Lin Evans

Thanks Paul, I changed the paint brush a bit and uploaded again - it's a little more "realistic" now... Best regards, Lin

Thanks Charlie! It was a fun project which I did for an old friend... Best regards, Lin

Thanks Colin, It was fun trying to get creative, even if it's not really in my blood - LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, I'll try to do that some time this week. It's actually pretty simple - just insert the clip in the slide where you want it to start then set it as "Master." Copy and paste (use Ctrl V) to subsequent slides as many times as you intend to have slides. If they are not already marked as "Linked" do so (they probably will automatically link) then add your slides and adjust them and the video for size via Objects and animations. Divide the video time in seconds (assuming you want the entire video) by the total number of slides and use this value for each slide via (Customize this slide). Don't try to set transitions except fades or the video "and" the slide will perform the transition together. When you set either the video on each slide or the still to the increment of time of video time divided by number of slides, the other will automatically pick up this time. It's only necessary to set "either' the video "or" the stills. You can fade in or fade out the stills with opacity. You can flip them with 3D transform, pan them, zoom them or rotate them. Just don't apply transitions other than "quick no transition" or "fade in fade out" or the video will also do the same. That's about all there is to it. You can also put borders around the video or slides, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Sheila, Entertaining, informative and educational !! Very nice! Best regards, Lin

It just takes a few seconds - use CTRL V and you can paste to 150 slides in a couple seconds.... Best regards, Lin

Just playing with ideas. O.K., I'm not creative so no promises - LOL... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/demos/almostlover.zip (about 14 meg) Lin

Hi John, Historically, one of the biggest "mistakes" a company can make is to mess with recognized branding. It causes confusion in the market and serves no practical purpose. Rarely, has name changing of an established product resulted in success. PTE has been around and recognized world-wide by its name for nearly a decade. My opinion is also - "if it's not broke; don't fix it." All the hoopla about dangers in executable file format are primarily the construct of the anti-virus folks. PTE has, to date, "never" had a single authenticated case of producing a trojan, virus or any other kind of malware infection. Executable file format is not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. Your operating system is resplendent with .com and .exe format files - it's the way we make computers work. It's far easier for hackers to infect the operating system with its many thousands of exe files by mimicking one or more than to bother with a few products which create executable code and are used by only a tiny fraction of the huge market for operating systems. It's as easy to write malware for video files as it is for executable code if you know what you're doing. Folks who use MacIntosh systems frequently say that they do so because of their "immunity" from malware. This, of course, is a false security. It's as easy to write destructive code for the Mac as it is for a PC, but those who get their kicks from creating virus and trojan code have little incentive to do so for Apple systems which have less than a 10% market share. The bottom line is that PTE has a very good reputation and the market share is growing steadily. Why risk that momentum or a branding change which would then become yet another of the hundreds (do a Google search) of relatively unknown presentation slideshow products trying to establish themselves in a crowded software arena? Best regards, Lin

Hi Patrick, Nice! Like being there. Looks like you and Catherine had a great time on holiday. One thing you might consider is getting one of the freeware video editors which has anti-shake filtering. They greatly reduce the "bumps" caused by the road when filming through the windshield. I like the music - it was very well suited for the presentation. Best regards, Lin

Hi Paul, Had me rolling on the floor!! Good one!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, I liked that - a lot! Both the background music and the images are peaceful and soothing. Something about symmetry is just "right" and leaves the viewer in a relaxed and peaceful place. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, I'll make a little demo today and post it to clarify my question. It concerns unequal time allotted to still images with video running in background. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, I noticed that, but does it pick up the individual display times for slides "if:" equal time is not allotted to each slide? For example, if slide one is to run for 20 seconds, slide two for 7.5 second, slide three for 11 seconds, etc.? In such a case is it still not necessary to adjust individual parameters? Thanks for the clarification, Best regards, Lin

O.K. - not intended as a work of "art" or even an interesting slideshow - just done to demonstrate the ease of using a video in the background with still images in the foreground. Essentially, you set the video on slide one to the master and copy and paste it as many times as you have still slides. Each of the secondary videos is set as "linked". Then you determine the run time for the video in seconds (assuming you want to use it all) and divide by the number of still slides to get the time to set each video and each still slide. This means you "change" the run time of the video on each slide to this "portion" of the total time that the individual still slide will occupy. You can manipulate the still slides just as you would in any slide show with opacity, 3D transforms, rotation, PZR effects, etc. I just threw in a few assorted opacity and 3D transforms for examples. It may take you a little time to do the calculations but the possibilities are very great. Though I didn't use still slides as the background with a running video it is actually easier to do that way. Just a sample folks - not a "production"..... http://www.learntoma...kgrounddemo.zip (about 23 meg) Best regards, Lin

The new video linking works great - just some observations to go along with the instructions..... 1, First - you can have it both ways - you can have still images rotating in the background while playing the video, 2, or you can have video for a background while rotating (sequencing) images. It's extremely "easy" to do number 1. Just place your image in a normal way, add the video to the first image or where ever you want the video to begin, copy and paste it to each slide then go to the properties tabe in Objects and Animations and set the video on the first slide to "Master Video Track" and make sure that the remainder of the pasted videos are set to "link" to the master. The video will then run continuously across the slideshow as the slides change in the background. To set it so that the video runs continuously in the background while the slides change, you repeat the process as above but of course reverse the order so that the video lies on the first layer with slides reduced in size. The first occurrence of the video should be set to "Master Video Track" and subsequent videos to "Link". Now here comes the "difference:" You must set the timing for each video on the slides to correspond to the slide duration. Without doing this, the first slide will simply run the video until it ends! Have fun!! Lin

Hi Brian, He purchased audio files from Apple and they came in m4a format which PTE doesn't recognize yet. He found a free utility which successfully converts these to mp3 for PTE. Best regards, Lin

Hi, I didn't say it was "free," I just offered it as a possible solution for conversion and as an explanation of the issue you were facing. As of yet, PTE doesn't support .m4a files so at least for now they will need to be converted to a format PTE accepts. You might Google for a free m4a to mp3 converter.... I found this one in about 10 seconds - whether it is any good or not I can't say because I don't use m4a format music myself. I'm sure if you use your browser's search engine you will find several converters which are "free." The issue with any freeware is that it may or may not be bug free and support may be minimal. http://www.maniactools.com/soft/m4a-to-mp3-converter/index.shtml I hope you find a satisfactory solution.... Best regards, Lin

The issue comes about because of the questionable use of using MP4 as a replacement extension for m4a which is the "audio" format. Just changing the extension will not make the files compatible with players which do not recognize that format which is an Apple thing. Here's a link for an explanation and a converter which can convert m4a (or mp4 which is being used only for audio) to mp3 which is compatible with PTE: http://www.coolutils.com/Formats/MP4 Best regards, Lin

Perhaps that's because mp4 is a video format? If you want to play sound files, then you should use a sound format such as mp3. Video files are recognized in Version 7 which is still in Beta test version. Right now, the latest release is Version 7 Beta 6. Though video files, of course, may have sound, they will not play in versions of PTE earlier than 7.0. You can "create" MP4 videos with earlier versions, but you can't "insert" these videos as "slides" or as "music" because these earlier version of PTE do not support video. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Rick! I agree - this is definitely my favorite of his many great recordings. It's not well known except among his fans, but it should be as should be the history behind it..... Best regards, Lin

Thanks Ken! LOL - I'll have to try those on - HA! Best regards, Lin

Thanks Colin! My eagle gets around, doesn't she? Best regards, Lin

Thank you Paul! He sang this one from his heart... Best regards, Lin

Thanks Charlie, It was a fun little project... Best regards, Lin

Thanks Eric! I tried to keep it simple, like the folks it was about... Best regards, Lin