The following answers a Frequently-Asked-Question on alt.tv.the-west-wing, which is: How do I get that cool Presidential seal screensaver I see on the computers on the show? Information provided by Stephen Fuld, and used here with our thanks.
First a disclaimer: everything here applies to PCs, not Macs. We don't want to start a flame war, we have nothing against Macs, we just don't know much about them and don't have one to try things on. Anyone wishing to share Mac information with us, we would be grateful for the addition.
Stephen writes:
"There are many programs for creating screensavers available. I restricted
our search to those programs that were free, not free to try, and that I thought
at least might run on XP (which is what I have). I also didn't download
anything much larger than 2 MB as I have a slow dial up line. I
ended up downloading about 5-6 programs that looked promising. One said in
its readme file that it wouldn't work with XP. One other was missing some
DLL or other when I tried to install it. One completed the install, but I
couldn't not find the files it said it installed.
However, when I went looking for the .scr files, I found an interesting one. It
seems that XP comes with pretty much exactly what most people are looking for.
It is called My Pictures Slideshow. As best I can tell, it cycles through
the images in your My Pictures folder, with some control over how they are
shown. So, if you have XP, all you need to do is download the jpg file
from Lynn's site at
http://www.lynnsland.com/Westwing/Wall.html
The default is to put the download into the My Pictures folder, so everything
works out fine. Just select My Pictures Slideshow from the list of
screensavers in the properties/screensavers menu. The screensaver moves
the image around, has some transitions, etc. Very nice.
If you don't have XP, there is still hope. The best I have found so far is
called AnyImage and can be downloaded from the company's web site at
http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/desktop/anyimage/default.shtml
Just copy the .SCR file into the Windows directory and "anyimage"
appears in the list of screensavers. Select it and then click the
properties button to configure some aspects of it, including pointing it to the
folder that contains the file you have downloaded from Lynn's site. The
image appears, but doesn't move around the screen. However, if one can
make several images with the seal in different parts of the image, the program
can cycle among those images, simulating movement.
There may be better programs that do the movement, etc., but I haven't found one
yet that meets my other constraints.
I have also not had success with a program that will show the animated GIF that
Lynn created (a la The Agency). That GIF is really neat - Lynn, you did a
great job. I will continue looking for a program that will play it as a
screensaver."
Last updated 7/24/2002