1. gPhotoShow does not rotate my pictures correctly. Pictures rotated with the windows xp picture viewer are not shown correctly.

The problem is not in gPhotoShow but in Windows XP viewer, it ignores the exif header and doesn't reset the orientation flag so when gPhotoShow loads the picture it thinks the picture needs to be rotated. The same happens with other programs. If you manually rotate your pictures it's better to leave the gPhotoShow rotation flag disabled.

 

2. gPhotoShow does not rotate my pictures

When the checkbox "Automatically rotate images..." is enabled gPhotoShow rotates images accordingly with the info in the exif header, but some digital cameras (and most scanners) don't set this flag so gPhotoShow doesn't know how to rotate them.

 

3. What is the Exif header ?

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, and is a standard for storing interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format to store additional information about the images.

 

4. How can I display a text over my images ?

gPhotoShow can get the text to display over your images from different sources.

1) "Description" field of the Exif header
2) DESCRIPT.ION file
3) .gprop file (gPhotoShow Image Properties file)

You should choose the method which better suits your workflow. For example if you edit all your images and your editor is able to set the "Description" field in the exif header, your could simply set your text there and set the gPhotoShow option "Exif - Description Data" in the "Image Options" section.
If you wish to display a text on some images but you don't wish to edit them, you can use gPhotoShow Image Properties:

1) Set all your preferred options for the slide show
2) In the "Advanced Options" section, enable the option "Use configured keys to..."
3) Click on the "Keys..." button and set a key for "Open Image Property" action.
4) Start the slide show (or the screen saver)
5) When you see a pictures where you wish to add a description press the key you configured in step (3)
6) Now a dialog is open, enable the option "Edit Description", insert your description and click on the "Save" button

gPhotoShow will create a file with the same name as your image but a .gprop file extension. 

You can edit this file with gPhotoShow in two ways:

- Start the slide show (or screen saver) again
- Wait for the picture to be displayed and press the key you configured in step (3) before

or

- Locate the .gprop file for the picture your wish to change by using windows explorer
- Double click on it

 

5. How do I control how long a specific photo is displayed ?

If you wish to change the display time for a specific image you must use gPhotoShow Image Properties:

1) Set all your preferred options for the slide show
2) In the "Advanced Options" section, enable the option "Use configured keys to..."
3) Click on the "Keys..." button and set a key for "Open Image Property" action.
4) Start the slide show (or the screen saver)
5) When you see the pictures where you wish to change the duration time press the key you configured in step (3)
6) Now a dialog is open, enable the option "Custom Duration", insert the time in seconds and click on the "Save" button

gPhotoShow will create a file with the same name as your image but a .gprop file extension. 

 

6. How do I set the order of slides ?

gPhotoShow can order images by file name or by date/time. If you wish to show your images in a specific sequence, you must set the "Sort by File Name" option in the "Slideshow Option" section . Then your must rename your images to give them the wished sequence (for example the first image could be renamed to "001.jpg", the second "002.jpg" and so on)

 

7. How do I make the slide show end after all the slides are shown ?

Just set the option "Image List Empty"  in the "Advanced Options" section of the gPhotoShow configuration dialog

 

8. Which is the quickest way to display a slide show with my pictures ?

Open Windows explorer, find the folder where you stored your pictures, click with the right mouse button on the folder and choose "Start SlideShow with gPhotoShow" from the context menu.

 

9. How can I change the options of the slide show started from the directory context menu (I click with the right mouse button on a directory and choose "Start SlideShow with gPhotoShow") ?

Open Windows Explorer, find the directory where gPhotoShow is installed (usually c:\program files\gPhotoShow) right click on the file gPhotoShow.gss and choose "Edit Slideshow".

 

10. I divided my pictures in categories, each category is stored in a folder, it works fine but every time I wish to change category in the screen saver I need to open the gPhotoShow configuration window and enable/disable the folders. Is there an easier way ?

Starting from v2.5.0 gPhotoShow installs a custom version of ControlSS, this ControlSS version can change the gPhotoShow Screen Saver configuration either automatically or manually. The first thing to do is to create a .gss file for each of your category and put them in a folder. Then, after you have installed v2.5.0 or later, you must configure ControlSS to use that folder. To do this open the ControlSS menu and select "gPhotoShow Settings"  -> "Configure", in the window that opens set the folder where you stored the gss files and set the automatic change options (if you like them). After you close the window all the gss files you created are listed under the "gPhotoShow Settings" menu and you can now easily change category either manually or automatically.

 

11. Is it possible to create my own frames ? How ?

Bitmapped frames are simple jpeg files together with a small text files that tells to gPhotoShow where to display the image. To create your own frames is very easy: 

1) Save your frame as jpeg file in the folder "Frames" under the gPhotoShow folder (usually c:\program files\gPhotoShow)
2) Find the coordinates of the rectangle inside the frame where the image should be displayed and write them in a text file with the same name as the jpeg file but with a .fsd file extension. The fsd file is a text file with this format:

[Frame]
Left=50
Top=50
Right=974
Bottom=718
FillBkg=1

Where Left, Top, Right, Bottom are the coordinates of the rectangle where gPhotoShow will display the image. FillBkg can 0 or 1, when 1 gPhotoShow will file that rectangle with the background color, when 0 gPhotoShow will not fill the background.

 

12. I have some panoramic images saved as jpeg, I tried to insert them in the "Web Pages and Panoramas" section but they looks weird. Is there a way to see these images moving on the screen ?

The "Web Pages and Panoramas" section is only for 360x180 degrees spheric panoramas. Panoramas saved as .mov can also have different settings but jpeg can only be full spheric panoramas. For simple rectilinear panoramas you must use the Panoramic Images section, files in this section are scrolled automatically on the screen.

 

13. I have just few panoramic images mixed together with other pictures, is there a way in gPhotoShow to scroll automatically these panoramic images without moving them to another folder ?

To do it you need to edit Image Properties for your panoramas: 

1) Set all your preferred options for the slide show
2) In the "Advanced Options" section, enable the option "Use configured keys to..."
3) Click on the "Keys..." button and set a key for "Open Image Property" action.
4) Start the slide show (or the screen saver)
5) When you see the panorama you would like to see scrolling on the screen press the key you configured in step (3)
6) Now a dialog is open, enable the option "Auto Scroll", choose the direction, duration time and click on the "Save" button

The next time you will see that picture it will move on the screen and you will enjoy your panorama !

 

14. When you add images to a folder that is already in the folder list in gPhotoShow, how do gPhotoShow updates the files list so that the images added to the folder will be included in the screensaver?

If you add images when gPhotoShow is not running it will automatically detect them on next startup and restarts the slideshow from beginning. If you add images while gPhotoShow is running it will detect and use them when all current images are displayed but only if you enabled the option "At the end of the show rebuilds the full file list" in the "Files Options" section. When this option is checked images list is updated when the slideshow finishes (ie. all images has been displayed).
Another option is to configure a hotkey for the action "Restart from beginning" (restart will also rebuild the list) so after copying the new images just press the restart key to start displaying the slideshow with the updated images.

 

15. Is it possible to display two different slideshows on a dual screen system ?

By default gPhotoShow Pro doesn't allow to display a different slideshow on each monitor but there are some command line switches which allows to run more than one instance of gPhotoShow Pro. Each instance can work only on the specified monitor, in this way you can run a different slideshow on each monitor.

/mX
Where X is the number of the monitor used for the slideshow. This option also disables the multiple instance check and allows more than one copy of gPhotoShow to run.

To start gPhotoShow Pro on monitor #1
gPhotoShow.exe /m1 /s mygss.gss
To start gPhotoShow Pro on monitor #2
gPhotoShow.exe /m2 /s mygss.gss

/qX
Closes gPhotoShow Pro instance that display a slideshow on monitor X

To close gPhotoShow Pro on monitor #1
gPhotoShow.exe /q1
To close gPhotoShow Pro on monitor #2
gPhotoShow.exe /q2

A full path name for gPhotoShow.exe and for the slideshow must be used !

For example to start 2 slideshows you could create a simple batch file. Create a text file with notepad,enter the following 2 lines:
"c:\program files\gPhotoShow\gPhotoShow.exe" /m1 /s c:\pictures\myslide1.gss
"c:\program files\gPhotoShow\gPhotoShow.exe" /m2 /s c:\pictures\myslide2.gss

Save the file with .BAT file extension and double click on it to run the command.

16. How is it possible to configure gPhotoShow to display 4 pictures at a time ?

This feature is called "Split Screen" and is available only when gPhotoShow Pro is used on a single monitor system. To enable it open the "Multiple Monitors" section of the configuration window and change the setting labeled "Split Screen" by choosing "Horizontal and Vertical"