these, or create your own designs, but doesn't say any more than that. Can someone point me in the general direction direction of how to do this please, as I can't find any discussion in the forum or any tutorials about it? Many thanks, wideangle.

Although I no longer have it installed,I have a recollection that the free VLC media player had an option tool to adjust brightness and contrast then resave it. Regards Wideangle

If you are deliberately chopping off the front end and/or back end of a video to produce a new clip, it will obviously be shorter than before, so you would logically expect the duration to be adjusted automatically. Can you think of any video editing software where this doesn't happen?? Shouldn't this therefore be the default action? Regards Wide angle

Thanks Igor. Mine is better now too. (Yes it only happened with Pal 16:9) Regards wideangle

I can confirm this - I've just recently come across the same problem. Regards Wideangle

Totally agree with you on this one, Eric. Also, Barry has summed it up by saying that casual users are most likely to be the ones who create DVDs, and that casual users are also the biggest users of PTE. They are the bread and butter users. (You are unlikely to get a very accurate picture from this poll as the majority of casual users are not likely to reply anyway, and probably don't even look at this forum.) Regards Wideangle

Hi Gary I fully understand what you are trying to achieve and have pondered on that problem myself for quite a while now. The nearest solution to what you want is what I suggested above. but it does require an initial mask and only works for either landscape or portrait but not a mix. I appreciate that the 86% is incidental but once you have decided on the percentage, you just create the mask to suit. Everyone seems to have missed the point completely that you wanted a GLOBAL solution. ie an initial setting which will apply to ALL slides, without having to work on each individual slide to add masks etc Barry Agreed - this method is a non-starter if you have images of varying size. However, if all are the same, say 1920x1080, you can reduce them to 86% or whatever, in one click in Project Options, then add your 'watermark' mask (which could be your real matte effect) with another click, and hey presto, job done. Much easier than working through each and every slide in Objects and Animations, even if you do only have to Copy and Paste. Regards wideangle

Hi Gary If you are happy to stick with landscapes, then there is a quick global method to do what you want, without having to work on each slide. Make a png matte as davegee suggests, then use Project Options to add it as a watermark as follows: Click on Project Options -> Advanced -> Tick Show watermark -> Customise then add your png file with the following settings: Position Centred Size 100% Offset 0 Panning and zooming of your chosen slides will stay behind the matte. Regards wideangle

Hi yachtsman1 Yes it was ticked by default, but applying a slide style ignores that setting Regards wideangle.

Consider this scenario. I have 30 slides and each one is a separate short video clip. The video clips are all of different durations. I want to create a simple slide style which reduces the zoom setting slightly, creates a simple border then adds a shadow. Very quick and easy to do. However when I try to apply it to all my slides, it changes the slide duration of all the video clips to the same value, totally messing up my show. Wouldn't it be great to have a tickbox available when creating a slide style which said "Retain current duration of slide"? Meanwhile, has anyone got a suggestion of a workaround which doesn't involve going through each slide in turn and retyping its duration!!!!! Regards wideangle

Within PTE, if you click on Project Options, then click the Audio tab, there is a tickbox you can check to 'Convert tracks to MP3 for EXE' Would that have cured the problem? Regards wideangle