Change Desktop - 3.0.5

I have relied on this program since becoming a Mac user about 3 years ago, and was extremely happy when updates became available after a long spell. However, I've tried to use 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 but wind up reverting back to 2.5.2.1 (which, due to space in the new app's name, still resides on my system, an early-2008 Macbook with 4GB of memory).

The main reason for reverting is the new program's swelling level of memory consumption (currently, with 3.0.3 running and some uptime, close to 825MB), which is excessive. The secondary reasons are things which 2.5.2.1 does very nicely.
* Being able to see the full path name for the current image on the old server status window (rather than just the file name under "Now Showing" in 3.0.3) was very useful. (It was also nice to have the "Dump Cache Information" option in 2.5.2.1 to verify that all images and folders were being picked up.)
* On 2.5.2.1, I always used the "Center" display option to show larger-than-screen images full size but centered on the screen, trimming the edges as necessary. Hence, I'm not fond of the 3.0.3 center option that forces larger-than-screen-resolution pictures to the screen dimensions. The 3.0.3 "Crop" display option comes close to displaying images as I'd prefer, but is inconsistent in what it uses as the anchor point---most often, images are cropped as though they are truly centered (desirable), but I've seen it crop from the upper left, upper right, top center, bottom center, etc.,
* I like having the menu extra to be able to temporarily suspend changes, but it was also useful to use Quicksilver or such to define a keyboard shortcut to open CD as an application, to change preferences, picture sets, and such, rather than mouse up to "Preferences...".

In rating, I have to agree with previous comments that the new interface for choosing folders and sets was not intuitive (and not documented), and that it feels clunky. I would give 2.5.x excellent ratings across the board, but...

I will watch for and try out newer revisions--and again emphasize that I love this program--but, for the moment, will stay with the "old" 2.5.2.1.

In my previous "comments" I mentioned what I assumed to be a bug in adding images to the sources. The developer supplied me with the correct steps to keep images added and it all works great now.

I really like the "smart" background feature for images smaller than the display. Seems to know exactly what color to select for a background.

I'll knock one star off "ease of use" because I really do not find the new method of adding sources any were as simple as the previous version.

And my download did not have any documentation that might have explained the steps to add images.

Overall a great app that is wonderful to have back in the land of the living - I'll be sending a donation for the hard work the developer has put into it.

I've used ChangeDesktop (CD) for several years and love it. Works great on dual monitor G5's and on my single monitor G4. Now I've got a MacBook Pro and must agree with bhughes that I miss the Menu Extra a lot - it is fun to demostrate to friends CD but switching photos several times. While I hope a fix is in the works a suggestion: add CD to your Login startup items but have it HIDE. Add its icon to the Dock. Then you can click/hold on the dock icon and have it ChangePictures Now - this will get the pic count and change.

And I agree with someone else when they mention a feature to NOT fill the screen with certain photos would be nice - a setting so if the photo is a certain size to simply center it (while others can FILL SCREEN). Not so critical but nice.

Man, how did I miss this? Ever since I migrated away from iPhoto, I've been looking for something that would let me keep my photos in an organized folder structure but still allow me to randomly put one of them on my desktop every five minutes. This looks like it could be the solution

I just have one problem: I currently have about 14,500 photos organized in folders by date and event, but for some reason ChangeDesktop only finds 1,662 of them. I dunno what's going on, but it would be great if this could get fixed. Thanks!

I've been using Desktop images changers since OS 9, and there's never been anything as good as this app for simplicity, power, and ease of use. And most amazingly of all, it's been FREE from its inception!

I hadn't been able to use it for a while, recently, because of incompatiblities, with the latest version of OSX, but now it works GREAT with OS 10.4.3 and I'm one happy camper.

If you have thousands of images, nested in folders for organization, you just won't find anything better for displaying them the way you want. This program rocks!