ScreenTime - make Mac and PC screensavers

There are many tools for Flash that will let you create screensavers from your SWF files, but only one can create screensavers for the Mac too. Flashmagazine editor Jens Brynildsen reviews ScreenTime.

You probably know the American rule KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). This must have been the idea that ScreenTime Media was working from. This program can be used by anyone. No programming is required at all. ScreenTime is extremely simple to use, yet it creates beautiful screensavers that is only limited by your fantasy.

Flash is an ideal tool for creating screensavers and screensavers are a great addon to the downloads section of almost any website. Just grab your favorite animation and make sure it runs in a loop. Open up ScreenTime and you are ready to go.



ScreenTime is built like a Wizard with 5 steps. The first step is adding your SWF file in ScreenTime. Just browse to the file, click OK and you get a small preview window. Decide if the screensaver shall exit on either keypresses or mouse movement and add any extra files the screensaver needs.

Step two will let you specify a separate SWF to be used for the preview window, choose an icon and set an expiration date for the screensaver. Expiration can be handy if you are making the screensaver for a campaign that only last a certain time. The Mac version of ScreenTime has some bugs for the expiry on OS X, but these can be fixed by requesting a update from ScreenTime Media.

The third step sets up the settings panel. Here you get an option for using either a SWF or BMP image, turning on/off any sound in the screensaver and adding a web link.



The fourth step is setting up the installer. The installer can also display a SWF or bitmap, but it can also install "quietly" without showing any dialogues. Here you can add a licence that the user must agree to and a readme-file to be displayed after install. There is a checkbox for opening the screensaver settings after installing.

The fifth step is building the installer. Just specify the name of the installer file and you have made a screensaver. The whole process is beautifully laid out and it is very hard to make any mistakes.

If you know actionscript programming, you can easily make screensavers that automatically download the latest headlines, giving the user an update when he/she comes back to the screen.

There are few differences between the Mac and PC version, but PC users will envy the features that are standard on the Mac, like "sleep now"-corner and a few other features that the Microsofts OS doesn't offer. ScreenTime is a joy to use and it could even serve as an example to other software makers on how to make easy to use programs. The price is $199 for either Mac or PC, or $298 for both. This will allow you to make screensavers that are distributed in up to 10.000 copies. Need more copies? Just upgrade to a more expensive "Unlimited Distribution License" (about double).
Visit ScreenTime Media

 

About Jens C Brynildsen

Jens has been working with Flash since version 3 came out. Since then, he's been an active member of the Flash community. He's created more than a hundred Flash games (thus the name of his blog) but he also creates web/standalone applications, does workshops and other consulting. He loves playing with new technology and he is convinced that the moment you stop learning you die (creatively speaking). Jens is also the Editor of this website.

 

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