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Hi Gilbert, Just a quick word of caution...I would strongly advise against publishing your full UK address so openly in your details. The PTE Forum website is not a "secure" site - i.e. the padlock does not appear any where in the browser window. I would recommend that you edit your details to show just "Sutton Coldfield UK". In these days of identity theft it pays to take as few chances as possible - ideally none!

I've just downloaded again from the wnsoft.com website and opened it successfully with WinZip v9. I don't know whether the file is built to be a "self-extractor" that would operate without any other software. I presume that, since you have previously opened such a download successfully that you do have Winzip or something equivalent to it installed on your PC? Good luck on your next attempt.

Hi Geoff, My own projector is a Dell MP3300 (now discontinued). It uses DLP technology. I was involved in the decision making process when my photographic society purchased its digital projector. They bought an Optima that is also DLP. The principal factor governing both purchases was "how much projector can we get within our budget?". I got a £1300 projector for just £450 by buying it on eBay. The society got the Optima for about £700 via an Internet shop. The factors that determined the society's projector were: DLP technology (at the time this was better than LCD technology) Contrast ratio of 2000:1 or better Light output of 2000 lumens or better Resolution 1024x768 (i.e. XGA equivalent. We would have accepted higher res but couldn't find any that were within budget at that time) Manual focus Manual zoom You need to bear in mind two things that apply to all modern technology: - if you buy the very latest model it will be obsolescent within 12 months and obsolete within 24 - if you wait 12 months before buying you will get something better for the same money or something the same for less money. Good luck with whatever you decide to buy. I hope it gives you, and your audiences, as much pleasure as mine is doing. (I'm off out later this morning with mine to give a presentation to one of the local Retired Men's Forums).

All you need to do is open the downloaded zip file and double-click on the Setup.exe within it.

Just a few words of caution on this subject: Firstly do not confuse "Royalty free" with "Copyright free". "Royalty free" usually means that you make a single payment to cover the royalty payments that the recording artists are entitled to for each usage of the music. But such music is still subject to the laws of copyright. Also be aware that the laws relating to Copyright will be specific to your country of residence. The following link might be of use as a starting point for further investigation into this subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalty_free_music Note the statement that "...the extent of the rights granted vary from library to library, as specified in a license agreement." The whole subject of Copyright, whatever you country of residence, is a legal minefield.

I simply use Prt Scr to capture the entire screen to the clipboard then open a new file from the clipboard in Photoshop Elements and then use Photoshop's tools to do the necessary to the image.

Almost certainly you have moved them to another folder, renamed them, deleted them or they were on a CD that is no longer in the CD drive or on a memory stick/card that is not plugged in. Select one of the missing images in the Slide List and then look on the very bottom of the PTE window. You'll see the file name (full path info included) that it is looking for. If that path is on your harddrive then you must have moved, renamed or deleted the image for it to be not found now. If the drive/path is on removeable media then you simply need to load that media to access the image files. Once you've found them I most strongly urge you to adopt the folder usage technique which I described in my previous post. If you do, you'll not have this sort of problem again. Hope this helps

You could try using Windows file search feature to locate your pte file using the search operand "*.pte" - without the quotes. If it finds your pte file, make a note of the first part of the file name and run a second search for "xxx.exe" - where xxx is the filename you noted and again not including the quotes. The best way to approach creating sequences is to begin by creating a folder structure, for example: My Documents My AV Projects AV Project 1 AV Project 2 Always start by copying your shortlisted images into the appropriate project folder. If you use music tracks, place a copy of those in the same folder - i.e. keep all the files used by each AV project in the one folder for that project. When you Save your pte project file make sure it is saved in that folder, too. And when you Create your exe file, again make sure that also goes in the same folder. Everything in the one place makes it easy to make a backup of the sequence that includes all the pieces. After gaining some experienc in building AV sequences you might want to modify the folder structure. Within each AV Project x folder I have sub-folders called Images, Music, Soundtrack, Voiceover - but I'm a "control freak". I like a place for everything and everything in its place.

I've just done "Create backup as zip" of one of my "work in progress" sequences. It uses the same Black Slide image twice and another image file twelve times. I didn't get any error messages at all. I'm using v5.1

I'm with you all the way on this! I accept that there are times when a quote of some kind is a useful way to set ones own reply into proper context. Unfortunately, too often the entire previous post is quoted with no real benefit. When it comes to using PTE we have Lin and Jeff's excellent PTE v5 User Guide. But I'm not aware of anything similar on "How to get the most out of this forum". Is what we are really identifying, a need for such a User Guide?

Hi Bob, Did you create .exe files on your PC? and if so, do you still have those? If the exe files are available they can be loaded into Audacity sound editor software and the sound file saved from within Audacity. If you need assistance to do this either reply via this thread of the forum or e-mail me directly.

Hi bjc, For music, have you considered Hamish MacCunn's "Land of the Mountain and the Flood"? I used it many years ago as background to a slide/tape sequence.

Lin, Thanks for the explanation. I knew about "Shift+Left click" to select a contiguous range of items and about "Ctrl+Left click" to select non-contiguous ranges. But I didn't know about "Shift+Home" and "Shift+End". I've used PCs of one sort or another for 20 years or more - and I'm still learning!

Steve, I've been using PTE for over two years now, and been active in this forum for almost 9 months - and I never knew that. Where are all these, and any other, useful keyboard "quick commands" documented? I've had a look in the User Guide and they aren't mentioned there. What other useful keyboard "quick commands" are available, please? Is it worthwhile opening a new thread in the Tutorials forum in which to pull them all together in one place?

I will get to that whisky but just to "dot i's and cross t's"... I have just dropped the default slide duration to zero seconds, set it for existing slides... and everything still works as expected.

Solved it! Not a bug - but user error (I hang my head in shame!). I had started the build of this show under v5.04. Because I wanted manual control I had set the default slide time to 600seconds. This morning I opened the file in v5.1 and in Project Option... Main... I ticked the option "Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide". I naively assumed that I would not now need to set the slide duration at all and reduced it to zero seconds. However I failed to click on "Set for existing slides" so only the new additions took this value. What has been happening is that the button has been going to slide 67 but then processing this and the next four images without displaying any of them because they all had a zero duration. Slide 72 was the next slide to have a non-zero duration. By resetting the default slide duration to 600 seconds AND Setting for existing slides properly - all now works as expected. That's half a day and no real progress - except in my knowledge. But it's "sussed" now. I may not deserve it but I need a good stiff whisky after that battle. Season's greetings to all who read this.

Dave, Your second point can be address with existing v5.1 features provided you always set up a new folder for each sequence. Once the sequence is finished just "Create backup as zip" storing the zip in a folder of "Completed Sequences" then delete your entire working folder. Finally re-instate your working folder as a new folder and extract the zip into it. This cleans up everything that didn't make it into the final sequence and preserves everything that did.

I have encountered what seems to be a bug with the programmable button actions in version 5.1 I am constructing a manually controlled illustrated talk sequence and making extensive use of programmed buttons to control the flow of the sequence. On slide #15 I have eight buttons. Each button is programmed with the "Action on mouse click" set to "Go to slide number ...". The target slides are nos 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and 74. Slides 67-71 have a png file as their main image. Slides 72-74 have a jpg file as their main image. In preview mode, when I click on any of the first five buttons on slide #15, I get sent to slide #72. This is the first slide after the actual target that has a jpg as its main image. I've run a few simple checks and I can reprogram this button to go to any slide that has a jpg as its main image. If I reprogram it to go to a slide whose main image is a png file the action seems to "hunt" forward to the next slide with a jpg main image. Is this a bug? Or are we restricted to having only jpg files as main images? This is only a concern, at present, because I cannot see all the objects on an image in the slide list or in the little preview pane. Roll on v5.2 when Igor adds this function in! Igor, if "bug fixing" this in v5.1 is going to take a lot of effort, forget it. Concentrate on v5.2 please.

The more I think about this the more I think Mark's suggestion has merit. What better way could there be for a "newbie" to get a grasp of the use of keypoints for animation than by studying a PTE sequence that had been built automatically? A picture (in this case a sequence) is worth a thousand words, as they say. And that is, in no way, meant to detract from Lin and Jeff's marvellous User Guide.

I'm not aware of the sort of features which you seek. Nor can I understand why you would wish to seek them. I firmly believe that the use of panning, zooming, animation and even transitions should always be done in order to achieve a specific artistic effect. That implies a measured degree of conscious thought, a process which is entirely at odds with the use of randomly chosen effects. Don't delegate the creativity to the computer, let it come from within yourself.

Hi Alan, I agree that combining into a single file is nearly alwys the best option. May I just correct you on one point? You don't need to create a single soundtrack file in order to see multiple files in the Timeline Waveform. If you stack multiple soundtrack files via the Project Options... Music... tab you still see them as a single waveform in the Timeline window.

Hi Argonaut, Presumably your original soundtrack was assigned via Project Options... Music tab (Am I right?) If so, just add your second soundtrack item via that same route. It will then start to play as soon as the first soundtrack item ends. All you have to do is transition into your black slide at the start of the second piece of music. Both pieces of music will appear in the Waveform display. It is a limitation of all versions of PTE up to and including v5.1 that sound files associated with specific slides (e.g. via Customize Slide... Music tab) do not appear in the waveform display. I know that addressing this is on Igor's To Do list for a future release.

Hi Bob, Brian has beaten me to it. That's how I would have done it.

Hi Bob, If you have Windows Media Player v10 or v11 that has "CD Rip" capability - and you can control the options. All my audio CD rips are done using Windows Media Player.

Hi Bob, Speaking as someone who works only within the PC environment (no interest or need to do DVDs) I've never found using 44100Hz to give any problem. All my soundtrack material originates at and is kept at 44100Hz throughtout its life. And I too use Audacity to manipulate the sound files. Sorry I cannot help you further. But I'm sure there will be someone out there who can offer you some practical advice.