Lin Evans

Hi Eric, Thanks - it's a tough time but we will keep plugging away.... Perhaps - we will have to discuss it with Igor and see what the time frame might be before making a decision. The developers really need a holiday to recharge their batteries and think about future development needs and directions. They have been overwhelmed recently with requests for features and changes, etc., and really need some time to kick back and relax without the stress of both developing and addressing issues. Personally, I believe that with all the new features and "major" changes and improvements that the moniker version 6.0 should be considered rather than 5.7. All requirements for a major change and new "version" have been satisfied. Things such as multiple display support, native MacIntosh output, mask creation and adjustment, borders creation and canvas adjustment, 3D transformation, 3D shadows, unlimited help and information windows, text vectorization, etc., all add up to a new version number in my book! When the next release comes, whatever it may be called, I think it's time for new documentation and user guide production. I think the modular concept will take care of things like the addition of new sound controls, etc, and there will be no real need to wait for changes in order to get started on a new "unofficial" user guide. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, You may get your wish soon. Unfortunately, it's not really possible to "update" the existing unofficial user's guide because of extensive changes to PTE which are not only necessary, but quite desirable additions, modifications, etc. To do justice to the new features and to help beginners and even advanced users alike, it's really necessary to do a re-write. The problem with "updates" is that even when there are only minor modifications in menu structures, etc., they greatly impact documentation because they alter page numbers, reference numbers, diagrams, etc. In fact, many times it's "easier" to do a complete rewrite than to attempt to "update" existing information. Jeff and I (and Ray) spent many tedious hours on the last unofficial user guide and still missed a few important issues. Shortly after we finished, a new version of PTE became available which made some of our screen captures and diagrams obsolete. Since that time we have actually progressed to what I believe is a totally new version of PTE rather than an iterative update. There are still some exciting new features which have not yet been totally described and certainly not yet been officially introduced as usable beta features. Once all the beta features for the latest "version" of PTE have been included and the newest version "release" has been officially blessed, then hopefully I will have time to devote to a complete rewrite of the manual. I haven't discussed it with Jeff yet, so I don't know what his schedule looks like, but right now I'm about to loose my home to foreclosure which means I will soon be forced to move in (or possibly before) early October. This will be a major time sink and will make it difficult to work on this. Between the move which will involve liquidating 20 years of household goods, ranch equipment, vehicles, etc., and my wife's current serious health issues, my time will be severely limited. Hopefully we will be settled by the end of October and probably PTE will be much closer or already released and I will have some time to devote to doing a rewrite. I'm considering a new format for the rewrite by putting it into a "modular" rather than unified template. This may have some significant advantages in the future by making periodic updates much easier to accomplish. Rather than indexing the entire document, there would be individual stand-alone sections each having their own index and reference tables and without an overarching structure. The overview would contain a glossary and an index of terms, etc., which would reference individual module content. This overview would then be periodically reviewed for appropriate reference links and when new features were added, they could be simply referenced, annotated and explained in new "modules" rather than trying to fit them into a huge single document which would adversely affected changes and additions are made to the base program. I offer up this idea for forum discussion and perhaps we can reach a consensus before beginning on new documentation? Best regards, Lin

Hi Jonathan, Yes, in a couple ways. If the slideshow has only a few slides, you can go to the Objects and Animations screen, click on the file in the Objects list, click on the "Properties" tab at the top, then go to the little folder on the far right, click there and navigate to the current location. Then click on the file in its new location. Repeat for the other files then save the PTE file. The above is the "hard way." The "easy way" is as suggested by Maureen and by me on the other posts. Just create the zip archive and extract it into a new folder. Open PTE and navigate to the new folder and open the PTE file there and everthing including all the files will be neatly collected into the new folder. You can always use this method to move everything pertaining to this individual show except, of course, the PicturesToExe application software, to any computer. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jonathan, This is really an easy situation to resolve. In PTE go to "File" then "Create Backup In Zip" This will gather all necessary files into a zip archive which you can transfer to any computer running PTE. Just create a folder on the external drive and unzip (extract) the files into that folder and everything will be right in one place. You can then use PTE Video builder to burn the DVD on the other system. Of course this assumes you have PTE on the other computer. I just noticed that Maureen has suggested the same thing on your other post.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, I agree that it would be "much" easier if there were a click box which could automatically set the "option" to separate all keyframes at once just as linear "glues" all keyframes simultaneously. Of course we do need it to be an "option" and set as the "default," because there are times when we want to have some keyframes glued and some separated for certain types of animations. It's rare, but PTE gives us more versatility this way and sometimes, however rarely, we need the option. I too have always wondered why smooth and accelerate were not also automatically separated as the default when chosen. Oh, by the way, the logic is correct as you see it now. "Click Here to Separate" implies that the keyframes are presently "glued." "Click here to Glue" implies that the keyframes are presently "Separated." I realize that this can be confusing, but it is logical as it is. Having the "option" set as a "default" to handle smooth and slow with automatically separated keyframes simultaneously is a great idea. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, Having looked at the PTE file now, I think your best bet is to leave everything at linear for this animation. Though there were a couple places where you had mixed linear and non-linear, I was not able to make it work properly by setting everything to smooth and separating all keyframes. One particular place was on, I believe, the first Yourpic02, where you had separated keyframes for pan and zoom but not for rotate. This is evident when you see "custom" in either p, z, or r, and "smooth" on one of the others. Even though this was corrected, there were still issues. One of the problems with animations which use separation of the X and Y values such as in this one, is that timings can get very tedious. Whenever you see late "adjustments" in position of images which are returning from some pan/zoom or rotate to a predetermined position it's almost always the result of non-linear clashing with either a linear function or the position of keyframes not quite matching at some point along the timeline. In your case I couldn't find the error, but it's a complex animation and easy to overlook a single keyframe mismatch in precise time. You might want to ask Dom if he could look at it because he does many more of these type animations than I do and is undoubtedly more qualified to comment on this one than I am. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, You mentioned that you had set smooth "between the fourth and fifth keyframes" - that's why I discussed linear versus non-linear motion. You will get strange issues unless you use smooth with separation between all keyframes on the same animation. Normally, when you "separate" at any keyframe, the separation will apply to all keyframes. In order to set a different action at a single keyframe it's necessary to not click on "separate here" but rarely would you want to do that because you will get strange results. Also, the reason it's suggested that you set any non-linear motion for not only pan and zoom, but also for rotate as well, is to assure that in the event you "may" have inadvertently slightly rotated an image by positioning manually (it's "very" easy to do this by mistake) you will not get strange results. Without seeing the actual PTE file, it's very difficult to guess at what may be causing the issue, but it's almost certain that it has to do with a single "separate here" not being clicked. Sometimes it's easy to miss one, especially if there are many keyframes and the one missed may not be visible except by using the scroll bar when performing the clicks on "separate here". Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, I just sent you an email with modifications to your PTE file. The problem, as I see it, was that you had a non-linear motion set for one slide and linear for others. Visualize what is happening with linear and non-linear motion with this scenario: Imagine a "race" to a start and finish line between two images with different motions. The first image has linear motion, meaning that it jumps out of the start blocks with a given speed, maintains that speed until near the finish line then jars to a stop. Imagine that the second image starts much more slowly and accelerates to a given speed, maintains that speed for a given time then smoothly slows to a stop. The "rules" for the race are that both contestants must start and finish at precisely the same times. This then means that during the "race" the smooth images must catch and "pass" the linear image in position somewhere along the race course because the linear image will be gaining on the smooth image while the smooth image is slowing to a stop. As this relates to your issue, if one image is "smooth" while the other images are "linear" then there must be positional compensation somewhere in order for them to finish together. That compensation is near the "end" of the race when the smooth image arrives "early" because of its greater speed in motion along the course, then must "wait" for the linear images to catch up. This accounts for the hesitation near the end and the "sliding" into position. Hopefully, this makes sense. Best regards, Lin

Hi Umberto, Another quick example of what I was trying to verbally depict. You will notice that from the perspective of the "camera" (your eyes, in this case), the background slowly pans from right to left. The intermediate bubble (further from the eye) moves from left to right, while the closer bubble moves more rapidly from left to right. The closer the object to the eye or camera, the more rapid the change in motion. http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/3dperspective.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Umberto, Right now, in the current "to be released" iteration of 3D transform, I don't think you will be able to do what you want easily, if at all. The current iteration is to rotate a 2D object in 3D space. What you want to achieve is best done by rotation of a 3D object in 3D space along with camera movement perspective. It "may" be possible to simulate depth, but this would require adjusting objects in a very complex way to attempt to simulate camera movement as in the After Effects demonstration. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done, just that it would be very time consuming to try to accurately simulate what is easily done with After Effects and Photoshop. Photoshop version CS4 Extended also has some of this capability in setting up 3D simulation by allowing keyframes on camera movement, so it might be possible to create some sequences there, export them as PNG files with transparency and use them along with 3D transform to approximate what you want to achieve. One way to achieve what you want in PTE is to use my template which will allow you to create a video in any 3D software which can export individual PNG frames with alpha channel (transparency) which make up this video. Then you can simply name them appropriately (image001.png - image1800.png sequentially) and the template will run this as if you were able to actually run the video in PTE. The up side is that you can actually achieve whatever you can export from the video whether by decompiling individual frames or by exporting individual png frames. The down side is that it is extremely memory intensive and many GPU (video cards) simply can't handle the loading, especially if the individual files are larger than about 500 pixels on a side. To get full screen images such as shown in the After Effects demo, would be nearly an impossible task until PTE can actually handle real video clips. Of course you could run Boxig's "show video.exe" with "hidetaskbar.exe" but there is not a lot of control and you can't really run anything else in the background simultaneously. The bottom line is that in time, Igor may be able to make PTE run real 3D in 3D space and then you could export from the software used to create the simulation and animate it in PTE, but right now it's just not possible. You may remember, a couple years ago, I made a small demo of doing something like you are describing. What I presented were photos of a mushroom taken from different positions and "sequenced" do simulate 3D. By playing the sequences progressively the mushroom stayed in the same position while the background view changed back and forth. This is what you are describing on a small scale. But this really has little or nothing to do with the new 3D transform feature, though it "might" be used to add some realism. This can easily be done without 3D transform. It simply requires multiple frames of the subject background taken from slightly different positions while the main subject as a separate PNG object with alpha channel stays constant. This, of course, could be simulated using these Photoshop CS4 extended capabilities, or with After Effects. Then individual frames could be sequenced either as with my template with the images as objects under a single slide, or with individual slides. If this is what you want to do, then it's only necessary to create the individual frames and animate accordingly. If you could describe the actual sequence you have in mind, perhaps I or someone else on the forum could help you realize it. Here's a link to the sample I referenced: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/3Dsample.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Umberto. It's not that type of 3D where you have Z axis depth, but rather more like the 3D transform in Photoshop where you can change the observed perspective by rotating an object on the Z axis. Like Photoshop prior to version CS4 extended, you see the perspective of the edges of the object but not Y axis depth. For example, when you hold a piece of 8x11 inch paper in front and parallel to your body then rotate the top away from you. The sides appear to converge toward the top and spread apart toward the bottom. As you continue to rotate in the same direction, eventually you see only a thin line. As you continue to rotate you now see the back side of the paper and what was the bottom now becomes the "top." In effect, you have caused a vertical "flip" of the image. Likewise if you were to rotate the object left to right or right to left you would eventually perform a horizontal "flip" of the image. Now imagine if the paper were transparent so that you could actually see an image printed on one side through the back. This is what the 3D transform will allow. Of course you also have the ability to use keyframes so that these changes in perspective are "dynamic" and PTE can create all intermediate images just as if you were looking at the motion in real time with a real 2D object such as a piece of paper. Now further, you will be able to attach a 3D shadow which will perform as a real shadow might perform with a single source fixed light which you could move and place at any of 360 degrees and the "paper" were casting a shadow upon a flat surface behind. This is how the 3D transform feature will work in PTE. Of course you also can control normal Ken Burns effects of PZR simultaneously with any object so that we have some significant new power with PTE! Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, This is fantastic - opens up many new possibilities!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, The file "HideShowTB.exe" is not a PTE file, but is a file which is used along with Showvideo.exe to hide the task bar. It "may" have become infected, but it's very easy to just dump it and download it again if you are using showvideo.exe to add videos to your slideshows. The HideShowTB.exe file was recently updated by the author and the combination with showvideo.exe work very well and do not contain any virus code. Just informational.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Lynne, It's unusual for a registration key not to be sent, but sometimes the email containing the registration key gets placed into spam by email spam filters. The first thing is to double check the spam filter content and see if there is an email there. I have forwarded your email to the attention of the developers and I'm sure you will hear from them promptly and resolve the difficulty quickly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you are saying exactly. I understand you are using 5.7 beta version 9. When you say you have "saved" a "sequence" do you mean you have saved the PTE file? What happens exactly when you click on "create as?" What is the file name suggested and what is the folder name? Where and when do you get a message about "saved as my version 5?" What is the exact wording and which keys did you press to get this message? If you open a version 5.0 through 5.64 PTE file with the 5.7 beta 9 then save it with the same file name as you opened, it will no longer be able to be opened with 5.0 through 5.64. There is no reason to load beta 5 if you have beta 9 on your system - any of the 5.7 beta versions will be essentially the same as far as saving a file and being able to open it. If you can be very specific about what is happening, then perhaps we can figure out what the solution is to the problem before it gets any more confusing. Best regards, Lin

Hi Henri, Yes, synchronization is important, but also volume and fades at specific places on a slide. For example, some AV creations have background music which continues when there may be voice-overs on a slide, but the volume must be diminished on the background so as not to "fight" or "conflict" with the voice-over. Then there are times when the creator of the show may want to fade the sound other than just at the end of the show. Of course it's possible to do all this in a sound editor, but vastly easier to do it interactively when creating the show. So in essence, both synchronization and volume/fade control are important to the AV creation, don't you think? Best regards, Lin

Hi David, First you need to understand that a "DVD" is of low resolution. There are two major standards - PAL and NTSC. Neither of these are greater than super VGA resolution (800x600). To make an HD DVD you need to have either an HD burner or a Blueray burner. PTE doesn't burn HD DVD's or Blueray DVD with Video Builder, just regular PAL or NTSC DVD's. To burn an HD DVD or Bluray DVD you first create an MP4 video at the resolution you want such as 1920 x 1080 then you use software which burns preferably Bluray and a Bluray burner (drive). The other way you can see your shows in high definition on your tv is to play the executable directly via a computer with a video output (video card) which has HDMI output. There are a number of software packages which can burn HD or Bluray. You normally use Bluray or HD media, but some (Pinnacle Studio 12 for one) can also burn HD or Bluray to standard DVD media, but with reduced capacity of course. Then to play these on your tv in HD you must have a Bluray or HD player. Hope this clears up some of your confusion. Best regards, Lin

Though there will never be enough audio features to satisfy all (many are not currently satisfied with Proshow Producers' audio capabilities and want surround sound, etc.), Simple controls like keyframed fade-in, fade-out, cross-fade, start sound from any point and end at any point and adjust volume independently of individual slide audio, etc., would be probably be sufficient for the majority of PTE users. Though PTE should never try to become an audio editor any more than it should become a video or still frame "editor," these elementary features will prevent having to make so many modifications and saves to an audio track that they are hard to keep up with when used for different shows. I believe that the above are things well within the possibility of future versions of PTE and will, along with video clip control, make PTE "the" premier tool for the masses in both PC and MacIntosh worlds. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, Could you zip up this and post it? I'm not seeing any problems in Beta 9 with pan and zoom when using smooth, etc., so maybe looking at your file would help discover where the problem lies. Best regards, Lin

That's a winner, Dom! Excellent - you've been busy building this one! Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, As some of you may know, I posted some questions the other day for users who have Photoshop CS4 Extended. I was having lots of difficulty installing the trial version and finally had it resolved by installing manually and omitting the Adobe Media Player. As it turns out, the Adobe Media Player is "not" necessary nor is it an integral part of CS4, so if you have difficulties installing CS4 and it crashes as it tries to install Media Player, just go to manual install, remove the checkmark beside Adobe Media Player and the install will proceed perfectly. I also asked the question about whether it was possible to output an AVI video with a transparent background because I wanted to be able to use my decompiler and break down the AVI into individual frames without having to chroma key, etc., to get transparency behind the files. The answer is good news! Not only does CS4 Extended have the ability to create AVI video and export 3D objects, it can very easily output individual PNG frames from that AVI complete with transparent background. Evenly more important, for me, was the fact that you can choose the names of the files so that they can be directly loaded into my template to simulate video! Photoshop CS4 Extended can take a two dimensional image and "wrap" it around a sphere, a soft drink bottle, a donut, etc. It can put the image on a cube, a ring, a cone, a cylinder, a wine bottle, etc. You can adjust lighting, create X, Y and Z axis manipulations of these 3D objects and even import and use other 3D objects available on the web and elsewhere. To demo some of the possibilities, I made a little sample. Please ignore the "jerk" when the "bird globe" starts it's second rotation. That's just because I didn't bother to precisely match the XYZ position at the start and end of the animation output from Photoshop. With a perfect ending and starting point match, there would be absolutely no perceptible jerk - just smooth rotation. The demo is nothing special, just a quick and dirty example to show some of the possibilities. Obviously, CS4 Extended isn't a full blown 3D software package, but it does let the user easily do some pretty neat things. This is just an informational demo......... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/birdglobe.zip (~ 34 meg zipped exe file) Best regards, Lin

Hi Bill, Sorry, no control over volume or fade in PTE yet, but of course as you probably know you can fade in one of the free sound editors such as Audacity then re-load the exported mp3 into PTE. We expect to see some rudimentary sound control in later versions of PTE but right now the development team has its hands full with the new features such as output to dual monitors, output to native MacIntosh, 3D transformations, ability to create and adjust masks internally, ability to add borders, the new vectorized fonts, etc., etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Max, This is very easy to do. First you want to create two slideshows. The first consists of your "first slide only" and you set it up as follows: Main Tab - Project Options: 1. Check by "repeat show until ESC is pressed" 2. Uncheck "Synchronize music and slides" 3. Check "wait for keypress or mouse click to show next slide" Advanced Tab 1. Check "permit control of show using keyboard" Music Tab 1. Add your music selection 2. Check "Repeat music after playing" ============================ Click on "Customize Slide Tab Set the display time for a long period such as 5000 seconds Go to Objects and Animations In the "Common tab" set Action on Mouse Click to "Run Slideshow With Return" then navigate to your slideshow to complete the selection. Save the PTE and create the executable. Second slideshow. Just set it up any way you wish, but be certain you use the same version of PTE for both the controlling "single slide" show and the second show. Go to the timeline after adding music and click on "Timed Points" "Arrange all Points" and this will spread slides evenly along the music selection. Opening the first single slide show will cause your image to appear with repeating sound over and over "until" you click the mouse on the image. At that time the second slideshow will open and when the last slide plays out the control will return to the single slide and you will have completed the "loop". Press ESC to exit... Best regards, Lin

Total frustration with Adobe "support".... Just a rant about current practices at Adobe...... Adobe's new flagship Photoshop CS4 Extended is hyped as the "Cat's Meow" of photo editing and graphics software. It has some of the most advanced features available including 3D, hardware rendering, advanced stacking, HDR, etc., etc., etc. It actually may be the most fantastic editing software anywhere! But, you can't prove it by me.... Not yet, and maybe not ever.... I can't install it! I have attempted to put it on two of my systems. One a Dell, the other a Gateway. Each has Win XP Home edition. After over six hours of install, uninstall, upgrade video drivers, download 814 megabyte files "twice," install Windows Service Pack 3, etc., etc., I finally called Adobe Support only to be totally disappointed with the non-support. First, I am subjected to a lengthy wait listening to loud, bad, music loops. Next I'm connected to a "support" person, apparently in India or Pakistan with a stong accent making it very difficult to understand. He wasn't at all interested in learning about "where" the installation had failed, but just wanted to shovel me off to download a "Windows Cleaner" and "CS4 Cleanup Script." He informed me that I may have to uninstall "ALL ADOBE PRODUCTS" before installing the CS4 Extended Trial. Now the above statement is just plain stupid, especially from an Adobe representative! Try Adobe Flash, Photoshop versions 5, 7 and CS each complete with dozens of plug-ins, hundreds of actions, specialized settings, etc. How about Adobe Frame Maker with hundreds of projects, Adobe Quick Time, Adobe Encore, Adobe Premier, etc., etc., all with myriad data, plugins, etc. We're talking weeks of reinstall or a complete reinstall of the disk which would, of course, wipe out CS4 EXtended (if it were ever installed - LOL). So after once again uninstalling the remnants of CS4, installing and running the Win cleanup and CS4 cleanup and reinstall of CS4 Extended - guess what? Yep, failed at exactly the same point - the installation of "Adobe Media Player." I've wasted two days on simply trying to evaluate CS4 Extended. I've installed a service pack I didn't want or need. I've completely lost Flash thanks to the CS4 Cleanup script and still have no CS4 trial installation. I'm writing this while again listening to bad, loud music loops (for the past hour and 10 minutes). Listen up Adobe - I've spend many, many thousands of dollars with your company and deserve better treatment. Will I purchase CS4 Extended? It's not likely and becoming less likely with every bar of bad, loud, music loop. Do you actually want to sell your products? Then get some knowledgeable technical support people who can help sort out issues like this and make them available. Don't have some 1st level "support" person who speaks the native language of the country where the support is to be given with an accent so strong that it's impossible for a native speaker to understand. Don't have someone who insults the intelligence of the potential customer with silly statements. In addition to the statement about possibly removing "all Adobe" software before the install, he make the mistake of telling me that this was only "Trial Software" an therefore not necessarily a "stable" and trouble free version. I had to remind him that Adobe states that you simply pay for then receive the unlock code and this "unstable" trial version becomes the "real" and "very expensive" CS4 release version! Give me a break already!! End rant..... Beware. If you order CS4 maybe you should download the trial version first and be certain it will install and run on your system. I hope you have better luck than I've had. By the way, I posted a duplicate of this on the Adobe Photoshop forum at Adobe.... EDIT: as of 2:44 PM Mountain Time Colorado. As with our forum here, the users of the Adobe forum proved to be quite helpful. The suggestion was made to uninstall the remnants of CS4 and re-install "manually" and omit Adobe Media Player which seemed to be where the installations always crashed. I did this and now have CS4 Extended Trial installed but without the Media Player. How the absence of Media Player might impact the usefulness of CS4 Extended is yet to be determined, but at least I can evaluate the portions which I'm interested in (3D Object output). I'm thankful for the support of the Adobe forum readers to resolve what Adobe's "non-technical" support people couldn't. Best regards, Lin

Hi Brian, Plays perfectly on my systems. Very nice use of the Swap 3D transitions. Nice and slow and gives the right feel to accompany the wedding photos. Enjoyed your show! It's great to be able to archive and display older photos and memories this way, isn't it? Best regards, Lin