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FSScreen Version 1.1

User's documentation

To all users:

The program "FSScreen" is freeware. For you that means that you may download and use this program for free. You may copy it and give it to your friends, you may distribute it on your web site or link to my site. You MUST NOT use it commercially (e.g. sell it) or edit the code.

If you like the program, please send me an e-mail: holzer@chello.at (if you don't like it, too, but then I'd like to know the reason and suggestions for improvement).

What is FSScreen good for:

I developed FSScreen out of the situation that I wanted to document a flight with Microsoft Flight Simulator using some screenshots. I discovered that it's rather annoying to press the Print Screen key to copy the current screen to the clipboard, then pause the flight, paste the picture from the clipboard into a graphical software and save it - and all that for every single picture. If you make a new picture by mistake without saving the old one, the old picture is lost forever. FSScreen solves these problems.

FSScreen is running in the background and watching the contents of the Windows clipboard all the time. As soon as a picture is stored in the clipboard (e.g. when you press the Print Screen key), FSScreen saves the picture as a BMP file immediately. The file is saved in the program directory of FSScreen, but you can set another directory as working directory for FSSCREEN.EXE, then your screenshots will be in that directory. The pictures do have the name FSSCR and a number of three digits, e.g. FSSCR000.BMP, FSSCR001.BMP, FSSCR002.BMP and so on.

How to use FSScreen:

There is no special setup necessary. The program only consists of the file FSSCREEN.EXE which doesn't even need its own directory (however this is recommended because your pictures are saved in this directory as well). You may need the file VBRUN600.DLL because the program was developed with Visual Basic. You can download it from my web site or everywhere on the WWW. Now simply perform the following steps:

- Run FSSCREEN.EXE.
- Run the flight simulator.
- Fly. If you want to make a screenshot, press the Print Screen key. FSScreen saves your picture automatically and you do not need to pause your flight for that.
- Close the flight simulator and FSScreen.
- Your pictures are now numbered in the FSScreen directory or your working directory. You can do with them what you like.

Of course you can use FSScreen not only with the flight simulator, but in every situation when you wish to make screenshots quick and easy.

The program should not decrease the flight simulator's performance significantly. There may be a short pause at the moment you press the Print Screen key, when FSScreen saves the picture.

You can save up to 1000 pictures in one session. If you exceed this number, FSScreen starts at zero again and the first pictures are overwritten.

Problems:

With some 3D graphics accelerator cards it is not possible to make screenshots with the Print Screen key. In this case you can't use FSScreen too.

If you have problems with my program, please inform me (e-mail: holzer@chello.at).

Improvements from version 1.0:

- more beautiful "outfit"
- the most recent picture is shown
- if you close FSScreen, run it again later and forget to move or rename the old pictures, they won't get overwritten, but FSScreen will continue with the next available number

Have fun with FSScreen!

Matthias Holzer
E-Mail:   holzer@chello.at
Homepage: http://fly.to/matthias-holzer