home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WWPlus 2.65 <ASP>
- ⌐1992-1996 All rights reserved
- _______
- By Don Bradner ____|__ | (R)
- Arcata Pet --| | |-------------------
- 600 F Street | ____|__ | Association of
- Arcata, CA 95521 | | |_| Shareware
- |__| o | Professionals
- -----| | |---------------------
- |___|___| MEMBER
- Compuserve: 76130,1007
- America OnLine: DBirdMan Forum Keyword: ArcataPet
- Internet: dbirdman@arcatapet.com
- http://www.arcatapet.com
-
- 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 and Uninstalling
- VI. Troubleshooting
- VII. Obtaining wallpaper images
- VIII. Getting future upgrades
- IX. Registration and distribution
- X. ASP Ombudsman Statement
-
- 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.
-
- An uninstall program and log are created when the program is
- installed, making removal of the program easy.
-
- 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. The file is called
- VBRUN300.DLL. Since it is widely used (and included with
- Windows 95, for example), you may already have it. Check your
- Windows\System directory before hunting for the file. If you
- do not have it, you may almost always get it 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
- WWPSETUP.EXE. If the program is on a floppy disk, you can use
- File/Run in the Program Manager and type a:wwpsetup or b:wwpsetup,
- whichever drive is involved. You can use the same technique to
- run wwpsetup from a directory on your hard drive by supplying the
- full path, such as c:\temp\wwpsetup. Alternatively you can use
- File manager to find the files and double-click on WWPSETUP.EXE.
-
- Windows 95 users can use the "Add/Remove Programs" item in the
- Control Panel to find and start WWPSETUP.
-
- 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.
-
- 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 menus that affect the way the program operates.
-
- V. FILES AND UNINSTALLING.
-
- When WWPlus is installed, a program (UNINSTAL.EXE) and a data
- file (INSTALL.LOG) are placed in the WWPlus directory. The
- following information is provided to aid in removing the
- program in case those files are lost or damaged.
-
- Files distributed with WWPlus:
-
- WWPSETUP.EXE
- This file contains all of the program files. Running it will
- install of the files where they belong, and will also produce a
- record and program that can be used to uninstall this package.
-
- README.TXT
- A text file that explains the program. It is placed outside
- the main install program so that it is readable before the
- program is installed.
-
- VENDINFO.DIZ, FILEID.DIZ, VENDINFO.DOC
- Information files for shareware distributors and online
- services. These explain distribution rights and allowable
- methods.
-
- Files installed by WWPlus:
-
- Main Program directory files
- WWPLUS.EXE, WWPLUS.HLP, GAMMA.PCX, README.TXT,
- UNINSTAL.EXE, INSTALL.LOG.
-
- Windows directory file
- WWPSAVR.SCR
-
- Windows\System directory files
- IKENG16.DLL, IKJPG16.DLL, IKCOL16.DLL, IKDSP16.VBX,
- WWPLIBR.VBX, CALL32.DLL.
-
- Registered users will have one additional file: WWP_REG.KEY.
- This file must be in your WWPLUS directory, and will keep the
- startup shareware screen from appearing. If you upgrade to a
- new version of WWPlus, do not delete this file - it will work
- with all future versions.
-
- Files required by WWPlus:
-
- VBRUN300.DLL
- A "runtime" library for programs written in Visual Basic 3.0.
- This file is almost always available from any source for
- WWPlus. From on-line sources, look for VBRUN3.ZIP or
- VBRUN300.ZIP. It must be placed in your Windows\System
- directory.
-
- Files created by WWPlus:
-
- WWPLUS.BMP
- This is a "temporary" file that WWPlus uses to translate
- non-standard images so that they can be used by Windows. It is
- destroyed and recreated each time the wallpaper changes and the
- new image is not a .BMP file. It is located in your WWPLUS
- directory.
-
- *.QUE
- These are queue files used to store information about images in
- a queue. They do not have to be in any particular directory,
- but the default is your WWPLUS directory.
-
- WWPlus also creates some other temporary files with .TMP
- extensions. Under normal use, the program will clean these up
- when it exits. If the program crashes, it will clean them up
- the next time it is run and then exited normally.
-
- 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.
-
- Uninstalling WWPlus:
-
- If the UNINSTAL.EXE program and INSTALL.LOG file have been left
- intact in the WWPlus directory, running the program will remove
- all files that were installed with WWPlus. The uninstaller
- does not know anything about the .QUE files and others created
- by the program, so those require manual deletion. If the
- program is manually added to the Startup group rather than via
- the installer, you must remove it manually. Likewise, if
- WWPlus is set to be your screen saver you will need to change
- that setting in the control panel. If the UNINSTAL program has
- been removed, use the file list above to determine which files
- to remove. You may also wish to remove the CONTROL.INI section
- described above.
-
- VI. Troubleshooting.
-
- 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. 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.
-
- VIII. 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."
-
- On America Online, files are found in the forum KeyWord ArcataPet.
-
- The author maintains a current copy available for download from
- the WWPlus home page: http://www.arcatapet.com/wwplus.html
-
- 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.
-
- IX. Registration and Distribution.
-
- WWPlus is shareware. Free use is extended to any user for a
- reasonable evaluation period; this is typically 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).
-
- X. ASP Ombudman Statement
-
- This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware
- Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle
- works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem
- with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to
- help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with
- an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members'
- products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road,
- Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765 or send a CompuServe
- message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536
-