Copyright: ICOLIB: Steve Balogh


Help Index

Select one of sections below by clicking on it with the left mouse button or by using the Tab key to move the highlight and pressing Enter. For information on how to use Help, press F1 or choose Using Help from the 'Help' menu.

Main Topics

Getting Started

How to Use

Icolib Objectives

Registration

ICOLIB.INI

Icon Library Files

Contributions

Menus

Index of Help Items

'Help' Menu

'Options' Menu

About Icolib

Background Color

Clear Screen

Clicking Operation

Control Close

Control Maximize

Control Menu

Control Minimize

Control Move

Control Restore

Control Size

Control Switch-To

Exit

Getting Started

Help Index

Help Using Help

How to Register

How to Use

ICOLIB.INI File

Icon Contributions

Icon Extract and Save

Icon Library Files

Icon Library Objectives

Menu Index

New Menu

Start/Stop Animation

Title Bar


About Icolib

This 'Help' menu option displays a dialog box containing some information about the version number and author of Icolib.

After you have read the information contained in this window, you must close it before you can continue using Icolib.

You can close the About Box by clicking on the OK pushbutton, by pressing the return key on the keyboard, or by using the Control Close features provided by Windows.


Control Close

The Control Close option of the Control Menu closes the active application window.  If a dialog box is open and has a Control menu, choosing this command only closes the dialog box.

 This is the Control Menu icon. Double-clicking this icon is the same as choosing Control Close.

If you are situated in the application's main window then closing this window is the same as choosing the Exit option under the 'Options' menu.


Clicking Operation

The clicking operation is performed by moving the mouse cursor to the item to be clicked, pressing either the left or right mouse button briefly, and then releasing it without moving the cursor position.

Double clicking involves pressing and releasing the left mouse button twice in quick succession.


Control Maximize

The Control Maximize option of the Control Menu enlarges the active window to fill the available screen space.

 This is the Maximize icon which, if clicked, is the same as choosing Control Maximize.

You can restore a maximized window to its former size by using the Control Restore command.


Control Menu

 This is the Control Menu icon which contains various standard controls for manipulating the size, position and status of the application window.

Control Restore

Control Move

Control Size

Control Minimize

Control Maximize

Control Close

Control Switch-To

Title Bar


Control Minimize

The Control Minimize option of the Control Menu reduces the active window to a small icon at the bottom of the screen.

 This is the Minimize icon which, if clicked, is the same as choosing Control Minimize.

Minimizing is useful when you are running other applications at the same time as the current application and you wish to unclutter the screen.

This icon appears only on the Title bar of the main application window. It does not appear on any of the dialog box windows which, therefore cannot be minimized.

You can restore a minimized window to its former size by using the Control Restore command.


Control Move

The Control Move option of the Control Menu allows you to move a window around the screen.

When this control is selected, it displays this four-headed arrow [image] as a cursor, which you can use to move the window about the screen. By using the keyboard arrow keys, you can manipulate the cursor and change the position of the window.

An easier method uses the mouse. Move the standard arrow cursor to within the Title bar of the window to be moved. Pressing the left mouse button while moving the cursor will cause the window to follow.

If a dialog box is open and has a Control menu, you can also use this command to move the dialog box.

If the window is maximized, this command is unavailable.


Control Restore

The Control Restore option of the Control Menu restores the selected window to the size and location on the screen that it had before you chose either of the Control Maximize or the Control Minimize commands.

 This is the Restore icon which, if clicked, is the same as choosing Control Restore.

Control Restore does not affect changes made to a window with the Control Move or Control Size commands.


Control Size

The Control Size option of the Control Menu allows you to change the size of a window.

When this control is selected, it displays a four-headed arrow [image] as the cursor which you can then use to change the size of the currently selected window. By using the keyboard arrow keys, you can manipulate the cursor and change the size of the window.

An easier method uses the mouse. Move the standard arrow cursor to any edge or corner of the window to be resized. When you are in the correct position, the cursor will change to a double ended arrow. Pressing the left mouse button while moving the cursor will resize that edge or corner of the window.

If the window is maximized, this command is unavailable.


Control Switch-To

The Control Switch-To option of the Control Menu opens a dialog box which lists all of the open applications.

Double clicking on the desktop area behind the displayed windows will have the same effect as choosing Control Switch-To.

The following pushbuttons are available within this dialog box.

Switch To

This option activates the selected application. An application can also be selected by double clicking on its name in the list box.

End Task

This option closes the selected application.

Cancel

This option closes the Task List window and cancels the Switch-To dialog box.

Cascade

This option sizes all open application windows so they overlap and each title bar is made visible.

Tile

This option maximizes all open application windows and sizes them so that the upper-left portion of each window is visible.

Arrange Icons

This option arranges the icons of all minimized applications across the bottom of the screen.


Title Bar

The title bar is the area at the very top of the application window. This area usually contains the name of the application, although in the case of Icolib, it displays the filename of the currently open Icon Library and the number of icons in the library.


Start/Stop Animation

If you wish to animate the displayed icons, you can do so by selecting this menu item. It is possible to animate the icons in any library, however, it is usually only effective with icon libraries which have been design specifically for animation. Many examples of animated icons have been included with this application. During animation, the menu item is changed to Stop Animation. Selecting this menu option now will stop any animation in progress. Icolib then redraws all the members of the currently displayed icon library.

While an animation is in progress, only the top left corner of the Icolib client area is used. The individual members of the icon library are not shown seperately.

Icolib does not provide a facility to animate icons which have been installed into the Windows Program Manager. There may be other products available which will achieve this non-trivial task, but Icolib will let you see what an animated icon would look like if it were on the desktop. I am not sure if this is a very useful facility, but I have provided it just in case someone can use it.


Background Color

You can change the client area background color in order to see what effect it has on the icons being displayed. The perceived colors of an icon can be drastically altered by the background color.

When you select this menu option, a "Color" Common Dialog box will appear which gives you the ability to select a basic color provided by the system or to define a custom color of your choice. You need to have a file called COMMDLG.DLL in your Windows system directory. If you are running Windows version 3.1 or later, you already have this file, otherwise copy COMMDLG.DLL from the Icolib distribution disk.


Clear Screen

This option provides the ability to clear the screen without loading another collection of icons. I am not sure if this is really usefull, but being easy to implement, I have included it.


Icon Contributions

If anyone has icons which they wish to contribute to the collection, I am willing to accept them for inclusion into the next release of Icolib. Please try not to send duplicates of what is already contained in the current release. The only icons that I can handle at the moment are the ones which are in the standard 32x32 bit 16 color format. If you are on the Internet then you can send any contributions to steve@cc.monash.edu.au.


Exit

This 'Options' menu option closes the Icolib window.

 This is the Control Menu icon. Double-clicking this icon is the same as choosing the Exit menu option.

You can also use the Control Close menu option to close Icolib.


'Help' Menu

The 'Help' Menu contains shortcuts into the help system for Icolib. It also includes access to the About Box which gives version and author details for Icolib. If this is the first time you have run this program Getting Started will provide hints on how to quickly start using Icolib.

Index...

Getting Started...

How to Use...

Icolib Objectives...

Registering...

Using Help...

About Icon Library...


Menu Index
Icolib Menu Index

The following menu items are available to the user. Press on the required menu item for more details of the selected menu.

Control Menus

 This is the Control Menu icon which contains various standard controls for manipulating the size, position and status of an application window.

Control Restore

Control Move

Control Size

Control Minimize

Control Maximize

Control Close

Control Switch-To

Title Bar

'Options' Menus

The 'Options' menu provides the user with the ability to start and stop icon animations, load a new menu, change the client area background color, clear the screen of all icons, and to exit from the Icolib application. No file save facility is available under the 'Options' menu, however, you can save an individual icon by clicking the left mouse button over the icon you wish to save.

Start Animation

New Menu

Background Color

Clear Screen

Exit

Icon Library Menus

The contents of the other menus depend on the specifications contained in the icolib.ini file which is modifiable by the user. These menu items allow the user to select from various categories of icon libraries.

'Help' Menus

The 'Help' Menu contains shortcuts into the help system for Icolib. It also includes access to the About Box which gives version and author details for Icolib. If this is the first time you have run this program Getting Started will provide hints on how to quickly start using Icolib.

Index...

Getting Started...

How to Use...

Icolib Objectives...

Registering...

Using Help...

About Icon Library...


Help Using Help

This 'Help' menu option provides information on how to use the Windows help program.

This menu option is also available under the Help menu in the title bar of the Windows Help program.


Icon Library Objectives

Icolib was written to help solve the problem of managing large collections of icons. The following objectives were considered important and have been met by this application.

Ease of Access

- Group icons into logical catagories so that a particular type of icon is easier to find.

- The Icon Libraries are very easy to display. Just select the required library though the menus, and the client area will display all the library icon members. This display can be resized, moved, or minimized, just like any other window. You can display several Icolib windows simultaneously by starting a new instance of the Icolib application for each library. Each instance of Icolib uses an additional 32k of memory.

- The access speed is also vastly improved by using Icolib because the icons are grouped together so there are less entries in the disk directory. The directory does not have to be accessed for each individual icon.

- These libraries can be easily expanded by either adding new categories, or by adding new (or improved) icons in existing categories. The user only needs to modify the icolib.ini file to add or delete categories, or to change icon filenames or menu descriptions. You can include EXE and DLL files in the icolib.ini file. An icon editor such as Icon Manager is required to create the actual icon library files. These programs are available as shareware from many sources.

Save Disk Space

- By collecting many icons together into a single library, quite a lot of disk space can be saved. Each individual icon only uses 766 bytes, but if your disk cluster size is 4096 bytes, you waste 3330 bytes for each icon. If you are storing the 10,000+ icons in the collection supplied with Icolib as individual files, you would be wasting more than 33 Mbytes of disk space. The ICL format is not compressed so further savings can be made by compressing these files. You must uncompress them before they can be used with the Icolib application.

- You only need to keep the categories you are interested in. There is no need to store hundreds of games related icons if you are only interested in icons to do with the office. All you need do is modify the icolib.ini file to remove categories you don't need from the Icolib menu, and then delete or archive the associated filename.ICL file.

- Creating this Icolib has provided me with the opportunity to eliminate thousands of duplicate icons which I had collected from various sources. Many of the icons in several collections available on CICA are duplicates of each other. Some other icon collections I have seen contain a very large number of duplicates within the collection. It seems that some people creating these collections don't bother eliminating these duplicates, possibly to make their product more attractive by inflating the number of icons in their collections. Sometimes the icon names are different, but the pictures are the same, and these renamed icons made it harder to find duplicates. Obviously, duplicated icons are also very wasteful of disk space.

Using the Icons

- Icolib has the ability to easily extract individual icons from the libraries so that they can be used with the Program Manager or any other purpose. Just click the left mouse button when the cursor points to the icon you wish to extract.

Suggestions

This product is certainly not perfect so any suggestions for improvements are appreciated.

See Also:

Getting Started...

How to Use...

Registering...


Getting Started

You can load a new icon library by selecting one of the menu options. The libraries are sorted into various high level categories, the names of which appear as menu items on the menu bar. Each of these categories can have many icon collections associated with them and can be selected by chosing a menu item under the category menu name. When a library is loaded, the member icons will be displayed in the Icolib client area. If you load another library, then the displayed icons will be over-written by the new icons. You can extract an individual icon and save it to a file by clicking on the icon you wish to save.

The 'Options' menu provides the user with the ability to start and stop icon animations, load a new menu, change the background color of the client area, clear the screen of all icons, and to exit from the Icolib application.

See also:

How to Use...

Icolib Objectives...

Registering...


How to Use

Loading an Icon Library

When Icolib is first started it creates an empty client area which is ready to display the icons stored in an icon library. An icon library can be loaded using the menus located between the 'Options' and the 'Help' selections on the menu bar. These icolib menu items are specified by the user in the icolib.ini file. A suitable file is provided for the icons supplied with this product.

Vertical Scroll Bar

If there are too many icons to display in the client area, a vertical scroll bar will appear. This control allows the user to select which icons are to be viewed. The scrollbar is removed if the size of the Icolib window is large enough to display all the icons in the selected library.

Animated Icons

If you wish to animate the displayed icons, you can do so by selecting the Start Animation menu item which is found under the 'Options' menu. It is possible to animate the icons in any library, however, it is usually only effective with icon libraries which have been design specifically for animation. During animation, the menu description is changed to Stop Animation.

This program does not provide the facility to animate icons within the Windows Program Manager.

Other Options

If you have modified the ICOLIB.INI file, the new menu option can be used to tell the program that a change has occured in the menu structure. It is not necessary to restart Icolib for the new menu to take effect. You can change the client area background color in order to see what effect it has on the icons being displayed. The perceived colors of an icon can be drastically altered by the background color. Another option provides the ability to clear the screen without loading another collection of icons. I am not sure if this is really usefull, but it was easy to implement.

Context Help

You can obtain help at any time by pressing the F1 key or by selecting the help items under the 'Help' menu. If you wish to see what a particular control does, then a context help is available by pressing Shift-F1 at which time the cursor will change to an arrow attached to a question mark. The next item that the user selects will be the one explained by the help system.

See also:

Getting Started...

Icolib Objectives...

Registering...


How to Register

Icolib (Icon Library) is distributed as shareware.  It is not free.  You may use it without registering for a period of 30 days, after which I would appreciate your registration. It is very discouraging to spend many weeks working on a product for little or no reward. :(

Registered Users will receive the latest version of the program and all of the icons that I have collected. At the time of writing, there are more than 10,000 icons in the collection, in which there are virtually no duplicates, except for an occasional one that I may have missed.

Registration costs US$25 including postage and handling charges. You need to specify how you wish to receive the registered version of Icolib. I can send it to you either on 2 x 3.5" floppy disks or by providing you with an Anonymous FTP address by email. I prefer to provide you with an FTP address because it is less work for me, and it also benefits you because the product will arrive much sooner. The size of the registered version of the product is 1.6 Mbytes. A file called ORDERFRM.TXT has been included with the shareware version of Icon Library to help you register the program.

If you are a registered user of a previous version of Icon Library then you can receive a copy of the latest version for US$5 CASH or US$12 CHEQUE. This is to cover the cost of postage and handling. If you have access to Anonymous FTP on the Internet and wish to receive this product via FTP, these charges do not apply.

CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY

You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software) Library by calling 800-2424-PsL or 713-524-6394 or by FAX to 713-524-6398 or by CIS Email to 71355,470 or by Internet Email to 71355.470@compuserve.com If you have access to the Internet World Wide Web, point your browser to http://www.monash.edu.au/~steve/icolib.html . Click on the line that says Credit Card orders for Icon Library  and then fill out the form.

You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at:

P.O. Box 35705, Houston, TX, USA 77235-5705

You must quote Item #14674 (Icon Library for Windows) when ordering with a credit card.

THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY. THE AUTHOR OF THIS PROGRAM CANNOT BE REACHED AT THESE NUMBERS.

Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, refunds, registration options, product details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, NON-CREDIT CARD ORDERS, etc, must be directed to Steve Balogh at

Email: steve@cc.monash.edu.au

Postal: See below

To insure that you get the latest version, PsL will notify us the day of your order and we will ship the product directly to you.

If you are NOT paying by Credit Card you also have the option to pay by personal cheque, money order, bank cheque or cash. Print the registration form included with this distribution (ORDERFRM.TXT) and fill it out, or if you don't have a printer, you can just write a letter giving the details asked in the form. Mention that you are registering Icolib Version 4b. Don't forget to specify how you wish to receive the product. Send the form or letter, with your payment made out to Stephen Balogh, to the following address:

Stephen Balogh

PO Box 414

Caulfield East

Melbourne

AUSTRALIA	3145

By registering, you support shareware development and affordable Windows Software. Your contribution will help promote future shareware development and the development of future versions of this program. Suggestions for improving Icolib are very welcome.

Single	license - no discount. $25

Site licenses are available with the following discounts.

2 - 5	licenses 20% discount. ($20 per copy)

6 - 20	licenses 40% discount. ($15 per copy)

21 +	licenses 50% discount. ($12 per copy)

Site licensees will only receive one set of disks, however, you are entitled to give a copy of the program to each of the other license holders.

When you register, you will receive the latest version of the program and all of the icons that are available at the time of registration. There are currently more than 10,000 icons in the collection.

The icons which have been distributed with Icolib were obtained from many different sources. I do not own the rights to any of these icons, so I am selling my work that has gone into collecting these icons, removing the thousands of duplicates, sorting them into sensible categories, and providing a program to display these icon libraries. If someone finds icons which they own and do not wish distributed, please let me know and I will remove them from the next version of this product.

The set of Simpsons icons are provided with permission by Jeanette Foshee (x1foshee@exnet.iastate.edu) and Ted's Set was provided with permission by Ted Shih (TMSHIH@uci.edu or eabg150@orion.uci.edu). There are two files giving further details about these collections; simpson.txt and simpsons.txt.

If you have access to the Internet then any questions or discussion regarding the program, can be made via email. My Internet email address is steve@cc.monash.edu.au.


Icon Library Files

Modifying ICL Files

The icon library files that Icolib use have the filename suffix ICL , however, the program can also view icons within EXE, DLL and ICO files. These files can be read by several icon manager programs such as ICONMASTER by Phillip A. Kaufman and ICON MANAGER by Impact Software. Unfortunately, only ICON MANAGER can create ICL format icon libraries, so in order to manipulate icons within these libraries, you will need to obtain a copy of this shareware program. There is a copy available in the Windows archive on the Internet ftp site called ftp.cica.indiana.edu and its mirrors. Windows BBS systems are also quite likely to carry this program. If you wish to contact the author of ICON MANAGER, the address is:

Leonard A. Gray

Impact Software

12140 Central Avenue, Suite 133

Chino, CA 91710

Voice: (714) 590-8522

BBS: (714) 590-0500

CIS ID: [71630,1703]

Interface to Program Manager

ICL files are recognised by Windows Program Manager. In order to change the icon for an application in a Program Manager group, perform the following steps: (you can also extract individual icons from ICL files into ICO files which can be associated with Program Manager items)

- Highlight the desired program icon in one of the Program Manager groups.

- Select the Program Manager Properties... option under the File menu.

- Click on the Change Icon... button in the "Program Item Properties" dialog box.

- Enter one of the ICL files as the File Name in the "Change Icon" dialog box and then click the OK button.

- Select an icon from the "Icon Window". These icons are the ones contained in the ICL file you have just selected.

- Finally, click on the OK button in the "Program Item Properties" dialog box. The icon for the initially selected program item will have changed to the new icon from the ICL file.

ICL File Compression

ICL files are not compressed, so it is possible to save quite a lot of disk space by compressing these files using PKZIP or similar archiving programs. However, Icolib will not be able to read any compressed icon library file; you need to uncompress them before using them with Icolib.

ICL files no longer need to be in the same directory as the Icolib application. See the icolib.ini file description for further details.


Icon Extract and Save

You can extract and save an icon by clicking the left mouse button when the cursor is positioned over the desired icon. A "Save Selected Icon as" Common Dialog box will appear which gives you the ability to select the filename (with the .ICO extension) into which you want to save the icon, and the path containing this filename. You need to have a file called COMMDLG.DLL in your Windows system directory to use this option. If you are running Windows version 3.1 or later, you already have this file, otherwise copy COMMDLG.DLL from the Icolib distribution disk.


ICOLIB.INI File

The icolib.ini file is used by Icolib to generate a menu structure. This allows users to tailor the application to their own needs. Icon categories can be added, deleted or rearranged. Library file names and menu descriptions can also be changed by the user. This file also contains a section to initialise other aspects of the program, such as position and size of the program window.

A sample icolib.ini file is described below:

[Init]

Left=138

Top=156

Width=763

Height=218

[Menu_1]

Name=&Computers

Item_1=comms.icl,Communications...

Item_2=cursors.icl,Cursor Icons...

[Menu_2]

Name=&Office

Item_1=books.icl,Books...

Item_2=calc.icl,Calculators...

Item_3=Filing

Item_3_1=filedraw.icl,Filing Cabinets...

Item_3_2=filefold.icl,File Folders...

Item_3_3=filecard.icl,File Cards...

Item_4=clocks.icl,Clocks...

You can also use relative or direct pathnames for ICL files but there is a limit of 66 characters for the pathname. Some examples are shown below:

Item_1=icons\rabbit.icl,This is a rabbit...

Item_2=..\icondir\rabbit.icl,This is a rabbit...

Item_3=d:\tmp\rabbit.icl,This is a rabbit...

Item_4=\top_dir\icons\rabbit.icl,This is a rabbit...

You are not limited to ICL files any more. You can now display any EXE or DLL file that contains Windows icons. The following examples will work with Icolib.

Item_5=c:\windows\progman.exe,Windows Program Manager...

Item_6=c:\windows\moreicon.dll,More Icons in a DLL...

Each icon category which is to appear on the Icolib menu bar must be specified as [Menu_X] where the X is a sequential number starting with 1. The menu name that is to appear on the menu bar is then specified by the Name= index. Placing an & before any letter will make that letter the menu Hot Key. Popup menu items are then specified with the Item_X= indexes. Once again the X is a sequential number starting at 1. Each item must specify a filename with an ICL suffix which names the library containing the icon collection, followed by a comma, followed by a short description of the library as it is to appear on the popup menu item.

It is also possible to create a cascading menu as shown in the second example above. Having a description without a filename (ie. no comma on the line), followed by one of more items with Item_X_Y= indexes will create one or more submenu items. Several examples are provided in the ICOLIB.INI file provided with this program distribution.

Icolib will recognise changes to the icolib.ini whenever the program is started, or when the New Menu option is selected. icolib.ini must be in the same directory as the Icolib application.


New Menu

If you have modified the ICOLIB.INI file, the new menu option can be used to tell the program that a change has occured in the menu structure. It is not necessary to restart Icolib for the new menu to take effect. This option is useful if you are experimenting with the icolib.ini file, or perhaps using Icolib to search for icons in EXE or DLL files.


'Options' Menu

The 'Options' menu provides the user with the ability to start and stop icon animations, load a new menu, change the client area background color, clear the screen of all icons, and to exit from the Icolib application. No file save facility is available under the 'Options' menu, however, you can save an individual icon by clicking the left mouse button over the icon you wish to save.

This menu name has been placed within inverted commas to distinguish it from menu items which are used to display icon libraries. The 'Help' is also placed within inverted commas for the same reason.

The following options are available under 'Options'.

Start Animation

New Menu

Background Color

Clear Screen

Exit