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Hi Carol, I think there are two avenues that can be explored in respect of your problem: we can work to help you understand why you are seeing what you are seeing and we can work to advise of how a change of PTE version might, or might not, change the situation. Let's take a look at the first of them. I, too, use menu sequences to drive a group of other sequences. All the sequences are built on a desktop PC with a monitor whose native resolution is 1280x1024. The vehicle for the end-delivery is a digital projector whose native resolution is 1024x768. That digital projector is driven by a laptop whose native resolution is 1280x800. I still build my menus in PTEv4 even though I now use PTEv5 for building the main sequences. For use in PTEv4 menus, I size all my "background" images to be 1024x768 i.e. the correct size for the digital projector. When positioning buttons, text or thumbnail images on the background via PTEv4's Object Editor I ensure that I am previewing (in the Object Editor) at 1024x768. This ensures that the design layout is right for the digital projector. If I feel a compelling need to preserve the spatial relationship between the objects when seen on the laptop I will select all of them (Hold down Ctrl key and click on each one in turn) and then Group them. If I don't Group the objects then their spatial relationship goes out of the window when viewed on the laptop. If I do Group the objects their spatial relationship with one another is preserved when viewed on the laptop but the alignment of the entire group against the background image is still off the mark. BUT... (and for me this is the important point) because I designed and built using the 1024x768 preview, I know that all the spatial relationships will be correct when projected. I'm not sure that the explanation which is about to follow is technically correct but it seems to fit the observed results. I think that in PTEv4 the position of an object is encoded in the pte file as a percentage offset from top left corner of the screen. In other words if you position a button to exit from the menu down in the bottom right corner (let's say at 95% across and 95% down) then that is where PTE will place it. And it will place it there irrespective of the monitor resolution. Now, would upgrading to PTEv5 change the situation? Yes it would. Because in PTEv5 you have the options (on Project Options, Screen tab) of setting the aspect ratio separately from the Full Screen or Windowed mode. I leave the aspect ratio set to 4:3 (i.e. correct for 1024x768 projection) and have the Full Screen mode active. I thus find that in PTEv5 I can view everything at full monitor resolution of 1280x1024 whilst designing and building on the desktop - but with the aspect ratio constrained to 4:3 - and, when I move the exe file to my laptop, PTEv5 ensures that the playback takes place at 4:3 aspect ratio. Spatial relationships are thus preserved in all situations. Previwing the sequence on the desktop I get a small band of black at top and bottom (where the 4:3 image doesn't fit in the 5:4 hole), on the laptop I get a broad band of black on the left and right (where the 4:3 image doesn't fit the wider hole) and on the digital projector I get edge-to-edge image in all directions. Hope this helps you to a better understanding.

I'm all for supplying info that will help Igor and his team get to the bottom of this problem. Having just completed three sequences that had never existed anywhere other than my Desktop PC I thought I would carry out a little test. All three were built using PTE v5.04 on a Compaq Presario desktop system running Windows Vista Home Premium. The processors are Intel Core2 Duos running at 2.33GHz. There is 2GB of RAM. The graphics is NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS. All three were created into exe files. All three exe files were then copied to my USB Flash Memory device using Windows Explorer to Cut them from their home folder on the hard drive and Paste them into the root folder of the Memory device. The Memory device was then taken to my laptop computer: an Acer TravelMate 5514WLMi running Windows Vista Home Premium. The processor is (are?) AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 running at 1.80Ghz. There is 1GB of RAM. The graphics is ATI Mobility Radeon X1300. The first sequence was run straight off the Memory device. It ran with no problems and ended normally. The second sequence was copied to the desktop of the laptop and run from there. It too, ran successfully and ended normally. The third sequence was run straight off the Memory device but the Esacpe key (Esc) was pressed after the first image had displayed. The execution was properly terminated and control was returned to the desktop display - all as expected. I have totally failed to recreate a problem which I have experienced in the past. Thinking back to the sequences that did cause me problems, all of them had been created on a Windows XP Home Edition SP2 machine using PTEv4.47. Of course, having now completed the replacement of my old system and having upgraded to PTEv5 I no longer have the relevant items with which to try and recreate that scenario.

Igor, What you have provided is a stepping stone towards what I had in mind when I posted the topic: Building a "heuristic" menu. The extra function I would like to see is to have the change of colour that happens when the button is clicked retained and applied every time the screen is displayed - until the menu exe file terminates. In other words, to know by the colour appearance which buttons have been clicked and which have not. Don't know whether this can be programmed but it would be a neat feature to have available when I'm giving an evening's programme to an audience and letting them pick which sequences to see. Both they and I lose track of which ones we have seen and which we haven't. Does v5.1 have a resolution to the problem, which occurs on Vista, of the screen flashing back to desktop when one exe ends and the next one that is chained off it starts - as happens when having a menu driven approach? I know you accepted that it was something that you would address. I just wondered if it was going to be in v5.1 or in a later release.

Found what I was looking for! Try following this link. Hopefully it will take you to the right topic. If not use Search option and keywords "Problem with Vista" http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....blem+with+Vista

This sounds like the same problem that was being discussed in a thread a month or so ago. Brain Conflow made several contributions to the discussion. The reason for the perceived problem lies in the presence/absence of some Windows Registry entries. Hopefully Brian will see this post in due course and either supply the info again or point us all to the original thread discussion. I've tried Search in the Forum but couldn't find the thread I wanted. I have experienced the same problem when moving PTE exe files from XP to Vista. I can breakout of the "hang" on Vista by doing Ctrl+Alt+Del, invoking the Task Manager and Ending the Not Responding task. I've also experienced the same problem symptoms moving exe files from one Vista machine to another. At one point I had a Menu exe file that drove nine other exe files. Of the nine target exe files two refused to react to the Esc key at any point but would play through to their correct endings.

Have you tried Googling? I've just run a Google search using the arguments "DVD WMV Converter Freeware" and got a huge number of hits? If it's freeware you're after it isn't going to cost anything but your time to download a few and try them out.

Thanks Lin, it needed Gaussian blur but that did the trick.

John, Re posting the show in the other forum. I'm way ahead of you. It got posted there as soon as Ronnie's post above prompted me to re-assess what sequences I had already posted. Thanks for the feedback and for the contribution to this thread.

Lin, You're stood down from further help on "how to do non-linear zooms". Your User guide took me through the steps with no problems once I had accepted your message in the text (reading between the lines as it were) to "don't ask why, just do it this way". I've changed to non-linear zooms and there's no doubt the start and end of the zooms is much smoother. Unfortunately, on the first of the zooms I now get an annoying interference pattern generated from the tops of the chairs during the "up slope" part of the zoom profile. Is there anything I can do to counteract this?

Ken, I had, in the past, used "Another One Bites the Dust" for a short sequence that the society members had already seen; so I felt morally bound to pick one of the other pieces of music.

Hi Lin, Thanks for the suggestion about non-linear zooms. I'll read up on that in your User Guide and give it a try (Might be back later with some "help, please" questions!) Hi Ken, I don't quite understand what it is you prefer. I uploaded only the one sequence. Are you saying you prefer rock music to classical? If so, that's OK by me.

Hi Ron, Can you give it another try, please? Lin Evans has successfully downloaded the sequence and commented on it via the Sequences Forum, so it is the right link. And I've just clicked on the link in the posts above and it takes me to the download link on MediaFire. I think it must just have been a glitch when you tried.

I built this sequence last year as a consequence of my increasing interest in my family history. It combines, music, voice-over and both modern and historical images to get its message across. As always, feedback will be very welcome. The file can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/?29c0niyaxyd

Ron, Your comment brought home to me the fact that the sequences I had uploaded to MediaFire thus far were all images and music only. So I've just uploaded another one that includes voice-over as well. I'll post a new topic in the Sequences forum to alert others to its existence but you can download it from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?29c0niyaxyd

This short sequence is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?1jdxcd19buv It was produced as my offering for an evening at my local photographic society called "Chairman's Challenge". We were each given four short pieces of music, varying in length from 1m 30s to 3m 05s and asked to build a sequence of images set to one of these pieces of music. The idea was to explore the different interpretations of the mood of the music when matched to the mood of the images. The four music items were: Charpentier's "Te Deum", Dvorak's "Melody in F", Grieg's "Prelude from the Holberg Suite" and by way of contrast, an orchestral arraangement of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". I had taken these images during a weekend break earlier in the year, so chose to use them with the shortest piece: Charpentier's "Te Deum". I would welcome any feedback - positive or negative.

I'm risking at least two things with this post: - annoying some forum members by preaching to the converted - upsetting some forum members who seem to hold a contrary view to me I do respect the views of all other forum members and hope you will respect my right to hold my views. However, I think this subject needs airing. During the course of this year I have become a regular reader of the forums and an increasingly regular contributor. There is, amongst all the posts, an undercurrent that worries me: the frequency with which some members are asking for sound-editing facilities to be added to PTE. The workflow of the creation of an A-V sequence has the following phases: - Planning - Deciding what your subject/theme will be, what images you will need, what music you might want to use, whether you will have voice-over or not, whether you will use sound-effects and/or actuality recordings as part of the sound-track. - Acquisition - Taking the photographs, making the sound-recordings and getting everything into the computer - Selection - Choosing which images you will use and which, on reflection, don't fit your needs. Choosing the words for your voice-over and writing a script - Manipulation - Editing the images to improve them: e.g. by straighten horizons, eliminating converging verticals, removing colour casts and enhancing contrast, sharpening and resizing. Cleaning-up the voice-over recording, editing the sound-effects and actuality recordings - Assembly - Bringing together the elements of your sound-track (music, voice-over, sound-effects, actuality recordings) and compiling the finished sound-track. Bringing together the images and combining some of them with animation, adding transitions between the images. Adding the sound-track alongside the images - Polishing - Adjusting the precise timing of the images so that they fit together artistically with the soundtrack. The Planning phase should start before all the others and will, to some extent, run alongside all the others throughout the creation of the sequence. The Acquisition phase will involve you in raiding your image stock and in taking new images specifically for the sequence. For the audio side it will involve you in "track ripping" your music from your CD and in making the "open mic" recordings of actuality and voice-over material. The Selection phase will involve you in discarding unwanted material; reducing a "long list" to a "short list" and a "short list" to an even shorter list and so on down to the final selection. The Manipulation phase is where you use the tools appropriate for the material to improve and/or tailor it to your specific needs. The Assembly phase is where you bring together your images (after selection and manipulation) and your sound-track (after selection and manipulation) and fit them together to achieve the artistic result that you had planned. The Polishing phase goes on for as long as you want it to. If you are like me, every time you watch one of your sequences you see something that you feel you should change. So, where does PTE fit into this workflow? Is it a Planning tool? No! Is it an Acquisition tool? No! Is it a Selection tool? Not really, although I do use its "digital light-box" feature for some fine tuning of my final selection Is it a Manipulation tool? No!, No!, No! This is where my concern arises. Is it an Assembly tool? Yes!, Yes!, Yes! Is it a Polishing tool? Most definitely! If I want to manipulate an image file I use software tailor-made to do the job. In my case that means Adobe Photoshop Elements (currently version 5). If I want to manipulate a sound file I use software tailor-made to do that job too. In my case that means Audacity. I most certainly do not try and use a piece of software designed for some other purpose to do my manipulation. Those forum members who are asking Igor to add sound editing capability to the product are asking him to take the product in totally the wrong direction. No one is asking for Igor to add the sort of image manipulation features that are found in Adobe Photoshop (and I guess in PixBuilder, also, although I have no knowledge of this products features). [igor, if they ever do, please say NO! - loudly and firmly] So why do they want him to add sound file manipulation features? Why wont they use existing tools to do this job? PTE is, in my opinion, simply the best software for the assembly of A-V sequences. That is where it fits in the workflow of A-V sequence construction and to try and use it anywhere else in the workflow is wrong. It is an unfortunate, but nevertheless true, fact that so many different software packages allow totally inexperience individuals to add music to some images and leave them thinking that they can now create audio-visual sequences. There's a lot more to it than that. To do it reasonably well takes time and involves learning a whole new set of skills. You must become a craftsperson (I hate PC language: what's wrong with saying a craftsman? I know many women who are far better craftsmen than I am) in all the following areas: - project planner - layout designer - storyboard writer - photographer - sound recordist - script writer - sound engineer - sound editor - image editor - producer - director - tea/coffee maker (That last one is far and away the most important!) It also means using the right tool at the right time for the right reason. For the assembly of the A-V sequence that tool is PTE. But PTE is not the right tool for manipulating sound-files. That's it, I've rambled on enough. Time to climb down off my soap-box and let you all have your say.

Hi Mike, I've just downloaded WinRK and tried to use it. It's publicity said it had an intuitive userr interface. Clearly, my mindset is totally different from the developer's. I cannot get it to do anything at all.

Mike, Don't expect too much from zipping the file. This morning I zipped a couple of mini sequences using PTEv5 Create Backup via Zip. I've just opened one of them in WinZip and studied the stats. mp3 music file - 0% reduction png files - 1 or 2% reduction jpg files - 11-21% with some exceptions as follows hi-res jpg (6megapixel original involved in some big zooms) - 0% Black slide - 87% the pte file itself - 87%

Hi Mike, Reading betwen the lines of your post, it sounds to me as if you are wanting to create some "trailers" of your main sequences and have these trailers downloadable from your own website. If this is the case then I would have thought that all you need to do is resize all the images that you use to, say, 512x384 or even to 256x192. You could probably also get away with a resolution as low as 50 pixels/inch unless you were zooming in significantly. I suspect that any animation in PTEv5 would have to be worked to keep the alignments in their proper places. I've been thinking of building some trailers myself but haven't got beyond the "I wonder if I could..." stage. If you want to build one as an experiment, I'll be happy to check it out on my systems for you and send back some screenshots. My desktop is 5:4 aspect ratio, my laptops are 16:9 and 4:3 Whatever you eventually decide to do - good luck!

Hi Ray, PTEv5 let's you do File... Create Backup as Zip - pulling together all the image files, music files and the *.pte project file into one ZIP file. You could then Extract this into any folder of your choice or simply save the ZIP as your stored copy.

Hi Ray, The biggest contribution to exe file size usually comes from your music. What format is your music file: WAV, WMA, MP3? If it is WAV or WMA then simply by converting it to MP3 you will reduce the music file size to approximately one-tenth of it's size with little if any loss of sound quality. I think it was you whom I directed to Audacity on another of your threads on the Forum? Once you have downloaded the MP3 encoder dll file for Audacity and told Audacity where you've stored it, you can use Audacity to do a File... Export as MP3... and then make the MP3 file your music file in your PTE project. Images usually contribute less overall to the exe file size. However, there's no sense creating a bigger file than you need - especially if you're intending to upload it to a hosting site (e.g. MediaFire on www.mediafire.com). Assuming you are using a PC whose monitor has a natural resolution of XGA standard (i.e. 1024x768) then you should resize all your images to this size and reduce your image resolution down to 96 or even 72 pixels. This will produce image files whose size is typically in the 150-250KB range. Even at this small size there will be more than enough detail to view them on your PC monitor or to have them digitally projected. Hope this helps - and makes sense.

Hi Lin, Many thanks! Your explanation has cleared all the confusion and bafflement from my mind. I've programmed the effect I wanted. The text item "Presented by" now slides from its original position to where I want it to sweep the clock face, does one complete sweep and then slides back to its original position. I also now understand that, if you want to do some rotation and then after that do some panning you have to supply the end-position rotate value on all subsequent keypoints otherwise, as you pointed out, it unwinds itself. Actually this has worked in my favour on the two items that traverse to and fro on the diagonals. Because of my misunderstanding when I programmed them they both do a very rapid "unwind" at the end of their traversing. This works absolutely brilliantly with the music I'm using. A classic case of what I call a "serendipity moment".

I've been using PTEv5 since July and feel comfortable using Pan, Zoom and opacity features of O&A. I've just embarked on my first serious attempt to come to grips with Rotate and am getting a little confused - and on one point I'm totally baffled. First the confusion: I had assumed that, for any object that I wished to rotate, the value that I entered into the Rotate field was the number of degrees of rotation that would occur during the interval between the previous keypoint and this one (positive numbers being clockwise and negative numbers being anticlockwise). What seems to be happening is that the value is actually being processed as "the number of degrees of rotation from origin zero to be achieved since previous keypoint". An example might make things clearer. I'm constructing an animated Introduction sequence and I have a piece of text that I want to move from the centre of the screen up to the top left corner, then down to the bottom right corner and then back to the centre. The simple pan movements are working fine. But I want the text to rotate as it travels. The first keypoint defines it's normal, at rest, dead centre position. The second keypoint defines its position in top-left corner. This keypoint has rotate set to -1440 (four complete revolutions anti-clockwise). The third keypoint defines its position in bottom right corner. This keypoint has rotate set to 2880 (eight complete revolutions clockwise). What actually happens is that the text object, whilst travelling from top-left to bottom-right, actually rotates clockwise a total of 12 times - it undoes the -1440 and then applies the +2880. Is this how it was designed to work? (And, yes, I have read Lin and Jeff's tutorial but I didn't spot anything that explained this sort of effect). The point of bafflement is as follows: In the same sequence (actually on the same slide) I have a piece of text (the words "Presented by") that I would like to have move around the screen like a second hand sweeping around a clockface - anchoring them at the centre of the right hand edge of the text. I have gathered from Lin and Jeff's tutorial that this should be possible using a combination of Rotate values and Center values but I can't seem to find the right combination. Is what I want possible? If so could some one please enlighten me?

Hi Ray, The difference in length of your music and your slide sequence is something that you could also address very easily with the sound-editor software - Audacity (free download from http://audacity.sourceforge.net). You simply bring your music file into Audacity by doing Project... Import Audio... and then shorten the music by doing Effects... Change Tempo... I guarantee that an 8 second change over a 5mins 40secs track will be virtually imperceptible to your ear. And you preserve the artistic integrity of the timing of your images. Have fun!

Hi yguy, Have you tried to find the missing file by using the Windows Search facility (Windows Start button then Search)?