Best Practices for Slideshow Creation

[mhwarner]

Does anybody else think this would be a worthwhile thread or topic (maybe pinned for ease in finding it)?

I would love to see some definitive comments on things like:

What is the best setup in Project Options for a show to run on an HDTV or computer screen (yes I know it depends on the actual desired output), but do I want to set "Aspect Ratio"? What are the best choices under the "Screen" tab? Should I set "Size of Slide" or check "Fixed Size of Slide" (in pixels)?

Is it really necessary to resize pictures to minimize the size of a slideshow (unless you want to crop them to a certain proportion)? I did some quick preliminary testing and it didn't appear to make any difference but others with more experience might disagree.

What is the best size and format for videos to be added to shows? Is it really necessary to allow PTE to reformat videos? What is the best size and format to avoid that?

What about audio? JEVANS posted some info about creating shows with voiceovers in another thread and that along with other suggestions in the thread might be helpful if we created such a "collection" of Best Practices.

Should I create and use a default template.

Yes, we can read the manual and experiment with PTE until we come up with a result that pleases us and we can search through the forum and maybe we might end up with some different opinions, but it seems to be that it would be helpful to find that information here in one spot, particularly for newcomers or those of us who only make the occasional slideshow. I realize that both free and paid tutorials are available, but again that requires searching. If anyone else thinks this would be a worthwhile thread, it could even include links to such tutorials, particularly the free ones.

Anyway, in view of the recent effort to "push" PTE to users on the dpReview Retouch forum (referenced in another thread), and all of our desires to see PTE become even more widely accepted (and more successful so that Igor and company will continue to provide us with such wonderful updates), I thought that at least some of you here might consider this a worthwhile effort.

[Ken Cox]

how about here

Frequently Asked Questions and How To

Jeff's thread

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/17358-slideshow-creation-techniques/page__view__findpost__p__115372

could also go here

ken

[Ronniebootwest]

This is an excellent suggestion Mary and I would very much like to see it happen.

I recently encountered some problems whilst attempting to embed the code for one of my YouTube videos so that I could run it on a new web site I am creating with adobe Muse. The problem was the up\download speeds being far to slow.

I need to know the best practice for keeping such a slide show down in size. Others may benefit from this too.

Go ahead and push for a pinned post on what you are suggesting.

Ron West.

[jevans]

I support this ideal also.

[davegee]

Does anybody else think this would be a worthwhile thread or topic (maybe pinned for ease in finding it)?

I would love to see some definitive comments on things like:

What is the best setup in Project Options for a show to run on an HDTV or computer screen (yes I know it depends on the actual desired output), but do I want to set "Aspect Ratio"? What are the best choices under the "Screen" tab? Should I set "Size of Slide" or check "Fixed Size of Slide" (in pixels)?

Hi Mary,

How much research did you do before posting?

http://www.picturest...files-for-hdtv/

http://www.picturest...show-for-dvdtv/

I found long ago that when someone posts a request for help whoever is online would rather write a 16 page thesis for an answer than direct that someone to an FAQ or tutorial. Maybe "waste of time" is putting it too strongly and people are using the FAQs without our knowledge but I see the same questions coming up all the time when the answers in some cases are already there.

Good luck./>

DG

[Ronniebootwest]

Are you missing the point Dave?

What Mary is suggesting is that we all pool our thoughts and have them pinned in just one place in order to avoid the need to go searching through the FAQ's.

Ron West

[mhwarner]

Sure, I can search here using "screen settings in show for HDTV. And the result is ... wait for it ... "One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords." So I can go back in and enter just "HDTV" and get 5 pages of results, of which the one Dave has referenced here "MPEG4 Files for HDTV" is #20. And then I have to scroll through the entire thread to see if all the other posters (including Igor) actually agree with Dave's solution. Not exactly quick or easy. All I'm saying is, I've been here a long time and I'll figure it out eventually but it is not exactly easy for newcomers or people running the program in trial mode attempting to figure out if they want to buy it to find some good solid "Best practices" or "how to do it" information. Also, many of those "FAQs" and "Tutorials" are at least 2 years old. I suspect that there could be some updates based on the current version of the product.

But nevermind. Sorry for offending those who know so much more than I do. I'll keep my thoughts to myself next time.

[Ken Cox]

Mary

I offered to pin your request -- no reply

so I guess you really did not want help

ken

[Ronniebootwest]

Mary,

Please do not be offended, I totally agree with you!

I gave up trying to use the search option for exactly the same reasons that you have described. It makes much more sense to adopt your suggestion of a pinned post. Ken has already offered to do this for you so why not reply and take up his offer.

Ron West

[wideangle]

Mary

I think that your #7 comment hits the nail on the head and is precisely why your suggestion is such a good idea, especially for newcomers.

Ken

Your comment 'Mary, I offered to pin your request -- no reply, so I guess you really did not want help. ken' is unhelpful.

Clearly there was an intention of some kind, otherwise the suggestion would not have been made in the first place.

As a suggestion to maybe help beginners get to grips with things, it is particularly worthwhile, and even in the few comments posted, there is already sufficient evidence to support it.

Regards

wideangle

[mhwarner]

Mary

I offered to pin your request -- no reply

so I guess you really did not want help

ken

Sorry, I assumed you were just telling me to go search in those other threads. I didn't interpret it as an offer to pin this thread. "Best Practices" probably belongs under the "Frequently Asked Questions" area but I would see it as multiple topics which could be easily found, not just a single thread containing many posts, some possibly unrelated, where people would still have to search for relatively quick answers to common problems. I guess we should see if there is more interest and see if others have some suggestions on where we put it or how it is organized.

[jevans]

PTE users (particularly new users)may be interested to know that a section has been added to the PTE "Techniques and How To" section of the online user guide dealing with some of the basic principles of preparing a show using the deluxe version of PTE. This has been added as a result of the suggestion in the original post of this thread. It is based on my own techniques and I hope that it may be of some use. However it should be clearly understaood that it is NOT a definitive method for preparing a show but memrely one of many different techniques, some of which may well be much superior.