# Need Help getting the screen saver up that came with my "Skin"



## baltobabe (Nov 1, 2008)

Hi All!

Have been lurking for a few days and  loving the site!  Thanks for all that post such great info!

Got my Kindle whos name is Leopardo, and his "skin" came today from DecalGirl but I am having a problem getting the "screensaver" to appear.

I have it loaded ...put it on the F drive when the USB is plugged in...but when I unplug and turn Leopardo on I got as far as the word " screensaver" appearing in the menu...but when I press on it ...Nothing Appears...

Any and all hints and insights will be so appreciated!

Muchos Gracias!
bb & Leopardo


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

I just bought a skin for my kindle and I was just wondering about how would one apply a screensaver?


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

There is a thread on changing the screensaver, over in the tricks and hints forum.

I think to have only the one show up (to match your skin) you only install the one picture.

L


----------



## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

I was able to do it using this info:

Attach the Kindle to a computer using the USB cord.
Using Windows Explorer (or whatever you use to see individual files/folders) , you should see a new drive called Kindle under My Computer. Go to that drive. (Or if you have an SD card in your Kindle, you can go to the SD drive.)
Create a new folder called “pictures” and a subfolder called “screensavers” under it. Make sure both folder names are all lowercase.
Copy your image files into the screensavers folder. Your pictures should be 600×800 pixels and black & white. I’ve only used .jpg files. (Note: I've used .png files as well)
After copying is complete & it is safe, remove the Kindle from the USB connection.
Go to your Home menu and press alt-z. This will create a new book called “screensavers” . Open it. You’ll see each of your pictures. You can advance through them with the prev. page and next page buttons. (Note: The new book will appear at the END of your book list)
While viewing your pictures, look at the bottom of the Kindle screen. If you see your battery indicator & Menu prompt, press alt-F to go into Full Screen mode.
On each photo, press alt-shift-0 (i.e., alt-shift-zero) . After a brief delay, you’ll get a message that your picture has been exported as screensaver. Click Close on the message.
Navigate to each of the pictures you want to use and repeat the above step.
When you’ve got all your pictures loaded, test them by going into & out of sleep mode. Alt-aA (i.e., alt-font size button) puts it to sleep & wakes it up again. Each time it sleeps, it should use a different image. If you see the same image all the time, relook at Step 3.


----------



## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

p.s.,
if that is the only picture you put in, then that is all that will appear on the screen...


----------



## baltobabe (Nov 1, 2008)

I got as far as having the word screensaver show up

BUT when I then click on that no leopard spots...no nothing

And the leopard spots were all I put on there...

I hope someone can help Leopardo get his spots!

Thanks!
bb and Leopardo


----------



## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

did you make the two files, all labeled in lower case letters? 
If so, maybe go back and reload the file and try again...?


----------



## baltobabe (Nov 1, 2008)

Yes I did make two files and still no luck...I have tried several times...

GRRRR...so frustrating!


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

It's always frustrating when things don't work.  I love computers when they work and not so much when they don't.  : )
Usually I figure out that I've left some small step out...

Doublecheck that the folder called screensavers is INSIDE the folder called pictures; make sure your new screensaver image is inside the folder called screensavers.

If they are and it still won't work, I would suggest pouring a glass of wine or your other favorite calming beverage and then start over.

Hook your Kindle up via the USB, delete the folders you added already and then work through all the steps below, one at a time.  Print them out and check them off as you do them.

Here are the steps again: quoting Octochick's post, which I think quotes Leslie's FAQs:

1.Attach the Kindle to a computer using the USB cord.

2.Using Windows Explorer (or whatever you use to see individual files/folders) , you should see a new drive called Kindle under My Computer. Go to that drive. (Or if you have an SD card in your Kindle, you can go to the SD drive.)

3. Create a new folder called “pictures” and a subfolder called “screensavers” inside it. Make sure both folder names are all lowercase.

4. Copy your image files into the screensavers folder. Your pictures should be 600×800 pixels and black & white. I’ve only used .jpg files. (Note: I've used .png files as well)

5.After copying is complete & it is safe, remove the Kindle from the USB connection.

6. Go to your Home menu and press alt-z. This will create a new book called “screensavers” . Open it. You’ll see each of your pictures. You can advance through them with the prev. page and next page buttons. (Note: The new book will appear at the END of your book list) While viewing your pictures, look at the bottom of the Kindle screen. If you see your battery indicator & Menu prompt, press alt-F to go into Full Screen mode.

7.  On each photo, press alt-shift-0 (i.e., alt-shift-zero) . After a brief delay, you’ll get a message that your picture has been exported as screensaver. Click Close on the message.  Navigate to each of the pictures you want to use and repeat the above step.

8.  When you’ve got all your pictures loaded, test them by going into & out of sleep mode. Alt-aA (i.e., alt-font size button) puts it to sleep & wakes it up again. Each time it sleeps, it should use a different image. If you see the same image all the time, relook at Step 3.

As I say, usually I find I've left out some little step.  Sleeping on it and then starting over very methodically usually works for me with computer or quilting issues!

Let us know how it goes!!!

Betsy

Betsy


----------



## baltobabe (Nov 1, 2008)

LOL....Don't ask me how or why or what...

But Leopardo now has his spots!!!

Thanks to each of you who so graciously shared our knowledge and your thoughts!

Muchos Gracias
bb and Leopardo (who is loving his spots!)


----------



## thomashton (Oct 28, 2008)

Let's see a picture . . . or maybe not. Technology is not really your friend right now.


----------



## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

thomashton said:


> Let's see a picture . . . or maybe not. Technology is not really your friend right now.


LOL 
Yes, baltobabe, we would love to see Leopardo's spots!


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

My "screensaver" file has disappeared on my home screen any recommendations


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Vegas_Asian said:


> My "screensaver" file has disappeared on my home screen any recommendations


This is the screensaver that came with your skin? Does your home screen have multiple pages? Have you paged through your home screen? Does the screensaver still appear when you push Alt-Aa?

Betsy


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

The screensaver that came with my skin is still working, but my other skin is arriving tomorrow and I am looking for my screensaver file..its not there.


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Nevermind fixed it by hitting Alt-Z and it showed up


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Okay anyone.  

I've just received my decalgirl:  Monet's Waterlillies, but I cannot get it to work. I've reviewed all the stuff written here, but it always turns my brain to mush.  Did I say, I have a i-Mac.  Is this different.  I've created a file that the picture will not go in.  It's sitting on my mainbar line thingy.  It's also in some file that I can't seem to find right now.  

Any help will be much appreciated.

kathy


----------



## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

> Did I say, I have a i-Mac. Is this different.


No. It gets sent to you via email, and if you are using Mail, it will go into your downloads folder.



> I've created a file that the picture will not go in. It's sitting on my mainbar line thingy.


What do you mean by file? What you received in your email is a .jpg file. Do you mean a folder? What is the mainbar line thingy? The Apple dock?



> It's also in some file that I can't seem to find right now.


Unless you deleted the email, the name of the file is there. Find out what it is and then search for it. The .jpg should really be in your Downloads folder.


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Thank you Pigeon92

I have found the file.  Now the "my pictures" that is supposed to be in my kindle is not there.

Kathy


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Have you tried hitting alt and z? It helped me when my files wouldn't come up on my kindle


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Vegas_Asian said:


> Have you tried hitting alt and z? It helped me when my files wouldn't come up on my kindle


Yes. It doesn't show up. I've tried the whole process several times and I can seem to get beyond the alt-z step.

kathy


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

The file that shows up on your Kindle when you press Alt-Z is called screensavers.  Is that one there?

Betsy


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> Yes. It doesn't show up. I've tried the whole process several times and I can seem to get beyond the alt-z step.
> 
> kathy


Hi Betsy. Nothing shows up with alt-Z other than the end of my book list.

kathy


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> Hi Betsy. Nothing shows up with alt-Z other than the end of my book list.
> 
> kathy


Is your list sorted by title, alphabetically? It would be under "s".

We'll get this figured out!

Betsy


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> Hi Betsy. Nothing shows up with alt-Z other than the end of my book list.
> 
> kathy


Yes. It is sorted alphabetically, but no screensaver or anything other than my books and my NowNow answers.

kathy


----------



## Shizu (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm sorting with recent and my screensaver is in the last page.


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Shizu said:


> I'm sorting with recent and my screensaver is in the last page.


I can sort by recent or alphabetical and its not there. In order for it to show up, it has to exist on my kindle. It does not. I must have screwed up the process when I went through the set-up. The screensaver exists in my documents file on my computer, but does not show up on the kindle. When the kindle was bound to the Kindle, I put it in that file, but no transfer seems to have occurred.

kathy


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> Yes. It is sorted alphabetically, but no screensaver or anything other than my books and my NowNow answers.
> 
> kathy


Mine is sorted alphabetically and screensaver shows up in the "s" section. I press S on the keyboard and the list jumps to that.

At this point, I would suggest you start over and make sure you do all the steps. You're using a Mac?

Overview: you connect the Kindle to your PC via USB. I believe on Macs, the Kindle should show up on your desktop when it's connected?

Is there a folder, either on the Kindle itself or on the SD card if you have one, called pictures and then a subfolder called screensavers within the pictures folder? Make sure everything is spelled correctly and all in lowercase and that the screensavers folder is INSIDE the pictures folder. If the pictures folder isn't on the Kindle, you will have to create it or drag one from the Mac to the Kindle, and then create or drag the screensavers folder into the pictures folder on the Kindle.

If you have the folder on the Kindle, are the desired images in the screensavers folder?

If so, after safely removing the Kindle from the computer (make sure the spinny thing isn't spinning), go to Home and press Alt-z, which creates a book called screensavers. It will probably be under the "s" part of your home page list if you have them alphabetically. You open the book, and for each picture you added, press alt-shift-0 (zero). After doing this, you can press Alt-aA to put the Kindle to sleep and see your new screensavers.

You're using a Mac, right? Verena or other Mac users?


----------



## qotdr (Nov 22, 2008)

Go thru  the process again. I had a heck of a time getting the screensaver folder to show up on the home page. It finally did though.


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> I can sort by recent or alphabetical and its not there. In order for it to show up, it has to exist on my kindle. It does not. I must have screwed up the process when I went through the set-up. The screensaver exists in my documents file on my computer, but does not show up on the kindle. When the kindle was bound to the Kindle, I put it in that file, but no transfer seems to have occurred.
> 
> kathy


I set it up again as you stated. I had a capital M on My pictures. I changed that. I created a subfile "screensaver" and put the screensaver in there and all is tucked away inside "my pictures.


yogini2 said:


> I can sort by recent or alphabetical and its not there. In order for it to show up, it has to exist on my kindle. It does not. I must have screwed up the process when I went through the set-up. The screensaver exists in my documents file on my computer, but does not show up on the kindle. When the kindle was bound to the Kindle, I put it in that file, but no transfer seems to have occurred.
> 
> kathy


I disconnect from the computer in the proper way. The little spinner had stopped.
Went to Alt-Z. It is not anywhere.


yogini2 said:


> I can sort by recent or alphabetical and its not there. In order for it to show up, it has to exist on my kindle. It does not. I must have screwed up the process when I went through the set-up. The screensaver exists in my documents file on my computer, but does not show up on the kindle. When the kindle was bound to the Kindle, I put it in that file, but no transfer seems to have occurred.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Sorry for the mess with the quotes.  I haven't got the hang of this yet.  I bought a new TV (digital) on black Friday.  It has taken three days to get the basic tv working and I can't get my DVD to work.  I'd starve if I had to may a living at any of the technical stuff.

Kathy


----------



## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> Yes, I have a I-Mac. I don't know what verena is.


I am more of a who than a what.

Like Betsy said, you have to create the Pictures folder on your Mac, then inside that create the Screensavers folder. Put whatever pictures you want as screensavers in that folder.

Then, when you connect your Kindle via USB, and you open your Kindle as a drive on the Mac, go ahead and drag the *entire pictures folder* to the top top Kindle folder, like in this photo:









Then, you must disconnect your Kindle from your Mac, go to the home screen on your Kindle, and hit the key combination *Alt+Z*. Until you do this, the screensavers title will not appear on your Kindle.

Looking at your last post, I think your problem may be that you called the folder "my pictures." None of the other folders on the Kindle has a space in any of the names.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

yes, the folder needs to be called just "pictures" not "my pictures"

This should help!

Betsy


----------



## Shizu (Oct 27, 2008)

I remember I couldn't show my pictures up on my kindle the first time. What I learn is that folder name has to be in the lower case. So I delete the folder I created for the pictures. I disconnect my kindle then reconnect to pc. I have SD card and I put all my files in SD. I created the "pictures" folder on main directory where the 'documents" folder is. Inside of the "pictures", I created the "screensavers" folder. I put pictures in there. Then disconnect, Alt-Z. It worked.


----------



## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Oh wow!!  It worked.

The e-mail from decalgirl said to call it "my pictures".  It makes my head hurt to try and figure out why the name of a file should make a difference but it does.  Now it works.  

Thank you Pigeon92.  I figured out too late that you were a person and not some fancy Mac something.  I appreciate your patience.  Thank you also to Betsy and Shizu.

The kindle is now looking quite smart all dressed in Monet.

kathy


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Kool, told you we would figure it out!  Verena's our resident computer wizard!  Glad we could help!

Betsy


----------



## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

yogini2 said:


> The e-mail from decalgirl said to call it "my pictures".


I still have my email from the Get My Wallpaper site, and you are correct that it gives the not quite right information. I think I shall drop them a line.


----------



## Shizu (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm glad it worked.      Now you can have a lot of pictures in your kindle.


----------



## Eclectic Reader (Oct 28, 2008)

Help!  And let me say, first off, that I am NO techie!

I followed all the steps regarding my Zen Revisited wallpaper from Decalgirl, and I have it loaded on my Kindle, but it's not full size.  Even when I press alt+F, it remains only about a 1/4 of the full screen.  

The directions posted earlier in this thread say the pic should be 600 x 800 pixels.  When I put the cursor over the image, it reads 360 x 480 pixels.  What can I do to resize the download to make it the necessary size?

And TIA for any help you can give me regarding this.


----------



## Shizu (Oct 27, 2008)

The wallpaper you got is the one they sent to you right? After you downloaded to your pc, the size should be 600x800. The one I got is 600x800. Maybe you can try to get it again and see if the result is the same? If it is not in the right size, I think you should contact them.

You can resize the wallpager using the software but resizing small to big... the resolution of the picture might not be as good as it should be. You should get the right wallpaper. 

Shizu


----------



## Eclectic Reader (Oct 28, 2008)

Thanks, Shizu.  I tried twice but the result is the same so I've contacted support at decalgirl.com so I'll see what they say.


----------



## Shizu (Oct 27, 2008)

If you couldn't get the right one, let me know maybe I can resize it for you.


----------



## Eclectic Reader (Oct 28, 2008)

I contacted Decalgirl and they sent me a resized (600 x 800 pixels) screensaver which I have transferred on to my Kindle.  The full-sized pic is there in my "screensaver book", but I can't figure out how to make it a screensaver.  When I press alt+shift+zero, nothing happens.  I don't get the message that it's been exported as a screensaver.  (Not to sound especially stupid, but we are talking about the shift key being the arrow key above the alt key, right?)

When I put my K in the sleep mode, Emily Dickinson/John Steinbeck/etc still come up, but not the Zen Revisited screensaver.  I even put the K through an entires series of sleep mode/wakeup/sleep mode to see if the screensaver came up somewhere in the mix, but it didn't.

Any suggestions?


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Eclectic Reader said:


> I contacted Decalgirl and they sent me a resized (600 x 800 pixels) screensaver which I have transferred on to my Kindle. The full-sized pic is there in my "screensaver book", but I can't figure out how to make it a screensaver. When I press alt+shift+zero, nothing happens. I don't get the message that it's been exported as a screensaver. (Not to sound especially stupid, but we are talking about the shift key being the arrow key above the alt key, right?)
> 
> When I put my K in the sleep mode, Emily Dickinson/John Steinbeck/etc still come up, but not the Zen Revisited screensaver. I even put the K through an entires series of sleep mode/wakeup/sleep mode to see if the screensaver came up somewhere in the mix, but it didn't.
> 
> Any suggestions?


You "open" the book so you are seeing the picture, right? Then do Alt-F to make it full screen. Then alt-shift-0 to export. Wait a few seconds for the message. That's the sequence.

L


----------



## Eclectic Reader (Oct 28, 2008)

Leslie said:


> You "open" the book so you are seeing the picture, right? Then do Alt-F to make it full screen. Then alt-shift-0 to export. Wait a few seconds for the message. That's the sequence.
> 
> L


Yep. Did all those things. The picture comes up in the screensaver book, I alt+F the picture, then alt+Shift+0and then... othing.

Wait a minute.....uh.....the fourth time seems to have been the trick.

YESSSS!!!! I have a screen to match the skin.

Thanks everybody for your helpl (and your patience with me).


----------



## chynared21 (Oct 28, 2008)

*Woo hoo ER!*


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Eclectic Reader said:


> Yep. Did all those things. The picture comes up in the screensaver book, I alt+F the picture, then alt+Shift+0and then... othing.
> 
> Wait a minute.....uh.....the fourth time seems to have been the trick.
> 
> ...


Excellent! Congratulations!

L


----------

