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You also have a kind of permanent demo mode for screen savers.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T h e R o a d L e s s T r a v e l e d
Customizing your OS X Mac cheaply, Part 2: Slide shows hidden in your computer
Nov. 3, 2004
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard
Customizing your Mac OS X computer can be fun, especially when you're viewing some of the entrancing screen savers that come with your Mac. But the best screen saver might well be the one you make yourself, using your own pictures.
I consider good slide shows almost as important as good desktop backgrounds, Last week I offered a few tips on choosing backgrounds, and this week I'll tell you to take advantage of Apple's amazing slide-show screen saver.
The slide-show screen saver that comes with OS X Macintosh computers is a perfect way to show off the superior image rendering built into OS X. Pictures glide gracefully across the screen, fading seamlessly into each other every few seconds. Unlike the way slide shows are handled on Windows PCs, images in the official OS X slide show never stutter or jerk as they move. It's very impressive.
You never have to buy slide-show software or even fire up iPhoto (which has an excellent slide-show mode) if you remember to use Apple's built-in version.
To choose it, right click on the desktop (or Ctrl-Click, if you don't have a two-button mouse) and click "Change Desktop Background." (If your version of OS X doesn't have that option when you click on the desktop, use System Preferences instead.) At the bottom of the list of Apple's own screen saver modules, you'll see a folder icon and a label that says "Pictures Folder."
Click on that icon to choose the contents of your Pictures folder for the slide show. If you have a recent version of iPhoto on your Mac, you can also choose to show pictures from iPhoto's library. That option is farther down, starting with a module called "Photo Library." You'll see choices for all your iPhoto organizational folders, too, if you want to make a more specialized slide show.
Apple's software engineers did a beautiful job. The slide show screen saver does a varying pan-and-scan display of each picture based on the orientation of the image (horizontal photos are panned mostly sideways and vertical photos are given mostly up-and-down pans, for example), and I'm convinced that the slide-show software makes a few other image judgments, too, before manipulating each photo.
Transitions seem to be governed by the overall composition, and some of the pans seem much too clever to be purely accidental. But whether the software has a little artificial intelligence is not what really matters; the slide show itself will carry you away.
A cool effect you might not have discovered is the way OS X lets you preview a screen saver in a kind of permanent demo mode for as long as you'd like. You can have the preview open in a corner of the screen to provide a slide show in miniature, running merrily along while you do other tasks.
Among the other standard screen savers that come with an OS X Mac, I like "Forest" a lot. It presents startlingly clear images (including some extraordinary closeups) of forest plant and animal life. And in winter months I'm drawn to the "Beach" screen saver, which shows ultra-detailed views of secluded spots where no snowflake has ever touched the sand.
You can customize your Mac even more by downloading free screen savers. Version Tracker is a good place to find them. One I find fascinating is the Maya Paint Effects screen saver created by Alias Wavefront. You can get it from www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/8344.
Next week: A new color scheme? It's a snap.
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