DustyDesert

I've updated to the v4.14 hoping this would solve my problem but it hasn't. I've downloaded some other slide shows, like the "Southern Autumn" from the Beechbrook site and he used full screen mode, very clear pictures, with the fading transition and it was VERY smooth on my old computer. Why is that and how can I accomplish that? ~Cindy

Thanks, Marianne! Okay, it's zipped and on my site. I discovered I wasn't "optimizing" images properly, so I pulled up the never before used Image Ready and dug out the manual and actually used it. I hope I haven't optimized the pictures TOO much. They're about 40-70 kb each! I also re-did the rest of the images on my site and now the pages load twice as fast. The file size is now 3.7 MB. As far as the full screen mode, I tried the windowed mode and don't care for that look. The desktop is distracting. The "fit to screen" button is un-checked, I thought that was supposed to make a difference. I have downloaded other slide shows and they weren't in the "windowed" mode, so I don't know what I should do. I know the fading is REAL hard on slower systems. I haven't upgraded from the 4.01 yet. Would the latest update make a difference in the smoothness of fading transitions?

Thanks! That was easy!

This might be a stupid question, but do I just add the extension .zip to the file to make it a .zip? Just like many other extensions? Or do I need to convert it through my zip program? I know I get a lot of hits from state and educational places, and if the firewall thing is a problem with exe's then I'd like to offer it as a zip. Thank you for the compliment and the advice! ~Cindy

Thanks for the help! I did upload it to my site but I didn't zip it first. What's the reason for zipping? I've never zipped, only un-zipped and not always successfully. ANYhow, I have been using the ftp program you mentioned to upload my site so far and it worked for this, also. Great program! So, how do I upload to Beechbrook? I didn't find where to do that on the link you left. I'd be interested to know if this plays properly since my internet computer isn't quite up to the speed I wish it were and you guys are the experts. The music is mp3, and the pictures were all optimized in Photoshop to about 30-50kb, give or take a few. http://daydreamsart.com/Information1.html Scroll down to the "FREE DEMO!"in yellow letters and that's it. ~Cindy

I'm just learning all this web design stuff. I just learned how to re-design and update my site so I can maintain it myself. I have a demo slide show set to music and I'd like to offer it as a download from my site. How in the world do I do it? My show is 4.4 MB as an EXE file. I don't have any fancy WYSIWYG program, just plain old HTML written by hand. Thanks, ~Cindy

That does help. Thank you. I had them compressed to 170-200 KB which was about 7-9 on the compression scale, and the show kind of struggled on my older computer. Then I compressed them WAY down. They looked the same on my old system but looked like crap on my new one. I want it to play on all systems but to look good on all. I'll compress to 4 or 5 and see what happens. Thanks! ~Cindy

How far should I compress my jpegs for this? ~Cindy

Another question... Do I create this as a .scr or an exe.? ~Cindy

That was fast. Thank you! I should have thought to look in the FAQ. I was wondering about the repeat, and I won't have music. Thanks! ~Cindy

I'd like to offer a screen saver at the Fair coming up. So I have a real quick question... What systems should I say it will work on? Not Macs, right? There just seems to be so many Windows platforms now, I don't know what to say. Screen savers are new to me so any other advice you can throw my way, I'm ready! ~Cindy

I would like to have a slide show on my web site. I've done a "before and after" one that I'll be showing at the county fair that I'd also like available on my site. Does anyone here have experience with how to make it work with Windows Media players or anything like that? Is Flash the way to go? I'm just wondering which tree to go climb now. ~Cindy

I am way excited! It worked! I added 3 seconds of silence to the beginning of the music (that Audacity is a cool program!) and that solved the problem! Seems to be working perfectly now in all windows and the pause works without hang ups. Thank you so much for all your help Al. ~Cindy

I did have them too close, in fact bumped right up against the next one in some cases! That was the problem. Thanks. Now I know better. I know how to adjust where the music comes in in the main window, but how do I add a few seconds in the beginning through the timeline window? The music starts as soon as I hit play. Another thing, when I hit pause then restart, the music sets back a little bit but the blue arrow doesn't go back with it, so my synchs are off unless I start from the beginning. That can't be right. BTW, the music so far is just one song, MP3 (2.33MB) , the pictures are all jpegs and compressed to just under 200 KB each, transitions are set to 4 seconds with fade in and out effects at 2000. I have a blank picture at the beginning for a few seconds which is also where the music starts right now. I have 768 MB of RAM with all other programs closed, a 2.52 GHz processor, and a lot of frustration. This slide show is at 5.4 MB right now. ~Cindy

I just tried that. I created it as a custom synch and when I uncheck that button in the "main" folder and preview, the pictures don't show at all, but the music sure plays fine!

Me again. I'm putting together a slide show using the project options and customize synch, and it works perfect when I preview in the small window in the timeline box, but when I preview in the main window (full screen), the music and the slides will hang up and skip. What am I doing wrong now? ~Cindy

Wow! I finally got it! Thank you so much!!! Now I have total control and will be able to breeze through these much faster. Thank you so much for your help Al! ~Cindy

Only just barely. I don't know if I was out in the sun too long today or what, but I'm still confounded. I found the timeline, added music under the music tab, clicked the buttons you said to click, and when I hit play, the blue triangle sure enough starts moving but the display screen is black. I did manage to add pictures but don't feel like I have the same easy control over them as I did with the "customize slide" button on the main window. Back at the main window, when I click preview (after having clicked the synchronize buttons in the options pallette), it doesn't do anything. I did find the loaf of bread (though it doesn't resemble bread to me) and that almost worked for me. I unchecked the synch buttons in the options and then when I click a slide on the list, click that icon, the show would start from there but the music would start from the beginning. Not much help when custom synchronizing. What am I doing wrong now? Can't I customize each slide with transition effects and such in the main window, start the music at the desired slide (not from the first slide) and start a preview with slides and music in the middle somewhere? I've looked through the "help" user manual and found nothing on this. ~Cindy

I am totally lost. I'm using 4.01 and do not understand where to find the timeline, pause, loaf of bread, and there are no moving blue triangles. When I hit preview, the screen has only the slide show going until I click the mouse. I am new at this and I'm only on my 2nd slide show ever, both synchronized to music and I got SICK of seeing it over and over as I tried to sync the last couple of frames. Please spell it out for me? Thanks, ~Cindy

If you're using Photoshop, then just stroke it. That is, in PS7 make a duplicate layer, choose edit>stroke, choose color, choose your pixel width (try 10 and see how you like it). Flatten and that's it.

That sounds like a great idea. I do have a slow computer, and I'm going to reduce the file sizes to what alrobin said he uses. I thought they were small, but they were over 700 kb per picture. The music played fine and hasn't been a problem on any of the computers providing they played it from the hard drive. The pictures have been my problem.

It was from the hard drive they viewed it. I did have to put the only slide show I've done so far on a video, but I don't have a video card or whatever it is I need yet, so I had someone do it for me. The pictures went faster than I had synced them for. Yes, it was synced to the music, and yes, it took a LOT of fiddling. For the final presentation that was for about 100 people, I put the music through an editor and had to speed it up to 97%, then I turned the TV volume down and played the new sound recording on a stereo. Problem is now, people want copies so I HAVE to get the card and do it myself. TV resolution is so dreadful, though, and I'm trying to sell art. So quality counts. The computer I do this on is Pentium 4, 2.53GHz and 256 MB of RAM. Not a monster computer but not a dinosaur. I had problems with other computers slowing the pics down, and to speeding them up. The latter was a monster computer. The worst was the pics went so slow, though smoothly, and the song ended way before the pics and began to replay. I don't know what the system was for that one but the program was the 10 MB one. What pixel size and file size works best? How low do you compress a jpeg file? It sounds like if I can get an exe to work, it might work better for me than the screen saver idea. It sure looks better on a monitor, unless the resolution has been reduced too much. Bill, I'm glad you like my stuff! Thank you! ~Cindy

Maybe I should be a little more specific. Most of that info was way more obvious than I was looking for. What I'm asking is from the creation stand point, what's the difference besides the .SCR? I AM looking at this for a promotional thing as an alternative to a printed 4-color brochure to offer clients. An exe slide show on a CD isn't working out real well because it seems everyone's computers process the pictures at different speeds, even when they are small jpeg files. with MP3 music. I had problems with a 10 MB, 33 pictures, and one MP3 song exe playing the way it was supposed to on 2 different computers. Just wondering if screen savers work any different.

I'm thinking about putting together a screen saver. What's the difference between a screen saver and a slide show? What do I need to know to produce a successful one? Thank you, ~Cindy

Will an EXE slide show play on a Mac?