Lin Evans

Hi Brian, That's a solution, but not the same as what I have in mind. I can copy the .pte file to a CD or DVD but that's just like putting it on the hard disk where it already resides, in other words just moving it from one storage location to another. The point is to have the .pte embedded "with" the .exe so that anywhere the .exe file ends up it's "always" possible to extract the information for updates or changes. I don't keep copies of files for my customers and they may or may not have the CD or DVD or Zip disk or Magneto Optical media or however the file was delivered to them three or four years from now. Since the slideshow is self-contained in the .exe file, the user may have moved it a dozen times in migration from one system to another by the time I see it again. Copying the template to the distribution media just isn't a viable solution. If the .pte file stays with the .exe file as an embedded part which can always be retrieved it will never be lost or separated. Best regards, Lin

The likely culprit is the video card. When a transition is timed the assumption is that the CPU, drive and video can "keep up" with the programmed speed but that's not always the case. I've had situations exactly like the one you describe where I actually timed the transitions with a stopwatch on different systems and on systems with slow hard drives and mediocre video speed the images would lag behind the sound so that the timing was off. For example when you have a fast transition and the video can't effect that transition in the time you have programmed then defacto the sound will be ahead of the video and there is really no solution except for a faster system. The problem from a programmer's perspective is that you must have the "expectation" that the system is capable of doing what you ask in the alloted time. Unfortunately this is not always the case. It would be ideal if you could test the show on the system you intend to use it on and if necessary install P2E on that system and adjust it accordingly. This issue is not related to PicturesToExe but common to any slideshow program which synchronizes music to images and has transiions. Best regards, Lin

Yes, Granot's program is essentially a screen capture utility which captures the screen content and gives each image slide sequential names, but this won't help with all the information contained in the pte file. The utility for this type information would be very helpful because it would contain all transition effects, timings, paths to files, etc. I can see lots of situations where this would be incredibly useful and if offered as an optional choice when creating the executable there would be no down side.... Lin

I had a situation arise where I needed to revise a slideshow created for a customer a few years ago on P2E. The .pte file has long since been discarded so to do this I had to dig up the original photos and start from scratch. This led me to wonder if it were possible to embed the .pte file in the executable in such a way that it could be recovered by some "switch" filename.exe/recoverpte or something similar. This would make it much easier to re-create then modify the show because all relative information would be permanently embedded in the executable??? Lin

I'm wondering whether this Ken Burns effect couldn't be implemented by providing some sort of internal Flash engine which could then implement Flash files? It's relatively easy to make Flash "movies" of stills by various available software. Then if P2E could provide a way of displaying these within a slideshow it would be possible to achieve results like this: http://www.lin-evans.net/re/buffalo.html Lin

If you are seriously running a business and want to treat it as such, you need a professional solution like ImageRazor Pro (link below). Have a look at their video and I think you will see why it is designed to do exactly what you're asking for. P2E is a fantastic slideshow program but it wouldn't make a lot of sense to go off on tangents and be a "half" solution for something which is already well covered.... Lin http://www.imagefire.com/

Hi Ken, Isabel, Thanks - it's nice to get back here and catch up on all the fantastic improvements Igor has made in P2E! It's definitely become "the" slideshow program in my opinion.... Isabel, glad you enjoyed the show. Jon's art is without a doubt something to behold. I'm absolutely astounded each time I examine a new piece. I used to use a strong magnifying glass to view it, but now I just photograph it so I can enjoy all the intricate details and wonder at the patience his technicians in Bali must have to assemble it all.

I had the opportunity to make a slide show for a client on the Fiore Polymer Clay art of Jon Stuart Anderson. Jon is world renowned as an artist and considered the best at the Fiore process. Fiore Polymer Clay begins life as a colored piece about the size of a large loaf of bread. These are called "canes". The artist fabricates an intricate design as a sculpture would then stretches the clay over and again until the designs are tiny - some almost microscopic. The long piece of art is then sliced like pickle chips with a surgical scalpel and the intricate tiny "tiles" of design are pressed on a wooden or clay model. This model with hundred and even thousands of tiny polymer "tiles" is then baked and the polymer tiles expand to form a contiguous design of intricate detail and exquisite beauty. In the case of Jon's art the clay models used as a base are "spirit" animals, birds, fish, etc. Glass or polymer eyes, etc., are affixed and the object is finished with an ultra fine grit abrasive until it's as smooth as a piece of glass. There is absolutely no paint on Jon's art. Each piece of the intricate design is colored polymer clay. The finished pieces are relatively expensive and highly collectible as art. Each year Jon produces two new animals but this year only one - the buffalo (American Bison). The art objects range in size from about 1.5 inches to six inches and for snakes around 14 inches. Here's a link where you can download the slideshow with background music. It's nothing complex, just an example of how P2E can be used in conjunction with my photos of the art and PhotoShop, etc., to produce a tribute to this artist. Click on the link below and download the file "andersonart.ex" One you have the file, rename it to "andersonart.exe" and it will run. I had to drop the "e" from the file extension to satisfy my server's requirement for no executable files resident. About 10 megabytes so broadband suggested.... Best regards, Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/shows/andersonart.ex

Hi Barb, There is no way to do this directly. The best you can do is to capture the individual screen frames then use them to create your DVD show either by using P2E which can output an AVI file which can be converted by other software such as Ulead DVD Movie Factory or by inputing these screens into your other program. Granot, a frequent contributor here has graciously provided a dontaionware program which can easily capture each frame. Here's his link. You may download the program called RestorePTE located near the bottom. Use the scroll bar to scroll down and look for the above file to download. http://www.thailandphotoalbum.com/ Lin

I don't know about "freeware" but here's a link to one which works very well for $19.95 Lin http://www.audioutilities.com/video-to-mp3...ideo-to-mp3.htm

Hey Granot, Are you sure it isn't "ShowVideoPte"? Doesn't the ShowVideoPte work with mpg's, etc., called from a slide or menu and the FlashVideoExe work with Flash and video before the slideshow begins :-) Best regards, Lin

Hi Granot, In each slideshow which I produce there are credits to the developers and programs used at the beginning of the show and links to their sites from my website. I'll be glad to change the skin back to include the original but then I won't be able to use it. People outside of this forum and few others have any idea what "PTE" means and it would simply create confusion. When the "about" button is clicked it links to your website and when the user links to my website from the menu your site and a "plug" are included in my own links. Let me know if this doesn't work for you and I'll stop using your menu program. Here's a link to my own site: http://www.lin-evans.net Click on the "links" and read the information on the right side of the opening screen.... Best regards, Lin

Cool! I like the texture - I didn't change the texture on my "revision" but did change the "face" to personalize it like this: http://www.lin-evans.net/sample/skinsample.jpg Lin

Yes, thank's very much Granot!! That's exactly what I had in mind. Ken, I think that Granot said he can't do the same with the playlist window - that was my other request. Apparently that one can't be changed but having the option of inserting your own jpg in the lower window adds a lot. Best regards, Lin

Just a little addendum to everything said: Even if you don't make a slideshow for DVD, it's certainly possible to save your slideshows to a DVD and run them on the computer just as you do slideshows on CD's. The advantage, of course, is that if your executable exceeds the capacity of a CD or if you have numerous slideshows you are calling from a single menu you can take advantage of the much greater capacity of the DVD. An autorun.inf command will start and run an executable slideshow from a DVD just as it does on a CD. Best regards, Lin

First, congrats on a great menu program! I was wondering if it were possible to provide a means of allowing a background jpg to float behind the white screen where the list of file names is written? I assume that your code replaces the white area which appears on the skin.jpg with an identical backdrop for the text when the executable calls the skin? A watermark type background with a scenic just showing behind the text would look nice here, but if I substitute the white area with such it dissapears when the executable is run so my assumption is that it's being overwritten. Same for the green where the .txt files appear? Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, That works great! But if ths executable being called is not a P2E slideshow there is no way to access the internal code to run the "menu" again. I'm not certain how others use P2E but we often call video shows or other executables which were not created with P2E. The menu's generated by P2E are very quick and easy to create so are great as long as we don't try to run music. Even when we use two P2E executables - call them Menu1.exe and Menu2.exe which are essentially duplicates except for the inclusion of a "resume music" button which calls the opposite menu. The only problem comes when someone accidentally clicks on the "resume music" button twice and both end up running simultaneously with music from each starting at different times :-) We can use MultiMedia builder to build the menus with sound so that it's not really a big thing, but if it were an easy feature to add to P2E it would be nice to have. Best regards and congratulations on what I think is the best slideshow software available! Lin

Hi Igor, Thanks! That works great as long as the object being called (executable) is a P2E slideshow, but if the executable is from another program or a video show, etc., there is no way to access their internal code to open the menu again. Thanks, Lin

For Igor, Frequently many of us use a single slide with objects (buttons, etc.) as a menu to call other programs. The question was asked about having background music play while this "menu" is present and having the music return when the other executables which have been called by clicking on the objects close and the menu re-appears. We've been able to figure out "work arounds" such as calling a duplicate slide with play background music set on but with an empty playlist and having this duplicate "run" the executable, but when control is returned to the "menu" slide it's left with a condition of "music off". Would it be feasible to include a choice in the next version to allow music to stop when an executable is called from an object click and resume when control is returned to the calling program (menu)? This would be a feature several of us would welcome. Thanks, Lin

In my case it is, and I just assumed from the opening sentence on the original post above that his application was also commercial. It would be a nice "feature" and perhaps not too difficult to implement in the P2E code. Best regards, Lin

That's the real issue, how to restart the music. Some want a menu with background music playing - it's not all that uncommon on commercial packages. By doing as suggested in the other post - create a duplicate page, assign the object on page one to call page two, assign page two to execute the slideshow and set the play list to empty on page two to stop the sound, etc.... This effectively stops the music and assuming you set page one to 5000 seconds display time (maximum allowed) then this solves part one of the original question. Part two isn't so simple. How to turn the music back on. When control is returned to the "menu" it's left in a state of "music off" assuming page two had a very short display duration. The sound will not return unless a recursive call is made to start the "menu.exe" (or whatever the menu was named) again. I think including a "switch choice" in P2E for allowing background music to be turned off when leaving and back on when returning to the menu would be welcome by many, myself included. It would be easy enough to offer a choice of turning off the background sound by clicking on a button or object. Simply have two executable menus - one with sound and one without - but this still doesn't solve how to automatically turn on the music when returning from the executed call. Saying "why would you want to do this" is not really relevant. The person asking the original question does indeed want to as do others. This same question was asked just yesterday on dPReview.... Best regards, Lin

I don't think the original question was actually answered. I believe Mark wants to create a menu with P2E by making a single slide with objects to click on which start other executable files such as other slide shows. He wants background music on this "single slide" slideshow which is acting only as a menu. When someone clicks on an object or button to start another slideshow, he wants the menu music to stop so that background music on the slideshow being called is played without having the music from the "menu" also playing. When the second slideshow ends or when someone presses "ESC" and control is returned to the "MENU" (which in effect is a single slide - "slideshow") he wants the background music to resume. What this would entail is code to stop the menu and again call the menu. Unless Igor can code this into P2E (which would make a great feature) the only way I see that it could be accomplished is to code the object clicked on the menu to execute the second slideshow and "exit". Then when the second slideshow ends a command must be given to open the "menu.exe" This would be difficult to do and would not work for executables not created in P2E. In short, I think we need help for Igor on this one.... Lin

Hi Bill, Thanks! That's essentially what I ended up with, but by a circuitous route :-) I still believe that adding the ability to program in a silence factor or shorten the calculated play time by a few seconds would be a major plus in P2E. Numerous times I've wished for this and a "fade" feature at the end of the slideshow so I didn't have to "fuss" with it in one of my sound editors. I really appreciate all the great work Igor has put in on this program. Even with all the tremendous resources some of the competition have to throw at their product development, they still haven't produced a product with the versatility of P2E. Best regards, Lin

When I try to reach the link http://www.wnsoft.com I get http://www.ballshooter.com/ - too weird!! Lin

Sometimes when I mix media (MP3 & Midi) the synchronization feature cuts the last song off about a second or so before it's finished making an abrupt and poor presentation. This may be difficult to "cure" from a programming perspective because the program is at the mercy of calculating the transition times and adding them to the play time given by the music itself. Sometimes this may be slightly in error. There may be no good way to precisely know the perfect length of the entire show, but if there was a provision to allow the user to extend the duration of the final image slightly beyond or cut it slightly short of the calculated time for synchronization with music, then the adjustment could be made so that things worked out smoothly. This suggestion would be in keeping with the "flexibility" of P2E and solve the issue of premature end of image or an image extending well beyond the music. Lin As a "postscript" I did a workaround by using a sound editor to record four seconds of silence and a cut and paste to the end of the last song. This entails recording as a wav, converting the mp3 to wav, converting the midi to wav, adding the four seconds of silence, then saving the entire thing as an MP3. Sure it can be done this way, but everyone who uses P2E doesn't have familiarity with sound editors, or maybe doesn't even have one. It would be nice to make this possible without leaving P2E since it happens with enough frequency to be annoying....