Paper readme

Utility to change the wallpaper randomly on start-up of Windows 95 and NT4.

Very important! Please read the upgrading instructions below BEFORE running Paper.


New stuff for version 3.2:
No longer uses command line parameters, all configuration performed through dialog boxes.
Option to allow duplicate files in list for 'weighting' of favourite backgrounds.
Option to disable checking of current wallpaper at startup.
Can specify action taken when double-clicking tray icon.
Fixed tiling/centering bug.
Wallpaper list is now stored in a separate text file, so there is NO limit on how many wallpapers you want to add to the list.

Installation instructions:
Instructions differ depending on if you are upgrading from an earlier version or installing from scratch.

Installing:
Unzip into a temporary folder. Right-click the paper.inf file and choose Install.
The paper.exe and paper.html files are copied into your windows directory and paper.inf is copied into your windows/inf directory.
The program runs immediately. It first gives you an opportunity to automatically create a shortcut to Paper in your start up group so it starts whenever you run Windows.
Once the program is running you may remove the unzipped files from the temporary folder.

Note: On Window's 95 the temporary folder must not be made up of any long filenames. This is a restriction of Window's 95 and the .inf script files.
Note: On Windows NT4 you need Administrator rights to use the paper.inf installation script. The program itself does not need these rights though. If you don't have these rights then manually copy the unzipped files into a chosen directory and run from there. You will lose the uninstall option.

Upgrading:
Before upgrading you must close Paper if it is already running.
Previous versions of Paper stored their entries in the Registry, this new version stores it's entries in an external file. When upgrading, Paper will read your entries from the Registry then store them to a file, it will then delete your entries from the Registry as you will no longer need them.

Very Important: As this is a BETA release, you should take steps to backup the section of the registry that stores the settings for Paper BEFORE you run Paper.
To do this, click the Start button, then click Run. Type regedit. The registry editor will run. Along the left you will see a series of folders.
Click the plus sign to the left of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder to expand it. Then expand the Software folder that appears, then expand the Krapplets folder that appears.
Now, select the Paper folder by clicking it once, it will change colour. Then, click the 'Registry' menu and choose 'Export Registry File'.
You need to select a filename and a folder to store this file in. The file will not be large. When you have selected a name and folder, click Save.
This file will only be needed if Paper fails to import your registry settings, as it will delete them after it has read them.
If you believe this to be the case, please do two things, 1, mail me and 2, double click the file you created to restore your settings.
You should then use the old version of Paper until a new version has been released.

Uninstall:
Use the add/remove programs applet in Control Panel. There will be an entry for 'Krapplets Paper 3.2 (Remove Only)'.

Basic Usage:
The program will run automatically after installation.
To add graphic files to the program either;
1; copy your file selection to the clipboard, right-click the list in Paper and choose paste or;
2; select them in Explorer and drag and drop them into the list-box in the centre of the program's window.
3; click 'Add Files' in Paper and browse to the appropriate directory, you can select multiple files from a directory.
Paper will accept both bitmaps and JPEG's.
You may drop multiple files, and the program will automatically block out anything that does not have a .BMP or .JPG/.JPEG extension. Also, if a file is already in the list it will not add it a second time.
Double-clicking an entry in the list-box will select this as the current wallpaper.
Clicking the 'Pick Now' button will set the current entry as the current wallpaper and move the selection down one in the list, this allows you to cycle through every entry by repeatedly clicking the 'Pick Now' button (or pressing 'p').
Clicking the 'Delete' button will delete the current entry, as will pressing the delete key on the keyboard.
'Tile' and 'Centre' specify how to display the wallpaper. The 'Auto' check box, if checked will allow Paper to decide whether to tile or centre a bitmap.
It bases it's decision on the size of the bitmap. If the height is greater than a third of your desktop and greater than half the width of your desktop, the program will centre it. Otherwise it will tile it. Hey it ain't perfect, but it works in most cases.

Configuration:
This latest version of Paper does not use command line parameters, all configuration can be handled with dialogs within the program.
The one exception to this is if you want Paper to change the wallpaper on Windows startup then close Paper down, I know some users prefer this option and it has to be implemented as a command line parameter for obvious reasons.
The parameter for this is '/random'.

All other configuration is handled from within the program by clicking the Configure button.
The configuration dialog has four tabbed sheets. They are covered here.
Options:
Display Decompression Dialog Bar.
This shows a progress bar whenever Paper converts a JPEG file to a bitmap for displaying.
Allow Duplicate Files in List.
This option allows you to add a file more than once, this allows you to weight a favourite file to appear more than once.
On Startup:
Minimise to System Tray will minimise Paper on startup.
Offer to add new wallpapers to list will offer to add the current wallpaper to the list if it's not already there.
Change wallpaper randomly or in order are self-explanatory.
Tray Icon:
Specifies what you want Paper to do when you double-click it's tray icon, all choices are self-explanatory.
Timer:
The timer allows you to set Paper to change the Paper automatically as often as every minute or as long as once every 24 hours.
It's control is very straightforward, you can set the hours and minutes and how you want it to change.
To disable the timer, set both values to zero.
Clean Up:
Clean up has several options for dealing with the list of files.
You can remove all the files in the list quickly and easily by checking the 'Remove All Files' option, then clicking 'Clean'.
If you have added lots of files from a directory and then moved or deleted those files you will have redundant links in the list.
If you wish to remove all redundant file links automatically click 'Remove Redundant File Links' and click 'Clean'
'Remove All Duplicate Files' will remove any filenames that are listed more than once, duplicates will only occur if you enable them in Options.
In all of the above cases a message box will appear to indicate how many filenames were removed.

Tips & Advanced uses:
It is a cool idea to drop the entire contents of a directory onto the program as only the bitmaps & JPEG's will be added.

Known Bugs:
On Windows NT4, if the current wallpaper is set to none the program will fail to change the wallpaper.
It works fine on Windows 95 and seems to be a bug of the NT4 operating system.
The workaround is to use the Display applet in the Control Panel to change the wallpaper to anything other than none and the program will then work fine.

When using Internet Explorer 4 or Windows 98, there is a problem with the Active Desktop that prevents Paper from working.
The only work-around is to disable the Active Desktop at present.
To do this, Right-Click a clear area of the Desktop, select the item marked 'Active Desktop', a sub-menu will show an option marked 'View As Webpage'. You need to uncheck this option.

Contact:
This software is freeware, if you like it, send me a mail. If you have a problem with it, mail me and I will endeavour to help. If you wish to include this software on a free CD collection, please mail me so I can tell my friends!
Email: darren@krapplets.cream.org
WWW: http://krapplets.cream.org/

History
1.0 (11/96) First release.
1.1 (12/96) Now checks the current wallpaper and either highlights it in the list, or offers to add it if it isn't there.
Now checks the size of the bitmap before deciding to tile or centre it, previously checked the file size.
1.2 (01/97) Added cleanup option to remove redundant file links.
2.0 (03/97) Added capability for reading JPEG files.
2.1 (05/97) Added option for choosing files in alphabetical order.
2.2 (06/97) Added option to suppress display of decompression bar, and clean button. Souped up uninstall script.
3.0 (08/97) Added system tray icon and timer.
3.1 (09/97) Added context menu with paste option for adding files.
Bug fix in selection of tile or centre.
3.2 (08/98) No longer uses command line parameters, all configuration performed through dialog boxes.
Option to allow duplicate files in list for 'weighting' of favourite backgrounds.
Option to disable checking of current wallpaper at startup.
Can specify action taken when double-clicking tray icon.
Fixed tiling/centering bug.
Wallpaper list is now stored in a separate text file, so there is NO limit on how many you want to add to the list.