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- Blanch 1.9
- Copyright ⌐ 1996, One Guy Coding
-
- WWW http://www.cam.org/~oneguy
- eMail oneguy@cam.org
-
- << Button Launcher for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 >>
-
- * Installation
- --------------
- Blanch comes with a small setup program and two install
- files (.inf) that will copy blanch to the directory
- \Program Files\One Guy Coding and create a program group
- in the Start Menu. You can also uninstall blanch using
- the Control Panel Add/Remove software applet. Run the
- Blanch17.exe distribution and unzip the files into a
- temporary folder (eg. c:\temp\blanch).
-
- - change to the temporary folder
- - run setup.exe
- - a folder is opened with the shortcuts to blanch, readme,
- changes, etc. Run Blanch.
-
- You can delete the files in the temporary folder.
-
- That's it! You will, undoubtedly, want to create a shortcut in
- the StartUp menu to have blanch run when you start windows. This
- can be done directly in the blanch context menu - right click anywhere
- on blanch and check "Startup shortcut" to have blanch create
- a shortcut in the start menu.
-
- * Description
- -------------
- Blanch is a simple, yet powerful, drag-n-drop button bar for
- Window 95 and Windows NT 4.0. Drag executable files or
- associated documents, folders and shortcuts (links) and drop
- them on blanch to create a new button. Drag blanch buttons
- between pages to duplicate the button. Drag a button off the
- page to delete the button (you can still paste it back to
- the button bar at this point). Cut/Copy and Paste buttons
- from the Context menus.
-
- Blanch buttons now have Cron capabilities, that is, they can
- be configured to launch automatically. See the Cron options
- described below.
-
- Right click on Blanch (or the title bar) to open the context
- menu. From here you can set various options (see Blanch Options
- below) open the Blanch Properties dialog or change "Pages".
- The first 10 Blanch pages can be accessed via the keyboard
- accelerators Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, ... Ctrl-0 or by Ctrl-left and
- Ctrl-right to cycle through the pages.
-
- Blanch will auto hide if you move the bar to one of the edges
- of the screen. For example, if you have a horizontal blanch
- bar and you drag the blanch window to the top of the screen the
- caption will disappear and blanch will hide if you run a program
- or select another window. Double click on one of the page
- tabs to restore the caption.
-
- Right click on a Blanch Button to open the button context menu.
- From here you can delete or open the button properties dialog.
- Change the executable, default directory, icon file or icon
- index and specify whether blanch should minimise, maximise or
- run the program normally. Clicking on the first menu entry will
- open an explorer window in the directory where that particular
- program lives. You can also cut/copy/paste buttons as well as
- drag them around on the blanch page. Move them to another page
- by dragging and dropping a button onto a page tab.
-
- You can also drop files onto blanches that contain executables.
- If the executable has been designed to accept command line options
- the executable will run and load the file or files dropped onto
- it. (Note: some program will not load more than one file at a time).
-
- * Cron Options
- --------------
-
- Any blanch button can now be configured to launch itself
- automatically. Click the "Cron ..." button in any button
- properties dialog box to change or install cron settings
- for any given button. Programs can be scheduled to launch
- based on the following criteria, in order of increasing
- priority,
-
- Minute - One or more 2 minute intervals (required)
- Hour - One or more hours during the course of the day
- Day - One or more month days (1-31)
- Week Day - One or more week days (Sunday, Monday, ..., Saturday)
- Month - One or more month days
-
- *** NOTE *** Only the minute setting is required. All other
- criteria are enabled by default.
-
- For example. If you setup a cron with 0 and 30 minutes selected
- the Blanch will launch every month, every week day, every day
- and every hour at 0 and 30 minutes. If you turned on a given
- hour, say 8, the program would only be launched at 8:00
- and 8:30 (every day for all eternity or until 2038, which ever
- comes first).
-
- Note that Week Day settings take priority over Month Day
- settings, that is if you select Monday but deselect Monday
- the 1st, 8th and 22nd the program would still launch on
- those days.
-
- To destroy settings for a button click the Destroy button.
- To clear settings, click Clear.
- To disable the current settings, click Disable on.
- To launch the button only one time, click One Time on.
-
- * Blanch Options
- ----------------
- Pages - popup menu for managing button pages
- Buttons - add buttons to blanch
- -------------
- Paste - paste a button onto the current page (right click on a button
- to copy or paste it into the button clipboard)
- -------------
- Options
- On Top - blanch stays on top of all other applications
- Auto Hide - blanch can be auto hidden on the edge of the screen
- Caption - show or hide the window caption
- Tab snap - mouse cursor 'snaps' to page tabs when turned on
-
- Big Icons - choose big icons or smaller ones
- Show Flyouts - if clicked the description field is displayed in a
- small flyout menu
- Show Systray - display an icon in the system tray
- Flat style - buttons are displayed without borders when selected
-
- Show horizontal
- Show vertical - blanch can be displayed horizontally or vertically
-
- Save to registry - save the current button setup to the registry
- Export registry - save the current registry for blanch to the specified file
-
- --------------
-
- About - display the about dialog box
- Help - display the help file (coming soon)
- Close - exit blanch
- Properties - Blanch Properties dialog box
-
- * Blanch Button Options
- -----------------------
- Explore ... - opens windows explorer and selects the button's executable
- Desktop shortcut - creates a desktop shortcut for the current button settings
- ----------------
- Cut - cuts the selected button to the clipboard
- Copy - copies the selected button to the clipboard
- Paste - pastes the clipboard onto the current page
- ----------------
- Delete - delete the selected blanch button
- Properties - Blanch Button Properties dialog box
-
- * Keyboard
- ----------
- Ctrl+1 - Open Page 1
- Ctrl+2 - Open Page 2
- ...
- Ctrl+9 - Open Page 9
- Ctrl+0 - Open Page 10
- Ctrl-left - Switch to the previous page
- Ctrl-right - Switch to the next page
- Ctrl+F11 - Blanch hotkey (will be configurable in Properties dialog)
-
- Ctrl-H - toggle auto hide setting
- Ctrl-S - save to registry
- Ctrl-V - Paste
- Ctrl-X - Exit blanch
-
- * Notes
- -------
- - Manually adding a dialup networking connection button
-
- Description: Connect to ISP
- Executable: rundll32.exe
- Default Dir:
- Options: rnaui.dll,RnaDial Connect to ISP
- Icon: rnaui.dll
-
- Be sure to type the name of the connection exactly (as
- specified in the Dialup Networking Folder).
-
- - I am working on a method for displaying Shell Objects like Control
- Panel or Printers
- - I would like to have Control Panel, Dial-Up Networking and Printers
- as the default buttons when Blanch first launches. If anyone knows
- how to place launch these please let me know (I believe they can be
- launched with Explorer.exe).
- - the following string, as an option to explorer.exe, will load dial-up
- networking,
-
- ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\::{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
-
- - Blanch data is stored in the registry under the key,
-
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\One Guy Coding\Blanch
-
- * Author
- --------
- Steeve McCauley
- One Guy Coding
- oneguy@cam.org
- http://www.cam.org