This page also give info on how to add a "Still" frame to a BMP strip and how to make your Throbber throb faster.

1. Download the GIF Construction Set for Windows from Alchemy Mindworks. [Alchemy Mindworks has lots of great shareware including the excellent Graphic Workshop for Windows.]
2. Run the GIF Construction Set for Windows and use File/Open to open your chosen animated GIF.
3. Click on Block/Scale.
4. Click on the first Image line.
5. Scroll to the last Image line and Shift-Click on it to select all the Image lines.
6. Click on the By Size radio button.
7. Change the Factor width and depth to 30 X 30 or 48 X 48 or 40 X 40 or whatever.
8. Click Apply and then View to see if this is really going to work.
9. If you are happy with the result, Click OK and File/SaveAs to save your changed GIF to a new name (don't step on the original, you might need to start over).
10. Click Block/ImageStrip.
11. Click the Horizontal Strip radio button.
12. Click OK and save the file to yet another new name.
13. Exit GIF Construction Set for Windows.
14. Convert the saved GIF strip to a BMP file. If you have a graphics program that can do that, use it and skip the following; otherwise do the following:
    1. Bring up Netscape.
    2. Type the full path of the GIF strip file in your Netscape browser's Location Box and press Enter (or use File/OpenPage and Choose File to load the GIF strip).
    3. Press the PrintScreen key on your keyboard.
    4. Bring up MS Paint (Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint).
    5. Click Edit/Paste (and answer Yes to enlarging the Bitmap).
    6. Use the mouse to drag a dashed selection rectangle around the GIF strip. Look in the lower right hand corner to make sure you got all of it. It you selected some extra, don't worry we can clean that up in a few steps.
    7. Press Edit/Copy.
    8. Click anywhere outside the select rectangle and watch that rectangle disappear.
    9. Click Image/ClearImage.
    10. Click Image/Attributes.
    11. Enter the Height (eg 30, 40 or 48) and width (number frames multiplied by the width of each frame). Click pels and Color. Click OK.
    12. Click Edit/Paste (and answer Yes to enlarging the Bitmap).
    13. Click View/Zoom/LargeSize
    14. Click Edit/SelectAll
    15. Now move the upper left corner of the strip to exactly match the upper left corner of the bitmap.
    16. Once again click Image/Attributes.
    17. Enter the Height (eg 30, 40 or 48) and width (number frames multiplied by the width of each frame). Click pels and Color. Click OK.
    18. Click File/SaveAs and save the strip as a BMP file.

    Now we must add the image that will be seen when the browser is NOT loading a page. This example uses the first frame of the strip as the "Still" frame - you could paste some other image here that has the same dimensions as the other frames.

15. Load the BMP file into MS Paint (Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint) if it's not already there.
16. Click Image/Attributes.
17. Change the width by adding the width of a single frame. Click pels and Color. Click OK.
18. If the image is not already zoomed, click View/Zoom/LargeSize.
19. Carefully select the first frame of the strip by dragging the dashed rectangle exactly around the frame - use the rightmost numbers in the lower right to get it right.
20. Click Edit/Copy.
21. If necessary, use the scrollbar at the bottom to scroll the image all the way to the right so that you can fully see the added white space.
22. Click Edit/SelectAll.
23. Now carefully move the image over with the mouse so that it exactly fits in the bitmap.
24. If necessary, use the scrollbar at the bottom to scroll the image all the to the left so that you can fully see the new white space.
25. Click Edit/Paste.
26. Click FileSaveAS and save your new Throbber.

1. Bring up MS Paint (Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint) and use File/Open to load your Throbber bitmap.
2. Copy the first frame to the clipboard: That is Zoom it, carefully select the first frame using the right most numbers in the lower right as your guide, then Click Edit/Copy to copy that first frame to the clipboard..
3. Bring up a new version of MS Paint and use Edit/Paste to capture that first frame. Use File/SaveAs to save it.
4. Go back to the original MS Paint and delete the first frame.
5. Click Edit/SelectAll.
6. Drag the headless strip to the left most end of the bitmap.
7. Click Image/Attributes.
8. Change the width to fit exactly the headless frames. Click Ok.
9. Click Edit/SelectAll.
10. Click Edit/Copy to put the headless frames on the clipboard.
11. Click Image/Attributes.
12. Change the width to hold all the frames. For example your 40 X 40 X 6 headless frames have a width of 240. To change it to 40 X 40 X 37 (6 repetitions of the 6 frame moving image + a "Still" frame) change the width to 1480. Click OK.
13. Click Edit/SelectAll.
14. Drag the headless strip to the right most end of the enlarged bitmap. This may take several steps as you drag it as far as possible and then scroll and drag some more.
15. Scroll back to the left so that you cannot see any of the frames (or you come to the left most edge). Click Edit/Paste. Drag this newly pasted set of frames to the right until they exactly touch the old copy. Repeat this step until only the "Still" frame is missing.
16. Go back to the other copy of MS Paint, Edit/SelectAll, Edit/Copy the "Still" frame to the clipboard. Exit this copy of MS Paint.
17. In the original MS Paint, Edit/Paste the "Still" frame back in place.
18. Use File/SaveAs to save your work.

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Leigh Brasington / / Revised 04 Nov 05