Setting Options

You can display the options dialog by selecting File>Options on the main menu.

General Options

General

Allows you to change the look of the menu and toolbar amongst common styles

If selected PixPlay will always display the  Welcome to DVD PixPlay" dialog on start up, enabling you to quickly create new projects or open recent ones.  If unselected, the last project you were working on will be opened

If checked then an image of the full screen size is saved to your work folder when you create title pages.  This will speed up preview and display of the title page while editing (but will not affect the quality of the created CD)

PixPlay often displays tips, which you can choose to 'Not show again'. If you click this button the ones that you have chosen not to be shown are displayed again.

 

Slideshow Preview

Allows you to specify the quality of the image display during a slideshow preview. It has NO effect on the created VCD

If checked, then when clicking Preview the display will always begin with the first image in the project.  If it is not checked, then the Preview display will commence from the currently selected image

Improves the accuracy of the timing of the preview so that it closely matches the timing of the final slideshow disc

 

External Editor

This option allows you to specify an external editor, which can be launched by pressing "Ctrl+E".  Click the browse button and choose the EXE file for your preferred image editor

 

Thumbnail Options

Thumbnail Display Settings

If checked, then your thumbnails will have the appearance of 3D buttons

Allows you to chose whether PixPlay should create standard quality images (faster display or smaller thumbnail files) or high quality thumbnails (higher definition)

Specifies whether the filename for each image is displayed beneath the thumbnail or the Frame number

If this option is set then filename extensions are not displayed (e.g. myimage.jpg will be displayed as myimage)


Thumbnail Storage Settings

Memory and Disk Caching is used to speed up the display of thumbnails in this application.  Memory caching is set automatically and only affects your system while PixPlay is running.  Disk Caching saves a copy of the thumbnail to your hard drive.  Typically it takes up about 2-3 KB per file, depending on your thumbnail format (see below).

You can specify the maximum number of thumbnails to be stored on your system by setting the value here.  A low value will mean that less hard disk space is used, but display will be slower.  A high value gives the best performance.  PixPlay will automatically delete old thumbnails if the number is larger than you have specified here.

However, if you set the 'Unlimited Storage' option then no thumbnail will be deleted until you click the 'Clear Cache' button

Click here to clear all the thumbnails from your memory and disk caches

This option allows you specify what image format should be used for thumbnails saved to your disk cache:

JPEG Format:  JPEG thumbnails will require less disk space but they will load slightly slower and be of lower quality (the difference is unlikely to be detectable)

BMP Format:  Thumbnails will be better quality and load faster but will require more disk space

 

Default Column Widths

These are the default widths for two of the file display modes

This is the default width for the items when in the Filenames file display mode

This is the default width for the items when in the Small Thumbs file display mode

 

Thumbnail Size

This tab allows you to specify the size of the thumbnails that are displayed in the Thumbnail file display mode (represented by the size of the blue box).  Thumbnails in the Small Thumbs file display mode will always be half this size (represented by the dashed red box).

 

Other Options

Folders

Allows you to specify the folder where PixPlay will save files that you may re-use such as Text Frames.  Click the View Files button to browse the work files and remove any that you no longer require

Allows you to specify the folder where PixPlay saves its temporary files.  You may need up to 1 GB free on this drive depending on the size of the slideshows you are creating

DVD PixPlay may create a number of temporary files when preparing a slideshow for burning.  This option specifies the minimum permissable level of disk space on your system drive before DVD PixPlay will display a warning


Advanced Options

Various options to address compatibility problems with some CD Writers and DVD Players. It is not recommended that you modify these options unless you encounter problems with the default settings.

 

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