Splash Screen

This is the first screen that you will normally be presented with after clicking on the kIDs icon. Please be aware that if you are running Windows Vista you may be challenged by Windows Vista to allow the kIDs program to run, just select the “Allow, I trust this program.”



One common question asked is why does it take so long after clicking on the kIDs program icon until we see this screen? Well the answer is simple. As the kIDs program is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, this Framework has to be loaded first into memory before running the kIDs application. This also explains why, when you rerun the program it appears to come up quicker, because if any application has loaded the .NET Framework into memory, all other programs benefit in speed by not having to reload it.

On Windows Vista the .NET Framework is part of the Operating System so it should always be resident in memory; hence the kIDs program will come up quicker on a Vista enabled PC. Once loaded there should be no difference in performance between Operating Systems.

Program Information Section:

This section contains information that will be helpful in supporting the program, the first line ‘The Raster Shop, LLC :: Colorado kIDs Program’ is the program’s full name and is displayed in the program’s title as well for easy reference.

The next line ‘3.1.8’ is the program’s version number, and this can be decoded as follows:

X.x.x is incremented when there is a major Graphical User Interface (GUI) update or if the program has been refreshed. Thus 1.x.x to 3.x.x means there was a very major change in the GUI or operation.

x.X.x is incremented when there is an addition to the functionally of the program that it did not contain before. Thus we moved from x.0.x to x.1.x when we added the language selection.

x.x.X is incremented when there is a minor bug fix. This figure will change most often as the program evolves over the coming years. The Change Log.rtf file installed into the c:\Program Files\The Raster Shop, LLC\kIDs directory will contain the very l atest information.

Like the program’s full name, the program’s version number is displayed in the title bar for easy reference.



The next line is the build date ‘May 11, 2007.’ It has no real value other than informational. Currently we are trying to move onto a twice a year refresh for the program or as needed when bugs are found, so if your program is quite old, you may want to load the updates. There is nothing worse than finding a bug that has already been fixed by the current release.

The ‘Language Selection’ at this point only changes the program’s interface language and has nothing to do with the program’s printed output language. When you click on one of the flags, all the interface text should change to reflect the current selection:



United States of America – English



United Kingdom – English



Canadian – French



Mexican - Spanish

Contact Information Section:

There is not much to say about this section other than that these are the main points of contact for program s upport. The Grand Lodge of Colorado and the Developer welcome comments and questions and the best form of contact is via email, but please remember to include the version number of the software when contacting us.

Legal Information Section:

The very bottom line of this section displays the current date. If this is incorrect then you will have to change your computer’s system clock to reflect the correct time and date.

Program Self Check Section:

This section is actually three sections in one, but they all can be grouped together as their only purpose is to provide “some” assurance that all the drivers have loaded, have been installed, and appear to be working. They are not, however failsafe. Case in point is the fingerprint scanner. We cannot detect if it is connected to the PC when the program boots. However if it gets disconnected while the program is running we can trap that.

When the program is installed and run for the very first time, it is normal for the ‘Program Settings File,’ the ‘Program User Settings File’ and the ‘License File Check’ lamps to be red in color indicating a problem. Please read on and later in this section, we will explain why, but until then normally all lamps should be green in color.

Hardware Check:

Fingerprint Scanner Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state but be warned; all this means is that the fingerprint driver is loaded and is running. It does not mean that the fingerprint scanner is connected and working on the system.

Lamp red in color: this means either the fingerprint driver that was supplied with the kIDs program has not been installed correctly or has encountered a problem. If the dialog box shows that the driver is loaded then unplug the scanner while at this screen and then re-plug it back in and the lamp should turn to green in color.

During testing of the kIDs program we found that on some computers the fingerprint scanner did not like to be connected on a USB Hub, so we strongly advise that you connect the fingerprint scanner in one of the inbuilt USB ports of the computer.

Video Camera / Web Camera Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display the number of video sources that the driver can access. During testing we found this to be very accurate. There are many ways that you can connect up video sources to the kIDs program, but the most common way is with a good quality Web camera.

Lamp red in color: this means either the video driver that was supplied with the kIDs program has not been installed correctly or has encountered a problem, or the device driver supplied with the camera has a problem. If you see the driver version displayed like in the image above then it is most likely the device driver that came with the camera that is not working. Exit out of the kIDs program and check the documentation that came with the camera.

Windows Laser Printer Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display the number of windows printer drivers installed on the system. This in no way means that you can print to them! During testing we found that each time you attached a USB printer to the computer, you would end up with what looks like a new printer, e.g. HP Laser Jet 1200 by HP was the first connection but the second was HP Laser Jet 1200 by HP (Copy 1) In the kIDs program these are two different printers!

Lamp red in color: this means there are no windows print drivers loaded on the computer. Exit from the kIDs program and read the documents supplied with the printer you wish to use.

Writeable CD / DVD Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Please note that this section is only used if you would like to master or burn CD’s or DVD’s to give to the parents, so just because it’s red does not normally represent a problem.

Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display the number of CD / DVD recorders installed on the system. As you can imagine there are thousands of CD / DVD recorders on the market, and we have tried to take in account of most of them, but there are limits and the driver has been tested with over eight hundred models.

Lamp red in color: this means there are no CD / DVD recorders on the computer. Exit from the kIDs program and read the documents supplied with the recorder. Or run the kIDs program, without a CD / DVD and the movie function will be disabled.

Software Check:

Default Images Files Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display that it can find all the images in the correct location.

Lamp red in color: this means either the images have been deleted from their default location or they are corrupt. The program’s error correction routines require that these images be in the c:\ Program Files\The Raster Shop, LLC\kids\images\default directory and the “real” must-have image is the one called spacer.gif. In a pinch if you open Windows Paint and create a white image of 10 pixels by 10 pixels and called it spacer.gif and loaded it into the aforementioned directory the kIDs program would function.

Program Settings File Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display that it can find all the required files in the correct location.

Lamp red in color: when first run after installation and the dialog shows a problem with the config.xml file this is normal when you exit out of the program this file will be built for you.

Lamp red in color: if this is not the first run after installation or the dialog shows that the kidsTranslate.xml file as a problem, then the kIDs program will work but have limited functionality. For your information the config.xml file holds all the program information. Like the name of the printer used, the name of the camera the position of the screen and alike, it’s all the information that the program needs to hold so you only have to enter the information once.

The kidsTranslate.xml file holds all the translated strings. Without this file the kIDs program will only work in USA – English and all of the flag icons will be grayed out. The only way to get another copy of this file is to copy it from another computer running the kIDs program or re-installed the kIDs program from the setup.msi file as described in a previous section.

Program User Settings File Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display that it can find the required file in the correct location.

Lamp red in color: when first run after installation and the dialog shows a problem with the kids.xml file this is normal. When you exit out of the program, this file will be built for you.

Lamp red in color: if this is not the first run after installation or the dialog shows that the kids.xml file as a problem. Exit the kIDs program and use Windows Explorer and go to c:\Program Files\ The Raster Shop, LLC\kids directory and delete the kids.xml file and the config.xml file.

The kids.xml file contains all the user information like the locations of the images, how many copies to print what language the interface is in, what pages to print and so on.

License File Check Lamp:

Clicking on either the red or green lamp should display a dialog like the following:



Lamp green in color: this is the normal state and will display that it can find the required file in the correct location.

If the lamp is green then the Registration Information should display the following information which should be personalized to your installation:



Lamp red in color: then the program cannot find the kids3Key.lic file could not be found in the following directory c:\Program Files\The Raster Shop, LLC\kids\license.

If the lamp is red then the Registration Information should display the following information which should be personalized to your installation.



This will not stop the kIDs program from working, but the collected images and the final prints will be watermarked, and this can only be overcome by obtaining a license from the Grand Lodge of Colorado. They will email the kids3Key.lic file to you and you will need to move it to the c:\Program Files\The Raster Shop, LLC\kids\license directory.

Green Check Mark:

Click on this icon to move to the settings screen.