Suggestions for the next version

[cottage]

Igor,

Have you given any thought to adding a 'grid type overlay' to the Object Editor so that images and text could be aligned to any particular location in addition those provided by the "Set Position" button. The grid might be like those used in many photo editing applications (i.e.: PhotoShop, etc)?

Thank you for a superb application !

Bill

[Bob]

Igor:

The one feature I would like to have is the ability to resize photos in the Object Editor. If it was possible to grab a handle and size the photo such as the way it can be accomplished in MS Publisher would be great.

Bob..

[Gnurra]

I'm rather new in this business with PTE and probably missed some point, but I wonder why nobody mentioned the prospect of improving dramatically the music editing system ? I would very much like to have a few - let's say 2 - other music tracks added… one for narration purpose, one for extra sounds purpose for instance ; each of those extra tracks being designed to include a few basic tools such as "copy" "cut" "paste" and "move" ...That would permit to adjust easely all sounds used in the scenario on the same screen... quite a challenge isn't it !

Hi there! I'm new to this program also. I haven't read everything in this forum but I would like something of the same as Haddock here suggests. - Some "in-program-music-edit". I don't know how hard it is to do, but a tool that fade out the musicfile that is currently playing and stops it, then startup next musicfile in the list. Whith this you can switch audiofiles in the middle of the song without having to manually edit them in another program to fit the show.

Great Work by the way!

Edit:

I Read some more and saw that Bart (bogaertb) here shares my thoughts...:

[Sherree]

Hi,

I'm new here, I've been using the program for about a year now. I started using it at work, and liked it so much, that I purchased my own personal copy for home use.

We have not upgraded our copy at work in quite sometime, one of the things I miss about the copy at work, and the newer version I have at home is the ability to check the box that lets people know the program is loading when it takes a while. Many times I've wondered if the computer has quit responding, whereas before I had the little bar on the screen that showed me the progress as it was loading. It's a little thing, but I hope you will consider adding it back in.

Thanks,

Sherree

[mcelikel]

Hi,

The hardest thing for me while using pte is to add a music according to the picture squence Is it possible to edit music in the new wersion like editing a film in pinnacle studio or windows movie maker so we can shorten each music file fade and mix according to the picture and the show will be much more better .

Thanks

[alrobin]

Hi, mcelikel,

Welcome to the Forum!

Not sure how you edit the music in Pinnacle Studio, unless you mean just truncating the whole movie (called "trimming"), and thus cutting off the sound as well.

Often when creating a slide show, one wishes to modify just the sound itself. When editing sound for a slideshow, there are many other parameters than just the length of the selection which one often needs to adjust in order to prepare the selection to fit ideally into the show. These are better left to a proper sound editor where one can adjust not only the length, but add reverb, echo, and other special effects, modify the volume, add periods of silence, dub in other sounds, combine with MIDI-based sound, trim the end of the selection, cross-fade two selections, etc., etc.

IMHO, it is better for Igor to concentrate on making good digital slide show software and improving the existing features of PTE, rather than attempting to make it into an image editor as well.

Just my opinion.

[Guest guru]

it is better for Igor to concentrate on making good digital slide show software and improving the existing features of PTE, rather than attempting to make it into an image editor as well

Totally agree, Al! PTE cannot become neither an image editor (as sombody asked) nor an audio editor.

[ContaxMan]

IMHO Igor should concentrate on developing PTE in its present style. There's plenty of perfectly competent audio and image editing software available, so why divert attention to this area?

[dadou]

Thank you , Guido !!

Well said !

The new 4.40 is great !

[mcelikel]

Hi, mcelikel,

Welcome to the Forum!

Not sure how you edit the music in Pinnacle Studio, unless you mean just truncating the whole movie (called "trimming"), and thus cutting off the sound as well.

Often when creating a slide show, one wishes to modify just the sound itself. When editing sound for a slideshow, there are many other parameters than just the length of the selection which one often needs to adjust in order to prepare the selection to fit ideally into the show. These are better left to a proper sound editor where one can adjust not only the length, but add reverb, echo, and other special effects, modify the volume, add periods of silence, dub in other sounds, combine with MIDI-based sound, trim the end of the selection, cross-fade two selections, etc., etc.

IMHO, it is better for Igor to concentrate on making good digital slide show software and improving the existing features of PTE, rather than attempting to make it into an image editor as well.

Just my opinion.

Hi,

If you make slide show with 200 pictures or more it is very hard and time consuming specially if you are preparing this show as an hobby it will be very hard to match both ( soud and pictures ).

In a film editing program like pinapple they have solved this problem , after capturing the film or pictures and drag them in the time line ( as in pte horizontal view) there are two more rows under the frames in one of those rows you see the music line which you can cut and lover (fade) and mix only by moving your cursor and thats all . This is the way I do

In a picture show is it wrong to demand such an user friendly option ?

Regards

[alrobin]

Hi, mcelikel,

Yes and yes. Let me explain. First of all, we cannot demand anything of Igor - he has his own agenda and only listens when we speak to him nicely!

Secondly, it would not really be that user-friendly. As I indicated in my previous reply, when you "trim" a movie in Pinnacle Studio, you are not really editing the sound line. You are just cutting off everythng, images and sound at a certain point. I don't think we would want that option in PTE, as in AV production, we try to obtain the very best result in both images and sound, and cutting them both off would lead to some pretty peculiar results.

So, as already indicated by guru, let's use the right tools for the job. A sound editor for editing sound and music, an image editor for editing images, and PTE for putting everything together into a pleasing AV production.

This is really not such a radical concept. I prepare images in Photoshop for inclusion in MS Word or MS Publisher; I prepare sound sometimes in Cubase (especially for MIDI) and then import it into Adobe Audition for mastering; sometimes I edit images in Photoshop and then use IrfanView for re-sizing or re-naming, just because it is easier for me to do it that way. I go to a dealer for the warranty maintenance on my car, but to my favourite mechanic to change my snow-tires. I go to a bakery for bread, and to a butcher for fine cuts of beef (and on and on).

[dadou]

I go to a bakery for bread, and to a butcher for fine cuts of beef (and on and on).  

I too think so !!!!!!!

[LumenLux]

I agree whole-heartedly with Guido and Al that PTE is a great presentation tool. For that I am greatful and do not want PTE to divert into other deep channels.

However, the feature requested by mcelikel, in it's simplest form, might not be that far different from some other niceties that Igor has added, ie. - light table, wave form, etc. If, (big "if") I understand correctly - it might "simply" involve being able to take actions on the wave form as we now take actions on the slides above the wave form. Still keep our true audio editors for real work, but be able to adjust volume or move a sound segment left or right, might not be a detriment. (Of course the more familiar a user is with a sound editor, the lower priority this would have for PTE.)

Side note - I've noticed for years - that translation from some languages seems to turn "ask" or "request" into the english "demand." I too, recoil when I think any of us are "demanding" this or that from Igor.

[mhwarner]

I would also like to request the ability to use the IPTC caption information automatically (via a checkbox or something) as the comment on slides. I have found myself using at least this field to annotate my pictures. My current web page album (Arles Image Web Page Creator) can do this, and most image management programs, as well as Photoshop, have the ability to display it. It would certainly save time in adding comments, which I tend to not do because it can be a pain.

And thanks, Igor, for such a wonderful product. It just gets better and better and you are so kind to keep listening to us.

[boxig]

Igor,

Can you add on customized slide:

1. "Run external application and close show"

2. "Go automatically to slide number..."

Thanks

Granot

[bogaertb]

Is there any possibility to animate the captions that can entered as comment to the slides in the show and that the position of the caption is free rather then the fixed positions currently available? This would allow to animate text captions according to the contents and add a certain flavor to the overall slideshow.

In any case I would like to congratulate the makers of this very handy program for the enthusiams and (most probably) the hard work put into it. It is highly appreciated. I recommend PTE to persons asking for a slideshow program. I've tried a few and PTE is the only program that does not seem to be affected by the number of slides - and transitions - present in the show.

Regards, Bart

[jonathanshulman]

Hi I have the following suggenstions:

1)------ Can you include to the program not only time limit but also

number of times used / accessed

2)------ May be also time used -/ run limit

3)------ Any video to exe converter feature (like avi to exe) or may be you can allow video files to be added to the timeline as well

[Bethan]

Something on my PTE wish list I have been meaning to ask for for a long time is a music/soundtrack preview button available from the Project Options>Music>Add dialogue.

Often I may prepare several mixes of a soundtrack and then forget which one I intended to use for a project (I have a terrible memory). Currently I need to open my music program every time I want to refresh my memory. Recently I used another program that actually had this option and greatly increased my workflow.

Just an idea...

[ccmanz]

Bethan,

This may not be what you are looking for.

But if you right click when you are viewing your music files at the Add dialogue.

you may be able to click play and hear the songs.

I know this is not what you are asking for.

But, it does help me when I am looking for a song.

cc

[ronwil]

I don't know about Bethan, but thank you Chuck that was a piece of useful information.

Ron [uK]

[Barry Beckham]

Ron

Bit of a late reply, but no, I don't want to create buttons in Photoshop, I like the ability to add them quickly and easily in PTE.

Barry

[Bethan]

Hi CC

This may not be what you are looking for.

But if you right click when you are viewing your music files at the Add dialogue.

you may be able to click play and hear the songs.

Thanks cc. From my right click context menu I can indeed access Winamp, Helium or Windows Media Player. However, when I am working with PTE I tend already to have loads of imaging and sound software open already (photoshop, fireworks, goldwave etc) and hence the idea that a built-in preview button would not require me to leave the PTE window, or indeed open yet another piece of software.

Winamp is my configured player and it has the irritating habit of always switching me to its own screen when I play an mp3 etc...

It's just one of those things I can work with 'as is' but in an ideal world..!

[photoCD]

Is there any chance of adding an option that tells you how long a show will last (based on display timings and transitions) in a similar way to the button that tells you how long the music is.

[jonathanshulman]

hi

The additions to the new beta version are really great, but this was on my wish list for a long time:

How about adding AVI or MPEg files in addition to the image files,

this will make this program total suite for digital imaging.

Presentations could be a combination of images and video clips

I think it would be really great

thanks

jonathan

[LumenLux]

1. under project options [Main]

 add new option () close show after music (so I can loop a few slides and play all of the music before exit).

under project options [Advanced]

Feature would be ok, but it is not very difficult currently to do what you want. (If I understand.)

Set your desired slides one time. Select all slides, copy & paste next to last slide, several times to equal the music length. Repeated use of slides does not increase size of resulting exe file. I suppose if you want only a few slides to loop through hours of non-repeating music, this would not be too practical.