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Multipane 1.0

by Tom Bernard

Multipane is a Mac OS X Screen Effects module. Multipane searches your system for Screen Effects modules. Then Multipane divides your screen into panes and chooses a Screen Effects module to run within each pane.

To use Multipane, copy it to ~/Library/Screen Savers/. (The "~" tells you to locate the Library folder within your Home folder.)

Then open System Preferences and choose the Screen Effects preference from the Personal preferences. Scroll the list under Screen Effects and choose Multipane.

Here is an example of your screen divided into two panes with the savers SpiroScales and SolarWinds running in each pane:

 

 

Here, the screen is split into four panes running Tunnel, Pipes, Rubik and SpiroScales:

 

 

In the next example, the screen is divided into twelve panes:

 

Note that a second instance of Multipane is running within one pane. That Multipane has divided its pane into twelve more panes. There is a third instance of Multipane within one of those panes.

Multipane will work with most Screen Effects modules. If you have problems with Multipane, you may have a module that does not run with Multipane or that conflicts with another module. To determine which module conflicts with Multipane, create a folder named /Screen Effects Collection/ within your Home folder. Then drag all the Screen Effects modules except Multipane from ~/Library/ Screen Savers/ to the /Screen Effects Collection/ folder. Add each module one at a time back to ~/Library/ Screen Savers/ and test to see if Multipane has a problem with that module. Please report offending modules and any other comments that you have to the email address listed below. It is possible that I may be able to change Multipane to work with the offending module.

Multipane currently does not run .slideSaver modules such as Cosmos or Forest. I hope to fix this in a future release of Multipane.

Multipane is FreeWare. You may keep and enjoy Multipane without charge.

The source code for Multipane is also available. You may study the source to learn how Multipane works. You may also incorporate parts of the source into your own work, provided that proper credit is given. Please see Multipane Copyright Information.rtf for further information.

 

Credits

I am grateful to Brian Nenninger of Dozing Cat Software for making the source code for his SaverLab application and Assimilator module available for me to study and incorporate into Multipane. Brian Nenninger has saved me considerable time. Please see Multipane Copyright Information.rtf for further information.

Design and programming: Tom Bernard
Testing: Chris Newman
Feedback: Chris Newman

 

Please send questions or comments to:

Multipane (at) bersearch.com

 

Multipane is
Copyright © 2003 Bersearch Information Services
All rights reserved.

Open source licensing information is given in Multipane Copyright Information.rtf

 

Tom Bernard
Bersearch Information Services
July 20, 2003