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The 22nd Great Northern Festival is now open for Bookings & entries. Held on 2nd to 4th December 2016 in Manchester, north west England, it is a weekend of entertainment, competition and learning for all Audio Visual enthusiasts. There are 2 competitions - The 'New Horizons' open to those who have NOT won a prize at any National or International Festival and the 'Great Northern' open to everyone. The only restrictions are that you must be resident in the UK or southern Ireland, or if overseas then you must attend the festival to also be able to enter it. Full details are available on our website www.gnfestival.org.uk where you can find a Brochure and Booking Form There is also a link to subscribe to the Newsletter to keep you informed about the Festival We hope to see a lot of PTE users there! Jill

nobeefstu, what you are refering to is the option to save an image from the exe & it only works if you have the navigation bar - something I never use. What I am asking for is to be able to say right click on a slide in slideview - or better still at a certain point within that Slide in the Timeline view & for there to be an option to save the image as a jpg. In some AV competitions the author is asked to provide a representative image from the AV to use in a catalogue. It would be so quick if we could create that from within PTE rather than having to do it in Photoshop. Also when creating an image for a 'Single Image' competition, it is often much quicker & easier to do something in PTE than to use Photoshop. Jill

Hi BarryH I totally agree with everything that Danmassefrance has said. "The devil is in the details" - is most important, never let anything distract the audience, for then they are brought out of the mood you are trying to create. This can be as simple as a highlight in the wrong place that catches attention. Look at each image critically on it's own & see if there is anything that stands out that shouldn't! Especially check the corners & edges. Then see how each image combines with the next, make sure horizons & lines/angles within the image combine well. As Almark says the music (soundtrack) is also very important. Any changes or sound effects should be seamless. If the audience notices you have done something then it has failed! Try to make it so that when something happens in the music - a crescendo - then something should also happen in the visuals. This is very easy to do in PTE by looking at the wave form in Timeline. If you are making a 'PhotoHarmony' type sequence then the images are the most important part & must be of high quality. Leave them on screen a little longer so the audience can appreciate them. If you are making an AV - to tell a story, or create a mood/feeling, then it is the overall effect that is most important & the images should flow with very little screen time - keep everything moving along. But the most important aspect of all is that YOU enjoy the whole process, from taking images, finding music, putting the whole show together & enjoying the reactions from your audiences. If any of it becomes a chore then it is no longer worth it. Please bear in mind that everything that has been said is to enable you to create shows at the highest level & this may take a long time to acheive. Work to your own ability & that will grow over time. If you are in the UK then there are many AV clubs, competitions & workshops around the country that you attend for help & inspiration. Take a look at www.avnews.org.uk on the calendar page to see what is happening. Jill

As PTE gets more powerful & we can do more & more without having to use a separate photo editor, it would be really useful if we could save a slide as a jpg image. EG I apply several effects to an image using O&A such as layering one image, with a border ontop of a blurred greyscale copy of itself. This is so quick & easy to do in PTE rather than having to go into Photoshop to do it. It would be great if we could then save this Slide as a JPG at the resolution of the original image(s) Jill

We also have suggested this several years ago (Jill & John) We always use PTE for projecting competition images on the night if we are operating (the Judge usually having had an exe file previously) Using PTE in Project mode it is easy to preview the images - and bring up fullscreen preview at the end if the judge needs to have a final quick look. At the moment the operator needs to keep a note of images NOT selected, then at the end of round 1 etc quickly remove those, leaving only the ones the judge has selected - time consuming & prone to errors. To be able to press the Spacebar (easy to find in the dark!) when a slide has been selected by the Judge to be held would be a great advantage & I am sure would be taken up by many photographic clubs. Another option which is used by Dicenta is the ability to keep scores, So the operator would type in 15 or whatever score the Judge gives the image. Then at the end of the round display all images with say 16 or above. Jill

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Your 3rd option is easy to do, just add the video over the first image & set the Video to be a Master Video Track (Objects & Animation/Properties Tab) On each subsequent image that you want the video to play over, add the video again in Objects & Animation & this time set it be Link to - video file name. You will need to make sure that you have enough individual images to last for the length of the video. Jill

Of interest to UK workers Story Telling with Images and Sound Workshop To be held on Saturday 5th March 2016 10:00 am to 16:30 pm cost £20 at Wilmslow Guild, 1 Bourne Street, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5HD Led by Jill K. Bunting CPAGB and John Smith APAGB CPAGB Closing Date for Booking - 22nd February 2016 We will start right at the very beginning. In no time you could be making simple pictures and music or pictures and spoken word sequences. However, audio visual is capable of much, much more! A few easily learned techniques can lift your work above the ordinary - techniques which will be of interest to established AV and video workers. We aim to make the day as interactive as possible, covering the problem areas highlighted on the booking forms of those who will be attending and trying to ensure that the needs of both complete newcomers and more established workers are met. Technical and artistic aspects will be covered We will be demonstrating using PicturesToExe and Audacity, but if you use other software then the techniques covered will still be applicable. Enquires to Jill & John Download More Details and Booking form or see www.avnews.org.uk or www.wilmslowguildav.org.uk

The 20th Great Northern AV Festival was held over the weekend of 5th to 7th December. We had a new organising committee, new venue & new format. The event was a huge success with 53 entries & around 100 people attending over the weekend. There was a new competition, 'New Horizons' open only to those who have not received an award in a National or International competition. This attracted 20 entries, 16 made with PTE. Almost all of the entrants were new to major competitions & for some it was their first sequence. All these authors were given constructive comments on the day by the Judges & will also receive written feedback on their entries. The main 'Great Northern' competition attracted 33 entries, 32 made with PTE. The full results can be found on www.gnfestival.org.uk The 21st Great Northern will be held on 4th to 6th December 2015. Entry is restricted to UK, Northern & Southern Ireland & overseas members of UK Clubs. Jill

I totally agree with Peter that multiple image tracks would be a real benifit to PTE. I often need to add objects that play over several slides & to be able to have these on a separate track would save a lot of work. But maybe the new O&A in PTE8.5 will help male this easier. Also if PTE could automatically strip off the sound from a video & add it to the audio tracks this would help. Jill

Barry, That is exactly what I (& I am sure lots of other people) want to do, by being able to 'split' the track & move the split clip along the timeline. Jill

JT - The option I specify is non destructive. It would work in exactly the same way as PTE does now. You can add the same clip multiple times & trim the ends to give different parts of the clip. All I am asking for is an easier way to do this with one click Other Sound editing software does this, but I am aware that PTE is a 'Sound Mixer' NOT a 'Sound Editor' Daniel - The clips can still be linked to a slide & moved with the slide, I do this often Jill

Another thing we frequently need to do is to split a sound clip to be able to move a portion further along the time line. Take for example a voiceover. I will usually record this in one go, but then split it up into sentences/paragraphs to be able to position these acurately along the timeline. It is usually easy to see these portions as there will be a short 'silence' between each. If we could just click on the waveform & chose 'cut' to split the waveform in two at that point. Effectively this is a copy/paste/trim for each portion. So each part is still the complete waveform with the ends trimmed to the appropriate position. I know we can do this manually now & it is what I have to do. But to be able to do it in one click would save so much time. The ability to still move the ends of each trimmed portion would be essential to allow for accurate positioning. Jill

Please consider giving a choice of colour for the interface. Personally I much prefer a lighter colour as it easier to see (for me ) I find white (light) text on a black (dark) background much harder & more tiring on the eyes. A floating mini preview window would be extremely useful as it can then be docked on a second monitor & always visible. Jill

Hold the shift key while dragging. It works for both Volume (left/right) or Time (up/down) Jill

Hi Igor, I would definately like option 2 - display keyframes of several objects on separate tracks. With the option to show/hide objects/tracks if possible Also to be able to expand the timeline as we can on the main timeline to see smaller time intervals. To be able to see the waveform of at least one sound file (user choice which one) To be able to select a group of keyframes (for one or more objects) & move them along the timeline as a block as we can with images. Jill

Jacek, You can only enter the Competitions if you live in the UK or Ireland or are an overseas member of a UK or Ireland Club. Anyone can attend the Great Northern Festival weekend to watch the competitions. The New Horizons Competition is further restricted to only those workers who have NOT received an award in a National or International competition. This is to encourage newcomers & those less experienced. Jill

The Great Northern competitions are only open to AV workers in the UK & Ireland, but anyone can attend. Find out more at www.gnfestival.org.uk For a full list of AV events also see the AV News website Jill

Suggestion to your problem. Display the Navigation bar & simply drag the slider to the appropriate place in the sequence. Or break the sequence down into smaller sections & use a Menu function to quickly display the relevant section. Jill

Does it really matter what the zoom says? Just copy your first text object to subsequent slides & change the text to say what you want. As long as it looks 'correct' who cares what the numbers say! Jill

I also do not use colour profiles. But my cameras are set to take jpgs in sRGB & I export from Photoshop in sRGB. All my own images look exactly the same in your test. I very rarely have any problems when giving my shows on various different club projectors. Although occasionally a club may have set up their projector to be over saturated so the colours look wrong. But looking at some images I have from other people they do look different. Some look better with NO colour management, while others look better with it. I have no idea what the profiles if any, of these images are. If you implement this feature, I think it is essential that the user has the option to be able to switch it on or off, by Project, but also with an option to switch on or off by image. Jill

Eric, I agree with you on the position of the Blur button, it is too easy to catch that instead of the Opacity. With the Timeline view, it is much easier to use the Spacebar to start & stop the mini player. You can then leave your mouse over the + button to press that when needed. Jill

Hi Happy Cat, Welcome to the Forum & the wonderful world of PTE. Frames are used when you wish to group several Objects together so you can animate them all at once. A Frame has zero Opacity so is not visible. You can have several different objects each performing their own animation, but you may wish to move them all across the screen together. You would add a Frame above the individual Objects & then make them Children of that Frame. (Select all the Objects CTRL+Click, Right Click - Cut. Then select the Frame - Right Click - Paste) You can then apply animation to the Frame & all the Children Objects will follow. Hope this helps. Jill

It would be really useful if when we insert new slides into the Slide List they were inserted before or after the current selected slide. I am finding it more & more frustrating that I position the slide view at the point I want to add new slides with a slide selected. Then when I double click on a slide in the File List it is inserted at the end rather than the point I want it to be. I know I can drag the slide from the File List which is easy for one slide or even a group of slides to be inserted at the same place. But I often use CTRL+D to select & add the whole Folder. This normally occurs when using PTE to display single images at the Camera Club for competition or appraisal. Each person's images are in a separate Folder so it is easy to go through the list of Folders & CTRL+D to add all the images into the project. If we could choose to add the images at a particular place this would be a great addition & speed up workflow. Jill

We go around Camera Clubs, AV Groups etc trying to encourage more people to use PTE. Not just to make AV's or even Slides to Music, but to also show that PTE can be very useful to the single image worker who wants to give talks or simply show their single images in a better way. The basic use of PTE in this way is extremely easy & we can demonstrate in 5 to 10 minutes how you can put a simple show together. Even to adding Titles & doing simple Pan or zoom animations. I am not sure how much easier you could make the basics. It is only when the user wants to move onto more complex animations that they sometimes struggle. I agree that it is much easier to learn something new when you are shown, rather than being faced with new software & not having a clue where to start, especially for those not that computer literate. But the documentation is available for those who look. Maybe we need a separate section on the forum for new users with some simple explanations of how to make basic shows. This way they wouldn't have to wade through the numerous posts from more experienced users trying to find how to do the simple stuff. Jill