russg

Thanks for the reply, Peter. I get what you are saying with the landscap/portrait issue. Good advice. My shows will be end-run on PCs, with various levels of monitor resolutions, I presume. I want to knock out a show and include it on CD-ROMs mailed out with Christmas Cards this year, so I need to get hopping. So let's say that I build a presentation at 1024x768, which would seem to be a reasonable baseline resolution for most people these days. Furthermore, let's assume that all photos are of landcape orientation. Now comes the issue of varying aspect ratios for each photo. Typically, when I edit my photos, I crop for content, using a free crop and not looking to conform to any particular aspect ratio. Which isn't to say that I couldn't go back to the original files and re-crop to a multiple of the 1024x768. I do this when I want a photo to be used as wallpaper for the desktop or to be used in a screesaver. But usually, the 1024x768 crop results in a compromised image from the crop I originally intended (my photos start out as 3:2 images as well). From your reply, I take it that you prefer the restrictions of a fixed aspect ratio crop rather than having a show comprised of mixed aspect ratio slides. And it sounds like you solve that issue by compressing your 3:2 images to a 4:3 aspect ratio. I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my brain around that approach, but who am I to judge? Maybe you could elaborate a bit on why you prefer to pound your square images into a round hole, so to speak, rather than have the images in a show reveal themselves in their natural (as I envisioned the original crop) state? I'm not questioning your methods, but as I'm newer than new at this, I'm trying to understand the reasoning. I'm sure it all relates to optimizing the viewing experience, but since I've yet to put together show 1, I don't have a real good feel for things at this point. I do understand the part about resizing to a max resolution of 1024X768 and knocking the DPI down to 96. Lastly, assume again that I have built a full-screen show at a 4:3 ratio. Looking at the User's Guide (I haven't even downloaded the program yet, that's next on my list!) I see that on vesion 5, if you use one of the pre-set aspect ratios such as 4:3, you don't input an actual fixed-pixel resolution size. This is apparetly only done if you select a custom aspect ratio. Would you suggest using the 4:3 pre-set or specifying 1024x768 using the custom selection? Will using one or the other have any impact to the end user? If an end user has either a higher or lower monitor resolution, will the full-screen show be expanded or shrunk to conform to the smallest dimension of the user's resolution using either method? Intuitively, it would seem that one of the pre-set ratios would expand and contract accordingly whereas using a specified resoltion would not, but I could be all wrong about that. The guide isn't really clear on this issue. Thanks again, Russ

Hi: I just learned about PTE from the Nikonians forum, and I'd like start working on putting my first show together. I've downloaded and studied a number of the tutorials and slideshows available from this site and other sites that have been linked, as well as studied the User's Guide, all of which have been helpful. However, I'm at a bit of a loss as to a number of things that need to take place in order to get started. The photos I'll be using in my show are of various sizes, aspect ratios and orientations (vertical/horizontal). The photos could be as large as 3872 X 2592 (10mp), or considerably smaller depending on if they've been cropped for content or were shot years ago on a smaller resultion camera. Here's some questions I'd like to throw out for your collective assistance: 1. The shows I've viewed seem to offer slides of a consistent aspect ratio and orientation (landscape/horizontal), and I'm guessing that's not just coincidental and that there's probably a good reason for it. Is there a problem with using photos of mixed aspect ratios and orientation? If not, are there special things that need to be done in PTE to accomodate a collection of mixed photos in a show? 2. Many of my photos are of a fairly large file size, around 5MB+ and are at 300 dpi resolution. I suppose this question is very much related to question #1, but should the photos be resized and perhaps the resolution dropped from 300 DPI before importing them into PTE. I suppose the issue is to strike a nice balance between a manageable file size and a quality viewing experience. I intend to distribute my shows on CD-ROM, so I can handle a fairly large executable size, but there's no sense in using large photo files that are well beyond diminishing points of return in terms of viewing quality. I have no feel for this, so I'd appreciate any guidance regarding the sizing and resolution of photos to be imported. 3. Lastly, I'm hoping someone could clarify the issue of screen size in the show. I understand that the show can be created in full-screen or windowed mode. Windowed mode probably solves a number of issues, but I'd prefer my shows to be in full-screen mode. It seems that using a 4:3 aspect ratio would be the safe option here, which I assume will leave black bars on the sides of the image when viewed on a wide-screen monitor. I also assume that the setting for percent of slide to show main images should be left to 100%, and that the show will scale itself to the resolution of the video card and monitor that the show is being view on. Have I got all that right? I'd appreciate any other comments regarding the settings on the screen tab in Project Options that might head off potential problems for viewers of the show. Well, this has gone on long enough, especially for a first post. One of the reasons I chose to invest my time and money with PTE was because of the very active and helpful user base. Thanks for your help. Russ