Lin Evans

Hi Jose, In order for a decompiler to completely recover information, that information must be contained in the original executable file. Things such as images, sound files, etc., are almost always contained in a slideshow executable file, but the exact source code which is used to create the executable file may not always be contained in the executable file itself. The PTE file which is used to create the executable file doesn't have to be included verbatim in the executable, just the basics of the instructions. Therefore even with the best decompiler, the precise structure of the PTE file itself may or may not be in the executable code. Having never decompiled a PTE file, I can't say whether the PTE file itself is contained within in its original form. But in any case, unless you have changed the defaults when you created your executable, the protections built in to prevent decompiling will likely prevent recovering what is there. Here's a link where you might find more information about decompiling in general: http://boomerang.sourceforge.net/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, The answer is complex. It could be yes, no or maybe depending on the version of PTE you used to create your original and the settings you used. Current versions of PTE have protection available from decompilers which are tools which can be used in some cases for retrieving the original images and sounds from an exe file. As you know, an exe file in the relevant sense, consists of your original images and music, sounds, etc., as well as a set of instructions generated by the PTE file. These instructions tell the computer in real time how you want these images and sounds displayed and whether or not to construct intermediate images for pan, zoom, rotate, etc. Decompilers consist of software which reverse engineers the executable file and retrieves the content. In most cases, the protection which is built into PTE (assuming the default of "on") will prevent someone from retrieving your images and music and instructions by using such tools. In the event that your PTE files were created with a very early version of the program before these protections were initiated, you "might" be able to ge the original images and mp3's, etc., back. To reconstruct the PTE file itself is very improbable even in such an old version. Your best bet would be to try to recover the lost PTE files. Otherwise you could use a screen capture tool to get the images back at screen resolution (the higher the resolution your screen is set to, the closer to the original the quality) and an audio capture tool which could intercept the sound at the sound card. Best regards, Lin

Hi Davy, The program Ken pointed you to, when run on your old computer, copies the Wnsoft PTE unlock key and allows you to transfer it to your new computer. Here is another link. Download the program, unzip it and run it on your old computer. http://www.learntoma...opy/keycopy.zip After you run the program it will save the PTE key. Copy the key and save it to a flash drive or thumdrive or external drive or CD, etc. Open your new computer, put the media you saved the file on and open it and click on the key to put it into the registry and your new computer will then work with PTE> Lin

Happy Birthday Guido!! Lin

Hi Mick, If you have your own personal web site, why not just create a folder there and upload your zipped A/V's to your own site? Unless you have very limited storage, that works very well. Just give your link information and your audience can download right from your own site. Best regards, Lin

Hello "Bgrady" (If you could give your name it would help with communication), Many thousands of people have purchased PicturesToExe without issues so there is likely an issue with your email rejecting the key or with it being blocked by a spam filter. The first thing to do is check with your email host and look in the spam filter content to see if the email with the unlock key was filtered and placed there. When a successful purchase is made, the service which handles the purchase automatically sends the unlock key. If you have heard nothing at all about the purchase other than as indicated in your post, the strong probability is that your email host is where the problem lies. If you have received other communications, it's possible that the unlock key is contained in these emails. There is no "scam" with Wnsoft or with PicturesToExe. Best regards, Lin

Hi Liz, You can do it as suggested by converting an AVI to Flash (FLV or SWF) or you can directly embed an MP4 h.264 by using the Xara Web Designer 6 as I demonstrate here: http://www.picturest...showtopic=11808 The advantage of doing it with Web Designer is that PTE outputs MP4 h.264 directly and there is no need to convert it to Flash. You can get a free 30 day trial of Xara Web Designer here: http://www.xara.com/us/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, If you have a Microsoft MPEG II or MPEG 4 codec, give that a try and see if it works for you. The number of codecs available depends largely on software you have installed and/or codec packs you have installed. Rarely do two computer have the same number of codecs available. For example, I have 33 codecs on my development system. It sound as if the DivX 6.9.2 codec may be causing this issue. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, When you say you could "never create an AVI file using DivX 6.9.2 codec" I would ask what the problem was (error message, etc.) and why did you necessarily want to use the DivX 6.9.2 codec? Most have no problems creating a stand alone AVI file which seems to be the issue requiring you to use Total Video Converter to convert MP4 h.264 back to AVI. Best regards, Lin

Hi Paolo, There are several ways to get the text onto your screen. In order to make it scroll you only need to treat it like any other object. Essentially, the text is treated like any other "object" which can be controlled with keyframes. We just had a discussion about this a short time ago so I'm going to link you to that here so you can get the various methods as suggested: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11886&st=0&p=76546&fromsearch=1entry76546 Best regards, Lin

Hi Michael, Perhaps the easiest way is to use version 6.5 beta 4. In Project Options add your sound with the music tab then click on "Customize" and click on the "offset" and place the exact time from the start of your slideshow where you want the sound to begin. You can also fade it in and out with these features. Otherwise, for older versions you would have to use a sound editor such as the freeware Audacity and add silence to the beginning of your sound selection to cover the time until you want the audio to begin. The 6.5 Beta 4 version is quite reliable and the audio features are much more powerful than in version 6.0. You can also have an audio selection begin at any time during its duration. For example, if you wanted a music selection to begin playing 10 seconds into the song as if that were the beginning, you could set the "start" time to 10 seconds and the first 10 seconds would be silent and the music would start as if the 10 second point were the beginning, etc. You can fade in, fade out, cross fade, etc. Best regards, Lin

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