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Thanks Lin and endevil I was afraid that it would not be possible to do. I think you understood my request but if I did not explain it well I have enclosed a print-screen which may explain better. This may be a useful function to introduce in a future version of PTE, any comments? I guess I will have to bite the bullet and do it the hard way as I don't want to change the timing relationship on the Keyframes. However I did learn something the "Scale Keyframes in objects (on time change)" within "Customize Slide" was a function I did not understand until now, thanks guys.

Can any of the O&A experts here please tell me if it is possible to insert a period of time, (for example 1 second), at a point in the O&A timeline between key-frames and also to have this change affect all objects equally? It appears that if 1 second is added to the slide it is always added at the end of the slide. I have 8 objects with many key-frame points on each, (at different time positions), and I wish to add some time between the key-frames at the same point on all objects. I fear it will be far too difficult a job to move each key-frame on every object.

Welcome to the world of PTE A-Vs and the user forum Noggs, you will find lots of friendly help and advice here. This forum is a great source for advice, guidance and ideas. The sense of community here helps make working with PTE more creative and pleasurable. While working on your AV project you can "file>save as" "my project X" where my project = your project name X = the current point of development eg. 1, 2, 3 etc. This gives you a PTE file that can be reloaded anytime and reworked also preserving your current working version. .pte is the default PTE project file extension. If you have this file type associated with PTE in Windows it should open PTE and load the project when you click on it. If you load PTE then use "file>open" it will show all .pte project files in the selected folder. Just save it as above and then start anything else. Hope this helps. I would suggest you now download Lin and Jeff's excellent "PTE USER GUIDE" PDF document, which you will find under the Tutorial section of the forum. It will answer all/most of your questions and save you hours. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7202

Photofanatic This is a problem I encountered sometime ago as a result of repartitioning my hard drive. A work-around that will let you recover the show I found is as follows-- 1/ Open the .pte file in PTE. Select a missing image in the slide/time line. The missing image file old path will be displayed in the preview window and the status line. (screen-print 1). 2/ Click on "Change Image File" at the top of the screen. This will open an explorer window. Locate where the missing image file now resides and select it. (hopefully the image name will still be the same which will make it easier to find). It will now be inserted into your pte project. 3/ Work through the project replacing each file this way. If you have one the sound file can be replaced by selecting "Project options" "Music" tab which will show the old path and filename. Delete it and then add the same file at its new location. 4/Once this is all done and the PTE project previews OK most important make a Template of it . "File > Templates > Create a template for this show" this will gather a copy of all the image/sound/pte files together and can be used for this show in the future if you have this problem again. Hope this gets you out of trouble.

And what is wrong with MTV? "You can't please all the people all the time". I don't think I've ever seen an AV with a room full of people where if they are all honest about their opinions not all will agree on liking the AV. That's life and long live the difference.

Mark Not sure if I had the latest version so downloaded and viewed it again. I have attached a screen print of the dissolve from horizontal to vertical image from your AV. On my screen, (set to 1280x960), as you can see the boundary of the first horizontal image is broken by the fade to the vertical image. I find this always brakes the mood of an AV by reminding me I am watching a series of images. The same thing happens when a series of horizontal, or vertical, images of different size are used. IMHO.

Mark Some wonderful skys, you certainly did show us "The Land of the Long White Cloud". Great images, well composed and exposed, set to very appropriate music. I enjoyed it a lot thanks for sharing. One small niggle I must agree with Maureen regarding the mixing of horizontal and vertical images unless the verticals are contained within the horizontal slide boundaries. There are many different techniques that can be used to do this and maybe if you decide to do a future update to the AV you could investigate some.

Igor Thank-you for the full explanation. While I understood the 2 year period for upgrades I did not understand the full method of operation for the DVD side of the PicturesToExe Deluxe version licence and given many of the comments on the forum I think most didn't. I think your chosen course is very reasonable and your desire to honour earlier comments to free upgrades to PTE very commendable. Allowing an out of date version of the DVD side to continue to operate on the corresponding version of PTE rather than stopping it working after 2 years is also generous. As always thanks for your work.

Lin & Dom Stunning, stunning, stunning! Thanks for the time and the work you have put in it must have been many hours and thanks also for the PTE templates. Now who is going to be the first to do the solar system?

Wonderful news for v5.8 Igor I knew you wouldn't let us down on the audio issue. There will be many happy users out there on hearing this Like Umberto I hope this means adjustable audio track/s in the timeline.

Pleasing to see people pushing the boundaries and using the tools Igor has provided us all with to the full. What will we be seeing when PTE v7.x is out. The mind boggles!! EDIT 18:10 Similar AV with different middle and audio------

Doug I had problems something like you with opening files with various applications, (CS3 being one), it does appear to be a Windows problem. Eventually someone told me about a small free tool call OpenExpert witch allows setting-up the relationships and importing applications to file types that XP seams not to permit. This may be of help to you, have a look here: http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html Good luck.

I too would like to know what level of compression "backup in zip" uses. If I look at a zip file created with this function in PTE some level of compression has been used. Perhaps Igor can give us an answer on this one.

Mark There has been many volumes written on the symbolism and psychology used in art over the centuries and this also applies to photography, all images that are art are much more than what meets the eye, even pretty pictures that work are full of symbolism and psychology, (colour theory is just one small example). Music also paints pictures in the mind and is full of themes, moods and symbolism, some with words and many more subtly with the sounds that build the whole work. To put these two together so they complement each other and make the whole greater than the sum of the parts, to me is the goal of the AV maker. Each is of equal importance and if only one is great the AV fails IMHO. This is why I would like to see the audio side of PTE improved to become more user friendly and intuitive with more precise audio adjustments allowed. Sorry everyone I'm back on my hobby-horse. Davy I think you have reached the goal I spoke of above with this and some other works you posted recently which I'm every impressed with, well done.

Wonderful Igor, you continue to delight me with your development of PTE. The text quality improvements I am particularly glad to see. (Just one thing missing). I like the idea of a Demo.exe to wet our appetite. Thanks for your work. Looking forward to testing.

Davy Excellent AV, I think one of your best, quite moving. Right music, length just right, sequence of fine images correct. You were lucky having access to them, did you do much to improve them? Also the final image of the poppys in colour a nice touch. The last surviving Australian veteran from the "Great War" passed away here in my home town a few months ago. Very timely.

Just ran a test of "Create Backup in Zip" using PTE v5.60 and it appears there is some compression of the files in the resulting ZIP file. In light of Brian's comments is this desirable?

Correct, you beat me to it Xaver. Dose anyone know if there is any compression used in the "Create Backup in Zip" function?

Just for you Barry.....as you are loving it so much........ I will repeat the comment I made earlier, we rely on the integrity of the judge/s. and add if you can't then get another one! Leonard Our club has been discussing the introduction of video competitions for sometime now and I think it will happen next year as we have a lot of members that produce digital images, AVs and video. The only concern is that AVs, (as we know them here), and video don't compete directly against each other. Barry Oh I so agree with you. Yesterday the Victoraan Armature Photography Society, VAS, (the affiliation or over-body of all clubs in the state of Vitoria), sent out their rules for AV competitions between clubs which most clubs will adopt as rules for their internal competitions also and I still haven't stopped the steam coming out of my ears. Minimum or no pan/zoom/rotate allowed. Sound and image start and end together. Minimal digital manipulation of the images. 1 entry / competition (even though there is more than one section) Submit in DVD format (not EXE ....) And so on and on. It is going to be interesting to see these "rules" pushed by entries in the future. I believe they want to preserve the old slide/tape style of show which was great in its day but the technology has moved on, (light years on).

Barry If I recall correctly you were using a software tool to produce artistic effects on images some time ago I think the show you made was "Artistry of Balloons" or similar. What was the software called? Are you still using it? Happy with it or found something better?

Thanks Peter some useful information in the suggested links. Anyone have any comments on how effective this tool has been for them?

We don't, we rely on the integrity of the judge/s. Also most AVs credit the producer/photographer and so on in the opening or closing titles..

Thanks for pointing that out Ed, on my old PC P4 2.27 GHz with 2048 Megabytes of memory everything runs like a snail when Auto-Painter is doing its magic. I will go and do something else for 5-10 minutes then return and see how it is progressing, (although it is mesmerising to watch it working up the painted image). Keeping this in mind I would still agree with Mary that it is well worth a look at least the demo version and then decide. Here is one of my first attempts with it.

Lin Thanks for the concise and very informative overview on sharpening, I always learn something from you explanations, I am testing Focus Magic which appears to be a powerful and useful tool. PS Not sure if you have updated your personal avatar or I am not very observant but I like the image. Maureen Your description on how you worked before using the raw files in Lightroom or CS4 is precisely the same as my current method of working in this area as I am still working in CS3. The ALT merge visable command to save the merged layer with all working layers in tact is an excellent way to preserve ones work in photoshop and I do this on all files I work on sharpening or otherwise. Malcolm Thanks for the link to 'The Light's Right' Professional Sharpening Toolkit. I have downloaded the scripts and I will give them a try. The site is a wealth of information particular the tutorials, well worth a look for anyone. Thanks everyone for your replies, my aim was to see what people were doing in this area and if tools had changed much from the days when I used FocalBlade, Sharpener Pro, Focus Magic and others.

Initially I hesitated to raise the perennial question on sharpening but then remembered my signature motto so here goes. I am curious to know what tools people are using and are happy with to sharpen an image? Or are you all happy with Photoshops unsharpen, high pass, low pass, and so on tools?