I know this seems a bit over the top for such a small utility, but it's surprising the amount of mail I receive asking similar questions. To save people the bother of having to wait for my responses, here's three of the more frequently asked questions regarding StartupFrills along with a few I'm trying to pre-empt. If anyone has any other questions they'd like to see on this list, then please let me know and I'll make the necessary changes.
1. Why does the Startup Screen sometimes disappear under System 7.5?
I really don't know. This is a known bug in that version of the system, and would occur whether you were running StartupFrills or not. StartupFrills does not display anything itself, it simply puts things in the correct location for the System to automatically detect the screen.
This next bit's subjective: I've upgraded to 7.5.1 recently and the problem hasn't occurred since. I don't know for sure if it's fixed - the readme doesn't mention anything and I haven't really been using 7.5.1 long enough to be certain. However the problem does -seem- to have gone away. If anyone finds differently (or knows for sure that it's been fixed), then please let me know and I'll add the information to this F.A.Q..
2. Why can't StartupFrills use the picture files I've got?
Startup Screen files are a special kind of picture file - you can't use just any old PICT file. Utilities such as GifConverter will convert an ordinary picture file to a startup screen for you. Note that StartupScreen files ordinarily cannot be compressed (apparently there is something out there that'll let you used a compressed startup screen, but I don't know what it is).
If you can use ResEdit, then you'll be able to convert it yourself. A StartupScreen is a file containing a PICT resource of ID 0 and having a file type of 'SCRN'. If the PICT you're trying to convert keeps its information in the data fork, then open it up with something (SimpleText wil usually do it), copy it to the clipboard and then paste it into a new file created in ResEdit. By default, resources that are pasted in start with ID 128, so you'll have to change the ID number. After that, your screen should be fine.
3. Why can't StartupFrills use the sound files I've got?
The sounds need to be in the standard System 7-style format. The kind you get if you drag beeps out of the System folder. AIFF samples don't work, nor do the older formats common under System 6.
4. Why can't StartupFrills speak my text-only version of War and Peace?
Because it's too long! StartupFrills uses its own application memory to store the text to be spoken, so if there isn't enough memory StartupFrills won't say a word. Try increasing the memory size via the Finder's Get Info window. If you really -are- trying to read out War and Peace though, I wouldn't hold your breath...
5. It's still not saying anything...
Have you remembered to install the Speech Manager? StartupFrills will allow you to set speech preferences whether this is installed or not. It simply won't make use of those preferences unless the Speech Manager is installed.
6. Why isn't StartupFrills playing my movies?
Have you installed Quicktime? StartupFrills itself doesn't play anything (although it would still require Quicktime if it did), it simply copies the movie file to the correct location for Quicktime to pick it up automatically.
