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MAKE ME A SCREENSAVER
The Star, In.Tech, Sept 2, 2003
SCREENMAKER 3D
(Xara)
3D screensaver program
System requirements: Windows 98 / Me / 2000 / NT4/ XP, 32MB RAM,
Pentium or better
Price: US$14.95 (RM57)
Website: www.xara.com
Review copy courtesy of Xara
HOW do you write about a software that is simple to use, has a clean
interface and makes screensavers in just five steps?
Well, for starters, it’s so easy to use and is so fuss-free that I can
sum it up in just one word: Great!
If you are looking for a quick screensaver software for personal use,
or to make gifts for friends, or even to help market your company and
products, then this is just the software for you.
Xara ScreenMaker 3D helps you create text-based as well as
picture-based cube screensavers.
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Xara offers an easy way to design your own screensavers. |
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Imagine if you forgot to get your friend a gift, or you want to impress
some dude, just get some nice, bright photos of your friend and customise
your own screensaver. Of course, pepper your “how I did it” story with the
drama of having slaved all night over the formatting and hard coding …
this for story impact, of course
;-)
Wah, so small!
Don’t be worried about the small size of the download (2.9MB) or the
small window that appears when you launch the program. It is more powerful
than it looks.
Fully customisable, yet intelligent enough to do most things for you,
it’s one powerful tool.
With text, you can only customise the words you want to be animated in
the screensaver. Font, size of font, and colour of font are not
customisable. Take heart though, there is a total of 33 styles for the
text-based screensavers, all of which feature two lines of text moving in
all sorts of ways imaginable, including fade in and out, and in all sorts
of fonts.
As for the picture cubes, you can choose from any number of cubes
rotating in four different interlocking and rotating styles, at various
speeds. You can even customise the size of the cubes.
If you don’t like the small coloured boxes that rotate in interlocking
formation with your customised cubes, then just put “0” in the number of
Small Boxes. This will get rid of those boxes.
Basically all you need to make the picture cubes are six images. Don’t
worry about the size of your photos because ScreenMaker resizes it
for you.
Test out photo formats though. With drawings/cartoons, I found no
problems with all formats. But with photos of friends, I did find that
although the photo looked fine when opened with a photo application, when
choosing photos in ScreenMaker, some photos looked corrupted. If
this happens, first save the image as a JPEG, this being the safest
choice. Then select the JPEG format pictures.
Unfortunately, there is no option for a slide show screensaver or an
option to include music clips. Perhaps, Xara could include those in future
versions of ScreenMaker.
Easiest program
ScreenMaker works in just five steps:
1) Select a screensaver type (Picture Cubes or 3D Text);
2) Select the style;
3) Personalise the screensaver (use your own words or pictures);
4) Set the quality / speed; and,
5) Save and install to PC.
If you just click on Install, the program will save the screensaver you
made as a program as well as install it to your PC.
If you click on Save, the program will just save the screensaver
without installing it. Hence, you can make any number of screensavers
without worrying about them overwriting your current screensaver.
The screensaver you made is then saved in the .scr format. The size of
this file is quite big. The few screensavers that I created were about
1,200KB. Fret not, you can just right-click on the screensaver and zip it
up if you need to send it to friends and family.
Fun, fun, fun
As you can imagine nobody was spared in my screensaver “experiments.”
Get photos of your family, friends and loved ones and watch them cringe as
they watch your masterpieces ….
Just remember that as the photos are kinda small when “pasted” onto the
rotating cubes, it’s better to use bright or clear pictures only, as the
dark ones will only cause your screensaver to look dull. Also, closeups of
subjects are better than full body shots.
The best screensaver I could come up with was actually one where I used
colourful illustrations.
Seriously, if you want to get a screensaver program, you might as well
get Xara’s for the price and ease of use.
Pros: Easy to use; nice price; customisable.
Cons: No option for a slide show screensaver or to add background
music.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
ALSO:
Just right for SOHO needs, September 6, 2006
It's a Zoo Out There, June 16, 2005
All Style and Class, April 15, 2004
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