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Theme Freak
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_SETUP.1
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TFHelp.Txt
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<*>ThemeFreak Help<*>
Contents.
1. Introduction
2. Installing/Uninstalling
3. Using the Menus
4. Schemes
5. How to create a Theme
6. Saving and distribution
7. Support
8. Copyright information
1. INTRODUCTION
ThemeFreak was designed to make theme creation as easy as possible,
and the user-friendly interface makes the job simpler for those who
are not experienced with computers and/or theme creation.
2. INSTALLING/UNINSTALLING
To install ThemeFreak, simply unzip the downloaded file to a temporary
directory on your hard drive. (e.g c:\tfinstall). Then double-click the
setup.exe file in the temporary directory. Now just follow the steps
in the install wizard. It is recommended that you stick to the defaults.
If you do use the defaults, a folder named "ThemeFreak" should appear in your
start menu. To run the program, click on the "ThemeFreak" link in this
folder.
To uninstall ThemeFreak, click on the start button, go to "Settings",
and click on "Control Panel". Click on "Add/Remove Programs".
Select "ThemeFreak" from the list of programs, then click on the
"Add/Remove" button under the list. A confirmation screen will
popup, and clicking yes will remove the ThemeFreak program from your
drive. To remove the data files (Schemes etc.), delete the directory
to which you installed ThemeFreak, along with its sub-directories.
3. USING THE MENUS
(a) FILE MENU
The File Menu has three sub-sections, the first containing "New", and
"Open", the second with "Save", "Save As", and "Copy Files", and the
last simply containing "Exit".
Clicking on "New" will prompt you to save the current theme.
"Yes" will open the saving screen before clearing and starting a new
theme; "No" will Clear the current theme and start a new one without
saving; and "Cancel" will return directly to the main screen without
clearing anything.
Clicking on "Open" will first prompt you to save, and will then
bring up a dialogue in which you can select the desired theme. Click
"Open" and the Theme will be opened. If some of the files could not
be found, the spaces will be left blank for you to change.
Clicking on "Save" will bring up a dialogue for you to choose what
to name your theme file (if you haven't already saved it once), and
where you'd like to save it. When ThemeFreak is done saving, a
message will popup asking if it should copy all the files to the
output directory (See "Help" on the "Options" Menu).
Clicking on "Save As" does the same as "Save", but it will always
prompt you for a filename.
Clicking on "Copy Files" will copy all of the files to the selected
output directory (See "Help" on the "Options" Menu).
(b) OPTIONS MENU
There are three options in the Options Menu: "Output Directory", "File
Options" and "View Source".
Clicking on "Output Directory" will bring up a dialogue with a directory
listing. This is where you choose the default directory to which your
themes will be saved. Each time you save a theme, a directory is created
within your default Output Directory, and given the name of your theme. This
will be the directory to which all your files will be copied after saving.
PLEASE NOTE: when selecting the output directory, make sure that you
double click on the folder you want, and the icon to its left shows
that it is open!
Clicking on "File Options" will bring up a dialogue with three sections,
each containing various options.
The first section determines what OS your theme will be produced for: Win95,
Win98, or both.
ThemeFreak defaults to the "2-Way Compatible" option, which creates a theme
with information for both Windows 95 and 98 themes. This option is handy
for the internet, as both Windows versions should be able to handle themes
created in this manner.
Selecting "Windows 95" means that the "My Documents Icon" on the second tab
will not be saved, and the "New Mail" sound on the fourth tab won't be saved
either. Selecting "Windows 98" means that both of these *will* be included.
The second section entitled "Rename" allows you to control which files
are renamed (to the file name you give your theme) as they are copied to
the Output Directory, while leaving your original source files untouched.
Selecting the various groups of the theme in this area allows you to rename
only those files you want renamed. For instance, selecting the ICONS group
will rename all the icons to the title you have given the theme in the first
tab, and add the function name - for example, "This Theme My Computer.ico").
This function enables you to choose NOT to rename, perhaps, your cursors,
while renaming your sound files if you so wish.
The third section presently has just one option, "Convert BMP to JPG".
A bitmap is a much larger file (space-wise) than a Jpeg. This option is
handy when the theme is going to be distributed on the Internet, as
the size of the zipped file will be much smaller.
Clicking on "View Source" will first prompt you to save the theme,
and then to copy the files to the output directory. Although it is
necessary that you save the file, you do not have to copy the files, so
if you click no, you will still be able to view the source. If you
modify and Save the source, you have to open the theme again by
clicking File/Open and selecting your theme.
Clicking on "Full Screen Preview" will bring up a screen with your
wallpaper, desktop icons and colors all set out on a full screen, to
show you what the theme will look like on the desktop. Pressing escape
or clicking on the bottom right hand corner will close the preview.
Clicking on "Schemes Manager" will bring up dialogue where you can
open saved schemes, and see what files are in the scheme. Clicking on
delete will delete the scheme file, as well as the files that are used
by it.
4. SCHEMES
Schemes are an easy way to keep a theme's colors, or a collection of
sounds, icons, or cursors, stored for quick retrieval. The schemes
are stored in a sub-directory under ThemeFreak's program directory,
called "Schemes". You can save Icon/Sound/Cursor and Color schemes by
clicking on the "Save Scheme" on the appropriate tab. It is recommended
that you save the file in this default directory, though not essential.
Themes schemes can be loaded at any time by clicking on "Load Scheme"
in the appropriate tab.
5. HOW TO CREATE A THEME
This is a step by step guide to creating a theme with ThemeFreak:
First ensure that you have set up all of your options correctly.
(See "Help" on the "Options" Menu.)
i. To start a new theme, click File/New
This will clear everything and prepare for a new theme.
ii. The first tab, entitled "NAME", is where you will record the
details about your theme, and about yourself. It is essential that
you enter a name for your theme. The other information is simply
there for your convenience; it is added to the text of the Theme
file but is not essential to the theme.
When a new theme is started, the program enters your details which
were used in the last theme created (or reads the information from
the computers defaults), and clears all other information. You must
enter a name for your theme - this is necessary to the file renaming
process when the individual components are copied into your theme's
directory.
iii. The second tab, entitled "WALLPAPER/SCREEN SAVER", enables you to
select the wallpaper for your theme. Clicking on "Change Wallpaper" will
bring up a dialogue; you can select either a Bitmap or a Jpeg as your
wallpaper. You can select the default for the way the computer handles
your wallpaper in the Dropdown box under the button - "Stretch" resizes
the image to fit the screen, "Tile" repeats the images until the whole
background is covered, and "Centre" leaves the image at its original
size and places it in the middle of the screen.
Note: The preview does NOT show the Style!
Click on "Full Screen" to see the image at its full original size.
Click ESCAPE to return to ThemeFreak.
The screen saver can also be chosen on this tab by clicking "Change
Screen Saver". There is a preview button which enables you to see the
screen saver before saving the theme. Note: The Text Box under the
"Change Screen Saver" button simply displays the screen saver's name.
iv. The third tab, entitled "DESKTOP ICONS", allows you to select
the icons that will appear on the desktop. (My Computer etc.)
Each icon has its own preview and change button. Clicking on change
will bring up a dialogue for selecting your icons. Alternatively, you
can also choose "Load Scheme" to utilise previously created schemes.
(See item 4 above, "Schemes".)
v. The fourth tab, entitled "SOUNDS/CURSORS", has two drop down menus,
one for the sounds, and one for the cursors. Select the sound you want
to change in the first drop down menu, and click "Change" to select the
sound file. There is a play option under the "Change" button, to enable
you to hear the selected sound. Changing Cursors is done in the same way,
and when a cursor is selected, a preview appears under the "Change"
button. Again, schemes can be used here (see Item 4 above). Note that for
animated cursors, only the first frame of the animation is previewed.
vi. The fifth tab, entitled "COLORS", is where you select the colors for
your theme. You can load a previously created color Scheme (see Item 4
above), or make a new one here.
Ticking "Windows Default" will leave all the settings at the
Windows defaults. To change the colors, you must ensure that this is not
ticked.
There are two ways to select the item for which you want to change the color:
the first is to use the drop down menu, and the second is to click on the
item itself in the preview area. By moving the sliders (or adjusting the
RGB numbers) you can change the color of the selected item. (NOTE: Not
all the minor items are previewed, but the color can be seen in the block
at the top right corner of the preview area.)
Clicking on "Wallpaper" brings up a full screen picture of the selected
wallpaper, and wherever you click on the fullscreen image, ThemeFreak will
automatically pick up that color and insert it for you into the color item
you are working with. Pushing escape or clicking on the words at the bottom
right will cancel the fullscreen preview.
vii. The sixth tab, entitled "LOGOS", contains information that stores
the so-called "Logo" screens for starting up and shutting down Windows.
This option is rare in theme creating, and it is only compatibable with a
few other theme programs. Programs that are not compatible will simply
ignore these logos. Your logos can be changed by selecting the screen type
(Starting Windows, Waiting, or Shut Down) from the drop down list
and clicking "Change". You can utilise both ".SYS" files, and ".BMP",
however they must have the resolution of 320x400 pixels and 256 colors.
viii. Follow the instructions on "Saving and Distribution" in the
next section of the help file.
Note: Tabs 2,3,4 and 6 have "Clear" buttons in various places. These
are to clear the file for the selected item in each case. For example:
on the second tab, there is a "Clear" button under the My Computer
Icon. Clicking this will remove the icon from the theme.
6. SAVING AND DISTRIBUTION
Firstly, follow the instructions above on how to save and copy the files.
After a subdirectory has been created in your output directory, it
is recommended that you compress all the files in this directory
by using a zipping program such as Winzip. This zip file can then be
uploaded to the internet, as a ready-to-use theme!
7. SUPPORT
Visit the Cwhere Internet Page at www.come2mum.com
or Email me at heed@come2mum.com
PLEASE do not email us unless you have read this help file and still
can't work out what the problem is! In your email please state the steps
you have taken, which OS (Windows95 or 98) you are using, and say
clearly where you think the problem lies. Also let us know what theme
installation program you are working with.
Thank you for your valued input! Suggestions are always welcome.
Please keep up to date with developments and further help by visiting
our web site, and that of ThemeCloud9 at www.themecloud9.com
8. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
ThemeFreak is COPYRIGHT Michael Holloway 1999. You may in
NO WAY disassemble or re-engineer this program!