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                          A   S m a l l e r   G I F
               W i n d o w s   R e f e r e n c e   M a n u a l
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This is a very brief reference manual for the Windows version of A
Smaller GIF. It is also available online, at
http://www.peda.com/smaller/man.html. Images are included in the HTML
version of the manual, also included in this download package.

Contents

   * Menus
        o System Menu
        o File Menu
        o Edit Menu
        o Animation Menu

   * Windows
        o Preview Window
        o Animation Controls Window
        o Frame Controls Window
        o Preferences Window

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                                   Menus

We begin with an overview of the menus available while using A Smaller GIF.

Contents

   * System Menu
   * File Menu
   * Edit Menu
   * Animation Menu

System Menu

   * About A Smaller GIF... displays the start-up screen. It may be
     dismissed by pressing any key. The start-up screen shows the program's
     version number on the left and the registered user's name on the
     right.

File Menu

   * Open... allows you to open an animated GIF to work with. After opening
     a file, three windows will open (a preview window, an animation
     controls window, and a frame controls window). The windows are
     described in the Windows section of this manual.

   * Close Window closes the foremost window. Closing any of the windows
     for a particular animated GIF will close all of the windows associated
     with that animated GIF.

   * Save saves the current document after trying to minimize the amount of
     disk space the animation uses. A Smaller GIF can reduce the amount of
     space an animation uses without changing its appearance in any way, as
     GIFs are stored using a lossless compression format. Many of the GIF
     utilities available do not maximally compress GIF files when they are
     saved. Even A Smaller GIF is not guaranteed to fully compress a GIF
     file. Currently, the program uses a number of techniques to reduce the
     size of the resulting GIF file. Later versions of this program may
     incorporate additional compression techniques. Some techniques may
     produce files that are not compatible with viewers that do not fully
     implement the GIF standard - you have some control over the techniques
     employed via the preferences window.

   * Save As... is similar to Save, but allows you to save the file using a
     new name, so that you may keep your original file intact.

   * Test Compression compresses the GIF file without actually saving it.
     After compression, it will report the file size that would have been
     acheived if the file was actually saved.

   * Register is used to register the program. For more registration
     information, please see our registration page.

   * Preferences opens the preferences window, which allows you to control
     the compression techniques used. You may also edit your own standard
     GIF comment by using the preferences. See the section on preferences
     for more information.

   * Quit exits the program.

Edit Menu

The edit menu allows you to cut, copy, and paste text into the various text
fields used.

Animation Menu

The animation menu is available after you have opened an animation.

   * Add Standard Comment prepends the exit comment with your standard
     comment. You may modify your standard comment via the preferences
     window.

   * Remove All Comments removes all GIF comments from the animation.

   * Deinterlace All Frames deinterlaces all of the frames of the
     animation. On many platforms, Netscape Navigator (versions 2 and 3)
     flickers considerably when displaying the first frame of an animated
     GIF which is interlaced. Subsequent interlaced frames don't cause
     flicker, but do slow updating. On both the Macintosh and Windows
     platforms, Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 3) handles interlaced
     animated GIFs well.

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                                  Windows

We illustrate the remainder of the program by discussing what happens when
you open the provided "GrafEqAd.gif" file that is supplied as part of the
download package. The file has already been processed by a utility which
claims to shrink your GIF files.

Contents

   * Preview Window
   * Animation Controls Window
   * Frame Controls Window
   * Preferences Window

Preview Window

The preview window, entitled "GRAFEQAD Preview", displays a preview of the
animated GIF. If you enlarge the window, you will see the entire window
title. The preview image will be centered within the larger window, and
surrounded by the GIF's background colour.

The keyboard's arrow keys may be used to navigate, as described below:

   * Press the right arrow key to advance the preview by one frame. Hold
     the right arrow key down to fast-forward through the animation.

   * Press the left arrow key to rewind the preview by one frame. Hold the
     left arrow key down to rewind through the animation.

   * Press the down arrow key to play the animation forward, at normal
     speed. Press the key again to fast-forward through the animation.

   * Press the up arrow key to play the animation backward, at normal
     speed. Press the key again to repidly rewind through the animation.

   * Press the space bar to toggle preview playback. If the preview is
     playing, the space bar stops the preview. If the preview isn't
     playing, the space bar starts playing the preview forward, at normal
     speed.

   * Press the escape key to stop the preview from playing.

If the preview reaches the end of the animation while playing forward, it
will resume from the beginning. If the preview reaches the beginning while
playing backward, it will resume from the end.

Animation Controls Window

The animation controls window, entitled "GRAFEQAD Animation Controls", is
used to control the overall animation. Although you often can't see the
entire title, the window's visual appearance sets it apart from the other
windows.

   * Size: 140x60 (6.1K) displays the size of the animation. In this case,
     it is 140 pixels wide, 60 pixels high, and uses approximately 6.1
     kilobytes of disk space.

   * 31 Frames (0:07.20) displays the length of the animation. In this
     case, it contains 31 frames. If the animation is played at normal
     speed, on a machine capable of playing the animation at normal speed,
     it will last 7.2 seconds.

   * Loop forever controls the looping aspects of the animation. This
     animation is set to loop forever. Other possibilities include playing
     once, or looping a fixed number of times, from once to 65,535 times.

   * 24 colours displays the number of colours used in the animation.

   * Background Colour FFFFFF displays, visually and textually, the
     background colour of the animation. Web browsers tend to ignore this,
     and opt to use the web page background instead of the background
     specified here. As the background given here is used in the preview,
     this control allows you to see the effects of different page
     backgrounds. The textual description is given using HTML syntax - the
     colour is given as <red><green><blue>, with each component given as a
     two digit hexadecimal number.

   * Starting Comment displays the GIF comment(s) that precede the frames
     of the animation. You may edit the comment. Normally, one chooses to
     put comments after the animation frames, by using the next control.
     Starting comments will delay the arrival of the first frame.

   * Ending Comment displays the GIF comment(s) that follow the frames of
     the animation. You may edit the comment.

Frame Controls Window

The frame controls window, entitled "GRAFEQAD Frame Controls", is used to
control the current frame of the animation. Although you often can't see
the entire title, the window's visual appearance sets it apart from the
other windows.

   * Frame 1 0:00.00 identifies the current frame. In this case, the
     current frame is the first frame, which also starts at 0 seconds into
     the animation. You may jump to any frame in the animation by entering
     a frame number.

   * The frame slider appears next. It visually displays your position in
     the animation. You may position yourself to any frame by dragging the
     thumb with the mouse.

   * The seven playback controls are displayed next. The edgemost controls
     rapidly rewind and fast-forward the preview through the animation. The
     next pair plays the animation, at normal speed, backwards and
     forwards. The innermost pair rewind and advance the preview through
     the animation one frame at a time. The center control halts automatic
     playback.

   * Duration 0:01.00 controls the duration of the current frame. In this
     case, the current frame lasts 1 second.

   * User Input specifies if the user, by giving some sort of input, may
     cause the animation viewer to advance to the next frame before this
     frame's duration has expired. If checked, and the user gives input
     while this frame is displayed, the viewer should immediately advance
     to the next frame. If this frame has a duration of zero seconds and
     the control is checked, the viewer should not advance until user input
     is given. A Smaller GIF ignores this feature of GIF animations, as do
     most other viewers.

   * Interlaced controls whether the current frame is interlaced.

   * Comment shows the comment(s) that immediately precede the current
     frame. Normally, comments are put at the end of the animation by using
     the Exit Comment control in the animation controls window.

Preferences Window

The preferences window, opened by selecting Preferences (under File), is
used to

   * control which GIF compression techniques are tried, as well as to
   * edit your standard comment.

The popup control in the top left corner of the window selects which
preferences you wish to review. Preferences are stored on disk in the
registration file. Comments on each of the available preferences follow:

   * GIF Optimization

        o Omit frame terminators specifies whether frame terminators may be
          omitted. Most GIF viewers ignore frame terminators and opt to
          determine the end of a frame by counting the number of pixels
          decoded. Viewers are forced to do this since a moderate number of
          GIFs do not include frame terminators. With this option selected,
          the files are slightly smaller, but do not follow the GIF
          specification strictly.

        o Exclude (0,0) from frame rectangle specifies whether the top left
          corner of encoded frames must be the top left corner of the
          animation. A Smaller GIF only encodes differences between frames,
          so the upper left corner is often not included by default.
          Checking this will generate smaller GIFs. Produced GIFs will not
          be compatible with version 2 of Internet Explorer for the
          Macintosh if this control is checked.

   * GIF Comments

        o Standard GIF Comment shows your standard GIF comment. You may
          quickly add your standard comment to an animation by selecting
          Add Standard Comment from the Animation menu.

          The default comment is "Shrunk by NAME on DATE, using A Smaller
          GIF vVERSION."

             + "NAME" expands to the registered user's name,
             + "DATE" expands to the current date, and
             + "VERSION" expands to the current version of the program.

