Lin Evans

Hi Dave, If I load a custom transition it is only apparent for the slideshow under construction. If I open a new show, the Custom Transitions loaded on a previous shows are nowhere to be seen so if I want to use them again, then I have to reload them. Why would a transition appear in User Styles??? Isn't that for styles? My custom styles stick, but not transitions. I apply a transition via the "Slide Options." Best regards, Lin

Cool transition !! Igor, is there any way to create an option to make custom transitions "stick" so that they are available without reloading them between slideshows? Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Because if you have an mp3 which is used in a couple places such as at the beginning or end of a lengthy show, PTE only loads the mp3 once and the additional use adds nothing to the size of the overall executable file. On the other hand, If you use the so called "trim" feature by ticking the box, this relatively small mp3 becomes a large file size because it encodes the silence between the first and last use of the mp3. So doing away with the "tick" box and using the same present system to convert all audio to mp3 would, in this case, result in a considerably larger overall file size because of the silence encoded between the two uses of this same audio file. Having the option to tick or not gives flexibility which would be missing otherwise. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Doesn't this somewhat limit the flexibility of PTE? Probably the reason that we are given the "option" for creating the mp3 which effectively trims sound not used rather than just defaulting to this is that when, as JT points out, there are only parts of a longer audio track used perhaps at the very beginning and at the very end of a lengthy sequence, the silence is encoded as mp3. This could easily make the size of the mp3 much larger than the original. Let's say that the original mp3 audio was 2 minutes in length, but the slide show is 7 minutes in length. Then the mp3 becomes seven minutes rather than three minutes because it was used at the beginning and at the end of a lengthy show and all the silence in between becomes encoded as mp3 silence. Then there is the issue of people who use WAV and do not want it encoded as mp3 for quality purposes?

Hi Jeff, Looks great - love the birds! Nice to have a local place to go and a couple hides to photograph from! Great photos and very nice presentation. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, It's in the manual - here: http://docs.picturestoexe.com/en/hotkeys/main Best regards, Lin

Thanks Ken and Claudio - a fun experiment. I posted a link to an AVI Tutorial and brief explanation of the procedure used on the FaceBook Group page in response to a request there and I'll repeat those here for anyone interested: Best regards, Lin ----------------------------- O.K., Here's the link to the AVI tutorial on the Reflections creation:http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/reflectionstutorial.zip (zipped avi tutorial). Essentially the procedure is to make two masks. The first mask (in this example) replaces the original blurry fire in a fireplace with a video of a fire in a fireplace. So the original image is taken into PTE or into Photoshop (either can do this - but Photoshop is better in this case). The area where one wants the fireplace is selected with the rectangular selection tool and then everthing inside is painted white. The selection is inversed and the remainder is painted black. Black allows the image "outside" the mask to be revealed and "White" allows what is inside the mask (in this case the replacement fireplace video) to be revealed. Next, the original image is again taken into Photoshop and all the areas where you can see in the original photo that firelight was reflected are left in their original colors and everything else painted black. Not only "white" reveals what is inside the mask, but light colors in a linear fashion are transparent or semi-transparent. Since we want to follow the original reflection of the photo, we can take advantage of that and just paint everywhere we "don't" want reflections black. I used a soft brush to feather the black as it brushed against the reflected area. So now we have two masks. One to reveal the fireplace and one for the reflections on the girl's body and the floor, etc. The actual variations in light and dark in those "orange" areas will very nicely attenuate or amplify the reflections from the fireplace we will use again inside the "reflection mask." Next we place the firplace video inside its mask and adjust the size and position and in this case the "color" (which I wanted to be more orange than yellow) using PTE. Then we place the same fireplace inside the reflection mask, but we invert it 180 degrees because reflections are upside down in this case - as they would be in a mirror. We use the PTE 3D feature to turn the fire 180 degrees. Because the area for the reflections is much larger than the actual fireplace, we adjust both the position and the "size" of the fire using the zoom features of PTE. To soften the reflections we adjust both opacity and blur in an experimental fashion untio it looks appropriate. We use the preview feature frequently to monitor our progress untill we have it as we like.

Yes, you can move your comments with even more options. "Slidestyle" "Captions" multiple choices including bottom right. Set time limited use by clicking on "Project Options" then check "Time Limited Use".... You can download older versions, but all the feature you had plus many, many more are available in version 8 - you really just need to read the manual.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, I agree and I think that Igor is planning bezier curves for a future version of PTE - however, and at the risk of being castigated for suggesting the seemingly "dreaded" work-around, (personally, I believe work-arounds are fine) there are ways to do this right now with PTE. If you visit and join the French forum Diapositif, one of the very talented French users has created a tool to allow PTE to do bezier curves. As for keeping an object upright - I explain how this is easily done in my #3 tutorial in the PTE Made Easy series here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7901-pte-made-easy-tutorials-continuously-updated/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, Whenever a video is selected in PTE, in the "Properties Tab" of Objects and Animations, a checkbox is present which says "Mute Audio." When this is done, then when the user adds an audio there is a choice which defaults to "Files of Type" "Audio Files" which would allow the user to select from various audio formats. However, if the user clicks on the small down arrow in the light blue box to the right of the word "Audio Files" they can select "Video Files" then choose the video file which they wish to extract the audio from and have full envelope control. If an audio file or the sound from an audio file is used multiple times in PTE, this audio is only loaded once so there is no size penalty for doing this. Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/studyinreflections.zip (PC 38 meg) http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/studyinreflectionsmac.zip (Mac 38 meg) Lin

Hallo Claudio, Properly created Animated GIF images work perfectly with PTE. The only way to align objects is either visually, or by placing the identical values for them in the Objects and Animations pan blocks. If the "center" of the objects have not been changed, then they should align perfectly via these "pan" values. Under the "Properties" tab in O&A you can select the animated GIF then click on "Adjust Images and Border" then click on the "Animations" tab where you have the options to control motion of the GIF. For example, let's say you had an animated GIF of a bird flying. You can control the speed of the wing flap with the "Interval(ms)" from no animation to any speed value. You can set an offset for when you want the animation to begin relative to the slide, etc. You could make the bird soar, then flap it's wings, then soar, etc., all via keyframe values of these variables. There is no provision for "creating" an animated gif in PTE, but you have great control over the animations of a properly created animated GIF. Best regards, Lin

That's good news Tom - hopefully in the future PTE will directly support it. Best regards, Lin

https://www.malwarebytes.org/support/guides/mbam/History_Q.html Best regards, Lin

No, PicturesToExe plays stereo just as it was recorded. You have stereo output if you use stereo input. Here's a little mp4 video test for you to use: http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/stereotest.zip Just download and extract the mp4 and add it to a test project and you will clearly hear the stereo. PTE doesn't segregate the channels on the envelope so you have no independent control over channel volume. It's assumed that your input has already been adjusted for balance, but PTE handles stereo perfectly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jak101, Have you investigated the tutorials page of the forum??? There are many, many tutorials which go way beyond the basics. Here's a sample of just the one's I have posted .... There are plenty more: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7901-pte-made-easy-tutorials-continuously-updated/ Best regards, Lin

Very Nice, and it can be done with PTE, but perhaps only a few people know how to do such? It's easy enough to move individual PNG images around in layers, but there is more going on here such as Jean-Cyprien did with his Christmas show and apparently only a few users have successfully acomplished this type of motion. Best regards, Lin

Hi Steven, I can't be certain, but you may be running into a fairly common situation with video software. When you "trim" in most video software, what the software actually does is simply insert "markers" indicating where to start and stop and if you look in PTE you will most likely see that the full length of the original video is retained. Doing this can cause issues with PTE. The best way to proceed is to convert your video right in PTE and do the trimming there. When you do it via PTE the video is rendered without these markers and actually trimmed rather than virtually trimmed. PTE will then play the converted file perfectly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, Hopefully, it can give you some ideas to improve on. There are myriad possibilities, as JPD once said, the only limitations are one's imagination! Merry Christmas to you and your family too! Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, Thanks! It's fun trying to create realism from combining still images and video clips with PTE - challenging, but fun.... Best regards and Merry Christmas, Lin

Hi Elsebels, Could you post a screen capture of the "Slidelist" (Dialijst) view please - and perhaps we can sort it out for you. Best regards, Lin

Click on "Dialijst" and you should see what you are looking for... Best regards, Lin

Hi, It's not entirely clear what you mean so let's start from the beginning. You say there "were numbers on each slide" - where did you see the slides with these numbers? Was it in the slide list, Objects and Animations preview, the timeline, etc? Let's start by going to the "Settings" "Preferences" "Toolbars" and put a checkmark beside every choice. Once you have done that then clicked O.K., these will then appear by default on the Slide List. There are also provisions for making EXIF and Metadata information which may or may not be available in the photo appear in the font and positions chosen. This EXIF and Metadata are automatically placed on a photo by digital cameras, but some editing software has the ability to remove this data when the photo is modified and saved. So if you are referring to information which was originally on your photo and called via the Slide List "Comment" "Insert Text Template" feature, the information which may once have been visible could be missing if the photo has been manipulated in editing software then saved without the EXIF header. If you could first try ticking all the boxes under "Settings" "Preferences" "Toolbars" and the click O.K. then let's see if you have your original information back. If not, then if you could explain in detail and perhaps provide a sample showing where you expect to see this information, perhaps someone on the forum can help sort it out. Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, There are at least two ways to approach this - one if you have software such as ParticleIllusion and the other if you don't. Let's assume you don't so the first thing you need is a video clip of a real campfire. You can take it with your video camera or find one on the web to experiment with. I'll make a little show for you and post the PTE file and the exe and a brief explanation of how to proceed. It's fairly straightforward so before I put it together I'll outline the way I would proceed. Get the basic image you want to use such as people sitting around a campfire. Take the image into Photoshop or your favorite editor and clone out the fire. Create a mask(s) to contain the campfire to the area you want and the approximate size, place the image in PTE and choose the mask(s) you have created and put the campfire inside. Size the video and decide whether you want the fire sounds or not. If you want to use the waveform, mute the video and place the video in as the sound track. Adjust accordingly.. I'll get back with a sample shortly... Below are links to a quick and dirty sample. For the record, it's far easier to create a nice fire inside a fireplace than a campfire with a photo of people. A fireplace is a closed space unit with a more or less regular defined boundary so that your mask is fairly easy to create. Just take your image containing the fireplace into your editor and paint the area you wish to confine the fire to with white and save the image as a jpg with the name xxxxmask.jpg. The open campfire is much more difficult because you will have black or other colors in your video which and the video itself will have a rectangular shape. This makes the creation of the mask much more complex because the fire is a dynamic thing and the areas where there is no fire change randomly. So to create a mask, you must get a bit creative unless you have software such as ParticleIllusion where you can import your campfire and create an alpha channel video where all the relevant "black" is removed. You can sometimes use the chroma extraction feature of PTE to remove black rather than green, but it's tedious and the result will not generally be all that great. In this sample I've created two masks. One for the campfire itself and one for the reflections in the eyeglasses and on the legs of a couple people. It's far from perfect and could be vastly improved by tweaking, but you will be able to get the idea. For the eyeglasses and legs I simply greatly increased the size of the fire video and lowered the opacity of that video greatly. The masks were done using the original image and painting or leaving the existing reflection white then painting everything else black... http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/campfireexperimentptecomponents.zip (The PTE File which also contains the original photo to see the effects of cloning out the existing campfire. http://www.lin-evans.org/pte8/campfireexperiment.zip (The exe file in PC format) Best regards, Lin

Hi Elsebels, "Settings" (on the top of your screen) then click "Table View of File List" Best regards, Lin