aplman

I use the "Sound Comment" feature all the time. mI like it. I rely on it. I sincerely hope it won't be dropped on the recommendation of a user who has never used it. Sorry, Xaver, I have to disagree (respectfully) with you on this one. Ken T.

English language forum? Ken T.

This mystified me too at first, until it was explained that in PTE version 7, the Music tab will be visible in the Customize Slide dialog only if you have "Synchronize music and slides" un-ticked in Project Options. I do not understand why it has to be thus ... perhaps if Igor has time, he might explain. Ken T.

Yes, that's what I have observed. Not particularly useful - surely by accident rather than by design! Ken T (APLman)

Well, isn't that interesting?!! The selections are remembered in "File List as Thumbnails" mode, but not when the File List is just the list of file names. So my suggestion now is the the selection should be retained in that mode also. I don't normally work in thumbnail mode, so I had not noticed the inconsistency. Ken T (APLman)

Peter ... Good to see we're on the same wavelength (again). I believe the slide after the last deletion would be most useful. That would allow convenient working from start to finish. The highlighted slide would be the next one to be considered for deletion. That way, it would be consistent with the present behaviour for single slide deletion. Ken T (APLman)

In view of a current discussion in the PicturesToExe section of the forum, may I suggest the following. Firstly, the current selection of image files in the File List should be preserved and displayed when going into fullscreen view (F3 or menu). Secondly, the current selection of image files should be preserved when returning from fullscreen view, and therefore displayed in the bottom of screen linear view. Ken T. (APLman)

Thanks Dave - it was obvious you were referring to new projects, and I was referring to old projects from the days before I discovered PTE. On further reflection, I can see many reasons for doing the image selection and sorting outside of PTE. For example, I never use Windows Explorer, always preferring Total Commander. One of the great features of TC is that is can display image file metadata, and sort images based on that data. For example, after I come home from a trip with pics from two or three cameras, I can put tham all into a single folder, and display them in date-time sequence - not the file timestamp, but the date and time of image capture. If I wanted them sorted by camera, by image size, or by aspect ratio ... that's just as easy. From the file list displayed by Total Commander, I can select all (or some), and paste them into a fresh FAT32 folder. That's when I need the "Unsorted" option in PTE's File List - they're already "sorted" the way I want, and placed in the FAT32 folder in that order. Ken T. (APLman)

This is a suggestion about multiple deletes from the Slide List. After a two or more consecutive slides are deleted from the slide list, the newly highlighted slide is not what one might expect. For example, if I delete slides 11 to 20 (by clicking on 11 then shift-clicking on 20), it would be useful to have the highlight on the new slide 11 (the one immediately after the last deletion, the former slide 20). PTE's present behaviour is to highlight the new slide 20. This is only a minor irritation when only a few small groups are being deleted. However, the quirky behaviour gets pretty annoying when we're deleting many large groups. In the early stages of a project, I find it convenient to bring many slides into the slide list, then go through from beginning to end, deleting those not wanted. It would be useful to have the highlight on the next candidate for consideration. I admit that the effect I want can be achieved by clicking the furthest slide first, then shift-clicking the first of the group. However, that's not a convenient way of working. Ken T. (APLman)

DG ... thank you for the prompt to Igor. With equal respect, may I suggest that if the images are already sorted elsewhere, it's a bit late to "divert" the sorting effort to PTE. Ken T (APLman).

Perhaps I should explain a little further. "Unsorted" is not as haphazard as it sounds! It simply means that file names are presented in the order they exist in the directory. For files added to a newly formatted drive, it is the order they are added ... provided the drive has been formatted in the "old-fashioned" FAT32 way. (The NTFS file system does not work that way - it appears to keep the files in alphanumeric sequence.) Therefore if one wants to bring into PTE's Slide List images that exist in the desired order in some other program (e.g. another slideshow program, or any program that allows manual sorting of images), then a copy of all the images (or some), followed by a paste into a suitable fresh FAT32 drive, will result in the files being placed in the directory in the desired order. Hence the need to display them in "Unsorted" order in PTE. We oldies from the DOS days occasionally find that modern software can be just a bit too smart! Ken T (APLman)

Thank you Peter for the reminder. Yes, those are standard Windows facilities, nicely supported in PTE. However, the point of my suggestion (I'm afraid I did not make this obvious) is that images have been selected and arranged in the desired sequence in some other piece of software. Often a large amount of time has been devoted to getting the images in order. Since PTE does not allow pasting a group of image files that have been selected and copied outside of PTE, the only way I have found is to use a freshly FAT32-formatted drive, and paste the group of image files into that drive. Prior to PTE Version 7, the "Unsorted" option in View/File List Sort Order showed the image files in the desired order. Copying into the Slide List was then very easy. So I am requesting Igor to reinstate the facility that was apparently deemed no longer useful. As I have indicated in my original post, pasting image files from outside of PTE would be even better. Ken T (APLman)

Igor, I have only just noticed that the option "Unsorted" has been removed from "File List Sort Order" in the View menu. I can guess that it was deemed no longer useful. May I PLEASE beg you to reinstate it? It is very usefule to me - I have depended on it for the following reason. I have some slideshows that were prepared using different software, before I discovered the delights of PicturesToExe. With those programs, I am able to display images in the order I want them shown, select all (or some) images, and Copy. I can them paste the image files into a FAT32-formatted drive. It has to be a FAT32 drive, as Windows insists, with the more modern NTFS format , to arrange directory entries in name order. When I started a new PTE project, I would therefore simply show the file list (on the FAT32 drive) in Unsorted order, select all (or some) image files, and drag them into the Slide List. They are then in the order I require. In version 7, I appear to have no way to achieve the same result. Of course, the requirement for the Unsorted option would disappear if we could simply use Copy/Paste to place into the slide list any batch of images selected outside of PTE. I believe that would be very useful to many users. Thank you Igor for considering this request. Ken T (APLman)

Thank you Igor -- that is very good news indeed, for many of us. My best wishes for your 7.5 development efforts. Ken T (APLman)

The Objects and Animation button works fine when a single slide is selected in the Slide List. However, if multiple slides are selected, hitting the O&A button brings up the previous single-selection slide. It might not even be one of the currently selected slides. I find that behaviour quirky, and not useful. May I suggest that the O&A button might provide some useful operations on multiple slides? (Well, on the Main Image of multiple slides). For example, (1) The "Mode" (Fit/Cover) could be changed. (Perhaps may not be allowable if the slide is already animated) (2) Keypoints could be added at specified points - SlideBegin, SlideEnd, PrevEffectEnd, NextEffectBegin (3) Keypoints could be cleared allowing animation to be re-specidied (4) Pre-defined patterns of Keypoints could be inserted (e.g. Zoom 100 at PrevEffectEnd, Zoom 115 at NextEffectBegin) (5) Drop Shadow could be ticked/unticked (6) Pan/Zoom/Rotate could be set to Smooth instead of Linear (7) etc. etc. etc. I believe hundreds and thousands of mouse clicks could be saved if we could enjoy these convenience features. I already have a need for all these features, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Ken T (APLman)

I am mystified. In version 7, I don't see the Music Tab in "Customize Slide". Has it been removed? If so, can someone point me to any discussion in the forum please? Ken T (APLman)

Thanks Dave ... but I am suggesting a Project Option to remove the necessity to do the steps you mention for every video clip. Ken T (APLman)

Permanent record of my travels for my own satisfaction, also for showing to friends and family immediately after, and on-going, and for creating a lasting record to share with my travel group companions. Ken T (APLman)

An image in a slide can be placed according to the chosen mode (Fit To Slide or Cover Slide). I have already suggested that we need a Project Option for that choice, so we don't need to set the Mode for each slide separately. Some users want to fill the slide space (losing a bit of image), others want to see the whole image (even if it does not fill the screen). Similarly, I see a definite need for a Project Option to control the placement of video clips - not spacially, but with regard to time. My video clips will usually be placed between static image slides, and I don't want my video motion or sound to start until the previous transition has completed. I want my whole video clip to be seen, not partly obscured by the transition. The present state of version 7 apparently always places a video clip to begin at the start of the incoming transition. My preference would always be to have the transition completed before the video clip begins. Therefore, may I please request a Project Option to allow that choice to be made one time only, and to apply to all video clips inserted? I believe it would be easy enough for Wnsoft's programmers to use the first frame of the video in the preceding transition, and the last frame in the next transition. That's the way I would like to work - always! Ken T (APLman)

I see a problem with the so-called "Mode" option "Fit to slide"/"Cover slide". It appears to be accessible only in Objects and Animation, in the Common tab. As only one slide at a time can be amended in O&A, changing the Mode for every slide is a tedious business. May we please have a Project Option to choose the desired mode, so that every slide inserted into the Slide List can have the specified mode? Much time and many mouse-clicks could be saved! Ken T (APLman)

I agree totally! I hope Igor eventually agrees too! Ken T (APLman)

The effort of moving the cursor depends on the size of your mouse pad - nothing to do with screen size! Ken T (APLman)

I presume it would be an optional view, so those who don't like or need it would simply not choose it. It looks pretty good to me. As long as the central slide coincides with the middle of the timeline, there would I suppose be a need to be able to scale the timeline. Not a problem for the Wnsoft programmers, surely? Ken T (APLman)

I believe it's a "feature" if it's what Wnsoft intended, but a "bug" if it's not. By way of compromise, I suggest it has shown up a "design flaw"? Ken T (APLman)

Dear Igor, may I please repeat my plea for the simplest possible scheme. I want to specify and see the "pure slide duration", that is, the time between the end of the incoming transition and the start of the next transition. "Duration" should mean the time the viewer has an unterrupted view of the slide, and that applies whether it is a still image or a video clip. I don't want the displayed duration on a slide to include any transition. I don't want the slide duration to change when I change a transition time. And as for video - this has not been discussed enough, in my opinion - I don't want the video movement (or sound) to begin until the incoming transition has finished. I think we at least need the option to specify whether the video action should begin at the START of the incoming transition (as now), or at the END of the incoming transition. I would ALWAYS opt for the latter. When I insert a video clip (usually between two still images), I want to see the whole video, without a transition overlapping it. To me, it does not make sense that there is video movement during the incoming transition, but not during the outgoing transition. I think that's just an unfortunate by-product of the original design decision that "slide duration" would include one transition but not the other. If "slide duration" had been defined in the first place as "exclusive of transitions", we would not have had a problem, and would not have had need of such an extraordinary amount of convoluted discussion! That's how I would like PTE to behave now. I believe it's how most slideshow programs work. So, dear Igor, the simple option, PLEASE! Ken T. (APLman)