Terry Hagans, Wes Gima, Kerry Hofferth, Christopher Moschella and Lee Stewart, without their help and encouragement there wouldn't be a Screen Gear!
Screen Gear requirements:
1.) Macintosh or compatible computer running System 7 or newer.
2.) QuickTime
3.) Sound Manager 3.0 or newer
4.) Minimum 1 MB of free RAM
5.) Minimum 1 MB of free hard disk space.
Q. What does Screen Gear do?
A. Screen Gear will take a folder full of AIFF, PICT, JPEG and QuickTime(Moov) files and turn them into an elegant slide show, fading one image or movie into the next while playing narration, music or both. If you don't have any files that's OK, Screen Gear will display stars or a moving line depending whether you have a PowerPC or 68k Mac respectively.
Q. Why did we make Screen Gear?
A. We wanted a simple and inexpensive tool that could play back pictures, sounds, animation and videos from anywhere on the computer and it would be easy to use!
Q. Who made Screen Gear's cool graphics?
A. My wife and friend Terry. Wouldn't have been able to create Screen Gear without her help and support.
Q. How do you use Screen Gear?
A. Refer to the "QuickStart" or "Using Screen Gear" section.
Q. How much does Screen Gear cost?
A.The shareware fee for Screen Gear is $15 for a single copy.
HOW TO REGISTER
Screen Gear has the following pricing.
1-4 single user licenses, $15 per user
5-9 single user licenses, $13 per user
10+ single user licenses, $10 per user
A Site License costs $150 and covers
all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius
of your site (100 miles). One big advantage of a Site License is
that you do not need to keep track of how many people at your site
are using the software.
A World-Wide License costs $500 and it covers all locations for your organization.
Paying for Screen Gear is fairly simple. Open the "Register" program that accompanies Screen Gear. Enter your name, your email address and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. Kagi handles the payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-M3
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical. If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment. Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed. Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed. Screen Gear has a protection scheme and when you pay, we tell you how to indicate to Screen Gear that you have paid the registration fee. If you do not have an email address, please enter your complete postal address and please remember, we do not know what country you live in so please enter that into the postal address also.
Assuming that Kagi provides you with the registration code: If you do not have an email address you should consider selecting the Postcard Receipt so that Kagi can inform you of your registration code. Kagi transmits the registration codes via email and paid postcard receipt only.
Once you have received your registration number for Screen Gear click the register button in the help window and fill out the information. The registration information has to be typed exactly as it appears as it is case sensitive. Alert, after you have recieved your registration information please keep it in a safe place.
QUICKSTART
• When we created Screen Gear we wanted to make it easy to use with minimal work on the part of the user. To this end all you need to do is open the "Screen Gear ƒ" folder where the
Screen Gear application is located. Double-Click the "Screen Gear" application and click the "OK" button dialog (Only present on non-registered versions of Screen Gear). Finally select "Start" from the "File" menu and you should see the instructions on how the help and preference dialogs work. Please view these 4 screens to gain an understanding of how the various dialogs of Screen Gear work. If you would like more information on navigating these files press the "?" key while viewing the files and a keyboard navigation window will appear. That's all there is to it, simple!
• If you really want to make Screen Gear a screen saver then you need to make sure that Screen Gear is started every time the computer is started. You can accomplish this by going into the "Screen Gear ƒ" folder or the folder where Screen Gear is located and single click the "Screen Gear" icon. Next select "Make Alias" from the "File" menu and an alias called "Screen Gear alias" will be created. This next part could be a little tricky so read carefully! Open the "System Folder" icon by double-clicking it's icon. Find the folder called "Startup Items" inside the "System Folder", it should be toward the bottom of the folder if you are viewing the contents of the folder by name. Once you have located this folder double-click on it's icon. You may see other items in this folder or you may not, it doesn't matter either way. Then drag the "Screen Gear alias" into the "Startup Items" folder, close the "Startup Items" folder and the "System Folder". That's it, now every time you start your computer ScreenGear will automatically start as well. Let's go over this again but in outline form this time.
1.) Go into the "Screen Gear ƒ" or the folder where Screen Gear is located and single click the "Screen Gear" icon
2.) Select "Make Alias" from the "File" menu, an alias called "Screen Gear alias" will be created
3.) Open the "System Folder" icon by double-clicking it's icon
4.) Open the "Startup Items" folder found inside the "System Folder"
5.) Drag the "Screen Gear alias" inside the "Startup Items" folder
6.) Close the "Startup Items" folder
7.) Close the "System Folder"
That's all there is to it! If you would like more detailed information on using Screen Gear, refer to the "Using Screen Gear" section.
USING Screen Gear
• Screen Gear will take a folder full of AIFF, PICT, JPEG and QuickTime(Moov) files and turn them into an elegant slide show, fading one image or movie into the next while playing narration, music or both.. If you don't have any files that's OK, Screen Gear will display stars or a moving line depending whether you have a PowerPC or 68k Mac respectively.
• To display or listen to an AIFF, PICT, JPEG or QuickTime file types with Screen Gear, just place the file, files or alias's to files in a folder. From the "File Menu" choose "Select File" and locate the folder with files you would like Screen Gear to present. Note: You can use a similar procedure to change folders or jump to an image while Screen Gear is active by pressing O and then select your file. You may need to turn on the disable mouse to ensure that Screen Gear doesn't detect mouse movement and wakeup. The preferences dialog will also display while images are being presented by pressing P. This allows for quick and easy changes to the way Screen Gear operates. Then do the following as long as Screen Gear is running and is the front most application(currently active application).
1.) Select "Start" from the file menu.
2.) Press the Command-S key
If Screen Gear is running and you have previously selected a sleep corner then move your mouse to that sleep corner. Or lastly wait until Screen Gear has timed out because of no activity (that could be a long time depending on your settings). Now sit back and enjoy your presentation!
• Press “?” to see a list of commands while your images are being presented for pausing, speeding up, slowing down, and so on. The commands are listed here for your reference:
Play: P (Works after pausing; causes program to play continously)
Pause: spacebar (This is a toggle; press it again to continue)
Next Picture: right arrow
Previous Picture: left arrow
Speed up frame rate: up arrow
Slow down frame rate: down arrow
Seconds per frame: 1–9 seconds per frame, use the number keys
First item in folder: F
Middle item in folder: M
Last item in folder: L
Adjust the volume: S then 0-9 ( 0 turns the sound off )
Display help for keyboard commands: ?
Go to finder: mouse click
Select a file: O
Set preferences: P
• Images and movies will be displayed in the center of your screen. Each image will be shown at the physical dimensions specified for that particular file. If that size is bigger than your current screen can accommodate, the image will be adjusted to fit your screen. This can cause some distortion to the image. Selecting the "Fill the Screen" option in the preferences this will cause all pictures and movies to fill the entire screen. Note: If the files don't maintain an aspect ratio similar to the monitor i.e. 160 x 120 or 320 x 240 or 640 x 480 etc. The images will become distorted and may cause undesirable results. Although this can cause some amusing effects.
• Unless you have a very fast computer and hard disk drive, the size of your images may affect the rate at which the screen changes, because larger files or JPEG's will take longer to load. You can resize your image(s) to fit your monitor at 72 dpi non JPEG or keep the files at their original size and wait the extra loading time.
• The images will be presented in alphabetical (or numerical) order. You can change the order by adding a letter or number to the front of each name — for example “aBook,” versus “bBook” and so on.
• If you have a movie that you would like to play on top of a picture(this is the same for QuickTime sound files) all you need to do is have the movie follow directly after the picture — an example
would look like the following providing your folder view is by name.
CoolPic1p "PICT or JPEG file or Black Picture"
CoolPic1s "QuickTime file"
CoolPic2p "PICT or JPEG file or Black Picture"
CoolPic2s "QuickTime file"
CoolPic3p "PICT or JPEG file or Black Picture"
CoolPic3s "QuickTime file"
and so on... All files can be an alias of a file in different locations.
Each picture will be presented for the duration of the QuickTime file only.
If you don't want the QuickTime movie or sound file to play over your picture(it will by default - remember any picture that the movie follows) then create a small totally black picture. This file should be black so you won't notice it on the black background. You can copy and rename the file or make an alias (saves space) as necessary to use it in multiple locations.
• If you pause a movie by pressing the space bar you can continue the movie where you paused by pressing the right arrow. If you press the left arrow the movie will play backwards and will start looping until you stop it. Pressing the pause key and then pressing the right arrow automatically places you in the pause play mode. This will cause Screen Gear to stop displaying the next picture or movie until you press the right arrow key again. This is perfect for presentations so you have control over the playback of the slide show. To place Screen Gear in the auto play mode just press the P key and the screen will automatically change to the next picture and will continue there after.
• There are many different ways to combine your files to create all sorts of interesting effects, don't be afraid to experiment. To change the order and add or remove files just go to the location of your files make your changes and then re-activate Screen Gear.
• If you place an AIFF file into the Screen Gear folder you can have a music file or several music files playing in the backgound. The AIFF files will play independantly of pictures or QuickTime files. In other words if the music is longer than the 10 seconds that the picture is set for displaying, the music will continue to play through the next picture and so on. Once the music is finished and there are no other AIFF files to play, the music will start playing from the beginning of the first AIFF file again.
• If you would like to adjust the volume while Screen Gear is running you can press the S key and then press any number from 0 - 9. The number 9 would set the master volume to the loudest setting and the number 0 would turn the sound off. Once the S key has been pressed the volume control remains active until the picture fades to the next. This will allow you to adjust the volume without constantly pressing the S key. Note: If you aren't fast enough in changing your volume settings and your image changes to the next image while you're in the middle of setting the volume, you could accidently change the frames per second settings.
HELP WHAT DO I DO?
Q. Oops, I forgot my password and I keep getting locked out of my computer when Screen Gear activates! What do I do?
A. The best thing to do is force Screen Gear to quit by pressing and holding "option and command" and then pressing the "esc' key. This should allow for you to save and then quit any open applications that you may have. After no applications are running restart the computer. FYI you should restart the computer anytime you force an application to quit. Once you have restarted the computer start Screen Gear if it's not already started. Then go to the "Preferences..." menu option under the "File" menu and check the "Password" check box. From here you have two options, you can enter a new password or select the "No Password" button. That's all there is to it.
Q. I keep getting these irritating messages that say that I'm out of memory. What do I do?
A. Screen Gear should be able to handle most of the memory needs by itself but occasionally you may need to quit one or more open applications or reducing the bit depth of the monitor( from thousands to 256 colors etc.) if you don't need it. If you still can't get the memory you need turn on virtual RAM in the memory control panels. The drawback is that your performance could suffer, but it will work in a pinch. Lastly you may need to buy some more RAM, fortunately it's much cheaper these days.
Q. I want to register Screen Gear but I don't have access to the Internet. What do I do?
A. Good question, just open the "Register" program that came with Screen Gear fill out the information and print it. Place the printed paper and your check in a self addressed envelope and mail to (Kagi 1442-A Walnut Street #392-M3 Berkeley, California 94709-1405 USA).
Q. I can't find the register program or I don't have a printer to print and mail the registration form and I don't have access to the Internet. What do I do?
A. You can always get a fresh copy of Screen Gear and the register program from <http://www.screengear.com.gu/>. If you don't have a printer and you don't have access to the Internet just put your "Name, Company, Address, City, State, ZIP or Postal CODE, Country, Phone Number on a piece of paper. Place the paper and your check in a self addressed envelope and mail to (Kagi 1442-A Walnut Street #392-M3 Berkeley, California 94709-1405 USA).
KNOWN CONFLICTS
Screen Savers
• Sorry Screen Gear doesn't support multiple monitors at this time. Look for this support in the future.
• Don't use Screen Gear while another screen saver is active. Using any screen saver while using Screen Gear as a screen saver may cause unpredictable results, or predictable depending on how you look at it. An example might be as follows: you are doing a presentation using Screen Gear and you have another screen saver running in the background set to become active in 5 minutes. Now lets also add that your presentation is self running. At around 5 minutes after you start the presentation the other screen saver becomes active and blows the presentation. Oops we wouldn't want that!
• Having your go to sleep time set too early, or not moving your mouse to a non-sleep corner before you do a task that requires processor activity but not user activity, may cause Screen Gear to sleep when you don't want it to.
• When an Apple language kit such as JLK, KLK, CLK is installed and you want to use keyboard navigation during a slide show, make sure that before you start, you select "U.S." language from the menu. Otherwise you might not get the desired results from your keyboard.
• If you try to view a ( PICT, JPEG, MOOV or listen to an AIFF or MOOV ) file that was created on anything other than a Mac you might not be able to use the file. The reason is that the other platforms don't use resource information and Screen Gear relies on this information to identify the file types. If you would like to read these files you will have to use ResEdit to open a resource fork and type in the file type. Or you can open the file with your favorite Mac graphic, movie or sound editor and re-save the file.
Other Programs
• Screen Gear is not compatible with RAM Doubler™ if Apple's hard disk driver is installed. This incompatibility only happens when Screen Gear is playing AIFF sound files. Third party hard disk drivers seem to work fine. The system's built-in virtual memory works fine as well.
• Screen Gear is not compatible with GoMac's keyboard commands while Screen Gear is running in the presentation mode. Make sure to wake up Screen Gear if you want to use GoMac's features.
