Computer games often try to mitigate the boredom of the loading screens by offering a random hint or tip on how to play and I was wondering whether the splash screen might also be a smart place to put a random hint or tip. Once the program has loaded, I don't usually have the patience to read a tip with might not even be useful but I don't mind reading it while I wait for the program to load.

I've never seen any splash screen. Was it actually implemented? (I remember there was a discussion about it, where it was said that it would only be shown if startup will take longer than a specific time interval - but my computer is fast enough, so I might not have gotten it for that reason).

Yeah, I remember talk about it. But I wasn't aware it was ever implemented. I thought was still under development. As far as I remember, they were going to use the About Screen for the splash screen. Or at least it was mentioned.

(Personally, I wouldn't mind a splash screen for a second or 2, even if there is no delay in loading. Although I routinely have a 3 to 5 second delay for a new blank doc. Maybe a couple more seconds, depending on the size of a pre-existing file. I'd like to see it possible for the user to choose or create their own splash screens. Maybe even have several, and have them displayed randomly? I don't actually know if that's possible. But I think would be a cool feature.)