howsoft.com - HTML Slideshow: Software at a reasonable price

Welcome to the howsoft HTML Slideshow (+ on-demand Screensaver).

Just a few words to begin, then we'll take a look at a few self-explanatory screenshots.

I assume you have read the brief description on the main page. It's called "HTML" because the program generates Internet files in order to display your pictures. This is so that it can take advantage of the "transitional effects" available in the HTML language. For those of you who are not familar with the term, a "transitional effect" is simply a fancy way of changing the display from one picture to another. There are 2 ways you can change pictures. In the chosen folder, you can use the right or left mouse buttons to show the sequence of pictures, with transitional effects of your choice between one picture and the next. Or you can type "S" (for "Screensaver") and have them shown automatically in the folder sequence. (When the display gets to the end of the sequence, the display will begin again, as if the pictures were really arranged in a circle.)

So let's have a look at the screenshots which explain most of the operational details.

Once the program has opened and shows the first picture, move the mouse to the bottom of the screen to show the Help flap:

As you can see, the little diagram on the left tells you that moving the mouse to the 4 edges of the screen causes flaps with different functions to be displayed. We have seen that moving the mouse to the bottom calls the Help flap. Moving it to the top calls the Thumbnails flap. Moving it to the right causes the Transitional Effects flap to appear, and moving it to the left shows you the Options flap where you can set various simple parameters that control the functioning of the program. We'll have a look at the other flaps in a minute. For now, let's continue with the Help flap. There are 2 options at the bottom for changing the surround and border colours from a palette:

Photo: www.freeimages.co.uk

In the pictures above, I have changed the surround colour to grey and the border colour to red. Unless you choose the "stretch" option with the left flap, the original image sizes are left as they are, as in the example. However, if your original picture has any of its dimensions bigger than the screeen, the picture will be reduced rather than stretched to fit on to the screen. This is quite regardless of any "stretching" option selected and it prevents your picture from being cut. This is a 1200-pixel-high photo shown in 800x600 resolution:

Photo: www.freeimages.co.uk

By default, the program shows the picture from the folder where it is running (i.e. the program and the pictures are together), but if you wish you can load your pictures from another folder by clicking on the drive icon on the Help flap:

If you click on the file names in any given directory, previews of the pictures will be shown. The "See Pics" filter selects "*.bmp;*.jpg; or *.gif". Click on "Select Dir" to get a new series of pictures for the slideshow.

Finally, in relation to the Help flap, you can click on the question-mark icon to get a few more tips:

Click on the "X" at the top to see the original tips.

To see thumbnails of the pictures in the root or chosen folder, move the mouse to the top of the screen or type "HOME":

If you click on a thumbnail picture, the full-size picture will be shown and the sequence will continue from that point onwards. If you change your mind about breaking the current sequence when you view the thumbnails, click anywhere except on a thumbnail picture.

Moving the mouse to the right of the screen opens the Transitional Effects flap:

You can set the transitional effects you want to use by selecting the numbered check boxes. When you select or deselect and check box, a demo of the effect is given in the little picture at the top. Thereafter, the effects you choose will be shown in circular sequence. However, in the example above, the "special" Effect 23 has been chosen. This means that the effects 0-22 will be used at random and not in numeric sequence. To adjust the actual duration of the transitional effect, choose the number of seconds it should last using the list box in the bottom right-hand corner. If you are using the on-demand screensaver function, which means that the circular folder sequence of pictures is shown automatically, select the display duration for the pictures using the list box in the bottom left-hand corner.

Finally, let's have a look at the optional program parameters. Move the mouse to the left of the screen to see the Options flap:

STARTUP PICTURES

When the program is first opened, the pictures shown are either those of the program folder itself, or those from the last folder called from the blue Help flap.

STRETCHING

See above for considerations about stretching. If you use stretching for very small pictures as shown in the example, take care that the resulting image is not too distorted.

TRANSITIONAL EFFECTS

No explanation needed here. Just choose the combination required.

SETTINGS ON EXIT

The "settings" are the ones shown on this flap. If you maintain the current ones, this means that when the program in the current folder is loaded again, it will work according to the same options. But if you choose to restore the previous settings on exit, this means that when the program in the current folder is loaded again, the settings will be the same as when you loaded the program on this occasion, i.e. the settings return to what they were before you changed them. If you clear the settings, this means that when the program in the current folder is loaded again, the settings in operation will be the "default" ones, i.e. the settings as they were when you ran the program for the first time, unless the definition of the default values has actually been changed by you (see below).

SET AS GLOBAL DEFAULT

This means that in whichever folder you run the program, the default settings (see above) now become what you have defined, and no longer the values the program gave you when you first ran it.

NEW PICTURE ROTATION FACILITY

As from #4.92, the Howsoft HTML Slideshow-Screensaver has a new facility which can save you a lot of time preparing your photos. Of course, if you need to adjust the lightness/contrast etc. in your photos, then you need to use a graphics utility program such as Photoshop, and if you find that these photos are on their side rather than being vertical, you might as well do this in the graphics program. However, it is often the case that a photo has been taken sideways and no other adjustment is needed except to make it vertical. And if you have a lot of them, it can be very inconvenient to use the graphics utility program solely for this purpose. Now, you don't need to. You can now very quickly rotate any number of your photos from the HTML Slideshow itself, using the thumbnail display. Here's how:

First of all, #4.92 will supply you with a few photographs to practise on. Move the mouse to the top of the screen to action the thumbnail display:

You might need to experiment with different quality percentages in order to discover which one best suits your current purpose. The default (50%) is normally adequate for most purposes. However, please note that if you choose a quality which is insufficient, there is no UNDO which will enable you to return to the original picture. For this reason, ALWAYS MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO COPIES OF YOUR PICTURES AND NEVER TO THE ORIGINAL (IRREPLACEABLE) PICTURES! Also, the quality chosen will determine the final file size of your pictures after turning. In general, you should expect that turning will augment the file size of your pictures to some degree if you wish to maintain an acceptable quality.

The options for "clockwise" or "anticlockwise" turning are self-explanatory. Turning is done 90 degrees at a time, so if you want to turn 180 degrees for example, two turns will be necessary.

The "Progressive" option creates a JPG file which is suitable for use on the Internet, so as it is downloaded, the picture will appear progressively in your browser until downloading is complete and the whole picture has appeared.

When you have selected your options, click on the thumbnail you wish to turn with the black-hand cursor:

In the example above, the first thumbnail has been turned and the picture it represents has also been turned and re-saved.If you are showing BMP or GIF files, please note that these will be substituted by pictures in JPG format.We are actually writing new pictures, so obviously you cannot use the rotation facility when you are getting the pictures/thumbnails from a read-only CD-Rom.

To turn off the rotation facility and return to the display of the picture you were last looking at, just click anywhere EXCEPT on a thumbnail. However, if you wish to select a thumbnail for the re-commencement of the slideshow, click on the "Clicking on thumbnail permanently rotates picture 90 degrees" check box to uncheck it. The screen's background will turn black again and the mouse cursor will return to being the default arrow pointer. Now, clicking on the thumbnail will re-start the slideshow rather than rotating the picture: