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The Icon Librarian
Version 1.0 April 8, 1993
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Copyright (c) 1993 by Keith Ledbetter
4240 Ketcham Drive
Chesterfield, VA 23832
(804) 674-0780
(6:00pm - 10:00pm Eastern Time)
Tech Support BBS: Blue Ridge Express
804-790-1675
30 Phone Lines (2400 bd)
Sub-board KEITHL
("J KEITHL")
Email Addresses:
GEnie : ORION.MICRO
Compuserve : 72240,1221
America Online: kledbetter
Program and Documentation are Copyright (c) 1993
by Keith Ledbetter. All rights reserved.
Portions (c) Borland International.
The Icon Librarian was written with Borland C++ Professional.
This program is produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
does not provide technical support for members' products. Please
write to the ASP Ombudsman at PO. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or
send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman
70007,3536.
Definition of Shareware
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software
before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue
using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs
differ on details -- some request registration while others
require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With
registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue
using the software to an updated program with printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software,
and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific
exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished
programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are
of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs
and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of
distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy
and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a
specific group. For example, some authors require written
permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their
Shareware.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You
should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook,
whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes
fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy.
And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware
has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the
product, you don't pay for it.
Disclaimer - Agreement
Users of The Icon Librarian must accept this disclaimer of
warranty:
"The Icon Librarian is supplied as is. The author disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,
the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose.
The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of The Icon
Librarian."
The Icon Librarian is a "shareware program" and is provided at no
charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with
your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part
of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is
to provide personal computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products. If you find this program
useful and find that you are using The Icon Librarian and
continue to use it after a reasonable trial period, you must make
a registration payment of $15 to Keith Ledbetter. The $15
registration fee will license one copy for use on any one
computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like
a book. An example is that this software may be used by any
number of people and may be freely moved from one computer
location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it
being used at one location while it's being used at another.
Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the
same time.
Commercial users of The Icon Librarian must register and pay for
their copies of the program within 30 days of first use or their
license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by
contacting Keith Ledbetter.
You are encouraged to pass a copy of The Icon Librarian along to
your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register
their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered
users will receive a copy of the latest version of the Icon
Librarian system.
About the Program
If you are a regular Windows user, then you have no doubt
had to struggle to keep up with the multitude of icons available
today. The Icon Librarian (Librarian) makes manipulation of
these icons easy; you can categorize, delete, and choose icons
from up to 100 user-defined categories (with up to 1,000 icons
each) with intuitive drag-and-drop operations. The Librarian
keeps its icons in space-efficient library files, so you'll save
valuable disk space, too. Icons can be imported into your
libraries from ICO, EXE, DLL, Norton Library, and PC Tools .ICL
files.
Developers will also find the Librarian very useful. It
will allow you to keep your development icons in well-defined
categories (buttons, hardware, etc.) without wasting disk space
by having multitudes of small .ICO files on your hard drive.
The Librarian works by keeping a master directory on your hard
drive named \ICONLIB\. All of your library files (.TIL
extension) will be stored here. In addition, a directory named
\ICONLIB\IN_USE\ will also be created to hold any icons that you
use with the "quick extract" features (more about this later).
Installing the Librarian
To install the Icon Librarian, copy the ICONLIB.EXE and
ICONLIB.HLP files to the directory of your choice. Then, install
the ICONLIB.EXE file into the program manager just as you would
any other Windows program. Next, double-click on The Icon
Librarian icon to load the program.
The first time you execute the Icon Librarian, you will be
presented with an "installation" screen. All you need to do
here is to tell the Librarian which drive you'd like it to create
the \ICONLIB\ directory structure on. Once you choose the drive
letter and press the "Ok" button, the Librarian will do two
things:
1. It will create the \ICONLIB\ and \ICONLIB\IN_USE\
directory structure on the drive you selected.
2. It will modify your WIN.INI file to add
[The Icon Librarian] section to the system.
At this point, you will be presented with the Librarian's
main screen. The screen will look bare at this point because
you don't have any library files created yet. As an example,
we'll create a library (i.e.: a "category") that consists of all
of the icons from your \Windows\ subdirectory. Do these steps:
1. From the menu, choose "File/New Library" to create a new
library file. You will be presented with a dialog box that
allows you to (a) give this library a name, and (b) give its
folder a color. Key in "Windows Icons" in the name field and
pick a color of your choice. You can ignore the "filename"
field; if you don't key a filename in, the Librarian will create
one for you.
2. Double-click the left mouse button on the new "Windows Icons"
folder that appeared in your main window. This will "open" that
library.
3. In the icon window, choose "File/Import icons" from the menu
bar. You will be presented with a file open box; navigate to
your \Windows\ directory and select all of the available files by
clicking on the "Select All" button.
4. You have just created your first icon library!
5. Repeat these steps to create libraries out of all of your
existing icons.
The "Preferences" Menu
----------------------
Before we go any further, let's cover the "Preferences"
menu. The preferences are divided into two categories: Library
preferences and Icon preferences.
Specify Icon Editor
This option allows you to specify the icon editor that you
want to use to edit icons. The only requirement is that the
editor you choose must support filenames passed to it on the
command line.
Library / Confirm Deletes
If this option is checked, the Librarian will prompt you for
verification when you attempt to delete a library. Since
deleting a library also deletes all icons in that library, it is
highly recommended that you keep this option turned on.
Library / Open Window upon Creation
If this option is checked, the Librarian will automatically open
up any new library that you create.
Library / Color of New Folders
This setting allows you to specify the default color to be used
for libraries in the "File/New Folder" dialog box.
Icons / Confirm Deletes
If this option is checked, the Librarian will prompt you for
verification when you attempt to delete an icon.
Icons / Display While Importing
If this option is checked, icons will be displayed in the library
window as soon as they are imported. If you are importing large
amounts of icons at one time, turning this option off will speed
up the import process.
Icons / Icon Spacing
This option allows you to control the "white space" between
each icon in the library window.
Moving Icons
------------
To start categorizing your Icons, you'll want to use the
Librarian "move" function. All you need to do to move an icon
to another library is to grab (click and hold the left mouse
button) and then drag the icon to the new library. This can be
accomplished in the following ways:
1. drop the icon in another open library window.
2. drop the icon on a closed library's "folder" in the
main window.
3. drop the icon on an open library's minimized icon.
Note: You can rearrange icons in a window by dropping them in
another position within that window.
Note: To make a copy of an icon, simply hold down the control
key while dropping the icon.
Note: To move multiple icons, hold down the SHIFT key while
clicking on each icon to "mark" them.
Using the Toolbar
-----------------
You use the Toolbar functions by dragging and then dropping
an icon on any of the Toolbar icons. These tools perform the
following functions:
The Text Clipboard Tool
-----------------------
Dropping an icon on the text clipboard will cause two things
to happen.
1. The icon will be saved as a .ICO file with a unique
name in your \ICONLIB\IN_USE subdirectory.
2. The NAME of that icon file will be copied to the
Windows clipboard.
You're probably saying to yourself "OK, so what does this
buy me?". If you think about it, how does Windows normally ask
you for an Icon? That's right -- by the FILENAME. That's where
the Librarian really shines. Any time you are asked for an Icon
name (for example, in the "Change icon" dialog box in the Program
Manager), you can simply open up the Librarian, find the icon you
want, and the drag it to the "Text Clipboard" icon. This will
cause the icon to be "extracted" and then copy the FILENAME of
the icon to the Windows Clipboard. Then you just return to your
text input box, press SHIFT-INSERT, and the full filename of the
icon will be pasted into the text box.
Let's take a normal example -- changing the icon of a
Program Manager item. Here's the steps you'd take:
1. Start the Icon Librarian, and then "minimize" it to
an Icon.
2. Single click on the item you want to change the
icon for in the Program Manager.
3. Choose "File / Properties" from the Program Manager
menu bar.
4. Click on the "Change Icon" button. (Notice here
that the icon's filename is already highlighted).
5. Double-click on the Icon Librarian icon to bring it
back to life.
6. Find the Icon you want to select, and then drag
and drop it on the "Text Clipboard" icon. The
Librarian will beep once to let you know the name
has been copied into the clipboard.
7. Minimize the Icon Librarian again; this will return
you to the Program Manager "change icon" dialog
box.
8. Press SHIFT-INSERT to paste the icon's name into
the dialog box.
9. Press OK twice -- all done!
The Image Clipboard Tool
------------------------
Dropping an icon on the Image Clipboard will copy the image
of that icon to the Windows clipboard. This is useful if you
want to get the icon into an image editor such as Window's Paint
program.
The Icon Editor Tool
--------------------
Dropping an icon here will cause the following actions to
happen:
1. The icon will be extracted to a unique name in
your \ICONLIB\IN_USE\ directory.
2. The icon editor that you have specified will be
called so you can edit the icon.
3. After you exit your icon editor, The Icon
Librarian will reload the icon from the file
created in step 1.
4. The file created in step 1 will be deleted.
Note: The Icon Librarian will be TOTALLY disabled until you
exit your icon editor!
The Diskette Tool
-----------------
Dropping an icon on this tool allows you to extract the icon
from the Librarian file and save it to disk as a standard icon
(.ICO) file. You will be prompted for the name to save the file
under.
The Trashcan Tool
-----------------
Surprise! Dropping an icon here will delete that icon from
the library.
The Information Tool
--------------------
Dropping an icon here will give you information about both
the icon you dropped and the library in which that icon resides.
Tips: Moving Your LIBRARIAN to a Different Hard Drive
-----------------------------------------------------
If you ever need to move your \ICONLIB\ directory to another
hard drive, there's only a little work involved. In this
example, we'll assume that you're moving it from drive C: to
drive E:. You would perform these steps:
1. Exit Windows.
2. XCOPY c:\IconLib\*.* e:\IconLib\*.* /s /e
3. Delete the c:\IconLib directory.
4. Edit the WIN.INI file in your \WINDOWS\ directory.
5. In the [The Icon Librarian] section, change
Path=C:\IconLib
to
Path=E:\IconLib
Tips: Exchanging Libraries With Other People
--------------------------------------------
If you download or in some other way receive some .TIL files that
you want to install with your own libraries, here are the steps
you will need to take:
1. Copy the .TIL file(s) that you have received into
your \ICONLIB\ directory.
2. Write down the filenames of the libraries.
3. Start up The Icon Librarian, and choose the
"File / New Folder" option.
4. In the "filename" field, key in the name of the
file that you wrote down in step 2 above. Don't
key in the extension; it will always be .TIL. In
other words, if the file is named CARTOONS.TIL,
then key in "Cartoons" in the filename field.
5. Double click on the new library's folder, and the
icons will appear.
In Conclusion
-------------
I hope that you will enjoy using The Icon Librarian, and that it
will help make your job of icon collection much easier. As
always, I would appreciate hearing your comments about the
program or suggestions for new ideas that you may have.
You can contact me in any of the ways documented on the title
page of this document. And, thanks again for supporting my
Shareware products!
Keith Ledbetter
