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Al and Lin, After your comments I waited a little longer, and it works like you suggested - after half the "music" time, the show proceeds to the next slide. My first problem in my original project (with 61 images and 3 sound files) was exactly this first (balcony) image. The transtion timing to the next slide just did not make sense. All the other slides work ok, so there must be something with this "balcony" slide. The timing for this particular slide does not follow the timeline, it is depending on the music length. Well, I can only hope that the next pte release will work better. Yes, I noticed her too... maybe she did not like my photo, and put a spell on it :-) Thanks for your comments.

Hi all, I just run into a problem with a pte project, and I wonder if there is a logical explanation to it or if it is a bug. I stripped off everything from my project except for the part that fails, reduced image sizes, created a template and attached it here as a zip file. For copyright reasons I replaced the soundtrack with a 5 minute silent mp3 track. So this test project contains only two slides and a music track. The problem is this : When I checkmark the "Play Background Music" on the Music Tab in Project Options, the second slide never turns up when I preview the show. The first slide will show forever. Removing the checkmark "solves" the problem, and both slides show as they should. I use V5.00 beta 8u. Any ideas ? /Ragnar test.pt.zip

Hello Max, The relationships you mention is a way of connecting different objects (in the Objects and Animation window) to each other. That is, different objects in the same slide. Suppose you do some zooming on an object which has a child object, then both will be zoomed. If they are not connected, only one object will be zoomed. If you already have a main object and you decide to add another one, this new object will be linked to the first as a child object if the first object was selected (highlighted) when you opened the second one. Hope this will help. Ragnar

It's always nice to have some different tricks in the bag, so thank you all for your suggestions. I have not used templates before, but now I feel like I have to check it out. Talking about good path and filename, and unique GUID ... I have opened a perfectly working .pte file in Notepad, and changed just these two lines for a specific slide : Picture=somepath\someimage ImageName=somepath\someimage As the image to be replaced was in the same directory as the new one, I simply changed the image name and let the path stay as it was. As the GUID was unique to begin with, it should be as unique after my changes. But ... It didn't work. I got error messages regarding several missing image files and also missing sound files. Perhaps it's not a must to do these kind of changes, but it would be nice to know how things works. Did I do something wrong (probably, but what) ? /Ragnar

Hi Al and Tom, Well it was a bit like I suspected - the GUID is a unique reference to the image name. And I suppose it is easier to use some of the workarounds mentioned instead of running special utility programs to change the .pte file. Thank you for your support ! Ragnar

Hi folks, I guess we all are watching the forum like alligators these days, with the hope of finding a new version and not far away the release of V5. At least I do. In the meantime, I woluld be greatful for some know-how regarding manually editing the .pte project file. Let's say that I open a .pte file in Notepad and locate the slide of interest. It may look like this : [slide103] ShowPic=1 Picture=D:\Documents and Settings\rk\My Documents\My Pictures\illustrationer\black.jpg CommentsCount=0 Sound=@ CurrentTime=15000 UsePersonal=0 object black:MainImage GUID={EFA2E594-CC18-4ECC-BD2D-24715AFC07BF} ImageName=D:\Documents and Settings\rk\My Documents\My Pictures\illustrationer\black.jpg object KeyPoint1:KeyPoint end end If I change the name of the picture or the path where it is stored, I just get error messages regarding several missing pictures and also missing sound files (!) when I open the file in PTE. (The above is just an example, if I needed to do such a change it would be easier done from within PTE). And does anybody know what the "GUID={EFA2E594-CC18-4ECC-BD2D-24715AFC07BF}" is ? Just curious ... Regards Ragnar

Hi John, I do not quite understand your first question, but the second : This is quite in order, because what you see is what will be produced if you make an exe file. Just selecting an object does not change its position in the stack. The top most object will cover the underlying objects (of course, you can change the position in the stack with ctrl-pageup or pagedown). Regards Ragnar

Stéphane, I really like your work... It's very creative, both in terms of content and technique. Also, very high quality and big sized images. The music also adds a lot to the message and experience. I hope your work will spread over the world, because it will attract lots of people to the "slideshow community". Hope to see more from you soon. Ragnar

Thank you Al, I have not played around with the rotation feature yet, but when I do I'll try to keep that in mind. There are quite a number of bells and whistles in PTE, and I must say that it is not easy to overcome the learning threshold for a beginner ... But having seen what can be done with PTE makes the effort worthwhile. Ragnar

Al and Thedome, Thank you for advice (I look forward to the future deccelerate/accelerate options). It's really impressing what a great knowledge one has access to via this forum... There is always a quick answer to any question BW Ragnar

Does anybody know what the "center" parameter is for, in the O & A window ? Can it do anything more than the "pan" function ? And - what are the blank fields for, under each of the pan, zoom and rotate functions ? Thanks Ragnar

Hello Lorenzo, Welcome to the forum. You can download the Beta version and try it out. Just beware that it is a Beta, and every feature is not enabled. Your old registration key should work, just do a new install. Ragnar

Thank you for your thoughts, LumenLux. I see what you mean, enjoyment is not always the correct word. I'm thinking of the "Oradour" slideshow by Tillman Kleinhans and Stuart Kingston. That one really had a great imression on me. I think that slideshows could be compared to music : If you can "develop" some kind of emotions in the audience, then there is "success"... It's like sending some kind of emotional message. As in any kind of art, there is no right or wrong. What is fantastic for one person might be without interest for another. Still, it can be interesting to share different preferences.

Hi Moritz, I'm just a PTE beginner, and I have much to learn before I am ready to upload anything. Still, it can be interesting to hear what other people think. I have no intention of criticizing, just curious on what you like (if you have thought about it).

Igor, I'm glad if I can contribute in some way to an already fantastic product. Thanks for listening. All, My idea was to remove the button only, not the time duration information. The time duration could be shown (always) for the sound files currently selected. The button itself is not needed.

Hi all, I have spent some time downloading tons of slideshows from Beechbrook etc, and while watching these I started to think about what it is that gives a slideshow that great impression. I would say that : #1 is an interesting theme, or "story". This is the most important "key". Very personal of course... #2 is beautiful images, in terms of both technical and artistical quality. Also #2 is the music/sound. And it adds a lot if there are sound effects included, not just music. #3 is big sized images (I'm no fan of framing). #4 is careful use of "PTE/Photoshop Magic". Here I would say that "less is more" ... Of course these are my very personal preferences. What are your thoughts ? So, which are my favourite slideshows ? Here they are (so far), (no particular order) : - "Kula" by Mitchell Silver (varying image quality, but a what a beatiful "content". And the music is just WONDERFUL). - "Oradour" by Tillman Kleinhans and Stuart Kingston (the history told here really has a great impact). - "Vosges" by Patrick Bantzhaff (SO VERY beatiful pictures, nice music, and just a small touch of "Photoshop magic" at the end). - "Jadore tecrire" by Stephane Bidouze (great pictures, and a masterpiece in "PTE and Photoshop Magic"). - "WeddingDreams" by Cindy Singleton (superior pictures, very tastefully treated). - "Jukebox" by Nickles (What a creative idea. I wish I had the full version). But I'm sure there are many more that are worth mentioning out there. Which ones are your favourites ? Ragnar

Hi all, I got some ideas on improvments that I would like to mention. If you like them perhaps they can be added to "the official wish list"... - In the Objects and Animation window, it would be nice if you could add one more parameter to play with : If you could set a "Blur" percentage (much like the Opacity feature), you could spare some Photoshop work and extra images if you want an image to become a diffuse background. - In the slidelist, if you "grab" a picture to change it's position outside the present visible area, an autoscroll feature would be great. - Under the Music tab in Project Options : The "Show Duration" button can be removed, and the duration for the selected file can always be displayed. Also, if you could select multiple files, you could see the total duration for these. - More built-in help : Pop-Up "ballon type" help texts when you park the mouse over the different buttons, sliders, check marks etc. I know there are many good tutorials to go through, but it's time consuming to find the right tutorial and find what you are looking for. A searchable MS Word file with text and images would be much quicker. Perhaps it could be integrated in PTE as a Help function. Well enough for now ... Ragnar

Hi Phil, Right you are (almost)... In the Transparency & Gamut preferences dialouge window the "Use video alpha (requires hardware support)" was checkmarked, and when I removed it the problem dissapeared ! Many thanks for the tip !!! Ragnar

Hi Lin, That's wonderful, now I have got something to experiment with. Thanks for sharing. I figured that there was some rotating pattern behind the "holes in the sky". I also took a look at the Beckham site, and beside the music I found a goldmine full of tips and tutorials etc. Do you have any idea what has happened to my Photoshop - when I created the first (the transparent) image I saw no checkerboard pattern, just a grey area. And when I pasted the blue image on the transparent one, there was still only one layer in the layers palette (now filled with blue). Although the rest worked ok with the eraser tool, and I got my transparent "holes", this is quite annoying when I do other PS work like soft erasing in a layer. I simply have no checkerboard pattern under my bottom layer... Any idea ... ? Thank you Ragnar

Hi Lin, I just enjoyed your presentation, and it looked really nice on my screen too. High resolution images can hold so much details, and this way of exploring them is so beautiful. Until now I have not done much more than experimenting with a couple of slideshows myself, so I'm a bit curious about the technique. I understand the way of having different layers with individual animations (like the beginning with the stars and the comet etc). But does that require some images to be pre-created with transparacy (and saved with "alfa-channel" stuff in .png or equal formats) ? I did see through the "holes" (stars) in the sky so I imagine that the sky itself must be an image with "built-in" transparency ? Ok, I understand if these things belong to the "Artists Secrets" category and of course I respect that ... What about music then .. I know I cannot ditribute a slideshow with copyrighted music. Does that include sharing slideshows with other enthusiasts in this forum ? And the music in "heavenlyart", is that free or copyright material ? Don't tell me you made the music too by yourself ... Best regards Ragnar

Nice to hear that Lin, it means that we all have something to look forward to. Thanks for advice. BR Ragnar

Hi all, Being new to PTE and this forum I must say that finally, it looks like I found the right product. I have worked with dia slideshows for some years in the past, but since I "upgraded" to digital photography I've been looking for the perfect slideshow tool. The best I found was Proshow and Producer from Photodex, but they perform too bad when you zoom or pan across large images, even on a high-performance machine. With PTE #5 beta, I get 100 % smoothe zoom's and pan's even with huge panorama images (11870 x 2307 pixels), so now I look forward to exploring my 8 Mp images in every detail. I will just have to learn how to use PTE ... just about to explore the tutorials (thanks to all of you authors). I have one suggestion (is this the right place for suggested improvements ?) and one question : - If I zoom an pan between different keypoints in an image, it would improve things a lot if there was a way to get a "softer" animation start/stop on these keypoints. That would mean a non-linear move, it should accelerate slowly from one keypoint and stop slowly at the next. Imagine an image with some people, and you want to "Ken Burns" from one person to the other with a pause at each one. - Under the "Show image", "Comment" and "Sound" boxes, there are three buttons : "P", "Customize Slide" and "Objects and Animation". What is the "P" button ? Regards Ragnar