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Make the "1" and the "st" separate text objects and then zoom each to your required size and position them as you wish. Fiddly, but possible. If you place the two text objects on a Frame object, you will then be able to move and/or resize the phrase "1st" whilst keeping the proportions between the two elements. Peter

Moderator note: Ann, Thank you for clarifying your position. I have now moved the topic. Peter

Moderator note: This might be in the wrong part of the forum. If Ann decides not to go down the PTE Deluxe route, then it needs to be moved to the Equipment and Software section. For now, I'm prepared to wait on Ann's reply. Peter

Anthony, The next version of PTE (v7.5), which, according to Igor in an exchange of e-mails with me, is well into its pre-beta testing, will have a totally redesigned Timeline view that will show several sound tracks and the individual items within each track. Patience would seem to be the name of the game at present. regards, Peter

I'm pleased you got it sorted. Computers sometimes seem to have minds of their own don't they? Eerie, isn't it? Peter

I owe you an apology. Those dimensions are "almost" 16x9 aspect ratio. The width should actually be 853.333 recurring. But we cannot have partial pixels. So, let's start again... Which Publish option did you use to create your MP4 file? Which options within that did you choose? Remember, we cannot see what you are doing so: the more detail the better. regards, Peter

You are capturing at a very non-standard aspect ratio. 854x480 does not fit any of the accepted "standard" aspect ratios (4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 3:2, 16:10). Depending on how you set up the parameters for your MP4 create, you have most likely produced 16:9 as the output aspect ratio. You will always have black borders somewhere when your source aspect ratios and your output aspect ratios are not identical. regards, Peter

Hi Redmond, That message suggests to me that you have, somewhere along the way, added a sound file to a specific slide by using the Add sound icon on the upper toolbar. You now need to step from slide to slide along the Slide List (using the right arrow key) whilst watching that icon. It should change when you encounter the slide (or slides) that have had sound attached directly. If you remove the offending sound file, or even delete and re-insert the offending slide, that should clear the problem. regards, Peter

You will find options other than 480p are available via the "Quality" icon under your video clip. Peter

Anthony, I have never taken the Default option. Peter

Anthony, Not only Dave, but me too! If I double-click an image file from inside Windows Explorer, it opens in Photoshop Elements. If I select an image within a PTE project file and CTRL+W, it also opens in Elements. However, if I change the Graphical Editor in PTE to, say, IrfanView, then Ctrl+W now opens images in IrfanView but double-click in Windows Explorer still opens them in Photoshop. I didn't have to. I didn't even have to close the PTE window. I launched a PTE project, selected a slide and Ctrl+W to open that image into Elements. I then changed the Graphical Editor to IrfanView, selected a different slide and Ctrl+W and that slide opened in IrfanView. I then changed the Graphical Editor back to Elements, selected yet another slide (still using just the one instance of PTE), Ctrl+W and the third slide opened into Elements. No re-boots. All this on PTE v7.0.6 under Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit. regards, Peter

Igor, I think that would be an excellent idea! Would it be possible to do the same for the O&A window, too? Then every major window in PTE would have the same "look and feel". regards, Peter

Dave, You're right and Anthony is, indeed, wrong. I've just changed my PTE Graphics Editor from Photoshop Elements to IrfanView and back again without having to change any file associations. regards, Peter

Laurence, Rest assured, Wnsoft does respond to its customer's views. PTE has established itself as a leading product (if not the leading product) in the slideshow market because it does listen and respond - often very quickly indeed. The head of Wnsoft, Igor Kokarev, when planning each new version of PTE, always takes into account the ideas and suggestions made by the users here on the forum. Of course, he cannot implement every single one of these ideas and has to choose those that don't conflict with his own ideas as to the direction he wants the product to go in order to widen its appeal. Between major releases, there will be one or more minor release (for example: after v7.0.0 there was 7.0.1, 7.0.2, etc. currently 7.0.6). Sometimes these are just bug fix releases, but sometimes a minor release will introduce additional small features. regards, Peter

Jill, I agree with you. From the point of view of a beginner it would be far better if "Auto spread slides along music" did what "Timed Points | Arrange all Points" actually does. Peter

Lin, I know it probably goes against the grain, but how about caging a wolf, a cougar or even a cardinal? Peter

Jill, There are some "horses for courses" in there! For example: inserting an extra slide between #2 and #3... In the Slides view, one can simply drag it in from the File List panel and it will be assigned default duration and transition and everything from #3 onwards will be moved right to accommodate it. From the Timeline view, one can drag and drop it into the gap. It will again be given default transition and default transition duration but slides #3 onwards remain exactly where they were. Slide #2 gets shortened. The inserted slide is given a slide duration that equals from the place where it was inserted up to the start of the original slide #3. Both those are, to my way of thinking, simpler methods than your suggestion. Both carry the same "health warning" about transition times and possible overlaps that you mentioned. regards, Peter

Possibly a "codec" problem in Windows Media Player? If you open PTE, then navigate to the folder that holds your MP4 file and select it and do Ctrl+I (File Info) what does it show on the Details tab for Audio and Video codecs? I created an MP4 of my Killhope sequence using PTE v7.0.6 and that plays fine in WMP. The screenshot shows what I get. regards, Peter

Mick, Google Images "European Cuckoo" will show you lots of images; some might be in the public domain. However, you'd better not waste too much time; they'll all be heading south back to Africa in a few weeks! regards, Peter

Lin, More like "night-mares" I would have thought! At least that's how it felt for me when I did Rubik's Cube back in 2009. Sorry I haven't been able to participate with you folks in this wire-frames "game". I'm putting a lot of energy into getting to grips with video techniques using my Nikon D300s. I have a new project which cries out for video clips being used. I thought I'd cracked everything until Sunday's shoot, when I got just four useable clips out of fifteen. Don't post any replies to this here, I don't want to hi-jack this thread. If I cannot understand why I had the problems, I'll open a new topic in the appropriate part of the forum to solicit advice. regards, Peter

Barry, Joy has had a discussion about this subject in a different topic. What she wants is to be able to "lock" her soundtrack and slides in such a way that, should she then want to add an extra slide (in her example it was a Title slide at the beginning) the soundtrack and the slides would move smartly right along timeline as a complete entity, thus preserving her carefully programmed synchronization. regards, Peter

Thanks, Ken

So that would be, possibly, about 1st August: the countdown begins, at last! Does anybody know of a Countdown widget for Win 7? I'm getting excited just thinking about it! regards, Peter

Mick, What follows is, of necessity, a personal opinion. This is your show and you must build it the way you want it to be. I'm not a great fan of "motion for motion's sake". Those slides which were panning or zooming throughout their life did nothing for me, and they were paced far too quickly for my taste. The image quality seemed to be diminished because of the motion. I know Ken Cox goes on about having manual control so he can stop and look at individual images. I felt that I wanted to do that with these moving images. I didn't do it because, as I believe, you were offering an AV sequence and not a slideshow with background music. It would have broken the flow that you were creating to have interrupted it. As an ex-birdwatcher I have to say: that middle cuckoo was a "wrong 'un". It wasn't the European cuckoo that gives the classic "cuckoo" call; and that jarred with me. If you want to bring in the images of the real cuckoo, why not use the perching bird image and have it pop-up and vanish each time the clarinet (or was it oboe?, I wasn't concentrating that closely on the details of the music) plays the cuckoo call. That then gives it some purpose within the sequence. As it was, the inclusion of the cuckoos came across as a bit of a gimmick. The flying cuckoo looked very artificial as it tracked around the arc of a curve. Perhaps having it move along the lower part of the arc (as it does) and then switching to move it along the upper part of a similar arc might look better. And, if it is possible, I think a gentler arc (greater radius of circle) would be an improvement, too. Despite all those comments, I enjoyed the sequence and found it very evocative of the English countryside. Thanks for giving us the chance to view it. regards, Peter

The complainant states that they plugged the external mic into the line-in socket. That would give an immediate mismatch in signal levels. The mic will be delivering a signal of much lower strength than the line-in is expecting. In order to get an "acceptable" recorded level, the signal gain will have to have been increased somewhere (either in the Zoom at time of recording or in the audio editing software in post-production). Either way, it is quite likely that the signal to noise ratio was so small that the noise was amplified way beyond what would normally be expected. The next reviewer commented that they had always found the in-built mics to be good enough - and that's my experience, too. Whether I run my old Zoom H4 on batteries or mains adapter, there is no hum when using the in-built mics. regards, Peter