PGA

At the risk of taking this discussion "off topic", I would suggest that it is most unwise to rely on only a single product for protection, irrespective of how good that product is. Good protection is based upon a layered defence. In my case I have a wi-fi router that includes an "always on" hardware firewall, the PC behind that router has Windows Firewall active. I use Microsoft Security Essentials as the main threat detector but supplement this with a weekly run of Iobit's Advanced System Care and a monthly run of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Having said that, the first line of defence - and the weakest link in the chain - is the user. If the user doesn't practice "safe surfing" and isn't wary of unsolicited e-mails (whether from known contacts or not), the door will be left open to an unwanted intruder. As many of us here on the forum have experienced, the major anti-virus players, in their attempts to identify unknown viruses (a demand of the corporate users), often generate "false positives" on perfectly harmless files. That is the price that has to be paid if the user wants "aggressive" anti-virus protection. The corporates ask for this sort of thing because they prefer to offload all the responsibility for safety to the software products instead of to their employees. If the home user accepts the principle of "shared risk" then it can be entirely safe to use a less capable and less-agressive anti-virus program such as Microsoft Security Essentials. But do take note of that third word "Essentials": the product is not Microsoft Complete Security. The user has to accept their share of the responsibility for keeping their systems safe. regards, Peter

Hi Igor, Personally, I was expecting that the objects would be hidden only in the slide as displayed in the O&A window. I suspect that both Jean-Cyprien and Jean-Charles were thinking along similar lines. Hiding the objects in the O&A display simplifies what we are looking at when trying to program complex animations. I can foresee a method of working where I build the first group of objects and get their animation programmed correctly, and then hide most or all of that group and set about programming the next group, and so on. The Hide/Unhide status would be ignored by the mini-player in the Slides and Timeline views and would also be ignored by the Preview command. regards, Peter

Hi Claudio, I think you cannot set PTE to start the screen saver after 3 minutes inactivity. You will need to set your Windows software to start the screen saver after 3 minutes inactivity. The screen saver will over-ride the presence of PTE. kindest regards, Peter

Hi Jean-Cyprien, I think this is an excellent suggestion. Might I suggest an amendment: clicking the hide/unhide icon for a "parent" object should cascade the hide/unhide to all its children. regards, Peter

Ken, You're still missing the point. Gary doesn't want the file to have a new name, he wants the existing file to be replaced by the new one whilst keeping the original file name. This can be done for EXEs but apparently not for an AVI file. Just to clarify further, Gary wants Filename A contents XYZ to be replaced with Filename A contents JKL. Peter

I foresee a problem with this for a PC EXE file. When you step back through a sequence you are doing exactly that "stepping" back. You are not playing something in reverse. As far as I know, only analogue media can be played backwards. If there is a solution to this I'll be interested in it, too. regards, Peter

Can you explain in a little more detail, please? What kind of video file were you producing? How were you burning it to disc? What was wrong with the video playback? regards, Peter

Ken, The point you are missing is that we are discussing the outcome of "Publish" operations - not File > Save or File > Save As operations. If you publish an EXE it will replace the existing EXE of the same name (with a warning before you do so). If you Publish an AVI it gives you the same warning but does not do the replacement. Instead, it creates a totally new file with a new, automatically chosen, filename. That is an inconsistency of behaviour. regards, Peter

I'm with you on this one Gary. When "Publish Show > Executable file for PC" is used and the file has been previously published under this same name, we are reminded that an over-write is about to happy and given the chance to abort or go ahead. If we say Yes it goes ahead and replaces the previous file without changing the filename in any way. As you indicate, for consistency, this should be the behaviour for all other file types created from the "Publish Show". The one thing all users should desire, and new users will welcome, is consistent behaviour. regards, Peter

Hi Gogs, Try thinking along these lines: in the Slide List you are deleting "the Slide", in the Timeline you are deleting "the Time Point"; and if you delete the Time Point the associated image has to be removed as well. I always switch to the Slide List to delete slides. I usually switch to the Slide List to add slides to a sequence but sometimes I will add a slide directly in the Timeline because I am wanting to shorten a long-running slide by introducing an extra image. regards, Peter

Thanks, Geoff! How ever did I overlook that? regards, Peter

I have prepared a simple menu of two slides. Each slide has on it a button which has been programmed to "Exit" when clicked. The Exit is not happening. Instead the left button action of "Next Slide" is taking precedence. I am sure that in earlier releases this was not the case. The menu project has been attached. regards, Peter 0-Menu_Apr20-2013_11-06-31.zip

Gary, I'm running v7.5.8 Peter

Igor, Whatever you have changed seems to have solved the problems I was having doing Copy or Cut&Paste of the downloaded file to a different folder. There is now just a brief flash of the "Discovering items" text before the operation completes. This I regard as perfectly normal behaviour. Thanks for the quick solution to this problem. regards, Peter

Dave, I was only highlighting the object. It is necessary to click on the object itself to get the actions. I didn't know this was possible until you made your reply to this topic. regards, Peter

Dave, Could you elaborate a little, please? The arrow keys do not do anything on objects when I'm in the O&A window. Do I need a Preferences or Project Options setting to get that action? regards, Peter

Hi Igor, I cannot recall when I first noticed the problem. It may have been as far back as v7.0 or it might not have been until v7.5. I did not have the problem on Windows XP or Vista nor did I have it at first on Windows 7. I get the problem on my current desktop system running Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit. My anti-virus software is Microsoft Security Essentials (fully updated to definiton level 1.147.1816.0 at 06:26 today). My browser is Firefox 20.0.1. When I click on either of those two links, the download begins, then MSE scans the downloaded file for viruses, then I am told by Firefox that the file is ready in the download folder. At this point I then copied the files to a different folder (doing the signed one first and then the unsigned one - two separate copy operations). The signed one sat with the "Copying" pop-up window displayed and a line of text under the green progress bar in that window stating "Discovering items". It remained like that for perhaps 5-10 seconds and then completed the copy. The unsigned one then copied in 2-3 seconds, briefly showing the "Discovering items" text as it did so. I then tried "Cut and Paste" from the download folder to a different target folder - signed copy first, unsigned copy second. This time the signed copy sat showing "Discovering items" for well over 30 seconds and possibly nearer to 45 seconds (I don't have a stop-watch). The unsigned copy shot through quicker than before. I then "Cut and pasted" both files back to the download folder. There was no delay at all and no sign of the "Discovering items" text or green progress bar for either of them. I repeated the above actions. All copies/moves completed with no sign of the "Discovering items" text and with no delay. Having done the copies/moves once it would seem that the problem cannot now be recreated. It would seem that my system has "learned" something about these two files and now accepts them as being just like any other data file. I have a suspicion that the only way to re-create the problem with those two files will be to delete all copies, run cleaner software on the disk and the registry and re-boot the PC and start all over again. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to sit at the computer and do that amount of diagnosis for you. regards, Peter

Hi Igor, I accept your explanation as to why the mini-player behaves as it does. Perhaps those two points should be added to the User Guide section on the mini-player. I cannot reproduce the problem with the default template. The correct template is declared as my Default Template and the contents of that template are correct. I can only assume it has been yet another user error. Having said that, I have only used "Repeat show..." on two occasions and both those shows are now consigned to my Archives. So I'm baffled as to how those settings got picked up. However, it as, as we say: "water under the bridge". Please mark this topic as "SOLVED". regards, Peter

Hole in one! "Synchronize slides and music" was unchecked. With that option checked, the sequence plays for only the duration of the slides and then repeats. That still leaves us with the problem that the mini-player does not honour the request to "Repeat show". Perhaps the first question to address is: do we want it to do that? regards, Peter P.S. I am also left with another question: why did the test sequence I used this time not make use of my customized default template. You didn't accidentally change the behaviour of v7.5.8 in the matter of choosing a default template did you?

Hi Igor, Ooops - user error! The sequence was inadvertently set to "Repeat show until Esc key is pressed". In this mode it would seem that, if the sound file is longer than the total duration of the slides, the sequence continues to play all the way through to the end of the sound file. I had never let it play all the way through before. It had always been my understanding that the slide duration dictated the length of the sequence. When I set the project option to "Close show after last slide" (my usual setting for this option) the sequence stopped when I expected it to. So my question now becomes: when the sequence has been built to "Repeat show until Esc key is pressed" shouldn't the mini-player, as well as the Preview, perform the Repeat function? regards, Peter

Hi Igor, While testing the pre-release v7.5.8 I discovered that in the mini-player, the playback correctly stops at the end of the one and only slide in the test sequence (i.e. after 5.5 seconds). However, in both Preview and EXE the playback continues beyond the end of the first slide, with that slide kept on display. This happens with a WAV file and also with an MP3 file (created from different original source files). regards, Peter

Hi Steve, All I do is build my sequence to 16:9 1920x1080 and then publish to DVD Video disc taking all the default values as set by PTE. When I then play that DVD back through my TV at a normal viewing distance of, say, 10 feet or more the image quality seems just as stunning as when I watch the EXE at 2-3 feet sat in front of my computer. If you use a DVD re-writeable disc for your testing you will not produce a batch of shiny bird-scarers. regards Peter

Hi Igor, A step in the right direction, but still not quite correct. With that test version of PTE the bad WAV now plays in mini-player, Preview and in the EXE. In the mini-player, the playback correctly stops at the end of the only slide in the test sequence (i.e. after 5.5 seconds). However..., in both Preview and EXE the playback continues beyond the end of the first slide, with that slide kept on display. The bad WAV will now start playing correctly. We now need it to stop correctly as well! Nearly there! Peter

Now here's interesting...! I have taken that piece of music into version 4.49; and it doesn't even play in Preview. When I ask Project Options > Music to "Show Music Duration", it comes up as 0:00. So, in the oldest version of PTE that I have, this sound file is flagged as being "wrong". In the latest version it isn't flagged as being "wrong". That, to me, is a retrograde step. If it is "wrong" it should be flagged as such as soon as it is added to the soundtrack. Better still, its being "wrong" should prevent it from being added to the soundtrack. regards, Peter

@Eric, Seen your PM and taken action. Thanks for the tip-off. Peter