Copyright: Copyright © SIMCOM Software Pty Ltd
Citation: Copyright © SIMCOM Software Pty Ltd


SIMCOM's SimView ListMaster
SimView ListMaster

This program is a part of the SimViews program from SIMCOM Software. It is a Wallpaper changer for Windows, and also an image viewer and handler. Simviews consists of the Scheduler, and this program, the List Manager. The Scheduler controls the timing of the Wallpaper changes, and this List Manager allows you to build the list of images that the Scheduler uses.

Basic operation

When you first install the program, the list will be empty (as I don't know where your wallpaper images are kept). So the list on the right will be empty. You will need to use the 'File Manager' on the left side of the form to add the images to the list. The simplest thing is to use the Explorer on the left to point to the directory where your images are kept, then press the 'Add All' button. This will add all the images found in that directory, and you will see a list appear as in the image above.

Once you have a list, click on one. You will see it previewed in the small pane on the left. First the first one you want displayed, then press the 'Change Now' button at the top of the screen.

That is it. You now have a working Wallpaper changer.

You will not get the image to change again (unless you do it manually from here), unless you run the Scheduler. Now that you have a list of images, and you have clicked on the starting image, it can start working. Simply run the Scheduler now and minimize it to the tray bar and forget it!

You might like to look at the Schedule. This lets you vary the time between image changes. The default is set to 1 day, so if this is what you want, you don't even have to look at that.

This small 'N' button is the 'Normal' (or Normalize) button. It will put the program back to a viewable or normal display. It will center the program in the desktop, hide/show panels as per the startup conditon, and put the ListManager on the current wallpaper. You can also do this with a command line switch. ie

sv_listmaster /n

This is useful is (for example) you have changed screen resolution from 1280x1024 to 640x480. The program will always place itself so that it fits on the Desktop, but it does not care about form height or width. This switch will fit the program to the current desktop size.

Advanced Operation

But if you are like me, you probably want to do a bit more...and indeed you can! Here is a list of some of the things you can do -

•	change the order of the images....here

•	add images from many directories and drives...here

•	preview the images and remove old or inappropriate ones....here

•	remove low resolution images...here

•	put a comment/title on images...here

•	edit the image (well, transform it, really) ...here

If you want to register the program, or do a Web Update, then you need to do this from the Scheduler program.

The operation of the Scheduler is covered in it's own help file. Other topics are -

Category

Change schedule

Crop

Directory Manager

File Manager

Image Format

Image Transformations

Image Viewer

Image Views Menu

List Manager

List Menu

List Operations

Preview Pane

Print Options

Print/Scanner

Registration

Resize

Scanner

Support

Supported Formats


Image Viewer

This Image Viewer can be loaded from the main form by pressing the Edit Image button on the tool bar, or any of the Edit Image options on any of the popup menus. You will always load the image that was in the Preview Pane.

This screen offers a few simple image transformations and effects. You select these from the Image menu. You can also change the view method from the View menu. Usually what is best here is 'Centered' and 'Full Page'.

At the bottom left of the screen is the 'Modified' LED. If this lights up red, then the image has been modified. You can UNDO (Ctrl-Z, or the Edit menu or the Undo tool bar button), but only once. So you can always rollback one modification, but if you do two or more, then you cannot rollback to the original image. you can always close and reload without saving, of course.

Next to this is the File Size.

In the center is displayed the image size in pixels. This is not the display size (as you vary this), but the size it would be if you were displaying the image 'Full Size'. It is in the format 'Width x Height' as normal.

You can specify a direct zoom factor. This is just the display size of the image. To change the actual size of the image, you need to select the Image/Resize option. You can also quickly select '100%" (Actual size), or "Fit to page" with the two buttons to the right of the Zoom entry box.

If you are displaying a multiple page image, you can select which page here. Usually this will display just '1' for most images, and it will be disabled in fact.

Here is a list of supported formats.


Change Schedule

This screen is reached from the main form - simply press the Schedule button. You can also select it from the Menu (either the Right Mouse popup menu).

You can select any ONE of these options. The lines at the bottom of the screen show you when the last image was changed, and when the next change will take place - this depends on what you have selected, of course. You can select this form either from here, of from the Scheduler program - it is the same form, so you can set it up from either.

Cancel

Cancel any changes and close the form

Save

Save changes and close form


Resize

This transform allows changing the size of an image. The resulting image will be stretched to the specified Width and Height values. The aspect ratio is NOT preserved, so be careful here.

You select this form from the Image Viewer main menu "Image/Resize".

Cancel

Cancel any changes and close form

Ok

Save changes and close form


Registration
Program Registration Status

This program is not locked or limited in any way. You have the full version - but unless you eventually register, you will only have 30 days from the first time you run the program.

This program can be registered from the main menu "Help/Register" option. If this option is not visible, then the software is registered. The cost is AUD$19.95.

To register, simply contact SIMCOM with your Personal Code and Registered Name, and SIMCOM will provide you with a Registration Code. If these are then entered into the appropriate fields on this screen, the software will be unlocked.

Personal Code

This code is generated by the system when you first run the program, and it cannot be changed. You will need to quote this number to SIMCOM Software to register. This number is computed from your hardware, so if you change a hard disk or replace your motherboard, then this number will be different. This will make your program unregistered again. If this happens to you, then simply call SIMCOM and we will provide you with another registration code.

Registered Name

This a is name that you want to register the software under. It could be you name, your company's, or anything at all (40 char max). This field is case sensitive (meaning that upper/lower case is important).

Registration Code

This is the number that we provide you to unlock the software. It is not case sensitive - in fact, it is a hexadecimal number (ie 0-9, A-F only). I say this because sometimes it may be hard to discern between similar looking letters/numbers. ie 1,i, l all look the same, etc. With this system, you do not have that problem.

Register

Once you have entered in the Registered Name and the Registration Code from SIMCOM Software, press the Register button to make it happen! If it succeeds (or not) you will be informed.

Cancel

Forget it all, and close the form.


Crop

This property allows removing borders from an image (or extracting a region of an image). The number of pixels to crop from each edge is specified in each field above.

You select this form from the Image Editor main menu "Image/Crop".

Cancel

Cancel any changes and close form

Ok

Save changes and close form


Support

PO. BOX 801

Springwood

Brisbane

QLD  4127

Australia

Telephone	+61-7-3841-3999

Fax	+61-7-3341-7579

EMail	support@simcomsoftware.com

Internet	http://www.simcomsoftware.com

http://www.simcomcity.com

http://www.allclear2000.com

Visit the SIMCOM Internet websites for other software titles.

ACN 011 062 010

If you liked this product, then have a look at the other ones we have!

Kerry Neighbour

General Manager

SIMCOM Enterprises


Image Format

This transform allows changing the format of an image.

When converting from a higher bit depth to a lower bit depth, the Quantize and Dither properties may be used. When converting to a palettized color format, a new palette may be specified in the Palette property.

You select this form from the Image Viewer main menu "Image/Format Conversion".


Print Options

You select this form from the Image Viewer main menu "File/Print", or from the tool bar Print button. The onions are fairly obvious.

Cancel

Cancel - don not print and close form

Ok

Print and close form


Scanner

SimViews can acquire images from TWAIN compliant image devices. TWAIN is an open standard created by several companies for image acquisition. More information on TWAIN is available from http://www.twain.org. With 32 bit applications, the following files, available from the TWAIN web site, and often included with the installation software of a scanner, must be present in the Windows directory:

TWAIN.DLL

TWAIN_32.DLL

TWUNK_16.EXE

TWUNK_32.EXE

Before you do a scan, you need to make sure that you have selected a scanner driver from this form. Simply select

"File/Select Scanner" from the main menu.

Then you can select the File/Scan option from the Image Viewer main menu to start the scan software. You could also use the Scan button on the tool bar. This is YOUR software...not software provided by SIMCOM Software. Generally, if your scanner is otherwise working, it should work with SimViews.


Directory Manager

The left half of the main form is a 'Directory manager'. It allows you to select where on your hard drives your source images are stored. SimViews ListManager does not actually store any images - it only keeps a list of where on your hard drives(s) the images are.

The main directory list is exactly the same as the Windows Explorer, so you should be fairly familiar with it. Simply select a drive as appropriate, then click on the small '+' signs to expand the tree to see further directories.

At the top of the box is a list of the number of image files the system has found in that directory. The program knows about (and only looks for) files of these types

EMF WMF ICO BMP PNG JPEG JPG AFI VST TGA DCX PCC PCX TIFF TIF

Note that because of licensing issues, this program does not support GIF files. What all these formats are is discussed in more detail on the Supported Formats page.

So, you will see a count of the number of these types of files it has found. You can simply press the 'Add All' button and these will all the added to the end of the List. they are added in the order that they are found on the hard disk (which in reality is no order at all). You can add files as many times as you want. ie you can simply add the same directory over and over again. This means that you can add your favorite image a few more times so that it will come up more often. It takes up no more storage space to do this, as the image itself is not stored, only the path to it.

At the bottom left is a small preview pane. This will show the current image - either from the file list, or from the database list. See Preview Pane for more details.

Popup Menu

Like in most places in the program, there is a 'right mouse' popup menu. The 'Add all images' is the same as the 'Add all' button mentioned above - it adds all images in the current directory to the list.

The Context Menu option loads the Windows default 'context' menu. This is the menu that Windows Explorer would have shown you if you had right clicked on the directory. If is useful for deleting or renaming directories.

See also

Preview Pane

File Manager


List Manager

See also  	List Operations

Basics

This part is probably the heart of the program. It shows the list of images that you have made up from image son your hard disks(s). It is this list that the Scheduler will use to start displaying wallpapers.

This list is a database, and as such there is no limit on the size of it. It could get a bit slow though!  You can display the list in any order - simply click on the header of the column that you want to sort by. ie click on Image, and the list will be sorted by image filename. Click it again and the order is reversed (ie, ascending and descending).

The display order is nothing though - the order that the Scheduler uses is the one in blue (Aqua, actually). The first column. If you sort by this column, in ascending order - this is the order that you will see the images. There is a number in this column - what the number is doesn't matter, but images are shown in ascending number order.

The currently displayed image is shown in RED. In the above example, the image No 2 is being displayed. On the right there is the LastShown column. This is when the image was made the wallpaper. The next image that will be shown is #3. When this actually occurs depends on what time period you set in the Scheduler.

Every time a wallpaper is shown, the Shown count is incremented. This will display in different colors, depending on how many times the image has been displayed. The DateShown is also updated with the Date and Time of the last display. The fields are

Fields

Sort

This is the field that indicates the display order of the images. This is not user set.

Active

This is a check field (ie true or false) that indicates whether you want to show this image or not. This is a good idea as sometimes you just get sick of an image, so you do not want to see it for awhile, but you do not want to remove it from the list either. If the image is not active, it will never be displayed by the scheduler. Simply click on the field to toggle the state from 'checked' to 'unchecked'.

Image

The full path and name of the image to be displayed.

Shown

This is a count of how many times this image has been shown.

Resolution

The indicates the width and height of the image in pixels. This field is normally blank. To update the figures you can type them in or press the 'Update Info' button, then run "Full Update (slow)" option. It is slow because every image is loaded into the Preview Pane and displayed, and the resolution determined. This field will also be updated every time you preview or make the image the wallpaper.This field need not be updated unless you have a need for it. I just wanted to remove low resolution images from the system, and this is a good way of doing it. See List Operations

Category

This field lets you categorize your images. You can make up your own categories, but I have provided a few to start off with. Press the 'Category' button to edit/delete or add new categories. But to change the categpory of an image, simply click on the field. A button will appear to the right, click on that to drop down the list of choices. Select one. You can also select a number of records and change the category of all of them at one time...see List Menu operations.

The categories are not used by the Scheduler. They are simply used to allow you to group images by category for better organisation. See "Group Panel" in List Operations..

Mode

How the image is to be displayed. You can use

Tile

Center

Stretch

the default is 'Stretch'.

Size

This is the size of the image file on your hard disk. It has been abbreviated for better reading. The abbreviations are

b (bytes)

Kb (kilobytes, or 1 thousand bytes)

Mb (Megabytes or 1 million bytes)

Last Shown

This is the Date and time of the last time this image was shown.

Comment

You can enter any short comment here (about 80 characters). If you have the registered version, then this will be displayed at the top right corner of the image. It is a good idea to label family or other images you have taken yourself.

Priority

This is not implemented yet, but it will be used to give higher priority to certain images over others.

Type

This options here are

Image

HTML

This is for a future expansion. At the moment it is not used at all.

See also

List Operations


Image Transformations

You select this menu from Image Viewer main menu "Image".

Rotate

This transform is used to perform a rotation on the image. The Angle property specifies the rotation angle.

Flip - horizontal

This transform "mirrors" the pixels horizontally.

Flip - vertical

This transform "mirrors" the pixels vertically.

Negative

This transform is used to invert the colors of an image.

Crop

This property allows removing borders from an image. See here for more information

Sharpen

This transform increases the sharpness of an image.

Smooth

This transform is used to make an image more smooth.

Brightness

This is used to change the brightness of an image by specifying a Percent value. This transform is performed in the HSL (hue, saturation, luminosity) color space.

Contrast

This is used to increase or decrease the contrast of an image. The contrast of an image is the difference in intensity between neighboring pixels. This transform is performed in the HSL (hue, saturation, luminosity) color space.

Edge Detection

This transform detects the edges of an image.

Emboss

This transform is used to create a raised relief effect.

Gamma

This transform allows changing the brightness of an image given a Gamma value in a non-linear fashion. A gamma adjustment may be performed on an image that was created on a another computer system with a different gamma. For example, images on a Macintosh appear darker due to differences in the gamma of the monitor.

Convert to Gray

This allows converting an image to gray scale. The number of shades of gray can be specified.

There is more information here on Format  and Resize.


Image Views Menu

Anti-Aliased

If the image loaded into the scroll box is a black and white image, setting this option will display the image with anti-aliasing. That is, the image is converted to a gray scale image internally, to make jagged edges smoother.

The anti-alias transform is used to smooth the edges reducing the "staircase" effect. If generally makes scanned black and white documents easier to read on a computer monitor. The resulting image is a 16 tone gray scale image.

For image formats other than black and white, use the Smooth Effect - this may be used to achieve a similar effect.

Centered

If the image loaded is smaller than the size of the client area, the image will be centered when this property is set.

Actual Size

The image is shown at full size. The image is displayed on screen with the same number of pixels as contained in the original image. This will generally mean that you will only see the top left of the image.

Full Page

The image is scaled to the largest possible value which allows displaying the entire image without requiring any scrolling.

Fit Width

The image is scaled to the maximum width which fits in the width of the viewing control.

Fit Height

The image is scaled to the maximum height which fits in the height of the viewing control.

This menu is basically the same on the Image Viewer and on the Preview Pane.


Print/Scanner

These buttons on the Image Viewer allow you to send the current image to the Printer or to read in a new image from the Scanner. You can also perform these operations from the 'File' menu.


Supported Formats

BMP format

Reads 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 bit images, Windows and OS/2 format, non compressed and RLE (run length encoded). Does not read RLE with 24 bit images

Writes 1, 4, 8, 24 non compressed

ICON format

Read and write

JPEG format

Reads 8 bit gray scale and 24 bit true color

Write 8 bit gray scale and 24 bit true color

Supports specifying the save quality, progressive save, and optimized Huffman codes

Metafile (EMF,WMF)

Read WMF,EMF files by converting them to 24 bit true color files

Writes to WMF,EMF with a single bitmap object

A metafile is not a native bitmap format, but rather a vector format which stores GDI "instructions".

PCX,PCC format,

Reads 1, 4, 8 and 24 bit images supporting RLE compression

Writes 1, 4, 8 and 24 bit images with RLE compression

DCX

The DCX format is a multi-image PCX format. Reads and writes the same image types as the PCX format.

PNG format

Reads 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 48 bit images

Writes 1, 4, 8, and 24 bit images

Supports reading alpha channel, gamma adjustments, progressive saving, and variable compression levels.

TGA, VST, AFI format

Reads 8 and 24 bits non compressed and RLE compressed files.

Writes 8 and 24 bits non compressed

TIFF format

Reads 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 bit images

Writes 1, 4, 8, 24 bit images

Reads and writes uncompressed, CCITT group 3 1D, CCITT group 3 2D, CCITT group 4, Packbits, ZLib (deflate), and JPEG.

Supports reading tiled images.

Supports reading and writing multi-page files.

Multi-page image files

Multi-page image files allow storing multiple images in a singe file. Example of such formats are TIFF and DCX.


Preview Pane

Preview enable

This small button is the 'Preview' enable button. Becuase the Preview operation slows thew system down a fair bit, you can turn it off if you are doing a lot of work in the List Manager (grid). Simply toggle this button to enable/disable the Preview mode. You can also set the Preview mode from the Preview Options menus

At the bottom left of the main form is a small Preview Pane. This will show the current image - either from the file list, or from the database list. You can resize the image to whatever your screen will handle by dragging the right and top 'splitter' bars. These are the raised 'bumps' that separate the sections. You can specify how the image is viewed by pressing the 'View' button near the Preview pane. Or you can select the tool bar button "Preview Options", or use the right-mouse menu. They all do exactly the same things, which are

Most of these options are the same as the Image Viewer  menu option of the same name. ie Image Views Menu for details. They change how the image is placed in the Preview Pane. Normally you would want the image Centered and in Full Page mode. The other options are

Edit Image

This brings up another form that allows you to do some basic transformations on the image, and you can print it out, etc. This is the same as pressing the 'Edit Image' button in the top tool bar.

Save Preview Image as..

You can save the image currently being displayed in the Preview Pane. You can save it in any of the currently supported formats, so it is a good way of converting the file to another format (ie BMP, etc).

See also

Directory Manager

File Manager


File Manager

This option should rarely be used (at least I rarely use it). I put all of my wallpaper images in one directory, and I simply have to point to it, and it is all done. But you can have your images spread out all over your hard disk. You might also only want to add a few single files from a directory, not all of them. This is where this feature comes in.

Press the small blue 'right arrow' just above the Preview Pane. This opens up the file list for the current directory (as on the right, below). What is listed here are all the files that meet the mask criteria ie files of these types -

EMF WMF ICO BMP PNG JPEG JPG AFI VST TGA DCX PCC PCX TIFF TIF

Note that because of licensing issues, this program does not support GIF files. What all these formats are is discussed in more detail on the Supported Formats page.

The files are listed in Alphabetical order. You can change the width of the list by dragging the right border. At the bottom is listed a count of the number of files found.

There are also a few small buttons...thse perform the same actions as the options on the menu.

'Refresh'. This will rescan the directory and show the files again. This is useful if you are using another program to add, delete or rename files in this directory. Or if you have used the Preview Pane to 'SaveAs' another file.

This will add just this one mage (the selected one) to the list.

This will add all the selected images to the list

The 'Delete' key. This will delete the currently highlighted file from the hard disk. You can also use the right mouse popup menu to do the same thing.

Popup Menu

Like in most places in the program, there is a 'right mouse' popup menu.

Add this Image

This will add just the single image to the end of the list The one that is currently highlighted.

Add all selected images

This will add all the selected images in the current directory to the list (at the end of the list).

Add new images only (ie no duplicates)

This will look at all the image files in the current directory, but only add those that do not already exist. ie it will not add a duplicate image. The whole image name is taken into account here - so you can have two images of the same name, but in different directories.

Delete Image/File

This will delete the file from the hard disk. If you have already added it to the list, it DOES NOT remove it from the list. In this case you really should have deleted the file FROM THE LIST - in this way both the list entry is deleted as well as the file itself. But not to fear! All you have to do is select the Update Info button, and select Quick Update. This will scan the whole list, and remove entries that are no longer valid, including the file your just deleted. In any case, when it comes time to display this image, if it is no longer there, the change will not occur, so there is no real drama.

Edit Image

This brings up another form that allows you to do some basic transformations on the image, and you can print it out, etc. This is the same as pressing the 'Edit Image' button in the top tool bar.

Make this the wallpaper now

This will make the current image the current wallpaper. It does this by converting the image to BMP format and saving it to the /WALLPAPER directory underneath where you are running the SimViews program. It then lets Windows know that this is the wallpaper. This is different to what the Scheduler does, or what happens when you press the 'Change Now!' button. The List Manager is NOT updated, so there is now way that SimViews knows what you have done. As far as SimViews is concerned, it does not know that the wallpaper has changed.

This is a good thing to do if you are just looking through a lot of images, and want to see what they look like as the wallpaper. It does not always look as good at full screen as it does at the small preview size. So you can look through the images as much as you like. Then you can go to the List Manager, click on the red line (indicating the 'current image'), then press 'Change Now!'. This will restore the original image - if that is what you want.

Select all images

This just highlights all the images in the file list. This is useful if you then want to unmark a few, and then copy them across to the list. Otherwise it would be simpler just to 'Add all selected images'.

Refresh list

This is the same as the refresh button at the bottom of the file list. It rescans the directory and updates the list with any new files. This is useful if other programs have added/deleted or renamed files.

Context Menu

The Context Menu option loads the Windows default 'context' menu. This is the menu that Windows Explorer would have shown you if you had right clicked on the file. It is useful for deleting or renaming files..


List Operations

Group - resolution

One useful operation is to group all the data in your list by Resolution. A button has been set up to do this for you. If you wanted to remove all the old 640x480 images for example, this would be a perfect way of doing it. Just group like this, open the resolution you want, mark the files, the delete them.

Group - Category

Another useful preset operation is to group all the data in your list by Category. A button/menu has been set up to do this for you. If you wanted to see all of your personal images for example, this would be the way to do it.

Group

You can group by any field you like. Simply open the Group panel with this button, then drag any field header up into the gray Group panel. Viola! You can group by more than open field, although I don't see too many uses for that here.

Show Columns

You don't have to display all the available columns in the list. Just press this button and a small customizing window will appear. Simply drag field back and forth to add or remove. You drag the header parts...

Display Sequence

How do you change the display sequence of the wallpaper images??? Many programs have a 'randomize' feature. If fact, the very fact that they never seem to work was one reason we developed this program. We always seemed to see the same range of images over and over again. No more. We do not use a 'random generator', and on purpose. The normal sequence displayed is 'natural' order, or the order the images were added to the list. This is basically the same order as the files were on the hard disk, which again is in the order they were added to the directory. This in itself is fairly random.

But you might like to change the order, so the possibility is given here. You can 'resort' the list by any of the options listed above. What actually happens is that the 'Sort' number field is recomputed. You will see this field change after you do a Sequence change here.

See the Category topic for more information.

You can display this menu by selecting the Menu button, or by using the mouse right button menu. This menu will allow operation on the current image - or the currently selected images if you have marked more than one image. See List Menu for more details.

Database Navigator

This is the database navigator, to use the jargon term. Move the mouse over each button to show the function. They are (in order from left to right)

<-	Move to first record

->	Mode to last record

- 	Delete record

tick	Save record

cross	Cancel changes

Refresh (load table and grid again)

It allows you to move to the first and last records, to delete a row (the '-' button).

Clear List

This clears the list completely - it actually erases the data table. So once you do this, there is no way of getting the data back (there is no 'oops' button).

Quick Update

This scans every entry in the last, and checks it against what is on the hard disk. If the file is missing, the entry is removed from the list. The file size is also updated. This is pretty quick.

Full Update (slow)

This Resolution field in the list is normally blank. The only way to update the resolution figures (except from typing them in), is to run this option. It is slow because every image is loaded into the Preview Pane and displayed, and the resolution determined. This need not be done unless you have a real need for it. I just wanted to remove low resolution images from the system, and this is a good way of doing it. If images are faulty or missing, they are removed from the list.

Update new images

This will scan through all the images, and it will update only those where the Resolution field is blank.  This will normally only be those images that are new. If the list is all new (ie all images have the Resolution field empty), then this option will be the same as the Full Update.


List Menu

You can display this menu by selecting the Menu button, or by using the mouse right button menu. This menu will allow operation on the current image - or the currently selected images if you have marked more than one image. See Menu operations for more details.

Remove Image(s) from list

This will simply remove from the list the current image. Or if you have selected images, they will all be removed. The image files on the disk are NOT touched.

Remove Image(s) from list and disk

This will remove from the list the current image. Or if you have selected images, they will all be removed. The image files on the disk will also be deleted.

Change now!

This will make the current image the Wallpaper. It also updates the list manager to indicate that this is the current image, and the time and date (now) that it was changed. The 'Shown' field is also incremented.

Edit Image

You can do some basic image transformations on the current image. See Image Viewer.

Make this image wallpaper now (tile, center, stretch)

You can make the current image the wallpaper, so this is similar to the 'Change Now!' operation above. But this option does not update the List Manager - ie the system still thinks that you are on the old wallpaper. This is a good thing if you are simply looking at a lot of images, and want to preview them as wallpaper. It is also a bit faster as the database is not updated.

Copy to Windows Wallpaper directory

Bring up the Desktop Properties window (right click on the Desktop, then select Properties). The select the 'Background' tab. Here you will see a screen that shows you the current wallpaper. Hopefully the last one you changed with Simviews. You will also see a list of other possible wallpapers to choose from. These are mostly the ones provided as standard with Windows. Simviews, like all other Wallpaper changers, does not copy image files into this list. To do so would fill up your hard disk! What we do is change the path to where the 'current' wallpaper is. In the case of Simviews, this is in the '\wallpaper' directory underneath where you installed our program. And as you change wallpapers, we simply overwrite this one image file. This saves a huge amount of disk space as each BMP file ends up at around 3 megs or so (it varies).

The thing is - if you ever set the Wallpaper from another program (ie Internet Explorer, Norton Navigator, Netscape, etc), that program will remove the Simviews wallpaper from the list. This is not a problem for Simviews as when the next scheduled wallpaper rotation comes up, we will point Windows back to our image. But you might like to keep really good images in the default directory. That way you can simpl ygo to the Desktop/Properties/Background screen and pick the image directly - without having to run Simviews to do it for you.

The directory is determined by Windows. If it has not been set in your copy of Windows, then this operation will not work.

Goto "Current" Image

This will place the current wallpaper image two rows down from the top. This is good to get you back in place if you have down grouping, or having been moving around the list a lot. It gets you back to 'Home'!

Select all images

Simply list through all the images and select the lot. You would do this if you then wanted to perform some operation on the selected images (see below).

Selected actions

These operations can be carried out on 'selected' images. ie those images that you have highlighted. You can select images by using the Windows standards.

ie

ctrl-click : mark individual images

shift-click : mark start and end images  :

Mark all selected 'Active'

This will loop through all the selected images and put a check mark in the 'Active' field.

Mark all selected 'Inactive'

This will loop through all the selected images and turn off the check mark in the 'Active' field. ie make all images inactive.

Update Resolution info

This will scan thorugh all the selected images and update the Resolution field information.

Change Category to'

This will bring up a small pick list that will let you select an image Category. Then all of the selected images will be marked as being in this category.

Update Info

Quick Update

This scans every entry in the last, and checks it against what is on the hard disk. If the file is missing, the entry is removed from the list. The file size is also updated. This is pretty quick.

Full Update (slow)

This Resolution field in the list is normally blank. The only way to update the resolution figures (except from typing them in), is to run this option. It is slow because every image is loaded into the Preview Pane and displayed, and the resolution determined. This need not be done unless you have a real need for it. I just wanted to remove low resolution images from the system, and this is a good way of doing it. If images are faulty or missing, they are removed from the list.

Categories

This lets you add/edit or delete categories. See the Category topic for more information.

Context Menu

When you run the Windows Explorer, and right click on a file - the 'Context' menu comes up. It is a menu that is custom made for the type of file that you clicked on. We simply bring up that very same menu here. It lets you perform all the normal Window's operations on the file (ie edit, rename, delete, etc).


Category

Select the Category button on the List manager panel, or from the right mouse popup menu.

This list is simply a list of categories that you can use to group for images together. You can have as many categories as you like. And you can enter in anything you like - but you are limited to 20 characters for the name.

When the table is first created, one category is automatically created - the category  '-None-'. This category has to be there as it is the default category used when you add new images. You must not delete this group. You can change it to anything else you like, and that will be the default group for all new images.

To add a new category, press the '+' button on the navigator bar. You will be put in insert mode in the panel, and you can simply type in the new category name. Press the 'tick' on the Navigator to save, or simply click somewhere else on the grid.

To delete a category, click on the record you want to delete, then the '-' button on the navigator.

Database Navigator

This is the database navigator, to use the jargon term. Move the mouse over each button to show the function. They are (in order from left to right)

<-	Move to first record

->	Mode to last record

+	Add new record

- 	Delete record

tick	Save record

cross	Cancel changes

Refresh (load table and grid again)