jkb

because inserting in Timeline depends where you put the pointer & can make slides overlap if the gap between slides is not big enough to insert a new one. Yes I know that you can then adjust the positions but a newcomer to PTE may not realise that there is an overlap - as in this case? I always insert, move or delete in Slide view and use Timeline for adjusting slide duration & transition times. Jill

Good question, I keep trying to get other groups to hold a judging but so far no one else has said yes. If we could get more, then North Wales could be considered as a separate country. Also if Northern Ireland could hold one, that also could be another country. Jill

Thanks, away for a couple of days, will try that next week. Jill

North Wales is the UK judging, Klaus knows that we are just waiting for confirmation of the date. Jill

Hi Ian, No not you specifically, the post was directed at anyone who enters competitions. We get some very large file sizes for shows that only last a few minutes & not many slides. I know about the dpi/ppi But saving at 72dpi vastly reduces the file size compared to 300dpi I do Save for web in Photoshop at around 60 to 80% and have no problems when the images are projected on a large screen. This keeps each image around a few hundred K rather than several mb - makes a big difference to the final file size. I usually build my AV with the full size images until I am happy with it, then resize each image to crop as I need it. Jill

A plea! If you are making a show with larger images and intend entering competitions, please remember that these large shows will take much longer to upload and download. Also the poor competition secretary will have many to process and if everyone sends big files, they need a lot more storage space. Individual image files do not have to be big for projection. Even on a big screen you still only need 72dpi. Most competitions run on 1920x1080 or 1600x1200 projectors. Some smaller clubs are still using 1024x768 So please resize your images if entering competitions or festivals. Thanks, Jill

I have just connected an external USB3 Hard Drive, I click on the Drive Letter from the Menu bar to select the Drive. This shows the folders & images in the File List, but the Drive does not show in the File Tree. (left most Panel) Am sure I have done this before & not had any problems, what am I missing?? Using PTE10.6 Jill

This is a great competition and if you can get along to a judging then do. It is surprising just how inventive folks can be, trying to keep it short and be easily understood in many different languages. The UK judging will be in North Wales early June. Details will be posted on www.avnews.org.uk once the date is confirmed. Jill

You can easily switch between the standard and pro versions to see the difference. In settings, preferences, just select the version. If all you want to do is basic slide shows, with some pans or zooms, and any image effects - colour, blur etc you do in your normal image editor, then the standard version is fine. If you want to do more elaborate shows and control the sound volume with key points on the timeline, then go for the pro. But you can always upgrade to the pro later for just the difference in price. Hope this helps. Jill

No, only 1 instance. I do open more than 1 if I am copying from 1 project to another, but normally only 1

Igor, it is with PTE AV Studio 10.0.6 I was making a Menu for a competition this weekend. I opened last year's Menu project - Menu19 (made with PTE9) & saved with a new name Menu20 I then made changes, saved Menu20 & closed PTE10 When I reopened PTE10 it opened Menu19.pte instead of Menu20.pte I also noticed this with another project I was working on, this was an old project originally made with PTE5 I think. But each time I saved with a new name in PTE10 it opened up the previous version instead of the latest one. I usually save with a new name every time I make several changes - Project1; Project1a; Project1b etc Jill

Igor, thanks, this is what I do already and have done for many years. It is when I click the run application and the window opens to show the available files. These are all exe files, I have to click the down arrow to choose all files for it to show the video files as well. All the files I am running from the menu are in the same folder. I was wondering if you could make that window that opens on run application also include video as well as exe files. Just trying to save a few mouse clicks. Jill

Igor, thanks an interesting idea. However I think this would involve more work, these are not my AV's but those that other people have entered into the competitions. You have said that it is best to make MP4 if a show contains heavy animation or video, especially with the Windows10/Nvidia problems, so that is what people have done. Some have been made with other programs - M.Objects, Wings, Proshow etc. or a Mac program When the entries come in I run them all through to make sure they play correctly. If I was then to take the video file & make an exe in PTE I would have to run them again to make sure they still played correctly. I simply don't have the time to do this with all the entries. Jill

As more people are making MP4's these days instead of Exe files, could it be possible for the 'Action on Mouse Click - Open Application' to display video files as well as exe files. I have just been making a Menu to run competition entries and well over half are video files. This means that for each entry I have to click on the drop down arrow to display 'all files' to be able to find the video file to link to. If it is possible, it would save a lot of time if the video files were shown along with the exe files. This competition only had 33 entries, so not too bad to do it. But there is one coming up that currently has 70 with still some more to come in. And another which is likely to have over 100 entries. Just trying to save a bit of time in preparing for the competitions. Jill

Hi Malcolm, Thought you already had a later version than 7.5. That is so old now & upgrades were stopped for that a long time ago. The free upgrades were for the life of the product, not your life. Maybe something went wrong with the installation, I have never had any problems switching to the light interface. Try uninstalling, re download PTE & install again. Jill

Thanks, I will stick to downloading myself from the Forum. I check it every day so can easily see when a new version is out. Jill

If I open a project and then save it as a new filename, next time I open PTE it does not open that last saved project. It does not even show up in 'Recent Projects', but once I open it up manually then it does. I regularly save with a new name when I am working on a project and don't remember having this problem before Jill

I have just used the Auto Update feature for the first time to update to 10.0.6 I was very surprised that it did not ask me where I wanted to save the file. I always save the update file with the version number in a seperate folder, so I can easily go back to a previous version if I need to. It downloaded the file, but I closed PTE without installing the update, as I wanted to save it where I wanted it. I then tried to open my browser (Firefox) to go to the website and download. However it automatically did the install without asking any of the usual questions, such as did I want a start item etc. I have no idea where it has stored the download, I can't find it in any usual places. I suppose some people may want a quick update procedure, but If this is the way it is supposed to work, then I will continue to download from the website & do it manually. Jill

Easy, just add a light coloured drop shadow to the text. The larger the number in the distance box the softer and more diffuse the shadow. You can get it to just be a lighter background to the text to make it stand out. Jill

PTE 10 does not need to convert video files. If your Graphics card is powerful enough they should all play OK Jill

Settings/Preferences/Timeline

Igor, sorry but it isn't any different. Right Click Preview still starts on Monitor 2 if project is on Monitor 2.

Barry, I appreciate that things are easy once you know how. But I think that going to the Timeline & moving a sllide is hopefully more intuitive than looking for a setting you know nothing about. To make KFSD the default could cause confusion for a lot of existing users, some who may also not know where to look when suddenly things no longer work as they used to. You can't teach an old dog......

PTE is not a text editor, it treats text as any other object & sizes it depending on the number of characters. I also wish we could set a font size & also different colours within the same text object. To have different words in different colours you have to have seperate objects. Hopefully V11 will offer improvements in text The easiest way at the moment is to set the text how you want for 1 slide. Then copy & paste that to the other slides & just change the wording. However if the number of lines & words are very different, then you will still have to resize using the zoom parameter. Jill

Try installing VLC player on the USB drive, that way you know it will be there. Jill