Problems With 4.41

[HaroldB]

I have been away for a while, and naturally when I got back, I downloaded the current release on PTE before starting work on my next slide show.

I must confess that I am mystified by how the timeline is working now (PTE 4.41). I LIKE the fact that you now GET to the timeline from the main PTE screen, but the timeline now seems to have a mind of its own and I do not like what it seems to be doing.

I scanned through old messages on this forum in order to see if I was missing something, and that made me only more mystified.

(Before I even explain my problem, I note that I am an experienced PTE user. If this is mystifying me, I'm worried about what it is doing to more casual users.)

First, a note about the way I work. I generally add lots of slides to a show when I am beginning, and then use the light table features of PTE to get them into a rough order. Then I use the timeline to set transition points. It is not at all unusual therefore for me to have more slides than transition points while I am working on a show.

What seems to be happening when I then insert a new slide into the middle of my slide show is that PTE is inserting new transition points for ALL the slides in my slide show! Why is it doing this? And what can I do to stop this behavior? It doesn't make sense to me, and it's a pain because then when I go to insert a trnastion point that *I* want to insert, I first have to delete PTE's inserted transition point.

Can someone tell me what I am missing here?

Harold The Confused

[alrobin]

Harold,

Join the club! And, if you are confused, then we are all in trouble!

When Igor came out with the changes in version 4.4 in response to the requests of several members to have transitions added at the same time as the slides, and also to allow a deletion of a transition to delete the associated slide, many of us had to change our modus operandi.

The drill now seems to be to add a bunch of slides (along with the transitions), and then if you, like me, don't want any transitions on the timeline at the start, to delete them. This is not so bad as it can be done in one fell swoop by clicking on "Timed points" and "delete all transition points", or by clicking on the first transtition, shift-clicking on the last one, and pressing "delete". The latter is particularly useful if you are only deleting several but not all points.

Once you have your transition points set up, you can elect to delete only a transition, or both the transition and the image with which is is associated. You can also spread the images evenly over the timeline if you don't want to delete them.

One advantage of the new system is that if you want to add a brand new slide to the show, you can do so from the light-table without leaving the timeline, provided you have the right folder open in the file list.

Hope you manage to adapt soon to the new model. It requires a slight change in operation, but there are some good features in the way the new version is set up, too.

[HaroldB]

Al,

I hear you, but I am not happy with this "progress". I think it's really wonderful that one can go to the timeline directly from the main screen, it's wonderful that you can add slides directly from the timeline window, and it's wonderful that you can shift groups of points. I think Igor did great with those changes.

But exactly how do you explain to someone, especially a novice, that when you add a slide to the middle of the show PTE suddenly adds transition points for all the following slides?

Is this really by design, Igor, what you intended to happen? If so, I am curious what your thinking was.

(BTW, Igor, if you are in the midst of working on zoom and pan, I think those changes are much more important than dealing with this. I just wish I had been able to be around when this release was being developed to provide feedback then.)

Harold

[alrobin]

Harold,

...how do you explain to someone, especially a novice, that when you add a slide to the middle of the show PTE suddenly adds transition points for all the following slides?

You tell them that when you add a slide in the midst of the others on the slide list, all the transitions to the right of it get pushed to the right on the timeline, as not even Igor knows what time you want to drop the new slide at. You then need to open the timeline, drag the new slide to the left, somewhere in between where the one to the left resides and the position the slide to the right used to occupy. Then you shift-click all transitions to the right of the new one, and drag them back so that the slide to the right again occupies it's former position. Not a very difficult procedure, once you have tried it a few times.

Because the timeline is contained in a different window than the slide list, it was not possible to have the transition for the new slide fall half-way between the two slides on either side, as we had suggested to Igor. So, the present operation is the best compromise.

I think Bussty will agree that we wish too that you had been around to lend your support to our suggestions (do a search on the forum for Gordian Knot to see what Igor was up against in trying to satisfy everyone's requests ).

[Igor]

Harold,

Turn off "Auto Adding of New Transition Points for New Slides" option ("Cust. synch. window" | "View" button | popup menu) and PTE will not automatically add new points when you add new slide to the Slide list.

And timeline will work exactly as earlier.

[ContaxMan]

Thanks for explaining this Igor - very helpful.

[alrobin]

Thanks, Igor!

One of the things I really like about PTE is that no matter how much you think you know about the program, there is always something more to learn!

At one time we couldn't even open the timeline to set parameters such as this before adding images, etc. And this option really has nothing to do with "View". Maybe it should be included in "Project Options", mainly for the benefit of newcomers to the program and those of us who forget easily where to look for things??

[HaroldB]

Igor,

Thanks! That's EXACTLY what I was looking for.

You might want to consider what Al said about moving the location of that option, since I never would have found it if you hadn't pointed me to it.

Sorry about not being there for the last beta, but I am hope I am back for a while now!

Harold