Gérard de Lux

As DaveG said, Sy(P) does list all the slides, with or without other data like the duration of the effect, the type of effect, etc., and of course this list can be printed. Sy(P) is a free utility, complementary to PTE - it works only with an opened PTE project. More details in this thread

And don't forget all these people who are using the 2:3 ratio (for example with scanned 35 mm slides/film = 24x36, or with a digital SLR that preserves the original 2:3 ratio) which gives 1024x683 on screen, for example !

I have to disagree with you, dear friends! For me (and all the French authors I know) the "Fit to Screen" option isn't a good choice at all. I use a 22" monitor and a resolution between 1280 and 1600 px wide; I can tell you that on this monitor images of 1024 px wide become 'ugly' if they are artificially enlarged. I thus think that the default should remain as it is, so that people would only select 'Fit to Screen" knowing what they do.

Hello bjc, I don't really understand your objections because there's no reference to ppi on my page and I fully agree that dpi is only relevant to printing (this is the point I make systematically since 3 or 4 years), unless there has been a translation bias (my original is French as pointed out); this is why the only relevant unit when taking about image size on screen should be pixel (like 1024x768 for example). Anyway, here is another interesting link say no to 72 dpi ont he same question ant this one is original English; from the same website, there is also this series, and theoretically we say exactly the same thing unless, again, some translation problems. Cheers Gérard

Thank you, Roger, for having pointed the way to my explanations I regret that these pages are the only one in English on my website. I fully agree to what Ian said, it is very wise and important ! I would just like to add that it is very important that whatever the size of the image is, it should be divisible by 16 ! This is the safest way to ensure that the image quality isn't reduced when the graphic card has to downsize a big image as Ian explained. Cheers

Good idea ! Here it is : the link to Sy(P)

Granot > Yes, Fred, it is exactly as you supposed : I can't, for security reasons, log in with administrator's rights. This is most probably the reason why Granot's program doesn't work whereas it works fine at home. (and I can't go and ask the data-processing administrator to let me install a screen capture utility !) Thanks to you both.

Hi Granot! Me again, sorry. I've tried to use "ScreenCapture" on a Win NT4 platform (at the office) today, and it didn't work - it works fine on XP. Do you know the reason, by any chance ? (it's not dramatic... I'm not supposed to use a screen capture utility at he office )

Excellent add-on to PTE ! What I like personnally with SY(P) is the possibility to re-build the paths to image and/or sound files. I know that with PTE the 'Templates' function groups all necessary files into a 'Templates' folder but, for many reasons, I don't use it. (main reasons: I don't like to store data, i.e. images or sounds, on the drive where only programs are kept; I don't like duplication of large image and sound files which exist on another drive). Thus, I am used to edit manually - i.e. with Notepad - the '.pte' file in order to change the paths when I transfer the projects to my laptop for example. Not very difficult but still a risky operation. With SY(P) I have realized that this is done very easily and without risks any more ! Thank you for this ! I now have to discover the other functions with which I'm not too familiar, like the 'block editing' of images which seems powerful but new to me.

Thank you, Granot ! Your reactivity is amazing - I'm sure that your're doing a competition with Igor as to who is the most rapid to react to users' needs !

I use very often screen captures for my tutorials (for example, those on Photoshop to show the different steps, actions and commands). I've always done this pasting into Photoshop and resizing; after having rapidly tried Boxig's new utility today, I realize that it is much faster than with my 'traditional' way, even if I'm very well used to it. Thank you very much for this, Granot ! If I may, there's something I would like to have : the possibility to save the resulting image in a folder of one's choice and not in the program's folder. A question: in your Readme file, you refer to "Capture Window only" - am I right in assuming that this corresponds to the button "Capture Object" ?

Good idea ! We have organized this summer a similar exercice, called a fun-game rather than a competition, on our French forum. 22 images were put at members' disposal, a minimum of 14 were to be used; music, text, image manipulation, etc., were free; but the only constraint was that the resulting .exe file had to be less than 7 MB. More details are on this thread. We have received 21 shows, all very different and very creative ! Incredibly creative when one considers the images provided... Although it wasn't at all a competition, I can say without doubt that the 'winner' is Peter S. Coles (who is also a member of WnSoft Forum). All shows can be downloaded from this forum. We now plan to launch a "Spring Fun-game" with a 'compulsory' music or sound-track being provided and the pictures being the authors' choice... but this is another story yet to come !

Best Wishes from Luxembourg ! Gérard

It's hard to tell from what you say if the size of your images is the first culprit, but they are too large anyway. It won't do any harm if you resize the images to the resolution of the monitor you are using (for example 1024x768, or 1280x1024) and compress them reasonably. The resulting file weight should be somewhere around 300 kB (average) and PTE will very much like that ! (but as I said before, the problem could have another source). If you have Photoshop, you just have to record an action resizing a picture to the desired size and launch a batch processing. If not (or even if you have Photoshop !), use a software like Irfanview, which is free and very efficient, which will do that in a snap. There have been many threads about resizing and about Irfanview; you'll find them easily with the 'search' function on top of page.

This is a very convenient utility ! Thank you

As I was already very positive about the first version, I have to say that this one is almost perfect ! (why 'almost' ? just because the author should be encouraged to work harder and produce new shows of this quality! ) The new text, in particular, is good and very well interpreted - even if you don't understand French, I'm sure that you will be sensitive to the voice and that you can feel the mood created). Some pictures have been changed and this is good ! Thank you

I've been using Thumbs Plus for years and with great satisfaction (already mentioned above by ContaxMan).

If you volunteer to make a full and good translation, I'm sure Igor or somebody else will be very happy ! Go ahead ! (when I made the French translation of Al Robin's Tutorial, I just asked him if he didn't mind and I did it)

I fully agree with ContaxMan ! But I'm a bit disappointed that this matter comes up again when I had hoped that everything was clear from my web page indicated above despite all the efforts I made to write it and have it translated into English (only joking). But if you don't believe me, may be that you'll believe a quite famous author, Wayne Fulton, who has an excellent website and a book called "A few scanning tips", and where you'll find this page which explains things probably better than I do... It's called 'Say No to 72 dpi' !

On our DiaporamaForum (the word 'diaporama' is very convenient in French as it means AV-presentations or shows or sequences) and particularly for our Summer "Fun game", everybody uses French; but as Maureen has made some publicity for this little game, some English-speaking authors (4, of which 3 are members of this forum) have taken part in this game and have naturally used their language. By the way, I put here the direct link to this fun game as it has disappeared through the quotation process. Many members of our DiaporamaForum being used to international competitions, they don't mind watching presentations (or sequences) with English texts (written or spoken) even if they of course have more or less difficulties to understand everything. Some of them have even made the (big) effort to have their shows either translated into English, or with English subtitles. But for many reasons (music copyright, for example), most of these shows are not yet available for download on the internet but can be seen during festivals and other public showings (many are regularly held in France); some are announced (and downloadable) in a section of our Forum, whose access is restricted to registered members (again because of this copyright issue). I hope that I have answered your question (and sorry for my English... remember I'm French, living in Luxembourg). Gérard

I recommend warmly reading AV World magazine, full of everything related to audio-visual sequences and where the best UK authors meet ! Now, just to show that a PTE show can be produced in many different ways, we (on a French forum devoted to AV) have launched a little game this summer... The principle was very simple: 22 images were put at the disposal of the forum members; with at least 14 of these 22 pictures they had to produce a full show with sound track, not exceeding 7 MB. The results are totally stunning and prove that even with such a set of 'strange' pictures people can produce such different shows, full of creativity. If you wish, you can download the shows and watch them, it's free ! Most of them have a text (spoken or written) in French (although there are some without text and 4 UK shows made by members of this Forum); even if you don't understand the text, you'll at least see what has been done with these quite 'difficult' pictures. If you register on the forum, you can cast your votes for the shows presented. The software used for the forum being the same as this one (Invision Board), you shouldn't have much difficulties to find your way... The link to this 'fun game'. There, you open every thread starting with the words 'Le montage de xxxx', and on the first post you click on the underlined words; this opens the download window. If I may, I just recommend that you do not open the threads 'Le montage de Ehrard' and 'Le montage de PBoucher' as these two shows have not been produced with PTE and may prove difficult to run. You could start by viewing the following sequences as they have been produced py UK authors : Galloise, Avpeter, Ronwill, Bucky. Enjoy the shows ! If you want to see the original 22 pictures you can go here... and try to produce your own show with at least 14 of them... why not ?

Yes, as I said, for PTE shows image sizes corresponding to the usual screen resolutions (1024x768 or 1280x1024) are sufficient as far as the final image is concerned. But what I say is that it is much safer, at shooting stage, to use a resolution (image size) as big as possible because one never knows what the future uses of the pictures might be. Even only for a simple slideshow, if one has to crop the image or take only a part of it, the result will be good if the original size is big enough. Again, forget about 72 ! This a 'dpi' value which is absolutely of no relevance for screen where only size in pixels matters ! I think that this is clearly explained and illustrated on this page and the next one. [Edit] : you don't have to believe me but it is easy to make the experiment yourself. Take a picture of yours. Then, without changing its width and length in pixels, make a copy at 10 dpi and another one at 1000 dpi. And look, on the screen, if you see any difference...

Storage space costs not that much nowadays (I recently bought a 120 GB external hard drive, fast and 'cheap'), but I can garantee that 'lost' pictures is a real disaster. When I say 'lost' pictures, I mean very good pictures of not common subjects, ones that you'd like to see enlarged after some cropping; you can't do it with low res pics... but you don't know at the time of shooting that these will be the 'pictures of the century' ! I recently had an extensive 'portfolio' (12 pics, plus interview) published in a French big photography magazine, and I can tell you that the editors were very demanding as far as quality was concerned (they were even quite worried that my pictures were jpegs and not tiff or raw ! but they went out well)

I always use the highest resolution (i.e. 3000x2000) at the shooting stage, even for pictures thoretically taken for PTE shows, because you never know if these pictures won't be needed for another purpose (what would happen if the National Geographic people see your show and wish to make a special edition with some of your pictures ? ). After selection and copy of those needed for the PTE show (the originals are kept in separate safe places), I resize them to the desired size (I always make a version at 1280 px wide and one at 900 (*)), then make the final adjustments or retouching and save the resulting image in jpeg with an average quality factor of 60%. (*) why another version at 900 px wide : just for exchanges via e-mail or the internet, to reduce the overall size and also because many people still do not have monitors/processors able to cope with large size pictures when the pace of the show is very rapid - but this will change ! As Al said, forget about 'dpi' which are only used for printing, and always use the actual dimensions in pixels. If you want, I have two pages (in English) on this topic of dpi, image size and compression, with numerous examples, starting here.

This 'Cap de Quer' presentation is interesting in that it is full of mist, mystery and soft atmosphere, instead of all the (too) vivid colours that we have to see nowadays. The text (in French) isn't that important as it is rather an introduction into this 'unknown' valley in the deep South Frane (Pyreneans Mountains) but the images speak for themselves; the song/music fits very well with the pictures which are of a good quality, and very smooth dissolves. It's short but very meanigful. Altogether, it is a very pleasant and original show. As I enjoyed the presentation, I got in touch with the author (whom I didn't know) and he told me that he was working on a new - improved - version; its new title should be "The secret of Cap de Quer" - look for it on Beechbrook Cottage !