Consecutive numbering of slides

[Bald Runner Profile Private message]

Hi All,

I am creating a show consisting of about 75 slides. It is for a friend who lives 50 miles away so she cannot call around as such. Accordingly, I will upload the 'show' at various stages to Youtube in order that my friend can review progress. I will need advising as to the correct order of the slides (it's a life story).

I was sent the actual original paper photographs in envelopes from various sources so it was not just a straightforward case of writing the number on the back thereof. Far too easy...

I was intending to add a caption consisting of a number to each slide so that when being reviewed it will be possible for my friend to advise 7;9;23;12;45;6;8;31 etc.
However, I feel that it will be somewhat tedious to number each slide manually and was wondering whether there is a quicker way of undertaking such a task?

Any constructive advice will be gratefully received

Regards

Mark Adams

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Select the first slide. Open Slide Options. Add a caption.

In the far right side (near center) is the section called "Caption Format." At the bottom of that section is the "+macro" button. Click on it.

You can add the macro \p/\P which gives you the slide number and the total slides in the show (example 14/55). To add this, either add each macro and then put the / (or add " of " or anything that makes sense to you to separate the two numbers) between them or close the "Insert Caption Macro" window and type the codes yourself. The \p macro tells what slide is showing. The \P macro tells how many slides are in the show.

Next, in the center middle is a section called "Caption Setup." Click on the "Show Caption " (shows on every slide) checkbox. This puts the caption on all slides. You will now have a caption on each slide that tells you what slide you are viewing out of how many.

That's it in a nutshell. Welcome to the Forum!

Dale

[Bald Runner Profile Private message]

Dale,

I thank you. I appreciate the time you took to reply. I shall try what you have suggested tomorrow (it's late here in UK) and let you know how it worked.

Thanks again

Mark

[pd Profile Private message]

I had a go at Dale's suggestion and it is simple and works fine.

I have tried it with a few slides and you should be aware that it has shortcomings as well.
Let us say we have 5 slides and six photos.
Slide 1 has 2 layers (2pics). They will be both labeled 1/5
Slide 2 has one layer and is labeled 2/5 etc.

Now if you are asked to swap slide 5 to slide 4, slide 5 will get labeled 4 and 4 to 5.
It will become quite a bundle to handle especially if you have multi layers.


I can provide a very crude way which will solve that but needs some work. Gather all your photos into one folder. You can still add photos to this later. Use photoshop to make a second smaller version of the same photos but keeping the same filename. Each photo has then to be opened individually and numbered and resaved. Each photo can then be uniquely identified wherever it is inserted.

When show is finalised, rename the folder (simply add an X at the end of the filename. Next time you open Producer, it will say it cannot find the pictures, point it to the full size folder and you are done.

Yes a lot of work is involved, but it keeps everything under control.

Good luck

[Bald Runner Profile Private message]

PD,

Thanks for your input. As it happens, the slides will initially be basic single layer slides to confirm order. Once I have that established, I can add layers etc. at that stage

Mark

[Bald Runner Profile Private message]

Dale,

I undertook your suggestion. It worked great after I removed the default caption 'movement'.

Thanks again for your valuable help

Mark

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

De Nada.

There's a default caption movement?!!!! Shouldn't be any movement at all when you create the caption (no size changes, no position changes, etc). You might check the program to find out what's causing this "movement."

If you haven't made any "motion" settings changes to any particular keyframe, the "Caption Settings" settings changes will apply to all keyframes. If you have, however, a motion change (position, zoom, etc) applies to the 1st keyframe ... no matter the keyframe that has been selected (for instance, if you visited the Effects tab, selected a keyframe, and then went back to the Captions Settings tab) ... you will need to make manual changes all other keyframes after that. Changes of "motion" for each keyframe after that is made in the "Effects" tab. When done, making the caption "global" applies to each "copy" on each slide.

As PD noted, this method is pretty simple-minded. Multiple images on a slide can't be referenced (as far as an automatic numbering method goes) via this method. No problem tho. The customer can easily tell you what he / she wants changed on that particular slide.

Moving slides around (as in moving slide 10 to being slide is no big deal. The renumbering takes place automatically, as it should be. But, moving a bunch of slides around might require some process control (to keep from being too confused). I've never had that much of a problem in this arena tho. Most of the changes I need to make to a clients' desired image order are often minimal. When the client doesn't care too much about the image order (giving me free license basically to put the images in any order that seems to make the most sense), I haven't found them to want any such major changes when I present the first draft.

You can shut off the caption on those slides you don't want the numbering to show up on (there are several ways of doing this)... but that slide is still counted (in both the totals and the specific). You can't force a numbering start (that is start counting at a particular value). But, for what it does, it works just fine.

Whatever, have fun!

Dale

[Bald Runner Profile Private message]

Dale,

When I first set it up, the number appeared from the bottom, rose up slightly then disappeared upward; the number vanished before the slide time was complete. I needed for the number to remain all the time without movement. I investigated and discovered that it was the 'Caption Behaviors' on the 'Caption Effects' tab.
The Fly In; Normal; Fly Out settings all had a value. After setting them all to 'none' the movement was corrected.

Thanks again

Mark

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ah . . . .nitnoid stuff. Photodex tries to simplify things for us and so the captions can take on the characteristics of a previously used caption (size, modifier, outlines, transition in/out, etc). It can be a surprise what you get sometimes (having forgotten what you used previously).

At least it was a simple fix...

Dale