Challenges in editing Photostory Deluxe timeline

RaymundoP wrote on 10/9/2016, 2:17 PM

I have Photostory 2016 Deluxe. I have trouble with two elements after using the Slideshow Wizard. One is that when I adjust the timing of some of the slides, the slide to the right is effected (i.e. duration either becomes longer or shorter). If I cut the slides, a blank space appears that I cannot delete. The other problem is that I cannot "select" a collage nor can I simply shorten it - there doesn't seem to be any tool to effectively edit or adjust the effects. If I simply remove the effects and have separate pictures, any adjustments I make to these seem to be lost again if I try to reapply the collage effect. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

Comments

browj2 wrote on 10/11/2016, 3:09 PM

Hi,

I don't have PhotoStory 2016, only 2013 and I don't have access to it right now. However, it should be the same as MEP.

There are buttons for normal mouse mode, single-track ripple, multi-track ripple. Select single-track ripple and anything to the right of what gets moved or deleted will also move, including closing up the gap.

For deleting and object and closing the gap, another way that should work is to use Ctrl+Del instead of Del.

You need to learn about the editing features.

A collage is more complicated and you can search under the Forum tab......Movie Edit Pro for collage. You will find quite a bit of information about collages. However, you have only 8 tracks in PhotoStory, I believe, so you may be extremely lmiited in what you can do. Track 1 will have an object called Collage which is a spacer. All of the photos and the effects are now on tracks with higher numbers, like 6 and upwards. Since there are probably more tracks used than you have, PhotoStory likely hides them on tracks 9 and upwards. The normal way to fine-tune or play with these in MEP or VPX, is to ungroup them and then edit them. To do what you want, you would be better off with MEP Plus (not basic) rather than PhotoStory.

Below is a screen shot of a 4 photo collage ungrouped, in VPX.

RaymundoP wrote on 10/11/2016, 6:27 PM

Thanks for taking the time to reply. the alt/del works great for deleting and automatically shifting everything to the right. However when I used the wizard to create the slide show, it introduced spaces that can't be "selected" for deletion. the edit menu has a function to find these but there is no tool for removing them - I know that I can extend an object on either side manually and then manually readjust object duration but what a pain!

I appreciate the suggestion about learning more about working with collages and will be trying that out next.

afeldheim wrote on 11/7/2016, 8:54 AM

Thanks for taking the time to reply. the alt/del works great for deleting and automatically shifting everything to the right. However when I used the wizard to create the slide show, it introduced spaces that can't be "selected" for deletion. the edit menu has a function to find these but there is no tool for removing them - I know that I can extend an object on either side manually and then manually readjust object duration but what a pain!

I appreciate the suggestion about learning more about working with collages and will be trying that out next.

Did you ever determine how to delete the spaces? I'm having the same challenge!

RaymundoP wrote on 11/7/2016, 4:30 PM

Re afeldheim question

Yes - the advice from browj2 below re using the multi-track mouse setting to select everything to the right is great for pulling the rest of the project to the left to close any gaps (or move to the right to create a larger gap) - there can even be a slight overlap when closing the gap and no problem. With respect to the collages - the only way that I could find in PhotoStory Deluxe was to select the collage (using the single-select mouse setting) and then right click and remove all effects - I then can do whatever I want to the individual photos (usually I drag them down to a separate track) and then re-unite them as a collage manually. After that, using the spacing tricks above, I have re-inserted the collage where I want and remove any gaps that might be left. Hope this helps.

RaymundoP