What's new - Active ScreenSaver Builder

FULL SCREEN RESIZE WITH ORIGINAL ASPECT

If you are using Full screen option to resize an image, now you can also enable Original aspect option for it. In that case the image will be resized to the max possible size that maintains its original aspect within limits of the full screen size.

PREVIEW AVAILABLE FOR IMAGE SELECTION

When selecting images to add to your screensaver project you will be able to see the small image preview directly in the open new image dialog.

RESIZE IMAGES

When you set an image you can change its original size to a custom size. You can also change image size later in the development and it will automatically affect all Show and Move commands. Additionally, you can set Full screen option for an image and screensaver will automatically stretch it to full screen resolution.

11 NEW TRANSITION EFFECTS

Total number of transition effects is now 84 and new effects are: Crossed (Left, Right), Boxed (Grow, Shrink), Triangle, Roll (Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Horizontal, Vertical).

ONE-STEP SCREEN SAVER

How about making a screen saver with just one click of a button? Active ScreenSaver Builder 4.0 makes that possible with new option called One-Step Screen Saver. All you have to do is select a folder with images you want to include in your screen saver, choose one of ten available screen saver templates, type in screen saver file name and click Make Screen Saver. Active ScreenSaver Builder will take all images from that folder, sort them alphabetically and use chosen template to create standard screen saver .scr file, installer .exe file, screen saver definition .ssd file, all in the folder with the same name as the screen saver. Once all files are created you will get the oportunity to go straight to their folder and try your screen saver.

SUPPORT FOR MP3 FILES

In addition to .WAV and .AVI media files Active ScreenSaver Builder now supports .MP3 media files as well. However, if you want to use MP3 media files please note the following. Necessary MP3 codec has to be present on your computer, otherwise you will not be able to use MP3 files in your screen savers. Additionally, you have to close all sound programs when adding MP3 files because Active ScreenSaver Builder has to check the structure of each MP3 file. If some MP3 file has illegal structure you will not be able to use it even if that file plays in some player programs. If you create a screen saver with MP3 and there is nothing but silence on some computers, that means that necessary MP3 codec is not present on those computers and MP3 sequences are simply being skipped. Again, the fact that some other stand alone MP3 media files might play well in some player programs does not mean that your screen saver can play its MP3 sequences on that computer too.

CUSTOM ICON FOR .SCR AND .EXE FILES

If you do not like default icons used for screen saver's .SCR and installer .EXE files or simply want to make your screen saver project fully represent your designing skills now you can set your own icon for that purpose. That icon has to be made with 16 colors and contain both 16x16 and 32x32 sizes. If you try to use an icon with only one of these sizes program will accept it but the other size will stay filled with program's default icon.

MUTE OPTION IN SCREEN SAVERS

Sound effects are usually interesting in the beginning but they can also be the reason for abandoning good looking screen saver. Now all screen savers created with Active ScreenSaver Builder have Mute screen saver option to disable/enable sound.

12 NEW TRANSITION EFFECTS

Total number of transition effects is now 73 and new effects are: Fade To Black, Fade From Background, Snake Wipe (4), Snake Shift (4) and Snake Spiral (2).

COORDINATES CONTROL IMPROVED

So far you could use center, random and absolute coordinates for setting image position. Following calculated coordinates are new: Left, Right, Top, Bottom and Random (Preserve). [New Random (Preserve) option will always keep full image on the screen.]

.SCR INSTALLER IMPROVED

.EXE file (.scr installer) is improved and now features progress bar for installation and new option for uninstalling screen saver.

Note: some dialogs throughout the program are also slightly reorganized for better usability.

ACTIVE URL MONITORING
(jump from a screen saver to a web page directly)

Make your screen savers interactive! Now you can use a brand new URL command to set a web page URL and choose a hotkey so if user presses that hotkey during screen saver execution it will not only stop running but also automatically open default browser with designated web page. There is obviously a huge marketing potential in this new feature. Load and try SetURLExample.ssd from program's main working folder to see an example.

WIZARD ENHANCEMENTS

Following many suggestions from our users we have placed more power with the Wizard. For example, you can now easily load all images from a chosen folder in Step 2A. Image preview thumbnails are generated only once upon loading and saved in .ssd file so program responds quicker in add sequence dialog. New system for adding sequences allows creating multiple sequences with same parameters through a single action. There is also an option to change parameters for multiple sequences at once or transfer parameters from one sequence to the others.

Note: some dialogs throughout the program are also slightly reorganized for better usability.

TRANSITION EFFECTS

This version features only one but substantial improvement to Active ScreenSaver Builder: transition effects for showing images. In addition to tile & stretch old timers you will now find a total of 61 new effects of following 17 types: fade from black, dissolve/squares, box, cross, blinds, random bars, alternate bands, checkerboard, zig-zag, cover, uncover, wipe, shift, split, split scroll, strips, diagonal split.

Special enhancement to transition effects system is so called random effect option that gives you the opportunity to bring some randomness to your screen savers. Power any show command with random effect option and it will use different transition effect each time it executes resulting in a more interesting and somewhat unpredictable screen saver.

WIZARD OPTIMIZATION

Thanks to this change, Wizard will not multiply definition commands for screen saver components (images, WAV/AVI files) if they are to be used more than once for creating action sequences, like it did before, resulting in more compact screen saver .SSD/.SCR/.EXE files. It will also place all definition commands at the beginning making the code easier to read.

RUNTIME WALLPAPER

This new feature is designed as an enhancement to the Image command. With Wallpaper option button you can instruct your screen saver to take current wallpaper image from a desktop of a target computer at runtime and use it later in screen saver itself.

SET DEFAULT SCREEN SAVER DIRECTLY FROM ASSB

You have just finished your screen saver masterpiece. It deserves to be set as default screen saver on your computer without any delay. With this new feature, installing it as a default screen saver is as easy as choosing an option from the File menu. Active ScreenSaver Builder does everything that is necessary: it builds .SCR file, copies it to C:\Windows\System folder, sets it as default screen saver and opens Control Panel / Display / Screen Saver dialog so you can check & adjust other settings immediately.

CREATE INSTALL (.exe) FILE FOR ANY SCREEN SAVER

This little feature is meant to help you to share your favorite screen savers with your friends easier, even when they are not made with Active ScreenSaver Builder. You just have to point on a .SCR file and Active ScreenSaver Builder will create installation .EXE file for it, so anybody can install that screen saver effortlessly.

AVI SUPPORT

Now you can include avi media files in your screen savers just like you have used wav sound files so far. Of course, you will be able to define exact on screen position for your avi sequence.

EFFECTS: TILE/STRETCH

There are two new options for showing images and text messages called Tile end Stretch effects. Using tile effect you can cover the entire screen with image or text message repeating as a pattern. Stretch on the other hand enlarges image or text message so it covers the entire screen.

WIZARD

Active ScreenSaver Builder is a powerful tool for creating screen savers. We are aware that a lot of different commands with numerous options can confuse inexperienced users. Therefore we have put substantial effort to help them as much as possible by introducing Wizard-like user interface. Creating screen savers should now be easier than ever before through its three-step process. We hope that experienced users will love it as well, for they can now quickly create screen saver's base, and then fine tune it working the old way with all options available. Please, do not hesitate to send us comments and propositions on how to make this Wizard work even better in the future.

SCREEN SAVER INSTALL (.exe) FILE

Not all of potential audience for your screen savers know how to install them on their systems. In addition to scr file, Active ScreenSaver Builder can now make exe file too. It will contain screen saver together with automatic installation procedure making it suitable for wide distribution. By starting this exe file user will be able to preview screen saver, install it on its system or simply choose cancel if changed his/her mind. Install option will copy screensaveer to Windows\System folder, open Display / Screen Saver dialogue and set it as active screen saver.

CUSTOM IMAGE IN DISPLAY / SCREEN SAVER

This new feature will allow you to place custom image in preview box of Display / Screen Saver dialogue in Windows Control Panel. That image has to be in bmp format and have following specifications: 96x112 pixels, 256 colours. Apart from that image, preview box now also shows screen saver's name in animated sequence.

START WINDOW

Intended to further improve user interface by bringing up front three possible starting points for every new Active ScreenSaver Builder session. It can be easily disabled/enabled.

JPG SUPPORT

In version 1.0 only bmp image format could be used in Image command. Now you can use both bmp and jpg image formats for creating screen savers with Active ScreenSaver Builder.

KEEP BACKGROUND

This option is available in Move command. When Keep while moving option is checked, image/text being moved will just "float" above background keeping it intact in the moving process.

RESTORE BACKGROUND

This option is available in Show and Move commands. When Restore after hide option is checked, eventual later Hide command for that image/text will restore background image to state before using Show or Move command.

PICTURE AND TEXT CENTERING

Horizontal and vertical centering of image/text have been added in Show and Move commands.

RUNTIME DESKTOP

This is new feature added to Image command. With Desktop option button you can now instruct your screen saver to take desktop screen (as seen just before screen saver starts running) as image to be used later in screen saver itself.

TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND FOR TEXT

This is new feature added to Image command when defining text. Now you can choose between standard or transparent background for displaying text.

NEW FEATURE FOR SHOW COMMAND

New image button has been added to provide direct access to Image command from Show command.