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Hi Sharon welcome back, glad you haven't been put off by the furore kicked up by Leonard. Anyway, you may class yourself as a 'total beginner' but you have already hit on one of the key things that we should all bear in mind - that we make sequences to either move ourselves or others. AV is a powerful media for providing education, enjoyment, sharing,... all manner of emotions and pte is the perfect tool for making it all happen. A good AV should always carry some feeling or message with it even if it is just a holiday documentary - the audience will either want to go there as well because the place looks so inviting, or they may decide never to go there because it looks so awful. In either case the sequence will have worked. The version I think you should start with is v4.48 downloadable from the front main page of the forum. The BETA version everyone is talking about is version 5 which is still under development and has only been released via the forum for others to test and request enhancements to. We are all lucky that we have such understanding developers (Igor and his team) working on it for us. Version 4.48 is in itself a complete product allowing you to make shows of varying complexity with numerous different effects. The key difference between that and v5 (Beta) is that v5 introduces animation effects using image layers and to be honest you probably don't need to worry about these at this stage. Look forward to more questions and seeing your work.

Hi foto, Which version are you using? It may well be that this functionality is not yet fully active within beta5.

Hi Al, I second your idea of being able to stitch pte's together, what a good idea!

Hello Suzy (again) and thanks Lin for saving me the trouble of typing up a reply such as yours (you are obviously a far better and faster typist then I am). The only thing I would add for Suzy is that when you are on the objects and animation screen (remember we are talking v5 here) there is a percent sign at the top. This adjusts how much of the image is visible on the screen. If you set this to say 25% then the image area and the green rectangle Lin refers to will shrink into the middle of the screen. This then lets you drag the animated object 'off screen' so that you can start and/or end your balloon flight outside the normal viewing area. I hope this is making sense - I'm sure it will do if you try it. Best of luck

Hi Suzy, I use layers a great deal in photoshop and save the images as a psd file in order to keep the layers preserved so that if I need to make future changes I can open the PSD file and there they are. However, when saving images to use in PTE they have to be saved as JPG's (this compresses the visible layers within photoshop into a single 'flat' image), i.e. you can no longer alter the layer elements that made up that image once it has been saved as a jpeg - hence the reason for saving as both file types. Using layers in photoshop is a powerful tool once you realise their potential for allowing you to alter images simply by switching different layers on/off when saving them to jpeg format. If you want to use an image with a transparent background then you have to save the layer from your PSD file as a PNG file format. This only applies if you are using the new PTEv5 (beta test version) however and is therefore probably not relevant to you at the moment as I hope being a newcomer to PTE that you are learning the ropes with version 4.48 first. Best of luck,

Option 1 sounds like the most logical and therefore the best approach. Thank you for asking the question, rather than assuming what we want, and thank you and the team for your continued hard work on making PTE even better.

Leonard, It rather sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder about documentation and I thoroughly endorse the views from Ron, Al, Steve, and Peter. There is a wealth of knowledge and helpful people in this forum - In fact I don't know of a better forum and nor do I know of a better product at this cost and I certainly wouldn't think of alienating or insulting anyone. I started learning PTE 2 1/2 years ago as a complete novice and, yes, it was a bit of a struggle at first but looking back I can say it has been relatively easy to pick up and in some respects the 'get your hands dirty and just try it' approach has been far more fun and educational than reading a book. In any case to produce suitable documentation would probably be equal in effort as creating the software and I for one would rather Igor's time was spent refining his already excellent product than writing about it - and then translating it into umpteen different languages (a measure of the popularity of this product). When I first saw PTE it was at a public show given by a 'local' AV group. I joined the club even though I have to travel 15 miles to get to it, but they have been extremely helpful along my learning curve and I now help to run some of their workshop days - I'm sure there must be one in the Bath area you could join. Sharon - I hope you aren't put off by any of Leonard's comments and that you will ask as many questions as you need, there will always be someone willing to answer them.

You could always apply the logo to each image using photoshop by creating an action. If you include in the action a command to save the image as a new file then you will preserve the original without the logo and have a logo version to use in your sequence. In this way the logo will appear in the show however you choose to save or export it. I know there are some functions not yet enabled in the beta version but sometimes it is worth looking outside PTE for the solution. Sorry, Tom, I didn't quite understande your reference to 'png alpha' and 'bmp alpha' support.

Hi John and welcome to the forum, Which part of Lancashire are you from? You have at least 2 very good AV groups nearby - West Lancs AV Group (meets in Ainsdale nr Southport) and Wilmslow Guild AV Group (meets, unsurprisingly in Wilmslow). These are specific to AV and both hold practical nights and have guest speakers etc so may be worthwhile joining one if you can. Otherwise most camera clubs nowadays have gone digital so it may be worth looking out for your nearest club, as they all tend to have a wealth of knowledge you can tap into....and by all means continue to use the forum but I find seeing a practical demo/answer is sometimes better than reading it on a message board.

Hello 'mightec' and welcome to the forum. I have not actually used proshow to make any sequences but I have had a look at the program and I have to say that PTE seems, to me at least, to be more user friendly and more intuitive to learn and use. I can also tell you that I have entered and attended many AV comps and it is noticeable which sequences have been produced in PTE and those made with proshow. Yes, there are more types of fade available in proshow (but how many do you need?) and yes it already has motion options (but you don't necessarily need motion to make a good AV), but the thing that sells PTE for me is the image quality and the quality of the fades - it's superb. Like other replies I would recommend v4.48 to begin with, then look out for the finished v5. Good luck,

Hi Sharon, Welcome to the forum and to PTE. I agree that the Doms demo of a "flipping book" is very good but it is not what I would regard as being within a beginner's capability to produce if they haven't already got some grounding in PTE. The Doms demo has been produced using the latest BETA test version of the software and contains some complex effects using masks and shadows etc. I think you need to begin with something a little more basic - but something that can still look impressive and something that I am sure your sister-in-law would be equally pleased with, without you having to jump in at the deep end. My advice would be to download version 4.48 and learn the program first before jumping in with v5 which is still being tested and as such doesn't have all the functionality switched on. PTE is fairly easy to pick up and there are plenty of tutorials and advice available from the forum. You will also need some knowledge of other software as well, such as photoshop and either audacity or audition for the music, which you haven't mentioned. You do not need to go to the expense of Proshow Producer - you can achieve all you want in PTE. Look at some of the shows other peple have produced and you will soon appreciate the power of PTE - it's only limitation is your imagination. Good luck,

Very effective. Can I ask you for more details (album, artist, etc) of the music used?

Hi Dom, When I try to open any of the freetools I get the following message: "Sorry, but only administrators can view files and sub category in this category.". How do I access them?

I think Igor himself would probably appreciate a pause/break! It seems to me that he is constantly being bombarded with requests for changes, fixes, and enhancements, sometimes just to suit an individuals requirements. Should we not be a bit more patient with him - allow him to fix any current/major bugs, and give him the chance to produce a stable version before hitting him with change requests?

Once I have planned a sequence and know which images I am going to apply Objects & Animation effects on top of, I just simply change the filename of those images so that they start with "OA-". That way when I look at the list of images in the slide list/timeline panel they are readily identifiable. Simple but effective.

Hi Al (and Lin) Thanks for the tips regarding dvd coasters - I haven't really used DVD's that much before so I just bought the first pack I could without thinking too much about the RW aspects. I'll check which options etc I had set and have another go later to see if I resolve the cropping issue. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way, Lin, I loved your Colorado snow pictures - looks fabulous although probably a bit of a nuisance for you to shovel it out of the way. I live on the coast just north of Liverpool, UK, and whereas we used to get a lot of snow 20 years ago it is now rare that we get more than an inch, if at all. Probably a sure sign of global warming? So in some respects I envy you. Bye for now,

Thanks Al, By the way, I wasn't having a go at Ken - it's just that I had looked at the v4 info as suggested but I felt it didn't really relate to the new style v5 and I found your reply more in line with what I needed to know. Sometimes it is just a case of having the courage to check various options and click a few buttons - at the risk of making a few more coasters or cycle reflectors! Anyway, I did actually manage to burn a show to DVD (TDK DVD-R) last night but... when I play it on the TV the picture seems to be cropped particularly at the top & bottom. The TV is widescreen but I burned the DVD at 4:3 ratio - could this explain the cropping? Also, I appear to have lost some quality (sharpness) from the images which were all 1024x768. Any ideas?

Many thanks Ken but Al's reply was more the sort of answer I was after. By the way Al, you probably don't remember me but we had a good chat in the bar at Cirencester. Hope you are keeping well, best regards, K.

Happy New Year to everyone - especially Igor and his team. I have been reading through many of the interesting and varied topics and continue to be amazed by the wealth of knowledge and experience there is regarding the latest beta versions of PTE. I would like to try burning a short sequence to DVD but am unsure as to the correct sequence (and which options) I should follow. Forgive me if I have missed this information on another topic elsewhere but can anyone produce an idiots guide to writing a pte show to a dvd disk for me please? Thanks, Keith

Hi, firstly can I add to the many comments congratulating Igor and his team for their rate of progress on v5. I have been experimenting with v5 for some weeks now and thought I would have a go at burning a dvd using this latest release. At first it all seemed to go well. The interface was intuitive and I didn't see a single error message. However when I played the dvd (dvd-rw) on my pc the images froze about one quarter of the way through the sequence but the soundtrack carried on. The sequence is only a couple of minutes duration and contains a lot of object and animation effects. I simply used the create dvd button and selected the pte file to burn to dvd - should I have created an avi version first?

Hi, First of can I say how impressed I am with 5b5. I have just started to experiment with it and have managed to make a short sequence with an object (in this case a kite) flying across the screen and I am really pleased with it. Haven't quite worked out how to control two objects yet but I look forward to working it out... However, I would like to ask if it is possible for the timeline to indicate which images have objects associated with them and is there a way for the animation to be seen in preview panel when you press 'Play' on the Timeline window? Also, with regards to other topics I have read (first raised by Peter Coles) regarding the music repeating itself at the end I have also noticed this. If you look at the very last slide in the sequence there is now a thin line and an "End of the Last slide" label attached to it. If this thin line falls after the end of sound track then the music starts again. To overcome this I have added a couple of seconds of silence to the end of the soundtrack. The thin line appears to be connected with the "Timed interval for new slides" setting on the Main panel in Project Options. Keith

First of I would like to say Hi to everyone in the PTE forum. I have just joined as a new member but I have been using PTE for quite a while. Secondly, I have just taken a look at PTE 5 Beta2 and have a couple of observations which may seem trivial to some or have been overlooked by others...who, from reading the forum messages, seem to be concentrating on the new pan and zoom effects featured in this version. My (simple) questions are: a) Why is the list of transition effects listed under Project Options different from those listed when you open up an image from the Timeline. (Particularly noticeable if you look at the Advanced Hour Hand options)? I've tried looking at the Zoom and Pan transitions and whilst I did manage to create a zooming rotation type of effect, this was more by luck than actually understanding what I was doing! Also I don't seem to be able to enter anything in the option boxes down the right hand side of the O/A screen. Will the final version be released with some instructions or Help screens for these new features? (An Idiots Guide would suit me!) c) Looking at existing PTE functionality, if I select any type of transition other than Fade (e.g. Page left-right) then it seems to default to a 'Circle from centre' transition. Is this a known bug with V5B2? K