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- How To Use SmartPaper
-
- Introduction
-
- SmartPaper is very easy to use. Simply run the SMARTPPR.EXE program
- and you will be able to put bitmapped backgrounds in all your MDI
- Compliant applications. And you can choose a different bitmap for
- each application, or even let SmartPaper choose them randomly for
- you!
-
- Making SmartPaper Run Automatically
-
- When you have tried SmartPaper, and decide you like it, you can
- make it perform its magic every time you use Windows. All you need
- to do is add it to your Startup group, and it will activate when
- Windows starts. How to add programs to your startup group is
- detailed in your Windows 3.1 documentation (Chapter 3, "Program
- Manager", section "Working With Program Items"). The program file
- is called SMARTPPR.EXE.
-
- What is an MDI Application?
-
- An MDI Compliant application is one that allows multiple windows
- within a main bounding window. Examples of MDI compliant
- applications are Program Manager, File Manager, the System
- Configuration Editor (sysedit.exe in your windows\system directory)
- and a multitude of programs from other vendors. Note however that
- there are some applications that look like MDI applications that
- aren't really. For example, from the Microsoft stable, EXCEL and
- WORD aren't, but ACCESS is (as of September 1993).
-
- Choosing the SmartPaper
-
- Choosing what you want as the background for each application
- couldn't be easier. Simply click on the background with the right
- mouse button in the application you want the SmartPaper in, and a
- file-open dialog box will appear from where you can navigate to any
- bitmap of your choice. Select a
- bimap and click on the "OK" button, and SmartPaper will load the
- bitmap if it can.
-
- If SmartPaper can't load the bitmap it will tell you. The usual
- reason for failure is that the file has a .BMP or .RLE extension,
- but isn't really a bitmap at all. Also on the File-Open dialog is
- an additional check box, with the text "Randomize from this
- directory in future". If you select this option (click on it with
- the mouse, if selected it will have a cross in it), then the bitmap
- selected in the normal manner will be used this time, but when the
- application starts in future it will select a bitmap randomly from
- the same directory.