PassageExpress.com

[Jon]

On occasion we receive a request to remove the Passage Express splash screen from the end product CD (etc.) that a user creates. This is the little Passage Express logo that appears momentarily before a project displays. Here is some information about our product and why we have, so far, decided not to remove it. Note: The splash screen does not display on a DVD "movie" for DVD players.

Software such as Power Point has its own proprietary files. In my experience with Power Point, it has been with the PPT file. After my photos and text slides are compiled into Power Point and then into a distributable CD, they are inaccessible except through the Power Point viewer or through the regular Power Point software if it is loaded on your computer. In my experience, which is not extensive, when I create a CD to distribute and then let the CD autorun in my CD drive, it comes up with a PowerPoint license agreement and if I decline the agreement, I don’t get to see the Power Point. This is on my computer that has a licensed version of Power Point loaded on it. When I run a Power Point that is loaded on my hard drive, after agreeing to the license agreement once, then it only shows the Power Point Viewer splash screen when I run it again later. Let me know if there is a way to run it otherwise.

Another popular, and likewise expensive, presentation software is Demo Shield. I see similar complaints with their software having a splash screen. Here is an example:
http://community.installshield.com/archive/index.php?t-144389.html. It tells of someone using the software for commercial purposes to advertise their company. It costs $499, ten times what Passage Express does. If I had paid a license fee of that much, I would also expect to be able to have full control over the presentation.

I once had a man ask me if there was any way that I could help him get his three years worth of work extracted out of a proprietary data base file. He had literally 1,000s of photos, documents and other things. He was supposed to send his database to the company for processing when he was done. The company that created the software that he used had gone out of business. As unbelievable as it seems, there was no company or person that had a way to unlock the database since that company went out of business. The previous owners of the company could not be traced. As far as I know, he lost all of his work.

We vowed not to let this kind of thing happen. On our CDs, you can find every file and document without using our software. You can take a project CD into a place like Walmart, insert it into the photo machine, and it will find all of the photos on the disk and print them if you like. We use no encrypted files. The only thing we have that keeps someone from hijacking pieces of our software is the splash screen that tells the user where it came from. Thus, you can see why we hesitate on this one.

We feel that this is a small trade off for the openness that it gives the projects and have had very few people question it.

Let me know if anyone has other ideas or thoughts on these things.

[tdew]

Hi Jon,

At times I wished there was a way to remove the Family History CD splash screen because what I was using the program for had no connection to Family History or because the splash screen was lighthearted and fun - while my project was more serious.

I don't have any problem with the Passage Express splash screen, because it is so rich and dignified and I don't believe it will clash with any theme I might come up with.

Terry

[Guest]

You should keep the Splash Screen, You deserve a little extra advertisement for all that you have put into this. It is an excellent program and I for one am proud to let others know what program I used to create their disk. As you said it appears momentarily and a very small trade off for the openness of the program.

I vote "yes" for the Splash Screen.

[Stephen]

Just a thought here but, what about allowing for a second or even third splash screen to pop up? First fades out, second fades in etc...

When a good job is done, its not unexpected that the author be given a few seconds to pat him/herself on the back with a little bit of plugging for the end product.

Credit where credit is due ...!!

2 cents...
...Steve
_________________
Tax me... I'm Canadian !