Lin Evans

Yes, because transitions are full screen operators so if you were to put more than one image on the screen and wanted to use a transition to bring the second or third or fourth image into view, you would need to time it's appearance via the timeline to coincide with the timing of the transition via opacity. Actually, to do what you have in mind the easiest way I can imagine is as follows: Let's assume you want four total images to appear. Place the first on the objects list and make the other three children of the first. This way when you get them sized and positioned, changing image # one's position or size will correspondingly change the position or size of the other three without affecting their relative spacings. You can apply opacity differences to any of the children so they can be easily made to fade in or out, rotate, etc, independently of the parent but still maintain their respective individuality. See the sample linked: http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/sampleex.zip and the PTE file for this: http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/sample.zip Lin

Not possible. What you do is place each slide in the slide list not in the "objects" list. Then each slide can have its own transition. You have separate timelines for each object in the "Objects List" and can create your own trnsitions such as fading an object out with opacity, opening a slide via a specialized jpg, etc., at different times, but this really doesn't make a lot of sense. If you can explain what it is you are trying to do perhaps it will be possible to help you find an approach which will work. It's possible to do some very impressive things with different layers, but layers are not designed as "separators" between slides rather as a way to pass objects in front of or behind other objects (PNG) or have multiple objects in animation simultaneously each with it's own set of animations, even combine slides via opacity differences. At least one show has been created using over 500 layers with each in simultaneous animation, but why would you want to try to use layers as a means of changing slides?? Lin

Thanks Gogs, It's fun playing with this program (PTE) as well as with Photoshop and always a interesting to try to come up with new and different ways in which it might be eventually used for serious presentations. Best regards, Lin

Jeff is being modest, actually let me shed a bit more light on the issue of manuals and documentation. First let me say that there are two types of learners in respect to understanding software - visual learners who need to see something done and verbal learners who learn best by reading and having written references to use while they work with software. Jeff was for many years an engineering consultant supervising written technical documentation. I'm a former published college professor who also owned and operated a successful software development company for many years, so I think its fair to say that between us we have many, many years experience writing technical documentation for all levels of learners. What we and others are putting together will permit the unsophisticated and beginning user of PicturesToExe to learn the program from the ground up. Nothing will be assumed about the level of understanding of the audience, and the documentation is liberally endowed with full sized screen captures of relevant and important areas. There will be a detailed glossary, an index and specialized "how-to" addenda which I'm certain will please and perhaps teach even experienced and sophisticated users a few new tricks. We assume nothing as far as the level of reader experience. Even someone who knows nothing of presentation slideshow software will be able to make animated slideshows with nothing more that what we publish. For those needing audio visual help, Barry has excellent CD's and DVD's available for a very modest price and I encourage anyone who needs or wants this type of learning aid to take advantage of his many valuable lessons. But just so there is no misunderstanding, what Jeff and I and others who have volunteered to contribute will produce and make freely available will be done professionally and at a level which will suit everyone. This will be a continuing effort with numerous specialized publications for each interest area of PicturesToExe. There will be links to a library of AV tutorials as well which will supplement the PDF format documentation, so don't feel that you are being shortchanged because you are getting this free. We consider this effort as a part of PicturesToExe to be freely given to the community of users. Best regards, Lin

Hi Manfred, There are a couple or more "roadmap" demos - one done by the Dom and one which I did and perhaps others. Essentially they are all done in an identical fashion. First you scan the map or copy the jpg image of the map you want to use. This jpg becomes the bottom layer or bottom "object" on the obects list. Next you open Photoshop or other software which has the ability to create PNG files. You then click on File, New, set transparent as the file type and make the file size equal to the dimensions of the JPG of the map. Next you open the map jpg do a "select-all" then "edit" "copy". This puts your map image on the clipboard. Next close the jpg file of the map. The transparency will still be open and look like a checkerboard. This checkerboard appearance means you have a transparent layer. Next you do an "edit" "paste" which will paste the jpg image of the map over the transparency. Then you choose the "eraser" tool and a brush size which approximates the width of the road or roads you wish to demonstrate travel on. You take this brush and follow the path you wish to highlight on your map and as you brush over the road it will disappear and that portion will be replaced with the checkerboard pattern. What you have done is "cut" a transparent path in the map. When you are finished you save the map as a PNG file. Next you open PTE and put the JPG of the map on the slide list then open Objects and Animations. Next add the PNG map then select the PNG file and do CTRL PgUP to put it on the top layer. The image will now look just like the JPG map because the JPG map "road" is showing through the transparet "hole" along the route. You have just overlaid the transparent route map over the jpg map and because the road is cut out on the transparency, the underlying printed road on the jpg map shows through and it appears identical to the jpg map. No one would know that there are really two maps, one on top of the other. The only portion of the jpg map which actually shows is that part which is revealed by the "cut-out" portion of the PNG map lying above. Next you create a car, a boat, a motorcycle, airplane or whatever PNG object you choose to travel along the path. This is created in the same way you created the PNG map. You make a transparent image in Photoshop, copy-paste the object and use the eraser tool to remove everything except what you want to show the "crop" the object to the smallest rectangle containing the object and save as a PNG. To indicate travel along the path, any object which has color and small size can be used. I used a colored rectangle which you can automatically create with the "rectangle" feature of PTE or just make a small colored rectangle in photoshop. Again, a small PNG object works fine as would a small jpg object. The essence is that "any" object which you place on a layer "between" the jpg map and the png map will show through the cutout area. So you simply move the object along the road visually by dragging it and using keypoints whenever you want it to stop and start. That's really all there is to the basic roadmap animation. You can embelish it by making duplicates of bridges, etc., and placing these above the real features so you can make objects pass beneath, etc., but the important thing to understand is how the essence of this animation works. Just imagine having two identical maps. you cut out the road with an Xacto knife and when you lay the one with the cutout on top of the one which has not been altered it appears just like there is no cut-out, but there really is. So if you were to slide a piece of colored paper between the two maps and move it along the path of the road, what you would see is that colored piece of paper showing the exact path taken by the cut-out. This is what you are essentially doing electronically. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mario, Did you download the PDF file from the link I gave you? There are 41 pages on Objects and Animations explaining every question you have just brought up. The PDF documentation takes you through each and every button, link and feature and explains in detail what they do, how they are used and how to use them. Lin

Hi Mario, We are only a couple weeks from having a comprehensie English version of complete PTE documentation, When finished, it will be indexed, have a glossary as well as addenda covering specific area. Right now there is a French version already completed. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7090 Eventually there will be complete help available on the web but you must understand that version 5 was just completed. It was not possible to have comprehensive documentation until the product was finished and the betas have been free for all to use and learn with for over a year now. For the Objects and Animations including Project Options and a treatise on understanding keypoints you can download a temporary PDF which should help you understand the majority of the basics of how to use version 5. If you are patient, in a couple weeks the completed documentation will be widely available for download in PDF format where you may print your own version. Having a printed version available for purchase wouldn't be very effective because like all good software it's always in a state of constant improvement so updates to the PDF document will be a continuing process with the latest version always available. For past versions to 4.8 Al Robins has had complete documentation available for several years. Here's the link to what I have which will be added to the main section soon. http://www.lin-evans.net/tutorial/ObjectsAnimation.pdf Lin ote name='Mario' date='Aug 2 2007, 03:07 AM' post='44407'] Without the tutorials contributed by the experienced members here this program would not be worth buying, at least for me. You people supplying help and tutorials for us newbies are doing a wonderful job for a program that apparently is capable of doing so much. Is there a book on the market I can buy? Too my great surprise, hitting the help button on the program 'Ver5 Deluxe' only directs me to this website. Has any version of PTE had help actually in the help section? What a dissapointment! Many tutorials (but not all) I eventually find are not comprehensive in that many times they assume knowledge of other areas of PTE to accomplish the task at hand. As I said earlier, thank god for you guys suppliyng tutorials. I think the makers of PTE should concentrate less on updating the program and consider more the need for a structured help section within the program or at least a manual for purchase. Sorry, I need to let off steam and what better place than with my friends. P.s I saw somewhere CD's for sale, are they structured and worth buying? Unfortunately, I'm one of those that learn more by seeing not by reading. Wishing you all well, Mario

Hi Jeff, I've added a few more on the same theme - both out and into frame.... Finished now.. Lin

Hi Ron, Which converter are you using - which camera (RAW format?). Perhaps it's a 16 bit/8 bit thing. Take the converted file into Photoshop or Irfanview and save as JPG rather than using Windows and try. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, LOL - if I ever get R2D2 working! Actually, I've added a few more slides now - just an in process example. best regards, Lin

Hi Gilbert, Could you elaborate on what you mean by "split image work"? If understood, it might help determine exactly what you are trying to do. Best regards, Lin

Thans John and all, Hopefully we will have it finished soon and it more usable format. Best guess a couple weeks if things go well, sooner if we're lucky. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Thank YOU for such a fantastic program! We are glad to help others learn to use this incredible tool. In a couple weeks or so it should be finished and then perhaps we can find some volunteers to translate. Best regards, Lin

In proofing my Objects and Animations documentation, Jeff noticed that I had failed to address the "animations" tab which covers some fairly important things. About eight pages have been added and the link updated to reflect this. Now a total of 41 pages for now. Lin

Hi Ken, LOL - the sight is working again and I'm having fun and resting up before doing more tutorials. I've added another couple images to the 3D fun and posted on the same link so it's a work in progress.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ted, I'm glad it's been helpful. You may want to download it once again since I have made a couple additions and clarifications. Specifically, I've clarified and elaborated a bit on the differences between "Transparent To Selection" (in the Common tab) and "Ignore Objects Not Selected" (under the "Tools" button). I've also explained the meaning of "Hide selection on Pan/Zoom/Rotate". You can see a separate posting in the Tutorials section on the first issue. The problem with posting a work in process is that additions and corrections are not necessarily completed, but I do believe it's essentially finished now. Of course the merging, indexing, etc., when Jeff finishes will make the whole much more useful than my present posting. Best regards, Lin

In the process of writing the documentation for Objects and Animations, I realized that I did not understand the difference between the feature "Transparent to Selection" (found under the Common tab in the O&A screen) and the "Ignore Objects Not Selected" (found when clicking the Tools button). They seemed to do the same identical thing - that is when actuated, you could simply select an object in the Objects list and when you clicked on the bounding green rectangle in the "View" held down the left mouse button, you could drag and resize and position the selected object. When you clicked inside you could then "move" the selected object regardless of which layer it resided on. Whether you used "transparent to selection" or "ignore objects not selected" the result was the same. So I just assumed they were different ways of doing the same thing, but I wanted to be clear so I asked Igor to explain whether there was any differences. The answer is a very important yes - there is a difference! The "Tools" under the "tool" button ONLY affect the Editor - they have absolutely no effect in the slideshow produced. On the other hand, "Transparent to Selection" works in both the editor AND the slideshow produced. Then what does this mean to your sideshow? Let's take a practical example. We all know we can assign "action attributes" to buttons or text, etc. So what if we created a button, made it pretty large, placed it in the upper right hand corner of the screen then set it's "action" to exit. If we then went to the preview and clicked on the button it would cause the preview of the slideshow to cease and would perform an "exit" back to the O&A editor. If we were to create an executable slideshow, then left clicking our mouse on this button would cause the slideshow to cease and perform an "exit". But what if we simply changed the button to the layer "beneath" the main screen so that it was invisible then tried clicking on the upper right part of the screen where we know the button is "hiding"? It would do nothing because the screen was effectively "hiding" the button so that the mouse click had zero effect. Now, set the main screen's attribute to "transparent to selection" and click in the upper right hand corner. What happens now? What happens is that setting a check-mark beside the main screen on the "common tab" makes the screen "transparent to selection" so that now the program can "see" the button lying on the layer beneath the screen and when we click in the upper right hand corner, the slideshow would exit! So the difference is, that "transparent to selection" works both in the Editor AND on the slideshow while "Ignore Objects Not Selected" works only in the Editor. This major difference opens up many new possibilities for those who want to program interesting possibilities into their executable slideshows. Lin

Hi Jeff, Thanks - I did it as a joke for one of the forums I frequent where there have been frequent discussions (even arguments - LOL) about whether or not some cameras can produce more of a "3D" appearance. I thought I would "settle" the argument by simply producing one out of a capture from the specific camera then thought maybe I would put together a little "oob" (out of bounds) slideshow using images altered in Photoshop to achieve a three dimensional effect via the other objects and their relationships. There is a fairly large group of people who love to create oob images. It's becoming more popular in advertising, etc., and can be quite interesting if not overdone. It does shed a bit of light on human perception and how positions and angles, etc., play into our total depth perception beyond that offered by only our overlapping fields of vision. Hopefully, when I get a little time I will create a dozen or so and add to the slideshow. Best regards. Lin

About 12 meg zipped exe - just something in development... And now finished - 8/1/07 http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/3d.zip Lin

Thanks Mike, The reason there are no page numbers is because it's only a part of what will become an integrated document completed with index, glossary, etc. The entire document will have perhaps twice the number of pages along with figure numbers for reference, etc., so as an in-process product it's only a "beta". I have temporarily page numbered it and reposted but remember the page numbers will not be accurate as references because this will be at the end rather than the beginning of the finished document. Best regards, Lin

Hola Silvia, Gracias! Quizás cuando los documentos de Jeff y del mí se combinan y se ponen en un índice, podemos encontrar a alguien para traducir al español Lin

Projects Options, Screen Tab, scroll down and put a check mark in the block beside "disable scaling of main image". Lin

Hi Esben, Actually there are two. One is finished and available in French via the Tutorials section of this forum from Cèlou, and one in late process by a cooperative effort between Jeff Evans and I. My portions which concerns Objects and Animations including the shared Projects Options portion is currently available for download on the Tutorials forum here. It includes a complete Keyboard Shortcut section as well as the separately available "Understanding and Using Keypoints" document which is also linked via the Tutorial section. We will combine and index these two sections very soon then make them available as an integrated PDF document. Eventually I will add more in-depth tutorials as addenda along with a library of associated AVI tutorials. Lin

As many may know, Jeff Evans and I are cooperating in producing an English version of complete documentation for PicturesToExe. Cèlou has completed a French version available in executable format on this forum. Jeff is handling the Main screen portion and I'm handling the Objects and Animations portion. We will combine these into an integrated document complete with index, glossary and so on as soon as we both are finished. My part is nearly finished awaiting only a couple brief answers from Igor and since there are so many new users asking for documentation, I have decided to post what I have. Perhaps Jeff will do the same once his part is ready and before we combine them into an integrated whole. It would be nice to wait until we have it completed, but what we have now is surely useful for those anxious to get started. I'm planning a series of "How-To" addenda to the main documentation. The first of these has already been made available (Understanding and Using Keypoints) as a separate PDF document, but is attached at the end of the Objects and Animations plus Keyboard Shortcuts portion as well. Eventually I will publish an number of these dealing with different aspects of PTE but the "heart" of the visual part is the keypoints and the first of these is finished. Anyway, the PDF document is not yet indexed or page numbered but here's what I have: MAJOR UPDATE 7/29/07 - another eight pages or so on the Animation tab - Link Updated... http://www.lin-evans.net/tutorial/ObjectsAnimation.pdf For those not familiar with PDF documents, you can easily make a copy to print via the menu. Lin