• When I created Screen Gear I wanted to make a program that's easy to use with minimal knowledge on the part of the user. To this end all you need to do is double-Click the "Screen Gear" application and dismiss the about dialog by clicking on it (Only present on nonregistered versions of Screen Gear). Next select the folder with files you want to view from the "Designate File/Folder" option of the "File" menu. Then select "Begin..." from the "File" menu.
Note: If you want Screen Gear to playback files that are located in the same folder as Screen Gear, select the "Default" button from the "Designate File/Folder" dialog. This is very useful for transferring Screen Gear and files to other machines without forcing you to use the "Designate File/Folder" again.
The folder where Screen Gear is located is generally the best location to place all your files/folders for playback. If the "Default" button has been set, it doesn't matter where you move the folder that contains Screen Gear and your files. Screen Gear will always be able to locate and play them back without using the "Designate File/Folder" dialog.
That's all there is to it! If you would like more information on how to use the keyboard to navigate your files press the "?" key while viewing your files. A chart can be found in the "NAVIGATION" section in the preferences.
• If you want Screen Gear to start every time you start your computer then Double-Click the "Screen Gear" application and make sure the "Start Screen when you start your Mac" box is checked in the "General" section of the "preferences..." menu. Now Screen Gear will start every time you startup your computer.
• If you lack images or sound files to playback you can try any of the following:
- If you see images you like on the internet you can copy them to your computer hard disk. Screen Gear will playback most of the images you get from the internet without any file conversion because they are already in JPEG format.
- Screen Gear doesn't support the GIF format directly, but you can convert GIF to PICT if you have QuickTime 3.0 installed.
From the Screen Gear file menu choose "convert To quicktime..." and save the file. Now select "convert From quicktime..." from the "File" menu. You will be presented with a standard open dialog. Locate the file you just saved and open it. Another dialog is presented, but this time it's a save dialog. Below the field where you enter the name for your file is a popup list for the available save options, select "picture" and save.
Congratulations, you've just converted a GIF file to PICT, now Screen Gear can play it back!
- If you have a music CD and QuickTime 3.0 installed on your computer, you can let Screen Gear try to convert the files to the AIFF format. To do this use the "convert To quicktime..." option from the Screen Gear "File" menu.
After locating and selecting the music file from a CD, a settings window is presented that allows you to sample the music at different rates. Down sampling can be very useful for reducing the size of a file to reduce space used on your hard disk and reduce the processor power required for playback.
I generally set my files to 22kHz at 8 bits. It really just depends on what kind of quality you want and how much horsepower your computer has.
Finally select the "convert From quicktime..." option from the "File" menu and convert the QuickTime music file to the AIFF format.
Larger sound files may not convert properly or may fail during the conversion process. To correct the problem you may try increasing the memory for Screen Gear and try again. If that doesn't work, try using a sound converting program such as SoundApp. It does a great job at sound file conversion and it's Freeware.
• If you would like more information on using Screen Gear, refer to the "Using Screen Gear" section.
