Lin Evans

Hi Tom, The two curved arrows at the top left. The one pointing to your left is undo the one pointing to your right is re-do. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, I think something was fishy with the link so I reworked it. Hopefully it will work correctly now! Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Thanks! I put up another without the reflection here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8458 Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, I'll see if I can put something together later this week. Meanwhile here's another: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8458 Lin

Thanks! This looks like a promising way to see both the music timline and timelilne simultaneously - could be very helpful. Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, Yes, in principle it could be a solution for the reflection, but probably not worth the time it would take to implement it. I suspect that there is a combination of both technical finesse and artistic expression involved in makeing good slideshows but probably it's more important to have the artistic talent if the purpose of the slideshow is to move the audience. All the technical finesse in the world would be wasted unless the creator of the show was able to achieve the end purpose. Most who are really serious about slideshows probably don't spend much time with animations. A huge body of superior slideshows were made long before we had the ability to introduce motion into our shows but the younger audience is perhaps more technically inclined and for many of them, having the knowledge to manipulate their images in new and innovative ways seems to be important. As they mature in years they probably will be less interested in the novelty of animation and more interested in artistic content and expression. On the other hand when someone has both talents such as Jean-Pierre, the end product can be very attractive indeed! Best regards, Lin

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/waterfall2.zip Lin

Hi Folks, Thanks! It's good to hear that some of the tutorials and demos have been helpful! Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Just a suggestion. Do all your animations, zooms, etc., in linear and be certain you have the essence of your show completed before switching to any non-linear mode. The reason is that when you make changes to keyframes and you have a non-linear function enabled things don't always work as you might expect. Also if you have very sharp images, "smooth" will exacerbate any edge distortions such as normal resize artifacts and cause excessive "shimmer" at the start and end of an animation. This is because there are actually more images created during the slow periods of non-linear smooth start and finish. The way around this is to apply about a 1% gaussian blur to frames or hard, straight line edges selectively to avoid these rather unsightly artifacts. Smooth really works well and is one of my favorites because it avoids the jerky start and finish to a zoom or pan but it does have the side effect of the shimmer of really sharp areas of an image, especially if the zoom is slow. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Yes, it's easy to create a stand-alone AVI file with PTE. Whether you have the Deluxe version or the normal version just click on the Video tab, put a check beside "Create custom AVI video file," then click on the Video Codec tab and choose something "other" than the default PTE codec. That's all there is to it. Best regards, Lin

Perhaps you could create such an animation and show us? The way it works best for me and for an explanation for the purpose of the demo (for newbies) is not to over complicate a simple thing. The purpose is to show new users how to make a simple animation. 20 to 30 separate files would not be so simple would it? LOL Besides, there is an easier way of doing it than using 20 or 30 separate files but it requires making a duplicate PNG reflection with its own mask - this would mean that the new user would have to understand Photoshop or other software to create the necessary files rather than simply use the template available for Xara Xtreme. There are always alternative ways of animating water or snow effects but trial and error over several years have shown me the easiest and best ways for doing it realistically and easily. Later - on reflection, I don't think it's probable to make a realistic waterfall using 20 or 30 discrete files at all. Nor is is possible to do it the way I suggested as "easier" because no matter how many layers are used it's still necessary to have a transparency on each side (top and bottom). Having multiple files means that each file has to have a start and a stop (disappear) position and that to make it realistic the animation would have to be already running before being made visible. Each tiny file would have to fit perfectly under the file above and they would all have to move in unison like a train pulling many railroad cars. Then each would have two keyframes separated by a tiny bit of time to switch from whatever opacity was chosen for the animation to zero opacity when reaching the lake. Beside the obvious issues of coordinating these files they would necessarily have to be very short in the vertical direction, seamlessly joined and synchronized. For an animation such as the one I displayed it would be far more trouble and require far more time to create than worthwhile. I have created some very complex animations with precise timings which took several days to work out but having a reverse animation on the reflection is just not feasible. The reflection is dim, faded and better to have perhaps a "glimmer" of animation provided by a circular or round "spinning" wheel of water animation which would suffice to simulate falling water rather than try to create the complexity of multiple animated files appearing and disappearing with precise timings. This is all, of course, off topic and confusing to a newbie who only wants to make a simple animation which takes moments rather than days. I think the way I did this one is suitable for its purpose, realistic and easy to accomplish. Best regards, Lin

Unfortunately it won't work in this manner for this animation because the falling water is one single PNG file so cutting it off would not only affect what was below the visible window but what was yet to come - LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Yes, unfortunately much more to it. The difficulty with animating something moving in the opposite direction has to do with the use of layers and transparency. Visible movement in a single direction on only part of an image is possible because of the masking effect of the non transparent part of the main png image layer which the reflection shares with the main image. To animate the reflection without interference from the main animation would require that the reflection consist of an independent PNG object and that it would float above it's own matching background which to complete the illusion would necessarily have to comprise the bottom half of the visible background perfectly matched to make a seamless connect with identical but reverse gradiation with the present background. This is not an "impossible" task but not really feasible without hours of trial and error matching and positioning. Perhaps some day I may attempt it, but then it wouldn't be much of a draw for newbies because to do it would require a most thorough understanding of PTE, Photoshop and Xara Xtreme where the original "reflection" image was created. Think of it this way. You create a "sandwitch". You have two pieces of very thin bread which are identical. You cut a hole in the top piece but when the two pieces are perfectly aligned on top of one another you can't tell that a hole exists in the top piece because the bottom piece being identical shows through the hole. You place some thin but long strips of carrots extending above and below the bread in between and someone pulls the parts which extend below the two pieces of bread downward creating "carrot strip" movement through the "window" of the hole cut in the top piece of bread. Now if someone were to pull some of the pieces from the top upward at the same time other pieces were pulled downward you would have interference in the direction of animation with some carrot strips moving upward while others move downward. Even if you added a third piece of bread underneath with a hole in the second layer to allow things visible between the second and third layer, you would still see movement in the opposite direction because the "window" of the top layer couldn't reveal the bottom most layer without revealing what was happening between the top and second layer. So to make it work you would need two more pieces of bread lying below the first two. The carrot strips moving downward between the upper (non reflected) pieces of bread would have to move "under" both bottom (reflected) pieces to be invisible while pieces moving upward on the bottom or "reflect" bread would have to move under both top pieces to be invisible through the hole in the top bread thus "splitting" layers, something not presently possible with PTE, Photoshop or other known software. Best regards,` Lin

Corrrect, unfortunately no feasible way to animate the reflection. Best regards, Lin

Just a little sample - press escape to quit - animation repeats endlessly..... About 4.5 meg zipped exe file. http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/waterfall.zip Lin

That would be the "easiest" way to do it. PTE Standard can output AVI and it's possible to use the specialized output then use compatible software such as Ulead Movie Factory to burn a DVD, but it's ever so much easier and faster in PTE Deluxe. PTE Deluxe has Video Builder and uses hardware rendering to do this up to 400% faster than other products. You have complete control over menu creation, you can use your own photos for backgrounds, create multiple chapters, have up to 99 menu selections per DVD and it just works very, very well. I would strongly suggest not spending a lot of unnecessary time mucking about with trying to use two products to do a job which the Deluxe version does so easily and directly. Best regards, Lin

Hi, By all means, download and read the manual as Ken suggests. What you want to do is extremely easy to accomplish. I'm assuming you also downloaded and installed the LAME encoder for MP3 as instructed on the Audacity download site. This allows you to export your work as MP3's. You begin by opening Audacity then click on "File" "Open" then navigate to your MP3 selection and load it into Audacity. Once it's loaded you will see two waveforms one over the other representing left and right channels. Above the waveforms are numbers representing seconds and fractions of seconds. Use the horizontal scroll bar to go to the exact time you want to end the song and click the left mouse with your cursor down into the blue/gray area below the numbers and a vertical line will appear at that point. Place your mouse cursor on that vertical line, left click and hold and drag to the right to select the area to be removed. The area will be highlighted in blue. Once you have it selected release the left mouse button. Press the keyboard "Delete" key and that portion will be deleted. Find a point in time on the waveform about 8 seconds before the end of the song and again select as you did in the earlier instruction when you deleted. Select the last eight seconds then left click on "Effects" and choose "Fade Out". The effect is "cumulative" so you may want to listen to what you have done and if necessary repeat to get greater fade out. Finally, choose "File" "Export" and select an MP3 as the type. Choose a folder and export using a "DIFFERENT" name so you don't affect the original song. Do this with all three selections. Next open the first and second altered selections in that order. Pay attention to their filenames. Select the entire second song and do an "Edit" "Copy" then do "File" "Close" Go to the end of the first song, left click to get your vertical bar at the end of the selection then do "Edit" "Paste" and this will place the second song at the end of the first song. Save this new two song selection under a different name and open the newly altered selection having song one and two the open song three. Select song three, do and "Edit" "Copy" then do another "File" "Close" and you will still have the two song selection on your screen. Do and "Edit" "Paste" to the end of the song and export the final three song MP3 under a new name. That's all there is to it. There are "easier" ways but I don't want to confuse you right now. This will give you your needed results in about 5 minutes. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, Your downloads went somewhere, so do a search using the Windows search facility for "sound1.zip" and "sound2.zip". Once you find the files, unzip to get sound1.avi and sound2.ave then put them somewhere convenient. Open VLC Media Player, click on File then Open then navigate to one of the two AVI files and open them with VLC Media Player. Best regards, Lin

That sounds like a scam - VLC Media Player is free - no charge - sounds like the company at the link I provided is trying to capitalize on free software downloads by possibly collecting links and selling a convenience service of some sort. There are many places to download it and I just picked the first one which came up on my search engine. It's a great product so hopefully will work for you with no problems. I'll change the link on my post above to the CNET one.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Try VLC Media Player - Free. This should solve the problem. Windows WMC has been problematic for several people. Here's a link: http://www.download.com/VLC-Media-Player/3...4-10267151.html

Hi Guys, Tutorials now posted: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7901 Go to bottom of pinned "PTE Made Easy" to download. Best regards, Lin

Hi, I just posted two new tutorials and explanations on music/sound use with PTE here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7901 Go to the bottom of the pinned topic: PTE Made Easy (PTE for Smarties) and click on links to download zipped AVI Tutorials. Lin

Hi, Yes, the "add sound" choice allows you to have sound on the currently selected slide without affecting what's playing in the background. Whatever you add via this feature will only play for the particular slide and then stop. If you want have no background music, etc., for a number of slides then begin at some particular slide then use the "customize this slide" feature to enter sound at any chosen point. If you do nothing, this background music will continue until either the chosen music, etc., has played its entire length or the slideshow ends, whichever occurs first. If you want the music or sound to stop at a particular slide when started from a previous slide via the "cutomize this slide" feature you can simply open the customize this slide box from the slide where you want to end the music, sound, etc., and place a check in the box "play new background music" but leave the list blank. This forces the ongoing music or sound previously entered from an earlier slide via the "customize this slide" feature to stop at this point. The reason for the "playlist" type feature is that sometimes one may want to begin background music from a particular slide after others have played with no background music or having only individual slide sound comments, etc. Having the choice of more than one music selection can be useful for long slideshows where one particular selection of music may not be long enough to cover the remaining slides. On the other hand, using the "customize this slide" feature to begin play of another selection with a background selection already in progress allows the user to end the currently playing background sound and begin another which "could" be made to continue through any number of additional slides, etc. The features are quite versatile, but can be confusing so I think an AVI tutorial will be forthcoming soon on this. Best regards, Lin

Yes, As Peter has pointed out, comments or sounds entered via the "customize this slide" will not play back via the mini-player. If you want your sound bytes, sound comments or background music to play via the mini-player then use the little "add sound" feature next to the speaker icon in the upper right side of your screen above the mini-player. When sound is added this way to individual slides you "will" hear it on the mini-player. I'm beginning to think that a mini-tutorial on adding music and sounds is in order because there seems to be a great deal of confusion over the various audio features. Music or sound added via "Customize this Slide" "Music Tab" are different than sound added via the "add sound" above the mini-player or at the top of the Main Slide list. This feature allows a mini play list for convenience and has the added feature of allowing the user to bridge two or more slides with commentary or music depending on the "cutomize this slide" settings of the other slides. This feature is especially nice for presentations being given to a large audience where the commentary may cover a selection of several slides rather than being specific to a single slide. The confusion arises naturally because of the complexity possible but the complexity is a natural by-product of versatility. I'll see if I can make an AVI tutorial to explain this all sometime this week. Best regards, Lin