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README.TXT
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1995-12-01
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WWPlus 2.50⌐1992-1995 All rights reserved
This version has been tested with Windows NT 3.5/3.51 and with
Windows95.
WWPlus is a program which has continuously evolved since the first
version in August, 1992. If you are upgrading from an earlier
version, see HISTORY.TXT for features that have been added or changed.
By Don Bradner
Arcata Pet
600 F Street
Arcata, CA 95521
Compuserve: 76130,1007
America OnLine: DBirdMan
Internet: dbirdman@redshift.com
http://www.redshift.com/~arcatpet
The online help file is the primary documentation for WWPlus.
This text document is meant primarily to get you started.
Contents of this file:
I. Program Description
II. Program Requirements
III. Installing WWPlus
IV. Getting Started
V. Files that make up WWPlus
VI. Troubleshooting
VII. UnInstalling WWPlus
VIII. Obtaining wallpaper images
IX. Getting future upgrades
X. Registration and distribution
I. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION.
WWPlus is a program for organizing and displaying Windows
wallpaper files. With this program you can easily maintain a
collection of wallpapers, automatically change them at an interval you
select, and use image formats (GIF, PCX, TGA, TIF, .ICO and .JPG) that
would otherwise be unusable by Windows as wallpaper. GIF and PCX
provide compression of 256-color images, and .JPG provides compression
for 16-million color images, thus saving disk space.
There is a screen saver module that will turn your wallpaper files
into a screen saver after a period of inactivity. Extensive setup
options, including password protection, are available both from the
Windows Control Panel Desktop icon and from the main WWPlus screen.
Sixteen transition effects are available. Users may select a single
effect or a menu of effects that will occur randomly.
WWPlus has editing features and file conversion routines built in,
which allow you to change images to suit your wallpaper needs. You
can crop, resize, stretch, rotate, mirror, flip, sharpen, soften, and
adjust brightness, contrast and gamma.
Wallpapers may be tiled (small images displayed in multiples to fill
the entire screen) or not, individually determined. Each non-tiled
wallpaper may be precisely positioned anywhere on the screen, not just
centered (the Windows default). Non-tiled images may be resized
on-the-fly to full screen or a user-set dimension. A universal gamma
correction option allows for display-time lightening or darkening of
images.
Multiple sets of wallpapers called "queues" may be built, with easy
changing of queues. A wallpaper may appear in more than one queue.
Some program configuration items are maintained with the queue, others
are "Global." Queues may be specified as command line options, and
the .QUE extension may be associated with WWPlus to allow the program
to start by running the queue from File Manager or Program Manager
icons.
Full documentation is included in the form of a Windows Help file.
When you desire help, press your F1 function key for context-sensitive
help, or press the help key if you are in a file dialog box.
WWPlus contains functions which can read and right the .GIF format,
which contains compression technology covered by U.S. Patent No.
4,558,302, owned by the Unisys corporation. The author of WWPlus has
obtained a license from Unisys, and pays a royalty on each
registration, to use this technology. The following statement is
required by that license:
"Use of this software is permitted only to the extent
reasonably required to determine whether to purchase
the software.
"After payment is made, use of this software is limited
to use on only a single personal computer or
workstation which is not used as a server. An
additional payment is required for each use on
another personal computer or workstation.
"Only a single copy may be made of this software
solely for backup or archival purposes. The software
may also be transferred to a single hard disk.
"Any use of this software in violation of the above is
not licensed.
"For information concerning licensing the LZW
compression and/or decompression capability, please
contact:
Unisys Corporation
Welch Licensing Department - CISW19
Township Line & Union Meeting Roads
P.O. Box 500
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania 19424"
II. Program requirements.
WWPlus requires an IBM compatible 386 or better, running
Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, or Windows NT, with at least 8 megs
of RAM and VGA or better graphics. Recommended: 486DX with 12
or more megs of RAM and accelerated graphics adapter.
Some operations require a mouse.
Graphics files can be quite large, particularly with true-color, so a
large hard disk is recommended. WWPlus will require under 2
megs for program installation.
III. Installing WWPlus
If you obtained WWPlus by downloading it from a computer Bulletin
Board (BBS) or another online source, one necessary file may not have
been included. You will need a file called VBRUN300.DLL, which is
almost always available from any source that would have WWPlus. On
BBS systems the file will usually be called VBRUN300.ZIP or
VBRUN3.ZIP. If you obtained the program on disk, the file should be
included. If it is missing, contact the supplier of the program.
Registered versions obtained from the author will always include
VBRUN300. If you are installing VBRUN300 separately, it MUST be put
in the \Windows\System directory.
To install WWPlus, run the included setup program. If the
program is on a floppy disk, you can use File/Run in the
Program Manager and type a:setup or b:setup, whichever drive is
involved. You can use the same technique to run setup from a
directory on your hard drive by supplying the full path, such
as c:\temp\setup. Alternatively you can use File manager to
find the files and double-click on SETUP.EXE. Do not use any
SETUP.EXE that is not in the same directory as the WWPlus files.
Windows 95 users can use the "Add/Remove Programs" item in the
Control Panel to find and start SETUP. Again make sure that
the SETUP you are starting is in the directory where your
WWPlus distribution files are located.
At the end of the setup operation you will be given the option of
adding WWPlus to your Startup Group. Doing so will cause the program
to start whenever you start a Windows session. This is the
recommended procedure; you can always delete the icon from the group
at a later time if you wish.
NOTE: Setup will not run if any other program is using VBRUN300.DLL or
any other library file used by the program, including other versions
of WWPlus. An error message will be generated, and you must end all
such applications before retrying the installation. You may restart
these programs after installation is completed - they will share the
VBRUN module without problem.
IV. Getting Started.
Double-click the WWPlus icon to start the program. The first time
that the program starts it will be a full program window. Click
the "folder" icon at the left end of the icon bar, and then
browse for image files to add to the wallpaper queue. There
will be normally be images in your Windows directory, and you
may have others which you have obtained. If the images are
small ones which you would like to have "tiled," check that
option in the dialog. After you have selected OK in the
dialog, you will see the files listed in the queue.
Double-Click one and see it become your wallpaper.
In later sessions, once images have been added, the program will
start as an icon which you may double-click at any time to
show the main window. If you have chosen the hidden icon
option, the program will not be visible when started. Simply
start it a second time; the first instance will become visible
and the second will end itself.
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the program elements on
screen. If you press the F1 key, a help file will be displayed, and
you may graphically choose different program elements to see an
explanation of their function.
When you move your mouse pointer across the toolbar icons and some
other screen elements a small "Tool Tip" will appear to give you
a better idea about what the icon does. You may turn these captions
off when you no longer need them, via the Preferences menu.
There are a number of options for how an image may be
displayed. Look for these topics in the help file:
Tiling.
Resizing Wallpaper to fit Screen.
Adjusting Wallapaper Placement.
Gamma Adjustments.
You may perform a variety of editing functions on an image by
selecting it in the Wallpaper Queue and then clicking the
"Edit" button. The first time you do this, press the F1 key
when the editor is visible and browse through the help file for
explanations of the editing functions.
You may set up a screen saver to use your wallpaper images.
Choose "Screen Saver Setup" in the Screen Saver menu, or click
the setup icon. There will be three tabbed pages of entry,
exit, and effect choices, with a test button to see what it is
like. Click the help button in this dialog for more
information.
There are a number of items in the Wallpaper, Screen Saver, and
Preferences menu that affect the way the program operates.
V. FILES THAT MAKE UP WWPLUS.
The program files are compressed prior to setup. They are listed here
with their compressed and uncompressed names. The setup program only
copies a file to your disk if it does not find the file already or if
this file is newer.
References to the WWPlus directory refer to the directory selected at
installation; default is C:\WWPLUS
Compressed File Name Type and where installed
WWPLUS.EX_ WWPLUS.EXE Program, WWPlus directory
WWPSAVR.SC_ WWPSAVR.SCR Screen Saver Bootstrap Windows directory
WWPLUS.HL_ WWPLUS.HLP Help file WWPlus directory
SETUPWWP.EX_ SETUPWWP.EXE WWPlus Setup Windows directory
-- SETUP.EXE Setup Program, not transferred
-- SETUP.LST Used by Setup
IKCOL16.DL_ IKCOL16.DLL Library File, Windows\System directory
IKENG16.DL_ IKENG16.DLL Ditto
IKJPG16.DL_ IKJPG16.DLL Ditto
IKDSP16.VB_ IKDSP16.VBX Ditto
SETUPKIT.DL_ SETUPKIT.DLL Ditto
VER.DL_ VER.DLL Ditto
WWPLIBR.VB_ WWPLIBR.VBX Ditto
CALL32.DL_ CALL32.DLL Ditto
GAMMA.PC_ GAMMA.PCX Gamma calibration target, WWPlus directory
-- WWP_REG.KEY Registration key, WWPlus directory
***Note: WWP_REG.KEY included only with registered versions.
-- README.TXT This file WWPlus directory
HISTORY.TX_ HISTORY.TXT version history ditto
-- FILE_ID.DIZ program description for BBS use
-- VENDOR.DOC program description for shareware vendors
VBRUN300.DL_ VBRUN300.DLL Library File, Windows\System directory
***note: VBRUN300.DLL may not be included if the program was obtained
from an online source. It will have to be obtained to run the program
and the setup program. From on-line sources, it is usually
VBRUN300.ZIP or VBRUN3.ZIP. If the program was obtained on disk then
the file should be included; if not, contact the source of the disk.
If the file is obtained separately, it must be installed in your
Windows\System directory BEFORE you run setup.
FILES ALTERED BY WWPLUS:
CONTROL.INI WWPlus will add a section called [ScreenSaver.WWPSaver].
Global parameters for both the program and the screen saver module are
stored here.
VI. Troubleshooting.
If you receive a message which says something like "Unable to install
VBRUN300.DL_" during the program install, it means that you have a
version of WWPlus that originally included the VBRUN file but it is
not present. You can solve this two ways: copy VBRUN300.DLL to the
directory where the rest of the distribution files are and rename it
VBRUN300.DL_, or else use a text editor (such as Windows Notepad) to
edit the file SETUP.LST. Remove the listing for VBRUN300.DL_ and save
the file. The VBRUN file will still have to be located in your
Windows\System directory, but the setup won't try to reinstall it.
If WWPlus has been working fine, but suddenly will not load, the queue
file may have become corrupted. Try starting WWPlus from the command
line with a new queue selected (one that doesn't already exist).
Choose Run from the Program Manager file menu, and type
C:\WWPLUS\WWPLUS.EXE C:\WWPLUS\TEST1.QUE (if your wwplus directory has
a different name, use that instead, and if the test1.que exists, use a
different name). If the program starts, try changing the queue to the
one you were using before. If it crashes at that point, the best
solution is to delete that queue completely. This will not
remove the image files, just the index which you can manually
rebuild.
A related problem can occur if a file has become corrupted and the
Change Wallpaper at Startup preference is selected. If that is the
next file to be used, WWPlus may crash when trying to load a corrupt
wallpaper. The cure would be the same as shown above.
If you have an image that WWPlus will not display, it may be in a
format that cannot be used. There are some variations of .GIF and
.PCX that are known to make problems for WWPlus. There are many
non-standard versions of JPEG that will cause problems. If you can
load them into another image editing program you may be able to save
it in a usable format.
WWPlus expects image file names to match their formats. If you have a
.BMP image but give it a .GIF name, the program will not be able to
read it.
VII. Uninstalling WWPlus
The following information is provided if you would like to remove
WWPlus from your computer.
If you have used WWPlus as a screen saver, the first thing to do is to
change your Windows screen saver to another program or to "None."
Open the Windows Control Panel in your Main Group, and open the
Desktop item. Look at the Screen Saver Name. If WWPlus is the screen
saver it will say "WWPSAVR." Use the drop-down selection to pick
another screen saver or (none). Close the dialog.
Most of the files used by WWPlus are located in your WWPlus
directory. This will be C:\WWPLUS unless you chose another directory
during installation. Delete this directory using File Manager. In
your Windows directory will be a file named WWPSAVR.SCR, which is the
screen saver startup. Delete it.
In your Windows\System directory, delete WWPLIBR.VBX. Four
other files are installed to this directory: CALL32.DLL,
IKCOL16.DLL, IKENG16.DLL and IKDSP16.VBX. These are files that
may possibly be used by other programs. If you delete them,
make backup copies first so that they can be reinstalled if
another program complains about their absence.
Make a backup copy of the file CONTROL.INI in your Windows directory.
Open CONTROL.INI in NOTEPAD or another text-only editor. Look for a
section called [ScreenSaver.WWPSaver], which contains the global
variables for WWPlus. Delete the entire section and save the file.
Delete your WWPlus program group. If WWPlus is set to start when you
run Windows, open the Startup Group and delete the WWPlus icon. Make
sure that you have selected "Save Settings on Exit" in the Options
menu, and close Windows. WWPlus is now removed.
VIII. Obtaining wallpaper images.
Any image that can be displayed on your computer may be used as
wallpaper. If you regularly use Computer BBS systems or online
sources such as Compuserve, America Online, or the internet,
you will find a wealth of images that can be downloaded. These images
are usually in the .GIF or .JPG formats to reduce download time.
If you obtained this program on disk, there may be images included,
usually in an \images directory. A RIGHTS.TXT file may be included in
this directory describing the user's rights to the images included.
The author is maintaining a small collection of his scans of his own
photos and those of users where permission has been granted. It is
available by FTP from redshift.com/arcatpet/wwplus/images Files are in
.JPG format. Thumbnails are available at the website
http://www.redshift.com/~arcatpet
IX. Getting future Upgrades.
When you register WWPlus with the author, you will receive a copy of
the latest version and a registration key that removes the startup
screen. That key file will work with future versions of the program,
so no upgrade fee will be required.
Current versions of WWPlus can always be found on Compuserve in
several forums, including WINAV, GRAPHSUP, PHOTOFORUM and EDRIVE.
Current versions are also posted to America OnLine. Use the keyword
"Windows" and search the software library for "WWPlus."
The author maintains a current copy available for internet FTP.
ftp://redshift.com/arcatpet/wwplus/wwplsxxx.zip where xxx is the version
number. If you find this address to be inaccurate in the future,
E-Mail the author dbirdman@redshift.com or dbirdman@aol.com for a
current address. There is also a jump available from
http://www.redshift.com/~arcatpet
Current versions are also uploaded to two internet archival sites,
CICA and SimTel. Addresses respectively are
ftp://ftp.cica.indiana.edu/pub/pc/win3/desktop and
ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/win3/desktop. These two sites have many
mirror sites worldwide as well.
Registered users who do not have online access may get a disk copy
from the author for a fee of $5 ($7 non-US). Send a short note
indicating your registered status and requesting the latest copy.
Please use the same name under which you are registered.
X. Registration and Distribution.
WWPlus is shareware. Free use is extended to any user for a
reasonable evaluation period; typical idea of "reasonable" is 30
days. If use is continued, the program should be registered with the
author. Registration fee is $20. California registrants please add
$1.45 sales tax, and foreign registrants should include $1.00 for
airmail shipping. All funds should be drawn on a US Dollar account. A
convenient form for registration is included in the Help
file (and may be printed from there). Until you register, there will
be a startup screen asking you to register which you will have to
respond to. When you register, this annoyance will go away.
Otherwise, this version is complete and un-crippled in any way.
As a registration incentive, the author will provide on request two
free scanned images from your original prints or slides, when sent
with the registration.
Commercial use: WWPlus may be used commercially, as long as there is
a registered copy for each computer/terminal that is using it.
Bulk licensing is available.
You may freely distribute WWPlus as long as no fees are charged for
the program, and all necessary files are included. If you are a
registered user, do not distribute the file WWP_REG.KEY, which
identifies you as the user (This identification shows up in the
"About" box).