fh1805

Gary, I have to agree with you. If the user has ticked Auto spread and then either adds or removes slides, PTE should, ideally, re-spread or at the very least, give the user a pop-up reminder that the slides need to be re-spread. regards, Peter

Steve, I'm baffled as to what you are actually seeing. With the Slide List (thumbnails) visible across the bottom of the window you should have above that three "panels": from left to right they are the tree structure, the file list (also thumbnails if the files are image files) and the mini-player area that gives the preview image of any slide selected in either the Slide List or the File List panel. This mini-player area sits just above the Customize Slide and Objects and Animation buttons. Do you not have this screen dispaly? regards, Peter

Gary, Yeh, you and I have been here before! Timeline/Timed Points/Arrange All Points applies, on a permanent basis, the effect that Auto spread slides along music gives on a temporary basis. This means that if you have a show built with, let's say, a default time interval of 4 seconds and you do only Auto spread then, when you save your project, the slide intervals remain at 4 seconds. If, instead, you do Arrange all points, the durations are re-calculated and these new values will be the ones saved when you do the save of the project. If you do only Auto-spread then the effect can be seen only when you do a full-screen preview. If you do Arrange All Points you have actually changed the slide duration values and therefore the results can be seen in the mini-player as well as in full-screen preview. regards, Peter

Ralph, It works under Vista as well. regards, Peter

DaveG, Following your last post above, I've just tried again, building a new screensaver (four images, Run until ESC) using PTE v5.52. Also played safe and made its name an 8.3 format name. Everything worked as you described. I then opened the project file and created a second screensaver file. This one I renamed to a long form name and then installed. Again everything worked just as you described. Will try this one again with PTE v5.6 beta after Igor has got the "Run until ESC" bug fixed. I confirm that you are right and that there is no need to place anything into any of the System folders; and no need to use System Administrator privileges under Vista. regards, Peter

DaveG, I presume these instructions are based on Windows XP? Because I've just tried to follow them on Vista and the screensaver didn't kick in. I used search to find where the existing screensaver files are stored on Vista - and they are in C:\Windows\System32. So I copied my screensaver file there (needed to OK the use of System Administrator rights as we went). Now it did try and kick in but, because of the bug in v5.6 beta with regards to "Run until ESC is pressed", everything just hung and I had to go to Task Manager to break in and kill the not responding tasks. I'll give it another go on Vista once Igor has got Run until ESC working correctly. regards, Peter

Steve, The basic screen layout of PTE v5.6 beta is exactly the same as that of PTE v5.5. You can view either the Timeline or the SlideList across the bottom of the window - but not both at the same time. You can close the tree view if you want to. If you then click on one of the numbered "flags" in the Timeline view, that slide will appear in the "mini-player" area. The only point to bear in mind is that there may be some features of v5.5 that have not yet been re-activated in v5.6 beta (for example: Wait for a key press or mouse click... was re-activated only in beta10) regards, Peter

DaveG, Agree entirely with the need to manage files and folders. That's exactly how I work. Each project has its own top-level folder. Each project folder has the same sub-folder structure. If I want to use an existing image in a new project then it first gets copied into the relevant sub-folder for that new project. This applies even to the BlackSlide file and the Background image files. At the last count I had over 50 BlackSlide files!. regards, Peter

endevil, Can you give more precise details of just what exactly went wrong? What was supposed to happen at the point where things went pear-shaped? And what actually did happen? Does the sequence still behave correctly if you open it in beta9? Remember, the entire purpose of the PTE beta programme is for the user population to use the product in the way that they usually do in order to flush out the bugs that the developers don't find. You may have found a bug in beta10. So it is important that we get as clear a description as possible in order that Igor and his team have the best possible chance to identify and rectify the problem. regards, Peter

Hi Ray, To insert a slide just drag it down from the File Panel (the middle one of the three panels across the centre of the main window). It will be assigned the default time as defined in the Project Options...Main tab. To change the duration of a slide, select it in the Slide List (the strip across the bottom of the window) and then click on the Customize Slide button that is just above the Slide List. The Main tab here allows you to set the duration as you want it to be. I would suggest you download the PTE User Guide - and read it! It will answer many of your, as yet unasked, questions. See here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7202 regarads, Peter

Ken, I've just checked v5.52 and you cannot do that. Whatever it is that Igor uses as his "clipboard" it isn't the system's clipboard. regards, Peter

Daniel, No need to apologise. We've all been through the learning process that you are now going through! When you get stuck or frustrated just do as you have done, and ask the question here on the forum. regards, Peter

Ron, I'm a cynic, sceptic and pessimist - I expect it will be more likely to create a whole pile of new problems than solve any of our current ones! "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (which I believe translates approximately as "the more things change, the more they stay the same") regards, Peter

Daniel, Is "View...Fullscreen of Slide List..." (also via F4 and via little icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the main window) what you are looking for? This gives you a "digital light box" on which you can sort out the order of your images. regards, Peter

DaveG, I agree, there is the increased risk of confusion with regards to missing images or images that have the same name but different content. But surely with all software products, there comes a time when the user has to take responsibility for their actions. Perhaps, if Igor ever does implement a "cross-project copy and paste" capability, the user should be warned whenever they try and copy an image into a project and there already exists in that project an image of the same name but from a different folder path. And, of course, "Create backup as Zip" will always pull everything together into one place. regards, Peter

Ken, No, Ralph's technique hasn't been eliminated. It is still very valid. But, at present, we cannot copy across multiple projects all open at the same time. And that is what this thread is discussing; having multiple projects open at the same time (which is currently possible) with the ability to copy and paste images between them (which isn't currently possible). regards, Peter

Picsel, You can "drag and drop" a slide from the File List to any point in the Timeline but I'm not sure that you can "Copy and Paste". regards, Peter

Ron, The "Run Slideshow" and "Run Slideshow with Return" actions are available only in v5.6 and require that all the sequences (the menu and the targets) are built using v5.6 (or higher assuming that Igor keeps on developing PTE). "Run Slideshow with Return" is the option to use for a menu+targets arrangement. All the targets are built as normal using PTE v5.6 - no special parameter settings are needed. The menu is also built using PTE v5.6 and it must use the action command "Run Slideshow and Return". "Run Slideshow" is the option to use to chain sequences together in a fixed, linear chain (Show A calls Show B calls Show C). In Show A you would use Project Options...More...Run application/slideshow on exit...Run Slideshow and nominate Show B.exe to be run; and so on down the chain. The visible benefits are realised for those of us who have Windows Vista as our operating system. The disruptive and annoying "flash-backs" to our desktop view are totally eliminated. If you've never seen this phenomenon, think yourself fortunate! If the operating system is XP then the existing "Run Application or open file" and "Run application and exit" options are still there and work just as they used to. And the XP users will not know what I'm talking about when I talk of "desktop flash-backs" because it never happened on XP. regards, Peter

Hi Tony, I'm not sure which one you need to tick/untick but have a look at the View...Timeline Options... to do with auto-scrolling. Hopefully one of these will get PTE to work the way that you want it to. regatrds, Peter

Ralph, Ray & Igor, I've just downloaded Igor's test sequences and run them on my Vista PC. Results as follows: Ran Show1 not from menu - all OK Ran Show2 not from menu - all OK Ran RunApp and ESC - all OK Ran RunApp and launched Show1 from menu - all OK Launched Show2 from menu - all OK Launched Show1 again from menu - not OK!!!! Show1 ran twice and then without any intervention by me, Show2 also ran twice and then control was returned to the menu. Definitely a bug in there somewhere. regards, Peter

DaveG, Provided that you enter in the input field for the "Run Slideshow..." actions just the show file name without path details (e.g. Show1.exe and not C:\My Documents\My AVs\Show1.exe) and provided you keep all the exe files together in one folder, then you can move them (or their folder) around just like any other group of files or a folder and PTE will run the menu and targets exactly as you want it to - any where, any time, any PC - including Vista! regards, Peter

This request has my support. I, too, find it frustrating to have to scroll backwards and forwards to position myself on the same image that I left when I switched views. regards, Peter

Dave, For the target shows I probably will not even do a Save As. All I will do is open the pte file into v5.6 and then do a Create to give me a new exe file. Because of my Folder discipline, the new exe will go into the same folder as the pte file. I will then check that the exe plays correctly in stand-alone mode. Then I will copy that exe file to the same folder as the menu exe (which I will have built using v5.6 and "Run Slideshow with Return") and I will check that the call from and return to the menu is working correctly. After I've done two or three without any problems I will then, almost certainly, cease doing the checks every time and just get the production line running. I'll check a sample of the sequences just to reassure me that things are going as I expect. regards, Peter P.S. I will not be making any changes until the stable release of v5.6. In my opinion, a beta release is for playing with and not for serious use.

Igor, I've just finished checking out the "Run Slideshow with Return" feature and confirm that it completely resolves the issue of "flashbacks" to the desktop on my Windows Vista system (Home Premium SP1). A big well done to all those involved in achieving this!!!! I also explored what would happen if a target sequence was not built with v5.6. I tried a PTE v4.47 sequence as the target and got a pop-up box warning that there was an error. I got a similar pop-up but with different words when I tried a v5.52 sequence as the target. The error-handling code behaved correctly. For me, it is not a problem to Create again all my sequences using v5.6 so that they will all run cleanly as targets on a menu (I have all the projects stored on my hard-drive). But it would be nice if, at some future date, your wizards could find a way around this limitation. Once again, my thanks for this wonderful achievement. regards, Peter

I think it still exists but in a different place. On the "Information bar" at the bottom of the PTE window, just to the left of the slide size is a box that contains either blank or P. In my experience, the P indicates that the slide has been customized in some way (excluding O&A activity). regards, Peter