IMAGE MASTER PLUS (SHAREWARE) by ACCIDENTAL SOFTWARE (If it's good, it's ACCIDENTAL) Copyright (C) 1995 all rights reserved NOTE: To print a copy of this file from DOS, type "TYPE README.TXT > PRN" then push Enter. This program is SHAREWARE. Distribution of the UNREGISTERED version of this program is encouraged as long as it is copied in whole and remains unaltered. No fee may be asked for this program itself, but a nominal distribution fee may be charged for the diskette used to distribute this software as long as the purchaser of said diskette is informed that the fee for acquiring the diskette does not constitute payment of the REGISTRATION FEE. Vendors, see the file VENDOR.TXT for details. Distribution of the REGISTERED version of this software without purchasing this program by paying the registration fee or without a license granted from ACCIDENTAL SOFTWARE is illegal. NOTE: You may have a version of this program without the, file "VBRUN300.DLL" provided. If so, only 2 sample pictures may be provided. This was done to save disk space and download time. VBRUN300.DLL is widely available and in fact may already be in your windows directory. Vbrun300.dll is required for this program to function. It will be necessary to obtain a copy of VBRUN300.DLL in order to install and run this program. Registered users receive the complete version of this program with vbrun300.dll included. See How Do I register below for details. 1. IMAGE MASTER + is a screen saver and image viewer for windows that can use your own images and midi files. IMAGE MASTER can play music from a CD-ROM. Music can play as pictures are being displayed. You can select Password protection if desired. Messages can be left on the screen. 2. IMAGE MASTER + can be installed as a standard Window's Screen saver from Window's desk top, or can be used from the Program Group that IMAGE MASTER + makes for windows. IMAGE MASTER + can be used as both. 3. IMAGE MASTER + can be used as a screen saver and/or an image viewer. If you have installed IMAGE MASTER + as a screen saver, and want to use it from the program manager to leave a message or make your system password protected while you have to be temporarily away, you can do this by double clicking the IMAGE MASTER + Icon. If IMAGE MASTER + is running from the program manager, it will not invoke itself as a screen saver even if the amount of time has passed to call it as a screen saver from the desktop. 4. IMAGE MASTER + is ideal for corporations that need a screen saver that can use their own pictures or corporate logos. It is also ideal for users who want a way to display their own images (regardless of format) as a screen saver or as a stand alone program. How do I install the program? 1. Install IMAGE MASTER + for Windows from a disk. a. Start Microsoft Windows. b. Insert the disk in the proper drive. c. From the Window's Program Manager, select FILE MENU and choose RUN. d. Type B:\SETUP and press Enter. Substitute your drive letter for "B:" if your disk is in a different drive. 2. Install IMAGE MASTER + for Windows from a modem download. a. Unzip you Image Master archive. b. Start Microsoft Windows. c. From the Window's Program Manager, select FILE MENU and choose RUN. d. Select Browse, then find the drive and directory to which Image Master Plus was downloaded. Double click on the file "SETUP.EXE" then click on the O.K. command button. e. Follow the prompts from the setup program. In some cases, if you are using a program that is accessing or using a DLL or other file that IMAGE MASTER + uses and installs, you may receive a message during installation that warns you that a file can not be installed since it is already in use by your system. You can choose Ignore to this warning and the program should install correctly. How do I make IMAGE MASTER + the active screen saver? 1. Select "yes" to the inquiry during installation that asks if you want Image Master + to be installed as the current screen saver. This will place Image Master + as the current screen saver on your system with a 5 minute time of inactivity to start the program. The 5 minute "time out" will not take effect until windows has been exited and reentered after Image Master + installation. Alternative method for making Image Master + the active screen saver. 1. Once IMAGE MASTER + is successfully installed, it may be selected as the current screen saver from windows. a. From the Windows Program Manager, select MAIN. b. From MAIN select CONTROL PANEL. c. From CONTROL PANEL select DESK TOP. d. From DESK TOP select the arrow key next to SCREEN SAVER. e. From the menu, select IMAGE MASTER +. 2. The above steps will select IMAGE MASTER + as the current screen saver. Use the SET UP button to select the features of the program you want. It is possible to select and preview pictures, MIDI files, and CD-ROM songs. Do this for pictures by double clicking on the picture you want to preview in the list of Bit Maps To Show. For Midis double click on the mid you want to hear in the list of Mide Songs to Play. 3. Push the TEST button to run the screen saver program as a test. 4. Select the desired inactive time for the screen saver program to implement itself. How do I use the program from the Windows Program Manager? 1. If the Image Master + program group is not open, double click on the IMAGE MASTER + program group. 2. To run Image Master +, double click on its Icon. 3. The program will start in the Set Up Mode. Select the options you want, then push the Screen Saver button to start the program. 4. Touch Start: Double click the Touch Start Icon to activate the touch start hot corners. A green line appears at the bottom left of your screen to indicate where to place your mouse to start Image Master +. Touch Start activation can be terminated by moving the mouse pointer to the bottom right (red line) of the screen. Copy the Touch Start Icon to the program manager's Start Up program group to have Touch Start activate each time windows is started. If the Touch Start check box is activated (Picture Attributes, Utility portion of Image Master + set up), Touch Start will reactivate itself after the screen saver portion of Image Master + has terminated. What are the program features? 1. Registered users can add up to 500 Bit Map files (500 images) in each of the 10 Slide Shows provided. These images can be located in any directory on your hard drive or floppy drives. You can even us your CD-ROM as a source of pictures. If you have Kodak's Access software, you can use Image master to show you photo CDs. 2. Registered users can add up to 100 Midi selections for each Slide Show to be played by your midi software as the program displays your pictures. 3. Set the length of time for the picture to remain on the display before the next one replaces it. This time ranges from 10 seconds to 1 minute. 4. Any image can be used as long as it a PCX or BMP file, (UNREGISTERED VERSION). The REGISTERED VERSION of Image Master will access the following additional file formats. .DIB, .TGA, WMF, .EPS, .TIF, .JPG, CMP, .CAL, .IMG, .MAC, .MSP, .PCD, PCT, RAS, WPG. NOTE: Photo CD images (.PCD) require Kodak's Access Software. 5. You need not copy any picture or midi file to any other directory to use it. IMAGE MASTER + can find and use your files from any valid hard drive, floppy or CD-ROM drive and directory on your computer. 6. You can add or delete picture and midi files and set the picture delay through the standard setup button provided by windows for screen savers or by starting IMAGE MASTER + from the program manager by double clicking on its Icon. 7. You can use scanned images as long as the image is saved in a format that is compatible with IMAGE MASTER (see 4. above for details.) 8. Pictures can be displayed as 1. Full Screen, 2. 75% of screen, or 3. 50% of screen. In this case screen refers to screen height. Pictures will retain the correct aspect ratio regarless of Screen mode or screen size selected. You can elect to have your picture displayed with a frame around it or without frame. 9. You can randomize the order in which your images are displayed. Click on the Randomize Picture Order check box to choose this option. 10. The speed that Image Master uses to put your images to the screen can be adjusted. Select Picture Attributes, then slide the selector bar to the slower or faster end of the adjuster bar to vary this speed. 11. Any mouse button press and most keyboard keys will terminate Image Master and return you to the application you were using before Image Master started. The following keys have special meaning. 1. If MIDI is selected, pushing the "M" key on the keyboard will toggle the MIDI selections playing to mute and back on again. 2. If you have CD-Audio selected, pushing the "space" bar will bring up an audio selector panel. You can select Previous, Next, Play, Pause, and Stop with this selector bar. 3. The "P" key will pause Image Master on the present image. Pushing "P" again will toggle pause off. 12. You can use a Password to protect access to your computer when Image Master is running. 13. You can leave a message for any visitors you may have while you are away from your computer, or messages you may want to display to the public. 14. You can use Photo CD as a source for your pictures (REGISTERED VERSION ONLY). You can also choose one of several options available for displaying your pictures such as gray scale and flipping your image. 15. CD-ROM audio is available in both the registered and unregistered versions. If your CD-ROM is capable of playing CD-AUDIO, you can select it as the source of music for Image Master. 16. Touch Start is available. The touch start Icon will will set a "HOT" corner that will allow Image Master + to be started by moving your mouse to the GREEN HOT CORNER of your screen. Touch Start can be terminated by moving your mouse to the RED CORNER of your screen. You can place the touch start icon in your windows start up program group to have it run automatically each time windows is started. Activate the Touch Start check box (in Ultilities of Picture Attributes) to have Touch Start reinstate itself after Image Master + has run. Additional Services from Accidental Software: 1. Site licenses are available. Contact Accidental Software for details. 2. Accidental Software can modify this program to provide a unique application for Company or other large groups of users. Custom applications can be developed to include the incorporation of AVI or QuickTime video, and support of fractal image files. Contact Accidental Software for details. Contact: ACCIDENTAL SOFTWARE 13245 SKIOMAH RD. APPLE VALLEY, CA. 92308 1-619-247-2804 -- VOICE 1-619-247-6819 -- FAX Common Questions! Q. When I double click on the Image Master Icon the program will not start. What is happening? A. Multiple instances of Image Master cannot be started. If the program was started by double clicking on its Icon and a subsequent click outside the form hides the application, it is still running in the background. You need to bring up the Windows Task Manager to switch back to Image Master + or minimize the program manager to reveal Image Master +. It is always best to end Image Master by clicking on the EXIT button in the Set Up form if you are not going to run the screen saver portion of the program immediately. Q. Can I use this program to display pictures of my business or family? A. Yes, you need to use a scanner to scan your image into a paint program. Once an image is scanned and retouched as necessary, save it as any file format compatible with this program. Select the User Bit Maps option button in Image Master. Find the file by clicking to the correct drive and directory. Highlight this file or as many files as you want to add to the list of Bit Maps to show. Once the file or files are highlighted, click the Add Files button to place them in the Bit Maps to Show list box. You can preview this or any file by double clicking on its entry in the Bit Maps To Show window. If your personal pictures are on a Photo CD, Image Master is the ideal tool for displaying them. Q. I want to use several of my own MIDI songs to be played by the program when my pictures are being displayed. How can I do this? A. You can select any valid MIDI file ".mid" that is available on your hard disk. It can be placed in a List of Songs to Play (up to 100) that will be played in order. Once the last file is played, the tunes will start over in a continuous loop. Choose the drive and directory that your MIDI files are on. Highlight this file or as many files as you want to add to the list of Midi Files to Play. Once the file or files are highlighted, click the Add Files button to place them in the list of Midi Files to Play. You can listen to any Midi file in the Midi Files To Play window by double clicking on it. Q. When using JPG or other large 24 bit images with Image Master +, my MIDI music occasionally degrades. Can this be prevented. A. These files have extremely high compression ratios, and as a result monopolize your processor so that there is no time left to play your MIDI file. The only way to cure the problem is to covert your image file to a format the has less compression. PCX and BMP 256 color files will not interfere with the MIDI as the pictures are decompressed. You could also inactivate the Enable Music check box or Mute (press the "M" key on the keyboard) the MIDI so it will not play. You can listen to CD-Rom audio instead without interference from highly compressed 24 bit images. Q. When using Photo CDs to show my images with Image Master, MIDI music I am using seems to degrade as some pictures are displayed. How can I cure the problem? A. Very large 24 bit images can take a tremendous amount of processing power to decompress and decode. These large files combined with the slow access time of most CD-ROM drives can use your system resources so that the processor time needed to play your MIDI files is no longer available. You could copy your PCD files to a hard disk, the faster access time of a hard disk should help; insure you are using the Retain Bit Map Size option, then choose a smaller display size for your images. You may have to disable your MIDI with the enable music check box or the "M" key on the keyboard if the problem persists and is bothersome. Image Master program files installed to your hard disk! The following is a list of files IMAGE MASTER PLUS installs to your hard disk or generates as the program runs. This list can be used for uninstall information if desired. Files in your Windows directory.... SSIMAGEP.SCR SSIMAGEP.EXE IMASTERP.INI IMASTERP.RRG IMASTERP.GRP LEADDIB.DRV EXCLUDED.MSP MESSAGE.MSP MIDI.MSP TRANSIT.MSP SLIDES(1 THRU 10).MSP SLIDET(1 THRU 10).MSP Files in your Windows\System directory... FXCMP210.VBX FXLBL210.VBX FXSND210.VBX FXTLS210.DLL LEAD40.DLL LEADDIB.DRV * MCI.VBX * THREED.VBX * VBRUN300.DLL Files in the graphics directory used by this program... PP(1 THRU XX).MST SI.MID README.TXT * Delete these files with caution since they may be used by other programs. NOTE: The following files may be deleted from your hard drive if you have an earlier version of IMAGE MASTER. IMAGE MASTER up to version 3.0 (not the Plus version) used the following files. Files in your Windows directory.... SSIMAGEM.SCR SSIMAGEM.EXE IMASTER.INI IMASTER.RRG IMASTER.GRP LEADDIB.DRV EXCLUDED.MST MESSAGE.MST MIDI.MST TRANSIT.MST SLIDES(1 THRU 10).MST SLIDET(1 THRU 10).MST Files in your Windows\System directory... FXCMP210.VBX FXLBL210.VBX FXSND210.VBX FXTLS210.DLL LEAD40.DLL LEADDIB.DRV * MCI.VBX * THREED.VBX * VBRUN300.DLL Files in the graphics directory used by this program... PP(1 THRU XX).BMP SI.MID README.TXT The following additional files may be present and can be deleted if your Shareware version of Image Master was version 2.7 or earlier. LEADDLL.DLL LEAD.DLL LEAD38.DLL * Delete these files with caution since they may be used by other programs. Disclaimer: This product is distributed "as is". All warranties, either expressed or implied, as to the software quality, performance, or fitness for any particular reason are disclaimed. You will bear the entire risk of relating to the quality and performance of this product, and will, in no event hold ACCIDENTAL SOFTWARE liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damage resulting from the use of this software.