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HOT Button for Windows Copyright (c)1994 Ultimate Software ============ INTRODUCTION ============ Welcome to HOT Button for Windows. The idea behind HOT Button was to create a collection of frequently needed utilities and programs and organize them in a way that would make it easy for you to get to them quickly. Once you begin using HOT Button, you will want to open it up and move it to a corner of your Windows screen each time you go into Windows. When opened, HOT Button takes up very little screen space (just a little bigger than an icon). Leaving HOT Button opened in this way also takes up a minimum of your Windows resources. When you realize how useful HOT Button is, you will always want to have it handy. ======== FEATURES ======== The small HOT Button opening window has four tiny buttons. The first button is a file viewer. Click on it to view graphic files (icons, bitmaps, .GIF, .PCX, .WMF, .TIF), spreadsheet files (Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, Quattro), Database files (dBASE, FoxPro, Access, Paradox, Works), word processor documents (Word, Word Perfect, AMI Pro, WinWord, Works, QA Write), text files, binary files, and even a listing of the files contained in a compressed file (.ZIP, .LZH). You can view files individually or as part of a self-running slideshow. You can view a whole directory of icons at one time. You can view "thumbnails" of a whole directory of bitmap images and then enlarge a bitmap to full size with a single mouse click. The file viewer alone would make HOT Button a very useful utility for any Windows user, but there's a whole lot more! Click the second button to bring up the HOT Button Disk Utilities. This is a collection of frequently needed file and disk utilities. Use the HOT Button Disk Utilities to copy, rename, delete, edit, search for, and view information about files on your hard and floppy drives. There is also a pop-up diskette format utility which will format either high or low-density diskettes in your floppy drives. Click on the third button to bring up the HOT Button WAV and MIDI Sound File Player. If you have a sound card, you will find the WAV player very useful. You can load and play a single sound file or automatically play all the .WAV or .MID files in an entire directory. The WAV player also has a repeat function, so you can automatically play a sound (or a whole directory of sound files) over and over. Click on the fourth button to bring up the HOT Button Audio CD Player. This is a programmable CD system. The CD player can automatically detect an inserted CD that you have previously programmed. You can save the names of tracks and a play list of up to 50 songs. Your play list may include any or all of the tracks on the CD in any sequence you choose. One other useful feature of HOT Button is the built-in digital clock. When you open HOT Button, the tiny opening window includes a digital clock which updates itself every minute. If you move the mouse pointer over the HOT Button window, the display toggles between the time and date. Even if you minimize the HOT Button window (which you probably don't need to do since it is so small) it continues to update and display the current time. ========= SHAREWARE ========= HOT Button for Windows is a copyrighted program currently marketed as shareware. This means that you can evaluate it for up to 30 days with no obligation. However, if you use HOT Button after 30 days of your first use, then you are legally obligated to register the program directly with Ultimate Software. Registration of HOT Button brings many benefits including a much enhanced version of the program, technical support, and the removal of all the advertising messages which pop-up as you use the shareware version. The registered version includes a much improved search routine which finds files as much as eight times faster than the shareware version. The improved search routine also allows you to stop or continue searching after finding the first matching file. Another handy option in the registered version is the ability to delete any of the files found during the search. After the search is complete, you can point and click on duplicate file names to delete them. The registered version also supports additional file formats for the viewer and includes a diskette formatter (see Special Notes for more information). Read the "Registration" topic for more registration information. ===================== IMPORTANT INFORMATION ===================== NOTES CONCERNING THE SHAREWARE VERSION The shareware version is a very functional, but scaled-down version of HOT Button. You will notice that there are a number of advertising messages that pop-up at various points in the program. These are to inform you of the features available in the registered version of HOT Button and to remind you to register. If you plan to use HOT Button after an up to 30-day trial period, then you must register. If you decide not to register, then do not continue to use HOT Button. To do so is a serious copyright violation (and more importantly, it's just plain dishonest). Besides all the (annoying) advertising messages being removed, the registered version is much more complete and powerful than the shareware version. The registered version includes a diskette formatter, a MIDI sound file player, a faster file search routine (up to 800% faster), an improved bitmap file viewer which allows you to view thumbnails of several bitmaps at a time, as well as file viewing support for several additional file formats (including AMI Pro, LZH contents, Paradox, QA Write for DOS and Windows, Quattro and Quattro Pro, Works, and Lotus 1-2-3). Since the shareware version doesn't support the file formats listed above, if you try to display them, you will see the binary code rather than a viewable graphic image or report. DITHERING ERRORS If you do not have a monitor capable of displaying over 16 colors, or if your windows video driver is set at the default VGA setting rather than for your specific VGA, SuperVGA or higher monitor, you may get an error message when viewing graphic files with more than 16 colors. Even yours truly, the author of this program, got such an error before finding out that the default VGA setting that Windows setup chose for my video driver only displays 16 colors. You see, I bought Windows after purchasing my system. When I ran the Windows setup, the setup program recommended a VGA setting for graphics. I wrongly assumed that would at least support a 640 X 480 display with 256 colors. So after Windows was installed, I'm sitting there with a 486-66 DX2 system with an XGA graphics card displaying a measly 16 colors! When I found out about this, it wasn't too difficult to reconfigure the graphics driver portion of my Windows setup with a driver for my specific graphics card. Your system is probably set up correctly, however, if you get a "Dithering" error when viewing a graphic file with the HOT Button Viewer, you may want to obtain a driver specific to your graphics card. Please do not call our technical support department with this type of problem because we cannot help you obtain a driver for your graphics card. You should check with the place that sold you your computer system, or you may wish to see if you can find one on a larger BBS or on-line information service (like CompuServe or America On-Line). ====== VIEWER ====== The HOT Button Viewer is powerful and versatile. To view a single graphic image, database file, spreadsheet, word processor document, text file, or other type of file, simply select "Load" from the File menu. This will bring up an "Open File" dialog window. You can select any drive, directory, and file available on your computer. Select the file to view by double-clicking on its name (or single click on the file name and then click the OK button). The viewer will display the file. You can adjust the size of the window if the image is larger than the current window size. You can also use the scroll bar to move about the image. The HOT Button Viewer supports just about all common file formats, however, if the format of the file you wish to display is not supported, then the file is displayed as binary code instead of a graphic image. VIEWING A WHOLE DIRECTORY OF ICONS To view a single icon, follow the instructions above. If you would like to view several icons at one time, simply set the file type selector to "Icons (*.ICO)" when opening a file. When you open an icon file in this way, the window will fill with as many icons as will fit in the current window, beginning with the file chosen down through the remaining icons in the directory. The larger the window's size, the more icons that can be displayed at a time. To view the file name of a displayed icon, simply click on the icon. This is great if you have a lot of icons to view. If you get a CD with 3,000 icons on it, you can view them quickly and almost effortlessly. Compare this to having to load each icon separately. VIEWING A WHOLE DIRECTORY OF BITMAP FILES You can view a whole directory of bitmap files on your screen at one time. To do this, choose "Load" from the File menu. Make sure that the "file type" pattern is set to "Bitmaps (*.BMP)." Choose the first image to view by double-clicking on it. This will bring up thumbnails of all the bitmaps in the current directory from the file selected down. The thumbnails are representations of the bitmap images set to a size of 36 X 36 pixels. If the image is smaller than that, it will actually increase in size. If the image is larger, then it will be reduced to 36 X 36 pixels. To view the image at full-size, simply click on the thumbnail of the bitmap you wish to view. RUNNING A SLIDESHOW You can run a slideshow of any files that can be displayed using the HOT Button Viewer, however, usually you will want to select "Picture Files" or "GIF Files" for a slideshow. Choose "SlideShow" from the File menu. Then from the "Open File" dialog window, set the "file type" pattern. Then choose the first file to view. This will start the slideshow. The slideshow will consist of all the files in the directory that match the file type pattern from the selected file down to the last file. The initial time delay setting is five seconds. To change the time delay (how long each image is displayed before the next image is loaded), click anywhere on the image. To pause or stop the slideshow, just enter zero into the input box that appears. ============== DISK UTILITIES ============== The HOT Button Disk Utilities include many commonly needed file and disk commands. You can use them to copy, rename, delete, view information about, and search for files. You can also format floppy disks. Go to the appropriate topic below for more information. COPY A FILE To copy a file, choose "Copy File" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. This will bring up a file dialog window. Use the controls to scan through your drives and directories until you find the file you wish to copy. Select it by double-clicking on the file name (or highlight the file name by clicking on it and then click on the OK button). Now the file name you have selected will be displayed on the left part of the window, and you will be asked to type in the path and name of the destination file (where you want the file copied to and how you want it named). If you wish to cancel the file copy operation, click on the "Cancel" button. Otherwise, click on the "Copy" button to copy the file. RENAME A FILE To rename a file, choose "Rename File" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. This will bring up a file dialog window. Use the controls to scan through your drives and directories until you find the file you wish to rename. Select it by double-clicking on the file name (or highlight the file name by clicking on it and then click on the OK button). Now the name of the file you wish to rename will be displayed on the left part of the window, and you will be asked to type in the path and new name for the file (you can simply rename the file, or you can actually move the file to a different directory by specifying a new path). If you wish to cancel the file rename operation, click on the "Cancel" button. Otherwise, click on the "Rename" button to rename (or move) the file. DELETE A FILE To delete a file, click on "Delete File" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. This will bring up a file dialog window. Use the controls to scan through your drives and directories until you find the file you wish to delete. Select it by double-clicking on the file name (or highlight the file name by clicking on it and then click on the OK button). You will be asked if you are sure you want to delete the file. If you wish to cancel the delete operation, click on the "Cancel" button. Otherwise, click on the "Yes" button to delete the file. TEXT EDITOR To edit a text file (like your autoexec.bat or config.sys files), select "Text Editor" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. This will bring up a file dialog window which you can use to select the file you wish to edit. This is a rather simple text editor which will load any file under 30,000 bytes. It is not intended to replace your word processor, but it is quite useful for quick and easy editing of a small text file. When you are done editing the file, select "Save" to save your changes or "Cancel" to quit without making any changes to the original file. Caution: You shouldn't load binary files (like .EXE files or graphic files) into the text editor. While the editor itself will not harm binary files, any changes you make and save could corrupt the file. To view binary files (or practically any kind of file, including large text files) use the HOT Button Viewer. The viewer is the most attractive way to view files and will not alter a file in any way. VIEW FILE INFO To view information about a file, select "View File Info" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. Use the file dialog window to select the file that you would like to view information about. This will bring up a display of the file's name, size in bytes, date, time and attribute. The attribute can be Archive (a file that has been updated or added since the last backup), Normal (a file which has been backed up with a backup program), Read-Only (a file which cannot be changed or deleted), System, and Hidden (a file which does not appear when you view a directory listing). FILE SEARCH To search for a specific file or for all files matching a certain pattern, select "File Search" from the File menu on the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. This will bring up a drive list combo box (used to select the drive you wish to search) and a text box for you to type a file pattern into. You should first choose the drive you wish to search (for example your C: drive). Then enter the file pattern you wish to search on. For example: to search for a specific file, enter that file's full name and extension (like MYFILE.EXE). Our you can search for all files containing a certain pattern. For example: *. BMP would be used to find all the bitmap files on your selected drive or WIN*.* would be used to find all the files that begin with the letters "WIN." You also have the option of finding only the first matching file or all matching files (just click on your preference). Then hit enter or click on the "OK" button to initiate the search. After the search is complete, you have the option of deleting any files found during the search. Simply click on the file name to highlight it and click on the "Delete" button to delete the file. This is a very useful way to "clean up" your system of duplicate or otherwise unwanted files. Caution: Do not use a file pattern of *.* which will match with every single file on your searched drive. You will not be happy with the results of any search that is so broad that the pattern matches with a high percentage of all the files on the searched drive. Try to narrow the search down as much as possible. FORMAT A DISK To format a diskette, choose "Format a Disk" from the File menu of the HOT Button Disk Utilities window. Simply choose the disk drive and the disk format capacity. You can choose a quick or regular format and whether you want verify on or off. When you have quick format set on, current track and percentage done are not reported during format operation. When quick format is set off, then the status is updated and displayed on screen. When you have verify set on, each track written to the diskette is tested after it is written. This gives you a better guarantee of the integrity of the diskette and format. During the format operation, you can abort at any time, however, if you abort the format operation, you should not use the diskette until after you have completely formatted it. ========== WAV PLAYER ========== If you have a sound card, you will find the HOT Button WAV and MIDI Sound File Player to be very useful. You can load and play a single sound file or automatically play all the .WAV or .MID files in an entire directory. The WAV player also has a repeat function, so you can automatically play a sound (or a whole directory of sound files) over and over. To load the WAV player, click on the third button on the small HOT Button opening window. It's the button with the red musical note on it. To load a WAV or MIDI file, go to the File menu on the HOT Button WAV Player window. Choose either "Load .WAV File" or load "Load .MID File." From the file dialog window, choose the file sound file you would like to hear. It will play automatically. From the "Controls" menu you can carry out any of the normal controls like play, prev, next, stop or pause which works the same as clicking on the corresponding button. You can also select "Repeat" or "Auto Seek." Auto seek will play every .WAV or .MID file in the current directory from the currently selected file to the last file in the directory. This is a great way to listen to all the sound files on a directory or on a CD without any having to load each sound individually. You can also toggle repeat on or off by selecting it from the "Controls" menu. If auto seek is on, repeat will play all the sounds in the directory and then repeat them again and again from first to last. If auto seek is set off, then repeat will play the currently selected sound file over and over. You can press the pause or stop buttons at any time to pause or stop the currently playing sound file. Pressing stop, prev (previous) or next will automatically set auto seek and repeat to off. ========= CD PLAYER ========= The HOT Button CD Player allows you to play your audio CDs on your computer (if you have a CD-ROM drive). You can listen to your CDs while running other Windows programs. Load a CD into your CD drive and click on the CD icon. If you have previously saved song and play list information, it will be loaded automatically. To move between tracks, click on the prev and next buttons. When you have qued up the track you want to listen to, press play. You may pause or stop playing a song at any time by pressing those buttons. While a song is playing, you can scan forward and backward within the track by sliding the control right or left. The CD player window displays the information about the current track and the CD at all times. On the left part of the window is information about the current track. It shows the time into the current track over the length of the track. Over to the right, the time into the CD is displayed over the total length of the CD. SAVING CD INFORMATION From the CD player window, choose "Program Tracks" from the File menu. This brings up the CD Programming window. Here you can edit the play list by deleting songs from the current play list or adding songs to the play list by clicking on the appropriate song tracks. You can also enter and save the name of the CD and the names of the individual song tracks. If you wish to save your changes permanently, click on the "Save" button. To save your changes just for the current session, click on the "Done" button. If you wish to exit the CD Programming window without saving your changes, click on the "Cancel" button. =============================== ORDERING THE REGISTERED VERSION =============================== Registration It costs only $25 to register HOT Button for Windows. With registration you get an enhanced version of the program with many additional features including several new file formats for the viewer, a MIDI sound file player, the ability to save song and play list information for an unlimited number of CDs, a diskette formatter, plus technical support and the removal of all the advertising messages which pop-up as you use the shareware version. The registered version includes a much improved search routine which finds files as much as eight times faster than the shareware version. The improved search routine also allows you to stop or continue searching after finding the first matching file. Another handy option in the registered version is the ability to delete any of the files found during the search. After the search is complete, you can point and click on duplicate file names to delete them. We also include sample shareware and public domain .GIF, .PCX, .WAV, MIDI and bitmap files. You also get over 1,000 icon files. To register, mail a check for $25 (US funds) to: Ultimate Software PO Box 5015 Central Point, OR 97502 You can also order with a VISA or MasterCard: 800-925-3147 (U.S. and Canada) 317-741-5331 (International) 317-286-3182 (FAX)