Ronniebootwest

Already there have been many discussion threads on the new AVI option in the new Bets version of PTE. Clearly this new avi option is a tremendous strp forward and we must be grateful to the programer. However, there are still many mountains to climb before we can expect the same excellent resolution on the TV screen as what we get from the .exe file on a computer monitor. I have been experimenting with this new toy and would like to offer these comments to those wanting to show their slides on a DVD player. The quality will be good (vis Ulead Movie) but not as good as the exe file. It is better to display each slide without and fancy borders, i.e. fill the TV screen, otherwise you will probably get a load of flickering around the border edges. I have found the following sizes and resolution to be the best. In your photo editor (photoshop or similar) save the picture as size in pixels 1024 X 768 Save the image as a jpeg with compression set at 7. When these slides are made into a PTE slide show and a DVD created via the new AVI option. You will get very good quality. Remember also, that the television will make each slide brighter so decrease the brightness before saving an image in you photo editor Ron West

Oops! I seem to have said it wrong and I am sorry. I am new to the forum and have no wish to step on toes. I am here to learn from you guys and will appreciate any help you can give. I was not meaning to be critical in any way, just wanted to show that I was impressed with the work done by Marco and Granot on the use of Flash. Having said that, I have recently downloaded the software and I now find that it does have its limitations after all. So you are quite correct Alrobin - there is a long way to go. I will still be exploring the use of this kind of animation but I will restrict my learning curve to using the SWISH 2 software to liven up my titles a bit. They need it - check out my first slide show on Beechbrook (Medieval Castle in Wales) Incidently, this topic certainly seems to be raising some interest doesn't it Ron West

Thanks for the advice on how to upload. It was easy when I knew how! I have put my very first slide show on view now, it is nothing special but I hope you like the pictures of the ruins of an old castle in Raglan (UK). Please let me know what you think. I need to be inspired. Ron

It has to be said that this demo quite clearly shows that a slide show need not be boring. I am a new boy to all of this and I want to offer my congratulations to both authors of this demonstration. It must have taken some time to produce (not to mention the skill levels required). I have read two follow up comments so far, and both must have been written by 'Techies' of quite high standards because they were critical rather than complimentary. From a mere amateur point of view, I was very impressed by the visual impact of using Flash and am inspired to have a go myself. If only just to produce the same stunning title effects. Well done to both of you, I feel sure that members of this forum will make good use of the work that you are giving us. Thank you very much for your time and effort. If you are able to provide a more simplified set of notes on just how you did that moving titles (Star Wars style) I would very much welcome an email from you. Ron West

Can someone please tell me the procedure for uploading a slide show to the Beechbrook site and whether there are any special requirements. Thank You, Ron West (UK)

The registration key seems to be a problem for some of us. I had the same problems as you Veronica. All sorts of technical answers were suggested to me - none of them worked! The simple solution was to ask Technical Support to re-send the reg key and to insist that it was sent as ATTACHMENT to the email. When they did that for me, everything worked fine. Ron West

I have seen references to 'personized Icons' in the Forum. What are these please? Also can you explain where I can download the software needed to create these Icons. e.g. IconArt and IfranView. Please remember that I am a novice on a learning curve and you need to spell things out to me! Ron West

The object editor in PTE is a great utility and it's ability to link the buttons to a command is superb! However, I want to make a more fancy looking button. Can anyone help me to do this. Perhaps using photoshop. If Ralph (from Canada) is out there please email me 'cos I have lost all my files during a recen computer upgrade. Ron West

Playing music seems always to be a problem. I had loads of questions when I first started. Definitely you should aim to use only mp3 files. I have an Audigy 2 sound card fitted to my computer which is an excellent purchase. Included is some software for recording and converting CD music to either WAV or mp3. Check it out! Your screen will always freeze on a black screen if you attempt to use a music file that is too large. So aways use mp3. Ron West

Hi Boxig! You speak of a 'utility' for autorun, but I do not understand what you mean. I have five shows and have burned all of them to a CD I have also burned an exe file for a menu to run these 5 shows. I want the menu to come up on the screen when the C is put into the drive and then the user can select from the other five exe files. How do I do this please? (see also my previous posting for 'autorun') Ron West

I am also new to the PTE program but the more I use it the more I am finding out about it's excellent qualities. Any problems that I have encountered have been quickly answered by members of this forum. Can I also suggest that if you want to learn how to make great slide shows, then take a look at the BARRY BECKHAM site (www.bbdigital.com) He sells very good tuition CD's. As far as PTE is concerned, I will always sing it's praises from now on - it is the best! Ron West

I want to put five of my shows onto a CD with an additional .exe file for a menu of the shows. How do I make the 'menu' exe autorun so that only the menu appears on the screen CD is inserted into the drive? Ron West

The Object Editor of PTE allows me to add a 'button' that should let me run a slide show. I have tried to use it but have had no success to date. It is possible to create a blank page, then add a few buttons and then create an action to run my exe slide show files. In this way I will have a simple menu. I have tried this on my computer, but when I click the button, nothing happens. Any help would be appreciated. Ron West

As usual, the help from you guys has been great - thanks to NOBEEFSTU and ADMIN 1 for your guidance. My sound problem seems to be solved now. It was all down to file sizes (yet again). I started off with huge tif files which were obviously to big. I coverted these to jpeg with medium compression. This produced very small files of around 50 to 100 kb. I had previously used 2 separate mp3 files for my music. I combined these into one using a sound editor. My slide shows now work fine. For new users of PTE this is the moral f the story:- (a) Always use jpeg files with medium compression. ( Aim for small size files of between 50 to 100 kb © Use only mp3 music files (d) Combine all music files in to just 1 Thanks again for your help guys! It makes using PicturesToExe a pleasure. Great program. Ron West

I have seen some good utilities for adding a menu to CD's for more than one slide show. Each one I have seen requires some extensive knowledge of computers in order to understand how to use it Does anyone know of a ready made program that will produce a menu so that 10 or more slide shows can be selected, one by one, from a menu? Ron West

When playing a slide show, either direct from the preview button or from the exe file, the show works well for a while and then the music will suddenly stop playing. Sometimes the slide show will just 'freeze' on the screen. Clearly something is wrong! My file sizes are well within the limits and I am using mp3 music. It just seems odd that sometimes the whole show will play right through but on other occasions it just stops. I notice that the option to choose 'internal or external' player has disappeared from the menuu, is that intentional? Ron West

Hi Ken! I did as you suggested and created the .exe file. The size appears to be 34.7mb which is quite large considering the show only has 14 slides in it. My internet connection (AOL) only allows for uploaing 16mb so I am unable to send this .exe file to anyone at the moment. Questions: 1. How can I reduce the size of the file without losing quality 2. Does the initial input of the image control the size, e.g. what size jpeg should I aim for. 3. How can I save the .exe to a CD. Ron West

I am proud of my very first little slide show and would like you all to see it. Can anyone guide me through the process of creating the finished 'exe' file and then how to upload it on to the Beechwood site. I wold also like to know if the exe file can be transmitted via email. Ron West

With the help from the support team I have now resolved my sound problems. It seems that it is my own ignorance of the softwar capabilities that was causing the conflict. My file sizes and resolution as far too high! It seems that PicturesToExe will not handle BIG files (i.e. Tiff) We must use jpeg of not more than 200-400kb and the resolution for graphics should not exceed 1024 x 768 pixels. This is good advice for a newcomer like me. Thankyou for the help you gave me Ronnie West.

I keep readig in this forum about how god you lot are at making slide shows and then allowing others to view them. Great! but can you tell me what to do so that I can download and watch them. Thanks Ron West

I was so glad to get my copy of PicturesToExe up and runnng yesterday afer some false starts with registration. I have spent today composing my first slide show - alas! Things have gone wrong for me again. My slide show works perfectly with a cross fade transition but when I add a music background; the sound breaks up and destroys the show. I have re-booted the computer to no avail. Has anyone any ideas on what might be wrong and what I should do about it please? Perhaps I ought to uninstall and then reinstall the program - would this help? Ron West

As a newcomer to PicturesToexe I have difficulty understanding some of the jargon. Just how do you add titles and credits to a slide show? Can these be animates or not? Ron West