Picsel

another suggestion to improve PTE (if not already taken into account!)... For time saving, I would appreciate that the Timeline will keep on the same slide whatever its rank when switching from "slides" to "synchronization" or vice versa. With my PTE V5.5, the synchronization timeline always come back to the first slide whatever the rank of the slide I was working on.

It seems to me there is a remaining problem, but not very important, with PTEV5.5 on programming slopes for non linear movement. Within the programming window you can see the design of the slope and on the right side there are two boxes to modify the parameters - upper box : the slope at the beginning, - lower box the slope at the end. Each time I modify the parameters starting by the upper box, the value I have entered is changed (without notice) when I type a new value within the lower box which could cause errors on the movement. NB : with the same parameters but starting to modify parameters in the lower box, the problem does not exist. Perhaps already corrected in new version? (my system config : XP Media Center)

As it is today with PTEv5.5, we can place and animate several objects within the same o&a window and it is a very interesting function. However, I think it would be very helpful if there was the possibility to mask, temporary , one or simultaneously several objects (for example with a check box associated with each object) without having to modify the transparency of each object at different keypoints on the timeline. That could ease to control the animation object by object.

Hi Lin, Thanks for your suggestions I will apply from now on. So taking into account your suggestions and solution as proposed by Photosalmon (I had already tested), I hope, I will have no longer problems with non-linear animation which is a very interesting PTE function. Best regards Daniel.

in complement to my previous post I must say that I full agree with your solution which seems very logical. I hope it works each time. I take the opportunity to thank all of you, Lin, Frank and you for your help. Daniel.

The problem.....! when you want to make an effect, you open the o&a window, for each keypoint you can select the desired effect , there is no problem with linear but if you select another non-linear effect you have to enter in customization window and separate keyframes and all stuff.....otherwise it doesnt work! That is the problem. As already discussed linear effect and non-linear effect cannot be specified following the same way. It is certainly evident for you but sorry not for me, I am quite sure not to be alone!!.

Hello Maurice, thanks for your reply and your time. Perhaps I was not clear enough in my previous post. In fact the file attached to my post was reporting the modification exactly as Lin suggested to do and it works. I made also the same modification as yours and you can observe that in the customization window : when the keyframes are separated at D, you get two windows for slopes adjustment, one for movement between B and D another one for movement between D and E. I obtain the same result whatever the slope specification between B and D and even if slopes are opposite for Zoom and Span. That means that it is not taken into account for movement calculation between B and D. That was that I tried to explain at the end of my previous post. That also the reason why I said it seems there is no link between keypoints specification (P and Z are both unused for salomon between B and D) and the customization of non-linear mode (we need to separate keyframes only for non-linear modes). But it was just for a better understanding of non-linear mechanisms. And also to highlight this point in order to help people working on PTE new version to improve or ease the use of this very interesting function. In any case my problem is solved. Best regards Daniel.

Hello, I hope to be in the right section this time.... I am a new coming in this forum and a beginner with PTE. I have made my first slideshow with PTE5.5 and enjoy it as it is. Now I just want to get a better understanding in order to solve some remaining issues due to my still too short experience with PTE and I would take the opportunity to report some difficulties I have encountered. I have not yet ta(e)sted PTE5.6beta. Perhaps these ideas have already been taken into account, perhaps it is too late, and perhaps they are resulting of bad use and inexperience so in case of…I can guess that could help others too. 1- possibiliy to create an icon (.ico extension) directly from a jpg image of the file list. 2- information about work in progress during Templates creation (the same as it exists during backup zip file creation) 3- It will be helpful to have a second audio track waveform for comments or music included in slide customization ( I spend a lot of time before understanding that music waveform track was only available when using the project customization sound tab and was not available for music on slide customization, why ?) 4- renaming images in the file panel should be taken into account every where the same images are used, so the renamed images should be taken into account when creating Templates or backup zip file even within .pte project file (I do not succeed to solve this point with PTE5.5) 5- It seems to me that there is a missing link between the keypoints specification and non-linear PZR mode use… but I could be wrong (see my recent post on this subject within the PicturesToExe/Zooming and Panning Functions section). In any case that would be great if it were easier to use. Thank you in advance for your work and what you can improve. Daniel

Hello Lin, First of all, thank you for your very good job. Your video tutorials are very clear and helpful, well done! Obviously, thanks to your explanations, I solved my problem which, as you said, had nothing to do with frame use. And everything becomes clear concerning frame use and parent-child mechanics. So for my project everything is ok now : I have separated the keyframes as you suggested to do. However I would like to understand how the non linear effect works. There are some remaining dark or strange points, perhaps to be cleaned up in the next PTE version if not too late. So first of all I must explain the desired effect (please refer to the file test attached : test_PTZ_smooth.zip which includes the modification) The file test is composed of only one slide which includes 3 images. There are 5 keypoints on the timeline : A,B,C,D,E Image 1 (salomon) -----------------------------------------B--opacity 0 100--C ---hold----D---zoom and pan---E Image 2 (fondnoir_degradeblanc)-----------------------B-----------pan--------- C Image 3 (P1170378m)---------------A-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------E A to B Image 3 is displayed B to C there is a curtain effect masking the building in background, putting the sculpture in light C to D hold D to E zooming and panning on the sculpture, ending on the characters over the pilar. (the following slide, not included in the file, starts with the same but sharpest picture of the characters). So now what happens : 1) if zoom and pans are in linear mode everything looks ok except starting too fast as mentioned in your document. 2) if zoom and pan are in smooth mode without customization, the problem occurs, zoom and pan start at B keypoint and not at D as specified, (this is in accordance with what we can see in the customization window, which seems not taking into account that we have specified before) 3) if zoom and pan are in smooth mode, separating keyframes only at C the problem remains the same as 2) 4) if zoom and pan are in smooth mode, separating keyframes at C and D (as you suggested) every thing is ok 5) if zoom and pan are in smooth mode, separating keyframes at D it seems to work as for 4) It is very strange that in the customization window : when separating keyframes, it appears windows for programming slopes even for the keyframes which are not involved in the zooming and panning process. I do not understand why there is a difference in treatment between linear, smooth or other non linear modes, only the slope is different (probably easier to say than to do….!) can we expect an improvement on this for the next version of PTE? Other thing which is strange, if I separate keyframes at D it seems to work even if I specify different slopes between B and D for zoom and pan (for example accelerating one for pan and decelerating one for zoom). So in this case the specification of slopes between B and D is not taken into account. In fact, it seems that there is a missing link between the specification of movement at keypoints and the specification of non-linear modes. The specification of keypoints are not reported correctly when using non-linear movement, am I right or wrong? Do you know if we can expect an improvement on this for the next version of PTE? Best regards, Daniel.

Thanks a lot, Lin for your detailed and useful explanations, so I will have a look in depth on your document before coming back to you. If I do not succeed to solve my problem I will post to you an abstract of my slideshow, with the backup zip files as suggested. Sorry for having posted my question in the wrong Items I will try to do better next time!

Hello, That is my first time on this forum, am very happy to congratulate PTE community for its work. I am a newbie and french, so sorry for my poor questions in bad english : nobody is perfect! I made my first slideshow with PTE 5.5, that is very satisfying for the quality of images, transitions,etc... Not always very easy to use for a beginner, I am still discovering new functions, but very interesting and I am very happy to use it. However I encounterd some difficulties so there is my questions. Concerning zooming and panning effect I used zooming and panning for several pictures, starting the effect at key points on the timeline. I noticed that the effect start too sharply, so I try to use decelerating or accelerating curves but in those cases the effect doest not apply from the previous keypoint but from the starting point of the timeline whatever the number of keypoints in between. The problem was the same for all pictures with this effect. I do not succeed to solve this issue. So if someone can help me ...thanks in advance I can guess I made some mistake, but where? I read the user guide and faqs several times but I found nothing to help me. Is this problem in connection with the use of frames or not? And so my second question is : how to use frames? How does it work? Where can I find some more explanation about to use it (I saw Umberto questions and Peter answers on this forum but the mechanics of this function is still not very clear for me).