Lin Evans

Hi Freddy, From your description, it sounds as if you "may" be using a different computer (laptop) and that the font you chose for the show was not "resident" on the laptop. You didn't say which version of PTE you were using, but on some of the older versions, PTE used the fonts resident on the PC and in the case where the executable show was later shown using a computer where these fonts were not resident, Windows would choose a replacement font. With newer versions of PTE, the program doesn't require the font to be resident on the system being used. Once you burn a DVD, fonts are not being read from the system but instead whatever font was there when the DVD was burned will always be displayed because the images are not being created on the fly but instead stored as video frames. The question then becomes whether you are actually playing the burned DVD using the projector or playing the executable code from the hard disk? As long as the Brush Script appears when the actual DVD is played, it will "always" appear correctly no matter what equipment it is played on. The executable, however, if created with an older version of PTE, may not work correctly on a system not having the Brush Script font available. The solution, would be to take the original PTE file and open it on a system which has Brush Script and which also has the latest version of PTE resident. Create the exe file again and save the latest file which should then work on "any" PC whether or not the Brush Script font is resident. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jan, It's difficult to be certain, but it "sounds" like a resource issue on the computer. As an executable does this play smoothly all the way through? Which video card are you using and how much RAM do you have available? Is this crash on "playback" or while compiling the video? Try using Ctrl Alt Del to pull up the Task Manager. Click on the "Performance" tab and see what is happening when the "crash" happens..... just some suggestions... Best regards, Lin

Sure it can be done like that, but It's time consuming if you want to do some innovative things. What if you wanted a different color on each letter, you wanted six lines of text with four different fonts and you had 30 letters? Lots of work. Obviously, that wouldn't happen very often but being able to assign individual fonts and colors to words or letters could be very simple as it is in Photoshop or text editors without having multiple objects to keep track of. Another nice feature to have would be auto text wrap and spell check.... Best regards, Lin

A very useful feature for me, and something the competition can't do, would be to be able to have multiple fonts on a single text entry. For example, I create a text heading with one font and the following lines using a different font such as is possible in Photoshop or in text editors. Lin

Hi John, Just a question? Are you aware that you can select one or any number of slides and drag and drop them along the Slide List? The arrows were a redundant means of doing this. I'm not certain whether they will reappear or not in the final version, but as you may already know, you can do this with drag and drop. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Bet you a pint that if you use Stu's key copy program to retrieve the key from the old system and if PTE works on that old system, that it will work for you. (you can get the software from Stu's link above) Best regards, Lin

Hi Bob, Yes, Best regards, Lin

No, actually what you are missing is a bit of an understanding of "DVD" technology. DVD's are either PAL or NTSC resolution. If you want HD resolution, you must use a different technology. Bluray is one one way to get 1920x1080 resolution so you may want to burn your HD MP4 slideshows to Bluray but this will require a Bluray burner and appropriate software. Video Builder doesn't support burning Bluray. The "only" way I know to get HD resolution on a standard DVD media blank is to use software which can do this such as Nero, Toast, etc. You will still be greatly limited in the "capacity" of the media so 15 to 20 minutes or so is about all you can reliably expect... Read the following links for more in-depth information. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=705146 http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2007/DVDFormatsExplained.asp Best regards, Lin

Open the slideshow you wish to copy from and go to the slidelist. Right click on the slide you want to copy and choose "copy slide" - do not minimize or close this file. Next go to "File Open" and open the slideshow you want to copy to. Again right click on the slide list and "paste" the slide in the slide list. No need to "save" the first show if prompted. Doing this will copy the slide and any associated keyframe actions, objects as children, etc., but will not copy mp3 audio. For example you could copy an entire slideshow to another show, but you will need to insert the audio again. Lin

Barry, The video clip drop-in has not yet been incorporated for Mac as far as I know???? Lin

Well done - beautiful country and beautiful photos. I like the fact that you used a tiny slow zoom with just enough sharpness to give the water in many frames the illusion of motion due to shimmer - it looks realistic as a still video might have looked. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Did you link the correct video? The reason I asked is that there is no really good way to determine what the synchronization "should" be with a training video where there is no visible speaker to match the voice to. To determine synchronization accurately there needs to be visual and audio clues such as the mouth of a speaker to match to the audio. When you are just speaking off camera, about what is happening on camera there is no good way for an observer to calculate the degree of mis-synchronization. Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, The experiment you will want to try is to now take the executable file to a PC which does not have, and never has had PTE installed on it and see if it will play.... Best regards, Lin

Yes, there is a freeware version .... Best regards, Lin

Hello Hartmut, I can't tell you why these particular AVI files respond as they do, but the problem is not your computer because I have plenty of resources on my own system and they do the same (green rectangle). The work-around is to convert them to another format. I converted them via the freeware program (Video Pad Video Editor) to WMV format and they then work fine. I have uploaded the two zipped videos in wmv format for you. They are a good bit larger now in size, but they work fine in your project. Just replace the originals (I renamed the Alphorn one for simplicity) with the wmv versions and everything should work fine. By the way, very nice photos of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau and surrounding area! Link below: http://www.learntoma...mos/alphorn.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Possible bug since 6.5 or earlier..... See my post about obscuring icons when window is resized..... Thanks, Lin

Hi Peter, I suspect there is a bug which has been around since 6.5 at least. On earlier versions such as 6.5 the "waveform" icon was on the bottom right but has been moved in the new beta versions to above the waveform display. When you drag the screen to the left with the vertical bar, it eventually actually "obscures" several of the icons including the waveform on or off icon. It obscured icons in the earlier versions too, but not the waveform icon which was located in a different position. I don't think that the display bar "should" move with the vertical line but they should remain separate displays. Best regards, Lin

Beta 12 cured issue with WMV sound and video sync - Thank's Igor!! Lin

Hi, It's always been possible to minimize PTE. If you are working in the program, you minimize just like any other Windows software. If you create a slideshow and want to be able to minimize while the slideshow is running, you must create it in the Windowed Mode (Project Options, Screen, Mode). When created this way you will have the same minimize options as with other programs running in such a mode. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Sadly, there is not a way to do this. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Sound is still not in sync with video on WMV files - I'll email you a link to a wmv file to test..... Best regards, Lin

Dave, That's been my question all along.... "If we can already do it, why change to automate end of music at end of last slide at create time?" We can already do exactly what you suggest "without" adding a track of the same MP3 set to silent. All you need to do is click on "Timed Points" then on "Set End Last Skide at End of Music." Now add the scrips slide and it's done. No need to add an additional track of same music and make it silent. This discussion began when Peter asked why it wouldn't be feasible to perform the task of setting music and slides to end together at creation of show time. I said but what if you wanted silence on the last slide? You "can" do it as you suggest, but it's already possible without changing any existing feature and without using a silent MP3 ...... In other words, the only "reason" to use a silent mp3 would be if PTE were altered to automate setting last slide to end of music, etc., as Peter was asking about..... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, I now see what you are getting at - thanks! That would work I think, and not add any additional resource load. It is, however a bit convoluted in my view, when as is, you can just use existing features to do it without adding the same mp3 to another track. Best regards, Lin

Hi Stu, I'm not certain whether it works yet as intended, but in order to get the timings to work as they do in 6.5, you must select all points then "set time of points" to the slide duration. After doing this, things are as in 6.5, but just clicking on the "hold points" doesn't achieve that, at least not on my system. Best regards, Lin

Hi Paul, Thanks for the offer to proof read - if we do this, that would be a big help! Best regards, Lin