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Using Pictures for your Desktop or Screensaver

Did you ever want to use one of the great photos of the Arboretum as your desktop photo or several of them as a slide-show screensaver? The following article will help get you started on a real photo treat.

Desktop

The simplest approach is to use a single picture as the background for your computer's desktop display. Using your browser, find a picture you like and right-click on it. Look down the pop-up menu and click on "Set as Background" if you are using Internet Explorer (or "Set as Wallpaper" if Netscape or Mozilla). That's all there is to it. The picture will appear same-sized in the middle of your desktop.

Note that if the picture is blown up to cover the whole desktop, or is "tiled," i.e., repeated all over the desktop, then you have to do the following: (the steps differ somewhat depending on which Microsoft operating system you use)

Win98	Win2000	WinXP
Click on Start then Settings then Control Panel then Display. Click on the Background tab In Display Properties, then change the Display value to Center.	Click on Start then Settings then Control Panel then Display. Click on the Background tab In Display Properties, then change the Display value to Center.	Click on Start then Control Panel then Display. Click on the Desktop tab In Display Properties, then change the Position value to Center.

The picture should now display properly.

Repeat this procedure whenever you want to change a picture on your desktop.

Screensaver

If you are running Windows XP, you have all the tools you need to set up a slide show of images you pick as your screen saver. No more Flying Toasters or squiggly lines, just beautiful shots of the Arboretum or whatever you want, displayed randomly whenever your computer is idle.

If you don't have XP, don't worry. You can either switch (it's a significant improvement over Win98) or you can get inexpensive third-party slideshow screensaver software that is even better than what is built into WinXP. I will give more information on that below.

WinXP Steps

1. Gather some pictures. The screensaver's default setting is to store the pictures in the My Pictures folder. You can put them elsewhere, but that will require some changes on the settings menu. More on that later.
2. Use your browser to display a picture you like. Right-click on it. Click on "Save Picture As" for Internet Explorer ("Save Image As" in Netscape / Mozilla).
3. If the dialog box shows a "My Documents" button, click it, then click on My Pictures. Change the name if you wish, then click on Save.
4. If the dialog box does not show a "My Documents" button, then navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\My Documents\My Pictures and save the image there.
5. Go to the Display program in the Control Panel by following the instructions above. Click on the Screensaver tab and selevt My Picture Slideshow under Screen Saver.
6. You can check it out with the preview button, and change the settings with the Settings button.
7. If you want to put your pictures elsewhere, the Settings button is the place to do this.

Third-Party Programs

What if you don't have WinXP or you want more control over the slide show. A number of programmers have created alternative programs that do a first-class job. You can download them for free, but then are expected to pay for them in a short time (in a few weeks, generally). The prices are low: under $20.

Here are two:

Screen Paver - $12.95. Free test expires after 30 days. Highly customizable. Can play music during the slide show.

gPhotoShow - this comes in 2 versions, a free one and a newer, more fully-featured one for $16.95.

Additionally, if you have a digital camera, you should check out the software that came with it. You may find slideshow capability there that can be used as a screensaver. Another source might be your image viewing program. ACDSee, at least in its more recent versions, can generate screensaver slide shows.

I hope this is a good start at getting the Frelinghuysen Arboretum's beauty onto your computer!

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