Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Site: www.GodOnThe.Net/screensavers

Frequently Asked Questions

1) How different are the versions of the screen saver?

	a)	, Yeshua, the name Jesus in Hebrew, has seven letter "tops". (For comparison, a capital Y has two "tops".) A standard menorah has seven candles. (The menorah used for Chanukah has nine candles. It is sometimes referred to as a chanukiah, although that is a relatively recent term.) The Menorah screen saver begins with a Star of David, then the word Yeshua, then flickering candle flames appear over each "top". The Menorah version only has one astronomy image.
	b)	The General Christian and Christian Chapel versions end with a slightly modified version of the Apostle's Creed. They are identical except for their "Courtesy of" page.
	c)	The Messianic version starts with the Menorah section and then has the General Christian version but does not have the Apostle's Creed.
	d)	The D'var YHVH version is like the Messianic version except that the Menorah section is a bit different. First the words d'var YHVH ("Word of Jehovah") appear, then a Star of David rests on those, the candle flames light and then the name Yeshua appears under the flames and resting on the Star of David. (The Messianic version does not have d'var YHVH and the name Yeshua appears before the flames light instead of after.)

2) Do you have any other screen savers?

No, and I don't plan to make any others. It took me more than a year to make these--several hundred hours.

3) What does Yeshua mean?

"Savior" or "salvation". In Hebrew and Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, it is also used as a man's name; the English equvalent is "Jesus". Isaiah 62:11 is the place in the Tanakh (Old Testament) where God told us the name of the Messiah. ("Immanuel" is a totally different name.)

4) Why do you have a bunch of stuff in Hebrew in the General Christian screen saver, since most Christians can't read it?

True, but it sure is eye-catching, isn't it? These screen savers were developed for two primary reasons: (1) to familiarize Christians with some key Old Testament verses about Jesus and (2) for evangelism.

"First, you have to get their attention."

5) You have three screens full of Hebrew. What does all that say? Where is it from?

It is the same two lines of text, repeated in different colors for artistic effect.

Jewish blessings of God routinely begin with the words, "Blessed are You, O Lord, Our God, Ruler of the Universe". The rest of this particular blessing is from the first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." Although the combination is not one of the "standard" Jewish blessings, it is appropriate for the theme.

6) To speed downloads the files are stored in zipped format.

You must unzip the file to use it. Once you have unzipped it, you can delete the .zip file.

7) What do I do with a ".zip" file? How do I get it to run?

If you don't know basic things like that, you have no business trying to install software on a computer. Go to amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com and get a book from the "(Whatever) for Dummies" or the "(Whatever) for Complete Idiots" book series, which explain all that. Don't be turned off by the titles--I have used a number of those books on a variety of topics and they are excellent.

8) How do I use all this?

	1.	Download the .zip file.
	2.	Unzip the .zip file.

The screensaver will work on any version of Windows from Windows 95 through Windows 8.1.

If you only want to use the File as a presentation, you can store the files in any folder, but they must be in the same folder. Double click on the .exe file to start the presentation. Press Esc to stop it.

To set the .scr as the default screen saver, copy the .scr and .dat files to your c:\Windows\System32 folder.

To set the screen saver as the default:

	1.	Copy the .scr and .dat files to your c:\Windows\System32 folder.
	2.	Right-click on the desktop, then click Personalize.
	3.	In the lower righthand corner click Screensaver.
	4.	In the dialog box click the drop-down menu under Screen saver.
	5.	Click on the name of the screensaver.
	6.	Click Preview. To stop, move your mouse.
	7.	Click Apply to set that as the screensaver or Cancel to exit with no change.
	8.	Click Ok to exit.

9) Why does one flame appear and then disappear? Why are the candles not lit in sequence?

When lighting menorah candles, first you light the middle (fourth) candle, which is referred to as the SHAH-mish. Then you take that candle and light the others, going from left to right. After the seventh candle is lit you place the middle candle back in its holder.

10) Why do the flames look sort of weird?

The flickering is done with animated GIFs. When a real candle is against a dark background, the edge of the flame fades into darkness. If there is another candle in the background, the light from the background candle replaces the darkness. With the GIF images, the darkness from the foreground images blots out the brightness of the background image.

11) I tried to use several copies of an animated GIF candle and it looked weird because everything flickered exactly in unison. Why don't yours do that?

The original GIF has two images. I edited the images by flipping them left to right, etc., and created variations. There are about 5 different animated GIFs, each with a different flicker rate.

12) Can I give people copies? Can I sell copies?

Yes, you can give out copies. You cannot charge for copies. You cannot add this to a collection that you charge for.

13) Why can't I get the screen saver to run on Windows (Vers.)?

As far as I know this should run on any version of Windows from Win95 through Win 8.1 Pro. I cannot provide tech support.

	1.	All files must be in the same folder.
	2.	To be the default screen saver, the .scr and .dat files must be in your C:\Windows folder for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 and XP and in your C:\Windows\System32 folder for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.
	3.	Putting the files in your Windows folder does not automatically make them your default screen saver. You must do that manually by changing the desktop/display.

14) Is there a Linux version? Is there a Mac version?

There won't be either Linux or Mac versions. These were created with software that only creates a Windows version. Even if I had software that outputs versions for other operating systems, it could not import the project file used to create these and I would have no way to test them.

15) Can I get a Spanish version?

No. Unfortunately, all the text after "And God said, 'Let there be light'" has to be graphics. Setting up a version in another language (or for another display resolution) would basically require recreating the entire screen saver from scratch--which took a year.

16) How come when I try to go to www.MessianicPassover.com I keep winding up at www.MessianicSeder.com?

There is no separate www.MessianicPassover.com site. The Passover liturgy is called a seder. However, since most gentiles are not familiar with that term, I registered both names and have them pointing to the same site.

17) What software did you use to create the screen saver? The presentation?

The text was typed into DavkaWriter, a multi-lingual wordprocessor optimized for biblical Hebrew. (The circle of text was done with DavkaWriter's FlexiText option.) From there, I pressed Print Screen to copy the display to the Windows clipboard as a graphic. From there I pasted the graphic into JASC's PaintShop Pro Version 3 or 8 and edited it. (I find Version 8 incredibly confusing and I still often have to use Version 3.) The flickering candles were done with Namo GIF Animator, a utility that comes with Namo Web Editor from Namo Interactive, Inc. Both the screen savers and the presentations were created with Screen Saver Creator Deluxe 5.0 from Individual Software, Inc.

18) Which Bible translation did you use?

Various translations were used. Portions of Isaiah 62:11 were translated directly from Hebrew.

19) What are the names of the various galaxies, etc.?

Visit www.HubbleSpacePhotos.com. All the astronomy images are from that. It has about 75 images, each with at least one scripture.

20) How can I get rid of the green logo that displays when the presentaton ends?

You can't. It's hard-coded into the program that creates the screen saver or presentation. You might be able to use software that "reads" the screen and converts it to a Flash video or other format and then edit that. But I don't know how to use such software, so that's only an educated guess on my part. You might be able to output the video through HDMI to a TV and then run the TV's composite video output to a DVR, record it to a DVD and then import the DVD video into something like Windows Movie Maker.