Maureen

Good to meet up with some of this Forum members too on Sunday although I had very little time to chat then. Thanks to everyone who took part & congratulations to the winners. Unfortunately no prizes for all those who worked hard producing their entries but didn't win this time. Bet other countries pick different winners too - after all judging is only the personal preferences & opinions of the panel on that day. Keep making work you personally enjoy.

The results of the UK 3-2-1 event are now available at http://www.ibateman.co.uk/321/

The link for Fun with Five should be: http://thefreedom.free.fr/share/dload.php?...amp;file_id=177 Thanks Tom Will view them after my holiday no time at minute too busy packing.

Happy Birthday Dom I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing you lots of happiness, good health and wonderful creative ideas for PTE Have a wonderful day. I have to dash out now to buy the champagne so I can drink it quickly and then photograph the bottle and make the cork pop with lots of bubbles bursting out saying Happy Birthday......... Hope I remember where the camera is after I've drunk the champagne & toasted your birthday, With very Best Wishes from all your friends at the PTE Forum and thank you for your hard work and hosting the work of others, Love Maureen

I have sent you a very small menu file Igor which I used several years ago to open applications and other PTE shows. Let me know if you have any problems receiving it and I will post it on my web site. I hope it helps. Thanks for all your hard work. Love Maureen

When I create my PTE shows I always have the same pattern of creating a show folder e,g, if I was creating a new sequence called "myshow" I would have "myshow" which then contains three sub folders "myshow-images", "myshow-sound" and "my show-docs" which contains the EXE file, a copy of the templates, and ideas I have, scripts, source info etc. I try top avoid capital letters and using spaces. Previously had problems with web sites not recognising these in some instances. I have an external hard drive plugged into my main PC and these show folders are always kept in the same AV folder there. On the occasions when I wanted to work on the show on another computer I unplug the external hard drive and plug it into the new host computer. However then your drive letter shows up differently so I simply use the following............ Changing Path in Pte for drives First check which drive letter is allocated to your external hard drive on the new host computer. In this example my usb external drive which is usually drive m is then plugged in as f drive. Change the letters m and f in the example below to suit your computers. Go to Start Run type in cmd press return C:\> etc appears, then type in .......... subst m: f:\ press return When you open PTE you will now find that it shows you both drive f and drive m. Work with the original m drive and you don't get the error messages. Hope this helps someone. This is a bit of a side track from Ragnar's query about editing the PTE file in notepad, so sincere apologies for that but keeping to the above pattern I have found I don't need to then edit notepad. I have always automatically got into the habit of creating a template version each time I create a pte file which is a kind of insurance if I do move things around, etc. Also advisable to tell PTE where you want it to store the templates so each time a new beta comes out the templates are stored in the same place and you can find them quickly. I leave the originals there and then copy them to the relevant docs folder .... belt, braces and insurance policy for new clothes ! They are by default stored in ......... C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\PicturesToExe5#8u\Templates I always save each Beta version of PTE into a program folder with its new beta name the templates created with that version have a new home too. So I then change that home so they'll be with all the others & away from the main PTE folders. So if I lose my external drive, I've still got templates on my C drive and these have also been saved off onto DVDs. These notes were previously up on my old www.digital-av.co.uk site so will repost this version up there soon. Best wishes Maureen

Hi Al Great start- love to Liz. Do I get a star for Chanson D'Amour by The Manhatten Transfer (1977 - I was minus 21 then ! LOL ) Looking forward to seeing lots more soon

Hi There's a Valentine from Keith here and also another of his sequences here too. ........... still a few more hours to go folks! and I'll allow another few hours/ days for the International time differences LOL

How's this for the ultimate Valentine's surprise ......... Here's a challenge for all you guys........ create the ultimate romantic PTE Valentine in the next 12 hours and post to Beechbrook! Can't wait to see the beating hearts, flowers opening ......... but I'm giving the game away ......... and I have to dash out for a romantic meal with my Valentine With all the friendly exchanges here we should see the parachuting guys with Milk Tray versus the beautiful old fashioned slow romantic dissolves .. Who will have a go? Love xxx

Hi Tom Press the Fn key and the top Fn key which is Fn4 on my laptop but I have seen it marked with other Fn key numbers on other Laptops. It has a picture of a monitor and a laptop on it. If you press these keys it should show laptop screen & projector, then either just projector or just laptop screen. I can never work out the correct pattern & I just keep trying until it shows the way I want to work. Don't keep pressing or it will carry on when you take your fingers away! Hope this helps.

Hi Alan Glad to see you've popped out of your cave - how'd you see the Guinness in the dark? What's "Cokin" in Cork these days then ???? ( I know you're in Dublin dabbling with digits!) Molly looks good......... very happy after the rugby but we were very down ! Give my love to everyone ! Hoping to pop over this year and we'll roll a few PTE DVD's down the hill just to watch the animation ! When are you coming over again and we can really show you some movement ? LOL Maureen

Sorry no sound,can't find a sound effect of the Lancaster. Hi Tom Try http://www.sound-ideas.com/pdf/bbc1-40.pdf BBC sound effects library is very comprehensive and sometimes the IAC library can be very helpful too.

Hi I usually build my sequences up in a stack in Photoshop and create new intermediate images as I go along, these are then saved with the "save to web" in Photoshop - as it allows me to see the original alongside the compressed. I can judge how low I want to use a file size. So I don't have an "usual" jpeg setting. I can blow up the images side by side and check for jaggies. If I wanted to create a sequence with many images quickly I'd do an action and batch process but still use the save to web setting. Then you can set it to be optimized to file size 400kb and let it quickly work through folders while I have a coffee. Any images I feel would benefit with extra work after viewing the first run through, can be redone individually from the original folder. I must admit I prefer to not do any actions and batch processing, but build things up image by image. However sometimes time is against you, especially if it's a friend waiting for party images or wedding photos for a web site. Also save to web doesn't require you to flatten the image each time, so I can tweak & build, create a new image and so on. Very many years ago, I remember being told that the save to web feature uses a better algorithmic formula for its saving than save as jpeg level. Remember reading up about it somewhere too. Sometimes I don't use every single one I've made and othertimes I want to go back and create something inbetween - easy if I have all the images stacked and work with layers and layer sets. You can turn layer masking on and off. I also do lots using alt merge visable, which means I can add a Photoshop filter and lower its opacity or use a mask with it, without flatening everything and losing my thread if I later don't like it. I know some people like to use the clone tool as a paintbrush but I'd always clone onto a new layer. I use the crop tool to resize and always if it is for projection (ie PTE or web pages) working in pixel sizes for width and height but leaving the resolution box completely empty (no need to put anything there at all). If I want to resize for printing I would put the width and height measurements in inches or cms and then fill in the resolution box. Sometimes an Exhibition or competition asks for the image to be sized as 1024px by 768px by 300 dpi when they want to print the image later for a catalogue or programme. I would prefer if they asked for these images in cms rather than pixel dimensions as it can be very confusing for novices thinking they should always add a number to the Photoshop resolution box in future. Recently I even had someone who tried to tell me they had put instructions on their web site to crop at 1024 pixels by 768pixels by 300 ppi as otherwise the images would not work in PTE ! Bet they look for babies under gooseberry bushes too !!! Hope this is helpful.

Hi John Welcome to the Forum. Good to see you joining us here & hope to see you back at Aldbourne soon too. (guessing I've got the same John Deller who has been to Wessex in the past?) You'll find a great deal of help here and I'm sure Keith got muddled when he mentioned the dreaded " 72 R" word as we all know we're projectionists so don't need resolution unless you're planing to print! I know him well enough to be sure he didn't mean it Hope to see lots of you at 321 but I won't have time to chat until the end ... and then may have to quickly dash through the back door ......... if the audience don't agree with the judges decisions Love Maureen

Thanks Brian Will check it out !

Hi I use Zone Alarm, etc and have no problems with things running slowly, unless (and I was very grateful for this advice from a friend) ...... a. my disc needs to be defragmented b. I have not left 25% of the drive free and the processor then has some problems. So I try to make sure I keep the drives as free as possible copy onto DVDs and use external hard drives to store most of my downloads and files. For some reason every so often I appear to lose a dll file and then when I reinstall all is well again. Don't know why it goes "walkabout" and have repeatedly scanned so no viruses, worms, bugs that anything shows up. Just a quirk of my XP I guess. BW Maureen

It opened immediately and works well here in snowy Aldbourne Internet Explorer 7

Hi Al Think my posting may have given the impression "you should never " or "I will never "....... and then of course never say never because the next thing you know you need to do it ! The best sequences and overall winners across the world in last year's 321 competition were two brilliant AVs which did show movement/ animation! So I eat my humble pie and stand corrected in the corner with my dunce's hat on and offer my most sincere apologies to those outstanding AV workers, slideshow producers, diaporamists, who as you say have already produced some really excellent work which we are all happy to view again and again. List of names too long to mention & I'm too tactful as I'd forget some one! Now I must get my shoulder to the wheel, take my foot out of my mouth, put my money where my mouth is and get away and finish something to show others I can produce sequences and not just type words .... LOL Hope you all have fun discussing this on going topic ....... just keep it friendly and your mind open... you may even catch a draught ...... and a whiff of progress .......... if only to agree to disagree !

What a nightmare Ron! We once had an evening showing slide/ tape AVs when the tape side gave up the ghost. Thankfully the hall had a PA system and someone had to go in a cupboard and insert the tape and then Robert quickly did the entire slide pulsing by hand...... but of course we can't strip the parts out in digital show! I've also had the experience of losing some colour on one occasion due to one single pin in the lead between the projector and laptop being bent. I am very grateful for help packing up but it is so easy if you are inexperienced to pull out the lead and bend the pin. Someone up there likes me as that time I had a brand new shorter lead in my bag so in the second part all colour casts had gone. Also useful to note how some of the brand new super projectors have such sensitivity that they can project badly if the lead is too long or there are other electronics running nearby - I'm thinking particularly when using a Mac laptop too (more sensitive) which picked up this problem. Hope they invite you back to hear the sound or at least practise your singing in case it happens again I forgot to say a big Thank You to Igor and the Moderators who do an incredible job of keeping this site well cleared of lots of spam and rubbish postings we get, usually in the early hours of the morning. So most people are not even aware of how much the site is sometimes targeted.

At the end of the day there is no way animated effects will save a sequence from being weak if it doesn't have the image quality, perfect sound and interest values. They are all equally important to create a long term AV which people would want to see over again. There will always be the fashion for the unusual, way out or gimmicks which quickly grab your attention. They will be fun the first time but will wear thin and never patch up something which is weak in actual all round production. Abroad all is refered to as Diaporama, while we have the terms slide-show, slide/ sound, Photo Harmony and AV which all refer to different types of productions. The difficulty lies when excellent photographers who have never viewed the top quality AVs refer to their work as "AV" when they mean slideshow. This is not to imply that in some way the different categories are better than one another. There are some poor quality AVs and some stunning slide-shows! So what's the difference ?……… a huge enormous one. I doubt if top class photographers would be happy to allow Aunty Flo's enprints to be hung in the National Portrait gallery and classed as "prints". (I am assuming Aunty Flo's enprint is not a top quality photograph here folks & apologies to "Aunty Flo" - no doubt she'll soon appear on our Forum and try to sell us Viagra and some classy prints !) So slideshow workers (and that category does not mean the photography is poor !) want to put in a little animation. Girls just wanna have fun (as the song says) and boys like toys - but without being sexist, the reverse is also true for both these I suppose this situation puts me in mind of some aspects of plastic surgery. So many now have their nips and tucks done and others feel this is very bad for the self image of the young and the end results can be " not very nice or natural looking " against what Nature intended, etc ……… however there is no way we should stop these surgeons from improving their techniques as the day comes along when their work is critical for someone very badly injured. So serious AV workers don't think it is natural to have these new rotations, zooms and animations in quality AV sequences and I must hold my hand up and totally agree with them. However I also don't think it is a bad thing to be developing these new techniques in PTE. Why? Well I won't be using them in what I would term AV but I will be creating small introductory slide-shows to grab the audience attention when I do a talk or we produce a big competition. So I am very grateful for all the time, effort and hard work some members are giving to this area of PTE. We all need to think "outside the box" now and again ……… and hopefully everyone will contine to enjoy creating their Diaporamas, slideshows, Photo Harmony and AVs with enjoyment and pride. I know I very much enjoy viewing them all. Thanks to everyone for sharing their sequences, templates, developments, knowledge and views with us all here. Long may it continue in the good spirit of friendship. PS I don't want to buy Viagra or see naughty ladies doing weird things here though

Hi I also received the file from Tom and I uploaded it earlier so you can also download it here too. Hadn't realised that Dom had also put it on his site. No problem Best wishes Maureen

Ralph Many Many Thanks & lots of hugs ! You've cracked it ! I had two PTE sessions open (one on each monitor). So following your advice about only having ONE session of PTE open........... I opened the second sequence in the same window as the first . I must admit I was worried it would close the other sequence and I'd lose the info. I copied the slide - went up to file/open recent.. brought back up the other slideshow and YES it pasted it in complete with the objects and animations. I had to redo only the length of time the slide was to be displayed for. All now works like a dream and I will go on to do others with groups of slides later ! Can't thank you enough! Love Maureen

Hi Many Thanks for the replies. I have two sequences and want to combine them. Have both open, they are both PTE v5 beta8u Tried cut and paste single slide (won't work) Also tried a block of slides. Have been trying for several days now and thought I was doing something wrong. Is this because they have the objects & animation effects or maybe because there are png files involved? No....... just tried with an ordinary image and did a right click copy, cross to the other show and still can't paste it in. Will just have to redo the second group of slides in the sequence and put it in individually onto the first show I think. Cannot sort out what I am doing wrong - followed Hawk's instructions from day1. Thanks for your help. Really appreciate your hard work Folks. JPD - get lots of sleep we need you well rested Love Maureen

Hi I'm sure that we could cut and paste across from one show to another previously, provided we kept the two shows open. I have been trying unsuccessfully to take a series of images across from one show to another in version 5 but it just won't let me do it. Is this not implemented in some way in v5 ? Thanks in advance. Maureen

Igor your new developments are always worth the extra wait Thank you ! I don't believe you ever take holidays or sleep ! Thank you all Love Maureen