Each of SlideShow's parameters is explained below, with reference to the clickable example code in the left frame: you can click a parameter from the example code to jump to its explanation, or simply read this page from top to toe, clicking the red references to other parameters to skip between them as necessary.
Most of SlideShow's parameters have default settings which are mentioned below. If the default setting is the option you'd like to use in your own implementation, you can leave that parameter out of your HTML code.
The 'Archive' attribute & 'CabBase' parameter
JAR (Java ARchive) and CAB (cabinet) files are archives containing Java class files in compressed form, making them easier to handle and quicker to download. Most modern browsers are able to read one or other of these formats, and the Archive attribute and CabBase parameter tell the browser the name of the archive file to open. The .JAR, .CAB and .CLASS files must all be in the same directory, and the CODEBASE= attribute is used in the normal way, if required, specifying the absolute or relative location of this directory. Older browsers that are unable to read either the JAR or the CAB file will instead read the loose CLASS files.
Width & Height
A standard scenario with an applet like SlideShow is to use a collection of images that are all the same size, and set the applet dimensions accordingly. Equally as good is to set the applet dimensions to match the size of your largest image, and set the Position parameter to "centered". Using this second method and setting the BgColor parameter to match the color of your page background will give a clean effect regardless of how much your image sizes vary. If your applet dimensions are smaller than the dimensions of some of your images, it's still preferable to set Position to "centered" (that's why it's the default setting for that parameter!). This way, although you won't see the whole of those larger images, you will the the central portion.
Copyright
This parameter must be included or the applet will not run, whether registered or unregistered. To prevent mistakes we recommend that you copy/paste it into your code from the Getting Started page: it is case-sensitive, single-spaced throughout and should appear on a single line. If there's a problem with this parameter, you'll see a status-bar message that reads "Copyright parameter missing or incorrect" which should lead you to the problem.
BgColor
The applet's background color as a hex triplet. For any images that are smaller than the applet dimensions, the remaining space will be filled with this color. For best results, set this to the same value as that of your page's body-background. The default is FFFFFF (white).
TextColor
The color of the text used to display the optional filename/filepath and message. The default is 000080 (navy blue).
TextBgColor
The color of the 3D background placed behind the filename/filepath/message text (if you opt to use these text additions). The default is C0C0C0 (lightgray). Because this is a 3D box and the applet has to derive lighter and darker colors for its edges, you'll get best results by using mid-range colors rather than, for example, black (000000) or red (FF0000).
Font
A comma-delimited string giving the name, style and size of the font you want to use for the optional filename/filepath/message text entries. The default settings are Helvetica, in bold, at size 10, which would be written as Helvetica,bold,10. Two important things to note: first, there must be no spaces in this entry; second, the three items must appear in the order name,style,size. Note that the style part of this setting can be plain, bold, italic or bolditalic, and these are not case-sensitive. Choosing a smaller font will automatically decrease the size of the 3D text-background box.
ShowFilename
There are three possible values for this parameter: yes, no or path. None of these is case-sensitive. Choose 'no' and no text will be shown in the applet. Choose 'yes' and the name of the current image file will be shown. Choose 'path' and the full path to the current image file (as given in the corresponding Image parameter) will be shown. If you opt to set a Message for any of the images this message will replace the displayed filename or filepath if the mouse enters the applet. If you choose to display the filename or path and don't set a Message for an image, the filename or path will continue to be displayed when the mouse enters.
Pause
A length of time, in seconds, that each image should remain on the screen before the next replaces it. The default is 10.
Position
The position within the applet area that each image should be placed, with three possible values, none of which is case-sensitive:
centered - the Images will be centered within the applet area. Images that are smaller than the applet will be surrounded evenly with BgColor. For images that are larger than the applet, the central portion of the image will be visible. This is the default value.left - the top-left corner of each image will be fixed to the top-left corner of the applet. Provided that your applet dimensions are at least as large as your largest image, this will give good results. For images that are larger than the applet, the bottom and right edges will be chopped off, which might be undesirable.
scaled - every image will be automatically scaled to match the dimensions of the applet. If all your images differ in size only slightly, the results can be okay. However, scaling a small image into a large applet (or vice versa) will usually be a bit of a disaster, especially if the proportions of the image differ from those of the applet.
Animate
A simple, non-case-sensitive, yes or no value. If you choose 'no', each image will simply appear over the last. If you choose 'yes', each image will slide into view. The default value is yes.
AnimateFrom
A choice of 7 non-case-sensitive values that let you choose how images should slide into view. (This parameter has no effect if Animate is set to 'no'.)
left - each image will slide into view from left to right.right - images will slide from right to left.
bottom - images will slide from bottom to top.
top - images will slide from top to bottom.
random - the applet will choose a different animation option for each image at random.
hrandom - images will slide alternately from left to right and right to left.
vrandom - images will slide alternately from top to bottom and bottom to top.
AnimationDelay
The delay between each frame of the animation - in other words, the 'slide speed'. Higher numbers give a greater delay, and hence a slower slide. The default is 5. The precise speed will vary according to the sizes of the images, so if your images tend towards the large side, reduce this figure; for very small thumbnails, increase the figure. NOTE: if you set AnimateFrom to 'random', you may get best results by replacing this parameter with both of the two following parameters if your applet dimensions are not square.
AnimationVDelay
If all of your images will be sliding vertically or horizontally, there is no need to use this parameter or the parameter below: you can simply adjust the speed with the AnimationDelay parameter. However, if you choose 'random' in the AnimateFrom parameter, images will slide vertically or horizontally at random. If your applet dimensions are particularly wide and short, or narrow and tall, some images will slide very fast and others very slowly. This parameter overrides the AnimationDelay speed for any images sliding vertically, allowing you to set a different speed for them.
AnimationHDelay
This parameter works in just the same way as AnimationVDelay, but allows you to specify a different speed for images sliding horizontally.
NOTE: Of the three parameters, AnimationDelay, AnimationVDelay and AnimationHDelay, only two will ever need to be included. To clarify your code, you may wish to include the 'V' and 'H' parameters so that you can tell at a glance what's controlling what. With both of those parameters included, the basic AnimationDelay parameter has been completely overridden, so there's no point in including it.
InitialLoad
Before SlideShow can display an image, of course, it must be downloaded. This parameter allows you to choose whether all the images should be downloaded before SlideShow begins to display the first, or whether SlideShow should initially display the first image, download the second and display it, download the third and display it, and so on. To preload all images, set this parameter to a non-case-sensitive yes. To follow the second course, choose the default value, no (or leave the parameter out).
Two points to note here: if you choose not to preload the images, the AnimationDelay will not be observed during the first 'pass' through your images - much will depend upon how long each image takes to download. However, this will prevent visitors to your page having to wait as long before something is displayed. The second point is that this affects only the first pass through the images: once all required images have downloaded, using either method, they are cached and will be rotated according to your AnimationDelay setting.
DisplayOrder
Allows you to choose the order in which the images are displayed. There are three possible options:
up: displays the images in order from 1 to 2000 (or your highest-numbered image parameter).down: displays your highest-numbered image first and works its way down to number 1.
random: displays the images in a random order. Note that this is intelligent randomization: in one pass through your total number of images, each will be displayed once. In other words, SlideShow selects an image from the pool of not-yet-displayed images rather than picking randomly from the entire list. A new random order will be selected before the applet restarts.
The default setting is up, and the values are non-case-sensitive.
PauseOnEnter
A straightforward yes or no to whether the applet should pause when the mouse enters the applet area and only resume again when it leaves. The default setting is 'no' which will be ideal for most uses. You might want to set this parameter to 'yes' if each image acts as a link to a different URL and your images won't Pause on the screen for long.
Image1, Image2, . . . Image2000
The name (and relative or absolute path if required) to the image files you want to display. Up to 2000 images can be shown. If you include a relative path to an image file, remember that this path is relative to the location of the HTML document containing the applet.
URL1, URL2, . . . URL2000
The URL of the web page or Internet resource you want the correspondingly-numbered image to link to if clicked. This may be an absolute URL ("http://www.protestors.com/plain.htm") or a relative URL ("../../another/page.htm"). Note that although Java does support #name anchors appended to URLs (to link to particular parts of a page), not all browsers will react correctly to it, so its use is generally best avoided.
As an aid to testing, URLs can be prefixed or replaced with dollar signs ($) and SlideShow will ignore them when clicked and not link anywhere.
Target1, Target2, . . . Target2000
The name of the frame or window you want the correspondingly-numbered image's URL to open in. If no Target parameter is included for an image, the target for this image will default to _self.
Message1, Message2, . . . Message2000
An optional message to appear within the applet when the mouse moves onto the image (which might say something like 'Click the image to do such-and-such'). If you opted to display the filename/filepath within the applet this will be replaced by the Message.
NOTE: If no message is required for a particular image, be sure to remove the corresponding Message parameter. Simply setting its value to "" will give unsatisfactory results.