Joystick Magazine 1995 May/CdJoystickN°2.iso/phanscrn/phantom.doc

Text File | 1993-12-28 | 28KB | 580 lines

                     PhantomScreen - Version 1.2b
                         (C)1993 NeoSoft Corp.

About PhantomScreen

PhantomScreen is a DOS-based screen saver utility which not only helps
protect against screen "burn-in," but protects your computer from
unauthorized access while you are away, displays the time, livens
your workplace with scanned images or computer art, leaves messages
for those who may visit your desk, etc. A variety of colorful, customizable
effects are included.

The program supports 2, 16 and 256 color images at up to 1024x768
resolution. Minimum system requirements are: an IBM PC, XT or better;
MS-DOS 3.1 or higher; a CGA, Hercules monochrome, EGA, VGA or SuperVGA
graphics system; hard disk; Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse
(optional); and 640K RAM (expanded memory also supported).
Registering PhantomScreen

If you received Phantom from a friend, BBS, catalog or anywhere other
than from NeoSoft or an authorized software dealer or distributor, you
may try the program for a period of up to 30 days before registering.
To obtain a complete package including registration number and typeset
manual call NeoSoft at [phone].  We can process your order with
VISA or MasterCard over the phone.  The purchase price of Phantom is
$25 + $5 ($17.50 Outside United States) shipping and handling.  If you
prefer, FAX your order to us at [phone].  If you would like to
mail a check or money order make sure it's drawn against a U.S. bank
in U.S. funds. Our address is:

   NeoSoft Corp.
   354 NE Greenwood Avenue, Suite 108
   Bend, Oregon 97701-4631

You may also purchase Phantom from any one of our many dealers world wide.
For a list of dealers see the DEALER.DOC file accompanying this program.

If you would like to give a copy of this program to a friend or associate
please do so, but you may NOT give anyone your serial number.  We hope you
enjoy Phantom and share it with your friends.

Things You Need

To use PhantomScreen, you will need the following:

- IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible computer
- CGA, MCGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules monochrome or compatible graphics card and
  monitor
- 512K minimum memory
- A hard disk
- MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.1 or later
- PhantomScreen program disk.
- Microsoft, Logitech or compatible mouse (optional)

Installing PhantomScreen

PhantomScreen includes an easy-to-use installation program. During the
installation, a directory of your choice will be created automatically
and the appropriate files transferred to your hard drive.

To run the INSTALL program:

Boot your computer. (Turn the computer on!)
Insert the PhantomScreen Program disk into drive A.
At the DOS prompt (C:\), type A:\INSTALL and press the Enter key.
Follow the instructions on the screen.

Note that the installation program will give you the option of placing
PhantomScreen into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file for automatic loading. If you
do not wish to modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, answer NO. You may always,
however, add PhantomScreen to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file later.

Customer Service

Registered users of PhantomScreen may obtain customer service and technical
help from NeoSoft.  If you encounter a problem, follow the steps below.

- Consult documentation of other programs you are running with PhantomScreen
  for potential conflicts.
- Try to duplicate the problem.
- Retrace your steps to identify where, when and how the problem occurs.
- Ask your dealer for help.
- Contact NeoSoft Corp.

You may reach us by:

- Mailing your questions to NeoSoft Corp.
  attn. Customer Service
        354 NE Greenwood Ave.
        Suite 108
        Bend, Oregon 97701-4631 U.S.A.

- Sending a FAX message to [phone].
- Calling our support staff at [phone]
  (weekdays 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Standard Time)

Whether you call or write, please provide us with the following
information to give us a complete picture of your situation.

- Your PhantomScreen version number
  (this may be quickly located using PhantomScreen's Info button.)
- Your registration number.
- Computer brand and model. It is also important that we know the
  amount and type (Extended, Expanded and Disk) of memory on board
  and what memory manager you are using.
- Brand and model of your video adapter, monitor, and mouse.
- Operating system (DOS) version number.
- A listing of the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files
- Names of other software program(s) which you may be running along
  with PhantomScreen when you notice this problem.
- A description of the problem, how and when it appeared, and how
  to reproduce it.

Using PhantomScreen

PhantomScreen not only helps protect against screen burn-in, but can
protect your computer from unauthorized access while you are away,
display the time, liven your workplace with scanned pictures or
computer art, leave messages for those who may visit your desk, etc.

For the steps below, we assume that you have already installed
PhantomScreen in the directory C:\PHANTOM, which is the default directory
used by the install program. If you installed PhantomScreen into a
different directory, then substitute that name for C:\PHANTOM below.

To start PhantomScreen:

If you told the installation program to add PhantomScreen to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file then you need do nothing, PhantomScreen will be loaded
each time you switch on or reset your system. You need not follow the
instructions below.

If you plan to use PhantomScreen with a mouse, your mouse driver (usually
MOUSE.COM) must be loaded before accessing the PhantomScreen menu. Please
refer to your mouse's user manual for more information. A mouse is not
required to use PhantomScreen.

From the DOS prompt (C:\), type CD\PHANTOM and press Enter. This will
place you in the PhantomScreen directory. Now type PHANTOM and press
Enter. Should you desire to customize PhantomScreen, pressing the CTRL
and M keys simultaneously will bring up the PhantomScreen main menu.  If
you want to be sure PhantomScreen will be automatically loaded each time
you start your system, you should add the PhantomScreen command to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Operating PhantomScreen

Let's take a look at how to use various parts of the menu.

Keyboard Operation

You should note that a mouse, while convenient, is not required to use
PhantomScreen. Everything in the menu is accessible from your computer's
keyboard. Note that each command on the menu has one letter in it's
description underlined. To select these commands, you simply hold down
the ALT key while typing the letter corresponding to the command you wish
to activate.

You may also move between items on the menu by using the TAB key to move
between options. A highlight, appearing as a moving box, surrounds the
current item. Once the command you wish to use has been highlighted, press
the SPACE bar to select or activate.  At other times, you may need to
select an item from a list. You may use the ARROW, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN
keys to scroll through the list. Once the desired item is highlighted,
press the ENTER key to select that item.

Mouse Operation

Using the mouse requires that you load Microsoft or Logitech compatible
mouse driver software before starting PhantomScreen. If a mouse is
present, a small mouse pointer (arrow) will appear on your screen. You
simply move the pointer to the desired command or option and click the
left mouse button to select or activate.

PhantomScreen works in the background, and is only displayed when you
call up its menu, or when actually performing its screen protecting
function. Following are descriptions of the major functions found on
PhantomScreen's main menu.

Note: To avoid key conflicts with other software, you may change the Hot
Keys used to call up the menu (CTRL/M) and activate screen protection
(CTRL/S). See below.

QuikMenu

If you plan on using PhantomScreen with QuikMenu then you should disable
QuikMenu's screen saver.  To turn off QuikMenu's screen saver, enter 0
minutes for the specified time interval.

Commands

On  - Checking this box enables screen protection.

Off - If this box is checked, PhantomScreen will not activate after the
      specified time period. Even though this button is selected, CTRL/M
      will still work to bring up the PhantomScreen menu, and CTRL/S will
      still manually start the screen saver.

Screen Saver - This box contains the name of the currently selected screen
      saver type. You may drop down a menu of alternatives by either using
      the mouse to click anywhere on this option, or depressing ALT/S on the
      keyboard.

Preview - This button allows you to preview the screen saver type selected
      from the Screen Saver menu. Any mouse movement or keyboard activity
      will stop the preview. Note: Some screen saver types must complete a
      short cycle before restoring your original screen.

Options - After selecting a particular type of screen saver, you may wish
      to adjust certain features, such as speed, number of figures, etc.
      Use this button to bring up the controls available for the current
      screen saver.

Blank After - This field may be used to specify the interval (in minutes)
      between the last use of your keyboard or mouse and activation of
      screen protection. You may use any number between 1 and 60 minutes
      (around 5 minutes is usually sufficient).

Info - Using this button displays the PhantomScreen version number, serial
      number registration and other program information.

Password - You may set a password which must be entered before access to
      your computer screen is released. Using a password will help protect
      your computer from prying eyes while you are away. There are two
      levels of password protection: A Master password is usually set by
      an employer or system administrator so that an employee's system may
      be accessed when the normal user is ill, on vacation, etc. The
      Master password will override the individual user's password. The
      individual user Password should be set by the system user. This
      Password may be reset or bypassed by anyone having the Master
      password, however. When a password has been entered, the system will
      request that anyone trying to interrupt the screen saver first enter
      the correct password before the screen will display any information.
      PhantomScreen will continue to ask for a password even if your
      system is switched off then on again, if you include the PHANTOM
      command within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. It is very important that
      you remember and/or write down the passwords you assign. If you
      forget your passwords, you will have to reinstall PhantomScreen to
      reestablish control over your system.

Hot Key - PhantomScreen is installed so that, once the program has been
      started, you may call up its menu at any time by typing CTRL/M and
      begin the screen protection immediately by typing CTRL/S. As other
      software you run may already use CTRL/M and CTRL/S for other
      purposes, you may change the keystrokes used for to access these
      two options. Use any letter or function key plus either a SHIFT,
      CTRL, or ALT key. Once you have redefined a hot key, the two keys
      you have selected must be pressed simultaneously to access the
      option.

Unload - This button will completely unload PhantomScreen from your
      computer, disabling its screen protection, and exiting the program.
      You may also do this from the command line in those instances where
      you wish to remove PhantomScreen from within a batch file. Unload
      should be used when you either need the small amount of memory used
      to keep PhantomScreen in the background, or when there is a serious
      conflict with another program which you need to use. Also note that
      you cannot use the UNLOAD button if you are running another
      application. You should only unload PhantomScreen from the DOS prompt.

OK -  This option saves any changes you've made to PhantomScreen's
      configuration, then returns you to DOS or to your software
      application.

Display Characteristics

PhantomScreen works in monochrome graphics, EGA/VGA 16 color
and EGA/VGA 256 color modes. Your monitor and graphics card
must be capable of supporting a given resolution in order for
PhantomScreen to display in that mode. Some image options are not
available on systems which do not support a particular graphical
resolution. If your neighbor is displaying screen savers which do not
appear on your own computer, most likely your neighbor is using a higher
resolution card and/or monitor. Program Conflicts - Since PhantomScreen
continues to run in the background while you run your normal programs,
they must try to get along. Although PhantomScreen has been tested with a
wide variety of applications, the sheer scope of software available under
the DOS environment precludes any claim that any screen saver will work
flawlessly with all applications. Like most terminate and stay resident
(TSR) utilities, PhantomScreen uses standard interrupts to hide itself
while other programs are running. This should not cause problems with
most applications. However, some programs misbehave and attempt to
manipulate areas PhantomScreen is using. This may result in a system
crash, in which you must reboot your computer to continue. If you
encounter this problem, you should create a batch file which unloads
PhantomScreen before running such a program, runs the problem application,
then reloads PhantomScreen once you exit from that application.

Options

Most of PhantomScreen's screen savers may be adjusted. Once you have
selected a particular saver, use the OPTIONS button to further
individualize your system. The controls you use may fall into a few
categories as listed below.

File Selection

Some OPTIONS allow you to import an outside image file.
When selecting a file, you will be presented with a list of files from
the current directory. If the file you want is not in the current
directory, you may use DRIVES and DIRS fields to move between drives and
directories/subdirectories. Note: In the DIRS field, the \ takes you to
the drive's root directory. The .. takes you to the directory from which
the current directory has branched. Selecting any subdirectory name which
appears will take you into that subdirectory. See your DOS documentation
for more information on Directory Trees. An even easier way to find a file
is to use the SEARCH button. Type the file's name or a mask into the text
field. If you have no idea where the file is located on your drive, check
the SEARCH ENTIRE DRIVE box. PhantomScreen will search the disk and bring
up any file or files present which match the name or file mask you've
specified.

Messages

There are times when you will want to leave a short note on your system
while you are away. The Message screen saver allows you to easily type
in a message of up to 36 characters, which will move across your screen.

Another way to include a message, is to type your message into a paint
program, such as NeoSoft's NeoPaint, and display the image using the Color
Cycle, Effects, Stack, or Ricochet screen savers. You can also display
a series of PCX image messages by using the Slide Show screen saver.

Using Your Own Pictures

Several of PhantomScreen's screen saver selections allow you to import
custom artwork or scanned images as part of the screen protection
function. These pictures may be created or modified using most paint/image
editing programs, including NeoPaint from NeoSoft. PhantomScreen can, in fact,
use files generated by a number of program types which support PCX format
files, including scanning utilities, graphing programs, drawing programs,
etc. You should, however, take the following into consideration before
trying to use a custom image in PhantomScreen. Screen savers which allow
you to choose PCX image files are Color Cycle, Video Effects, Ricochet,
Slide Show, Slider, and Stack. The image should be the same size, or
smaller than, your monitor's display. It is best to keep your images at
640x480 (VGA resolution) or smaller. For example, an EGA display measures
640x350 pixels, so your image should not be larger than 640 pixels wide by
350 pixels high. Images which are smaller than the display will be centered
on the display.

Your image should also not contain more than 256 colors or shades of gray.
If your monitor only displays 2 or 16 colors at any one time, do not
attempt to include more colors or gray shades in your picture. It is also
very important, in the Color Cycle Screen Saver, that your image's color
palette contain a pure black color. PhantomScreen must use black in order
to completely blank each pixel. The Ricochet saver moves a rectangle
measuring 300 pixels wide by 200 pixels high. If the image is larger
that this, a chunk located at the upper left corner of the image is
used. So, if you want to bounce a complete picture of your dog around the
screen using Ricochet, use your paint program to resize the dog's picture
to measure 300x200 pixels. Larger pictures or pictures with more colors
may display more slowly or take longer to clear. Again, any good paint
program should allow you to resize and/or reduce the number of colors in
an image you wish to use in PhantomScreen.

Once you have saved the image you want on your disk drive, you should
select one of the screen savers which can use custom pictures, then use
the OPTIONS button to load that image.

Slide Shows

Simple Slide Shows may be created to run while the computer is not being
used for other purposes. This may be desirable for advertising,
promotionals, demonstrations, or just for fun. The Slide Show screen
saver may be used to display images (created in a paint program)
containing long messages the Message screen saver would not be able to
contain. Use the ADD button to select a PCX image file. The images you
select appear at the bottom of the list in the Which Image? box (at the
left side of the Slide Show dialog). Use the DELETE button to remove the
highlighted file from the list. If no file has been highlighted, the last
file on the list will be removed. The slide images will be presented in
the order shown in the Which Slide? box. You may change the order using
the ADD and DELETE keys, or you may use the mouse to drag a file to a new
position in the order. To drag, simply click on the file you wish to move
and, while holding down the mouse button, move to the position where you
prefer the file to appear, then release the mouse button.

The amount of time each image is shown is controlled by the SPEED bar at
the top right of the Slide Show dialog. The size and number of colors in
your images also affect the show's display speed. The Slide Show screen
saver will display 2, 16 and 256 color images (depending on your monitor),
or combinations of these. The display will be smoother, however, if all
slides presented are of the same resolution. Again, any good paint or
image editing program will allow you to change the size of and/or convert
the number of colors in your images.

Graph Labels

While the charts used by the Graph screen saver are mock ups which cannot
be changed, the labels used in these graphs may be customized to include
titles and figures which reflect your company. The customizable information
is contained in a text file which may be modified using any ASCII text
editor. This file may be found in your PHANTOM subdirectory, under the
name GRAPHTXT.DOC. If you modify this file, save your changes as ASCII
text. If your text editor asks you if you want to preserve line/paragraph
breaks, you should answer yes.

[TITLE] - The text under this heading will be displayed as the title for
          each graph. Do not exceed 30 characters, including spaces and
          punctuation.
[LABEL] - You must follow each [TITLE] with one or more {LABEL} list. The
          items listed under [LABEL] will be used to designate the
          vertical increments on the charts. In the sample file included
          with PhantomScreen, the [LABEL] lists are used to specify months
          and monetary levels. There should be eight items in the list
          under each [LABEL] heading in the file. Each item in the list
          should not exceed eight characters, including punctuation marks,
          currency signs, and spaces. If you place more than one [LABEL]
          list under each [TITLE] heading, PhantomScreen will randomly
          assign these as the charts are displayed.
[DATA] -  You must also follow each [TITLE] with at least one [DATA]
          listing. You should provide at least ten items in the list under
          each [DATA] heading in the file. Each item in the list should
          not exceed twelve characters, including punctuation marks,
          currency signs, and spaces. If you place more than one [DATA]
          list under each [TITLE] heading, PhantomScreen will randomly
          assign these as the charts are displayed.
[ENDREC] - This line should be the last line in the file. Do not move
          or alter this line.

Command Line Options

You can specify several options when starting PhantomScreen. An option
consists of a normal slash (/) followed by an option letter followed by
information about that option. Up to 4 command line options can be used
at the same time.

Saving and Loading the Background (/B)

Using this command tells PhantomScreen to use expanded (EMS) memory for
saving and restoring the background screens.

Using Virtual Disk Memory (/D)

On installation, PhantomScreen tries to determine whether your system has
extended memory which it can use to load images. If, for some reason,
you do not wish PhantomScreen to use expanded or extended memory then load
PhantomScreen with this command. Using Disk memory is slower than using
Expanded or Extended RAM. You must have space on your hard drive for this
option to work.
Example: PHANTOM /D

PhantomScreen On (/N) and Off (/F)

You may be running programs during which you do not want PhantomScreen to
activate. Reasons for this might include: these two programs will not work
properly together, because the program has its own screen saver, or because
you need to watch the application during extended periods when there will
be no mouse or keyboard input. You may construct a simple batch file which
turns PhantomScreen off, loads your application, then turns PhantomScreen
back on when you exit that application. The example below shows how such
a batch file would look, with programname being replaced with the DOS
command you use to start the application (in which you do not want
PhantomScreen to activate). To completely remove PhantomScreen from
memory, see the Unload (/U) option below.
Example:
PHANTOM /F
programname
PHANTOM /N

Using Expanded Memory (/E)

PhantomScreen, in its default mode, will first seek to use any Extended
Memory present on your system.  If you have Expanded Memory on your
system, use the /E option to direct PhantomScreen to use Expanded Memory
before using Extended or Virtual Disk Memory.
Example: PHANTOM /E

Suppress Sign On Message (/M)

Normally, PhantomScreen displays a brief message after you type PHANTOM
to let you know the program has loaded, and to remind you of how to bring
up the menu and start the screen saver. If you do not want to display
this message (in a batch file, for instance), follow PHANTOM with a /M.
Example: PHANTOM /M

Setting Display Speed (/S)

You may wish to change the speed of the displayed effects used by
PhantomScreen. This command line option allows you to change the speed
over the whole system. Displays on speedy 486 and Pentium machines may
look better when a slower speed is selected. Change the speed by
following the /S with a number from 1 to 9. One is the fastest and nine
is the slowest setting.
Example: PHANTOM /S2

Unloading PhantomScreen from Memory (/U)

You may be running one or more programs during which you do not want
PhantomScreen to be present. You may construct a simple batch file
which removes PhantomScreen, loads your application, then restarts
PhantomScreen when you exit that application. The example below shows
how such a batch file would look, with programname being replaced with
the DOS command you use to start the application during which you do not
want PhantomScreen to be present. This option immediately unloads the
program, so any command line options which are listed after the /U will
be ignored. E.g., If you want to suppress the PhantomScreen sign-on
message during the unloading process, you should place the /M option
before the /U option.
Example:
PHANTOM /U
programname
PHANTOM

Enable VESA mode (/V)

Using this switch command will allow PhantomScreen to use a VESA driver
for all SVGA calls.  The VESA driver must be loaded before PhantomScreen,
in order for proper results.
Example: PHANTOM /V

Using Phantom on networks

To allow users to have unique data files, run PhantomScreen with a
different filename for each user.  If a directory path is not specified,
then the data file will appear in the PhantomScreen directory.  If a
filename is not specified then the default 'PHANTOM.DAT' will be used.
Example: PHANTOM C:\PHANTOM\NAME.DAT

NOTE: If you specify a data file it must always include the extension
      '.DAT'.

For best results store the data file on the local drive and not on the
network drive.  This will speed up the transition time for swapping
PhantomScreen into and out of memory.

EDITPOP and EDITBLNK

Accompanying PhantomScreen are two additional programs called EDITPOP.EXE
and EDITBLNK.EXE.  These programs allow QuikMenu users to modify the
POP.DAT and BLANK.DAT files, respectively.  The POP.DAT data file
consists of a list of programs that you would like PhantomScreen not
to come up over.  The BLANK.DAT data file consists of a list of programs
that you would like PhantomScreen to just blank the screen in.  Programs
which appear in the BLANK.DAT data file will not be password protected.
These files were created to alleviate any conflicts between PhantomScreen
and other non-standard programs.

NOTE: The EDITPOP and EDITBLNK programs will only work if the application
      program is run from within QuikMenu.

EXAMPLE OF EDITPOP:

  If you do not want PhantomScreen to pop up over Word Rescue, then you
  would enter the following line:

  EDITPOP /A WR1

  To remove Word Rescue from the list, just enter:

  EDITPOP /R WR1

EXAMPLE OF EDITBLNK:

  If you want PhantomScreen to blank the screen in Word Rescue without
  changing the current video mode, then you would enter the following line:

  EDITBLNK /A WR1

  To remove Word Rescue from the list, just enter:

  EDITBLNK /R WR1

The POP.DAT and BLANK.DAT data files do not exist until you run the
appropriate programs.  In the above examples the /A stands for ADD, /R
stands for REMOVE, and the WR1 represents the Word Rescue executable
program.

NOTE: There are a few programs on the market that grab the keyboard
interrupt from PhantomScreen.  This causes PhantomScreen to pop up
even if keyboard activity is present.  These programs should be
entered into the POP.DAT data file as presented above.

Due to the nature of PhantomScreen and the broad range of products
currently on the market, we are unable to take total responsibility for
anomalies incurred due to conflicts between those applications and
PhantomScreen.  We will, however, attempt to solve any situations brought
to our attention.