Lin Evans

Gary, Here is the procedure for changing the default opening program: http://windows.micro...-a-type-of-file Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, If that's what he's doing, then it will always open in the latest version of software installed. That's the way it's supposed to work. If you have four versions of Photoshop or six version of PTE or three versions of some other software and click on the file itself, unless you have instructed Windows otherwise it will always choose the most current version to open the file with. It's the only logical way to proceed. My suggestion would be for him to open the version of PTE he wants to work with and then open the PTE file so there is no issue with defaults. Best regards, Lin

Gary, What is your procedure for opening a file - exact steps. Why are you trying to open a PTE file from "My Computer" rather than from PTE? What happens if you open PTE :7.5, then navigate to the PTE file you want to open and click on it? Best regards, Lin

Actually, the "styles" were created as the author desired (Igor in this case), If you just want to blur without zooming and have not created your own style to accomplish this, just select the image you wish to blur so that the first keyframe is selected. In Objects and Animations, click on the small blue down arrow in the "Blur" button and move the slider which appears to the right while watching the amount of blur. If you move it to the left it will sharpen. You may overwrite the maximum values to accomplish greater than the degree of blur you get with 400 or greater sharpening than -20. If it is the fact that you see the "edge" of the image appear to "shrink" which is the concern, whenever you apply a universal blur to an image the edges will get darker around the periphery of the image. The image is not actually zooming smaller, it's simply an artifact of the blur algorithm. Of course you can "keyframe" the amount of blur thus go from a blur to a sharp image or vice versa. In the example provided via the "style" - there is a keyframe at the very end of the slide which provides the zoom in or zoom out values. Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, Thanks for watching.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks for checking it! Glad to know it worked ... Actually, quite a number of mermaids in there - LOL I like the concept of something other than just a static menu - keeps it interesting for me... Best regards, Lin

Hi, First of all, don't use the timeline for this. It's entirely possible to use the timeline, and I'll tell you how to do it in a moment, but first let me tell you the way I would go about this. Go to the slide list instead by clicking on the Slide List tab. Click on the first slide.to select it. Right click and choose "Insert Blank Slide." The blank slide will be inserted before your first slide. It's that simple. Now, if you want to do it the harder way, go to the timeline and click on the first slide to select it. It's more difficult to see the first slide because it will usually be much smaller than on the slide list because its size depends on how much "time" it occupies. After you have made sure that it's "selected" then right click and choose just as above on the slide list to "Insert Blank Slide and it will be automatically inserted before the first slide. If you have already inserted it in the wrong place, just click on the "Slide List" tab, then click on the blank slide, drag it to the left of the first slide until you notice a dotted line then drop it. That's all there is to it. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, It's great that you were able this time to convert without error. It's difficult to know - perhaps the other video players have less stringent requirements that PTE's converter since they were only playing rather than converting? I don't know the answer to your other question, but I've tried 100% and the default with the converter and really haven't been able to tell much difference. I "think" the differences are really the amount of compression. Compression usually lowers quality some, but there are limits to our ability to visually detect this sometimes even though it may be measurable. Perhaps it's like some audio which certain frequencies are lost, but those frequencies which are lost are beyond the hearing range of most who listen? It would be nice to have video stabilization in PTE but I'm not certain where we should stop with filters since it's a player rather than an editor. There are a few free stabilizers such as the one available for VirtualDub. I'm not certain what would be required to make the PTE player compatible with this, or if it's even possible. Perhaps you could put that idea into the "suggestions" thread... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, I can find no apparent reason that the hardware wouldn't be compatible, so I'm guessing that there may be some issue with file corruption of some type, but it's certainly not clear what it might be. The video card and CPU are very powerful and you have quite sufficient RAM on both the system and GPU so that should not be an issue. There have been no reported incompatibilities with Windows 7 so maybe we should let Igor look into this if the problem persists with 7.5.10 and 8.0 beta. I believe there were significant changes between 7.07 and 7.5.10 in video handling. So right now, do the files work correctly with 7.5.10 and 8.0 beta? If so, I would suggest keeping the later versions of PTE because there are improvements in video handling. Best regards. Lin

As many of you undoubtedly realize, I have a lengthy fascination with snow, water, etc., effects. A lot of my personal "slideshows" use numerous effects and not because they are necessarily the best way to present material, but just because I like them. I prepared a number of my water effects shows which use selected web images which were suitable. Most of the images were taken from my friends own Facebook or webpage collections so are those which they specifically like. I modified them with my water effects and I used a few of PTE version 8 beta’s features in some. Actually, most of them could have been done with version 7.5 and only a couple of the dozen slideshows really use features specific to version 8 such as Alpha Channel RGBA and nested masking, etc. I thought I would combine them all with a menu in an archived zip folder so that anyone interested could download and see them. The combined file size is about 418 megabytes including the menu, but since today's shows including video can often be much larger than this - I think people with reasonably fast broadband and who have an interest in this type thing might be willing to expend the bandwidth to download. This is a long way of getting to my point which is that when I created the menu - it was sort of a "blah" gradient of blue with a dozen choices plus "Exit". Suddenly it occurred to me that there is no valid reason why we can't include audio and video in our menus! Wow, a light had been turned on in my head. I know, such a simple thing, but it was something I had never considered before. With our ability to use the opacity feature on all objects, including video, it was a simple thing to place an effective video with a soothing theme in the background behind my Menu Text and include an appropriate soundtrack. So I did that. The theme of the water effects in the shows was "Tranquility." I made four of the little theme shows for personal friends, Tonya - (a close friend of my late wife), Debbie - (one of my friends from my college days), Lisah, (a close friend) and Judy (my dear ex wife and the mother of my daughter). So these four little personalized tranquility shows are part of the dozen. Since the theme was "Tranquility" and almost all of the shows consisted of water effects, I chose an appropriate video for the almost subliminal backdrop for the menu. I think this type thing may eventually be of interest and I believe Wnsoft should find a way of marketing this feature possibility. I don't believe this type thing is really possible with any of the competition. Two of the shows contain artistic nudity. Those are “Moons” – a double entendre – since a “Moon” is a euphemistic slang for the “backside” (derriere or moon in French, bum in the U.K., etc.) and “Secret.” I believe neither should be offensive to any adult or child, really, but if you do download the file and don’t want to see a girl’s cute bare behind – don’t open either of those … LOL. In “Moons” a combination of nested masking, small RGBA alpha channel videos from ParticleIllusions, alpha channel video from BluffTitler in the opening credits and such were used. Just fun things but the main point is the menu. The menu (menu.exe) is used to call any of the shows in random order and to exit from all. The menu allows automatic return and reopen after each show is finished. In the background on the menu is an embedded video adjusted with opacity to create an almost subliminal effect. At least that was the intention. I call it a “living menu” for want of a better descriptive… Anyway, if you have the time, interest and bandwidth – here is a link. Unzip the archive in a folder together and run the menu.exe file. Link To Tranquility Archive (about 418 meg zipped Windows exe files) Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, Try the beta of 8.0 - no need to uninstall anything... It will not replace 7.5 but install with its own icon. If that doesn't work, let me know the Operating system, video card type and amount of RAM for the system and for the video card. We'll try to sort it out. It shouldn't make any difference at all that the video was inverted. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, It converted fine for me both in 7.5 and in 8.0 beta 1 also. Of course you just use Objects and Animations and rotate it 180 degrees and it plays fine. Which version of PTE are you using? Best regards, Lin

Hi Jill, Easy is a relative term, and yes, there are multiple ways to "skin a cat." By using the customize slide feature which may be obtained either by right clicking the slide or by clicking on the Customize Slide button, there is no chance of dragging in the wrong place or typing the value in the wrong place which is possible from either the timeline or the slide list. That's the reason I suggested a new user do it the foolproof way until he/she learns more about the program. Best regards, Lin

Hi Chris, You are going about changing the duration in a most unusual way. Highlight the slide you wish to change the duration of in the slide list then click on the Customize slide button and then on the Main Tab, simply type in the duration time value you wish for that slide and click on "O.K." This will only affect this single slide and nothing else will be changed. Though there are other ways of changing the slide display time such as from the timeline, this way is foolproof. Best regards, Lin

Hi Wille, Actually, you still have misunderstandings which are expected unless you have sufficient time to digest this product. You do not have to switch over to a text based list of file names - that is an option and not a necessity. There are multiple ways to display your images and there is indeed a graphical based display, you need only become aware of "how" to set your preferences. Click on "Settings" in the tool bar on top. Click on to remove or replace the checkmark on table view of slide list or table view of file list to switch between text view and graphical view. If you want a full screen view of the file list then the F3 and F4 keys are your toggles. Many people who use PTE never use the text based lists while others prefer it. I too was a software developer for many years and I understand that people all have different ways of working - but regardless of our experience and knowledge of software, or our expertise with other software, this program simply can not be mastered in a short period of time. As I described, it's best to use the slide list to order your images and videos rather than the timeline. It's a simple one click tab to go back and forth. Seriously, you simply do not yet understand how to use the interface or change the interface to the one which best suits you. It's indeed possible to drag and drop any image precisely where you want it on the timeline, but you must understand how that's done. Hold down the left mouse button and drag your image onto the timeline. Drag it downward until the thumbnail disappears and a vertical red line appears. Move the red line to the precise time you wish that slide to begin in accordance with the time scale and release the left mouse button. It's really quite easy, but you need to learn how it works. If you want to move any slide on the timeline, left click on that slide and drag the thumbnail downward until the vertical red line again appears. Drag the red line to the precise time where you want the slide to begin and release the left mouse button. It's a "timeline" not a visual thumbnail line. That's the slide list. In the Slide List you can drag any image and drop it in any order. A vertical dotted line will appear as an indicator of when you have sufficiently moved the slide in a lateral motion to properly drop it into the desired position. If you right click on any thumbnail slide you can use the drop-down table to remove any slide from the line of tumbnails. All slides to the right will then orderly move to the left. Hopefully, you will find something which will work the way you are used to working and will do what you need. I wish you the best of luck in your quest. Who knows, as you say perhaps some day you will rediscover the value of this product. Best regards, Lin

Hi, Sorry it didn't work out for you, but PTE is not an editor, it's an extremely powerful presentation tool and as such has an interface conducive specifically to that task. I'm not certain which other applications you are accustomed to working with, but you certainly can add, remove and move images easily on the slide list, not the timeline. Editing is not a primary feature of PTE because the developers believe that sufficient specialized editing tools exist to handle that task beautifully. There are numerous things which will be improved in the imminent beta release (probably Monday) of version 8 of PTE with "some" editing capabilities primarily centered around audio features, but again, it's not destined to be an editor. I'm unsure of why you are having problems with "deleting" an image and not having the adjacent image on the slide list move to the left. That's precisely how PTE works. Actually you are not "deleting" the image, but rather "removing" it from the collection of images in your show. It's best if you do not "drag" and drop your images on the timeline, you "should" do that on the slide list. Then it will work exactly as you expect. Indeed, if you want to "move" the position of the image - click on the "slide" button and drag your image to any position desired, but do not do that on the timeline. Though you "can" insert and remove slides via the timeline, that's really not the place to do that. As for a freezing video image at the end? All you need to do is click on Keep Full Slide Duration under Preferences/Project Tab. Object Properties are changed in the Properties tab of the Objects And Animations screen. Specific animation properties are changed in the Animations Tab on the Objects and Animations Screen. The Common Tab on the Objects and Animations screen allows a wide variety of options. There are far to many options for object properties to allow changing by choice or a pick-list with a simple right click of the mouse, that's why there are three tabs and multiple other screens devoted to object properties. You really can't expect to learn PTE in a few hours or even a few days. It's a very powerful and complex software. Some of us have been using it for over a decade and are still learning new, useful and innovative ways to use it. Actually, many powerful programs are at first somewhat non-intuitive. For example, perhaps the most powerful video editor which exists is LightWorks. It's used by the movie industry and has been the mainstay of editing for a huge number of major motion pictures. If you really want to see "non-intuitive," download a free copy and play with it for a few days. There are very good reasons why PTE is "the" number one choice of AV competitors world-wide. In the recent Royal Photographic Society United Kingdom National Championships, 98 percent (all except one) of the competitors used PicturesToExe, including all the winners. That's how "good" this product is perceived to be by those who work with slide and video combination presentations competitively! It's too bad you didn't stick with it long enough to really learn how to use PTE, but perhaps it's simply not the right product for you. Not everyone is wired exactly the same and not every software is a good "fit." AVCHD can be a problem. This is not only true for PTE but also for other software which uses both stills and videos. That issue will be addressed in the future and there are already huge video handling improvements and very useful new features shortly to be available including things which simply can't be done by other products. A few months ago, on a Friday afternoon, I saw an example of what a sophisticated MacIntosh and Adobe Creative Suite user spent a week creating using the most powerful tools available from Adobe and Apple. It took three different software tools and a week of hard work according to the author to create his demonstration. I duplicated and actually made a much more intricate show entirely in PTE in four hours and posted it to YouTube. The show consists of a 3D video room with 646 individual video screens (three walls, floor and ceiling) playing simultaneous videos . In addition, a rotating, zooming cube changing in real-time from a single image on all six sides to playing separate videos on all six sides. I use a wide variety of presentation slideshow and video products including some which cost ten times what PTE costs and I could not have done this with "any" of my other products. Obviously, this is not a project of any consuming interest to most, but it does demonstrate the power of this product. In addition, I posted three tutorials to YouTube showing people exactly how it was done. Here's a link if you would like to have a look - It's HD (1080P)... Best regards, Lin (Icejasper)

Hi John, Click on "FIle" (upper left on toolbar) then on "Create Backup in Zip). The safe executable file for internet feature creates a digitally signed executable file and a data file and combines them both in a single zipped archive. The reason anti-virus software and various Window features are highly "suspicious" of executable files created by products like PTE or other programs which create executable code is that this code is not digitally signed. All major software companies which distribute their products have executable files - lots of them in fact. But these files are exactly alike in every case and they are recognized by a digital signature which is contained as a "reference" which is available to the OS and to various anti-virus companies. If the executable code does not have this digital signature, then it's highly suspect. Since each executable file produced by pte and other such programs are different in content, there is no way to digitally sign them so that they pass muster by appropriate testing methods. To avoid this issue, PTE produces a digitally signed executable portion and a non-executable data file. The exe file runs the data file and everything works identically except the data in not contained in the executable portion. This means that the exe file can be digitally signed and "recognized" as safe by Windows and anti-virus software by comparing the characteristics of the exe part with the reference in the lookup table. In short, it's a way to send out your exe files so they will be deemed acceptable not only to Windows but to various anti-threat software. Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Thanks so much for the report and break-down! Congratulations to Igor and the development team for creating a fantastic product which allows AV creators to produce such impressive shows! That 98 percent of the shows were created with PTE is indeed impressive! That speaks volumes about the utility of this great product. Best regards, Lin

Hi guys, Actually, Xaver is only trying to put things into perspective. This is the precise reason why PTE must also expand to larger markets. The AV market world-wide is not a huge market and the position of PTE among AV competitors is already at the top and for good reasons. On the other hand, to gain a much wider audience and more market share for the product, it's necessary to expand the presence of PTE into alternative lucrative markets Best regards, Lin

Hi, Only those sort parameters I listed are available. PTE is designed to "display" images rather than manipulate images and there can be no expectation that the images are original and unmodified as is the expectation with photo-handling applications such as Lightroom. In fact, in the great majority of cases, original metadata may have been modified or missing so that photos which had this data missing would not even be "available" to the user even though they might well be in the folder should this parameter be used as the sort criterion. Your best bet would be to output your photos from Lightroom in the order you want them if the metadata date of media creation is to be used as the sort criterion. Best regards, Lin

Hi, The answer to the first part of your question is that you can't. PTE uses the file name, modification date, type extension, or file size as sort criteria and you may "reverse" any of those parameters, but it doesn't use the original file media creation date. Very often, that parameter may be missing from metadata in files which have been modified without regard for exif or metadata, so it would be possible and even probable to not be able to see certain files if that metric were used as a sort option. Developers must make choices about how to present data and the sort orders mentioned earlier are those which are available. Does LightRoom let you "export" or copy them by media creation date? If so you might output them to a folder by that criterion. PTE offers the video file conversion "option" because some video is more difficult for computers with less hardware clout to display when the CPU must decompress a highly compressed file while displaying in the executable presentation. If you are creating an HD video presentation rather than an executable format for PC or MacIntosh, then there is no real advantage in choosing the "convert" option. On the other hand, if you are creating an executable file which may be used by a client with less than optimal hardware, using the converted video places less strain on the hardware and results in a smoother presentation by less powerful systems. It's your choice and not mandatory to convert your videos before creating your slideshow. Best regards, Lin

Hi Todd, If you will use the zip feature and post a link to the project, I'll have a look and see what the problem is... Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, I've downloaded the YouTube MP4, zipped it, and you can download the zipped MP4 here: Link to Dom's Demo Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, As in any version of Windows, fonts can be added or deleted - you have only to have the fonts available somewhere to perform the process - see link below: Installing or removing fonts Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Think of it this way. Let's say your slideshow contains only two images which you want displayed for 30 seconds each. The executable code tells the computer to display these two images and keep them each on the screen for 30 seconds. There are only two images stored in the executable file regardless of the amount of time you want them displayed, in whatever order or if you change the order 100 times and display them for an hour. The entire executable file only requires a single copy of each image and it will display them however the instruction codes tells it to do so. You can zoom in, zoom out, rotate, invert, flip, transform, etc., etc., etc. You could display these two image forever and the executable file will not change size if you add these same two images a thousand times to your show. The computer only uses and stores the two images one time. The GPU of your computer is a "smart" device. It does what it is told and can execute a large number and type of instructions. If you zoom your image, the CPU or GPU can understand increase the size by 1 percent and display again for 1/60th of a second then increase the size by 2 percent and display for 1/60th of a second and so on. On the other hand if you create a video file, the same two images are "stored" inside the file as many times as they must be displayed per second. If you have your video set for a display of 4 minutes at 30 frames per second and your two images are 1 megabyte each, the combined size is two megabytes and they will be stored inside the file 30 times each second for a total of 7200 images. That's one image every 1/30th of a second or 30 images per second times 60 seconds per minute times 4 minutes. The "brain" of the display device, whether it be a beamer (projector), video player, DVD player, BluRay player or otherwise is very small. It has an instruction set which says "load and display this image for 1/30th of a second, unload this image, load the next image and display for 1/30th of a second, unload this image ...... etc., until it reaches an end of file marker. So the two megabytes combined of the two images then become 7200 times two megabytes in file size. This increases by a factor of 2 megabytes for each second of video display time. All "frames" whether identical or different must be stored inside the file. It doesn't matter how many images are in your "folder" - it's only the images loaded into your show which influence the size of the video or the size of your executable file. The executable file is only increased in size by the total size of one each of the images stored and only if they are different. If the same image is loaded multiple times, it does not increase the size of the file further. For a video, each time an image is used, it increases the size of the file accordingly. Best regards, Lin