Lin Evans

Hi David, Yes - many have monitors with greater than two megapixel resolution. A number of my clients have nine megapixel monitors which display 3840x2400 in 2D mode. It's quite common today to find 2560x1600 in use. 1920x1200 is also quite common. Best regards, Lin

Just click on the "Buy Now" button and you will find a drop-down menu from which you may select either the deluxe or standard or upgrade. Lin

Well - last new effect added and I'm tired of cubes - LOL... How many "cubes" does it take to fly a helicopter? Lin

Can't afford them until I get a big "advance" from the studio - LOL... I've added a last slide with a new technique I'm working on.... Lin

Hi Graeme, Could you use the PTE zip feature (File - Create backup in zip) and post it for me. I will create a DVD and see if I have the same problem and perhaps figure out what is happening. Have you tried the DVD on both the computer and on a stand-alone DVD player attached to your TV and is it the same on both? Thanks, LIn

Hi Leona, AVI or MPEG files are huge by comparison with executable code. This is one reason why many prefer executable files. Not only are they (AVI, MPEG's) large, but to equal the executable image quality it's necessary that they be even larger. The differences are highly technical, but to greatly simplify an executable code uses the power of the viewer's computer to create the multiple images necessary to see the animation motion in real time so that only the original images and the code necessary to create the intermediate images and transitions need to be stored in the executable file. When you create an AVI or MPEG II, etc., each image must be not only rendered (created) but stored because the device (TV, etc.) which the file might be played on is essentially "brain dead" compared to a computer. Though these files can be played on a computer, they are really designed to be used with muiltiple devices which have display power but not "creative" power. This necessitates storing huge amounts of data on the removable media (CD, DVD, BluRay, etc.) so that all the necessary information to display the show is available to the display device which "may" not have the power to interpret code and "create" on the fly the transition images between the original image and the final image in any animation sequence. This then means that the AVI or MPEG file actually stores all these intermediate images and transitions rather than creating them as the slideshow is being displayed. On a typical high quality AVI or MPEG there are between 25 and 29.97 complete images stored for each one second of display time. It's a huge amount of data so storage requirements for displaying a similar slideshow are huge for AVI, DVD, MPEG II, etc., compared to executable files. The amount of compression does influence the storage requirements indeed but when you highly compress you also loose image quality. The bottom line is that if the people you send your slideshows to have a PC, it's much better to zip up the executable and use one of the aforementioned services to link them to the download. This results in their seeing a much better rendition of your slideshow. If they have a MacIntosh which doesn't have PC compatibility, then you have no choice other than using some alternative method which will result in either a huge file or a much smaller image and somewhat compromised quality. My suggestion would be to use a Flash converter and convert an AVI of relatively low compression to Flash which will be much smaller in size but somewhat compromised in quality. Also when creating the AVI don't use the original large photos out of your digital camera. Use Irfanview, etc., to downsample the originals to 800x600, apply about 14% sharpening during the batch conversion and then make your AVI. Things will go much smoother and quicker. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Majestic frames indeed! Awsome rainbow and I loved the Pika checking out your gear.. Great UW work - wonderful closeup of the Moray. All great memories and perfect timing on the wildflowers. Best regards, Lin

Wouldn't that result in an incredible amount of "clutter" when there are many, many objects?? Some create animations with as many as 600 objects. By doing it as it's done now it's possible to "usually" see all keyframes for each object serially, but to try to show all keyframes for all objects simultaneously would make an impossible screen. I could see this for simple animations when there are only a few objects, but for complex animations it would seem to be untenable? If it were an "option" then how would one decide how many object to allow when using this option? It would seem that one would run out of discernable colors rather quickly so this would only be useful for a limited number of objects. I see the utility for certain animations, but having this "rather" than the way it's done presently might not be suitable for every application. Best regards, Lin snip

Hi Gayland, I've searched my posts but not sure which one this might have been. Is there some particular question about O&A which could possibly help me locate it? I think the O&A tutorials I posted on the previous link cover most of the issues, but if you can remember what her question was it might help me locate a specific response and link post. Best regards, Lin Could this have been the one you are looking for? http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7928

Hi Ken, New big ending for you on original download... Lin

Hi Robert, Probably it was one posted in the Tutorials and Articles section here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7901 Let me know if it was different... Best regards, Lin

The music's good - LOL http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/samples/cubefunz.zip Lin

Hi Leona, Save as AVI or MPEG II or put them on DVD - all should work with Mac. Lin

HI Claude, I'm not certain I understand exactly what you want to do, but it's easy to place a number of PTE shows on one DVD with Video Builder. Perhaps you already know this and I'm missing something, but you just drag the PTE shows onto the workspace and you can easily have up to 99 PTE shows (to the limits of the DVD capacity) on one DVD complete with menu, chapters, etc. Best regards, Lin

You may want to download and read the Official PTE User Guide and the Unofficial PTE User Guide from the Help link on PTE. To make a stand-alone AVI file you must use "Create Custom AVI". Click on Video then on Create AVI then click inside the small circle next to Create Custom AVI Video File. Next click on Video Codec and choose one which resides on your computer from the list. If you don't already have a Codec Pack I would suggest downloading a free one such as the ACE Codec MegaPak and installing something common such as Microsoft 2 or Microsoft 4. After you have selected a Video Codec then choose an appropriate size depending on your eventual output destination. 640x480 works well as does 800x600, etc. The other functions are designed to be used with specific software to burn DVD's or BluRay, etc., and the default codec "PTE Codec" doesn't create a stand-alone AVI file but rather creates an AVI "Template" which informs other software such as Ulead Movie Factory of the images, order, transitions, music, etc., which the third party software would use to burn the disc. Best regards, Lin +

Yes - but it takes time. Will be possibly a couple years.... Lin

Hi Dom, I think you made an excellent choice for a first camera and to learn with. Cameras are like carpenter's tools, different ones work better for specific purposes. I use many different cameras, some for experiments and some for professional purposes. I do camera and peripheral testing for several manufacturers so have a rather large collection of dSLR's, prosumer and consumer digicams (over 30) including most major brands. I find that for convenience, a camera such as the one you selected works quite well. It's small enough to have with you nearly all the time and has sufficient zoom range to capture landscapes, wildlife, architecture, macro and candid frames alike. As you learn more about photography you may eventually want to add a dSLR and lens collection to have a complete set of tools, but the one you have chosen will do nicely for now. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Human nature is often the culprit. There is a general resistance to change and our memories often ameliorate the past. The "good ole days" were sometimes good and often not so good - LOL. In photography we have a segment who are anti-digital and long for the "beauty, resolution, dynamic range" (fill in the adjectives, etc. here) of film. Others, like myself, remember long hours in the darkroom with smelly chemicals and fingers crossed hoping that the one frame which we remembered and a "possible" wasn't out-of-focus or otherwise compromised and a sign of relief or curse when the results were obtained. I remember hours of burning, dodging, masking and other drudgery which has been replaced with a few minutes with Photoshop. Chimping has replaced the uncertainty of whether the frame was captured properly, etc. So too are some whose memories of how things used to be have been tinted with the rosy glow of selective memory. I suspect your detractor fits this genre. Let the comment pass like water off the back of the Mallard in the neighborhood pond and continue making beautiful shows for an appreciative audience. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, I thought I had found a problem in O&A with "Scale Keyframes" but decided it was my fault so I quickly deleted the post = not a fault of PTE or the forum. Lin

Hi, Since there will never be more than two executable files running simultaneously, just turn off hardware acceleration for the menu and turn it on for each slideshow. You can run dozens of slideshows from your menu but when each ends the exe for that slideshow is closed and control returns to the menu. The issue concerning turning off hardware acceleration in the menu primarily came about because some users who were running animations in their menus noticed jerky movement in their slideshows when hardware acceleration was on in the menus. Apparently hardware acceleration is "exclusive" meaning it's designed to work with a single program at a time. The work-around for having animation in the menus "and" animation in the slideshows involves killing the menu when the show is opened and calling the menu back from the last slide exit on each slideshow. The simple rule of thumb is just turn off hardware acceleration for the menu unless you have animation in the menu. If you have animation in your menus then you need to exit the menu when a choice is made and call it back with the last slide of each slideshow. The details for doing this have been explained in past discussions. Best regards, Lin

Since PTE isn't a word processor, there is no way to "format" text into either rows or columns. You can manually insert returns in text as you write it to manually create a column, or you can let it fill the screen at a given font size before hitting Enter. But my suggestion, if you want formatted rows and columns of text is to create the text in your favorite word processor. Save the file, capture the screen and crop to suit then save as a jpg and use this as an object. The formatted text can then have any mouse click attribute assigned just as text created in the program. Having test in the program is a convenience but as said earlier, it's not a word processor. It would be very easy to simply use your word processor and get the text looking exactly as you want it the simply capture it as an image and use the image. Best regards, Lin

Objects and Animations screen, Common Tab, Action on Mouse Click Your choices are: None Exit Next Slide Previous Slide Help Go to First Slide Go to Slide Number.... Pause Open Web Page Write Email Run Application or Open File Print Picture/Slide Run Application and Exit A hyperlink essentially takes the viewer to a website of your choice in which case the choice would be Open Web Page. If your picture is on a slide then you would use that choice. If you want to open a document then you would "run application or open file" and the software you use to run the document would have to support pulling up a particular document, etc. Just create your text with PTE then choose the appropriate mouse action for that text. Best regards, Lin

Hi Brian, I didn't recommend he/she use Irfanview - LOL, I just told him that there was no way to prevent his screen images from being "pinched". You're correct; it's possible to make it more difficult for unsophisticated users to capture images by defeating a keyboard interrupt (prt sceen), such as done with PTE, etc., but I'm assuming that these lawyers have a clue. If they do and he/she leaves the room they "will" capture the images if they choose to do so. As Ken says, I use a mouse magnifier myself, but I don't see the relevance for the OP. My assumption from the OP's statement is that he/she provides them the slides on a CD/DVD for the lawyers meaning they play them on their own systems. So outside of suggesting that "they" use a magnifying mouse to magnify the areas they want closeups of on their own computer(s).....? The suggestion of watermarking and/or © is prudent. I just want the OP to be aware of the fact that all that he/she can do is make it more "difficult" for his clients to purloin these images, but in the end if they have computer skills and desire to steal they will take the images if left alone for a few moments. Best regards, Lin

Unfortunately, you have a problem which can't be solved. No matter what program you use to display your photos, you can't prevent others from "stealing" your images. A simple screen capture tool such as Snagit can always be used by anyone with a computer to capture your images and save them to their computer. There is no way to prevent this. If you allow your images to be seen on a computer when you are not present, or if you put them on the web, they can be easily captured. Sorry, there is no solution for preventing this as long as the person viewing your images is dishonest. Best regards, Lin