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ShowMe! NDA/FX version 1.1.1 by Dave Leffler
(Previous versions were called ShowPic NDA) original Load Picture routines (APF,
PackBytes) by Stephen Lepisto original 3200 color routine, Displaying routine,
and MacPaint routine by Jonah Stich, Bad Luck Software GIF routines taken from
IBM public domain source code Finder 6.0 ,folder search, and Animation routines
adapted from GS+ Magazine NDATools Routines by Zak All of the above routines have
been heavily modified by Dave Leffler
Product Distribution:
This product is classified "Jesus-A-ware". It is the equivalent of FreeWare. It
is distributed the same as God's Love. That means it's free to anyone who'll
accept it. It will be given to anyone, regardless of who or what you are or have
been. It's not where you've been, but where you're going!
Everyone is free to use the "JesusAware" name. Spreading the Gospel message
through Software. This product is free. Give it to everyone, even if they don't
have a computer! This work is a labor of love for my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ! Just as knowing Christ gives you access to a colorful world, this NDA/FX
will open up colorful graphics on your IIGS.
You can reach me at:
America Online: DAVE L32 GEnie: D.LEFFLER Snail Mail:
Dave Leffler 113 Scottsdale Court Mary Esther, FL 32569
What this utility does:
ShowMe! is a combination New Desk Accessory (NDA) and Finder 6.0 Extension (FX)
that will allow you to see an unobstructed full screen views of any type of IIGS
Super HiRes Graphic, plus some other non-IIGS formats. You can also save the
displayed graphic in a couple of different formats, and do some simple color
conversions.
You may view:
- Unpacked graphics (Screen) files - Eagle/Packbytes format packed graphics files
- Apple Preferred Format packed graphics files - PaintWorks packed graphics files
- PaintWorks Gold 640 mode packed graphics format - PrintShop GS Color Graphics -
PaintWorks Animations - Unpacked 3200 Color pictures - Packed 3200 Color
pictures, "3201"-APP and APF. - Graphics Interchange Format, GIF graphics
versions 87a AND 89a - MacPaint graphics, Full or Half height
You may save graphics: (does not apply to 3200 color pictures)
- Unpacked graphics (Screen) files - Apple Preferred Format packed graphics
files, Full or Screen Size - Double Height Apple Preferred Format files, Full or
Screen Size
You may convert: (does not apply to 3200 color pictures)
- 320 mode pictures into 640 mode color pictures - 320 mode pictures into 640
mode gray scale pictures - 320 mode to 640 mode - 640 mode to 320 mode - 640 mode
to 320 mode with default palette - 320 mode to 640 mode with default palette
You may also:
- Display more that one graphic at a time in a slide show fashion. - Use it as a
graphics previewer before launching a graphics application.
System Requirements:
You must have a IIGS running System software version 5.04 or later. Also a
little extra memory might be nice for those large graphics files. Even though
ShowMe! will work fine under 5.04, you'll have many more features when running it
under the System 6.0 since it takes advantage of the new Finder features.
Installation:
Simply copy (or extract) the file "ShowMe" into the "DESK.ACCS" folder found in
the "SYSTEM" folder of your boot disk(s). It is an Extended file so it may NOT
be copied with just any copy utility, only those supporting extended files like
the Finder or ProSel 16. The next time you boot that disk you'll find "ShowMe!"
under the Apple menu. If you are using the Finder in System 6.0, you will also
see the "ShowMe!" item under the "Extras" menu. You may also install it using
any of the DA Installer programs. It shouldn't matter whether the file is
located on a hard disk or floppy. It will automatically create a preference file
in the same directory. If you are installing it over an earlier version of
ShowMe! you may want to delete the "ShowMe.Prefs" file.
How to View Graphics:
To use ShowMe! as an NDA which will be available in most GS/OS applications you
can simply select "ShowMe!" from the "Apple" menu. You'll then be presented with
a window with some controls. Clicking the "Show" button or pressing the "Return"
key will bring up a Standard MultiFile dialog. It allows you to choose more than
one file at a time, you may not have seen the MultiGetFile dialog before:
-- You may select individual files as normal. -- Pressing a letter key, will move
the selection to the first filename that starts with that letter, or close to it.
Typing in several letters quickly will take you to a file that begins with those
letters (System 6 only). -- To deselect/select a range of files hold the 'Shift'
key down. -- To deselect/select individual files, hold the 'Open-Apple' key down.
-- When you've selected all the files you want to see, press return or click in
the "Accept" button. If you only have one file selected, you may click in the
'Open' button. -- The easiest way to select ALL the files in a directory is to
drag the scroll button to the bottom, hold down the "Shift" key, and click on the
bottom filename. -- You can use the "Close" or "Volumes" to move between disks
and folders to find your graphics files.
In Finder 6.0 it can be installed as a Finder Extension and be used in one of two
ways:
1. It can be used transparently as an application to view graphics files by
launching them or as a file previewer prior to launching a graphics application.
If no application is associated with a file or if you have set ShowMe! to not let
other applications have the graphics files first and you have ShowMe! installed
as a Finder Extra (see preferences below), you may "double click", Open, or Print
selected graphics files to see them with ShowMe!. ShowMe! is smart enough to
only intercept graphics files. You may only view these graphics one at a time,
the slide show feature will not work.
2. You may also use the Finder file interface to select the files you wish to
view. You do this by selecting the graphics file you wish to display or
selecting folder or device you wish to view graphics from. You would then choose
the "ShowMe!" item from the "Extras" menu or use its key equivalent to display
selected graphics files. This method can be used to overcome some of the
limitations of method #1, since it uses less criteria to determine whether or not
the file is a graphic. You may not launch the application using this method.
After you've selected your files, each will be displayed one at a time for an
amount of time you can control, but more about that a little later. To advance
to the next display without the wait, you may click the mouse or press any key
that is not a command. You may not always see your graphic immediately.
Remember that GIF and MacPaint files are FOREIGN to the IIGS and it takes a
little conversion to get them to the screen. You should see the cursor change to
something that tells you that ShowMe! is working behind the scenes. Please
remember that a large 256 color 640x480 GIF file takes a while to unpack.
Commands Available While Viewing Graphics:
There are several commands available to you while the graphic is displayed that
let you convert or save the displayed graphic. Some of these are not available
with the 3200 color pictures. We'll talk about that later. If the graphic is
larger than the screen, you may use the arrow keys to scroll it. Each of the
arrow keys will move the graphic in that direction. Holding down the 'Command'
key will cause it to scroll about 20 times faster and holding down the 'Option'
key will cause it to scroll all the way to the edge in that direction. The mouse
will also work like the arrow keys (including the Command and Option keys).
If you wish to inspect the display a little longer than it will normally stay up,
you may press the 'Space' bar which will pause the display until you press
another key. That key will be acted on immediately. If you need to exit the
display of graphics, you may press the 'Esc' key. Normally when you reach the
last file selected, you'll be back where you started in the Finder or at the
ShowMe! NDA ready to select more files to view. If you'd like a continuous
display or Slide Show, press the 'K' key and you'll hear two beeps to let you
know you are in the "K"ontinuous Slide Show. To exit the Kontinuous display you
can press the 'K' key again and you'll hear one beep to tell you it's been turned
off, or you may press the 'Esc' to exit entirely.
For a quick look, hold down the "L" key and the graphics will be displayed as
quickly as they can be loaded, which is pretty fast from a hard disk. Actually
you could use any non-command key, see the chart below. For your information,
the Return key WILL NOT generate autokeypress events and must be pressed over and
over again. You could also set the delay factor to '0'.
- To Save Displayed Graphics:
If you would like to save the displayed graphic you are viewing, you may choose
from one of several formats. You might find that a graphic you wish to use in
one of your programs is not in a compatible format. You can display it with
ShowMe! and then save it in an acceptable format. Because ShowMe! is an NDA, you
can do this inside the program you are using, providing there is enough memory
free.
To save the graphic as an unpacked Screen file, you can press the 'S' key. The
graphic will then be saved on the disk in the directory you are viewing your
graphic from. It will be saved under the filename "Screen.x". "x" is a letter
from A to Z. ShowMe! will not delete an older file unless you already have 26
screen files ("Screen.A" thru "Screen.Z") already in that directory. If you do
have the 26 files, it'll delete "Screen.A" and replace it. Make sure you have at
least 65 blocks free on the picture disk or copy the picture to another disk,
then save it. You may choose the location and filename of the saved picture, by
holding down the 'Command' key while pressing 'S'. This will bring up a Standard
File dialog. You can move to the disk/folder you choose and type in the name you
desire. When the save process is finished, you'll hear a beep.
To save the graphic in the Apple Preferred Format, you have several options. APF
will create a smaller file than a similar Screen file. Most IIGS applications
will recognize an APF graphic. You can save the APF file as a copy of what's on
the screen. This format will load correctly into ANY program that accepts APF
files. You may also save it in Full size. This means that a Print Shop GS
graphic will be saved as a very small file and a MacPaint graphic will be saved
as a very large file. This option allows you to save the ENTIRE graphic image or
to save space for small graphics. There is a drawback, some applications won't
read abnormally sized APF graphics correctly. If your application is one of
these, you can always go back and save it as a screen sized graphic.
You can also overcome the problem of the Condensed Printing option squashing your
graphics by saving them as Double Height. This essentially stretches the graphic
to twice it's normal height. You may choose the Double Height Option with either
the Screen Size or Full Size APF save.
To save the displayed graphic as a Screen Size APF file, press the 'P' key. The
picture will be saved under the filename "Packed.x". "x"is a letter from A to Z
and ShowMe! will not delete a file unless you already have 26 APF files (from
"Packed.A" to "Packed.Z") already in that directory. If you do have the 26
files, it'll delete "Packed.A" and replace it. You may choose the filename and
location by holding down the 'Command' key while pressing the 'P' key. To save
in Double Height Screen Size format, Hold down the 'Option' key while pressing
the 'P' key. Again, you could also hold down the 'Command' key to select the
filename and location. Depending on your 'Key Translation' setting, ShowMe! may
not detect the 'Option' key being pressed.
To save it as a Full Size APF file, press the 'A' key. It'll also use the
"Packed.x" filename. Or you could hold down the 'Command' key to select a
filename and location. Adding the 'Option' key will save it in Double Height.
- To Convert Graphics:
There are some simple conversion routines that may make the displayed graphic
more usable in your program. ShowMe! displays the graphic the way it was saved.
Some programs display the graphics the way the program is set up. For example
HyperStudio v2.1 and earlier displays all loaded graphics in 640 mode,
regardless of how it was saved.
To convert the displayed graphic to 320 mode, press the '3' key. To convert it
to 640 mode, press the '6' key. To convert to a mode with it's default palette,
hold down the 'Command' key.
Some semi-intelligent color conversions are also available. You can convert a
320 mode graphic to 640 mode colors by pressing the 'C' key. This process
assumes the graphic is using the standard 320 mode default palette. It was
designed to convert Print Shop GS graphics to 640 mode and may not suit your
purposes. The graphic must be in 320 mode to convert it or you'll receive a
non-destuctive error message.
A more intelligent conversion will take a 320 mode graphic and change it to 640
mode gray scale. The shades should try to closely match the original graphic.
Press the 'G' key for this command. This command also requires the picture to be
in 320 mode. You can always hit the '3' key then the 'G' key.
Try experimenting with these conversions. If you want to revert to the original
graphic, press the 'R' key which will reload the graphic. If you would like to
just revert to the original palette, hold the 'Open Apple' while pressing the 'R'
key.
- Special Keys for Animation Viewing:
When an Animation is being displayed the only keys that will affect the Animation
are the Right or Up Arrows will speed up the animation. The Down or Left Arrows
will slow dowm the animation. The "space" will allow the animation to run until
another non-animation key is pressed. Press the "Esc" key to leave the slide
show completely, or press any other key or click the mouse to move on to the next
file.
- To See Information About the Graphic:
The Info window is available by pressing the "I" key. This will display a small
window with the picture size and type. You may press any key or click the mouse
to return to the picture. (3200 color graphics will not be returned to)
- To Launch the Graphic File:
This feature is only available under the Finder 6.0 and only if you don't select
the Launch Applications First preference! When you view a graphic you are
viewing you'd like to print or edit with your paint program, press the "O" key to
open the application you have associated to that file type. This will only work
from "Opening" a graphic icon and you must have an application associated with
that icon.
- To Get Help:
The Help window is available anytime by pressing the '?' key. This is the same
display available from the ShowMe! main window. This feature is only available
with System 6.0.
The NDA Window:
Within the NDA Window the "About" and the "Help" buttons should be
self-explanitory and may be accessed by clicking or with the 'A' or '?' keys
respectively. The "Preferences" button allows you to change user preferences.
- Display Preferences:
You may only change preferences if using System 6.0. The checkboxes may be
selected by pressing the Command key and its first letter.
The 'Error Messages Disabled'when checked will override the display of error
messages that may occur during the display or conversion of a graphic. This lets
you skip over non-graphic files easily if they were accidently selected for a
slide show or when scanning through devices or folders.
The 'Restrict BIN and TXT Files' when checked will limit the list of files you
can choose to those that most likely are real graphic files. Checking this will
prevent you from viewing a lot of Binary and Text files that aren't graphics. It
needs to be unchecked to select 3200 color and GIF that don't correspond to their
normal filename or filetype characteristics. This setting only applies to the
NDA. Keep in mind if you try to display a non-graphics file, it may display as
MacPaint and appear as garbage (you may see part of an older displayed graphic).
The 'Fix MacPaint Aspect Ratio' when checked corrects the aspect ratio on
MacPaint files so they don't appear tall. You may want to uncheck this to get a
full size MacPaint file, which would print out much nicer in condensed mode,
because of the greater resolution. This should normally be checked so MacPaint
files look normal. You may also need to check this box if you don't have much
free memory as a 'Fixed' MacPaint graphic requires roughly half as much memory as
a 'non-Fixed' one.
The 'AppleTalk Active' when checked skips 3200 color graphics because displaying
them disconnects AppleTalk. It also prevents the selection of 3200 color graphic
files in the file dialog.
The 'Deep Folder Search' when checked let's ShowMe! dig into any selected folder
as deep as it can go to find graphics files. This would even apply to a disk
drive icon. Left unchecked, ShowMe! only display the contents of the selected
folder or device one level deep and skips over any folder found in that level.
The 'Install as Finder Extra' when checked allows the Finder 6.0 features to be
installed. This might not be wanted if you already have another Finder Extra
that works with graphics (but why use it, ShowMe! does it all!). While you can
change this to install and remove it on the fly, it isn't recommended that you do
this more than once at a time because the Finder may crash.
The 'Launch Applications First' when checked and used in Finder 6.0 will send any
double clicked, opened, or printed icons to the normal application first and
ShowMe! will only get them IF the Finder can't find the application. This
setting is reversed when selecting graphics by holding down the "Control" key.
If left unchecked, the graphics are displayed by ShowMe! first for a 'Preview' of
graphics which you may later launch to the application.
The 'Mouse Direction Reversed' when checked changes the way the mouse moves the
graphic as if moving the 'Viewing Window'. Unchecked, the mouse moves the
graphic like you are moving the 'Document'.
The 'Finder Extra Menu Key' will set the menu key equivalent ShowMe! will use in
the "Extras" menu. Any displayable character may be entered. You must enter two
characters, the first one actually displays in the menu, and a secondary
character. You may not duplicate any menu equivalent used by the Finder because
it won't get to ShowMe!. Both characters may be the same if you so choose. If
you duplicate another Finder Extra keystroke that comes before ShowMe!, it may
steal (use) your keypress, keep it something unique.
The 'Time Delay Between Slides' is used to enter the delay setting. This numbers
which may be from 0 to 99 determine the amount of time a graphic is displayed
before loading the next one. If you enter any non-number characters, they'll be
used as zeros. ShowMe! doesn't count for the time it takes to convert a
graphics, so it may be a little longer before you see the next one. This is also
the time the animation will be played before moving on to the next slide.
The 'Background Color' menu sets the background color used for graphics that are
smaller than the screen size. This is used with Print Shop GS graphics,
MacPaint, or small APF files.
The 'Save' button saves the settings, cancel leaves them alone.
Suggested Use:
The best use for this NDA will be to convert graphics for loading into AppleWorks
GS or a similar program (HyperStudio, GraphicWriter III, Medely, etc...). Think
of it as a mini-SuperHiRes Convert program. It is the Only way to load a Print
Shop GS graphic into AWGS with a correct palette(nearly). It can also be used to
IMPORT graphics format types not normally allowed, like importing PaintWorks Clip
Art file into Deluxe Paint II. From the Apple Menu select "ShowMe!", then select
the Clip Art file, then save it. Close the NDA, then just open the new file into
DPII. It's that easy.
Commands and Key Equivalents