I've fought for hours today? Does anybody ELSE think this stuff is NUTS. After hours of searching ... is this telling me that the menus you need to access the functions of the movie maker programs are HIDDEN BY DEFAULT? Are the kidding? Seriously?

And then, when you follow the directions ... I still get nothing. No "Now Playing Tab". No arrow below that. No "enhancement" options which the help menu details to do the things I want. Is this for real? Can anyone explain this please. I'd really love to be able to use the stupid movie making programs I have on the laptop. Would sure appreciate it. Gary

From their own website:


Show or hide the Classic Menus in Windows Media Player

The Classic Menus in Windows Media Player (previously known as the menu bar) provide you access to most of the Player functions. They are hidden by default.

Although many of the functions in the Classic Menus also appear in the drop-down menus below the Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, and Sync tabs, you might want to show the Classic Menus to access the less frequently used commands that only appear on the File, View, Play, Tools, and Help menus.

Show all To show the Classic Menus

Do one of the following:

Right-click an empty area of the taskbar (such as the area to the left of the Now Playing tab) or an empty area to the left or right of the playback controls, and then click Show Classic Menus.

Press CTRL+M.

I understand that the next software version will come with a "live help" link...directly to the psychic hotline.

Is it my imagination or is all Windows based software trending towards the point where you need a hands-on tutor to ferret out their inexplicable menu choices? Or maybe it's a ploy to get us all to develop some sort of latent psionic mental telepathy to figure out how to use their stuff.

I'm going to start making all my guns with a small grub screw threaded up the intake so it can't take any air (by default). It will be up to the end user to figure out what in the heck is wrong, and find the screw. Then, I can act all superior because I know it's there, how to remove it, and make them feel stupid when they can't find it.



Gary

Gary,

Apparently they don't get used much and Microsoft wanted to clean up the GUI.

Microsoft knows what people use and how often.

Well - here's another good one:

When you are in Window Movie Maker ..... and you go to help and search for something ... it gives you detailed directions of what to look for ..... in Windows MEDIA PLAYER. Well ... you are not in Media Player ... so you don't see anything it's telling you is there. And ... there's no portion of the screen that offers a link to Media Player. Once you realize the little game ... then you have to go search for Media Player. Dig thru files to find an obscure coded file, that is on the work area of MOVIE MAKER ... and import it into MEDIA PLAYER. Really linear thinking there.

You have a bunch of clips on the work area of Movie Maker. You want to perform an operation on them. Something really wierd (like altering the play speed) ... And ... there's no way you can do it, without finding another program and importing your half finished work into that? Surely they jest!

And, you have to run this little exercise to find the hidden "Classic Menu" ... with those rare options like "File, Play, View, Tools, and Help" in it. And, you have to do that each time you open the program! It's amazing.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2010 05:33PM by barnespneumatic.

Are you trying to change video speed in Windows Movie Maker?

Its easy.

Hi Cedric,

Yeah ... since I found it ... it is easy.

Try something ... go up to "HELP" ... and see what it tells you. It's not easy then.

Just doing it for illustration now. Go to HELP ... Choose "Windows Movie Maker on the Web". Type in "Create Slow Motion Clips" .... and it says ..... Duh???????? .... "No Search Results Found". Now ... really ... you are in Movie Maker ... you ask about "slow motion clips" ... and the thing has absolutely no idea what you are talking about ... what ... after 20 years or so of Movie Maker programs???

So ... now type in "Alter Clips playback speed" ... see what it says. Duh????? ..... No search results found .....

Gary

LOL, not too much of a SEARCH ENGINE is it. Sad thing about computers is you get more info on you own just by trial and error or talking to friends that know computers.

Gary, here is another good tip for ya. If you wanna learn certain programs and its functions, www.youtube.com has just about every video in the world. When i've tried to learn certain edit features of a program, i went to youtube.

i know a guy who deleted his trash bin... thought that was quite clever,,

Ahhh yes . . . classic geek torture. My personal favorite was to take a screen shot of someone's desktop with all of their icons and files etc. that they'd usually have, then to move all of the "real" icons and files to a temp folder somewhere -- so their desktop was actually empty -- then set the screen shot of the "normal" desktop with their usual files and icons etc. as their wallpaper. Let the fun begin!

-- Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2010 02:19PM by admin.

That would be a mandatory five year penalty in my world. One where the hacker spent 12 hours a day using Windows 98 and a dial up modem to perform near useless tasks for small businesses, in order to sustain their own habitat ... like keeping the toilet in their cell working.

Good thing I'm not Emperor.

Gary

Funny thing is, we did that trick once to another geek, and locked our supposedly secure, password-protected PCs and went home for the day. The next morning, we found that both of *our* desktops were empty except for a single icon that was called "How did I get here?"



-- Jim

Geek humor...