RIRS.ORG #10
Creating a Custom Screensaver
November 2000
You all have noticed that when you leave your
computer alone for a few minutes, the screen goes blank and some sort of
moving design called a screensaver comes on till you touch the mouse or
keyboard again. This can be customized in a number of ways. You can
download from a choice of over a thousand screensavers at ZDNet, which
is located at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/. Some are free while
others are are shareware and should be paid for if kept. Most of these
come with a set of photos ie: sunsets, wild animals, flowers etc. There
are a number however, where you can load your own favorite photos in for
a custom screen saver. These could be photos that you've had developed
on disk or scanned or perhaps from a digital camera. Or perhaps you've
been saving beautiful photos of roses from other websites as you browse
the internet, (easily done by right clicking the picture and choosing
save as.)
I've chosen two programs to recommend: one is quite simple to use and
completely free, while the other is more complex to use, costs $29.95,
but can be spectacular.
The first is called GPhotoShow and can be downloaded from http://www.bottin.com/gpshow.htm.
Download it to a place where you can find it easily, like your desktop
if you don't have a special download folder. Double click on it to
install it. Now, right click on your desktop, select "active desktop",
then "customize my desktop". From here, choose the tab that says
screensaver. Any screensaver installed on your system can be activated,
and it's settings changed, from this menu. Click on the drop-down menu
under screensaver and choose "GPhoto Show". While you are at this menu,
choose how soon you want the screen saver to come on when your computer
is inactive. I choose 3 minutes because I like to see the screensaver;
10 minutes is more practical for some people. Now click "settings" and
double click in the box that says image folders (there should be 3 small
dots to click on) and browse to the directory/folder where you keep your
photos. The screensaver will now use these pictures when it runs. You
can add additional photo folders, just click on the first icon that
looks like a dotted square with a star in the corner to browse to an
additional directory. Choose "show filenames" under options if you want
to identify the name of the blooms you are seeing. (I save my flower
pictures under their variety name for this reason, such as Crimson
Glory.jpg.) If you have sound files such as MP3 files or WAV files,
click on the sounds tab and put your sound directory there. This way,
music will play while your photos are on screen. There are options for
the size of the photos, transitions etc, choose preview after you're
done so that if you don't like the change, you can fix it before you
apply it.
The second screen saver, Photo Op, can be downloaded from http://www.menish.com/down.htm.
Because it is shareware, it does not allow you to add more than a few of
your own photos till you've paid for it, ($29.95 for Personal Edition,
more if you want to make professional screensavers to sell). It will
display a number of pictures floating about the screen simultaneously,
and will continually choose a different photo to stop and enlarge in the
center of the screen. At the same time, you have the option to set it up
to have a large slowing spinning cube of photos (the same as the
background ones or a different set) in the foreground. The effect with
beautifully colored rose photos can be stunning. It would probably not
work well on an older computer, a good reason to "try before you buy"
with shareware. To try it with your own photos, click on the pictures
tab and remove the photos that it comes with and "add" up to 5 of your
own. Do the same thing under the cube tab. There are dozens of settings
that can be changed, such as the number of photos loaded at once, speed,
cube actions, sound. Photo selections can be from a variety of places on
your hard drive and saved together as an album. You can save as many
albums of photos or music as you want and load them in from the same
"settings" menu mentioned earlier or directly by right clicking when the
screensaver is active. Be aware that this screensaver only stops when
you hit the "Esc" key, not by just moving the mouse or touching the
keyboard. Also, the photos that you choose for the cube should be
roughly square in shape or they will appear distorted when placed on a
cube face. Filenames can be shown for all on the screen or you can
choose to type in your own description or comment for each photo.
For a easy change to your desktop, change the "wallpaper". Again, right
click on your desktop, select "active desktop", then "customize my
desktop". From here, choose the tab that says background. Choose the
browse option and go to a picture on your hard drive that you like and
select it. Choose "Center" rather than "Tile" or "Stretched" and then
hit OK.
Feel free to use any of the photos on our website for your new
screensaver or as wallpaper.