═══ 1. Extended Help IconEase ═══ Thank you for using IconEase. This help file is organized into the following sections: o The trouble with icons o How IconEase helps o Creating Your Own IconEase Catalog o How to change object icons o How to extract icons from IconEase o Use of the Notebook page o Use of the Combo Box o Use of the Send to Clipboard button o Launching the OS/2 Icon Editor o Startup parameters o Registering IconEase ═══ 2. The Trouble With Icons ═══ If you have my artistic abilities, creating freehand icons with the OS/2 Icon Editor is beyond your capability. Therefore, you will need to collect a library of icons that help you make your desktop both easier to use and more attractive. OS/2 icons are becoming plentiful. In fact, the icons that are distributed with IconEase are public domain icons that were downloaded from Compuserve. Maintaining icon libraries can be a clumsy and disk consuming effort, though. Each icon is minimally 888 bytes large. However, many hard drives allocate space in 1024 and 4096 increments. Therefore, the space that the icons occupy on your disk can be much larger than their apparent size. Keeping track of the icons and associating their image with their names tends to be problematic, as well. ═══ 3. How IconEase Can Help ═══ IconEase addresses the most troublesome elements of OS/2 icon maintenance. A very advanced compression algorithm is used to store multiple icons in a single file. That way the amount of disk space required to maintain large libraries of icons is reduced. The electronically distributed version of IconEase houses 55 icons in very little space. You can order a library of over 3300 public domain icons obtained from Compuserve and formatted for IconEase. These icons are compressed into less than one megabyte of disk space. You can also create your own IconEase icon catalog. IconEase makes use of the OS/2 notebook control so that you can access and manage the icons in the compressed file in a very natural way. Icons can be quickly previewed on the notebook page. You don't have to waste a lot of time fishing around for an icon that you want to use. By using the controls on the notebook page , you can easily copy an icon to the OS/2 clipboard where it can be used to change a Workplace Shell object's icon. Also, you can launch an icon editor from the notebook page icon preview and make changes to existing icons before you pass them to the WPS object settings icon editor. Hopefully, IconEase lives up to its name by making icon management easier in OS/2. ═══ 4. Creating Your Own IconEase Catalog ═══ When you register the IconEase shareware utility, you may elect to order the catalog creation utility, GenICDB.exe . GenICDB compresses all of the icons in an HPFS file system directory and creates an icon catalog file called IconEase.dat. Simply open an OS/2 command prompt window, change to the directory where your desired icons are located and execute the GenICDB utiltiy. You may rename your new icon catalog file to any name you wish and store it with the IconEase.dat file that is shipped with the shareware utility or you can leave it as it is. In any event, you can manipulate the new catalog with IconEase by over riding IconEase startup parameters. ═══ 5. Changing the Icon for an Object ═══ IconEase offers two ways in which you can update the icon for common desktop objects: The first method uses the OS/2 clipboard to store an image of the icon that can be pasted into the OS/2 Icon Editor program. This image can also be pasted into any graphical editor that accepts the BMP format. The second method allows you to extract the icon from the IconEase compressed icon catalog. Once the icon is extracted, it can be used just like any other icon to update desktop objects. This feature is especially useful under OS/2 2.1 and above where icons can be used to directly update the General page of an object's Settings Notebook. ═══ 5.1. Changing the Object's Icon - OS/2 2.0 ═══ Use the following procedure to change the icon for an OS/2 Workplace Shell object: o Open the settings for the object - Right mouse button click the object icon - Left mouse button click the arrow that appears to the right of the Open menu item - Left mouse button click the Setting menu subitem o Surface the General settings notebook page by left mouse button clicking the General tab o Left mouse click the Edit button in the icon section of the General settings notebook page o Left button double click your IconEase object o Preview the icon you want to use for the desktop object o Left mouse click the Send to Clipboard button o Left mouse click the settings Icon Editor title bar o Press and hold the Shift key and press the Insert key ═══ 5.2. Changing the Object's Icon - OS/2 2.1 ═══ You can update desktop icons under OS/2 2.1 by extracting them from the IconEase catalog. The extracted icon can be dragged to an object's General page of it's Settings Notebook. o Extract an icon from IconEase: - Preview the desired icon - Position the mouse pointer over the icon - Press and hold the right mouse button - Drag the icon to the desktop or a folder - Release the right mouse button o Open the desktop object's Settings Notebook - Position the mouse pointer over the object - Click the right mouse button - Position the mouse pointer over the arrow that appears to the right of the Open menu item - Click the left mouse button - Position the mouse pointer over the Settings menu item - Click the left mouse button o Surface the General page of the notebook - Position the mouse over tab marked General - Click the left mouse button o Drag the extracted icon to the General page - Position the mouse over the extracted icon - Press and hold the right mouse button - Move the pointer over the area labelled Current Icon on the notebook General page - Release the right mouse button o Optionally, drag the extracted icon to the system shreader to delete it. You can always extract it again if you need it. ═══ 6. Extracting Icons from IconEase ═══ You may find it desireable to extract icons from the IconEase catalog. Once extracted, the icon becomes a standard system icon and can be used the same way as any other icon file in the system. Extract an icon from IconEase: o Preview the desired icon o Position the mouse pointer over the icon o Press and hold the right mouse button o Drag the icon to the desktop or a folder o Release the right mouse button Note: Under OS/2 2.0, extracted icons carry a temporary name used in the extraction process. With OS/2 2.1 and later releases, the extracted icon will be named the same as it appears on the IconEase notebook. ═══ 7. Use of the Notebook Page ═══ To obtain general help, press F2 now. Icons are alphabetically organized on each notebook page. You can place the input focus on the notebook page by left button mouse clicking the upper right hand corner of the opened page. When the notebook page has the input focus, you can use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to move through the tabs of the notebook. Once you have highlighted the tab you wish to open, press the enter key. That tab will surface and icons that begin with that tab character will be displayed in the list portion of the icon combo box control. You can also click a notebook tab to bring it to the surface. The notebook page serves four main functions: o Icon selection o Icon preview o Save icon to clipboard o Launch the icon editor ═══ 7.1. The Send to Clipboard Button ═══ After you have previewed an icon, you can send it to the clipboard by pressing the Send to Clipboard button. IconEase will send a bitmap of the icon to the clipboard. This bitmap can be used by any word processor or paint program that is able to paste OS/2 bitmaps. IconEase also sends two private clipboard formats that are understood by the OS/2 Icon Editor program. That way, you can easily change OS/2 Workplace Shell object icons. ═══ 7.2. Launching the Icon Editor ═══ You can launch the Icon Editor for the purpose of editing the the preview icon. Of course, it is necessary to place an icon in the preview area first. Launch the OS/2 Icon Editor by clicking the Edit button that appears at the bottom of the IconEase notebook. You can launch several concurrent Icon Editor sessions using IconEase. Each instance of the Icon Editor runs as a separate session. That means you can even close IconEase without disturbing the edit sessions. ═══ 8. Use of the Combo Box ═══ To obtain general help, press F2 now. The combination box is comprised of an entry field and a list box. The list box contains the names of all of the icons that begin with the tab letter of the currently opened notebook page. You can use the entry box to perform the following functions: o Fast path open a new notebook page o Position the current selection in the list box o Preview an icon on the notebook page ═══ 8.1. Notebook Page Fast Path ═══ Whenever the data in the entry field is completely selected (all characters are highlighted,) you can type the notebook tab character for the page that you wish to surface. You can quickly select the entry field characters by pressing the down arrow key. That loads a new listbox item into the entry field and fully selects it. ═══ 8.2. Positioning on a Listbox Item ═══ Just type in the leftmost characters of an icon name. IconEase will automatically position and select the first item in the listbox that matches what you have typed. ═══ 8.3. Previewing Icons on the Notebook Page ═══ After an icon is highlighted in the listbox, you can preview it at the top of the notebook page. Simply press the enter key or double click the list item. ═══ 9. Startup Parameters for IconEase ═══ IconEase will accept a single input parameter from the command line or from the parameters entry field in its program object setting. You can enter the filename of an icon catalog that has been formatted for use with IconEase. In that way, you can easily manage multiple collections of icon files. You can order a collection of over 3300 public domain icons when you register this shareware program. You can also send in a 3 1/2" diskette containing your favorite icons to be formatted for use with IconEase. Please, see the registration topic in this help file. If you do not input a filename, the filename that you entered does not exist or will not open, then IconEase looks for a file named IconEase.Dat. The search is made in the following fashion: o In the same directory as IconEase.EXE o In the current working directory o By OS/2 default through the DPATH config.sys variable ═══ 10. Help for Key Assignments ═══ The list of keys is arranged in groups. HELP KEYS F1 Get help F2 Get extended help (from within any help window) Alt+F4 End help F9 Go to a list of keys (from within any help window) F11 Go to the help index (from within any help window) Esc Previous Help Panel, or End help if only one panel Alt+F6 Go to/from help and programs Shift+F10 Get help for help SYSTEM KEYS Alt+F6 Switch to the next windowed program Alt+Esc Switch to the next program, including full-screen programs Ctrl+Esc Switch to the Task List WINDOW KEYS F3 Close a window F10 Go to/from the action bar Arrow keys Move among choices End Go to the last choice in a pull-down Esc Cancel a pull-down or the system menu Home Go to the first choice in a pull-down PgUp Scroll the contents of the window up one page PgDn Scroll the contents of the window down one page Underlined letter Move among the choices on the action bar and pull-downs Alt+F10 Go to/from the action bar Alt+F4 or F3 Close the window Alt+F5 Restore the window Alt+F7 Move the window Alt+F8 Size the window Alt+F9 Minimize the window Alt+F10 Maximize the window Ctrl+PgDn or Shift+F8 Scroll the contents of the window right one page Ctrl+PgUp or Shift+F7 Scroll the contents of the window left one page Shift+Esc or Alt+Spacebar Go to/from the system menu Shift+Esc or Alt Go to/from the system menu of a text window ═══ 11. IconEase Registration Form - Rel. 1.30 ═══ Please, print this form and register IconEase. My Name and Address: Remit Payment and Order To: ________________________ Dave Lester ________________________ New Freedom Data Center ________________________ Box 461 ________________________ New Freedom, PA. 17349 Qty. Description Unit Extended Price Price ____ I would like to register the shareware program. $15 _______ ____ I would like to register the program and also receive over 3300 icons formatted for IconEase. $25 _______ ____ I would like to register the program, receive over 3300 icons formatted for IconEase AND a black and white printed icon catalog. $40 _______ ____ I would also like to register the GenICDB utility so that I can format my own IconEase catalogs. (Requires registration of the IconEase utility and the use of HPFS storage for icons.) $20 _______ ____ My company would like to register the program, receive over 3300 icons formatted for IconEase AND a black and white printed icon catalog for unlimited use at the following business location: $250 _______ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ TOTAL: _______ Please remit payment in US dollars or check written in US dollars drawn upon US bank.