Lin Evans

Hi Nick, PTE has had the ability to output a normal AVI file for many iterations - since way back in early 5 series times assuming you have Video Builder which you must have or you couldn't create the native Mac output. What you need to do is click on Create, then choose AVI Video File then select "Create Custom AVI Video File." A box will pop up which allows you to choose the Audio and Video Codec from whatever you have available on your computer system (PTE just reads those available). Choose something in the way of a video Codec such as MPEG II and PTE will create a stand-alone AVI in the dimensions (resolution) you choose. Maybe try this with a very small slideshows with two or three slides until you get something which works well then apply those parameters to the real show. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, That's not the way to do it. Just type in the information you want in the order you want it to appear as text. You can choose to scroll upward or downward so place the text accordingly. Just right click on the mouse from the Objects and Animations screen and from the drop-down menu choose "Text." You will end up with a "block of text" which you can move like any object any where on or off the screen. Let's say you want to scroll the text from the top to the bottom and off the screen. At the first keyframe just drag the text block object up and off of the viewable area of the screen. In Objects and Animations, if you can't see the area beyond the visible portion of the screen, click on the default "Auto" (next to the Close button) and choose something like 10%. You can then simply drag your text block with the first keyframe highlighted up and off the screen. Create another keyframe further along the timeline and drag the text to a position "below" the viewable area. The text will then scroll from top to bottom during the time between keyframes. To make it scroll more slowly, increase the time between keyframes. You will need to provide sufficient time on the display time for your slide to handle the scroll, or better yet create a blank slide and set the display time as long as needed for a decent rate of scroll. I would suggest going to the Tutorials section of the forum and downloading and watching my #15 AVI on basic text handling. If you haven't watched these, it might not hurt to download and watch them all (PTE Made Easy - PTE for Smarties). There are over twenty AVI tutorials in this section. Here's a sample for you to look at. Open this with version 6.5 beta 3 and pay particular attention to the Objects and Animations screen..... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/scrolltext.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Nick, Perhaps one of our users who has both PC and MacIntosh will be better able to answer your question, but since PTE can output Native MacIntosh executable code (is this what you meant by using Quicktime to run the h.264?) perhaps that would be the ideal way to start. In 6.0 through the current 6.5 beta 3, you can export to native Mac format. Not having a Mac myself, I don't know exactly what this entails but if you haven't tried it that may "convert" to something amenable to Final Cut Express. h.264 files output by PTE convert well to AVCHD DVD format, but h.264 itself has apparently a number of slightly differing iterations. It's difficult to know exactly why PTE output isn't being accepted by Final Cut Pro. You "could," of course, output to an AVI at 1920x1080 resolution and that would most likely be amenable to your software. I can't think of any valid reason why the output quality would be any less than an mp4 h.264 as long as you use a high enough frame rate and bitrate. Hopefully, one of our Mac specialists can jump in here and provide some more input.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Brian, Thanks!! Those are very nice intros and "outros" and very well done. With the new fade, etc., available with PTE's latest beta these will greatly add to the versatility for slideshow openings, etc., Good job! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ed, Then that's what you should use! Good luck with your projects and support! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ed, Lots of slideshow software products mix video and still pictures. Long before there was the first Photodex product (Proshow) and way before Proshow Gold and Producer existed there were several good products which allowed drop-in video clips. But "none" of these products and that includes Proshow Gold and Proshow Producer can output the same "quality" of imagery as PTE. Having used nearly all these various products for many years including Wings Platinum, in my opinion and even as it is today, PTE is "still" the best for the Audio Visual Producer unless you want to spend thousands of dollars for the ultimate version of Wings. Even then things are not always all that rosy. PTE offers features which absolutely "none" of the inexpensive products (including Producer) have. It's possible to do things easily with PTE which simply can't be done with Gold, Producer, MemoriesOnTV Pro, MediaShow, etc. Sound versatility has not been one of the strengths "yet" with PTE, but the developers are working on this and have made huge strides. What is it that "you" believe they are not doing? In this beta we "have" multiple sound sources - more audio versatility than either Proshow Gold or Proshow Producer with the exception of a visible waveform. The developers have stated that they are not finished with what they have planned for audio so "why," at beta level 2, are there so many complaints?? PTE - Left in the dust??? Hardly. Try to output a slideshow for a MacIntosh with Producer or Gold? How did that work out for you? Try to put your show on multiple monitors simultaneously. How did that work out? Try to do simple 3D Transforms with Producer or Gold ... even try to rotate to easily move the center of rotation with Producer to get that special effect you want..... you get the picture. PTE is the closest to being "everything to everybody" of the products of its type. We all have different approaches to creating AV shows. Some are more interested in the animation possibilities and some are more interested in the audio possibilities. With the advent of dSLR's which can also do HD video, it "may" become an important feature for the future, but having worked for years with products having the ability to mix video and still photos, I can assure you that it's not nearly as useful as might be imagined. Wait until your slideshows are so big that it takes "hours" to upload them because of video clip sizes and the "importance" might be less intriguing than you imagine at present. PTE is a work in process. There "will" be video clip drop in and there "will" be audio waveforms in the future. There will also be a full blown MacIntosh version and many other possibilities which only the developers are privy to. Have patience. No one is "being left in the dust." I'm not seeing AV professionals rushing out and buying Photodex products to replace PTE. I am seeing a number of former Photodex users buying PTE to replace or augument Producer and Gold. Let the developers work at a pace which allows them to keep PTE the most "bug free" and useful product of its type which allows us to output the very finest image quality. I believe that the developers of PTE have gone above and beyond to cater to multiple whims from multiple inputs of users with disparate ideas of what constitutes a superior product. If we want to continue to be allowed to give input then we need to back off a bit and let them work. Have a bit of patience or use a different product which better suits your needs. PTE works fine for me. If I absolutely must drop in a video clip, then I'll use my Sony Vegas Suite, Premiere Pro or one of my many other products which allow this. If I can't do what I want with audio in PTE, I'll use Wings Platinum; but I have yet to find an audio requirement for any of my shows which I can't easily do with PTE and Audacity. Now I don't even need Audacity. Will I enjoy having an audio waveform for each track to use simultaneously? Of course. Can I live without it until PTE's developers have the feature ready? Of course.... Best regards, Lin

Hi, Many email hosts will automatically reject a file with the .exe extension. My suggestion would be to use your favorite "zip" utility to zip the PTE executable slideshow so that automated rejection software will not affect your emails. The recipient would then simply "unzip" the attachment and everything would then be normal. Certain anti-virus/anti-threat software has problems with executable code of various types. Unfortunately Norton has been one of those which consistently and in a reoccurring manner find false positives when looking at perfectly sound and virus free PTE executable code. Specific is the Norton 2010 SONAR module which has been very obnoxious in this respect. Symantec Corporation has been notified on numerous occasions and they simply will not "fix" their defective product. I personally have left telephone messages for Symantec's Chief Technology Officer, Mark Bregman and he has has subordinates call me back. This issue has been carefully explained and for a brief time the software ignored PTE executables, then the problems began all over. Personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone using this product because of the myriad false positives associated with the 2010 SONAR module. They have "work-around's" which involve providing a specific file name or folder to be "excluded" from testing, but this is really only a "solution" for application code and not a solution for products which "create" executable output. In their zeal to protect the user from virus and trojan threats, they have improperly identified thousands of perfectly good executable files as "threats" and have even caused members of this forum to loose data. BAD SYMANTEC!! very BAD. Other anti-virus companies such as Kapersky, AVG, etc., have been very cooperative and have "corrected" their software but Symantec apparently is just too big and too important to worry about what they are doing to thousands of photographers and AV people around the world. Personally, I'm very "unimpressed" with their corporate policy on this. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Excellent use of sound to convey the drama, and great tribute to the Abo.... The single tear was a nice touch! Best regards, Lin

Hi Steph, How long do you have your display time set for each slide? I've just tried this feature and it works correctly for me, but if your display time is very quick for a slide then the advance will begin quickly. Check and see if you may have adjusted the display time for the previous slide to less than the default of 4 seconds. Actually, why not set the display for all your slides to 10 seconds or so to test the feature? If you want the show to be entirely manual and not autoadvance, then on the "Main" tab of Project Options, put a check beside "Wait for a keypress or Mouse Click ........." and the slideshow will run entirely manually. Best regards, Lin

Hi Auser, I think you are way off base here. Actually, the only thing that remotely resembles VisiSketch is that it's possible to do handwriting with both (along with a hundred other programs). VisiSketch creates a "bitmap" of an "image" whether it's text or a graphic or picture and transfers this into a video file - What Dom is doing has no more to do with "Proshow" than it has to do with Microsoft Word. Nothing ever done with Proshow that I've see (I've been a user for years) is anything like what Dom is doing here. As far as other similarities, I'm not seeing it. People who do graphics and animations with slideshow software often have similar interests such as turning the pages of a book, etc. We were doing this with PTE long before it was "ever" done with Proshow. Proshow has no ability to do 3D transforms so any page turning, etc., is quite amateur in appearance compared to the professional look achieved by Dom using PTE. The only way it's possible to do these things well for those using Proshow Producer is for them to go outside (which many members do) and use 3rd party software which creates a "video" then insert this video into their shows. Typically, Proshow users select a 3rd party software such as BuffTitler or even ParticleIllusion. Effects made with these programs work equally well in all software which allow video clip drop-in. Lin

Hi Dom, On my system, the exe starts to write then draws the entire letter for the capital "T" with no visible letter. After it writes the "i" in "this" then the capital T suddenly appears and the rest is normal. Best regards, LIn

Hi, Primarily because of memory requirements. If you use them individually one per slide, there is no big hit on resources, but then you can't really program "other" animation simultaneously. If you put them in as "objects" you have the ability to program (keyframe) other objects, etc., but you exact a toll on resources. It's just one more "tool" in your PTE Toolbox. Best regards, Lin

Hi Roger, You're quite welcome! Yes, the gap must be equal between all images in order to keep them proper aligned. That's why for smaller animations just a single column or row makes it much easier. Best regards, LIn

Hi Roger, Actually, the images just need to be aligned each to the identical pixel distance from the top or side or adjacent image. It's not necessary for the PNG transparency to be identical in height or width as long as the placement of each image is consistent. In Igor's sample he uses only one column and multiple rows. I believe it will also work with one row and multiple columns so if you are using something like Image Ready to prepare the animation the dimensions of each small gif or png will be identical and facilitate placement. If you create the PNG transparency with the identical pixel dimensions of variously either the width (for rows) or height (for columns) then placement is much easier unless you might be placing hundreds of images inside to simulate something like a rotating earth with ultra smooth movement. In some of my earlier animations with a rotating Earth, I used 640 separate file on the object list each with a slightly different rotation to get really smooth motion. Doing it this way "may" be superior in terms of memory use but I haven't yet tried such a grandiose project. Yes, you're right that the slide display time should be long enough for the full length of the individual displays as set by the combination you reference, but often PTE users will copy and paste the original slide multiple times to get longer displays and conserve memory. Best regards, Lin

I wasn't sure whether to put this post in "Software" or in "Video" but here goes: If you want to embed MP4 files directly on your website there is now an easy way to do it. A new software "Xara Web Developer" ($49.95 USD) allows you to "VERY EASILY" build a web page and simply drop in Flash SWF, Flash FLV or MP4 files which are streamed from your server rather than downloaded to the host computer on a hidden folder and run from there. I tested it by loading some decently large original images into a PTE slideshow then using the PTE Create function to output an MP4 at 800x600 resolution to a web page which took about 3 minutes to create in Xara Web Developer 6. The software puts a player right on your web page which allows volume control, start, pause and rewind, etc. You simply drag the dimensions when you construct the page to make the show any size or place on your page. I use Xara Web Developer to develop websites for clients and find it to be exceedingly easy to use. It has a WYSIWYG interface and lets you do things which most web development tools (even really expensive ones) would throw up trying to accomplish. For example, you can drop a movie or image in the middle of text, tell the program to "repel" the text, give it the number of pixels to separate the image from the text and drag the image anywhere through the text and watch the text flow around it. Use any font you wish and the program can easily (two clicks) convert it to a graphic representation of text which you can edit directly just like text. Have text run sideways, follow a curve, etc. The only down side is that if you need web forms you will have to use something like Coffee Cup to create your forms but they then drop in perfectly and Coffee Cup is really inexpensive too. Here's a link to a the sample slideshow. If you have a really slow connection you may need to let it run a minute or so and start over to stay ahead of the flow because of the size of the images used make the show. http://www.learntoma...t/mp4/index.htm Note the text at the top which mentions Flash - Actually in this sample it's the embedded MP4. You can also embed Youtube, etc., just as easily. Note that the black bars on top and bottom of the player can easily be eliminated by choosing the exact pixel aspect ratio when you output your mp4 from PTE. I just didn't bother for the test. Also, if you have lots of toolbars, etc., at the top of your web pages - You can just press F11 to play any web page full screen. Moving the mouse cursor to the top of the screen will return your control task bar. Best regards, Lin

Hi bjc, One other quick observation. Since PTE now supports animated GIF files, it's quite possible to use tools such as Xara 3D and Xara Xtreme to create really neat animated 3D text for headers, etc. Of course if you have Photoshop CS5 Extended you can also extrude text to create 3D and do the same, but Xara 3D is very inexpensive, has three adjustable lights, an amazing array of fonts and exports animated GIF as well as PNG, etc., so a great tool to take advantage of this new feature. Best regards, Lin

Love it! Nice job of Animated Gif creation and presentation! Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Thanks!! It's hard to say what Igor has in store but I've heard that it's working really well in alpha testing... Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, Note from Igor's Post: Important Notes: We didn't finish work on this version yet. ------------------------------------------------ I believe it is possible to compose a soundtrack as shown in the attachment with PTE now. The difference is that there is no "visual" representation as in your sample. Right now PTE has multiple tracks, the ability to fade in and out, cross fade, add silence, adjust volume etc., on each track. Though it is nice to be able to see a visual representation as in your sample, as far as I can see it would not be difficult to duplicate the visual representation you have shown with PTE right now. PTE has the ability to put these various tracks where you wish in terms of real time. Click on a song selection and go to Customize and you have a full selection of controls by time. Best regards, Lin

A brief new tutorial on how to place objects in a single PDF file for animation with the new beta 6.5 feature added to the PTE Made Easy series here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7901 Look for #24

Wow! Nice work from Igor and the development team. These are really useful new features and very well chosen. Thanks!!!! Lin

Hi Erik, Just about any resize tool will handle that job pretty well since it's not a "major" increase in size. Whatever you are using right now as an editing tool should suffice. There will always be a bit of softening so a resharpen in the process may be necessary, but if there are artifacts of compression, etc, sharpening will make them more visible. Even though I have a number of good image editing programs (Photoshop, Picture Window Pro, etc.) I generally use IrfanView myself to do such a task because you can "easily" (it CAN be done with Photoshop, etc., but it's much "easier" with IrfanView or Fastone) batch resize and rename if you wish simultaneously. You must remember that your images "may" have jpg artifacts so making them larger may reveal these. If image quality is paramount, you might want to look into one of the products which ameliorate jpg artifacts such as TopazDeJpeg Both IrfanView and Fastone are freeware for non-commercial use. Here are links: http://www.irfanview.com http://faststone.org/ http://www.topazlabs.com/products.html I don't know whether these support 64 bit or not, but they do work with Windows 7 Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Yes, unfortunately they have not yet (but will soon be supporting 64 bit) supported 64 bit systems. That isn't too uncommon among various software developers. There are some significant programming steps necessary to support 64 bit systems and even the "big boys" such as Adobe have had some problems. I guess that the price one pays for being at the leading edge of the technological curve. Best regards, Lin

As suggested in the Photoshop Plugins, here's some of my favorite Actions for Photoshop. Please add your favorite actions: I'll post a link to the site where I find some incredibly useful actions. These are written by an old friend, Noel Carboni. Noel is a Photoshop Action guru in my estimation. His action sets at ProDigital Software are useful, work very well and quite flexible. The two I use most are DSLR Tools (a set of actions) and StarFilter Pro. DSLR Tools consists of a set of great tools for the photographer. StarFilter Pro (there is a Lite version also) is a unique, one of a kind, tool which allows the photographer to simply eliminate glass star filters. This action allows the user to not only place reflection stars on highlight areas, but actually use areas "created" by the addition of a 255, 255, 255 "spot" where the photographer chooses to place a star. The stars can be adjusted for the number of points, size, rotation, rainbow effect, etc., etc. When you consider the cost of a good glass star filter and the limited control one has with it which includes the limited versatility for multiple lenses, this photoshop action is a "steal." Obviously, not all photographers care about star filters, but those who shoot jewelry or custom automobiles or even highly reflective surfaces frequently like such a tool. I also use the Genuine Fractals sharpening action, but this requires the user to have an installed copy of Genuine Fractals (which is not inexpensive) on their system. The sharpening is incredible with this tool but unless one owns Genuine Fractals, it's of no value. Here's the link: http://www.prodigitalsoftware.com/ Lin

On of my favorites is Focus Magic. Focus Magic acts as a combination tool which does convolution (actually achieving better focus by moving pixels) which allows correction of motion blur as well as improved focus. Depending on the amount applied, it does also add a bit of USM so it's best to use it with care and judiciously applied generally only to selected areas. It works both as a Photoshop Plugin and as a stand-alone product. Here's a link: http://www.focusmagic.com Lin