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Up/Down goes Left/Right? That isn't intuitive at all! But it's a neat keyboard solution. Like it! regards, Peter

Cor, Many thanks for bringing this to our attention. I had dabbled with Label Tracks as a means of annotating my soundtrack project files but hadn't realized this extra possibility. Wouldn't it be wonderful if PTE offered the following two features: export the synchronization data to a file correctly formatted for import as a Label Track into Audacity import a file created by Audacity from a Label Track export and use this data to set the timings One could then, almost seamlessly, rough build in one product and then take that info to the other product, do some fine tuning, bring it back again, do some more work in the other product, take it back once more, etc. regards, Peter

If you are looking for an easier way of changing the order of the slides then try using the Fullscreen view of Slide List (or "Digital Lightbox" as I think of it). It's the little icon over at the far right on the lower toolbar. Once in Fullscreen view use the slider to detemine how many images appear at once. You'll be able to get all 120 in easily, if you want to. Alternatively, if you use the mouse to grab hold of the frame bar just above the Slide List and drag it down (reducing the height of the Slide List) this will reduce the thumbnail size and thus show more slides across the screen. Note that you can change the width of the three middle panels by grabbing and dragging their vertical frame bars, and can hide/unhide the Folder Tree panel completely by clicking on the little textured section of the left side frame bar. regards, Peter

Jeff, What BUNCH? I worked 27 years for British Steel and then 5 years for Cap Gemini and the folks I worked with and for were a great bunch! But I don't think that's what you mean. regards, Peter

Lin, That has given me an idea for another sequence. Time for some serious planning me thinks! regards, Peter

Eric, Read the Readme Word document that was in the downloaded zip file. The last section is the "System Requirements" section. regards, Peter

Eric, No it isn't. A shortage of computer memory is one of the most common causes of unnecessary slowness in any computer system. A lack of sufficient memory causes the system to "page" (write currently unused sections of memory out to the hard-drive in order to make use of that memory space). By comparison to the speed of memory, the hard-drive is a tortoise. Eliminating paging should be the first priority of every computer user who wants to make their system run faster. Don't be too quick to assign blame to the Norton software. You may be right in your assessment on your system; but I've been using Norton software on my systems since 1996 with no evidence of any problems. regards, Peter

Eric, By implication, therefore, you would also advocate ripping out all the video output, too? After all those aren't EXE files, are they? And since Pictures are things that you hang on the wall in frames, where's the point in being able to sequence them together with music? Why not just print off a couple of hundred or so, spread them out around the house and put some music on the hi-fi system? That would be just as good wouldn't it? As I said in a recent post (and you corrected my emphasis, remember) Pictures-to-Exe is arguably the best A-V software. Some of us want it to become the best A-V software. regards, Peter

Jeff, As an ex-IT Project Manager in my previous existence I'm thoroughly familiar with the problem of "scope creep" (as we used to call it). In my experience with PTE, Igor has always shown commendable sense in choosing which user requests to honour and which to defer to a later date. I think we can safely leave it to him to add just sufficient function to meet our needs. regards, Peter

Lin, As you know, I agree with you 100%. All that is needed is the ability to do to "sound objects" those actions that have an equivalent for "image objects" i.e.: to place sound objects precisely on the timeline to stack sound objects one on top of another to apply "transitions" to sound objects (in the form of fade in and fade out) to reduce the opacity of sound objects (i.e to be able to set the volume level) All the above are non-destructive to the sound file itself, just like all that we do with image files in PTE is non-destructive to the image file itself. I would add a couple of others that don't have obvious equivalents in the image arena: to display the waveform of an individual sound object to display the waveform of the mix of all sound objects regards, Peter

Bonjour Michel, You are quite correct. Some of us have been asking for improvements to PTE's sound file handling for many years. Earlier this year Igor did drop a hint that he might be considering sound as part of the next release of PTE. We'll just have to be patient. regards, Peter (PGA on Diapositif.net)

Tom, You've got to remember - he's started cheating! He's just copying bits out of several previous sequences and cobbling them together into a "new" sequence (But what a cobbler!!!) Nice work, Lin! Loved the snow falling on the Mule Deer (or is that a White-tailed?) regards, Peter

Eric, Mine also shows Video-Builder tagged as 5.6.0.0 under both program directories - and I haven't had upgraded my licence. I don't think a fresh download and install of PTE v6 will change the situation. I suspect that either WnSoft didn't update all the tags prior to releasing PTE v6 or the Video-Builder code in PTE v6 is identical to that in PTE v5.6. regards, Peter

Eric, Provided you let PTE use its defaults during the installation, each version of PTE installs into its own directory under Program Files on your C: drive. So there is no possibility of a newer version corrupting your older versions. regards, Peter

Mike, This feature was introduced briefly in one of the v5.6 betas - and then withdrawn in the very next beta. I don't know why. If Igor was to consider re-introducing it I think the choice of colour and symbol should be set in the Object's Properties tab and there should also be an option there to show the keyframes for that object on the O&A timeline all the time (and not just when that object was selected in the Objects List). regards, Peter

Ken, The purpose of this option is to ensure that the Slide List thumbnails include any supplementary object images that have been added via the O&A window. regards, Peter

After an extensive re-build and significant fine-tuning and "polishing", here's the final form of my Rubik's Cube sequence (8.0MB, 2m 23s duration, 1920x1080 resolution). Yes, this is my first HD-ready sequence. The best I can watch it at is 1280x1024 so I'd welcome feedback on how it looks on those monster monitors that I know are out there. regards, Peter

The Slide List shows the state of each Slide at the end of the transition. Any objects which, because of opacity control, do not appear until after the completion of the transition will not be shown in the Slide List thumbnail. regards, Peter

Yes, only main image files are emboldened in the File Panel. regards, Peter

Colin, Having now watched both versions a couple of times each, I find the smaller EXE file seems to me to have less definition and fine detail in the images. How much of this is real and how much comes about because I know it is of a lower quality - and therefore am conditioned to expect it to be of lower quality - I just do not know. I love the choice of music ("Can you feel the love tonight" from Disney's "The Lion King" - perfect!). Your images remind me of the architecture I encountered at some of the Zimbabwean and Botswanan National Parks when I visited those in the early 1990s. Thanks for sharing. regards, Peter

Hi Photofanatic, I suggest you read this FAQ and then re-set your expectations. Any attempt to create a DVD-Video disc from PTE will always produce significantly reduced image quality compared to the excellent image quality of the nativve EXE file. regards, Peter

Hi Lin, Interesting that your cube construction and mine are so similar. I would add the following points/comments: I think your Pan Z value of 47 might be dependent upon some other factor. I had to use -66.6 and +66.6 to get the faces lined up properly. Having built the first "whole cube", I then worked through it deleting all the individual cube faces that were never going to be visible. This kept the structure simple, and made subsequent work easier to manage. Your point about needing several different builds of the cube was the aspect that required most time during construction of my sequence. It took me about 50-60 minutes to build each variant of the whole cube. I ended up using three variants. Variant 2 got rebuilt once and Variant 3 got rebuilt twice (because of orientation errors introduced inadvertently by me). Of course, prior to the final sequence that I posted there had been three previous attempts that were abandoned because I got myself into a right old mess! I also found that a background other than black didn't work. As the cube and the layers rotate, the transparency of all the elements other than the external facets means that the background is visible "through the cube". I tried re-introducing some inner faces but this technique was not always successful due to a limitation in the current 3D Parameter implementation. Whilst you can change the Rotate X, Rotate Y and Pan Z values from one keyframe to another, the Show front and Show back settings are "Properties" of that object on that slide and cannot be changed between keyframes. For complex animation such as the Rubik's Cube, to be able to change these two values across keyframes would be a useful additional feature. You touched upon another aspect that would be a useful additional feature. PTE does not currently support the "inheritance" of opacity across the parent-child relationship. I desperately wanted to be able to fade-in and fade-out complex constructs of objects in both the Cube sequence and in "Kaleidoscope". I've prepared a document about my cube project (primarily for my own benefit, to have something to remind me of what I did and why) which I've attached below. regards, Peter The Cube Project.doc

Eric, Thanks for clarifying what you meant by "display soundtrack waveform". That button is actually called "Show waveform on timeline" (just hover the mouse over it without clicking). You still haven't told me what kind of sound file it is, WAV, MP3 or OGG. I cannot offer you sound advice (if you'll pardon the pun) if you withhold from me the information that I need to assess the nature of your problem. All I can do is guess. However, the fact that your sound file behaves correctly under Vista but not under XP suggests to me that it might be a WAV file that has been constructed using Microsoft 32bit float. Other PTE users, including myself, have had unusual and erratic behaviour when using WAV files in this form. Alternatively, it might be that the sound file has been built using audio codecs that do exist on your Vista system but do not exist on your XP system. I'm still willing to help you but I need the pertinent facts. So, I repeat here the questions that I asked you in my original response: What format is your soundtrack file: WAV, MP3 or OGG? How big is the file, in both minutes and seconds, and in Megabytes? If WAV, then what type: Microsoft 16 bit PCM or Microsoft 32bit float? If not MP3, have you tried opening the file in Audacity and exporting as an MP3 at between 128 and 256kbps and then using this MP3 file? Also, could I ask that you, please, do not add extra problems into this topic for the moment. Let's solve one problem before we move on to the next. regards, Peter

Eric, Where is this "display soundtrack waveform" option? That's not a button or command line option that I recognise. Also, what format is your soundtrack file (WAV, MP3, OGG)? How big is the file (in both minutes and seconds, and in Megabytes)? If WAV, then what type (16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit)? If not MP3, have you tried opening the file in Audacity and exporting as an MP3 at between 128 and 256kbps and then using this MP3 file? regards Peter

Dave, I've had problems with 32bit PCM WAV in the past. I think you could be right? regards, Peter