___________________________________________________________ ( ReadMe.txt 9.11.03 ) )_________________________________________________________( Weather Watcher v5.0.27 Your desktop weather station Copyright © 2003 Mike Singer All Rights Reserved E-Mail: Mike@SingersCreations.com Web Site: www.SingersCreations.com ___________________________________________________________ ( How to donate to Singer's Creations: ) )_________________________________________________________( Please feel free to make a voluntary donation to Singer's Creations to help cover web site and development time costs. (1). You can make a PayPal donation via the following URL: https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=itzhitman%40aol.com (2). To send a donation by check, please contact me at Mike@SingersCreations.com -or- itzhitman@aol.com to obtain my current snail-mail address. ___________________________________________________________ ( What's new in this version: ) )_________________________________________________________( v5.0.27 - Fixed bug that was causing the update function to fail. It was attempting to connect to my old file server on www.MetalForums.org. - The Weather Watcher tray icon will now automatically reload when Windows Explorer crashes. This fix will hopefully solve the icon loading problem that some people were having when they had Weather Watcher set to automatically start on Windows startup. - Options window will reposition itself if it loads off the edge of the screen. - "Clear Map History" button now will clear the map history correctly. In the previous version, the history maps would return when Weather Watcher was restarted. - Removed comma from HpA conversion. - About window resizing problem fixed -- it wasn't correctly resizing for all DPI settings. - About window pops up ontop of all windows when windows are set to stay ontop. v5.0.26d - Fixed bug that was causing the Weather Watcher City Search tool to fail when a search only had one result. v5.0.26c - Fixed bug that was causing "Weather Watcher" to appear on the tray bar. v5.0.26b - Can open mutliple Weather Watcher browser maps. - 20:00 display OK when 24-hour time system is enabled. - When searching for cities, "for" was showing up for some cities outside of the US -- Fixed. - Tooltip will show the temperature to the tenths place, if the "Use tenths place value" option is enabled. - Fixed many Detailed Forecast conversion bugs. - mm barometer conversion was off by .5 mm -- Fixed. - Made "City Code" section of Options easier to use. - Can now switch city codes via tray icon popup menu. - Added feature to auto-retry failed forecasts until they downloaded properly. - No longer have to click on the forecast to scroll. - Can now use arrows, Home, and End keys in City Code search box. - Can now hide/unhide Weather Watcher by left-clicking the tray icon. - Added option to change the order of the tray icon menu items -- most used items can be moved to the bottom. - Added option to clear map history. v5.0.26a - The tray icon will now reload if Windows Explorer crashes. This update should also ensure that the tray icon loads if you have Weather Watcher set to start on Windows start-up. v5.0.26 - Fixed 24-hour time system bug. - Fixed Time Zone abbreviation bug. - Fixed bug that was causing error on exiting. - Fixed bug in "Exit Weather Watcher when 'x' is clicked on main window" option. - Fixed duplicate "Map History" list bug. - Added "Map History" to tray menu. - Severe weather alert includes more details. - Tray icon tooltip displays more weather information. - On severe weather alert, a bubble containing the alert information will pop up by the tray icon (XP only). v5.0.25 - New interface (looks like the beta). - Fixed "Do not display first digit when temperature reaches 100" bug. - Faster weather retrieval times. - Fonts used in Options load at startup to improve performance. - Last updated time can be viewed in 24-hour format. - Times zones in last updated time can be abbreviated. - Current Conditions will not be selected as the default view right after retrieving the weather. - System tray menu can be accessed by left-clicking blank area on main Weather Watcher interface. - "x" in upper, right corner of main Weather Watcher interface can either be set to minimize or close Weather Watcher. - New list of maps (same as list in beta). - New map features (can edit/add/remove maps)). - Added "Map History" feature in map menu. v5.0.24b - Fixed problem that was causing the severe alert retrieval process to fail v5.0.24 - Fixed problem that was causing the forecast retrieval process to fail v5.0.23 - Fixed problem that was causing current forecast to constantly reload - Added a work-around to download failed forecasts v5.0.22g - Fixed tray icon horizontal line problem when tray icon BackColor was set to transparent (for Windows 98 users) - All maps now open into your default viewer (IE for most people). I will add more map features in the next major release. For now, this should take care of some of the problems that some people were having with the maps. - All extra Weather Watcher entries in the "Add or Remove Programs" menu should be removed after running this version of Weather Watcher for the first time. - Tweaked the downloader (DL.EXE). - .5°C will now display as 0.5°C. v5.0.22f - Miscellaneous conversion fixes. v5.0.22e: - Fixed "gusting to" Detailed wind metric conversion. It was converting at all before. - Fixed system tray conversion. It was dropping the first 1 even if the temperature was not over 99. v5.0.22d: - System icon will now round up or down to the nearest temperature when Celsius is selected. - Added an option to automatically retrieve the weather when the city code is changed. Note: The weather will not be retrieved until the Options window has been closed. v5.0.22c: - Fixed bug that was causing -.2C to show as "." in the system tray when the "Use tenths place value" option was checked. v5.0.22b: - Fixed tray icon transparent feature. v5.0.22a: - Fixed bug that was causing system tray temperature to always show in Fahrenheit. - Added option to display the system tray icon with a transparent background. - Added COMCTL32.OCX and COMDLG32.OCX to the setup -- some people did not already have these files installed on their PC. - Attempted to fix problem that was causing Weather Watcher not to fully load on startup (the tray icon was not appearing). I was not able to replicate this problem, so please e-mail me at Mike@SingersCreations.com if you are still having this problem. v5.0.22: - Fixed problem that was causing the system tray icon to fail to load on Windows start-up. - System tray icon will now be re-added if Windows Explorer crashes. - Made cosmetic changes to interface and interface HTML. - Add new options in the "System Tray" section: font, font size, text type (bold/italic/normal), background color, foreground color. - Added option to display degree symbol in system tray. - Added option to drop the "1" in the system tray if the temperature is over 99. - New "Conversion" options look. - Added kPa barometer conversion. - Added Kts wind conversion. - Added option to display Fahrenheit and Celsius at the same time (in forecast areas). - Can use any combination of metric and non-metric measurements. - Added option to display both the time the forecast was posted at www.weather.com and the time that Weather Watcher downloaded the forecast. - Tray icon will show the Feels Like temperature if the Actual temperature is N/A, and vice versa. - Detailed Forecast will now convert any measurement that is given in inches (i.e. rain/snow). ___________________________________________________________ ( Description: ) )_________________________________________________________( Weather Watcher is your personal Windows desktop weather station. Automatically retrieve your local weather from the Internet and store it in your Windows system tray. With one click of your mouse button, the most current weather update is in your view. ___________________________________________________________ ( Interface Description: ) )_________________________________________________________( The following appears on the main Weather Watcher program interface: Retrieve Weather --> Right-click this icon to download the (Lightning bolt selected weather forecasts. You can icon) select the forecasts to download in the "On Download" area of the Options window. Note: You must be connected to the Internet in order for a successful update. View current conditions --> Right-click this icon to (Sun icon) display the current weather conditions. View hourly forecast --> Right-click this icon to display (Clock icon) the forecast for the next 8 hours. View daily forecast --> Right-click this icon to display (Calendar icon) the forecast for the next 10 days. View detailed forecast --> Right-click this icon to (White paper icon) display the text forecast for the next 10 days. View weather maps --> Right-click this icon to display (Globe icon) the list of world-wide weather maps. (Not included in this version) Display options window --> Right-click this icon to (Toolbox icon) display the Options window. Minimize To Tray --> Right-click the small, white "x" in the top, right-hand corner to minimize Weather Watcher to the system tray. To open the main window again, simply left-click the Weather Watcher icon in the system tray (beside the clock). Most of the above features can also be executed from the Weather Watcher system tray menu. The Weather Watcher menu can be accessed by right-clicking the Weather Watcher icon in the Windows system tray (beside the clock). ___________________________________________________________ ( Description of Weather Watcher Options: ) )_________________________________________________________( Start Weather Watcher and right-click the "Display Options window" icon on the main program interface. The "Weather watcher options" window will now be in your view. [General] --> "Start Minimized" Enable this if you would like Weather Watcher to be minimized to the system tray upon start-up. --> "Retrieve Forecasts" Enable this option if you would like the selected forecats from the "On Download" area of the Options to automatically download when Weather Watcher starts. --> "Pause 10 seconds before downloading forecasts" Enable this option if you want Weather Watcher to wait 10 seconds before retrieving forecasts on start-up. --> "Check for new version" Enable this option if you would like to verify that you are using the latest version of Weather Watcher when Weather Watcher starts up. --> "Keep all windows on top" Enable this option if you would like all of Weather Watcher's window to appear on top of any windows in any other program that you're currently running. --> "Load when Windows starts" Enable this option if you want Weather Watcher to automatically start up when you boot your computer. --> "View maps in default browser" Enable this option if you want the weather maps to open in your default web browser, instead of in Weather Watcher's internal map browser. --> "Exit Weather Watcher when 'x' is clicked on main windows" Enable this option if you want Weather Watcher to terminate (instead of minimize to the system tray) when the white 'x' is clicked in the upper, right-hand corner of the main Weather Watcher interface. [City Code] --> "Active City Code" Use this combo box to set your active Weather Watcher city. You can also set your city code in the tray icon popup menu. --> "Remove Selected" Press this button to delete the city code that is currently selected in the "Active City Code" combo box. --> "Remove All" Press this button to remove all city codes that appear in the "Active City Code" combo box. --> "Add New Zip Code" Use this button to add a new U.S. Zip Code to the "Active City Code" combo box. --> "Add New City" Use this button to add a new city to the "Active City Code" combo box. --> "Automatically update forecast when city code is changed" Enable this option if you want Weather Watcher to automatically retrieve the selected forecasts after selecting a different city code from the "Active City Code" combo box and closing the Weather Watcher Options window. [Auto Update] --> "Forecast Auto Update Rate" Select the update rate from this combo box to specify how long you want Weather Watcher to wait in between weather updates. --> "Enable Auto Update" Enable this option if you want Weather Watcher to automatically retrieve the selected forecasts at the rate that is selected in the "Forecast Auto Update Rate" combo box. --> "Only download updates when connected to the Internet" Enable this option if you would like Weather Watcher to check if you're connected to the Internet before attempting to retrieve the weather. --> "When update attempt fails, auto retry every minute" Enable this option if you would like Weather Watcher to automatically redownload any forecasts that failed on the initial forecasts update. Weather Watcher will retry the failed downloads every minute until all of the forecasts have been successfully downloaded. [Tray Icon] --> "Display feels like temperature" Enable this option if you would like the feel like temperature to be displayed in the tray icon, instead of the actual temperature. --> "Display degree symbol" Enable this option if you would like the degree symbol to display beside the temperature in the tray icon. --> "Do not display first digit when temperature reaches 100°" Enable this option if you would like the tray icon to only display a maximum of 2 digits. --> "Flash icon/show popup when new weather alert is retrieved" Enable this option if you would like Weather Watcher to flash the tray icon -or- show popup (Windows XP only) when a new weather alert is retrieved and Weather Watcher is minimized to the tray. --> "Go to weather.com on double-click" Enable this option if you would like the current city's weather.com web page to open when the tray icon is double-clicked. [Tray Menu] --> "Tray Menu Order" Use the option to specify the order of the tray menu items. --> "Clear History Maps" Press this button to clear the history maps from the map menu and tray menu. [On Download] --> "On Forecast Updates" Used to select the forecasts that will download when Weather Watcher updates the weather. --> "Display time downloaded" Enable this option to display the time the forecast was downloaded to your computer at the bottom of the forecast. --> "Display both time downloaded -and- time observed at weather.com" Enable this option to display both the time the forecast was downloaded to your computer -and- the time the forecast was last updated at weather.com. --> "Abbreviate time zones" Enable this option to abbreviate the time zones that appear in the times at the bottom of the forecasts. --> "Use 24-hour time system" Enable this option to display times in 24-hour time system at the bottom of the forecasts. [Conversion] --> "Temperaure" Used to specify the temperature units of measure. --> "Wind" Used to specify the wind units of measure. --> "Visibility" Used to specify the visibility units of measure. --> "Barometer" Used to specify the barometer units of measure. --> "Use tenths place value" Enable this option to display the temperaure tenths place value in the forecasts and in the tray icon tooltip. [Sounds] --> "Severe Weather Alert" Used to specify the sound that will play when a new severe weather alert has been retrieved. --> "Sound until acknowledged" Enable this option if you want the "Severe Weater Alert" sound to keep playing until you view the severe weather alert. --> "New Version Available" Used to specify the sound that will play when a new version of Weather Watcher has been released. --> "Weather Retrieved" Used to specify the sound that will play when the weather forecasts have been updated. ___________________________________________________________ ( How to view severe weather alerts: ) )_________________________________________________________( If there is a Severe Weather Alert for your selected city, the Weather Watcher icon will flash in the system tray -or- the popup balloon will be displayed by the tray con (if Weather Watcher is minimized). When the tray icon is clicked, the system tray icon will return to its normal state. The Severe Weather Alert will appear in the Current Conditions area, right under the link to Singer's Creations on the right side. Click the Severe Alert link to view the full severe alert. ___________________________________________________________ ( Source of the weather data: ) )_________________________________________________________( The weather data used by Weather Watcher comes from different sources on the Internet. The major source of the data is retrieved from www.weather.com. The weather data is not generated or owned by Singer's Creations. You may ask "how is this legal"? Weather Watcher pulls the weather data from the Internet via Microsoft's Internet Explorer. There is no difference between you using the IE web browser directly and Weather Watcher's use of the IE web browser. ___________________________________________________________ ( Other comments/questions/suggestions: ) )_________________________________________________________( Do you have a question that was not covered in this help file? Do you have a suggestion for a new feature or a new program idea? E-Mail Mike@SingersCreations.com -OR- itzhitman@aol.com with a detailed description of your problem. Please be sure to provide me with as much information as possible so I can provide you with a quick, accurate response.