ScreenShow Pro

Program Options

The Program Options allow you to customize the program’s behavior before/while/after the recording. You can access the Program Options menu by clicking Options in the menu bar and moving the cursor over the Program option. You can see the available options in the image below:

Minimize program on start recording

This option will automatically minimize the program to the system tray after the recording starts.

Hide flashing rectangle during recording

Normally, a flashing rectangle is displayed on the screen while recording your video. If this option is checked, the flashing rectangle will no longer appear during recording.

Save settings on exit

You have the choice to save all the changes you made to the program’s options. If this option is not checked, the program will reset all the settings you made and return to the default ones.

Capture translucent/layered Windows

In Windows 2000 or XP, there are certain windows that are translucent/layered and cannot be captured without turning this option on. An example is the Office Assistant in Office 2000 or XP.

Play AVI File Options

Options:

Play the final AVI file immediately and automatically after recording
Not play the AVI file after recording
play the movie using your default player
play the movie using the ScreenShow Pro Player

Temporary Directory for Recording

ScreenShow Pro creates temporary files while recording. These temporary files can become very large and crash your system if your system ran out of disk space.

You can choose to save the temporary files in:
The Windows Temporary Directory
The directory where ScreenShow Pro is installed
Another directory that you specify

System Resources & Thread Priority

There are programs that use a lot of the system’s resources. These programs can cause ScreenShow Pro to be unstable and the frame rate drops to about 0-5 fps. In order to avoid this, ScreenShow Pro can be set to have a higher priority than other programs. However, this will decrease some other programs’ performance as well as causing Windows to stop responding. If you really want to record something and need to change this priority, you can set the value to Above Normal, Highest and Time Critical. However, it is best to leave this option with its default value, Normal.

Options for Naming the AVI file

You can choose to have the AVI file automatically named and saved after the recording stops or you can choose to have the program ask you for a name every time you make a recording:

With auto-naming, you can now avoid giving a name to every AVI you record. The name of the file will have the following format 1422005_1520_26.avi and is saved in ScreenShow Pro’s installed directory. The name is constructed using the following rules:

the first string of digits is the date of the recording: 1422005 – 14th of February, 2005

the second string represents the time when the file was saved: 1520 – 3:20 PM (15:20)

the third number indicates the length of the movie: 26 seconds.

Preset Time

You can specify the length of your movie before you start the recording. In order to do this you have to check the “Stop recording after a period of” checkbox and then select a number of seconds using the up and down arrows:

Troubleshoot

There are 2 common problems that occur when recording with ScreenShow Pro, which are actually wrong settings. If you encounter one of these two problems, you can use ScreenShow Pro to automatically fix them and restore you’re system.

For the first problem, when the audio recording no longer works properly, you’ll have to check the I have encountered the above problem box and click OK. You will be announced that the program needs to shut down in order to restore the settings.

For the second problem, when the program actually crashes you can simply check the box and click OK. The program does not need to restart. It’s simply a codec conflict and ScreenShow Pro can restrict the video codecs in order to prevent the crash.

You may want to record a video without letting the ScreenShow window appear in it. To do this you have the Keyboard Shortcuts option. They allow you to define hotkeys for starting, stopping, pausing or canceling a recording. You can also define keys for operating with layouts, jumping to the next or previous layout and showing/hiding the current layout. Please see the Layout section to learn more about layouts. You can choose any keys and any combinations using the CTRL, ALT and SHIFT keys.

(You can access the Keyboard Shortcuts menu by choosing the Tools->Keyboard Shortcuts; see the section on Keyboard Shortcuts for more options in that dialog)