═══ 1. Introduction ═══ presents Animouse is a fun little program that animates your mouse pointer so that you can show your friends and co-workers how cool your computer is and how pathetic theirs is. With Animouse, you can choose from several already-made animations or you can even create your own, using OS/2's built in ICON EDITOR and a simple script. Contents: Using Animouse Creating your own Animations Frequently Asked Questions Acknowledgements Obtaining Support ═══ 2. Using Animouse ═══ Available Topics: Selecting an Animation Previewing an Animation Turning Animation On and Off Animation Priority Level Undo Default About Exit Popup Menu Changing Animation Name (Direct Editing) Changing Animation Icon (Drag/Drop) Changing the Way Animouse looks ═══ 2.1. Selecting an Animation ═══ Use either the keyboard or the mouse (more fun with the mouse doncha think?) to select one of the animations from the container at the top. Double click or press enter to load the animation. Alternatively, you may use the popup context menu and select Use. Related Topics: Popup Menu Previewing Animations Using Animouse ═══ 2.2. Previewing Animations ═══ Once you have selected an animation, you may wish to view all the different pointer types. You could try moving the mouse pointer around the desktop, but you probably would not be able to see some of the less frequently used pointer types, such as move, wait, or illegal. Fortunately, there is a better way. Simply position the mouse pointer over the checkbox that corresponds to the pointer type you wish to see animated. If the script has an animation defined for that type, you will see the animation. Otherwise, you will just see your normal mouse pointer. Related Topics: Selecting an Animation Frequently Asked Questions Using Animouse ═══ 2.3. Turning Animation On and Off ═══ You may only want to animate some of the pointer types, not all of them. For instance, it may be annoying to have your main arrow cursor being animated all the time. You can turn animation on or off for each of the various pointer types by selecting the appropriate checkbox. In addition, you can entirely disable all mouse pointer animation by selecting the Animate pushbutton. Related Topics: Using Animouse ═══ 2.4. Animation Priority Level ═══ The animation thread can be assigned different priorities to determine how frequently it is serviced by the CPU. If you find that the mouse animation is stalling during heavy system load, you may want to try raising the 'Animation Priority' to High. Likewise, if you want Animouse to only operate when other tasks are idle, select Low. The Default Value is (amazingly enough) Normal. Related Topics: Default Using Animouse ═══ 2.5. Undo ═══ Press the Undo button to erase all* changes made since the program was opened. * Animation name changes made via direct editing are not undone. Related Topics: Default Using Animouse ═══ 2.6. Default ═══ Press the Default button to return all settings to their factory set values. Related Topics: Undo Using Animouse ═══ 2.7. About ═══ The About button will display a dialog box which gives gives information about the version of Animouse you are using. Related Topics: Introduction Using Animouse ═══ 2.8. Exit ═══ Press Exit to close the program. Your previous settings will be saved. Related Topics: Using Animouse ═══ 2.9. The Popup Menu ═══ A popup menu is available for each Animation in the container. The menu has 4 choices: New Edit Delete Use Related Topics: Using Animouse ═══ 2.9.1. New ═══ Selecting New from the popup menu will create a new animation script template (complete with helpful comments) and open the Icon Editor for your use. A new animation icon will appear in the Animouse Window. It will be given a default icon which you are free (and encouraged) to modify via drag 'n' drop. It will also be assigned a name, "new1", "new2", "new3", etc. which you may modify via Direct Editing. Related Topics: Creating your own Animation Direct Editing Drag 'n' Drop Popup Menu ═══ 2.9.2. Edit ═══ Select Edit. from the popup menu of the animation that you wish to edit. The OS/2 Icon Editor and the OS/2 System Editor should load, displaying the contents of the animation file. You may advance through the pointers in the Icon Editor by selecting Next from the File menu or using the keyboard shortcut CTRL-E The OS/2 System Editor will display the contents of the script file which controls which pointers are used in the animation. Make any necessary changes and Select Save from the File menu. For additional information about how to use the Icon Editor or the System Editor, please refer to the program's online help, OS/2's manual or one of the many excellent OS/2 Warp reference books that are available. Related Topics: The Script File The Pointer (*.PTR) files Popup Menu ═══ 2.9.3. Delete ═══ When you select Delete from the popup menu, Animouse will display a dialog box that confirms your delete action. Related Topics: Do you really want to Delete ... ? Popup Menu ═══ 2.9.4. Use ═══ Selecting Use will cause the highlighted animation to be loaded. Related Topics: Selecting an Animation Popup Menu ═══ 2.10. Changing Animation Name ═══ You can change the name of an animation in the main window via Direct Editing. This is the same technique used in standard Workplace Shell Folders to change the name of an object. The exact method of doing this is configurable in the Mouse Settings system object and may change from system to system. However, the default (and most likely) method is to hold down ALT and select the object with your left mouse button. The icon text will become outlined and you will be able to change it. If this does not work then you should try opening your System Setup folder and double-click on Mouse. Now select the Mappings tab and look at the section titled "Editing title text". You should be able to determine the proper procedure based on those settings. * On FAT file systems, the actual filename will not change if you specify a name longer than 8 characters. Related Topics: Changing Animation Icon Using Animouse ═══ 2.11. Changing Animation Icon ═══ The icon used to represent each animation can easily be changed via drag and drop. Simply drag any standard Icon or Pointer (*.ICO, *.PTR) file onto the target animation item, and drop it. The animation item will change to match the dragged image. Related Topics: Changing Animation Text Using Animouse ═══ 2.12. Changing the Way Animouse looks ═══ The Animouse main window is highly configurable. You can change the fonts and colors for any of the standard OS/2 controls simply by opening OS/2's font or color palette and dragging the desired attribute onto the control you wish to change. Your attributes will be saved upon exit. We recommend placing the font and color palettes on the launchpad for quick access. Why might you want to change the attributes? -The default fonts do not fit your display correctly. -All that gray hurts your eyes. -You are bored. -You are trying to look like you are actually working. -Make your desktop look better than your neighbor's Win95. -Just 'cuz it's fun!! Some Notes and Suggestions Hold down the CTRL key when dropping the attribute in order to change the Foreground attribute. Text and button-shadows can be changed in this manner. The default behavior is to change the Background. Dropping an attribute on the main window background also updates the rest of controls -- IF they do not already have that attribute defined. For example, to make all the text smaller, drop a small font somewhere around the perimeter of the window, and all the text should change, unless you have already changed a specific control's font manually. Attributes for the New Dialogs are saved seperately from the default dialog attributes, so you can maintain 2 different "looks". Only the standard OS/2 controls will change their background color, so new controls will always remain gray. You can select the foreground and background states for the Animate button and the Icon Container when they are either enabled or disabled. It is possible to create some neat (to us computer geeks) effects this way. Experiment! The Default button restores colors and fonts to the default OS/2 system values. The Undo button restores colors and fonts to whatever condition they were at when the program was started. Related Topics: Default Dialogs vs. New Dialogs Undo Default Using Animouse ═══ 3. Creating your own Animation ═══ First of All.... Creating or editing an animation is very simple and a lot of fun! (well, for some people anyway.) Due to the large number of pointers involved, you should create a unique directory for each animation file you undertake. It will probably be easiest if this directory is a subdirectory of the Animouse Directory, but this is not a requirement. If you are editing a pre-existing animation, the directory should already have been created. There are 9 pointer types that are widely used in OS/2. A single script file defines the animations for each of the following types: Arrow Text Wait SizeNWSE (Northwest, Southeast) SizeNESW (Northeast, SouthWest) SizeWE (West, East) SizeNS (North, South) Illegal Related Topics: The Script File Example Animation Script Creating and Editing Pointer files Distributing your animation creation! ═══ 3.1. The Script File ═══ The script file (*.ANM) is a simple ascii text file that "points to" mouse pointer (*.PTR) files. Each pointer file is a single frame in an animation. The script file controls which pointers get loaded and how long each one is displayed for (in milliseconds). The ANM script file (once finished) must be located in the directory in which you have Animouse installed. The individual pointer files, however, do not need to be located in the Animouse directory. Indeed, it will become awfully messy if you do this. Instead, they should be located in a subdirectory - one for each ANM file. The best way to understand a script file is simply to look at one. Please do so now. Animouse will provide you with a script template when you select New from the popup menu. This template contains a detailed comment section which should guide you through the process of creating your animation. As a last resort, you can always open up an existing animation to see how it was done by selecting Edit from the animation's popup menu. You may not even have to create any new pointers. Suppose you like the text animation from one script file and the Wait animation from another. You can simply copy the proper section from each file into your own 'new' animation script. You can also play with the sequence (display order) and the duration (amount of time) that each frame is displayed for. Related Topics: Example Animation Script Pointer File (*.PTR) information Creating your own animation Changing Animation Name (Direct Editing) Changing Animation Icon (Drag/Drop) Popup Menu ═══ 3.2. Example Animation Script. ═══ Animation_Script ;------------------------------- ; FileNames | Durations | ;------------------------------- ARROW: .\MyAnim\arrow1.ptr 1000 .\MyAnim\arrow2.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow3.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow4.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow5.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow6.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow7.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow8.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow9.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow10.ptr 100 .\MyAnim\arrow11.ptr 100 END: TEXT: .\MyAnim\text1.ptr 300 .\MyAnim\text2.ptr 300 END: WAIT: .\MyAnim\wait1.ptr 200 .\MyAnim\wait2.ptr 200 .\MyAnim\wait3.ptr 200 .\MyAnim\wait4.ptr 200 .\MyAnim\wait5.ptr 200 .\MyAnim\wait6.ptr 200 END: NWSE: .\MyAnim\NWSE3.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NWSE2.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NWSE1.ptr 250 END: NESW: .\MyAnim\NESW3.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NESW2.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NESW1.ptr 250 END: WE: .\MyAnim\WE3.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\WE2.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\WE1.ptr 250 END: NS: .\MyAnim\NS3.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NS2.ptr 250 .\MyAnim\NS1.ptr 250 END: ;We left the Illegal pointer blank, ;so it will not be animated. ═══ 3.3. The Pointer (*.PTR) files ═══ The largest part of the job is creating all the necessary pointers. It is not necessary to create an animation for each pointer type (the program won't crash if you don't) but please don't distribute ANM Scripts unless they have an animation for each type. Use the Icon Editor (or equivalent program) to edit the pointers. Make sure you save them as a .PTR file and not an .ICO file. Also, make sure that for each pointer type (arrow, wait, etc) that each frame (.PTR file) has the hotspot located in the same place. Failure to do this will result in a mouse pointer that jumps around (it centers on the hotspot). It is recommended that you start out simple. Try a small animation with just 2 pointers for each type. After you make sure you know what you are doing, go for the gold! Tip 1: In the Icon Editor, copy the current pointer to the clipboard and then start a new pointer. Now paste the old image into the edit area and modify. Tip 2: Use descriptive filenames. (arrow1.ptr, text1.ptr, etc). Tip 3: Omit the number from the first frame of each pointer type. Then you can select Load Set in the system Mouse Settings object to automatically load those pointers when Animouse is not running. Tip 4: Make sure you are using the default OS/2 color palette or weird colors may result. Tip 5: Remember to use CTRL-E to advance through the pointers in the Icon Editor. Related Topics: Creating your own animation Understanding animation scripts An example script Distributing your animation creation ═══ 3.4. Distributing your animation creation!. ═══ Having used IBM's Webexplorer a lot, I like how many people have created their own animations for use on their (and other's) Web pages. I have also seen icons and mouse pointer sets uploaded to various ftp sites. I know there is a lot of creative talent and energy out there. It is my hope that people will create Animouse animations and distribute them for all to use. There are just a few requirements: 1) The Animation must be complete. Please do not distribute animations that are missing any pointer types. 2) You may not charge for the animation in any way. 3) You must notify the Animouse author (dandaman@aloha.com) of the animation's location on the net. I would like to create a web page with pointers to user created animations, and this is a necessary prerequisite. That's it! Be creative! I can think of a lot of wacky animations I would like to create if I had any artistic talent. Related Topics: Creating your own animation Understanding the Script File ═══ 4. Animouse Notifications ═══ ═══ 4.1. "Unable to Load Pointer" Notification ═══ Animouse was not able to load one of the pointer files listed in the script file. There may be a syntax error in the script file or something wrong with the pointer file. Select Keep Trying to continue loading the script or Nevermind to abandon the load operation. If an error occurs, you should check the script file to make sure it is correct and that the pointers it refers to actually exist. Related Topics: Opening an Animation file for Editing ═══ 4.2. Do you really want to Delete ... ? ═══ Since each animation consists of many files, you may not want to delete everything. For example, several Animation scripts could refer to the same Pointer (.PTR) files. Your options are: ┌────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐ │Yes, Everything │Deletes Animation Script and │ │ │all Pointer files referenced │ │ │in it. │ ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤ │Yes, Script Only │Deletes only the Animation │ │ │Script,leaving the pointers │ │ │intact. │ ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤ │Yes, Pointers Only │Deletes only the Pointer │ │ │files,leaving the Animation │ │ │Script intact. │ ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤ │No! Cancel │Cancels the entire delete │ │ │operation. │ └────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘ Related Topics: Delete popup menu item ═══ 5. Frequently Asked Questions ═══ ┌───────────────────────────────────┐ │ Where can I find more animations? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ I have the pointer │ │checked, but it is not animated. │ │Why? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ Why do I get an error message when│ │loading an animation? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ Why aren't my regular pointers │ │restored properly sometimes? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How come my dialogs don't look │ │like the ones on the box? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ Can I use Animouse without the │ │Workplace Shell? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How can I create my own animation?│ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How can I edit one of the supplied│ │animations? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How can I change an animation's │ │title? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How can I change an animation's │ │icon? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ What do the priority settings do? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ How can I use a different editor? │ ├───────────────────────────────────┤ │ Why does the animation sometimes │ │'flicker' or 'blink'? │ └───────────────────────────────────┘ Related Topics: Using Animouse Obtaining Support ═══ 5.1. Getting more animations ═══ If you have internet access, you can visit our home page on the World Wide Web. Otherwise, please be sure to fill out your user registration card and you should be receiving an offer for more animations in the near future. Related Topics: Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.2. Pointer checked but not animated ═══ Each animation script can have animations defined for all or only some of the standard OS/2 pointer types. If there is no animation defined in the script file, then that pointer type is not animated, regardless of the current setting. Still, you are free to select it because the next animation you load may very well animate that pointer type. Related Topics: Understanding the Script File Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.3. Custom pointers not restored ═══ Animouse is supposed to restore your custom OS/2 system pointers when you exit or turn off animation. There are times however, when Animouse is not exited properly. The most likely cause is an improper system shutdown due to power failure or user initiated via CTRL-ALT-DEL or hard reset. If this happens, then when your desktop reappears, it will be using whichever pointers Animouse last had loaded. The next time Animouse is started, it will detect that it was not shut-down properly and will restore your old pointers before beginning animation. The next time you exit Animouse, you should find your custom or default OS/2 pointers restored properly. In the event that they are not restored properly, you can always go to the Mouse Settings object, located in the System Setup folder and reset the pointers manually. Be sure that Animouse is not running when you do this. Related Topics: Pointer File (*.PTR) information Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.4. Which dialogs to use? ═══ Animouse comes with two sets of dialogs. Default Dialogs The default dialogs conform to Common User Access (CUA) guidelines and use standard OS/2 Presentation Manager controls. These dialogs are loaded by default to ensure compatibility with as many video devices as possible. Enhanced Dialogs The enhanced dialogs use non-standard controls created with the DrDialog utility provided (but not supported) by IBM. These dialogs have more of a sculpted look and feel. In addition, the about box is animated. These controls do not display properly on all video cards and are not fully CUA compliant. They also use more memory than the default dialogs. If you would like to try these dialogs, close Animouse and restart it with the "-NewDialogs" parameter. For more information on using command-line parameters, please refer to the OS/2 manual or online help. Related Topics: Changing the Way Animouse looks Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.5. Using Animouse without WPS ═══ Animouse does not require the WPS for proper operation. It does, however, require that you be using the Presentation Manager which is the windowing subsystem used in OS/2. Just about any shell that works with Presentation Manager should also work with Animouse. Limitations when not using the WPS: Drag / Drop of icons will not work unless your shell supports it. There is no startup folder, so you may want to place a reference to Animouse in startup.cmd or use a "RUN=" statement in your config.sys. You will not be able to drag/drop colors and fonts onto Animouse. Related Topics: Changing Animation Icon via Drag/Drop Using WPS font and color palettes Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.6. Using another editor ═══ By default, Animouse will load the OS/2 System Editor and the Icon Editor which should be in your path as: "E.EXE" and "ICONEDIT.EXE" respectively. If you wish to use another editor you will need to place that editor before the system provided editor in your path and rename it to either "E.EXE" or "ICONEDIT.EXE", depending on its function. For more information regarding paths please refer to your OS/2 manual or online help. Related Topics: Editing animations Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 5.7. Flickering and Blinking ═══ OS/2 works with a staggering number of different video cards, screen resolutions, and color depths. However, not all of the video cards and drivers are on a par. While we have done our best to eliminate flickering and blinking of the mouse pointer in Animouse, we are limited by the capabilities of the video drivers and display cards. If your mouse appears to blink constantly, we recommend that you check to make sure you are using the most current version of display drivers available for your card. Some things to be aware of: A small amount of flicker is normal on most video cards that do not have hardware cursors. This is due to the internal mechanisms used by OS/2 to update the screen with the mouse pointer. It should not be considered a problem unless there is a very noticeable blink. Many newer video cards have a hardware cursor built into the card. This feature, IF the driver takes advantage of it, will take the burden of displaying the pointer away from OS/2 and perform the necessary steps in hardware, completely eliminating any flicker or blink whatsoever. To date, most cards only support 2-color hardware cursors, so you may find that Black/White animations tend to be more stable than the colored animations, especially when placed over a section of screen that is being updated (e.g. a clock or a game). Currently, we are not aware of any cards that support color hardware cursors under OS/2, but it should simply be a matter of updating the drivers to take advantage of this new feature. The default VGA display drivers shipped with OS/2 Warp perform very poorly with Animouse. The blink is so bad that the mouse pointer may actually become noticeably transparent. For this reason, we recommend that Animouse be used only with 256 colors or greater. Hopefully, this will be corrected in a later version of OS/2. The Comet Cursor in OS/2 Warp may cause your animation to flicker badly. If this happens, you may want to try: - Using a B/W animation (see above). - Turning the arrow animation off. - Turning the Comet Cursor off. Related Topics: Frequently Asked Questions ═══ 6. Thank-you, Thank-you... ═══ The people that started it all IBM created this wonderful operating system and conveniently left mouse animation out, giving us something to do. People who have been very helpful Alexander Antoniades has been a great source of information. Watch for his always insightful articles in OS/2 Magazine. Bradley Wardell and Stardock Systems pioneered the commercial OS/2 entertainment software market and proved it exists. Gary Morton All the folks on #OS/2 (IRC) have helped us while away countless otherwise-productive hours discussing OS/2, programming, and other less mentionable topics. People that contributed artwork Kris Kwilas Kevin Yank Alan Fronshtein (AKA highlandr) David D'Antonio Non-People OS2bot -- Who says 'bots don't have feelings? Mages/2 (now defunct Internet Programming Group) People Driss Zouak Massimiliano Marsiglietti Dan Libby Bernie Wong Thank-you all! Related Topics: Introduction ═══ 7. Support. ═══ Sentience Software's phone number is: +61-49-57-7487 Additionally, electonic help is available via the internet. If you have a problem, make sure that you have first taken a look at the frequently asked questions list. The most recent information may be found on the Sentience Software home page. Send comments, questions, and (detailed) problem reports to: sensoft@sentience.com.au Or via snail-mail: Sentience Software PO Box 185 Adamstown, NSW 2289 Australia Related Topics: Frequently Asked Questions Problem Report Form Introduction ═══ 7.1. Problem Report Form. ═══ Name: e-mail address: Phone # (optional): Accept collect call (YES/NO): Version # of Animouse software: Processor: Amount of memory (RAM): System Bus Type: Video Card: Video Chipset: Video Driver/Revision: Version of OS/2: Fix Level: File System Format (hpfs, FAT): Description of the Problem: Please be very specific. Describe what actions you performed before, during, and after the problem occurred. Describe the system load. Name, if you can, any other applications running at the time. ═══ ═══ http://www.sentience.com.au