QuickSlideshow - for the Macintosh

Introduction

Nowadays more and more GIF, TIFF, MacPaint, PCX, PCC, BMP and PICT pictures are being released on CDROM, both as parts of collections of Public Domain software, and as complete collections of images in their own right.

Typically a CDROM can have between 3,000 and 20,000 images on a single disk. Attempting to view each image in such a large collection can be very tedious if you have to "open" each one individually.

To address this problem, the application "QuickSlideshow" has been developed, and is offered as ShareWare. (ShareWare fee $30, see the section "ShareWare and copyright information" for details).

Features

QuickSlideshow has the following features:

Speed, ease of use ...

• Very fast decoding of images (on average, 20 images per minute on a Mac IIci)
• Automatic processing of entire folders, or entire volumes (disks/CDROMs)
• ISO 9660 CDROMs are supported (this is the format typically used for GIF pictures). GIF, PCX, PCC, BMP, TGA and TIFF pictures are recognised by file name (i.e. ending in ".GIF", ".PCX", ".PCC", ".BMP", ".TGA" or ".TIF") on such disks.
• Supports all colour modes from monochrome to millions of colours (best performance and display is generally obtained if monitor is set to 256 colours or more)
• Simple to use: "drag and drop" interface under System 7 (or greater) - just drop the icons for disks, CDROMs, folders and files onto the "QuickSlideshow" icon, and all pictures inside them will be located and displayed
• Pictures can be printed, optionally scaled to fill the page.
• Works under both System 6 and System 7, supporting (core) Apple Events under System 7

Display options ...

• The menu bar and mouse may be optionally hidden during picture display, so that the picture is shown to its best advantage
• Pictures can be automatically scaled (shrunk or expanded) so that they fit exactly onto the screen currently in use, and then centred. Alternatively, you can choose to view them full size.
• Pictures can be displayed randomly, or in sequence
• Advancing to the next picture can be manual (click the mouse, or press "space", "return" or "enter"); or automatic (time delay between pictures adjustable)
• You can jump to the middle of a sequence of pictures to resume viewing a session commenced earlier
• You can go to any picture in the current sequence by file name
• A given sequences of pictures can loop indefinitely, or stop once all pictures have been displayed
• Information about the current picture can be optionally displayed, including its name, size, scaling factor (e.g. 80%), sequence (e.g. picture 56 out of 800 pictures), and amount of memory free
• The slide show can be temporarily paused, and the screen cleared, if necessary (this feature is also known as the "Boss" key)
• Coloured borders can optionally be drawn around pictures which do not fill the screen

Saving copies of pictures, using tag files

• Tag files (file lists) can be created listing files chosen by the user, so that, for example, all pictures of trains in a particular CDROM can be easily selected and displayed
• By opening a tag file created by QuickSlideshow you can view a chosen set of pictures from your hard disk or CDROM. Opening tag files is much faster than scanning CDROMs to find pictures
• Favourite pictures can be written to another location for later viewing (in effect, copying them from a CDROM to your hard disk)
• GIF, PCX, PCC, BMP, TGA and MacPaint pictures can be saved in TIFF format for loading into word processors or desktop publishing programs

Thumbnails

• Thumbnail files can be created showing miniature copies of the pictures in your slideshow
• Pictures or folder of pictures can be easily added to thumbnail files
• The order of thumbnails can be changed by dragging and dropping
• One or more selected pictures from the thumbnail window can be used to start a slideshow

Other information about the program

• Installing QuickSlideshow
• Speed of operation
• How it recognises different file types
• Keyboard short-cuts
• Starting a slideshow
• Time taken to scan folders
• Controlling your slideshow
• Searching for a particular picture
• Saving a picture list as a tag file
• Viewing a tag file
• General program preferences and options
• Information display preferences and options
• Which file types to process during a scan
• Saving a copy of the current picture
• Printing the current picture
• Thumbnails
• Version history
• Copyright notices
• Bug reports

ShareWare fee - $US 30

If you find QuickSlideshow useful please forward a ShareWare fee of $US 30 (US dollars) to:

  Gammon Software Solutions
  PO Box 124
  Ivanhoe  VIC  3079
  AUSTRALIA

Please mention which version you are registering (this version is 2.0).

Suggested retail price - $US 49.95.

The suggested retail price (SRP) of QuickSlideshow is $US 49.95. If you have purchased your licensed copy of the program at this price from an Authorized Distributor, then no shareware fee or other payment is due.

Australian residents:

If you live in Australia, please forward $AUD 35 (Australian dollars).

ShareWare

QuickSlideshow is being distributed by the ShareWare method. Permission is given for copies to be distributed via bulletin boards, CompuServe (tm), User Group collections, and CDROMs containing ShareWare or Public Domain files, providing that the application is not changed. Permission is also granted for QuickSlideshow to be added to CDROMs containing GIF, TIFF or other pictures. The author would appreciate being notified if QuickSlideshow is added to widely distributed Public Domain collections of software or pictures, such as CDROMs.

Any other form of commercial distribution is prohibited, unless by prior written agreement with the author.

Version 2.0

This document pertains to Version 2.0 of QuickSlideshow. It was produced on 23rd September 1995. QuickSlideshow was formerly known as "GIF Slideshow" (in version previous to 2.0). The program was renamed from "GIF Slideshow" to "QuickSlideshow" to reflect the fact that it now processes many different file formats, not just GIF pictures.

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