How to remove links between images on different layers...

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How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby ploofer » Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:16 pm

Hi,

I have been using PSP for many years and one thing that still annoys me is that there is no button to unlink images from layers that use the same image after a template has been created.

So... I create a template and the last question PSP asks is "Keep Layers Linked". Well... if you answer "no" PSP removes all the matched layers and photos used more than once. If you answer "yes" it keeps all the matched layers linked but also links all the images together in which you used the same image. I tried this many times. So... unless I am doing something wrong here please keep reading.

Once I have my template, I open it. I begin to fill the placeholders. However, in some places when I created the template I used an image more than once, but in the new show I do not want to use the same image multiple times. So... I select my file but it replaces all the images on all the slides and layers where that image appeared in the template.

So... is there a button that I am missing that will remove the link that performs this unwanted behavior? It is not easy to re-create the desired effects every time I want to use a different image.

OR... is the only solution my work around which is to replace images with a different before creating the template so PSP does not link those images together?

Again... I want layers between slides kept but not links to all slides and layers that use the same image.

Seems like I am missing something after all these years of complaining about it. You would think that in a case like this where you select a file PSP would say something like... "You used this image in multiple places. Do you want to apply this image to all, or use it just for this slide/layer".

Again... I could be mission that one feature to resolve this but for all the years I have been using this tool this is the one thing that drives me insane. Well... other than it not being supported on an Apple computer that is the number one thing.

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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby cherub » Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:29 pm

Hi,
You are not missing anything. Everything is as you described.
You either say Yes and things get linked, or you say No, and nothing gets linked. There is no option to say Yes & No :D
I am not aware of any other workaround than the one that you've found already- to replace the pictures before you save the template. It is the same workaround that I use when creating certain templates.
In some cases it is easier to create the template out of slide styles (that is if you have them, or have created them). You don't even have to "populate" them with pictures. Just apply one slide style after the other and then save as template.

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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby ploofer » Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:40 pm

I sure hope PSP reads this. I think I post this same topic every year hoping the new version will have something that removes the links.
Until then... sounds like I keep doing my work around.

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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby debngar » Wed Dec 14, 2011 2:26 pm

Hello Ploofer,

Until Photodex builds a feature into the software to make this easier for the user, you might take a look at Barbara Coultry's blog post on that subject to see if the procedure she describes helps you accomplish what you're trying to do. :roll: :)

"How To Break A ProShow Slide Style" - (from Barbara's ProShow Think blogsite)
http://proshowthink.wordpress.com/2010/ ... ide-style/
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:53 am

Yes, the linking behavior is truly irritating...until it's exactly what you need, particularly in slide styles where, for simple example, a photo's shadow is created using a duplicate of the photo. Considering how such linking is accomplished in the .psh file, I wonder how much programming would be required to unaccomplish it. Still, though, a single button to unlink layers would be a godsend.

Barbara
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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby cherub » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:42 am

The linkage created in templates is different than the one created in slide styles, and this thread is about templates. We are talking here about linkage between slides, and not layers.

Let me give you an example that will clarify the kind of linkage that Ploofer is referring to:
Let's say that I have a show of 300 pictures. Out of these pictures I choose 2-3 of them that can also be used as layer backgrounds and not just as normal layers. They appear in my show several times: once as a normal layer and several times as backgrounds.
When the template is created, these pictures are automatically linked, because they are one and the same picture.
But, in my next show, when I'm using this template, I will have different pictures, and the pictures that I picked as backgrounds when I created the template, won't look all that nice as backgrounds in this new show.

As I said above, the easiest way is to troubleshoot this linkage is before the template is created and not afterwards. To break the links between layers in every show created from this template seems to me counter productive. Imagine having to "hunt" for each and every repeated picture, in every show that I create from this template...

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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:17 am

I guess both Debbie and I missed that truly vital point: that templates, not styles, were the subject.

Ploofer, I apologize if I ended up confusing you in any way. :(

Barbara
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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby debngar » Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:44 am

Sorry......... :oops: I thought that at some point when the user wanted to unassociate the same image in multiple layers that the suggested solution might be of some help.
Debbie
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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby im42n8 » Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:15 pm

There IS a method to break the linkage but, it's one most might not to do: Edit a copy of the PSH file that was created from the template using a TEXT EDITOR (not a word processor ... unless you're REALLY REALLY careful to export as TEXT).

Of course you could edit the template file too and completely break the link at the source so that all images (in layers) that USED to be the same are no longer linked. In that case, you probably want to save the edited (PSH or PST) file with a name different from the original (so you can tell which template file has the links intact and the one that doesn't).

That said, Photodex doesn't support this method because they don't want people (understanding too much about the PSH ... and it's always subject to change) messing around in the PSH or PST files!

PSH/PST files start counting at 0, not 1. So "cell[3].images[3].name=MASTER Position Horizontal" actually refers to slide 4, image 4.

You are looking for any line that looks like the following:
cell[x].images[y].templateImageId=nbr,
where "x" is the slide number - 1, "y" is the layer number - 1, and "nbr" is a number (either positive or negative).

The "nbr" will be the same for each linked image.

Each line containing ".templateImageId=" is what you're looking for because it's what's used to indicate linked layers.

If you have a templateImageId that is unique (that is, not repeated anywhere in the file), then that image/layer is not linked to any others.

Typically, linked layers will have a number that is more than a single digit in length. I think they're randomly generated numbers to prevent the possibility of the same number in the same show link to anything but related layers. To unlink, remove the line or change the number to one that's unique. Both serve effectively the same purpose.

The 3rd line of the text (it's called "title=") in the PSH gives the name of the file whereas in a PST file it's called "Template."

ALWAYS USE A TEXT EDITOR and ALWAYS WORK WITH A COPY.

Dale
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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:38 pm

I've occasionally fiddled with the .psh file, but I haven't always known what I was doing. You've supplied some vital information. There's certainly no harm in saving a show to another name and then editing the .psh since, if it's a complete failure, nothing is harmed due to the fact you're working on a copy.

Barbara
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Re: How to remove links between images on different layers...

Postby hungtienleno1 » Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:27 am

I think you should take a photo. Everyone be it easy

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