Lin Evans

Translation: Hello, I bought PTE Deluxe and I made a slideshow but when I want to view it on my DVD it (connected to TV) it doesn't start automatically, I have to use the menu. Did I miss a step in the preparation? Is there a tutorial? Hi Bernard, This is how it normally works - you click on the DVD menu and the show starts just as you choose from a menu with your commercial movie DVD's. The User Guide has instructions, but they are in English and have not yet been translated to other languages. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, You have hit on one of the primary reasons why PTE doesn't directly support video clips; the large change in resolution between normally low resolution video and high resolution still slides. There are two ways to use video with PTE and frankly neither are completely satisfactory because the program really isn't designed to do this. The first way is to use a video decompiler to break the video down into separate files - usually jpg - which can then be played back in sequence at a reasonable frame rate of perhaps 150ms per frame. This means you would have your still frames with whatever animations followed by a movie sequence made of still frames followed by more stills, etc. It's not difficult to do this but the number of frames in your slide list can become quickly problematic if your video clips are very long. The second way with PTE is to use Video Builder and create an MPG II file then a third party video mixer to combine the video clips and save back to MPG II then burn the combined show to DVD. Video Builder does let you add video clips as separate chapters to a DVD show but not in an integrated way in a single slideshow. Some good video decompilers are very inexpensive - here is the one I use: http://www.onestopsoft.com/ Normally I wouldn't suggest using a different program because PicturesToExe has the very highest quality output of "any" presentation slideshow software, but if mixing video with your slides is a major part of what you are intending to do you may want to try a different software program for this particular purpose such as Proshow Gold: http://www.photodex.com Proshow let's you drop in video clips seamlessly into your slideshow programs. The down side is image quality which isn't nearly up to PicturesToExe standards for executable slideshows, but if you are mixing in video it really doesn't matter because the show will generally be degraded to 800x600 pixel true resolution for rendering then for executable shows interpolated back to whatever screen resolution you choose for your slideshow. This has the end effect of greatly softening the images and a loss of resolution. Of course if DVD at NTSC or PAL resolution is the final product it really doesn't matter because the resolution will be degraded no matter which sodtware you use. So essentially, you have two ways to do this. One - using PTE which is awkward or try Proshow Gold for doing slideshows where you need to mix in a number of video clips. It really doesn't matter a great deal which video camera you use as long as the output is digital rather than analog. So most of the new video recorders will output digital - just choose one which has the resolution and zoom and stabilization features you like. Best regards, Lin

I'm sorry, I don't understand your question exactly - perhaps you can explain. Why do you need something "better" than PowerPoint if all you are doing is showing pictures which you advance manually? Powerpoint is certainly plenty powerful for that application - in fact much more than necessary so why the need for something "better"?? You can use a simple slide display like IrfanView just show images with no transitions...... Best regards, Lin

Hi Bernard, I think people do not understand your question completely. It is not necessary to toggle MPEG-2 to burn a DVD. Do you have PTE Deluxe? If so you only need to tell it to Create DVD. If not, you need to follow the instructions in the User Guide which can be downloaded in PDF format either by choosing "help" from the PTE menu or by going to the "Tutorials" section of the forum. Without the Deluxe (internal DVD Authoring) what you do is use a third party software such as Ulead DVD Movie Factory. Please give more information about whether you have Deluxe Version or Basic PTE... Best regards, Lin

This was a problem once before where programming slide count began with zero but slides numbering began with one. It was "fixed" in the 5.0 betas - looks like it's slipped back. Lin

Lilting, haunting, melodic and majestic, Barry... Lin

Hi Bill, Beautiful photos and excellent presentation capturing the "mood" of rural Ireland. Loved the choice of music as well - nice Celtic ending! Best regards, Lin

Brian's great job on the Snowglobe Windmill reminded me that I had done one a while back with a rather somber and mystical mood so I thought I would post a link to that one. Panos' great snowglobe action lends itself to many artistic interpretations. This one was designed around a Dutch winter scene at the famous Schemerhorn windmills with some artistic license. http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/windmill.zip and another variation to include Lunar movement, variations in snowfall which dissapate and finally end, and using theDom's excellent "Dusty Light" Photoshop action to create "moonbeams". http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/ghoststar.zip Lin

Hi Brian, Very nice! Not only a nice use of Panos Snow Globe action, but shows considerable Photoshop skills as well! I did a similar one (using a windmill) a while back and understand the complexity you had to deal with! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Cool! My only suggestion would be to spread the deck a little to give you more room for the object selection and perhaps rather than "Pick a Card" put a card value icon such as the King of Hearts, Jack of Spades, Ace, etc., on the card itself and tell the user to click on the card's value rather than just anywhere on the card which "can" miss the object selection area. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gilbert, No - it's not possible to edit the executable, that's what the PTE file is for. You edit the PTE file then quickly recompile the executable. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mary, What you need to do is make your first object the parent and make it a rectangle with zero opacity. Next make each text object a child of the rectangle so that the rectangle has three text objects indented under it and each in the same relative position so that these text objects are not children of each other, but rather all children of the rectangle. Then you can manipulate the rectangle for position, rotation, size, etc., and each child text object will correspond. The children can have their own keypoints and individual opacities, their own shadows, colors, etc., but their motion can be controlled in unison by the parent rectangle. Download this little zip and study the structure to see how it's done. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/textcontrol.zip On the rasterize text to PNG - that's apparently a bug in 5.1 beta. Go back to 5.0 and it works correctly - I'll inform Igor. Best regards, Lin

For Igor: Translation: Hello, I bought PTE Deluxe but I did not receive the unlock key. Can you have the kindness to send it to me. I paid in (blue chart ??) the 30/10/2007 With my thanks.

Magical Bob, I like it just as is! Lin

Cool, Magic, Love the black kitty! Best regards, Lin

Hi Tony, If I understand your question correctly, the answer is twofold: First, you haven't lost any ability to synchronize music with transitions - it's exactly the same as with the earlier version, but there is no way to automatically or "visually" synchronize keypoint animation times with the music because there is no "live view" of the animation in the timeline mode, only in the preview mode. So it's not possible via the timeline view to move keypoints to synchronize with a particular instant of the sound track. You can, however, note the specific time on the sound track visually in the timeline view, then set the keypoint numerically to correspond to that moment in time in objects and animations. Hopefully in version 5.2 there may be a live view of not only the transitions as we have now but also the animations in the mini-window on the timeline to further facilitate synchronizing not only transitions as we can now do, but also to synchronize animation points visually with the sound track. On your second question, there is no real penalty in terms of doing it all in one slide. That is you can zoom in, out, pan and so on for a slide with four images all on the same slide or you could duplicate the slide if you wanted to use a particular transition between segments. As far as the program is concerned it's immaterial which way you choose to do it. Actually, I've created a single slide slideshow using a panorama. Here's a link so you can see the result. This one has multiple pans and zooms. http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/cliffhouse.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Dennis, Apparently you downloaded the latest iteration of version 4 (4.48) rather than version 5. You can download version 5 from several sources here. Of course the upgrade to 5.0 is a free upgrade as are all future upgrades for the base PTE product, and as you correctly assume the Deluxe portion is carries a $20 fee. When version 5 is installed it doesn't overwrite your previous version but creates a new icon which plainly says PTE 5.0 (on the icon). You may as well go ahead and download the beta of 5.1 which is very stable so you can see the newest features. You can do that from the forum here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7500 Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, It's a cool effect. It's like the little plastic slider puzzles popular back in the late 50's and early 60's. Probably it's before some of our younger member's times - LOL. I'll post a link to David's executable (zipped) on my site. Link here: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/twentypuzzle.zip Lin

Hi Ron, There's a little more to it - you can also customize which slides you wish to allow the manual pause and which you may wish to advance normally. I have a brief tutorial in the tutorials section here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7541 Lin

I remembered a question someone had concerning how to make some slides auto-advance and how to make others Pause until a keystroke or mouse click to advance. I couldn't find the discussion so I thought I would shed some light on this. There are two ways in 5.1 beta (beta two right now) to set up this manual advance with transitions, etc., feature. The first way is to go to Project Options, Main Tab then check "Wait for a Key Press or Mouse Click to Show Next Slide". This way sets a universal which over-rides the individual timings for each slide and allows the user to have a totally manual slide show with transitions in the "forward" movement between slides. This may be coupled with the Navigation Bar and still allows other features such as quick change to next slide without transitions, etc., by clicking the Pause button as with 5.0 and as explained in the User Guide. The other way allows the user to customize so as to program the Manual Advance only for selected slides and otherwise to advance according to the timings set for each individual slide. The way this is done is to select individual slides either one at a time or in groups in the slide list from the Main Screen then click on the "Customize Slide" and choose Main Tab. Directly underneath the (Display slide for) so many seconds, etc., is a line: By default (use timer to show next slide) with a place to click on a down arrow which reveal a drop-down pick-list having several choices. One of these choices will allow you to assign the Manual Advance feature to only those slides or slide selected. In this manner you will be able to customize this new feature to one or more slides. As with other Windows operations, you can select more than one slide in the slide list by holding down either the CTRL key and clicking on each iindividual slide to be included in the selection, or you can select a group of contiguous slides by clicking on either the first or last slide then holding down the Shift key on the keyboard and clicking on the opposite. That is click on the first then hold the Shift Key and click on the last in the block or vice versa. Lin

Hi Harvey, Let me address the first part of your two part question: Only the spacebar, backspace and right and left arrows are used to move from slide to slide. The "Wait for a Key Press" really means "wait for the appropriate key press" to be absolutely technically correct. Lin

This gives those who wanted more or less a "return to the future" the option of advancing to the next slide whenever they choose complete with transitions - ignores auto-advance or per slide timings and gives a true manual control for the slideshow. Nice option!! Lin

Beautiful photos and great music Barry, Carol - superb! I had to laugh when I realized this was at Bristol. I'll swear if I never have to drive in downtown Bristol traffic again it will be "too soon" - LOL, for me driving in Bristol is as frustrating as trying to find a place to park in Bath! This (flying) is the "only" way to travel across the city. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, Looks fine to me. I don't know any realistic way of getting around the slight jump when you bring one of the images from behind other frames before it's brought to the front unless you want to alter the placement of the image to be brought forward in the background while it's hidden by the foreground full screen image. This would necessitate having 20 different configurations with the image to be brought forward next on top of the stack. The only other suggestion I would have would be to very slightly alter the angle of photo 15 to minimize the "jaggies" on the aliased edge. Best regards, Lin