WDR Computer Club Digital 1997 February/club9702.bin/SHARE95/95WWPLUS/README.TXT

Text File | 1996-11-03 | 15KB | 355 lines

WWPlus32 <ASP>
version 3.0
⌐1992-1996 All rights reserved
                          _______
By Don Bradner       ____|__     |               (R)
Arcata Pet        --|       |    |-------------------
600 F Street        |   ____|__  |  Association of
Arcata, CA  95521   |  |       |_|  Shareware
                    |__|   o   |    Professionals
                  -----|   |   |---------------------
                       |___|___|    MEMBER

Internet: [e-mail]
http://www.arcatapet.com
Compuserve: 76130,1007
America OnLine: DBirdMan
AOL Forum KeyWord: ArcataPet

The online help file is the primary documentation for WWPlus32.
This text document is meant primarily to get you started.

Contents of this file:

   I.  Program Description
  II.  Program Requirements
 III.  Installing WWPlus32
  IV.  Getting Started
   V.  Files and Uninstalling
  VI.  Troubleshooting
 VII.  Obtaining images
VIII.  Getting future upgrades
  IX.  Purchase and distribution
   X.  Notes for users of WWPlus (16-bit)
  XI.  ASP Ombudsman Statement

I. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION.

WWPlus32 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,
PNG .ICO and .JPG) that would otherwise be unusable by Windows
as wallpaper. GIF, PCX and PNG provide compression of 256-color
images, and .JPG provides compression for 16-million color
images, thus saving disk space.

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 .QU2 extension may be associated with WWPlus32 to allow the program
to start by running the queue from Explorer 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.

WWPlus32 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 WWPlus32 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.

WWPlus32 requires an IBM compatible 486 or better, running
Windows 95, or Windows NT, with at least 12 megs of RAM and VGA
or better graphics.  Recommended: Pentium 90 with 16 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.  WWPlus32 will
require 3 megs for program installation.

III. Installing WWPlus32

To install WWPlus32, 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:\wwpsetup or b:\wwpsetup, 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\wwpsetup.
Alternatively you can use Explorer to find the files and
double-click on WWPSETUP.EXE.

Windows 95/NT-4 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 WWPlus32 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 WWPlus32 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.  Instead of a normal icon you may choose to
place any or all of 4 functions in the taskbar tray; Use the
Tasbar Tray Icons item in the Preferences menu.

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.

There are a number of items in the Wallpaper and Preferences
menus that affect the way the program operates.

V.  FILES AND UNINSTALLING.

When WWPlus32 is installed, a program (UNINSTAL.EXE) and a data
file (INSTALL.LOG) are placed in the WWPlus32 directory.  The
following information is provided to aid in removing the
program in case those files are lost or damaged.

Files distributed with WWPlus32:

WWPSETUP.EXE
This file contains all of the program files.  Running it will
install each of the files where they belong, and will also produce a
record and program that can be used to uninstall this package.

README.TXT
This text file, which 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
Information files for shareware distributors and online
services.  These explain distribution rights and allowable
methods.

Files installed by WWPlus32:

Main Program directory files
WWPLUS32.EXE, WWPLUS32.HLP, GAMMA.PCX, README.TXT,
UNINSTAL.EXE, INSTALL.LOG, WWPLUS32.CNT

Windows\System directory files
COMCTL32.OCX, IK32.OCX, MFC40.DLL, MSGHOO32.OCX, MSVCRT40.DLL,
OLEPRO32.DLL. VB40032.DLL

Registered users will have one additional file: WWP_REG.KEY.
This file must be in your WWPlus32 directory, and will keep the
startup shareware screen from appearing.  If you upgrade to a
new version of WWPlus32, do not delete this file - it will work
with all future versions.

Files created by WWPlus32:

WWPLUS32.BMP
This is a "temporary" file that WWPlus32 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 the directory
pointed to by your TEMP variable; if you do not have TEMP
variable it will be in your WWPlus32 directory.

*.QU2
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 WWPlus32 directory.

WWPlus32 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.

Uninstalling WWPlus32:

If the UNINSTAL.EXE program and INSTALL.LOG file have been left
intact in the WWPlus32 directory, running the program will
remove all files that were installed with WWPlus32.  The
uninstaller does not know anything about the .QU2 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.   If the UNINSTAL program has been removed, use the
file list above to determine which files to remove.

VI.  Troubleshooting.

If WWPlus32 has been working fine, but suddenly will not load,
the queue file may have become corrupted.  Try starting
WWPlus32 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:\WWPLUS32\WWPLUS.EXE
C:\WWPLUS32\TEST1.QUE (if your WWPlus32 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.

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, WWPlus32 may crash when trying to load a corrupt
wallpaper.  The cure would be the same as shown above.

If you have an image that WWPlus32 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 WWPlus32.  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.

WWPlus32 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.

VIII.  Getting future Upgrades.

When you register WWPlus32 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.  You will also receive a
registered copy of WWSaver32, an image screen saver which uses
WWPlus32 queues.

Current versions of WWPlus32 can always be found on Compuserve in
several forums, including WINSHARE, GRAPHSUP, PHOTOFORUM and EDRIVE.
Current versions are also posted to Author's America OnLine
forum, KeyWord ArcataPet.

The author maintains a current copy available at
http://www.arcatapet.com/wwplus32.html.

Registered users who do not have online access may get a disk copy
from the author for a fee of $5 ($8 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.

WWPlus32 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 $29.95.  California registrants
please add $2.17 sales tax, and foreign registrants should
include $3.00 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 an occasional 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:  WWPlus32 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 WWPlus32 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. Notes for users of WWPlus (16-bit version)

Users of WWPlus will find a number of differences in this 32-bit
version.  WWPlus32 contains only wallpaper functions, with no screen
saver.  A screen saver module is planned, but will be a separate
program and is not ready at this writing.

The .QUE format has been changed for WWPlus32, and the filenames are
.QU2.  You may use your existing .QUE files, but when you first use
them they will be saved in .QU2 format.  The .QUE version is not
disturbed and remains usable.  WWPlus and WWPlus32 can coexist on the
same computer without problems.

XI. 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 [phone] or send a CompuServe
message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536