Copyright: (c) 1999 Maurizio Giunti


License

*** LIMITED WARRANTY ***

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT OF ANY UNAVOIDABLE STATUTARY LIABILITY.

*** LICENSE AGREEMENT ***

This license applies to the registered version of Screen Saver Builder.

If you are using an evaluation version of Screen Saver Builder, see the section titled titled "Evaluation License" below.

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software.  Your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement and warranty.

-Registered Version

One registered copy of Screen Saver Builder may either be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single workstation used nonsimultaneously by multiple people, but not both.

You may access the registered version of Screen Saver Builder through a network, provided that you have obtained individual licenses for the software covering all workstations that will access the software through the network.  For instance, if 3 different workstations will access Screen Saver Builder on the network, each workstation must have its own Screen Saver Builder license, regardless of whether they use Screen Saver Builder at different times or concurrently.

-Distribution of screen savers created with Screen Saver Builder

All the screen savers created with a REGISTERED copy of Screen Saver Builder can be freely distributed by the user without any fee or royalty.

-Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

Because of the various hardware and software environments into which Screen Saver Builder may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it.

The user must assume the entire risk of using the program.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

*** EVALUATION LICENSE ***

The following license applies to the evaluation version of Screen Saver Builder. If you have purchased a license for the registered version of Screen Saver Builder, see the section "License Agreement" above.

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software.  Your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement and warranty.

-Evaluation and Registration

This is not free software.  Subject to the terms below, you are hereby licensed to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 21 days.  If you use this software after the 21 day evaluation period a registration fee is required (see How to register).

When payment is received you will be sent a registration code that will unlock all the product features.

Unregistered use of Screen Saver Builder after the 21-day evaluation period is in violation of international copyright laws.

-Distribution of screen savers created with Screen Saver Builder

All the screen savers created with an UNREGISTERED copy of Screen Saver Builder cannot be distributed.

-Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

Because of the various hardware and software environments into which Screen Saver Builder may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

-Distribution of Evaluation Version

Provided that you verify that you are distributing the evaluation version you are hereby licensed to make as many copies of the evaluation version of this software and documentation as you wish; give exact copies of the original evaluation version to anyone; and distribute the evaluation version of the software and documentation in its unmodified form via electronic means.

There is no charge for any of the above.

You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with other products (commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission.


Screen Saver Builder

Create your own screen savers for fun and profit!

Screen Saver Builder merges your .jpg, .gif, .bmp or .ppm  images and .wav and .mid sounds to a compact, single file, Windows standard, screen saver!

No programming skills needed: just collect images and sounds and add them to your screen saver project with a point-and-click, easy to use, interface.

Full support for self-installing screen savers.

Full support for password in both WinNT and Win95/98.

Distributed in two editions: Standard, for personal use, and Professional to create shareware screen savers complete of nag screens and registration keys support.

Screen Saver Builder is a shareware software, it means that you can use the trial version for 21 days (please read License  for further  information) then a registration fee is required.

For further infomation about the product or for registering, please see Contact information or How to register topics.


Contact information

Screen Saver Builder is a MGShareware product.

You can contact MGShareware at the following URL:

http://www.mgshareware.com

Or for ordering information:

http://www.mgshareware.com/ssborder.html


How it works

Screen Saver Builder merges your favorite images into a single file, very compact and fast, screen saver.

The way it operates is simple: first of all you have to collect a set of  images in JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), GIF (.gif), BITMAP (.bmp) or Portable Pixmap (.ppm) format; then Screen Saver Builder reads them and create a .scr or .exe file.

Scr files are MS Windows standard screen saver files and to use them you have to copy them to the system directory (c:\windows\system on Win95/98 or c:\winnt\system32 on WinNT).

Anyway Screen Saver Builder can create self installing screen savers which have .exe extension. When you run an auto installing screen saver  it copy itself in the system directory and installs as default screen saver.

You can also add .wav sounds and .mid music files to your screen savers.

Screen Saver Builder is available in two different editions: Standard and Professional.

Professional edition gives you all the tools to create shareware screen savers, in other words, with Screen Saver Builder Professional Edition you can create a screen saver which ask the user for a key that you only can create. If the user does not purchase the key the screen saver will display a nag screen (an image where you solicit the payment) and a small reminder will appear on all the images displayed.


Window structure

Screen Saver Builder Window is a multipage window. This structure helps you in creating screen savers in a really easy way: just fill in the fields you find in any page and when the last page is filled just press the OK button in the lower part of the window and your screen saver will build.

Each page has a contextual help: it means that if you need help about the page contents you just have to click on the "?" button at the bottom of the window to receive a help page.


How to register

Before you start in building the first screen saver please remember that Screen Saver Builder is a shareware product. It means that it is a "try before you buy" product and you have to register it if you want to use it to create fully featured screen savers.

It also means that few lesser function had been disabled in the trial version to encourage you to registe and moreover that a "Please Register" message will appear on every image displayed by every screen saver created by an unregistered Screen Saver Builder.

When you run Screen Saver Builder a registration window appear up to you register it, to evaluate Screen Saver Builder please press the "Try Screen Saver Builder" button.

Click on the "Home Page" button to visit Screen Saver Builder web site or on the "On Line Order" to access the online registration service where you can order you registration key.

Click here to order now.


General

In the General page you will specify general informations about you screen saver.

Short name:

Is a brief name for your screen saver that will be used to create internal settings (in the registry) or the screen saver file name when you create a self installing screen saver.

Long name:

Is the screen saver full name. This will be displayed in the settings window of the screen saver itself.

Author name:

This field is protected and you can't modify it. When you register this software, you will receive a registration key associated with your name so that this field will automatically contain your name. (see How to register).

Info string:

Is a short informational string that you want to stay near your name in the screen saver setting dialog. Generally is a the Internet address (URL) of your internet site.

Readme text:

It is a text document, up to 32000 characters in length, which will be displayed to the user during the installation of the screen saver or when the user request it in the configuration window.  The Readme text will be incorporated in the .scr file. It should contain general information about the screen saver content, and any information useful to the user.


Images

Here you will add images to your screen saver.

Click the "Add" button to add one or more images in the list. Allowed image types are .jpg and .jpeg, .gif, .bmp and .ppm. Press Open and you will see image names in the list. If you want you can add images by simply dragging and dropping them in the window.

Selecting an image name in the list you will see a thumbnail preview in the preview box at the right of the window. Under the preview box the image size will be displayed.

You can use the "Remove" button to remove one image from the list or the "Up" and "Down" buttons to modify the order the screen saver will follow to display the images.

The "View" button will launch Windows default image viewer to display the selected image.

Once you added all the images you need you can select the "Sound" tab to add the sounds you wish to listen while screen saver run.

Pressing the "Background" button you can select a Screen Saver default background color.


Sounds

As in the "Images" page you will use the "Add…" and "Remove…" buttons to add or remove the sound file (.wav format) to the list. If you want you can add sounds by simply dragging and dropping them in the window.

Using the "Up" and "Down" buttons you can change the playing order of the sounds.

You can play each sound of the list by selecting it and pressing the "Play" button.


Music

As in the "Images" and "Sounds" page you will use the "Add…" and "Remove…" buttons to add or remove the music files (.mid format) to the list. If you want you can add files by simply dragging and dropping them in the window.

Using the "Up" and "Down" buttons you can change the playing order of the sounds.

You can play each sound of the list by selecting it and pressing the "Play" button.


Keys

If you are a registered user for Screen Saver Builder Professional Edition you are also entitled to use the "Keys" tab.

The first field you need to fill is the "Key seed" field. Here you can specify a SECRET number which you will use as a seed for creating registration keys for the current screen saver.

Please remember the seed you assigned to the screen saver since you will need it to create the registration keys.

If you don't want to create a shareware screen saver just leave the "Key seed" field at the default value of 0 (zero) and the resulting screen saver will not ask for a registration key.

You can fill the "Nag Screen" field by pressing the "Browse" button. A Nag Screen is an image (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp or .ppm as usual) that will be displayed as the first image of the screen saver to unregistered users only. It usually contains information about registering, such like prices, registration web sites and so on. You can create this image with Microsoft Paint using a 640x480 pixel image.

Usually the text on the image is about the following:

This is a shareware screen saver

You can register it at http://www.you_site_here.com

Once you registered this screen will disappear.

Thank you for supporting shareware!

The "Web site URL" field contains the address of your Internet site or home page.

In the "Banner" box you can type a text that the screen saver will display to the user before opening the configuration window (see below) to encourage him/her to register your screen saver.

Once you created a shareware screen saver you can distribute it and collect registration requests for it; of course you will also create registration keys for it.

You can create registration keys with the Key Builder application.


Default

In this page you can preset the Screen saver configuration window settings for your screen saver.


Output

Here you can select a file name for your screen saver by pressing the "Browse" button.

You can choose between two different file types: the standard screen saver, with .SCR extension and the Auto installing screen saver with .EXE extension.

An Auto installing screen saver is a normal screen saver which contains an embedded procedure to simplify installation steps for the final user.

See also: Screen saver installing

TIP: Auto installing screen saver


Projects

You can save the current screen saver project by selecting the Save or Save As option from the Project menu.

The Load option in the same menu let you reload a project previously saved.


Auto installing screen saver

An Auto installing screen saver is a normal screen saver which contains an embedded procedure to simplify installation/disinstallation steps for the final user.

Changing a normal screensaver to an auto installing one or vice versa is quite easy: just change the extension of the file name to the one you need!

Example: if you rename "mysaver.scr" in "mysaver.exe" you will obtain an Auto installing screen saver.

WARNING: this works only with Screen Saver Builder created screen savers!


Key Builder

Every time you need to create a registration key just type in the "Key SEED" field the seed of the screen saver you want to create a key for, and type in the "Name" field the name of the user which purchased the key.

Than press the "Make Key" button and in the "Key" field will appear the registration key.

Please note that the "Name" field is CASE SENSITIVE, which means that "John Doe" is NOT the same thing that "john doe" or "John doe" or "johN doe" and so on….


Screen saver configuration window

Once the user installed it, he/she can change some screen saver behaviors.

From the Windows' Screen Saver setup window select the "Properties" button to access the screen saver configuration window.

In the first section you can set the "Redraw Speed" which is the number of seconds that the screen saver delays before it displays next image.

If the "Resize images to best fit to screen" check button is checked all the images will be displayed resized to fit in the screen, otherwise they will be displayed in their real size.

The "Use effects" check button let use choose whether to use the displaying special effects or just paint the images in a single shot.

The "Shuffle images" check button let you choose whether display images in their normal order or in a random order.

If the screen saver contains sounds you could select the time delay between two sounds with the "Sound pause" field; moreover if you don't want the screen saver to play sound you can select the "Mute sounds" check button.

The "Shuffle sounds" check button let you choose whether play sounds in their normal order or in a random order.

The "Registration" section of the window is active only if you are a registered user for Screen Saver Builder Professional edition and you selected a Seed for your screen saver. If the user does not type here a valid registration key, a text like "Unregistered" or "Please register" will be randomly displayed on all the images of the screen saver. (see Keys).

Finally if the user press the ReadMe button the ReadMe text will be displayed.

In the Configuration window you can also notice that the title of the window is the Long name of the screen saver; moreover in the frame at the left of the buttons you will find the information you typed in the "General" page of the Screen  Saver Builder. (see General).


Unattended install

If you want to install an Auto installing screen saver  but you do not want user interaction during the setup process you should use the following procedure: launch the screen saver using "/c /unattended".

Example:

mysaver.exe /c /unattended

This command will let mysaver.exe to install itself and set as the current screen saver.

Please note the the switches must be typed lowercase, as you read them in the example.


Screen saver installing

Once you created a screen saver there are mainly 3 ways to install it in your system.

The first way is to move it in the windows\system (or window\system32 in WindowsNT or Windows2000) and then select it as the current screen saver from the Display Properties icon in the Control Panel.

The second way is to click on it with the right mouse button and select the Install option from the popup menu. ontrary to expectation this command does not copy the saver into the system directory, all it does is open up the Display Properties  program.

Moreover few on some systems this command will not work (it exits with an internal error). This is caused by a Windows98 Preview or Internet Explorer 4.0 corrupted file.

The third way is to create an Auto Installing screen saver with Screen Saver Builder (see Output).

An Auto Installing screen saver is a normal screen saver which contains an embedded procedure to simplify installation/disinstallation steps for the user.

See also:

Auto installing screen saver

Unattended install