People love screen savers, but they also like to change them. It is logical, even the best looking screen saver will become boring over time. So what will users do once your screen saver becomes old news? They will search for a new one to download and that might easily end up being someone else's creation. However, what if you could change your screen saver or even make a completely new one and it updates automatically? Wouldn't that be a great thing? Internet ScreenSaver Builder makes all that possible. You can create a screen saver that will periodically check its web location for changes and update automatically if necessary. Read on to get this concept explained in detail through a little life story of an internet screen saver.

I - Creation

Create initial screen saver. Internet Screen Saver Builder allows you to combine images (.BMP/.JPG/.PCX/.TGA/.PNG), text and multimedia (.WAV, .AVI, .MID, .SWF, .MP3 ). You can use it through a wizard and/or simple yet effective command language. There are 84 image transition effects to play with, command for moving images and text across the screen, random coordinates, letter-by-letter effect for showing text. Recommended additional reading: Standard .SCR techniques.

Finalize screen saver project using Make dialog. You will get a series of files as a result, ready for distribution and upload to screen saver's web location. Recommended additional reading: Make dialog.

II - Distribution

Distribute screen saver's .SCR file to end users in a usual way; place it on your web site for download, put it on a CD... Upload files that were created for the web to its web location. Recommended additional reading: Make dialog (option: Files to upload to Internet screen saver's web location).

III - Execution

Screen saver works normally on end user's computer. However, from time to time, according to the interval you have set in Make dialog, it will try to check its web location for changes (new images, changes in scenario, completely new screen saver...).

If changes are detected screen saver automatically starts downloading new scenario and/or component files. Of course, it needs an Internet connection to do the job and it will do it in as many sessions as necessary. Download takes place during screen saver execution while end user is looking at the previous version and her computer is idle.

IV - A New Beginning

This is the best part and it happens whenever you want it. Make changes to your screen saver or even create a completely new one to replace it. Upload new version files to the original web location. That is all. Screen saver already existing on end user's computer takes over from here, detects changes, downloads necessary component files and restarts automatically as a new version.

V - Summary

Once again, in brief, what you get from Internet ScreenSaver Builder is following:

•  standard Windows screen saver
•  with images, text and media/flash files
•  compatible with all Windows platforms (95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP)
•  with automatic update via Internet

Recommended reading: Internet .SCR scenarios.