ealford

Seems like an excellent idea. While most users of PTE are unlikely to create macros, they are very likely to use what others have created. (I assume that your suggestion also includes a template facility -- by "template" I mean the sort of thing one gets in Lightroom). Ernest

Jean-Claude, I fully agree with what you suggest and would be very pleased to see the sorts of things you mention implemented in what is fast becoming a favourite program for me. Ernest

Peter, I agree entirely. But surely we need to be warned off using Rename because the conception behind it is flawed and needs changing. Should we avoid altering the "Main image" designation in a slide for the same reason? However, I am far too new to PTE to be confident about the need to make particular changes to it, but it seems to me that this may be a candidate: ** the names/captions of slides should be made independent of the names of image files (with the option of using the latter as slide names/captions if we wish). Also, it should not be possible (at it currently is) to retain the name of an image file as the name/caption of a slide even though the image has been deleted from that slide. Perhaps something also needs to be done about "Main image". But I am not sure about this, for I have yet to understand what the point is of being able to specify one of the images in a slide as the "main image". Ernest

To thedom: Re: Q1, Q2, Q3 From what you say, it appears that the primary (if not sole) purpose of specifying an image as the "Main image" is to have the name of its file displayed in the main window. This seems to be a side effect of ticking the "Main image" box on the Properties page of that image object. I can't help feeling there is much more to the "Main image" setting. ------ Re: Q4 ("...having no Main image does not matter at all ... shouldn't it?") You said: "It's a normal behaviour. It allows you to make a color slide (solid or even gradient) without having to make it in a photo editor". I did not know that you could do this from within PTE alone. I must try it out, though I am not sure why it should require unclicking "Main image". Re. Q5: So it appears that the User Guide is incorrect about what Alt-S does. Perhaps the next version of that Guide will have this corrected. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To fh1805: You said "Having no "Main Image" is technically permitted but not recommended". Until I have a reasonably clear idea of the purpose and function of the "Main image" designation, I will leave the "Main image" setting alone, except when exploring the features of PTE! You ask which User Guide I referred to. It's the one that I downloaded from this site, so presumably the official one. I have come across mention of an "unofficial Users Guide" but have still to find a location that makes it available. Re. Q6: I was referring to the name/caption that appears under each slide thumbnail in the slides list and not to the name of an object in a slide. The slide name/caption may be changed via Rename in the Slide drop-down menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you both for your replies, which are greatly appreciated. Ernest

I am still at the early stages of learning to use PTE and from time to time check out some feature (menu, property option, etc.). While I am quite delighted with the software, I am puzzled by a few things; "Main Image" is one of them. Q1. What does the designation of an image as the slide's "Main image" do? (It doesn't seem to make a difference if one ignores the matter of which image is the Main Image). Q2. Whatever it actually does, what is the (intended) purpose of specifying an image as the "Main image" of a slide? Q3. (Related to Q1 & Q2) You can designate another image in the slide as the "Main image". Why would one want to change which image is designated as the "Main image"? [i find that the first image file used to create a slide (via "Add slide") automatically gets designated as the "Main image" -- the Main image box in its Properties panel gets ticked. You can designate an image added later to the slide as the "Main image", simply by clicking on the "Main image" box in its Properties panel] Q4. (Related to Q2) You can have only one main image -- makes sense! But also you can have no Main image, simply by unclicking the "Main image" box of the currently designated Main image. Having no image designated as the Main image does not appear to matter at all (but see Q6) -- shouldn't it? Q5. In the list of Hotkeys (p.80 of the User's Guide) it says: "Alt+S - Replace Main Image". I don't get this action when I press Alt-S (in Version 5.6 or Version 6.0 Beta 18). What should happen? Q6. If you delete every object currently on a slide, you will have an empty slide, and of course no "Main image". However, the slide is not deleted and remains with whatever caption (name?) it had. [Check its thumbnail in slide list]. That caption is the same as the name of an image file. If you change that name, you will be changing the name of that image file, even though that image is no longer part of that slide. A flaw in the design of the program? [i recognise that the behaviour noted in Q6 is unlikely to occur in practice. It does relate to a matter I noted in another thread "Renaming Slides", about changing the captions/names of slides without affecting the name of any picture file]. --------- Many thanks for any clarification you can provide. Ernest

RE: 3-D parameters Lin: Many thanks for your quick response! I now see (from your fine tutorial) that what I was asking for can be done by creating an opaque back to the rotated picture by creating that back as a child to that picture. It is certainly a more versatile way than what I was suggesting. Thanks again -- much appreciated! Ernest

RE: 3-D parameters When "Show back side" is unclicked, the back side becomes transparent, thus revealing whatever is underneath, such as another picture. It would be nice if one had the option of specifying, say, a solid colour, so that the back of the rotating image would cover (i.e., block out) whatever is underneath it and not let it be seen. My apologies if this is being posted in the wrong place. Ernest

I can't do that with your pictures, for the name slot in the COMMON the panel is for a particular OBJECT in your slide, the object currently selected for parameter manipulation. (In your example the slide has only one object). The name slot in COMMON panel does NOT refer to the name of the slide, though it may appear to do so when the slide name is the same as a picture file name. Look at the lower part of the Object/s list in that COMMON panel: you will see that the selected object's name has been changed to what you entered in the NAME slot on that panel -- it is the object's name, not the slide name as your annotation asserts. However, if you look at the thumbnails of the slides (in the slide list at the bottom of the main screen of PTE), you will find that the name of that slide has not been changed to the one you entered in that COMMON panel. What I want to be able to do is to change the name of the slide (the name that is shown below the thumbnail of that slide in the slide list) without also having the name of any picture file being affected in any way. As nobeefstu has pointed out, it can't be done in the current version of the program. [Added in a later edit of this message: Perhaps the original intention was for "Name" in the COMMON panel to refer to the name of the slide, but at present it does not. A flaw? Well, The User's Guide says "... Name of the image you have selected ..."]

----------------------------------------- No -- I just want to change the names of SLIDES -- the ones we create in PTE and are listed/shown in the row at the bottom of PTE's main page. I don't want this also to cause the names of any picture files be changed. Since what I want to do seems to have caused some puzzlement, let me say why I wish to have the facility to change the names of slides (without affecting the names of any picture files): The names PTE gives to slides are seldom helpful, being the name of the first picture file used in generating that slide and that name seldom gives any idea of the topic/theme/content of that slide. Suitable slide naming would greatly aid in reorganising (reordering) slides, deciding what slides may need to be added, and so on. ---------- nobeefstu has answered my query: it is impossible in PTE at present to rename a slide without the change in name being applied to the picture file it was named after. Of course, there are ways of working around this -- all requiring multiple actions if not clumsy ways of accomplishing what should be an easy thing to implement in PSE. Changing a picture file's name so that the slide may have a more appropriate name is a poor strategy for many reasons. And one should not need to create multiple copies of a picture file with different names just so that one can retain one copy with the original name. I have been told that what I am asking about has not been asked for before; I expect others have found little or need for a slide (not file) renaming feature. So perhaps I should leave the matter there. Again, many thanks for your responses and apologies for not being clear enough about what I was asking. Ernest

I am afraid I am not making myself clear (and possibly not understanding what some replies are advising). Let me try again. I want to rename SLIDES, and NOT picture files: I DON'T want to change the names of any picture files. The names I want to change are the ones that show up in the slide list that runs in a row along the bottom of the PTE main window. For example, if what is currently shown under the slides in that row is: 1.blank.jpg 2.IMG_0165b.jpg 3.IMG_0275.jpg ... etc. I may want to change them to 1. Title 2. Intro 3. SettingOut ... etc. without also changing the names of the picture files blank.jpg, IMG_0165b.jpg, IMG_0275.jpg ..., etc. What I have considered and tried: *1* "Rename", from the Slide drop-down menu, or F2, will let me change the slide names but also will change the names of picture files, so that picture file blank.jpg is renamed to "Title", picture file IMG_065b.jpg will have its name changed to Intro, and so on, which is not what I want to happen. ...... *2* The Properties/Common/Animation for each slide (appearing on the right of the screen when one clicks Objects and Animation) has a section on the "Common" sub-panel with a slot labelled "Name", where you can enter text. This turns out NOT to be the name of the slide but of the currently selected object within that slide: whatever is typed into that slot does not appear as the name of the slide in the slide list. (I mention this because one reply seemed to be suggesting that Name there referred to the name of the slide itself and was the route to take to rename a slide). ------ Thanks for the responses so far, for any further consideration of this. Ernest

nobeefstu said: "The Rename function applies to the Windows files and not items within the Slide List. Actually the Rename function should not be available in the Slide List ... otherwise confusion develops such as your instance." I see. However, the slide name also changes! I have no idea what purpose the existing behaviour of "Rename" in the Slide drop-down menu is meant to serve. Is there no way to rename slides without also changing the name of an image file used in their creation?

I am a very new user (just three or four days now), so the problem I find with PTE's renaming of slides made have been raised before, though I have not found any mention of it in a search of this forum. PTE should only rename the slide and not any of the image files used in creating it. Or am I using "rename file" incorrectly? What I am finding: PTE names a slide with the name of the (first) image file used to create it via "Add Slide". So if that image file was named redflower.jpg, the slide would be named redflower.jpg. Now if I rename that SLIDE to, say, "flower5", I find that the name of IMAGE file "redflower.jpg" is also changed to "flower5.jpg". One consequence of this is that that slide can no longer find redflower.jpg, and indeed no other slide using redflower.jpg can find it. [PS. I am delighted and very impressed with the software's overall performance and ease of use. Pity though about renaming of slides]. Ernest