Copyright: Copyright ® 1993 Aristosoft, Inc.


Wallpaper Changer Contents
Multimedia Screen Saver

Multimedia Screen Saver allows for creating custom lists of sounds, music, videos, and pictures which will play when your system is idle.

Testing Screen Saver Playlists

Managing Screen Saver Playlists

Loading Screen Saver Playlists

Saving Screen Saver Playlists

Changing Sound Settings

Changing Video Settings

Changing Picture Settings

Options


Testing Screen Saver Playlists

To test the current playlist:

o	Press the Test button.  The sounds, video, and pictures will continue to play until you move the mouse, press a key, or press Stop.


Managing Wallpaper Playlists
Managing Screen Saver Playlists

Multimedia Screen Saver displays a list of sounds, videos, and pictures in the current playlist.  If the "Scramble playback order" option is not selected in the Options dialog, they are displayed in the order they will be played.

To create a new playlist:

o	Choose New from the File menu.  You may be asked if you want to save the current playlist first.  You may also be asked if you want to remove any files in the current playlist from your hard disk.  Only files which are also on a CD-ROM will be removed.

To add new elements to the playlist:

o	Press the Add button.  A dialog box allowing you to choose one or more elements will appear.  Press OK when done to add the elements you have selected to the end of the playlist.

Several options require that you select elements in the playlist before performing an action.

To select multimedia elements in the playlist:

o	Click on the element's name with the mouse.  Multiple elements can be selected by holding down the Control or Shift keys while choosing them.

To preview elements in the playlist:

o	Select the elements you want to  preview.

o	Press the Preview button.   Each element will play, in sequence.

o	When you are done, press Stop.

To remove elements from the playlist:

o	Select the elements you want to remove.

o	Press the Remove button.

Note:	Removing a element from a playlist doesn't delete the element from your hard disk.

To change the order of elements in the playlist:

o	Select the elements you want to move.

o	Press the Up and Down buttons to move them up and down.  You cannot move the topmost element past the top of the list, or the bottommost past the bottom.

Note:	The order of the playlist matters only if the "Scramble playback order" option is not checked in the Options dialog.

To  sort the playlist:

o	Press the Sort button.  The elements will be sorted based on their description.

Note:	The order of the playlist matters only if the "Scramble playback order" option is not checked.

To  change the playback settings for multimedia elements in the playlist:

o	Select the elements you want to change the settings for.  Note that you must select only elements of the same type, such as only videos or only sounds.

o	Press the Settings... button.   A dialog box specific to the type of elements selected will appear.

To save the current playlist:

o	See Saving Screen Saver Playlists.

To load a playlist from disk:

o	See Loading Screen Saver Playlists.


Saving Screen Saver Playlists

Multimedia Screen Saver lets you save different screen saver playlists to disk.  You can also specify that one playlist be the default startup playlists.  This playlist will be the default list that Multimedia Screen Saver uses.

To save the current playlist to disk:

o	Choose Save from the File menu.  If you'd like to save the playlist using a different filename, choose Save As.

o	Enter a file name for the playlist, if required.  Multimedia Screen Saver playlists generally use the extension .spl.  If you'd like this playlist to be loaded every time Multimedia Screen Saver is loaded, check the "Make default playlist" option.

o	Press OK.

Note:	Specifying a startup screen saver playlist will insert Multimedia Screen Saver into your Startup group so it can start changing papers whenever you run Windows.  You can press the "Don't Autoload" button in the Options dialog if you do not want Multimedia Screen Saver to load automatically whenever you run Windows.


Loading Screen Saver Playlists

Multimedia Screen Saver can load different Screen Saver playlists.  These can be either ones you have previously saved or pre-supplied playlists.

To load a playlist from disk:

o	Choose Open from the File menu.  You may be asked if you want to save the current playlist first.  You may also be asked if you want to remove any elements used in the current playlist.  Only elements which are also on a CD-ROM will be removed.

o	Choose the playlist.  Multimedia Screen Saver playlists generally use the extension .spl.

o	Press OK.  You may be asked if you want to copy any elements used in the new playlist to your hard disk.


Changing Sound Settings

Multimedia Screen Saver allows you to specify the volume at which sounds in the playlist will play.  Note that not all sound boards and configurations support changing the volume.

You can change the settings for sounds in the playlist by first selecting them, then pressing the "Settings..." button.  This button will be available only if all selected elements are of the same type.

To select sounds in the playlist:

o	Click on the sounds with the mouse.  Multiple sounds can be selected by holding down the Control or Shift keys while choosing them.

After selecting the sounds for which you want to change the settings, press the Settings button to display the Sound Settings dialog.

To specify a volume for the selected sounds:

o	Choose the desired volume with the slider.  1 is the lowest volume, 100 the highest.  If the slider is set to (default), the sounds will play at whatever volume level your sound board and mixer are set to.


Changing Video Settings

Multimedia Screen Saver allows you to specify the volume and position at which videos in the playlist will play.  Note that not all sound boards and configurations support changing the volume.

You can change the settings for videos in the playlist by first selecting them, then pressing the "Settings..." button.  This button will be available only if all selected elements are of the same type.

To select videos in the playlist:

o	Click on the video with the mouse.  Multiple videos can be selected by holding down the Control or Shift keys while choosing them.

After selecting the videos for which you want to change the settings, press the Settings button to display the Video Settings dialog.

To specify a volume for the selected videos:

o	Choose the desired volume with the slider.  1 is the lowest volume, 100 the highest.  If the slider is set to (default), the sounds will play at whatever volume level your sound board and mixer are set to.  If you check the "Disable video sound" option, no sound will play.

Note:	Not all videos have sound.   Also, videos will not play with sound if you are using a PC speaker driver.

To change where the videos will play on your screen:

o	Choose either "Play in center" or "Play in random position"

Display Option	Effect

Play in center	The video will play in a small window in the center of your screen.

Play in random position	The video will play in a small window placed in a random location on the screen.

Note:	Using the Windows Control panel, you can set videos to play full-screen on your system.  This setting is useful if your system does not have a 256-color Windows driver.  To change this feature, open the Drivers icon in the Control Panel, select Video for Windows, and press Setup...


Changing Picture Settings

Multimedia Screen Saver allows you to specify the duration for which pictures in the playlist will play.  You can also specify where and when you want the pictures to play.

You can change the settings for pictures in the playlist by first selecting them, then pressing the "Settings..." button.  This button will be available only if all selected elements are of the same type.

To select pictures in the playlist:

o	Click on the picture with the mouse.  Multiple pictures can be selected by holding down the Control or Shift keys while choosing them.

After selecting the pictures for which you want to change the settings, press the Settings button to display the Picture Settings dialog.

To specify the duration for the selected videos:

o	Choose the desired duration with the slider. The duration is in seconds if you are playing the picture in a window, and in minutes if it is being played as wallpaper.

To change where the pictures will play on your screen:

o	Choose either "Play in window" or "play as wallpaper":

Display Option	Effect

Play in window	The picture will play in a window

Play as wallpaper	The picture will play as wallpaper, behind all other pictures and videos.

o	Choose either "Center on screen," "Tile / Random," or "Stretch to fit screen":

Display Option	Effect

Center on screen	The picture will play in the center of your screen.

Tile / Random	The picture will play in a small window placed in a random location on the screen if the picture is being played in a window.  If the picture is being played as wallpaper, the picture will be tiled across the screen.

Stretch to fit...	The picture will be stretched to fill the entire screen.  This options is useful if you have a high-resolution screen and are displaying pictures intended for lower-resolution screens.  This option is valid only for pictures played as wallpaper.

To specify special effects for pictures:

o	Choose an effect from the list of special effects.  Effects are valid only for pictures played as wallpaper.  "No special effect" will cause the picture to be displayed without any special effects.  "Random effect" will cause a random effect to be used each time the picture is displayed.


Other Options
Options

To hide Multimedia Screen Saver's icon when you minimize it:

o	Check the Hide icon when minimized option.  When the icon is hidden, the only way to restore Multimedia Screen Saver is to re-launch it.

To set the "hot" and "cold" corners:

o	Check the desired corner(s).  A hot corner will immediately clear the screen and start playing the current playlist when you move the mouse into it.  A cold corner will prevent the system from clearing the screen when the mouse is in it.

To set the idle delay time:

o	Enter the number of minutes that must elapse after the last keystroke or mouse action  before starting to play the screen saver list in the Delay box.

To scramble the order in which playlist elements are played:

o	Check the "Scramble playback order" option.  If this option is not set, the playlist will play in the order it is displayed.

To clear the screen when idle:

o	Check this option if you want the screen cleared when Multimedia Screen Saver detects no system activity.  If you don't want the screen cleared, but still want the sounds and videos to play, uncheck this item.

To automatically load Multimedia Screen Saver each time you start Windows:

o	Press the Autoload button.  This will insert Multimedia Screen Saver's icon into your startup group.

To stop Multimedia Screen Saver from loading automatically each time you start Windows:

o	Press the Don't load button.  This will remove Multimedia Screen Saver's icon from your startup group.