Apple Comupter included a nice feature into their system software: If you have a file named “StartupScreen” containing a picture in your system folder, the system automatically displays this picture at system startup.
The only problem is, it´s always the same. And that is somewhat boring after a while. And most people (including and especially me) don´t like to have to juggle with dozens of files all called “StartupSceeen”, swapping them all the time to relieve the monotony.
So I wrote ScreenMan to do this job automatically. ScreenMan holds all of your startup screens in one single file (guess which … right, “StartupScreen”) and randomly selects one to show at next startup.
You can import pictures from ANY file containing some, delete pictures you got tired of (or you are not interrested in in the first place), switch pictures on and off without discarding them and assign weights to individual pictures so that your favorites come up more often.
Explaining how to do this is the job of (most of) the rest of this documentation.
Quick Reference:
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“On” and “Off” radio buttons (upper left) : turn random startup picture choosing on and off.
“Import…” : imports all PICT resources from any file.
“On” and “Off” buttons (lower right) : enable/disable the selected pictures for random choosing.
“New” : create new picture. Pastes clipboard if available, else uses default picture.
“Delete” : permanently delete all selected pictures.
Control-number sets the weight of all selected pictures to number.
Select pictures by clicking on them in the picture list (lower left). Shift-click or Command-click to extend the selection.
The picture list shows from left to right: a number telling the picture´s relative weight or nothing if the picture is disabled; a bullet for the picture to show up at next startup; the name of the picture.
The following only applies if exactly one picture is selected in the picture list :
“Set” makes the selected picture the one showing up at next startup.
The scrollbar above the picture list is used to change a picture´s weight if it is enabled.
The text field above the scrollbar (and below the “Import…” button) is used to edit the picture name. It features Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear and Undo. The name is accepted with the Return or Enter key or when an other picture is selected. Editing the name is possible only if the name field is highlited (or the cursor blinks in it).
In the upper left there is the picture preview showing the currently selected picture. If it is highlighted (a fat frame around it in your hilite color), Copy and Paste is supported.
Above the preview the picture size in pixels (horz. by vert.) is shown. For standard sizes their denomination (e.g. 13" RGB) is also shown.
The “Full Size” check box toggles between the “full size” (shows picture as big as possible) and “relative size” (shows picture in relation to your screen) preview modes.
Double-clicking the picture preview shows the picture in its real size as it would appear at startup. Click anywhere or type any key to come back.
The Tab key toggles between selecting the preview and the name.
For further details please refer to the rest of this documentation.
ShareWare Info:
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Please support the ShareWare-Concept by paying the fee !
This utility is distributed as ShareWare. If you like and use ScreenMan, you are obliged to pay for it. It may be distributed freely under the following restrictions:
• No part of ScreenMan may be modified.
• ScreenMan may not be sold for profit.
• ScreenMan may not be bundled with other software which is sold for profit.
• Users of ScreenMan are obliged to pay their ShareWare fee.
You are allowed and encouraged to make any number of copies of this software, pass copies to friends and place it on bulletin board systems.
I did not use any kind of copy protection, neither did I cripple ScreenMan in any way. There is no commercial version around and I currently don´t plan to release any. This ShareWare version is fully functional and it is a question of honor to pay for it.
I have invested quite a long time in developing and testing this software and believe this should be honored.
If you are willing to honor my work, please send US$ 10.00 (or any other amount that seems appropriate) or the equivalent amount in other free convertible currencies to the address given below. If you are can´t afford the money, send less. If you are utterly poor, please drop me a postcard of your area.
Please don´t send me any kind of personal checks because I cannot cash them !
This software is NOT in the public domain and I retain all rights to it.
Although I have made any effort to make ScreenMan as compatible and bug-free as possible and have tested it extensively, I have to state the following legal gibberish:
I make no warranty, either expressed or implied, with respect to the software and its documentation, its quality, performance or fitness for any particular purpose. As a result, this software is distributed as is, and you, the user, are assuming the entire risk as to its quality and performance.
In no event will I be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the software or its documentation.
System Requirements:
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This control panel requires a Macintosh Plus or better with System 6.0 or higher. Therefore it should run on most of the Macs out there.
At startup it uses less than 1K RAM. When opening the control panel, ScreenMan needs about 50K plus whatever your pictures need (that can be much !). If there is not enough memory available, I always try to bail out gracefully, giving the user an indication of the problem. All the memory used up by the control panel is released after closing ScreenMan. If you experience problems displaying the pictures, try closing other applications (or use smaller pictures :-)
The disk space requirements depend only on the number and size of your startup screens.
Warning : Liberal use of this control panel may lead to excessive hard disk usage!
E.g. my StartupScreen file currently has 13.1 megabytes !
Credits:
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I would like to thank a couple of people for making this project possible :
My Mum and Dad without them noone would evere have heard of me
Ernst Premsberger for tons of good ideas and bug reports on beta versions
Franz Almberger (Alf) for beta testing and maintaining a great mailbox (AMDA Link Graz)
Douglas Adams kept up my humor even after dozens of system crashes
Apple Computer for making the best personal computer in the world and a great development system (MPW)
Some unknown guys&gals for creating great startup screens and giving me this idea
Opening ScreenMan:
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When you opened the ScreenMan control panel, you probably were asked whether or not to create a new StartupScreen file. I am glad you told ScreenMan to do so. ScreenMan relies on having this file (a file called “StartupScreen” in your system folder) handy, so it creates one (after asking you for your permission). If there already is a StartupScreen file you got from another source, it is renamed to “Old StartupScreen”.
There is no problem in doing so. The preferences are marginal in size and the default picture (titled “Welcome to ScreenMan”) can easily be done away with as soon as you have any other startup screens enabled.
After these first time actions you are presented the usual user interface.
Every time you open ScreenMan, it will automatically select the picture which will come up at next startup.
General Controls:
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I carefully designed the user interface to be as easy as possible yet to provide as much functionality as possible.
In the upper left are two radio buttons labeled “On” and “Off”. These buttons say whether ScreenMan automatically switches startup screens (On) or not (Off).
The “Import…” button is used to import pictures from any file containing pictures. It presents you with the usual dialog asking for any file. Then it copies any and all PICT resources (pictures) into your StartupScreen file, adding them to the list as currently disabled and selects all of them. If these pictures have a name, this name is preserved, otherwise they are named <Untitled xxx> where xxx is a unique number (the resource ID).
The Picture List:
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The lower left contains a list of all pictures currently in your StartupScreen file. It shows their name (or “<Untitled xxx>” for unnamed pictures) and their weight (the number at the left). Additionally, the picture which will come up at next startup has a bullet (•) between its weight and name. There is always exactly one picture with a bullet (as there can only be one picture at startup).
The number at the left is a picture´s is the relative propability (weight) with which this specific picture will be automatically choosen for startup. If there is no number left of the a picture name, this picture is disabled and will never show up.
You select pictures in the usual way, any number of pictures (continous or discontinous) may be selected.Please note that some functions can only be used when exactly one picture is selected.
The up and down arrows are functional, their operation depends on whether one or more (or no) pictures are selected. If only one picture is selected, the arrow keys move the selection (the picture above/below the current one becomes selected). If more than one or no pictures are selected, the arrow keys simply scroll the list.
Double clicking the selection enables all disabled pictures and disables all enabled pictures. If you want the selected pictures to all become enabled (disabled), please use the On (Off) buttons.
You can also hold the Control key and press a number. This will give all selected pictures the specified weight (e.g. Control-7 sets all to weight 7). Control-0 (the number zero) disables all the pictures.
Warning: ScreenMan does not allow you to disable ALL pictures. There must be at least one enabled picture left, which will then automatically be choosen for next startup. This restriction is automatically enforced by ScreenMan.
Manipulating the Picture List:
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There are five buttons to the right of the picture list:
The Set button is only enabled if exactly one picture is selected. Pressing this button causes the selected picture to become choosen, i.e. this picture will show up at next startup. If the picture was disabled, it is automatically enabled with a weight of five.
The On and Off buttons enable respectively disable all selected pictures. On enabling the weight will be set to five.
The New button creates a new list entry. If there is a picture on the clipboard, it is used. Otherwise a default picture will appear. The picture is untitled and disabled, but will be automatically selected. This featurewas added primarily to provide a way to import a picture from the clipboard.
Last but not least there is a Delete button. It (guess what…) deletes ALL the selected pictures. This operation cannot be undone and the pictures are permanently lost.
Modifying Individual Pictures:
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Whenever you have selected only one picture, a preview, its name and its weight (if enabled) are shown. There is either the picture name or the picture preview selected, which is shown by an insertion point or a hilite in your hilite color in case of the name, or a thicker border in your hilite color around the preview. You can switch selection by clicking into the name or preview, or by pressing the Tab key.
You can simply change the picture name (shown below the Import button) by the usual means, if the name is selected. To accept the change, press the Return or Enter key or simply select an other picture. If you accidentally changed the name, you can undo the change by selecting Undo from the Edit menu. Also, the Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear items from the Edit menu will function normally.
To change the weight, use the scrollbar below the name. If the picture is not yet enable, first press the On button.
The Picture Preview:
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In the upper right is a picture preview. This preview is only available if exactly one picture is selected in the list. Above the picture preview the size of the shown picture is displayed as horizontal pixels * vertical pixels (e.g. 640*480). If this size corresponds to one of the usual screen sizes, its designation follows the pixel values (e.g. 640*480 13”RGB or 1152*870 Two Page ).
If there is currently not enough memory available to display the picture, the preview will just gray out and the size reads “Not enough memory”.
If you double-click the preview, the picture will be shown in its real size, centered on the screen. Just click it or press any key to return to the control panel.
The preview itself has two modes, “Full Size” and “Relative Size”. You can toggle between them by checking/unchecking the “Full Size” check box.
Full Size :
In this mode the picture is displayed as big as possible in the preview frame while retaining its vertical/horizontal ratio. If the picture is actually smaller than the preview size, it is shown in its real size and the border is “greyed out”. Such pictures are usually not too useful as a startup screen but are quite common when importing from applications.
Relative Size :
This mode is especially useful if you want to know how the picture looks on your screen. The outer frame represents your screen (and yes, it adjusts according to your screen dimensions). The picture itself is shown in its size relative to your screen dimensions while the area not occupied by the picture is shown in grey (as it will at startup). If everything just looks grey (except a tiny speck in the center), the picture is too small to be useful for your screen.
If the picture is actually larger than your screen, both the screen rectangle and the whole picture are scaled down and the picture borders outside the “screen” are drawn in grey. Additionally the screen rectangle is greyed out.
Version History:
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Version 1.0.1: June 8, 1993
Added the "OK" and "Copy to Clipboard" buttons to the Online-Help.
Changed the INIT-part so that the modification date of the "StartupScreen" file doesn´t change at every startup. It still changes if you modify the file with the control panel.
Version 1.0: April 23, 1993
This is the first version to be released to the public.
Known Bugs and Problems:
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ScreenMan has been tested on System 6.0.7, System 7.0.1 and System 7.1 on SE/30, LC, Quadra 700 and PowerBook 100 systems. It worked in black&white, 16 colors & 256 colors.
But as all programmers know, “There is always one more bug”. So if you discover any bugs or problems with ScreenMan, or you are missing any features, please don´t hesitate to send me a bug report or comment.
The only problem I found and could not solve was importing pictures from Norton Utilities 2.0. You are hereby warned not to try it! But I still don´t think of it as a bug because the PICT resoures in NU 2.0 do not seem to be standard PICT resources. Even ResEdit crashes when trying to display them, so I think I´m in good company.
ScreenMan currently understands only PICT resources although the system software accepts other formats as well. This might be changed in a new version if it seems nessecary.
