          Stay-Up 1.1 Instructions

   One of the big advantages of Windows is its
ability to run many applications (programs) at
once. You can fill the screen with dozens of
applications and switch back and forth between
them. Unfortunately, this can cause a problem.
The forms (or windows) of the most recently used
applications automatically move to the front of
the screen, often hiding the older applications.
If an application fills the full screen, it
automatically hides everything else. Every time
you use an application, you give it the focus,
which moves it to the front of the screen.
   Suppose you want to be using a large
application, like a paint program, but you
occasionally want to use a smaller application,
like a clock or notepad program. Every time you
want to use the other application, you need to
minimize the larger on to an icon to get to the
smaller application. If you are running many
applications at the same time, you can easily
lose some of the applications amid all the forms
floating around your screen and have trouble even
finding it so you can bring it to the front.
   Stay-Up solves this problem. It allows you to
mark any form in Windows. The marked forms will
automatically come to the front of the screen at
certain intervals (which you can set). When the
forms come to the front of the screen, they do
not grab the focus. That is, the program you are
working on will still be the one receiving input
from the keyboard or mouse. The marked
applications will simply be visible over the
currently running program, and you can give them
the focus by clicking on them with the mouse when
you want to use them. You can even minimize the
marked applications to an icon. The icon will
continue to float to the surface of the running
application, by will be inconspicuous and not
interfere with the program you are running. You
can then bring them up and use them by clicking
on the icon with the mouse.

Installing Stay-Up

   To install Stay-Up in Windows, move all the
files that come with Stay-Up (STAYUP.EXE,
STAYUP.TXT, STAYUREG.TXT, STAYUP.GRP, etc.) to
your Windows directory. DO NOT create a separate
directory for this program. Run Windows. Click on
Program Manager's Files option, then click on
New. When it asks if you want to install a
program item or group, select group. On the next
form, ignore the Description box. Put STAYUP into
the Group File box and click on the Ok button.
Stay-Up will then be installed in Windows.
   Note: This program requires that you have
VBRUN200.DLL in your Windows SYSTEM directory.
This is a general purpose file required to run
any program created with Visual Basic 2.0, and
can be found anywhere that Windows shareware
programs are sold or distributed. Because most
people already have it and because it would
substantially increase the size of the Stay-Up
archive, it probably is not included with Stay-Up.

Using Stay-Up

   When you run Stay-Up, you will first see a
title page. Press ENTER or click on the Ok button
to clear this page. You will then see the main
form, which contains three button. These buttons
allow you to create, delete, and activate the
stay-up feature on any program. The buttons are
explained below:

   Add Stay-Up - This button allows you to mark
the forms that you want to stay on top of other
applications. Before using this button, load any
Windows applications that you will want to cause
to stay on top of other applications. For
example, if you want the Windows Clock program
to always be visible, load this application by
running it. If an application has several forms,
make sure that the form you want to mark is
visible on the screen.
   Once all the forms you want to mark are
visible, click on the Add Stay-Ups button. The
label on this button will change to Stop Adding.
Now just click on any form you want to mark with
the mouse. When Stay-Up registers that form, it
will signal you with three quick beeps (which may
sound like one long beep on some systems). You
can then move on to the next form you want to
mark and click on it. When you have marked all
the forms you want to stay on top, you can end
the marking process by clicking on the button
that is now marked Stop Adding. The button label
will change back to Add Stay-Up. You also can
stop the adding function by clicking on either of
the other two buttons.
   You can see why it is necessary to run the
applications and display the forms you want to
mark before clicking on the Add Stay-Up button.
Once the Add Stay-Up button is activated, any
form that gains the focus is marked to stay up.
If you move through several forms in an
application before you get to the form you wanted
to remain visible, each of these forms would be
marked to stay up when they received the focus.
Of course, you can turn the Add Stay-Up function
on and off if necessary as you display the forms.
Also, you can minimize any of the forms to an
icon before you activate the Add Stay-Up
function. Clicking on the icon for the form will
have the same effect as clicking on the full form.

   Delete Stay-Up - This button allows you to
unmark forms that you have previously marked to
stay up. The process is exactly the same as the
Add Stay-Up function. To delete a stay-up, make
sure the form you want to delete from the stay-up
list is visible. Then click on the Delete Stay-Up
button. The label on this button will then change
to Stop Deleting. Then click on the form you wish
to remove from the stay-up list. If the form is
minimized to an icon, you can still click on this
icon. When Stay-Up identifies the form you want
to delete from the list, it will signal with the
same three short beeps. You can then move on to
the next form you want to delete from the list.
When you are finished, click on the button that
is now labeled Stop Deleting. You also can stop
deleting by clicking on either of the other two
buttons.
   Note: The Delete Stay-Up function simply
removes the forms you click on from the list of
forms you want  to stay up. It does not stop the
applications from running or delete it from
windows. It does not even immediately make the
form invisible or hide it. It simply tells
Stay-Up that you no longer want that form to be
moved to the front of the screen periodically.

   Activate Stay-Ups - This button begins the
process of keeping the marked forms on top of
other forms. Until you click on this button, the
marked forms will not automatically move to the
front of the screen. When you click on this
button, the label on the button will change to
Deactivate Stay-Ups. Clicking on this button when
it reads Deactivate Stay-ups will turn of the
function of keeping the marked forms at the front
of the screen. It does not, however, remove them
from the list of marked forms. Clicking on the
button again will resume the stay-up function for
those forms.
   Once you have activated the Stay-Up function,
the marked forms will automatically move to the
front of the screen. You can minimize the Stay-Up
program to an icon if you like. It will still
perform its function of moving the marked forms
to the front of the screen. Do not, however, exit
Stay-Up completely by using the Exit function.
That would stop Stay-Up from working.
   Stay-Ups function of moving the forms to the
front of the screen does not affect the normal
functioning of the marked applications, any
unmarked applications, or Windows itself. The
forms that are moved to the front of the screen
do not automatically gain the focus (which would
direct input from the keyboard or mouse to those
functions). The forms moved to the front of the
screen simply become visible and accessible.
   One note on positioning of marked forms: If
two marked forms overlap on the screen, they will
both try to move to the front of the screen. They
will appear to fight each other to be on top.
This will cause a distracting flick on those
programs. It is therefore suggested that you
avoid marking two applications that would appear
in the same spot. Of course, you could always
keep them minimized to an icon until you need
them, and only bring one up at a time. Remember
that Stay-up will bring the icon of a form to the
front of the screen if the form has been marked.

Options

   In addition to the three main buttons, there
is also a menu at the top of the Stay-Up form.
One of the items on this menu is options. These
options are explained below:

Refresh rate - This option allows you to set how
often Stay-Up brings the marked forms to the
front of the screen. For example, if the refresh
rate is two seconds, Stay-Up will bring the
marked forms to the front of the screen once
every two seconds. If you change this rate to .5
seconds, Stay-Up would bring the forms to the
front every .5 seconds, or twice each second.
   The setting that Stay-Up comes with (the
"factory setting," so to speak) is two seconds.
If you change this rate, the new rate is stored
in the STAYUP.INI file, so Stay-Up comes up at
the new rate each time you run it until you
change the rate again. Bear in mind that Windows
pauses for a tiny fraction of a second while
Stay-Up moves the forms to the front. This is
normally not even visible, but if you were to
increase the refresh rate to several times per
second, it might slow down Windows slightly. A
rate of once every two to five seconds is usually
a reasonable rate.

Stay-Up Stay-Up - This function controls whether
Stay-Up itself stays on top of other forms. You
cannot mark Stay-Up to stay up the way you mark
other functions with the Add Stay-Up button. You
indicate whether you want Stay-Up to stay up with
this option from the Options menu.
   This is a toggle function. That is, clicking
on this item in the Options menu turns it off if
it is on and on if it is off. It is marked with a
check mark in the Options menu if it is currently
on. It comes turned on when you first get Stay
-Up (that "factory setting" again). If you change
it, the new setting is stored in STAYUP.INI, so
Stay-Up comes with your setting when you run it.

Exit - This function in the Options menu exits
Stay-Up. Remember that Stay-Up cannot cause other
programs to move to the front of the screen once
you have exited the program.

Help

   There is also a Help item in the menu at the
top of the Stay-Up main form. This has the
following items:

Instructions - This option displays this
instruction manual using Windows NotePad. You can
stop viewing this manual using NotePad's
File/Exit option.

Register - This function displays the handy
registration form using Windows NotePad. You can
use NotePad's File/Print function to print the
form and send it in with your registration (hint,
hint). This option will disappear from the Help
menu when you register (see registration
instructions below).

About - This Help option displays the Stay-Up
title page again.

Registering Stay-Up

   Stay-Up is a shareware program, not a free
program. You may use it for a one month trial
period. After that, you are required to either
pay for it (register it) or stop using it.
Stay-Up will start displaying reminder notices
(also called nag screens) after one month to help
you remember to register the program. When you do
register, you will receive a letter telling you
how to turn off these reminder notices. Turning
off the reminder notices will also cause Stay-Up
not to display the title page when it is run and
also remove the Register option from the Help
Menu.
   You register Stay-Up by filling out the
registration form and sending it along with
$15.00 (in US $) to:

              David Leithauser
            Leithauser Research
           4649 Van Kleeck Drive
      New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169-4205

   Registration should be made in US dollars,
drawn on a US bank. If it is not possible to make
payment drawn on a US bank, a US postal money
order or American Express money order is acceptable.
As a last resource, US dollars drawn on a foreign
bank MUST have the proper routing information at
the bottom of the check.
   When you register Stay-Up (or any other
shareware program by Leithauser Research) you are
automatically registered for all future upgrades,
even if the new-and-improved version has a higher
registration fee than the version you registered.
You are therefore free to obtain and use future
versions of this program without paying any
further registration fees once you have
registered this program.
   When you register, in addition to the letter
telling you how to turn off the reminder screens
(and a clear conscience), you will receive a disk
full of other shareware programs by Leithauser
Research. You are free to try any of these
programs to see if you wish to register these
programs too.

Distribution

   Because Stay-Up is a shareware program, you
may distribute it freely. This means that you may
give it to friends, pass it around at computer
club meetings, post it on BBS's, and so on. The
only conditions or restrictions are that you
include all of the files that were in the
original archive (STAYUP.TXT, STAYUP.EXE,
STAYUREG.TXT, etc.) and that you not modify or
edit these files. You especially may not leave
out or modify the references to how to register
this program. The only exception to this
restriction on modifying or editing the files is
that you may translate the documentation into
other languages if you want to distribute this
program in countries where English is not the
primary language. The translation, however, must
still contain the information on how to register
this program.

Bug reports, suggestions, comments, etc.

   If you have any problems with Stay-Up or wish
to suggest any improvements, you can send your
comments to the above address. You also can send
EMAIL to the following addresses:

Compuserve: 74046, 1556
GEnie: D.LEITHAUSER
America Online: Leithauser
InterNet: 74046.1556@compuserve.com

Custom software

   The primary function of Leithauser Research is
developing custom software to customer
specifications. If you need a program you cannot
find anywhere, or you have an idea for a program
that you want to sell but do not have the
programming skilled to write the program
yourself, contact Leithauser Research at any of
the above addresses (postal or EMAIL) with a
description of the program you have in mind for a
price quote.
