sperrinejr

Dom, This is a great idea. For myself, if I add a link I want to make sure it is "worthy" of being there. Maybe others feel the same? Give it time, it will catch on. Thanks for doing this. Bob

I have to agree with you, that is a bright blue. It does make it difficult to read the forums.

You can always hit the "prt scr" (print screen) key on your keyboard when an image is on screen. This will copy it to the Windows Clipboard. Then open up Paint and you can paste it there. Then you can save it in various formats in paint (gif, jpeg, etc). Then you can open the image in photo editing software. I tried this and with my monitor I get a resoultion of 96 px/in. You will have to crop the images unless the image takes up the whole screen. It's a tedious process, but it will work. The program Lin mentioned sounds like a better method, but I thought I would metion that this will work as well. Since you had this problem, I thought I might share an incident I had. Lightning hit very close to our house (in 2002). We have vinyl coated aluminum siding which makes a great conductor for electricity. Well, the bolt of lightning ended up going through our house and basically killed anything electronic in the house. All TV's, all computers, all circuit boards in appliances, etc. Luckily, I had backups of anything important on "zip" cartridges (remember those) and CD's so I didn't lose anything of real importance. But a word of wisdom, make sure you backup important files (multiple backups) and store them at different locations. Don't just rely on hard drives as they are mechanical and can fail. There are plenty of online companies where you can buy space on a server to backup files as well. Some of these services are free, but the upload abiltiy may be limited. It definitley gives you peace of mind. Good luck.

That is outstanding! I have a question, how did you time the music to the slides at the first part of the show? Was it a lot of constantly previewing the show to get it right, or is there a shorter method? Great timing of music and images.

I had Elements 4 and to be honest, barely scratched the surface with it. But, Adobe had an offer to upgrade to CS2 at a nice discount so I went for it. It was too good of a deal to pass up. I am happy that I did. I love the CS2 Bridge as well as CS2. I purchased some tutorials from Barry Beckham and am going through them. I would suggest either getting a good book and/or tutorial DVD's if you decide to go with CS2 (or Elements 5). It really helps unlock what you can do with the program. There is definitely a steep learning curve with these programs. But the power of what they can do is only limited by your creativity and knowledge of the program. If you are thinking of going to CS2 and you already own Elements 3, give Adobe a call and see if they have any deals going on. It's worth a try. Also, you can download a trial version of CS2 from Adobe which I believe is good for 30 days on their website.

Thanks Lin, I'll give it a try. Bob

Jeff, If I wanted to add the background image to each slide, would I do that in Photoshop or in PTE? Sorry if this is obvious, but I am at the beginning process of learning how to use Photoshop, take decent pictures and using PTE. It's a little daunting. I am using Bary Beckham's tutorial DVD's which have helped a lot with CS2. Thanks for all replies! Bob

I know this is back to basics for many people here, but I need some help. I created a slideshow with Beta 6. I have been trying to get a little more creative and want to use a different background then the standard black color around the photos when viewed on screen. I created a background in CS2 to fit the resolution of my monitor (1920 x 1200, yes it's big but I do Landscape Design on the computer and it really helps the eyes.) Now I am sure there are many ways to do this, but what is the best way to use this as my background? In PTE Beta 6, if I try and use my background by selecting "Tilled image" in the Screen Options, when I click OK it always reverts back to "Solid Color". In PTE 4.48, if I follow the same process my background shows up just fine, filling the screen around my photos. I hate to go back and remake my slideshow again in 4.48. Does this function work in beta 6? Another question, I want this background to show on a 4:3 PC monitor just as it does on my 16:10 monitor, meaning that the entire area around the photos is taken up with my background. I have not tried that yet as I would like to know how to accomplish this without the usual trial and error method I have been using. I have searched this many times but just have not found the answer. I have watched many tutorials on making backgrounds, but I have not come across one that shows how to incorporate them in a slideshow.

Have you tried the Subdreamer website? They should be able to point you in the right direction. Does that use pure HTML code to produce a website? I have used Frontpage 2003 but I know little about writing code.

Do most people select this option when making a slideshow? I'm no professional photographer, but I would think that those people who are would want to protect their photos? Just curious.

Try this (there was an extra period in above link): http://www.spinningjenny.com/traycolor.htm

In beta 6, does the option to not allow "Print Screen" work? I made a slideshow without it ticked. Then I selected it and made a new executable. But I am still able to use the Print Screen option. Am I doing something wrong? Does it have to be selected prior to making a slideshow?

Hi Al, Yes I see that members want to create videos on DVD as well as basic burning files to CD/DVD. I have used Nero, Roxio and Pinnacle Studio (my favorite). I find the "do it all" programs don't always do it all well. It's obviously personal choice because there are a lot of people satisfied with all the aformentioned programs. I like to use programs, like PTE, which do what they are supposed to do very well and don't get bloated with extras that are more flash than substance. As for the Little League Project I did have a somewhat finished version then I found this forum and all the creative ways to make a slideshow and that was good and bad. I did purchase Photoshop CS2, so now I am redoing the slideshow. It's easy to get lost in all the neat things that can be done with PTE. I just have to get the project finished and "get it out the door". It's been a great learning experience though that will surely continue. Sorry for getting off the topic.

If you just want to burn a DVD (No authoring), I use CopyToDVD all the time. Check it out here: http://www.vso-software.fr/products/copytodvd/copytodvd.php "CopyToDVD is a new generation DVD backup software tool to copy your music, games, movies, video, photos and data files. CopyToDVD provides you with a variety of ways to create CD(s) or DVD(s), such as integration to shell, user friendly frontend or FileDepot technology. With just a few clicks you can backup DVD movies, burn files, folders, pictures or photos, and music (MP3 Ogg Vorbis WMA Flac) to CD DVD. " They just updated the program to a new version. It's very easy to use and has always worked with no problems.

My name is Bob, 48 yrs old, married, I live in New Jersey and have two great kids. I recently purchased a Canon EOS Rebel XT (two lenses, Ef-S 17-85 and an EF 70-300). I have a lot to learn but I'm willing. Now that I have some nice digital photos I would like to make some slide shows with them. After using Google many times I downloaded 5 different trial programs and tried all of them, keep in mind I am very much a novice at this. I enjoy playing with computers and build my own, so I am somewhat technically capable of using the great technology that is out there. After finding this forum, it made the choice to use and learn how to use PTE pretty simple. The support here is great. I just finished coaching a Little League All Star team and would like to make a slide show for the kids (7 and 8 year olds) so they have something to remember the great time they had. 1. My digital photos are 3456 x 2304. I use Adobe Elements 4 and can use that to reduce their size. I have read trhough the topics in this forum and see that there is quite a debate on the "perfect" size. My problem is these photos are in a ratio of 1.5:1. If I convert them to say 1024 x 768, that distorts the photos due to the different ratio. How do I handle this? Is there a better program to convert digital photos? 2. I have 84 photos I would like to include in the slide show. The music I want to use is 3:50 long. If I sync the slide show to this music I realize this makes for quick transitions and quick viewing of photos. The one project I had the transitions about 0.32 seconds and the slides showed around 2.5 Seconds (round figures). I have never used a wave editor for sound. If I need to lengthen a song, can someone suggest a wave editor? My computer is a dual core AMD, so I have plenty of processing power. When I tried to run my project on my laptop......well I am sure you know what happened. It did not work. Everything was out of sync (I had reduced the photos to 1280 x 683, 150 dpi, max quality, jpeg format). Is it just impossible to run this from a CD? 3. I am having trouble understanding how to synchronize music to a slide show. I realize it can be done automatically, but in PTE version 4.48, I see there is the possibility to customize the synchronization. I just have not firured out how this works. When I used the auto sync, the music stopped about 3 seconds too soon. I was wondering if I can adjust this and how? A question for Al Robinson, how long did it take you to make the "PTE 101" tutorial? That has been a big help (as have all the other tutorials I have had a chance to look at). It must have taken many many hours. I have spent about 8 hours so far on this project and I still can't get it to run from a CD on all computers. That is a real problem. The last thing I want is to give one of the kids a CD and it does not work. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks