ContaxMan

No - I'm afraid that's not it. In fact, I use the F key to change modes regulalry but this problem is something new.

Somehow I've changed the colour that Photoshop displays behind an image from a nice, neutral grey to black. Anyone know how to get it back?

Well said Geoff. I do a lot of work showing others how to use PTE yet dread the day when I'm asked about this as it doesn't interest me particularly so I haven't spent time investigating it too far. So any help/simplification is very welcome.

OK Ron - it's on its way.

I use Audition v2 which is excellent but "over the top" if all you need is a basic sound editor for slideshows. Audacity is free and well-supported too. Try it and if you need help getting started contact me & I'll be glad to help you on your way.

I'm glad to have been able to help. The notes will appear on my site in due course.

And me too - very useful advice received. Any further ideas always welcome too.

If it will help, email me and I'll send you a small example menu together with details of how it is put together - using Photoshop and PTE.

Thanks Ian & Dave - very useful advice, just what I need.

Ron - I have the projector! It's simply to specify the main thing I'd be using the laptop for. When I do "technique talks" at camera clubs, I use PTE for nearly everything (I prefer this to using PowerPoint - I had enough of that when I was teaching teachers to do IT!). So the idea was to give a feeling for the kind of laptop I want. I hadn't spotted this so thank you! Barry, the laptop I have is an Advent running windows 1998. It's been all over the country and used/abused more times than I can count. And, touching ligneous material, has never let me down. But I also demo Photoshop and CS2 won't run on Win 98. So it's got to be replaced. The idea of a tower is intriguing but I take lots of other stuff too and don't want to get a bad back. Thaks for all the contributions so far - they're all very helpful.

I'm also looking at replacing an ageing laptop for presentations using PTE. I want one with a decent sound card in addition to a good graphics card. Any suggestions - including experience with particular models - would be very welcome.

Visit this link for a comprehensive guide to using PTE timeline: PTE Timeline Guide It's nearly 4Mb so you'll need a quick line.

It's good practice to make sure that all the files you need for a show - images and sounds - are kept together in the same folder. If you make a project using images from different folders, then move any of these, PTE cannot find the originals. This is what is likely to be happening.

Yes you can fade by using Audacity's multitrack options. Contact me and I'll send you some screen shots to show how it's done.

Ah - now I understand - thanks Brian.

I don't understand why it matters what the counter says!?

The Psalmist said: "The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another. There is neither speech nor language, yet their voices are heard among them..." Whether one believes in a creator or not, this show demonstrates the awe-inspiring beauty of the Universe, in the images from the Hubble telescope, the incredible beauty of Bach's music, and the selection and fusing of these elements by the author. Thank you, Igor.

Irrelevant - discussed many times on this Forum (raising a fair amount of heat, too!)

Choose Project Options > Advanced it's near the bottom.

Many of these shows are into the tens of Mb which makes them impractical to email directly. If your music is mp3 format and your images resized to screen size (typically 1024 pixels wide or 768 pixels high) and saved as JPGs with medium compression, then you're not doing anything wrong - that's the way it is! See my link below for further details.

Once again this issue seems to have caused (I hope temporary) negative criticicism from a customer on this forum. In view of the excellent support that all of us regulars know to be the reality, perhaps it's time to find an alternative approach to supplying the key for people who buy this program?

Do you actually need to produce a show on a dvd (to show on a tv)? Would not the normal PTE show on your computer serve your purpose?

You might find the introductory tutorial on my site useful. See below.

To edit the music you need another piece of software - Audacity is a free package that will do all you need. You can find the link for this by looking in resources - pictures to exe on my club website - link below. Not sure about your second problem - if you can see a small speaker icon on your taskbar, right-click on it to get a menu. This should let you open volume controls so you can check everything is as it should be.

Using digital technique ought to increase the degree of feedback as it's so much easier to share shows. However, as has been mentioned, it's easy to upset someone without really intending to do so. One attempt to solve this, worth looking at, has been adopted by another forum: http://www.creatingslideshows.com/forum but the take-up hasn't been very great and recently there have been some technical problems there.