Gimme presets - please!

Post your requested features for future versions of ProShow Gold here.
Active Member
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:00 pm

Gimme presets - please!

Postby Redcrown » Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:57 pm

I used PSG very briefly back in 2006 and now I've loaded PSG5 for a some new projects. So I'm re-climbing the learning curve, and maybe I'm wierd in my workflow, but I'm just a few hours into it and I'm wanting "presets" for slide layers in a really, really bad way.

Probably because I use Photoshop, and ACR, and a dozen other photo adjustment programs, all of which offer presets to quickly set things to some pre-determined values. Presets have become an industry standard, and a dominant way of thinking.

In short, let me develop "adjustments" for a slide layer and then save those as a preset. Then let me apply that preset to any layer I want. Include in the preset every attribute of a slide layer: all the layer settings, all the adjustments, all the effects. Especially the effects. There are 8 values under "Effects" for both the starting and ending positions, a total of 16 values. Currently, if I want to copy all those values from one slide layer to a layer on a different slide I have to write them down and manualy re-enter them.

PSG has slide styles, which are very nice, but fall far short of what a preset could do. Slide styles apply to all the layers in a slide, not just one. And Slide Styles have a confusing mystery of 1-layer vs. multi-layer and "duplicate" layers.

Take the "Simple Tilt and Zoom" styles for example. They are 1-layer styles (that create multiple layers). They create 3 layers, two of which are "duplicate" versions of the same image. If you want to have the same result, but with 3 different images you can't do it. There is no equivalent slide style for multi-layers, and creating your own requires a long and complicated process.

Imagine just loading the 3 images into a slide, selecting each layer and applying a 1 or 2 click preset to get all the effects you want.

As a compromise to presets, give me a "copy all" command. Let me copy all attributes of a slide layer, move down to a different slide 10 positions away (not previous or next), and paste those attributes onto a layer in that slide. Currently there are 12 options under the "copy" icon in slide options, none of which are a simple copy all.

.
User avatar
Posts: 3745
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:21 am
Location: Parker, CO

Re: Gimme presets - please!

Postby im42n8 » Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:23 pm

You can apply a "style" of presets to a single layer slide. You can do that for multiple slides. Then, you can copy that slide and PASTE INTO a slide. You can do that until you have as many layers as you need. That way, you can create your 3 layer slide from 3 different slides (to which each had a unique "pre-sets" style applied).

It's a workaround, I know. However, I strongly doubt that you're going to have the ability to apply "presets" to a single layer in a multi-layer slide anytime soon, if ever. That's because slide styles affect all layer settings on a slide.

What is confusing about a "duplicate" layer? It's an exact copy of a layer!

What is confusing about a 1-layer vs a multi-layer slide relative to slide styles? Slide styles are developed to apply to 1 or more layers on a slide. The slide style will affect the settings of all layers on a slide, as appropriate (and as designed). If you apply a style that is designed for multiple images to a slide that has a single image on it, you're going to have "placeholder" layers. For instance, if a style expected 4 images and there was only 1 image on the slide when the style was applied, the slide will have 3 "placeholder" or empty layers (one for each missing image).

The example you mentioned is a technique. If you have the style is a 1 "layer" style, it means that 1 image is expected. The style may use duplicates of the image but these duplicate image layers may have completely different settings from the main image. All 3 may have the same or all 3 may have completely different settings. If the style expects 4 layers (that is, 4 images), then it will do with these images what it wants. I've had a slide with 2 images but, after applying the style, may have 30 duplicate image layers .... with different settings (as necessary) on each of those 30 image layers). It just depends on what the style is doing.

In Gold, you're severely limited in what you can do. In Producer, you can copy settings from one layer to many layers on many slides (in the same show only). Photodex wants you to upgrade to the more "capable" (or "professional") version if you want the bells and whistles.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

.
User avatar
Posts: 4553
Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:07 am
Location: Israel

Re: Gimme presets - please!

Postby cherub » Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:47 pm

As Dale explained, ProShow Gold has some serious limitations.
In this particular case, you are missing a whole bunch of copying settings/alternatives that are present only in ProShow Producer.

In addition, I can't quite "envision" how your proposed presets would work.
ProShow Gold has indeed a start and an end position, BUT !!!!!!!
This is just Gold. In Producer you can have many more positions: Start, MIDDLE and End.
And in that Middle, you can have lots and lots of other variables and positions (called keyframes :D ). So, would you want a preset for each keyframe?
You will end up with a huge list of presets, that would be extremely difficult to use.

Or, suppose you'll have a preset for Zoom 10%, Black Point -10, White point + 20
Then another preset for Zoom 20% and the same Adjustments,
Or another for the same zoom but different Adjustments
I really don't quite follow your thought.

.
User avatar
Posts: 3745
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:21 am
Location: Parker, CO

Re: Gimme presets - please!

Postby im42n8 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 3:38 pm

Yeah, like Mona, I have some serious reservations about layer "presets" in ProShow too. I can't see how it would be implemented in Producer in particular because of the keyframes (where every keyframe can have its own settings). Too, when a style is applied to the slide, ALL settings are affected whether you want them or not (thereby eliminating any layer settings you just made).

The only thing I can think of would be a LAYER style . . . something that could be applied to a single layer (on a selected layer) . . . but you can effectively do that now on a single layer slide and then paste IN that slide into another (and then position the layer as desired and make any desired customizations).

For a specific feature of layer styles, don't hold your breath . . . it's probably going to be awhile (and the advantages if such a feature are dubious at best).

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

Return to PSG - Feature Requests

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests