AutumnLeaves Screen Saver: User Guide
  • Installation
  • Configuration
  • Help
  • Background picture
  • Background mask
  • Using .gif and .jpg as background
  • Where to find nice wallpaper pictures
  • A single color as the background

    • Installation of the AutumnLeaves screen saver

    There is no installer necessary for AutumnLeaves. AutumnLeaves does not need to be installed or un installed. The program does not require any DLL's or other application dependent things. If you want to remove AutumnLeaves you can safely delete the folder with AutumnLeaves.

    To install the screen saver do the following: click the file named "AutumnLeaves screen saver" with the right mouse button. A menu will appear with the options: Test, Configure, Install. Choose "Test" to try the screen saver, choose "Configure" to change the settings, choose "Install" to install the screen saver in your system.

    As an alternative you can simply copy or drag the file named "AutumnLeaves screen saver" to your "Windows" directory if you use Windows 95/98, or the directory "Winnt" if you use Windows NT. You can safely delete the screen saver from these directories.

    Configure / Settings

    The AutumnLeaves screen saver has it's own settings, separate from the regular AutumnLeaves desktop enhancement. After installation as described above, you select AutumnLeaves as your screen saver by opening the "Display" control panel from the Settings. Follow these steps:
  • click the Start button in the lower left of your screen
  • click Settings
  • click Control Panel, a window opens.
  • start the Display control panel by double-clicking it, a window appears.
  • click the tab Screen Saver
  • click the menu and choose AutumnLeaves screen saver from the list of screen savers
  • Configure AutumnLeaves with the button Settings and try the screen saver with the button Preview.

    As an alternative you can right-click the file named "AutumnLeaves screen saver" with the mouse. A menu appears with: Test, Configure, Install.

  • choose Test to try the screen saver
  • choose Configure to change the settings,
  • choose Install to install the screen saver in your system.

    Help function

    AutumnLeaves contains a help function. right-click the mouse on a button or picture, and a button "What's this?" appears. Left-click that button and information is displayed. You can also click the "?" icon in the AutumnLeaves title bar, and then click the item you want information on.

    Background picture

    In the screensaver the standard background picture is a wonderful picture made by Dennis O'Hara of the Oberg Mountain Trail. You can find this image and others on     Northern Images. These are wonderful autumn pictures on Northern Images.

    The Oberg Mountain Trail is shown if you click the picture or the radio button on the right hand side, a picture of your own choice is shown if you click the radio button on the left hand side.

    The picture must be a bitmap (.bmp) file, as you can create with the Paint utility. By clicking the button "Picture" you can select a .bmp file for display in the background. To display a .gif or .jpg file you need to convert it to .bmp, see below how to convert images using Internet Explorer.

    You can select three "modes" to display your picture:
    Full screen
    Centered
    Tiled
    Note that the picture must be the size of your screen for best quality, as scaled pictures usually do not look very good.

    If you want a single color on the desktop you can make a .bmp bitmap file with the paint utility with the color of your choice. Simply select it with the Picture button and the desktop will be that color.

    Here are some other sites with wallpapers.

    Converting .gif and .jpg images to .bmp with Explorer

    AutumnLeaves cannot presently read .jpg or .gif pictures, but there are numerous utilities to convert .jpg and .gif to .bmp (bitmap) format. The easiest way to convert a .jpg or .gif (or other images) to .bmp is to use Explorer. Simply go with Explorer to the web page with the image you like, or follow these steps to open an image file you already have on your computer:
  • Click the File menu and select Open
  • Browse to the directory with the image file
  • Be sure to select All files for the option Files of type:!
  • Select the .bmp file
  • Click the button Open
  • Click Ok

    You now have the image displayed in Explorer. To save the image as a .bmp file follow these steps:

  • Click the image with the right mouse button
  • A menu appears, select the option Save Picture As....
  • A dialog window appears, with at the bottom the option Save as type..., select Save As Type: Bitmap (*.bmp)
  • Click Save and you now have a .bmp file that you can use with AutumnLeaves!

    Background mask

    Additionally, you can select a picture to be used as the background mask of the screen saver. The file must be a black and white (monochrome) bitmap file, with the extension .bmp, as created with the Paint program. The leaves will build up in the areas you painted black. The mask area you painted black is divided up in rectangles. This costs memory and conversion time. You can specify a limit to the number of rectangles to be used as the mask area. The default is 10000, but feel free to set the number quite a lot higher. If the conversion takes too long, simply make the number smaller.

    Single color desktop

    If you want a single color on the desktop you can make a .bmp bitmap file with the Paint program with the color of your choice. Simply select it with the Picture button, and select the fullscreen option and the desktop will be that color. If you do not specify a picture the desktop is a simple gray.
    Rick Jansen, rja@euronet.nl