Lin Evans

Bravo Jean-Cyprien - JPD aurait absolument aimé ceci! Thank you so much Jean-Cyprien - a masterful presentation and beautifully done! A very Merry Christmas to you and all the members of Diapositif - and a happy and wonderful New Year! Best regards, Lin

PC Christmas card MacIntosh Christmas card About 11 meg zipped exe and mac exe Lin

Thanks Fred, And welcome to the forums... I love cats! Some nice pictures and very representative of "catness" LOL. I think the one of kitty in the ceramic (I think) "cat" bowl should be called "Cat Man" HA! Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks! I added another show to the demo for both PC and Mac which uses the snow build-up technique I explain in my #23 tutorial on the "PTE Made Easy" PTE for Smarties series... I did it for a very special friend in Maine who I hope will become a PTE user soon. Lin

Loved it Davy! Brought a smile to my face!! Lin

Hi Brian, Since the animation is set to run for 60 seconds, just duplicate the slide four times (in the slide list) and use a simple fade transition on all. This way the animation will continue repeating until your song has ended. You can deal with the four seconds by either adding an additional slide to fade out at the end with no snow, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, Panos (of Panos FX) has a great new free Photoshop/Elements action which creates a light bulb which the user can place their own images inside. One of them is a cool "snow" bulb which creates a very nice "snow" effect. Anyone who wants to animate snow inside for the season can download my template here: http://www.learntoma...ulbanimated.zip Just unzip and extract - open the latest PTE and load the files. Then after creating your own image within the snow bulb, delete the file "goosebulb" from the bottom, highlight the frame, right click and add your own snowbulb creation from using Panos' action then move it to the bottom to the same position where "goosebulb" formerly resided. You can then manipulate the frame (size, position, 3D transform, etc.) as desired. Animation set to run 60 seconds. Quick sample done for a friend: http://www.learntoma...osfx/debbie.zip (10 meg download - zipped PC executable) And a slightly different approach in PC and MacIntosh done for a friend..... http://www.learntoma.../debbie/deb.zip (PC executable Version) about 8 meg http://www.learntoma...bbie/debmac.zip (Native MacIntosh executable) The above use my snow buildup technique explained in the tutorials here (PTE for Smarties #23) Lin

To add a bit more information to Xaver's comment: If you want to make the images and songs end at the same time, you can do so by clicking on the "Timeline" then when the blue waveform has completed loading, click on "Timed Points" then "Arrange All Points." Doing this will equally spread the slides along the music so that they end together. Each slide will stay on screen for an equal time duration. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Perhaps this is where your error is in thinking about this. Once a file is expanded in memory (assuming a compressed format such as jpg) then the number of pixels does indeed determine the file size in bytes, however, the frames vary in byte size greatly depending on content where compression is considered. For example, frames with lots of detail (such as a detailed landscape) and compressed to the same numeric value as a frame with minimal content variation (such as a solid color) will vary greatly in compressed size. So it's entirely possible that this may account for the greatly different file sizes you encounter. When you multiply even moderate differences in file size of individual frames times 29.97 for each second of display time, the differences can be dramatic. Remember, the video is also compressed so individual frame sizes (in terms of compressed bytes) greatly affects the overall file size. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mary, Because you are fading at 1.40 - the music is doing exactly as you have instructed which puts the fade in the middle of your slideshow. You can solve this issue two ways. First - don't set the music to repeat..... 1. Take the music into a sound editor such as Audacity and place an additional entire selection at the end of the first so that the song repeats as a single mp3. Then you can either add a bit of silence at the beginning or set your fade to a bit longer time to fill the difference. You could adjust the timing on one or more of your slides so that the fade-out and end of slideshow come together. 2. Just place the music selection in twice and fade the second selection at an appropriate time. Either way, you will have .22 to deal with which could be most effectively done by adjusting one or more slides to make the music coincide with the end of the show. Remember this: The fade out number is simply the number of seconds you want to allot to fading out. You must set the second song's duration (assuming you are using the selection twice rather than combing them into a single mp3) to the exact time it must play after the first song ends. So the "duration" determines the absolute end of your second music and the fade out determines the number of seconds "before" the end of the song when fade begins. Once you have it correct, it will be reflected by the blue music waveform. It is a very flexible system but you must be certain you have the "correct" song selected before applying duration and fade. Once you have done this a couple times, it will be very easy to understand..... Best regards, Lin

Sarolta, Click the link below and scroll to the bottom: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/order.htm Lin

I suspect that each person using PTE could point to one or another area where they, personally, would like to see something slightly different or changed. That's the nature of human/software interaction. From the perspective of a software developer (I spent many years doing just this) it's impossible to please everyone. The best one can do is to try to implement changes and upgrades to continually refine one's product and keep it at the forefront of products of its type. For PTE to achieve and hold the position of price/performance leader it's paramount that certain features be implemented. The one area which has held PTE back in past years is its inability to include video clips as an integrated part of the product. We, as users of PTE, must keep in mind that in order for us to continue to enjoy this fine product, the development team absolutely must sell product. The market for PTE is much wider than the AV enthusiast. The market includes not only those who use the product for competitive purposes, but also the much larger market of the casual slideshow maker who simply wants to create a pleasant show for family and friends, and whether all of us like the idea or not, video is extremely important in that scenario and video is here to stay. Even major dSLR camera makers realize this and have included video in a number of their professional level instruments. The bottom line is that from a business perspective, the time to include video capabilities is here and Wnsoft absolutely "must" respond to this now. As Igor has stated very plainly, development is an ongoing process and there are plans for continual improvements in the audio section as well as in the image quality and video. Right now - today - we can use the very fine audio capabilities of PTE and if they are not enough, we can always use freeware audio editors such as Audacity to achieve our goals. Might it be somewhat inconvenient? Of course. Are there areas where audio improvements will make PTE a much better product? Of course. But the bottom line is that today there is no viable work-around for video with PTE. There is no "magic" potion which the user can implement to include video in any integrated way into our slideshows. Yes, many who frequent this forum don't really care about video. On the other hand - that huge market out there for new customers demands video or they will simply go to the competition which has it. PTE is a unique product. It gives the financially challenged user (that includes many of us who are long time PTE enthusiasts) a product which can do 95% of what it would take many thousands of dollars, Euro's, etc., to achieve with high priced competitive products such as Wings. We should be eternally grateful to Igor and the development team for giving us ways to do things with ease, which are incredibly difficult to achieve with competitive products including with very expensive competitive products. Let's be patient and let Igor and Wnsoft employees do their jobs and do what's best for the company. In the end we all benefit and we all will eventually see continued benefits. Where else can you purchase a product of this type with a "free lifetime upgrade policy?" For that matter, there are few products of any type with this type of advantage. With what other slideshow product can your input as a user be seriously considered, usually implemented, and a product created which contains the very features which the user base asks for? In my experience; none. In my opinion, we should stop nit-picking and let the development team get on with the job of improving an already terrific product............ Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Yes, it's been a year of trials; but also a year in which I was fortunate to be able to visit with many friends and relatives and renew relationships. I definitely have mixed feelings about 2010..... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, wideangle, Thanks - it's good to be back after an 8,000 + mile, two month trip with my two dogs and dragging my little 23 foot travel trailer around the U.S. Unfortunately, I had a mini-stroke the day before yesterday and couldn't use my left arm or hand or speak. Fortunately, all the symptoms are gone now except a minor speech impediment and a bit of "drooling" on the left side of my mouth - have to keep wiping with my sleeve - LOL. Guess I'll have to start taking aspirin every day now to keep the blood thin. Not interested in taking the "rat poison" the doctors use - HA! Lin

Hi Laszlo, It works perfectly on all my XP systems, but I don't have other operating systems to test it with. Let's go over it step by step just to be certain: 1. Open the PTE file to copy from 2. Go to the Slide List from the Main view (not from Objects & Animations) 3. Highlight (select the slide to be copied) 4. Right click 5. From the drop down list, choose "Copy Slide" with left click from mouse 6. Click on "File" in upper left corner of task bar 7. Click on "Open" 8. Navigate to new show where you want to Paste 9. Put the mouse cursor at the position in the slide list where you want to paste the copied slide 9. Right click in the slide list and choose "Paste" from the drop down menu Save the changes..... On all my systems this will successfully paste the slide to the new PTE file. Perhaps with other operating systems there may be issues I'm not aware of..... Best regards, Lin

Hi Laszlo, You can copy a slide and all the associated animations, but not sound. Open the project to copy from and right click on the slide to be copied in the slide list. From the drop down menu choose "Copy Slide". Do not close this project but open the one to copy to and use the right click to "paste" to the slide list. The slide and any associated animations and timings will be copied to the new project. Thank "Hawk" for discovering and explaining this procedure... Lin

Hi - for JRR Just make them all children of a frame and size or move the frame as desired.... Lin

Hi Folks, Thanks to everyone who has offered their kind words and condolences. I really appreciate it and Sherry would be moved by the response if she were aware (who knows, perhaps she is!). My ex wife and life-long friend Judy, my daughter Mindy and other friends have talked me into opening a Facebook page and I posted a few pictures of Sherry there if any here frequent that site. I have decided to buy a little travel trailer (with air conditioning - our two dogs said they absolutely will not travel with me without it - LOL) and take a couple month and travel to both the west and east coast to visit old friends. I may or may not be able to log on depending on availability of the web, but will try to do so at every opportunity. We have a great network here on the PTE forum and it's one of my favorite places. Hopefully, I'll be on the east coast in Vermont for the changing of the season and be able to get some great images of the Fall colors. After returning to Colorado, I'll hopefully be back to trying to help new visitors understand PTE better. Again thanks for the incredible support and so long for now.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, You can certainly do this with PTE as Peter as illustrated and so kindly provided a template for. Actually, you don't want to use the flip transition at all, but rather take advantage of the "child" relationship and the fact that you can easily see either side of an image as if it were a transparency. If you begin with two images - let's call them image "A" and image "B" - then make image "B" a child of image "A", you can then use the 3D transform function to perform the "Flip" with. Go to Objects and Animations and choose the Animations tab. Select image "A" and click on 3D Parameters. Put a check beside "Show Front Side" and uncheck the other two choices. Next select image "B" and do likewise. Check "Show Front Side" and uncheck the other two choices. Now select Image "A" and use the timeline and keyframes to perform the flip by changing the Rotate X and Rotate Y parameters over time as desired. This will essentially allow you to see the front of both images as if you had pasted two prints back to back and any rotation or zoom or movement applied to Image "A" will pull image "B" along in the proper orientation. Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, Thanks to all for your kind words and thoughts. Sherry was cremated today and I know she is in a better place free of pain, suffering and worldly concerns now. Sherry's wishes were that I sprinkle her remains in the lagoon on Manihi Atoll in French Polynesia so I will probably take a small portion, just enough to sneak past Customs, and some year in the future when I can afford to make the trip, comply with her last request. She and I spent a blissful nine days there a few years ago and she fell in love with the tranquility and beauty of the area. Sherry and I have always agreed not to mourn death because death is inevitable, but rather to celebrate life and treasure our memories. I think that's why we love photography and slideshows. I will miss her terribly, but will not mourn her passing, but rather love and cherish our mutual memories and the great times we shared. In the end, that's all that anyone can take with them. Again, I thank all for the thoughts and comforting words and hopefully, I will be able to answer individually the many emails from our friends at PTE. Best wishes, Lin

To all our friends at Wnsoft and around the world - Thank You..... Sherry passed away at 10:45 am this morning... She would have loved the slideshow and I know from her eyes that she appreciated the beautiful card. She was a wonderful companion and the best wife anyone could ask for. We had 33 years of marriage and loved every year. Though the past seven years have been difficult, she always was upbeat and optimistic. She will be missed by all who knew and loved her but we can be thankful that she didn't linger in pain and is now surely in a better place. Lin

For whatever their reasoning, Youtube now supports 4K or 12 megapixel resolution video. Too bad they can't play our executables which already can do so in fine fashion. However, read all about it here: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-bigger-than-1080p-4k-video-comes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+youtube%2FPKJx+%28YouTube+Blog Lin

Hi Igor, Works perfectly! This is fantastic - now if you could just replace the current timeline audio waveform with this envelope so it would be possible to see the video preview simultaneous with using this envelope, the only remaining task would be to have independent waveform control over left and right channels and PTE would be miles ahead of the competition in audio. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head! It's all about money. I've always believed that Apple has been misguided from the top in terms of business acumen. Jobs does a great "job" of collecting and using the best technology available for the company, but has proven that he has little true skills in terms of guiding the company into achieving greater market share. I suppose when you have all the money you need, you can be somewhat arrogant, but this time I think the cards are stacked against him in terms of convincing the world that Flash is inferior. He may love HTML5, and it "may" be superior for some applications, but Flash is not sitting still and has a huge established base. His refusal to embrace it as a viable vehicle has angered a number of people, whom otherwise would have purchased the iPad and iPhone, but who now are turning toward alternatives which do not have the limitation of ignoring the most common method available for displaying active video on the web. It's a shame because he now has gone public with his doubts about BluRay and his opposition to allowing the Mac users to enjoy this really neat technology. I think he is under the impression that internet downloads via the television receiver will eventually win out over media distributed on disc but I'm not convinced that this will be the overwhelming choice except among the very affluent. Only in the large metropolitan areas of the U.S., for example, are fiber optic and DSL technology advanced enough to really support the super high speed interface required to allow downloads of the signal magnitudes necessary for true HD quality delivered in a timely fashion. The costs for these far exceed the cost for renting a DVD or BluRay at the local video store or for using Netflix, etc. Even if eventually the high speed fiber optic channels become available everywhere, unless the costs are diminished by magnitudes, the overwhelming choice of common folks will be Netflix or video rentals as opposed to direct paid downloads. Hopefully, Apple management will eventually come to their senses and realize that not everyone spends 30 minutes a day playing with their iPhone apps. Perhaps they are still only seeing the "trees" rather than the forests. Personally, I don't "want" to see advertising on my telephone and I don't spend any time playing with the phone. It's a young people's toy and ideal for those with excellent eyesight, but the population in the US and in many parts of the world is aging. I believe that the true revelation in cell telephone technology will come when manufacturers begin to realize that older users need larger letters and numbers and quickly tire of squinting at the relatively tiny print on miniature screens. Obviously, that's a bias based on my age demographic, but the numbers are increasing daily. Best regards, Lin My phone - This is why I like this little Samsung! BIG NUMBERS FOR OLD CODGERS, LOL

Hi Igor, I agree completely with your decision. The reasoning of people at Vimeo concerning "slideshow" programs making it "easier" for uploading images whose rights are not owned by the author of the slideshow is logical in some sense, but flawed in the sense that it is very easy to also upload videos not owned by the author. Modern video authoring software makes it exceedingly easy to cut and paste and manipulate video just as one can manipulate still images. The fact that they followed up with their message about allowing Wnsoft to use their API for Vimeo members who pay tends to make me suspicious of their motives. If PTE users want to upload to Vimeo, they can do it without that menu choice in PTE. I believe it's their loss, not ours and if they don't want to support slideshows that's certainly a valid business choice on their part but they should say so up front and not try to make it "conditional" on paying for their "Plus" service. I, for one, plan to withdraw my support for Vimeo and remove my slidshows from Vimeo. Best regards, Lin