John-W

Toms solution seemed simple, until I tried it! My PTE user interface application is a single slide with menu buttons. Thus Project Options > Show Settings is set to When show ends keep last slide. (And this is when I'd like the Screen Saver to come on in the normal manner). Concerning running Toms Autoit Enable Screen Saver script from within the PTE project, Project Options>More Run application/slide show on exit waits for an explicit exit, rather than running the application when the shows last slide ends. So the Screen Saver cannot be enabled during the show! The other problem is that PTE does not in fact use the ScreenSaveActive flag in the registry. If the flag is set by defining a Screen Saver in Windows Display Properties then PTE does not clear the flag when a project is executed, ie. the flag remains set indicating that the screen saver is active when in fact it has been disabled by PTE! I Suspect PTE uses an API to disable the Screen Saver. But I would have expected this Windows mechanism to always preserve the correct status of the registry flag. Experimenting with another Screen Saver scenario Windows Media Player - this behaves in the same way, ie. the Screen Saver is disabled whilst playing (unless defined otherwise in Options), yet ScreenSaveActive is not cleared to indicate this. It seems that working around the PTE Screen Saver Disable feature is not easy! (An 'Allow Screen Saver' flag in Project Options>Screen is the logical solution).

Thanks for your replies. Brian: I can sympathise with your explanation of why the screen saver became permanently disabled in order to avoid embarassment during public presentations! But it's easy to set screen saver to 'none' and leave it like that. Tom: your workaround should do the trick - many thanks. (I'm not familiar with autoit so I'll have to experiment). I don't think that disabling/suppressing the Windows screen saver should be automatically assumed by PTE. There will always be someone (eg me!) who prefers to have control of such functions. I suggest the screen saver should be disabled by default, but with an 'Allow Windows screen saver' flag available in Project Options > Screen.

I find the object handling features of PTE V5.6 extremely useful for implementing special-purpose interactive user interface applications. (Not necessarily connected with slide shows!) However, some PC applications do require the standard Windows screen saver function, including password entry to resume use after the PC is left unattended. Unfortunately running a PTE .exe file prevents a Windows screen saver from running. (Previewing a project in PTE has the same effect). Could anyone help with the following questions: 1. Is suppression of the Windows screen saver function during PTE application exection a design feature of PTE? 2. Is there any way in PTE to override this suppression? 3. Is there a Windows registry solution to prevent an application from suppressing the execution of a screen saver? Windows 98/ Windows XP screen saver enable/disable anomaly Whilst investigating this problem I found an anomaly between Windows 98 and XP. With W98 and XP if a screen saver is enabled (in Display Properties) and then a PTE application is previewed or executed the screen saver does not run. However, if a screen saver is re-enabled after a PTE application has been started, then the screen saver will run. In W98 Display Properties when a previously-defined screen saver has been suppressed it is reported as none, ie. W98 Display Properties correctly reports that a screen saver is being suppressed well handled! When the suppressing application is stopped the original screen saver is automatically restored. However, XP Display Properties does not report that a defined screen saver has been suppressed. But if a screen saver is being suppressed it can still be re-activated, eg. by modifying the wait time.

There are several other requests for improvements to this aspect of PTE V5.0, and I note that Igor has already commented on some of them. From my first creation of an animation I thought it would be useful to have an indication in the Slide List of the presence of an animation. Clearly there are a range of possible solutions of varying degrees of implementation complexity. But, for example, indication using a coloured frame around the main thumbnail image would be adequate. Some comments and suggestions by others... Igor The Dom KSF Federov

My recovery procedure After accidentally ‘losing’ the Preview Panel in Vertical View I found the following recovery procedure by trial and error: - Select Classic View - Display the Slide List as thumbnails - Drag the bottom margin of the Preview Panel fully downwards - Select Vertical View: the Preview Panel left and right margins should now be available again for dragging The developers will probably understand why this works!

I’ve proposed this improvement previously. (See: Link ). Alt + Drag & Drop from a File Panel thumbnail would replace an existing slide in the Slide List with an alternative slide. Any existing transition parameters in the timeline would remain unchanged. I would expect the main slide of any animation to be replaced. This simple, intuitive function would emulate changing an existing slide in a sequence that is arranged on a light box. [Note. Replies to my previous post describe how to replace slides in the Slide List, but these methods involve browsing through filenames, rather than thumbnails, to choose the alternative slide.]

Hello Peter, I've only tried this under Windows 98 and XP, but it is the same for V4.48 and V5.04. Perhaps it does not occur under Vista(?) Just to clarify, in Vertical View first drag the right margin ('separator') of the Preview Panel as far left as it will go - yes, it won't go over the left hand margin. Now (on my systems) it is possible to drag the left hand margin of the Preview Panel to the right and over the right hand margin. John W.

(PTE V4.48 & V5.04) In Horizontal View and Vertical View when moving the right margin to increase the size of the File Panel the slide list control buttons (Add Slide, Remove Slide, Clear List, etc.) also move and can partially disappear off the screen. There is no reason for these buttons to move – they should remain in fixed positions in the Slide List Panel. When compiling a slide list I like to maximise the File Panel to see as many images as possible to choose from.

(PTE V4.48 & V5.04 under Windows 98 & XP) In Vertical View, drag the right margin of the Preview Panel leftwards enough to allow the left margin of the Preview Panel to be dragged rightwards over and past the Preview Panel right margin. The Preview Panel is now lost and its margins cannot be adjusted. Note. I have found at least one way to recover the Preview Panel from this condition. (Other than re-installing PTE!) Post solutions in this thread…

It would be more logical to use 'Alt + Drag & Drop', rather than 'Cntrl + Drag & Drop', for this simple enhancement, ie. change an existing slide in the Slide List for an alternative slide. (I've modified my previous posts accordingly).

Thank you Dom, Al and Den for your prompt replies and advice. The methods you describe do indeed achieve the required results – I doubt if I would have found them! Is the ‘Browse by Filename’ button a legacy from a previous more basic method of slide selection used prior to introduction of thumbnails? I ask because it does appear to be somewhat redundant now, apart from carrying out the ‘replace’ function as you describe. However, I think that browsing for replacement slides in this manner, away from the standard combined slide thumbnails + slide list display, is not ideal. I like to be able to assess the context into which a potential replacement slide would be placed, ie. it’s relation with the previous and next slides, as you would do on a light box. In my opinion, my suggested ‘Alt + Drag & Drop’ solution for replacing a slide in the slide list with an alternative slide is far more intuitive, and it would be consistent and coincident with the existing thumbnail-based slide list compilation functions. Does anyone agree with me? I do hope that Igor can add this small but, I believe, very useful functional enhancement. John

I have been producing A-V presentations using traditional dual slide projection equipment for 28 years (see my Profile), but the time to make the transition to ‘digital’ may have come! I am currently evaluating PTE V4.48 and am impressed with its capability to emulate traditional A-V production techniques. But a basic function appears to be missing, ie. a means of changing (replacing) a slide in the Slide List with an alternative slide, and without affecting the transition parameters. This is the equivalent of changing an existing slide in a sequence that is arranged on a light box or loaded in a slide magazine. For example, a simple implementation would be the ability to ‘Alt + Drag & Drop’ a slide from the source file window on top of an existing slide in the Slide List, ie. introducing an alternative slide. This would replace an existing slide, rather than adding a new slide. It would be essential for the existing transition point and duration to remain unchanged. When producing an A-V sequence using slides I tend to work with a rough set of images and then establish the exact transition points and durations in synchronisation with the audio. I then review the images and perhaps change individual slides to optimise the final sequence. Has this functional requirement for PTE been raised before? Is there any support from other users for its inclusion in a new Version? I look forward to comments!