aplman

Two comments, if I may ... To Julian, I would say that PTE can do many wonderful things better than ProShow. I bought ProShow Gold after paying for three other programs. I won't be using it any more - PTE is so much more pleasant to work with, the forum is fantastic, and Igor and the development team are far more responsive than the ProShow people. Lifetime updates are a great advantage too! Julian, good luck with whatever you decide to use. Secondly, may I suggest to Igor that perhaps the choice of "FitToSlide" or "CoverSlide" should be in "Customise Slide" rather than "Objects and Animation"? Perhaps then it could be applied to multiple slides in one operation? Ken Travers (APLman)

Also using Beta 8, I can report that both Save and SaveAs are working fine for me. Past discussions I have seen in this Forum have led me to believe there is a level of confusion about saving PTE projects. Perhaps this has arisen from some deficiency in earlier versions ... but in my experience, only with versions 5 and 6, there is no need for confusion. The "MUST" advice quoted above is not true. As with any other (properly written) Windows application, "Save" saves the current version of the file, replacing any earlier one in the same location. (If there is no earlier one, Save behaves as SaveAs, so name and location can be specified). SaveAs is used when the user wants to save a copy with a different filename, or to store in a different location, or both. If SaveAs is used, but neither filename nor location is changed, it bahaves like Save. There should be no mystery about this. It's just like any other Windows application. It does seem to me that David is using SaveAs (when Save would be appropriate) because of some dire warning received in the past. Sorry I cannot imagine what is causing files to be lost. Maybe there is a bug, maybe not. But I suggest using Save (when SaveAs is not necessary) will avoid the problem. Regards Ken T (APLman)

Hello Jose ... May I suggest you do not waste your time on the "decompile" exercise. Decompiling is a computer programming concept that attempts to recreate a source language file (probably assembler language) from an executable file ( a ".exe file"). The decompiling process has absolutely no information about the meaning of the informaton being processed. The source language file which originally caused an exe file to be created (in other words, the computer language in which PicturesToExe is written) did have some knowledge of the types of data that the program was dealing with. However, all that knowledge is lost (I believe) when PTE generates an exe file. The .pte file, which is the definition of the project you have created, is not a source language file ... it is simply a data file that PTE uses to create your exe file that runs your slideshow. I have done my best to express this from the point of view of a programmer. If another forum member can elaborate in a more useful manner, you may be more effectivly helped. Best Wishes ... Ken T (APLman)

This is an excellent example of something that only PTE can provide. It is the feature that I am waiting most anxiously for. It's not about altering a sound file - that's a job for Audacity. But it is about how the sound files interact in a PTE show. A voice comment is attached to a particular slide; background music is not. Only PTE can determine which passage of background music needs to be lowered in volume, because that changes whenever: (1) the slide is moved within the slide list; (2) a prior slide is removed or added; or (3) any change is made to the duration of a prior slide or transition. I appreciate what Igor and his team are giving us - it's marvellous! I shall be delighted when this promised feature is available. Thank you Igor! Ken T (APLman)

That is fantastic quick service! Thank you very much Igor. Best Wishes Ken Travers (APLman)

Dear Xaver, you are my saviour! I apologise that I overlooked your reply, when I replied to some of the other responses, but I really want to thank you for your suggestion. Spot on! I resaved those two voice files with AVS Audio Editor, and now all is well, and I am progressing very happily. Hugely grateful to you ... Ken T (APLman)

I would like to thank you all for taking the time to look into my problem. I was not aware of the trouble caused by mixing of stereo and mono -- one learns all the time! However, in this case, I have no stereo files. The background music and voice clips are all mono. Thank you Brian for the combined "corrected" file - but I do however want to keep the voice files separate from the background music, so the voice bits can be attached to particular slides, regardless of any adjustments to slide durations (as discussed elsewhere). Any other ideas will be welcome. Thanks again Ken T (APLman)

Jose, that is a wonderful post! Thank you for sharing the fruits of your research, and for creating such a comprehensive and well-written article. I too hope that PTE will in the future spare us the extra steps, but meanwhile, I shall be very eager to put your method into practice -- even if I have to buy Total Video Converter! Thanks again, and good luck with your project! Ken T (APLman)

I'm having devilish trouble getting voice commentary and background music to co-exist, so I have concocted a very small project to illustrate what happens. The evidence is confusing ... sometimes Win 7 tells me "the program has stopped working"; other times, both music and voice go into an endless loop after a while - when this happens, the escape may be unable to interrupt the preview, necessitating a kill via Task Manager. It makes no difference whether I use Win 7 32-bit or Win 7 64-bit. No difference whether Preview or the created exe file. play up. No difference whether PTE 6.0 or PTE 6.5 beta 5. Am I doing something outrageously wrong? Could there be something amiss with my MP3 files? Or is this a bug? Ken T (APLman) Sound02_Jun2-2010_15-38-51.zip

Last October, Peter (fh1805) wrote this advice: As there have been new versions of PTE since then, I wonder whether this tip still applies? I would find all three facilities useful ... (1) Project Options / Music (2) Customize Slide / Music (3) Add sound on a slide I hope we don't ever lose the flexibility of having all three available, but if I could only have two, I would go for (2) and (3) rather than Peter's recommended (1) and (3). Clearly it is nice to be able to put voice over background music. I prefer (2) over (1), because I can tie the start of a music clip to a particular slide. We need to be able to change the timing of earlier slides without impacting the relationship between later slides and their music. My current hurdle is that I strike a problem (on XP or W7) when I use (2) and (3) together. In Preview, part of the background music repeats endlessly when the voice clip ends, and sometimes it is not possible to interrupt the preview. So, I wish to ask these questions: (A) Are all three features supposed to be usable in one project? ( Does PTE normally work correctly when all three are present? © Igor, will this be affected by your work on PTE 6.5? Grateful thanks to all who can shed light on my dilemma. Ken T (APLman)

I meant "image" in the broader sense ... the picture that is to be sent to the TV screen, resulting from the main image and all added objects and effects. Ken T (APLman)

G'Day Jose! Thank you for your positive response to my suggestion. I thought it was pretty obviously a good idea, so I did not labour the point. Now I see you have put an excellent case in the PicturesToExe section of the Forum -- I am very glad to see that. I suppose PTE was originally for exe file output only, and the DVD facility was added later -- that would explain why it has not acquired all the desirable features yet. Nevertheless, as both a PTE user (relatively new) and a professional programmer (since 1962), I believe what we are asking for is both extremely desirable and not too difficult for the brilliant WnSoft team. I hope we see this implemented soon. Ken T (APLman)

Dear PTE enthusiasts ... I wish to create most of my slideshows in such a way that I can produce an EXE file (for best display on PC) and a DVD (for easy showing to more people). Trouble is, the two have different requirements. On the PC, I want to use the full screen to see the full image. In that case, I can place text and other objects near to the edge without losing anything. For a DVD to be shown on my TV, however, I must allow for the "TV safe zone", to avoid having objects slip out of view. That's all very well, but I lose some of my main image, unless I make it smaller and position it inside the safe area. That makes much extra work. I spend a lot of time in O&A, on both animation and text objects. To have to make two separate projects, with different animations and object placements, is quite undesirable ... in fact, it's cruel!!! I feel sure this has been discussed in the forum, but my searching has been fruitless. Can anyone please point me to previous discussions of the matter? It seems to me that we should be able to develop a show until it looks great on the PC, then simply create the DVD without unnecessary extra effort. An optional user-specified "TV Safe" border zone around the image should be provided by the software at the time of generating the mpg file. That way, all the effort that goes into animation and placement of objects would be done just once, and either form of finished product could be generated. Any comments and help will be welcome and much appreciated -- Thank You! Ken T (APLman)

Well said, John. Thank you for taking the time to express a balanced view so very clearly and nicely. I support your thoughts. Ken T. (aplman)

I cannot agree with this notion at all. It is very useful to have sound comments tied to a particular slide, independent of any changes of duration of earlier slides. It is also useful to have background music that flows continuously, without being tied to particular slides. Please, let us keep both, both are very necessary. Background music is exactly that ... background. Voice commentary obviously relates to the content shown by particular slides. I can quite happily make use of both features without ever using the timeline. So please keep what we have, and improve on it. Please don't throw out some nice features just because certain users do not need them! Ken T. (aplman)

Thank you so much, Igor ... Fantastic job! Keep it up! Ken T.

Thank you Peter for the helpful intro to the new audio features. I can't find this feature: Option to automatically reduce volume of background music during sound comments of slides which was included in Igor's earlier post. Do you know if this is accessible? Regards Ken T.

I agree totally about the need for overall defaults ... what is often called "Preferences" in other software. However, don't we already have that functionality by way of Templates? When a Default Font is provided in Project Options, it will surely become part of any template we create? So if our overall favourite font is recorded in our default template, it will become the default font for any new project. Please forgive me if I am wrong in any way about templates - I've only recently come to appreciate the importance of my default template, and to rely on it. Regards Ken T. (APLman)

Grateful thanks, nobeefstu! Good news, perfect answer. Ken T. (APLman)

Seems to me that the whole Project Options facility is about default settings. So I do not see "Defaults" or "Default Settings" as a useful name for a new tab within Project Options. A "Text" tab/page could probably accommodate both Comments and Text Objects, if everything fits. Otherwise separate Text and Comments tabs would be needed. I would like to support a new Project Options tab/page for Files/Folders, where the user's preferred defaults could be specified. Once again, I say that I will be happy with whatever Igor's sense of elegance produces. Regards Ken T (APLman)

Sounds good! As long as it's an option. Some may prefer to continue to work in the current way. Personally, if we're talking about the "Play" button in O&A, I would most times prefer to test my animation WITHOUT the transitions. Ken T (APLman)

Further to my suggestion above, I would like to propose an alternative, perhaps a better way. Currently if one selects multiple slides in the Slide List, then clicks Objects and Animation, the multiple selection is ignored, and the O&A works on the previously selected single slide. I think that is a little quirky, and possibly not what the user wants to do. My suggestion is that when O&A is invoked on a multiple selection, a few functions could be presented in a dialog box -- functions that make sense in a batch manner. One example would be "Remove All Keypoints". I would like to see the facility to Add Keypoints -- the user could tick any or all of SlideBegin, LastEffectEnd, NextEffectBegin and SlideEnd. There may be better names for those options, perhaps "Before Intro Transition", "After Intro Transition", "Before Next Transition", and "After Next Transition". This would be an enormous time-saver for me, and perhaps for many others too. Here's hoping! Ken T (APLman)

Hello Igor ... Thank you for this good news! Whilst I can see that the easiest way to meet our needs is simply to use the font chosen by the user in Project Options / Comments tab as a default font for new text objects, I feel that may make things a little obscure for new PTE users. I would prefer a new tab/page "Text" in the Project Options dialog. Whatever you decide to do, I am sure your sense of good program design and elegance will prevail. PTE is so impressive in that regard ... Keep up the great work. Thank you for a marvellous (and fun!) piece of software. Best wishes Ken Travers (APLman)

PTE project files these days contain 800-plus lines (17 KB) at the bottom that are to do with "windows" - startup, help, and custom windows. Would it be possible please for PTE to omit those lines if the project uses none of those features? I have found that a project can work nicely without those lines ... but they reappear on the next Save. Ken T (APLman)

Thank you so much, Igor and team. Fantastic effort, fabulous news. My special thanks for this one: Option to automatically reduce volume of background music during sound comments of slides I will make regular use of that. I'm glad you saw the merit in my suggestion, despite the several negative comments from others. Best wishes for the next version! Ken T.