CombineZ, or CZ for short, comes as an .exe file. Just put it in a convenient place on your computers hard drive. You will also need to download and unzip fftw3.dll. Store this in the same place as the .exe file. Finally if you are running an older version of windows you will need gdiplus.dll which can be downloaded from my website as a .zip file also, and must be unzipped and stored in the same location.
Once you have the program and any necessary .dll files, just double click on the .exe to start the application, click on New on the File menu, locate the pictures you wish to load, select them all and press Return or click on Open, and the files will be loaded. The formats supported for input and output are .bmp .jpg .jpeg .gif .tif .tiff and .png. Note that to use the Stack method of combining Frames they must be in order, either nearest to the observer first and gradually moving away, or in the opposite order. Randomly ordered stacks will give unpredictable results.
If you would rather load one file at a time, load the first using New and the rest using Load Frames.
Place the .exe file and the one or two .dll files together in a folder of their own. This makes them easier to locate if you wish to remove or replace them later. Also CZ stores some files in the same place as the .exe by default and you may need to access these at a later date.
In a similar way place each set of picture files in a folder of its own. CZ stores work files in this location in a folder called 'work'. Using this scheme each set of pictures will have a work folder of its own and if you revisit them CZ will be able to save you some time when reprocessing them.
A good scheme is to name your picture files so that when CZ sorts them into alphanumerical order, the nearest one to the photographer comes first. This will be placed at the top of the stack. Stick to numbers and underscore and the letters of the English alphabet as many other characters confuse the program.
Have the program and the pictures on the same computer, i.e. do not run it over a network. It stores work files with the pictures and if these are on a remote computer there will be a lot of network activity and the program will run very slowly if at all.
For further information on the various types of files CZ uses, see the following topics:
Saving Files and an Introduction to Rectangles