The playlist

Content

The playlist

• Playlist quick functions
• Playlist menus
• Other playlist functions

Playlist FAQ

• What are the '.bio' files?
• Can I manually edit my playlist?
• How to add the Microsoft Windows wallpapers to the playlist?
• Some wallpapers were not added to the playlist. Why?
• How can I see which wallpapers were filtered?

The Playlist accepts wallpapers from:

• Local/remote harddrives
• Online web pages (including online communities such as Flickr and Google Images)
• Live web cams
• Locked folders

You can also set special/dynamic wallpapers, for example:

• wallpapers that are changing based on the day/night cycle
• wallpapers that are changing based on your local time
• clock wallpapers

The following image formats are supported:

• BMP
• GIF
• PNG,
• JPEG/JPG
• Jpeg2000
• WB1 images (from Webshots).

The Playlist also supports "animated" wallpapers:

• animated GIFs
• AVI
• MKV
• MPEG, MP4, MP, MPG
• WMV, VOB, ASF
• OGM
• AVS
• MOV
• 3GP, RM, RMVB, NSV, TP, TS, FLV, DAT, AVM

All these video formats are nativelly supported. You don't have to install codecs!

You can create multiple playlists, sorted be themes/categories (flowers, cars, family, etc) and quickly switch between them.

You can also perform basic operations such as 'Add files' and 'Remove selected wallpapers' with a single click.

How to add images to playlist

To add wallpapers to the playlist, select some images in Windows Explorer and just drag and drop them over BioniX Background Switcher. The files will be added at the bottom of your current playlist.

You can also use the 'Add files' or 'Add folders' options. In 'Add folders', if you enter 'C:', the whole drive will be searched for images.

Also, you may want to try Lock on folder option.

Automatic wallpaper filtering

• You can set BioniX to ignore images if their filesize is under or over the specified threshold. More information aboutimage accepted limits here.
• You can set BioniX to ignore files if their filename contain certain keywords. You can add a specific key word in the "Playlist settings -> Ignore list". More info here.

Remove selected wallpapers

You can delete the wallpapers from current local playlist, from playlist and from hard drive, delete inexistent wallpapers, delete duplicates and clear playlist.

To remove the selected wallpapers you can:

• press the Delete key to delete wallpapers from playlist
• press Control + Delete key to delete the wallpapers from playlist and from hard drive. You can also switch the functions for Delete and Control + Delete keys.
• press the specific buttons in the quick functions toolbar in Local playlist tab
• use the delete functions from the Delete menu

Quick accessible functions

Quick buttons are shown in a toolbar below playlist such as: Open an existing playlist, Save playlist, Save playlist as..., Add files to playlist, Add folders, Clear playlist, Delete inexistent files, Delete duplicates files from playlist, Delete selected files, Delete selected files from playlist AND also from hard drive, Move selected up/down, Sort playlist by filename/path/width/height/rating, Randomize playlist and Reverse order.

Categorize wallpapers

With BioniX Background Switcher you can easily move your wallpapers to user defined categories with two clicks. Just right click your image and send it to the desired category. Once you categorized an wallpaper that wallpaper is moved to the specified category. You can find the categories here on your computer: c:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXXXXXXXXX \Application Data\BioniX Wallpaper\Categories\ where XXXXXXXXXXXXX is your Windows logon name.

You can easily change the categories folder, to add, delete and rename categories.

How to set an image as wallpaper on your desktop?

To change the wallpaper press the right arrow button in the main interface, press the Control + Alt + N key combination or double click its name here in Local playlist. You can set the previous, next or current selected wallpaper. You can choose to set a panic wallpaper.

Also, you can quickly change the wallpaper even if BioniX Background Switcher is minimized in System Tray. You can press the right click on BioniX Wallpaper's icon in System Tray and choose the 'Next' option or you can simply press the Control+Alt+N key combination. It's as simply as that.

You can also change the key combination to any combination you want.

How to quickly switch between playlists

There are several ways to quickly change the playlist in BioniX Desktop Background Switcher:

• Open playlists from inside BioniX - by using the 'Playlist -> Open playlist' menu
• Double click a playlist file in Windows Explorer
• If you want to have your playlists REALLY handy, create desktop shortcuts to your playlists. Double click the shortcuts to load the playlists.
• Use the 'Open recent playlists' function inside BioniX. This located under 'Playlist -> Recent playlists' menu.
• Drag and drop the playlist into BioniX
• Even faster method: create a quick shortcut to your playlist in taskbar (drag and drop the playlist to taskbar). To switch to a different playlist, right click the shortcut you just created in the taskbar and choose the playlist you want.
• Create a script to switch between playlists: You can also create your own script to change the wallpaper or create specific playlists. Start BioniX Background Switcher and pass to it 'via command line' the appropriate playlist created. Details about the command line here.

The Playlist menu

From Playlist menu you can create, open, save playlist, open recent playlists, add files and even folders to playlist, open playlist location in Explorer, show playlist settings, rename selected file inside the playlist, set BioniX Background Switcher to shuffle wallpapers (play wallpapers in a random order).

The Delete menu

Delete from hard drive - will delete the selected wallpaper from playlist and also from your computer.

Delete from playlist - will erase the selected wallpaper only from the playlist.

You can delete the selected wallpaper from playlist also by pressing the 'Delete' key. To delete the wallpaper from playlist and from hard drive press 'Control+Delete' key combination. Check this page to see how to set what the Delete key should do (delete the wallpapers from playlist or delete the wallpapers from playlist and hard drive).

Reset 'Played' column if you want BioniX to start over playing the wallpapers. Useful when the Cycle wallpapers evenly function is enabled.

Generate thumbnails for all wallpapers

This function located under "Playlist -> Advanced" menu, will force BioniX to generate thumbnails for all wallpapers in the playlist.
This might take quite a while if your computer is slow.
Once you generate the thumbnails, the navigation through the playlist will be much smoother.

The Selection menu

In this menu you can arrange the wallpapers in the Playlist by moving the selected wallpaper up or down with one position.

Note: Check out the Shuffle function - If the Shuffle function is disabled BioniX Background Switcher will play the wallpapers in the order you arranged them in Playlist. If the Shuffle function is enabled BioniX Background Switcher will play the wallpapers in a random order, not in the order you arranged them in Playlist.

The Sort menu

BioniX can sort the wallpapers in Playlist by

• path
• filename
• width/height
• rating

The user can also randomize the playlist or reverse its order

Don't confuse Randomize with Shuffle. Randomize sorts the wallpaper in Playlist in a random order, while Shuffle  plays the wallpapers in a random order.

The Tools menu

From this menu you can open some useful tools:

Categorize images (or F6 key shortcut) will open CategorizeThis tool. You can quickly create categories and move wallpapers to the specific category. You can create categories and move wallpapers to the specified category from inside BioniX Background Switcher also. See this page for more information.

Batch resize images (or F7 key shortcut) will open ReMage Image Resizer tool. This tool uses an advanced algorithm that loses almost no quality while resizing.

Wallpaper animator will open BioniX Animated Desktop Wallpaper tool. You can use this tool to set on your desktop animated GIFs.

Other playlist functions

Playlist font and color

BioniX offers you the possibility to change the font and the background color in playlist. Check this page for more information about playlist font and color.

Restore wallpaper

You can restore the wallpaper you had before using BioniX Background Switcher by pressing a single button.

A ".bionix" file (for example "My wallpapers.bionix" or "Landscapes.bionix") is a BioniX playlist. If you double click a ".Bionix" file, BioniX Background Switcher will load that playlist.

No. Playlists are binary files. If you open them with a text editor you will ruin them.

Locate your wallpapers and add them to the playlist. For more information see this page.

Some wallpapers were not added to the playlist. Why?

Reject invalid images from BioniX Background Switcher Settings tab is enabled and check the limits for the accepted images.

Also, the Ignore list feature MIGHT filter some of the images you want to add to the playlist. For more information see this page.

How can I see which wallpapers were filtered?

There are several ways to see which wallpapers were filtered by BioniX Background Switcher:

1. In the Log tab, set the Log level of details to Verbose, Hints or Infos. Add your wallpapers to BioniX Background Switcher playlist. You will see the name of the rejected/invalid files and the reason why the files were rejected in BioniX Background Switcher Log tab.

2. You can also check the values set to Limit accepted images in the Settings tab. Look in your computer for images with size below 15KB and over 9000KB (or whatever threshold you have set) and move/delete them. Or change the values for the accepted images.