Changing slide duration.

[Needham]

I had been using Photostage Professional for some time, and was very happy with it. When I updated my pc there was an issue with the licence, which was resolved by NCH with a fresh download link. This worked perfectly, BUT---- it appears to be a later version and there has been a very unwanted change incorporated.

I used to change slide duration by highlighting the time setting of the slide, on the slideshow bar, and simply changing it.  It was instant and the result was immediately obvious on the same screen.   This no longer works.

Clicking on the slide duration box now, brings up a new full screen background on which the duration can be highlighted and changed, but without being able to see the effect on the slideshow. It is then necessary to click Apply to go back to the slideshow, to judge the effect. Then back to the other screen to make another change, then back to the slideshow again and more time wasted.  My use of Photostage often involves frequently adjusting slide durations to fit an audio script. This current version adds hours to the process.

The current method is so inefficient, I cannot understand why it was changed. Has anyone found a way around this?

[n1x1]

Hi,

Which version of PhotoStage do you use at the moment? 

[Needham]

On 10/31/2023 at 8:28 AM, n1x1 said:

Which version of PhotoStage do you use at the moment? 

I'm using 10.81 at present, but also tried 10.19 and 9.71.       It's now apparent that the change was made after version 9.61, which I had continued using until recently. I will probably revert back to v9.61 because it does what I need, much more efficiently. 

I've messaged NCH about this and await their response.  In the meantime I've noticed another retrograde change after 9.61.  They have removed the ability to highlight a group of slides on the slidebar, quickly change the duration of any one of those slides, and have it applied automatically to all of that group of slides, with no additional action required. 

The newer method with the pop up pane, cancels out any highlighting of a group of slides, and only allows a change of duration to a single slide, or all slides in the show.  It now requires first highlighting the required group of slides, then hunting through yet another menu,  to be able to select the action required for the highlighted group of slides, before going to the new pop up pane to change the duration of that group.  Then applying the change.  With practice, it takes about 3 times as long as previously.  I'm sending another message to NCH about this. 

It really was the perfect example of not following the rule -  'If it aint broke, don't try to fix it'.

 

 

[MakubX]

If that is the case, you may reinstall 9.61 here http://www.oldversiondownload.com/oldversions/photostage-9-61-2022-07-23.exe

[Needham]

Mea culpa.  My critical comments in my post were unjustified.

After posting, I realised there is a tick box option, enabled by default, to 'Open the edit tab' when clicking on a slide.  I had deselected this long ago on my earlier installation. Stupidly I had overlooked deselecting it again when inputting other options after updating Photostage.

The default slide adjustment popup seems rather pointless, and deselecting this option restores full functionality for changing slide duration easily, on the slide bar, either singly or for a selected group of slides. The latter cannot be done by any means with the default setting. I would recommend users try this. It saves a lot of time with a complex slide show, where slides are being matched to an audio track.

Overall I am very impressed with Photostage. A few small things could be improved, but there are regular updates and I am more than happy with the quality that can be achieved.