Contents

AnyClock version 1.0 for 1997.

This is an analog clock display.  The clock can use any 256 color bmp for its clock face and can be customized for hand size, position  and color.  The clock can be set up with five alarms along with hourly, half-hourly and quarterly chimes and even a “ticking” sound.  The date can also be displayed and customized.  For Win95 only

This program is freeware.

By Patrick Dugan (patrickd@usti.com)

About AnyClock

Using AnyClock


About

The clock program was written because I wanted an analog clock display to which I could apply any clock face.  The clock options to move the hands, resize, change color, etc. came slightly later and then came alarms and sounds.  When you use a new clock face you must create a bmp file that is 256 colors and no more than 300k in size.  Obviously the clock faces are left up to you.  I supplied a few faces and sounds but the idea is that you will want to create your own.  Company logos, team logos, advertisements, love ones faces, etc. are just some uses to which it can be put.

If you wish to reach me via email write to patrickd@getonthe.net.

If you want to send me money because you feel guilty (you shouldn’t though cause this is freeware!) or simply write me you can send mail to

Patrick Dugan

621 West 33rd Street

Joplin, Missouri 64804-3609


Using

When AnyClock first starts it uses default clock face and settings.  The clock will appear on your screen and to access features simply right-click on the clock and a menu window will appear.

This window allows you to access various options for customizing your clock.  The four brown buttons bring up new windows, the blue button brings up the help file you are now reading and the last red button stops the program entirely.  You can close this window (or any of the others) by pressing the small “x” in the upper right hand corner.

When you press the first brown button (Clock Face) it will open a new window that allows you   to select a new clock face from a bmp file.

 The bmp file can be no more than 256 colors and can be no larger than 300k in size.  Typically the bmp you use would be square to create a perfectly round or square face but you can use rectangles in which case the clock will be oval or rectangular in shape.  The top selector box allows you to choose the drive, the second box selects the directory and the last box selects the bmp file.  The drive/directory information will be stored so it will return to the same place you loaded from last.  The Clock shape radio button box at the bottom allows you to pick either a round clock face, a square or both.  The “both” selection allows you to have a “rounded square” clock that can be adjusted for rounding off the corners by the corner size.  Rather than explaining further you should try each setting and see for yourself what effects happen.

The next window is the Hands Setting window that looks like this:

This window allows you to adjust the hour, minute and second hands.  The upper left check boxes determine whether the hands display or not.  The “seconds on top” box determines if the second hand appears on top of the other hands or below the other hands.  The lower left contains the Red/Green/Blue settings for each hand so that the color settings can be adjusted.  The number range for each color is from 0 to 255.  The upper right “center hands” check box will try to place the hands in the center of the bmp file for you.  If you would rather have them elsewhere you would un-select that option and then adjust the “hands left” and “hands right” numbers to place the hands where ever you desire.  The left setting refers to how far left or right the item will appear.  The top setting determines how far up or down the item will appear.  The “auto hand size” if checked will attempt to adjust the hand size to match the bmp you are using.  Usually this is sufficient but if not you would un-select that option and adjust the “length and width” for each hand.  The last option at the lower right is the “hands together” option which by default keeps the hands together.  You can un-select that option if you want to separate the hands for some reason. (e.g., a pocket watch face might have a second hand located below the hour and minute hands and would be smaller.)

The Date window allows you to place the date and day of the week on the clock face.  The program can attempt to place the locations for you or you can adjust them to whatever location you want.  Here you can also adjust the font used for the day/date displays.  Typically you would want to use a non-proportional font so the size remains the same each day.  The color selectors at the bottom determine the color of the background.  You can select the font’s color while selecting the font type and style.

The next window is the alarms/sounds window and here you will select the sounds that you would like associated with various events.  There are 4 chimes, 5 alarms and even sounds that can be attached to the tick and tock.  You press the browse button (which will open up a small browser window) to locate a wav file to attach to the event.  You can press the test button to listen to that sound to see if it is acceptable or not.  The check box next to the event should be checked or that sound will not play.  Since the tick and tock have to occur quickly the sounds associated with them should be very brief.  (Under one second)  The tick & tock sounds are more for fun as they tend to be hard drive/cpu hoggish.  The hourly chime will repeat the wav file according to the number of hours and the other chimes play only once.

The last selection is the configuration window.

This window allows you to load or save clock configurations to a file.  These configurations will contain ALL the settings that are currently in place including alarms, hand settings, etc.  This will allow you to save the settings that you may have developed for your custom clock so you can quickly switch back and forth between various clock designs without having to reset everything again.  To load a file simply double-click it to load it in place.  To save a file simply type in the name (if you click once in the filename box above it will copy that filename to the save name box so you don’t have to retype a name already present) and once named press the save button and the new configuration will be ready.  The file saved is a simple ASCII text file and if it becomes corrupted or fails to load you can delete it and create it again.  I supplied a few configurations already for you to try that demonstrate various clock designs.  The clocks were either saved from photos of clocks/watches or were generated by graphics programs.  In the case of the larger clocks I used a program called Pov-Ray to create the images.  Obviously when you create a new clock face you should remove the hands so this program can fill them in.

Of course the best way to learn about the various options is to play with the settings and try to create your clock faces and settings.