Copyright: Copyright 1996 John Galanes - All Rights Reserved


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The JGIconBar is an intelligent, configurable tool that integrates with FileManager.

Overview

Adding Icons

Finding Icons

Iconbar Options

Popup Options

Other Menu Choices

Refresh Displayed Files

Changing, Deleting and Moving Icons

My Philosophy


Overview

Overview:

The bar positions itself automatically just above the document window(s).  You can change the size of the bar, but not its position.  You can add your favorite programs AND menu items, i.e. COPY, RENAME, MOVE, etc. to the bar.  You decide if an icon will accept 1 file, many files, or no files.  You pick the icon to represent the action, so it is meaningful and memorable to you.  You can set the bar color and the background color for icons.  You can select any icons that you have access to, not just ones built into this tool.  After configuring the bar with your selections, you select a file (if one is required) then you click the icon (a single click of the left button suffices, no double clicking is required).  The highlighted file(s) are passed to the function represented by the icon.  When you leave the cursor still over an icon for about half a second, a popup description tells you what the icon is for.


Adding Icons

Adding Icons to the Bar:

There are two types of icons that you can add;  Menu Items and Program Items.

Menu items are things that appear in any of the FileManager menus, including those from any other add on tools that you may have.  Examples are: COPY, MOVE, and RENAME.

Program Items are programs that live outside FileManager, i.e. MSDOS, Word, Excel, various editors, graphics tools, viewers, search tools, etc.

There are three ways to add icons to the bar:

1) You can pull down the JG's Extension menu at the top of the screen, then left click on New Icon Button.  You then select Menu Item or Program Item.

2) You can click the right mouse button on any empty part of the bar.  A menu will popup.  Select either New Menu Button, or New Program Button.

3) If you're really clever, you can add an icon to the bar to let you add other icons!

The New Menu Item Dialog:

First scroll the displayed choices and find the function that you'd like an icon button for.  Click the item to select it.  If there is a built in icon for that function, then the icon will appear in the mini-bar.  If there is no builtin icon, you will get a message asking you to select the Change Icon button to search for one.  (see the section on Finding Icons.)  If you don't like the builtin icon, you can use the Change Icon button to search for a replacement.  The Background button allows you to select the background color for the icon.  This is NOT the bar color, it is the color immediately underneath the icon.  Some icons are opaque, and selecting a background makes no difference.  Other icons are at least partially translucent, and the background will show through.  Select whatever looks best to you. (see Bar Options for changing the Bar color.)  The Icon Framed checkbox indicates whether you want a frame drawn around the icon.  This is strictly a personal taste issue.  It makes the icon look more like a button, but it takes up screen space.  At the lower left is another checkbox:  Requires at least 1 selected file.  This is handy for functions like DELETE, if you want to prevent deletion of directories.

The New Program Item Dialog:

First, click the Browse button, and locate the program that you want an icon button for.  (This can also be a .PIF or .BAT file.)  If the program has a builtin icon, it is displayed in the mini-bar.  If the program contains no icons, you will be asked to use the Change Icon button to search for an icon.  (see Finding Icons section) If you don't like the builtin icon, you can use the Change Icon button to search for a replacement.  The Background button allows you to select the background color for the icon.  This is NOT the bar color, it is the color immediately underneath the icon.  Some icons are opaque, and selecting a background makes no difference.  Other icons are at least partially translucent, and the background will show through.  Select whatever looks best to you. (see Bar Options for changing the Bar color.)  The Icon Framed checkbox indicates whether you want a frame drawn around the icon.  This is strictly a personal taste issue.  It makes the icon look more like a button, but it takes up screen space.  You may enter a description.  If you add a description, it is displayed as the popup description, otherwise the path will be displayed.  Use whichever is more meaningful to you.  In the Selected Files Options, you specify whether highlighted files should be passed to the icon function or not.  If you click on Ignore, then no files are passed to the function.  If you select Pass On, you may further specify whether the icon can process multiple files or not, and if the icon requires a file to function.  Some programs are not well behaved if invoked without a file, so clicking the Requires at least 1 selected file button will check and warn you if you click the icon but haven't selected a file.  The Display Mode box specifies how to start up the program.  Most of the time, you will want NORMAL, however there are some programs that you'd like to take over the entire screen, or simply run as icons.  (Some programs are not good Windows citizens and will ignore your preference.)  The Wait for Completion box specifies whether or not you want File- Manager to suspend its own execution while the icon is doing its thing.  You'll want to select this option when it makes no sense to continue using File Manager until the fucntion is done, i.e backing up files, zipping, unzipping, long running .BAT files, etc.  If an icon function seems to be working oddly, try turning Wait ON. (Note - this option has no effect under Windows NT.)


Iconbar Options

IconBar Options:

You can customize the bar itself by either selection the Options menu from the JG's Extension menu, or by clicking the right mouse button on an empty space within the bar.

Frame IconBar:	does what it says.  With the frame, it takes up more screen space.  Without it, you cannot change the size of the bar.  You may want to turn off the frame if you decide to keep it at a certain size.

Frame Icons:	this is where you specify the default state for most icons.  You can override this on individual icons.

Popup Descriptions:	this controls the little tags that remind you what a particular icon is for.  If you get sick of them, you can turn them off.  They can be customized via the Popup Options dialog.

The other boxes are pretty self explanatory.  It's easier to try them and see what they do then to describe them.  Again, it's personal taste, so pick what you like.


Popup Options

Popup Options:

You can customize the location and appearance of the little Popup descriptions that flash when the cursor stops over an icon for a specified length of time. You can set the length of time that the cursor must remain stopped before the popup appears. You can turn the popups totally off or back on again from the Iconbar Options dialog.  Most settings have obvious meanings. Try them!  A sample popup is display so that you may see the combined effect of font, text color and background color. You can get to this dialog from either the JG Extension menu or by clicking the right mouse button with the cursor on the iconbar.

Above/Below Iconbar:	This controls the location of the popups.

Delay:	This controls how long the cursor must remain still before the popup appears. The unit of time is milliseconds (thousandths of a second).  500 milliseconds is half of a second, 1000 is one second, etc.

Font:	This controls the appearance of the text itself. You can select the style of typeface, the size of the text, and the color of the text.

Background:	This sets the background color of the popup box. It is white by default.


Other Menu Options

Other JG's Extension Menu choices:

Refresh Icons:	In some rare cases, the icons may not be repainted correctly after running a particularly odd program. Selecting this option will redisplay the icons.

Save Now:	Normally, any changes that you made to icons or the bar are automatically saved when you close FileManager.  If you want an immediate save done, select this.  All configuration information is saved in the JGFILMAN.INI file in your Windows directory. The previous version is kept as JGFILMAN.BAK, which you may rename if the need arises.

Don't Save:	Use this option to indicate that you don't want changes that you've made to this point to be saved.  This is useful if you've been experimenting, but change your mind.


Misc

Clicking the left mouse button on an empty area within the bar is like selecting the Refresh item from the Window menu of FileManager.  It causes FileManager to re-access the disk and update the displayed list of files.


Changing, Deleting and Moving Icons

Changing Deleting and Moving icons...

By positioning the cursor over an icon and clicking the right mouse button, you will get a popup menu. Select a menu item from the popup.  Changing an icon is very similar to adding a new icon.  Select Delete Button, and the icon is gone.  To move an icon, select Move Button. The cursor will change to a cross. Position the cross at the desired new location for the icon, then click the left mouse button. To cancel a Move, you may either click the right mouse button, or move the cursor outside of the iconbar and left click.


My Philosophy

My Philosophy, or why I wrote this tool:

A tool should fit the user, not vice versa. Whenever possible, give the user choices and flexibility.

Dragging is a drag.

I didn't buy a color monitor so that I could stare at black, white and gray.

Iconbars that don't accept files as input are about as useful as banks that don't accept deposits.

Buttons are worse than useless if you don't know what they do, because you don't use them and they suck up screen space.


Finding Icons

Finding Icons:

Icons can either be out in the open as .ICO files, or they can hide inside .DLL or .EXE files.  When you click the Change Icon button and then select a file, any icons in the file are displayed.  Two good places to look for icons are the PROGMAN.EXE file and the MORICONS.DLL file.  These are both in your Windows directory.  You can also get icons from the Internet, bulletin boards, shareware places, and diskettes/CDs that come with various books.  This tool cannot extract icons from special-purpose library files.  You should use whatever tool came with the library to extract icons that you want as .ICO files.  You may then select the .ICO files.


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JG Iconbar Professional version for Windows 3.1

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Thank you for your support!

send your completed form to:

John Galanes
9 Shawnee Circle
Billerica MA 01821
EMAIL: jgalanes@tiac.net