Copyright: TrayText help


Introduction to TrayText

 TrayText 6.0c, for Windows 95 / NT 4 by MJM Software (UK)

© 1996, 1997, MJM Software (UK)

TrayText allows you to specify up to 14 autotext items (stock phrases or "boilerplate" text), available to any application by clicking the TrayText icon in the system tray.

At the moment you may have your autotext or boilerplate text set up in your word-processor - but what about when you are using an e-mail program, a database or desktop publisher?

How often have you wanted to insert a stock phrase into an application and had to type it because it was stored in another? It could be your address, your e-mail signature, even your name. TrayText is the simple answer.

Up to 14 (or 3 in the Evaluation and Unregistered Versions) of your favorite text items can be stored (up to 32kB each), and are then available to any application with two mouse-clicks. Left-click the TrayText icon [image] in the tray, and a menu will appear showing the text items you have stored. Click the item you want and it will be inserted at the caret of your active window. Alternatively, open up the menu with a left-click then type the underlined number associated with the item to be inserted.

There is a shortcut to the text stored as item number 1 - simply double-click the TrayText icon with the left mouse-button. You can store the phrase you use most often there, for ease of access.

When you first run TrayText it is set up with one text item already stored. To see a demonstration of TrayText, run Notepad (or any word processor), left-click the TrayText icon, then select item 1 which says "Run Notepad and click me!" - or left double-click the icon. Then watch!

A keyboard shortcut is available so that you can set up a combination of keys (eg Ctrl-Alt-T) which, when pressed, will bring up the left-click menu. Then type the number associated with the item you want and the text is inserted. Your hands have never left the keyboard! This option is also useful if you do not normally have your Windows taskbar visible.

When text is being "typed" by TrayText you can stop it by pressing Esc or clicking the TrayText icon with the left mouse button. If you click the icon with the right mouse button typing will pause - click again with the right button to resume, or with the left button to stop; the TrayText icon "animates" to show the pause status..

TrayText also has a useful Spike feature for collecting text from different documents or applications ready to insert in another document or application. Note that the Spike is only available in the Evaluation and Registered Versions.

Different sets of text items may be stored as files with the type .ttt - thus different sets may be constructed for different purposes. When TrayText is started it uses the set which was in use when it was last run. The default which TrayText starts with is TrayText.ttt.

With the registered version you can even run TrayText more than once - have several "instances" of TrayText running at the same time, each with an icon in the tray, and each with a different set of text items. See multiple instances.

Tip: Because TABs and ENTERs can be included in a text item, TrayText can automate the filling in of many dialog boxes, forms, database fields or spreadsheet/table cells. For example, to fill in a password request dialog, make a text item with your name, a TAB, your password, and an ENTER. TrayText can then automatically type in your name, move to the next field, type the password, and select OK. [Note that TrayText must be in Insert mode for this to work.]

How to install TrayText

How to use TrayText

How to register TrayText

Further Information and Technical Support

Version History


Installing, Uninstalling, Filetype Association

How to Install TrayText

TrayText is distributed in two forms; as a self-extracting .exe (which may be called traytx6c.exe), or as a .zip file (which may be called traytx6c.zip). If you have the .exe version, simply double-click it to run, and follow the setup instructions.

If installing from the .zip file, copy all the files (TrayText.exe, TrayText.dll, TrayText.ttt, TrayText.hlp, TrayText.cnt, readme.txt, order.txt and file_id.diz) to a new folder; for convenience you could call this folder "TrayText". To run, double-click TrayText.exe.

To set TrayText to run at startup, either choose "Yes" when given this option if installing from an .exe file, or create a shortcut for it in your StartUp folder, normally found at c:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. (Hint: Using the Explorer, right click and drag TrayText.exe; drop into the StartUp folder; choose "Create Shortcut Here" from the popup menu.)

How to Uninstall TrayText

TrayText copies no other files, so to uninstall, simply remove the folder and files mentioned above. Or if you have installed using an .exe file, go to Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, and select TrayText; or select the Uninstall icon in the TrayText program group.

If you wish to associate the filetype .ttt with TrayText…

You may wish to associate the file extension "ttt" with TrayText.exe. Advantages of doing this are:

•  If you have a number of .ttt files for different purposes, you can run one just by double-clicking it; TrayText will be loaded automatically.

•  You could create shortcuts on your desktop to various .ttt files, ready to be run by double-clicking.

If you have installed from the .exe file, this has already been set up. Otherwise, if you wish to make this association, proceed as follows:

Run Windows Explorer, open the View menu and select Options…

Click the File Types tab, and select New Type…

Enter the following information -

Description of type: TrayText file

Associated extension: .ttt

Content Type: [leave blank]

The options at the bottom can be left as they are.

Then under Acions click New… and enter -

Action: Open

Application used to perform action: [use browse to locate TrayText.exe]

Do not check the Use DDE box.

Select OK, Close and Close - and that’s it. Now when you open or double-click a .ttt file, TrayText will run and load it.


Registering TrayText

How to register TrayText

Thank you for trying TrayText! If you are running the program for the first time, you may wish to look at the Introduction to TrayText first.

TrayText is a shareware program. When first run it displays: "Evaluation Version" and gives 3 text items and the Spike for a period of 28 days. After that it automatically becomes the "Unregistered Version" and has the same 3 text items available, but no Spike. If you wish to continue using TrayText after 28 days, you should register.

The Registered Version gives 11 new text items, making 14 in total, and lets you keep the Spike feature. It also allows the possibility of multiple instances. You can convert to the Registered Version at any time by entering the registration number you will be given by mail or e-mail.

Benefits of registering are:

•  11 new text items, making 14 altogether

•  The Spike feature - not available after 28 days - is kept / restored

•  The possibility of running more than one "instance" of TrayText at a time

•  The welcome box which appears at startup (and daily after 28 days) can be turned off

•  A sincere "Thank you" for supporting our efforts to develop quality software and offer it at a reasonable price.

The following table gives a summary of the above:

Version:	Evaluation Version	Unregistered Version	Registered Version
Number of text items	3	3	14
Spike	Yes	No	Yes
Multiple Instances	No	No	Yes
Startup box removal	No	No	Yes

Registration covers this and any future version of TrayText. Note that one registered copy of TrayText may be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers. Site licenses are available, as well as quantity discounts.

•  You can register online using a credit card ; the cost is 10 GB pounds - approximately 15 US dollars. For details go to the following World-Wide-Web page:

   http://www.mjmsoft.com/trayreg.htm

• You can also register via Compuserve; the cost is 15 US dollars. GO SWREG and quote Registration ID - 12821.

Alternatively send one of the following:

•  10 GB Pounds (sterling/GBP) as cash, cheque, Eurocheque, (International) Postal Money Order or American Express Travellers Check

•  15 US dollars (USD) as cash or check drawn on a US bank

•  if none of the above is possible, please calculate the equivalent of 15 GB Pounds and send as cash or check in your own currency; unfortunately the cost is greater because of high bank charges.

Please make any checks payable to Martin McKean. You may use the form "order.txt" for convenience; include with the payment your name, address, and e-mail address (if applicable), and mail to the following address:

Martin McKean

3 Johnsburn Road

BALERNO

Edinburgh

EH14 7DN

United Kingdom

Whatever way you choose to register, upon receiving payment, a registration code will be sent or e-mailed to you. Select Register... from the right-click menu to enter the code.

For further information write to the above address, or send e-mail to info@mjmsoft.com.


About TrayText

TrayText, for Windows 95 / NT4 by MJM Software (UK)

© 1996, 1997, MJM Software (UK)

DISTRIBUTION:

You may distribute the unregistered / evaluation version freely, but please make sure that TrayText.exe and the associated files are kept together - preferably in the original .zip or .exe file.

If TrayText is to be distributed on a read-only medium such as CD-ROM, then it is strongly recommended that the self-extracting .exe file with Setup routine is used (it may be called traytx6c.exe), rather than the .zip file or individual uncompressed files. This is because (1) if the user tries to run TrayText directly from a CD-ROM it will give an error message because the text data file is read-only, and (2) if Explorer is used to copy the files to a hard drive the read-only attribute is preserved; TrayText will fix this, but it is preferable to use the .exe version. This can be downloaded via:

http://www.mjmsoft.com/traytext.htm.

CREDITS:

The following people have helped with suggestions and comments, and thanks to them is hereby recorded. Jeremy Gelber, Eric Koske, Tim Yocum, Benjamin "Quincy" Cabell V, and  Rainer Gassen.

LICENSE - DISCLAIMER:

Please see the accompanying file "license.txt" for details.

Martin McKean MJM Software (UK)

Copyright 1996, 1997


Version History

TrayText, version history

6.0	Initial release dated October 17 1996

6.0a	If TrayText was installed from a CD-ROM, Explorer copied the read-only attribute of the files; this meant that the program could not write to the file TrayText.ttt to store user text. Version 6.0a corrects this by removing the read-only attribute if it is found.

Some internal program timings were lengthened to correct some copying and inserting problems reported by users with a slow system.

Version 6.0a is also available as a self-extracting .exe file.

6.0b	On selecting "New" to start a new .ttt file, and then "Cancel" from the resulting Setup dialog, the .ttt file being used immediately before pressing "New" is now restored (previously "Cancel" left the user with an empty .ttt file).

6.0c	Bug which occurred if menu text entered with exactly 30 characters now fixed.

Certain back-up programs would not back up the current .ttt file unless TrayText was closed; now fixed.

TrayText remembers last file used when selecting "Exit"; now also remembered when TrayText is closed at the end of a Windows session.


The Setup Dialog

How to use TrayText - the Setup dialog

The Setup dialog is at the heart of TrayText, and allows you to define, view or edit the text items you wish to store. It is a tabbed dialog box (properties sheet) with 15 tabs - one for each item plus the Spike. For convenience they are numbered (and lettered): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, Spike.

Because there is a is a shortcut to the text stored as item number 1 - simply double-click the TrayText icon with the left mouse-button - you should store the text you use most often there.

On each sheet there are 2 text boxes. One stores the text (up to 30 characters) which you want displayed in the left-click menu, the other stores the text item itself and can be up to 32kB in length.

For example, you could have menu text "E-mail signature", and the text item as the full text of your signature. Once defined, left-click the TrayText icon and select "E-mail signature" - the full text will then be copied or inserted.

The menu text is optional; if left blank, TrayText uses (up to) the first 30 characters of the item text to make the menu entry. The menu text for the Spike cannot be changed.

Note that when text reaches the right hand edge of the text box it will automatically wrap to the next line. Most word processors work best with text stored in this way - without line breaks. If, however, your text is intended for a text editor such as Notepad, you may need to insert line breaks manually, using [Enter] or the Return key.

Because the TAB key has a special function in dialog boxes, the special combination Alt+T should be used if you wish to insert a tab character.

When you select OK, all changes are saved to the file. Initially this is the file TrayText.ttt, but if you have used New... to begin a new set of items, you will be prompted for a name for the new set.

The name of the file currently loaded is displayed both in the title bar of the Setup dialog, and as a tool tip which appears if you rest the mouse cursor over the TrayText icon. For example, a tool tip of "TrayText / Accounts" indicates that the file Accounts.ttt has been loaded. If only "TrayText" appears, the current file is TrayText.ttt.

TrayText will always try to start by loading the .ttt file last used; if this cannot be found or is already being used it will load TrayText.ttt; and if this cannot be found or is already being used it will ask if you want to make a new .ttt file or open an existing one.

If the Setup - or any - dialog gets hidden behind other windows, a click on the TrayText icon or taskbar button will bring it back to the front.

Note that the Evaluation and Unregistered Versions show all the tabs, but sheets 4 to E (and Spike in the Unregistered Version) cannot be edited. If you register TrayText, all the sheets will be available.

Left-click menu

Right-click menu

Running TrayText from a command line


Options Dialog

The Options Dialog

There are five things which can be changed using the Options dialog. The first two are only available if you register TrayText.

1) Whether or not to display the "welcome" box when TrayText is started. The box can also be turned off by clicking the check-box at the bottom of the welcome box itself.

2) Whether to allow multiple instances of TrayText to run at the same time.

3) A keyboard shortcut can be switched on and selected here. To select the shortcut, click the Hot-Key box and then press the combination of keys you require. Note that if you choose a combination which is not allowed (eg Shift-A), Ctrl will be automatically added. If TrayText finds that the Hot-Key is in use by another application, you will be asked to select a different one. You should avoid Hot-Keys which may conflict with important functions of your word-processor etc; combinations such as Ctrl-C (normally used for copying selected text to the clipboard) are not recommended!

4) The speed at which text is "typed" if Insert is selected on the right-click menu.

5) The character(s) to be used to separate pieces of text added to the Spike. This can be None (no separating characters), Space, Line Break (equivalent to a Carriage Return and Line Feed) or a user-defined character.

The Setup Dialog


Left-click Menu

Clicking the TrayText icon with the left mouse button opens a popup menu showing the text items you have stored; where items are empty, this is indicated and the option is grayed (disabled). They are numbered (and lettered): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, Spike, as in the Setup dialog.

Clicking a valid item - or typing the underlined number or letter associated with it - will cause the action ticked in the right-click menu. [Note that should avoid using either Insert or Paste with an MS-DOS window. If you select a left-click menu item and TrayText detects that the active window has the title "MS-DOS Prompt", you will get a message to that effect].

The three items above that relate to the Spike. They are not available in the Unregistered Version.

Clear Spike - empties the Spike.

Copy to Spike - empties the Spike and copies the current selection to it.

Add to Spike - adds the current selection to any text already on the Spike.

The current contents (if any) of the Spike are indicated at the bottom of the menu; click to select it for copy, insert or paste.

The top menu item is Right-click Menu… which opens the right-click menu. This item is here mainly for when you use a keyboard shortcut so that you can press your hot-key and then press "R" to reach the right-click menu.

 [If you also have the companion program TrayDay 6.0 running, there will be a menu item above this: TrayDay menu… This brings up the TrayDay left-click menu and lets you insert the date in a choice of formats (which may include the time and counters). This feature allows TrayDay users to benefit from TrayText’s keyboard shortcut.]

A left-click on the icon while TrayText is inserting text will cause it to abort - similar to pressing [Esc].

Note that a quick left double-click on the TrayText icon will automatically select text item 1.

Right-click menu


Right-click Menu

Clicking the TrayText icon with the right mouse button opens a popup menu showing various options.

Register… opens up the box for registering TrayText. This item disappears once TrayText is registered.

Help… displays help.

About… opens the About dialog - similar to the welcome box which appears when TrayText starts. If you are using TrayText during the Evaluation period, this box also tells you how many days to go.

Shift Icon shifts the TrayText icon to next to the clock, which may be convenient if you have a number of icons in your tray.

New… creates a new set of TrayText text items, called [untitled], and opens up the Setup dialog so that you can begin defining the new file. On selecting OK, you will be prompted for a name for the new file, with the extension .ttt. If Cancel is selected, the .ttt file being used immediately before selecting "New" is restored.

Open… displays the open file dialog box so that you can locate and open a previously stored .ttt file.

Note that there is no Save option, as the .ttt file is automatically saved when OK is selected from the Setup dialog.

Options… opens up the Options dialog for the five configurable options.

Setup… opens the Setup dialog which allows you to define, view or edit the text items you wish to store.

The following three items determine the action to be carried out when a text item is selected on the left-click menu. The currently selected option is marked with a tick.

Copy - the text will be copied to the clipboard.

Insert - the text will be inserted at the caret of your active or foreground window by simulating keyboard input. [Unless the text includes character(s) which cannot be typed by a single combination of keystrokes - in which case the Paste action will occur.]

Paste - the text will be copied to the clipboard and automatically pasted in at the caret of your active or foreground window. This option is generally much quicker than Insert.

Exit exits the program. The current options and .ttt file are remembered and reloaded the next time TrayText is run.

A right-click on the icon while TrayText is inserting text will cause it to pause; right-click again to resume.

Left-click menu


Insert Action

Description of "Insert" action

One of the three possible actions on selecting a left-click menu item is Insert. If this option is chosen (through the right-click menu) then text is inserted at the caret of your active or foreground window by simulating keyboard input. The TrayText icon gives a visual clue that typing is taking place.

When TrayText is "typing" in your text, you can abort by pressing [Esc] or by left-clicking the TrayText icon. Clicking with the mouse outside the active window will also cause typing to stop.

If you want to pause typing, right-click the TrayText icon - and again to resume. A visual clue is given of the pause status. Note that if you try to resume with a different active window, you will get a message to that effect.

Although using Paste is much quicker than Insert, there are advantages in the latter. The clipboard is not used, thus preserving its contents; and if your word-processor has auto-correct or auto-format capabilities, these will be available. For example, if your word-processor automatically superscripts ordinals such as st, nd, rd, th etc, this will only happen if the method chosen is Insert. Watching the text appear is also intriguing!

If the text item contains a character which cannot by typed by a single combination of keys, such as certain symbols or accented characters, or characters from double or multiple-byte character sets, the text will be pasted in rather than inserted. The range of keys which can by typed directly varies from country to country. Note that if you are using a Japanese or other double/multi-byte character set, text will always be pasted in - insert by "typing" is not available.

The speed of typing varies according to the speed of your system, whether your hard-drive is being accessed, the complexity of your word-processor, and other factors. You may for example notice a pause after words if your word-processor is busy checking whether they need to be auto-corrected.

It is possible that characters may be missed if the type speed is too fast. For this reason, you can adjust the speed of typing by going to the Options dialog box. By experimenting with different speeds you can find one that works best. Speed varies from around 4 characters per second to a theoretical 300 per second, though because of other factors mentioned above this actual speed is unlikely.


The Spike

Collecting text from various sources ready to insert as a group

TrayText has a 15th text item which acts as a "Spike" for gathering text from various sources. Select text to be copied to the Spike, left-click the TrayText icon and select either Copy to Spike or Add to Spike. Note that there is no need to copy the text to the clipboard - but TrayText does automatically use the clipboard to perform this operation, thus changing its contents. If a keyboard shortcut is on, you can press it, then "y" for Copy to Spike or "k" for Add to Spike.

If Copy to Spike is used, the selected text is copied to the Spike, replacing any text already there. If Add to Spike is used the selected text will be added to any text already on the Spike, separated by a new line or other character as set in the Options dialog. In either case, the selected text is not removed from the source document.

When there is text on the Spike, the left-click menu item Spike is enabled, so once you have gathered your text, click this to copy or insert it. Text appears in the same order that it was added to the Spike.

On the left-click menu, select Clear Spike to empty it - of press the keyboard shortcut then "l".

The contents of the Spike may be examined or edited by selecting Setup from the right-click menu, and clicking the Spike tab. Note that the Spike is stored and remembered from one session of TrayText to another, and that it is stored in the current .ttt file. Thus contents of the Spike may vary depending on what .ttt file you have loaded.

The Spike can be used as another text item (but with Spike as the menu item).

The Spike is not available in the Unregistered Version.  If you wish to continue using it after the 28-day evaluation period, you must register TrayText.


Keyboard Shortcut

All the functions of TrayText can be reached through the keyboard if you set up a shortcut in the Options dialog. If you prefer not to use the mouse when typing, you may find this option useful. It is also useful if your Windows taskbar (and therefore the TrayText tray icon) is not normally visible - that is, if the taskbar properties are set to "Always on top" off, or "Auto hide" on.

The hot-key for the shortcut can be a combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift and a character, and must include either Ctrl or Alt. To set it, check the On box, click the Hot-Key box and press the combination you require. Note that if you choose a combination which is not allowed (eg Shift-A), Ctrl will be automatically added. If your keyboard has an extended or "Windows" shift key, this can also be used in the hot-key combination. If TrayText finds that the Hot-Key is in use by another application, you will be asked to select a different one.

You should avoid Hot-Keys which may conflict with important functions of your word-processor etc; combinations such as Ctrl-C (normally used for copying selected text to the clipboard) are not recommended!

Once set, when you press the hot-key, TrayText’s left-click menu will appear; you can then press the underlined number or letter associated with an item to insert it, or press "R" to open the right-click menu etc.

If you are using multiple instances, the second and subsequent instances will have the shortcut turned off, as you cannot have the same hot-key for more than one instance. You can however set a new hot-key for each instance from the Options dialog.

A hot-key can also be specified in the "/h..." argument if you run TrayText from a command line.

[TrayDay 6.0 users can make use of the TrayText shortcut; see Left-click menu.]


Multiple Instances of TrayText

Mulitple instances of TrayText

Each time you run TrayText an "instance" of it sends an icon to the tray. If you run it again, a second instance sends an icon to the tray - and so on.

If you have saved a number of sets of text items as .ttt files, this multiple instance feature can be useful. It means you can have different sets of text items available at the same time.

Although the icons are the same, the tooltips which appear when you rest the mouse cursor over the icon are different. So if you have, for example, three TrayTexts running, one with TrayText.ttt, one with Accounts.ttt, and one with Personal.ttt, you will see the tooltips: "TrayText", "TrayText2/Accounts" and "TrayText3/Personal" as you run the cursor along. (If the file is named TrayText.ttt the "/..." part is omitted). Then click the appropriate icon for the set you require.

Note that you cannot have two TrayText instances running with the same .ttt file, and that you cannot Insert (type) text from two at the same time.

If you are using a keyboard shortcut, subsequent instances will have the shortcut turned off, as you cannot have the same hot-key for more than one instance. You can however set a new hot-key for each instance from the Options dialog.

The multiple instance facility is only available in the Registered Version and if the option Allow multiple instances is checked in the Options dialog.


Command Line

If you run TrayText from a command line, you can specify which .ttt file to open and/or which hot-key to use for a keyboard shortcut.

The syntax to use is:

traytext [/hkey] [filename]

key must be from 2 to 5 characters. The first gives the character to press, then a combination of the letters c (Ctrl), a (Alt) and s (Shift) [and, if your keyboard supports it, e (Extended) or w (Windows)]. The hot-key rules apply; if no shift keys are given or "s" alone is given, Ctrl is substituted.

If a filename is specified, this overrides the default .ttt file loaded.

For example:

c:\traytext\traytext /hpsc personal.ttt

will run TrayText from the traytext folder, make Ctrl-Shift-P the hot-key, and load personal.ttt. The case of the characters given is not significant.

Note that if a hot-key is specified in the Options dialog, it is stored for use the next time TrayText is run. A hot-key specified in a command line is not stored - it temporarily overrides the one previously stored in the Options dialog.


Questions and Answers

Here are the answers to some questions you may have

Q. Sometimes no text appears using "Insert", even though the TrayText icon indicates it is "typing" - what is wrong?

A. This probably means that the window you were trying to Insert to did not have the keyboard focus. Check that the window is on top, that the title bar indicates it is active, and that the caret shows that keyboard input is expected. See also known limitations.

Q. Why does the speed of "typing" sometimes vary?

A. You may notice the speed at which text is being typed (Inserted) slow down or speed up; this is entirely due to your system or word-processor being busy doing other things. TrayText can only type the text as fast as your system can deal with it, and this may vary even within one insert session.

Q. I have "Insert" selected to simulate typing, but one text item always pastes itself in. Why?

A. This means there is a character in the text item which cannot by typed by a single combination of keys, such as certain symbols or accented characters. TrayText has therefore used Paste instead, so that all characters are shown.

Q. Why are characters sometimes skipped when using "Insert"?

A. It may be that the speed of typing set is too fast for your system or application. Try selecting a slower speed through the Options dialog box.

Q. Why do capital letters sometimes appear as small letters and vice versa when using "Insert"?

A. You have "Caps Lock" on!

Q. Why do numbers appear when typing which are not in the text item?

A. Probably because you are using a word-processor with automatic numbering of paragraphs. If your item has the number 1 at the beginning of a line, when a line break occurs the number 2 may be automatically inserted, etc. Either turn off this feature of your word-processor, or use Paste to insert the text item.

Q. I am worried that TrayText may be consuming a lot of memory, especially if I have large text items. Should I be?

A. TrayText holds the text items in the computer memory in a "discardable" way. This means that if you have plenty of memory free the items are instantly available, but if memory is running short they may be automatically discarded to free up some memory. When you select an item which has been discarded, it is simply loaded back into memory from the .ttt file. By doing this TrayText combines speed and ease of use with a low impact on your system resources.


Known Limitations

MS-DOS windows

TrayText will not function in an MS-DOS window. If you try to insert text and TrayText detects that the active window has the title "MS-DOS Prompt" you will get a message to that effect; but if your MS-DOS window has a different title, trying to insert text will not give the expected result. If you try to Paste to an MS-DOS window you will probably see ^V appear, but not your text.

Combo boxes

Another limitation is sometimes experienced when inserting or pasting text to combo boxes - edit boxes with an arrow at the right which opens a drop-down list. For example, TrayText will not insert text to the location edit (combo) box of Netscape Navigator™. This is because: when the TrayText icon is clicked, the active window changes to TrayText momentarily, and is then returned to the window which had keyboard focus. In most cases, when focus is returned, the caret is also restored to the same point as before, and TrayText assumes it can start inserting or pasting. This is not always the case in a combo box, and results may be unpredictable; unfortunately it is impossible for TrayText to detect this.

You can tell if this may happen by positioning the caret where you want text to go, changing to another window, then changing back again. If the caret does not return to the same place, TrayText will not function correctly there. You can instead choose Copy from the right-click menu, select the appropriate item with the left-click menu, then use Ctrl+V to insert it in the box.

Non-standard user interface

The above section on Combo boxes may also apply to some programs which have a non-standard user interface. Again, try positioning the caret where you want text to go, changing to another window, then changing back again. If the caret does not return to the same place, TrayText will not function correctly there.

Further Information and Technical Support


Technical Support

Further information and Technical Support

See also:

Answers to common questions

Known limitations

For technical support, or further information, send e-mail to: support@mjmsoft.com or MJM_Software@compuserve.com. This support is available to both registered and unregistered users.

Or visit the MJM Software (UK) home page on the World-Wide-Web at:

http://www.mjmsoft.com/

You will find there the latest version of TrayText, and the "companion" product to TrayText - TrayDay.

TrayDay: today's date in your tray, with a choice of 3 icons - one of which is shown here…

From version 6.1 TrayDay also has a handy calendar which looks like this:

Keep it on top of other windows if you like; navigate months/years with keyboard, mouse, or Microsoft IntelliMouse® wheel. The calendar will display months and day letters in your own language, and can be set to show Sunday or Monday as the first day of the week.

And you can insert the date in your active application - including options for counters, time, etc - simply by double-clicking the TrayDay icon, or by using the left-click menu which is similar to TrayText, but shows the date in various formats. This makes it ideal for inserting the date in a letter, or date/time/counter stamping files or messages.

If TrayDay 6.0 or later is running at the same time as TrayText, an option is added to TrayText's left-click menu to open TrayDay; this lets TrayDay users share TrayText's keyboard shortcut.

TrayDay is also shareware, and registration costs 15 US dollars.

"Microsoft" and "IntelliMouse" are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.


Type here the menu text you want displayed for this item. Up to 30 characters may be used. If this is omitted, TrayText uses the item text itself to make up the menu text. Note that if Alt-T is used to give a TAB it displays here as a block, but displays correctly as a TAB in the menu.


Type here the text to be stored for copying, inserting or pasting, up to a maximum of 32kB.


The "tray", or "system tray", is the box at the right-hand end of the taskbar (or bottom if your taskbar is placed at the side of the screen) which includes the time, and may include icons which other applications place there.


The caret, sometimes known as the cursor or "insertion point", is a flashing line or block which indicates the place at which text will be inserted.


TrayText shows a button in the taskbar (in addition to the tray icon) only when a dialog box is displayed.


Check here if you do not wish the startup welcome box to appear (only applies if you have registered TrayText).


Check here to allow more than one copy (instance) of TrayText to run at the same time (only applies if you have registered TrayText).


Changes the speed at which text is "typed" if Insert is selected.


If text is added to the Spike, it is separated from previous text by the character selected here.


If you register TrayText, you will be informed of the Name and Registration Number to enter here.


For the first 28 days of use TrayText displays "Evaluation Version", and has 3 text items and the Spike available.


After 28 days of use TrayText changes automatically to the "Unregistered Version" and has 3 text items available.


The "Registered Version" adds 11 new text items and allows continued use of the Spike; it also allows multiple instances of TrayText, and lets you remove the daily startup box. You can register TrayText at any time. You will be given a number to enter in the "Register…" box, which covers this and any future updates.


These are days during which TrayText is actually running, and may therefore mean a longer period than 28 days on the calendar.


A quick double-click is required. Because a second left mouse-click may be used to dismiss the left-click menu, TrayText requires a quick (within 0.35 second) double-click to safeguard against unintentional selection. [The Windows default speed is 0.5 second]


Check the "On" box to switch the keyboard shortcut on. The hot-key is shown in the Hot-Key box; to change it, click the box, then press the combination of keys required. The hot-key can be a combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift and a character, and must include either Ctrl or Alt.