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<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>NeXTStart 2</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF00FF" vlink="#800080"> NextSTART 2.1 <img src="ns2logo.jpg" width="356" height="318"> Component of the WinSTEP 2000 Project <table border="1" width="100%" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" bordercolordark="#666666" bordercolorlight="#CCCCCC"> <tr> <td>NextSTART 2.1 Users Guide Table of Contents <a href="#NextSTART License and Warranty">NextSTART 2.1 License and Warranty</a> <a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a> <ul> <li><a href="#What is the WinSTEP 2000 project?">What is the WinSTEP 2000 project?</a> </li> <li><a href="#What is NextSTART?">What is NextSTART?</a></li> </ul> <a href="#Installing NextSTART">Installing NextSTART</a> <a href="#Running NextSTART for the first time">Running NextSTART for the first time</a> <a href="#Configuring NextSTART">Configuring NextSTART</a> <ul> <li><a href="#Introduction to Config">Introduction</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Bitmap Preferences Tab">The Bitmap Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Title Preferences tab">The Title Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Buttons Preferences tab">The Buttons Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Separator preferences tab">The Separator Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Endcap preferences tab">The Endcap Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Menu preferences tab">The Menu Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Sound and Animation Tab">The Sound and Animation Tab</a></li> <li><a href="#The Tasklist Tab">The Tasklist Tab</a></li> <li><a href="#The Hotspots Preferences tab">The Hotspots Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Menu Editor Tab">The Menu Editor Tab</a></li> <li><a href="#The Themes Tab">The Themes Tab</a></li> <li><a href="#The Global preferences tab">The Global Preferences Tab</a> </li> <li><a href="#The Preferences window Command Buttons">The Preferences Window Command Buttons</a></li> </ul> <a href="#The Menus">The Menus</a> <ul> <li><a href="#Introduction to the Menu system in NextSTART">Introduction to the Menu System in NextSTART</a> </li> <li><a href="#Anatomy of a Menu">Anatomy of a Menu</a> </li> <li><a href="#Moving Menus">Moving Menus</a> </li> <li><a href="#Closing Menus">Closing Menus</a> </li> <li><a href="#Navigating the Menus">Navigating the Menus</a> </li> <li><a href="#Executing command items">Executing Command Items</a> </li> <li><a href="#Opening submenus as folders">Opening Sub-menus as Folders</a> </li> <li><a href="#Scrolling Menus">Menu Scrolling</a> </li> <li><a href="#Menu examples">Menu Examples</a></li> </ul> <a href="#Working with Themes">Working With Themes</a> <ul> <li><a href="#Theme Bitmaps">Theme Bitmaps</a> </li> <li><a href="#Using sub-themes with menus">Using sub-themes with menus</a> </li> </ul> <a href="#Uninstalling NextSTART">Uninstalling NextSTART</a> <a href="#Known Issues">Known Issues</a> <a href="#Tips">Tips </a> Running <a href="#Running NextSTART with LiteStep">NextSTART with LiteStep </a> <a href="#Questions and Support">Questions and Support</a> <a href="#Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a> </td> </tr> </table> <a name="NextSTART License and Warranty"></a> NextSTART 2.1 License and Warranty The NextSTART program and all included documentation are all Copyright 1999-2000 by Jorge Coelho and John T. Folden. All Rights Reserved. THIS SOFTWARE IS DISTRIBUTED "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. GOOD DATA PROCESSING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. You can contact us with comments or questions by e-mail at <a href="mailto:support@winstep.net">support@winstep.net</a> The 32-bit version 2.1 of Windows NextSTART is shareware. You may try the 32 bit version of NextSTART 2.0 for 30 days without charge. If you find NextSTART 2.1 useful, please register it. If you decide not to register NextSTART 2.1, you must remove it from your system after the 30 day trial. You are not allowed to reverse engineer or change the contents of the program files or included documentation. NextSTART 2.1 may not be sold nor be used in any profit-oriented endeavor without the express written permission of the author, with the exception that NextSTART 2.1 may be distributed freely via media intended to make shareware available to the public for trial. All files, including the NextSTART 2.1 program and all others in the Windows NextSTART 2.1 zip file, must be included. All trademarks used in this Document are the property of their respective owners and are used for explanatory purposes only. <hr> <a name="Introduction"></a>Introduction <a name="What is the WinSTEP 2000 project?">What is the WinSTEP 2000 project? </a> The WinSTEP 2000 project is a suite of groundbreaking components for the Windows 32-bit environment. The purpose of this suite is to provide usability enhancements to the standard Explorer Shell while at the same time providing the user with unlimited flexibility. The first component of the WinSTEP suite is NextSTART, a powerful Start Menu and Taskbar replacement. Other components are a Dock, a File Viewer, a Font Browser and an Attributes inspector. <a name="What is NextSTART?"></a>What is NextSTART? NextSTART is a powerful, dynamic pop-up menu that can be used as a replacement or supplement to the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar. NextSTART also offers an incredible amount of flexibility so that the user can customize it to his needs and wishes. What follows is just a brief description of its many useful features... Powerful Menu System Unlike many other menu programs, NextSTART does NOT require you to re-enter the paths to all the programs listed on your Start Menu. NextSTART will automatically read the directory structure of your Programs folder(s) and create a menu for you on the fly! In fact, thanks to NextSTART's dynamic menu support, it will create as many menus as you wish based on any hard drive or directory! If you wish to create your own customized menu system, no problem! NextSTART 2.1 includes a powerful, built-in Menu Editor (ME) allowing you to create any number of menus. The ME also allows the use of over 80 handy Internal Commands that give quick access to not only NS specific features but also many popular Windows functions. Complete Start Menu And Taskbar Replacement NextSTART 2.1 features built-in task management to control running apps and the Windows System Tray. Gain access to your running apps via handy task icons/tiles right on your desktop. Best of all, you can choose the position of the "task list", the style, and even which icons should be displayed for specific applications. NS also allows you to place the Systray anywhere on your desktop! Advanced NeXT-Style Look And Feel The NextSTART user interface was heavily inspired by the original NeXTSTEP operating system. Unlike many other Windows shell replacements and add-ons, the association is more than just skin deep. We've adopted many NeXT style functions and controls both in the menus and in the new and improved NS2 Preferences Manager. NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP users should feel right at home. We've also expanded on these "classic" ideas and added plenty of our own, creating an advanced and unique menu system for Windows Users. Customizable Menus and Theme Support Not happy with the default NS2 configuration? Would you prefer a menu system that emulated OS/2 or Mac? How about transparent menus? No problem...You can configure how the menus look and behave! Choose where scroll-buttons are located, how menu selection is made, which mouse button activates the menus, assign hot keys and more! You can choose the font, the size, the colors (even use gradients and bitmaps!), 3D effects, custom icons and, still, more! In fact, thanks to the improved Theme support of the NS2 Preferences Manager you can now import and export themes based on the above options. Share them with your friends! Hot Spot Support Thanks to an incredibly flexible feature utilizing user defined Hot Spots, you can "attach" a menu to not only different areas of your desktop but also other menu programs and applications! <hr> <a name="Installing NextSTART"></a>Installing NextSTART To install NextSTART simply unzip Ns2-full.zip and run the install program, then choose which folder you want NextSTART to be installed in. WARNING! Make sure you have the VB5 runtime files installed in your system first, since these are not included with the Setup program. If you do not have the files Msvbvm50.dll, Oleaut32.dll, Olepro32.dll, Stdole2.tlb, Asycfilt.dll and Comcat.dll on your system directory, or if setup fails with an error message, please download the VB5 runtime files from: <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/msvbvm50.exe">http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/msvbvm50.exe</a> You might also want to read the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q180/0/71.asp">http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q180/0/71.asp</a> The NextSTART install program will not create any program groups in your Programs folder, instead it will create a single shortcut at the root of this folder. Place this wherever you want - on the desktop, for instance, or on the Startup group if you want NextSTART to execute every time you run Windows. To make NextSTART auto-run Windows you can also check the appropriate option in the Global Preferences tab. <hr> <a name="Running NextSTART for the first time"></a>Running NextSTART for the first time NextSTART relies on a ‘hotspot’ system that enables you to ‘attach’ different menus to different applications or locations of your desktop. By default, NextSTART comes with a single hotspot that is attached to your desktop and covers it’s entire area minus enough space on the left for a single row of desktop icons. Since this might not be what you want, when you run NextSTART for the first time it will automatically open the preferences window and prompt you to make it’s initial configuration. <img src="prefsabout.jpg" width="549" height="499"> If you accept the default configuration as it is – by pressing the OK button - then NextSTART will show its default menu every time you click on the desktop with your left mouse button. If you have any trouble with this just double-click the NextSTART icon in the tray bar or press CTRL-F12 to bring up the preferences window again. Then go to the 'Hotspots tab' and change the 'Left Click Hotspot' default in the Launch with section to 'Bump Top Screen Edge' or any of the other bump options and press OK. The default menu can now be accessed by bumping the chosen screen edge or corner with the mouse pointer. <hr> <a name="Configuring NextSTART"></a>Configuring NextSTART <a name="Introduction to Config"></a>Introduction As previously mentioned, NextSTART relies on different ‘hotspots’ to show up to 36 independent menus. So what are hotspots? Hotspots are areas on the desktop OR any other window that can be clicked on with the left, middle or right mouse buttons. Hotpots can also be screen edges and corners. Each hotspot can be associated to one of seven actions: 1 - Launch a menu based on the contents of a folder. 2 - Launch a pre-defined menu built with NextSTART's Menu Editor. 3 - Launch a Task list menu. 4 - Launch a program. 5 - Run one of the over 80 NextSTART's internal commands. 6 - Load a specific NextSTART theme. 7 - Launch a menu displaying all the available NextSTART themes. Menus based on folder contents are self-explanatory: NextSTART reads the contents of the folder you specify and displays that as a menu structure. Entire disk drives can be navigated this way. Usually these type of menus are used to display the contents of your Programs folder, Favorites folder, etc... Due to the nature of the Start Menu in an NT system, it's even possible to specify two directories for this type of menus: NextSTART will merge the two folders into a single menu. This way, you can have a single menu displaying the contents of the programs folders for the Administrator and All Users in an NT system. Pre-defined menus are extremely powerful: Using the built in Menu Editor, you can construct virtually any menu structure you like. A good example is the default menu provided in NextSTART. Each item in a pre-defined menu can be one of the 5 above items. Pre-defined Menus can also be chained together, creating complex menu structures if so required. A Task list menu is an alternative to the built in NextSTART Taskbar and Systray replacement. This menu holds a list of the currently running tasks and is automatically refreshed every second. Hotspots can also be used to launch programs or run internal NextSTART commands instead of menus. Internal commands are items that do specific actions and can be added to menus built with the Menu Editor. Let’s give you a practical example: Suppose you want NextSTART to display a menu when you click on an 8x8-pixel square at the upper left corner of the desktop. To accomplish this, follow these steps: <ul> <li>Double-click on NextSTART’s tray bar icon or press CTRL-F12 to bring up the preferences window.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Select the ‘Hot Spots’ tab.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Press the ‘Add’ button - a new hotspot is created.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>In the 'Launch With' section select 'Left Click on Hotspot' from the pull up menu.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Click on the magnifying glass picture and, without releasing the mouse button, drag the icon to an empty area on the desktop. Notice that as you drag the cursor over other windows their caption is displayed in the 'Application name' text box. Now release the mouse button. ‘Desktop’ or ‘Program Manager’ should appear in 'Application name'.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Press the ‘Select Area’ button and wait until the mouse cursor turns into a cross-hair. Now roughly select a small 8x8-pixel area – by clicking and dragging the mouse – at the upper left corner of the desktop. As you drag the pointer you should see a bounding rectangle being drawn on the screen to display the selected area. Release the mouse button when you’re finished. If you want to have an exact hotspot area, then enter 0 in the top Horizontal and Vertical Position text boxes and 8 in the lower.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>From Hotspot Action select 'Show Folder'.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Type ‘c:\windows\recent\’ in the folder path text box if you are running Win9x or ‘c:\winnt\profiles\administrator\recent\’ if you are running NT as the administrator.</li> </ul> That’s it. Press OK and left click on the top left corner of the desktop. A menu containing your most recently used documents - just like the ‘Documents’ sub-menu of the Windows Start Menu – should pop up right next to your newly created hotspot. Remember that hotspot 0 takes precedence over hotspot 1 and so on, that is, if hotspot 0 is covering the whole desktop area and you make a new hotspot inside this same area, hotspot 1 will not work. If, however, hotspot 1 is the one using the whole desktop area and hotspot 0 the section within this area, then this will work. Now, if hotspots enable you to use different menu contents and pop up areas, the look and feel of these menus can be defined in the other tabs of the preferences window. The preferences window can be invoked in 4 ways: By double clicking on a menu’s titlebar, by double clicking on NextSTART’s tray icon, by right clicking on this icon and selecting Preferences or with the keyboard by pressing CTRL-F12. This latest key-combination can be changed, if necessary, in the preferences window itself. If you manage to get yourself into a corner by disabling all these access options, there is still one fifth way to access the preferences window in an emergency: by running NextSTART with the 'setup' command line argument ( e.g.; 'c:\program files\WinSTEP\Nextstart2.exe setup' ) . <a name="The Bitmap Preferences Tab"></a>The Bitmap Preferences Tab This tab allows you to define where your theme bitmaps are located, and what kind of buttons, arrows and command keys you wish to have in your menus. <img src="prefsbitmaps.jpg" width="549" height="499"> The menus in NextSTART are made up by several parts, each fully customizable. These parts are the Close/Roll Up/Rotate/Always on Top titlebar buttons, menu titlebar, menu buttons/body, sub-menu indicator arrows, command key symbols and the scroll arrows. For each of these parts you can use one of the many built-in styles or you can provide your own icons/bitmaps. Each part may also have different states: For instance, the titlebar background can be different if the menu is active or inactive. When providing your own bitmaps, you must use the pre-defined filenames for each part/state. The bitmap used for the active menu titlebar is TitleA.Bmp/Jpg. For an inactive menu titlebar, its TitleI.Bmp/Jpg. You can find the complete bitmap filenames list in <a href="#Working with Themes">Working With Themes</a>. Once you decide which parts you want to use bitmaps for, use your favorite icon/graphics editor to make them and save them all into the same folder using the filenames described in the <a href="#Working with Themes">Working With Themes</a> table. It doesn't matter which folder it is, as long as you tell NextSTART where it can find the bitmaps by filling in the Bitmaps Folder field in the Bitmaps Preferences tab. When you're happy with your theme, save it using the Save Theme option in the Theme Preferences tab which will also automatically copy the bitmap files into your theme's folder. Bitmaps Folder can be defined by typing the path directly or by pressing the browser button, allowing a search with the internal file browser to find the bitmaps folder you require for your theme. If creating a new theme, you will need to have manually created the folder (in Windows Explorer or your file manager of choice) and placed your bitmaps in it, prior to this. Titlebar Button Style allows choice of styles. From left to right these are classic NeXT style buttons, newstyle buttons, or bitmap/icon buttons. In Close/Rollup/Rotate/Always on top buttons, you may choose to have these buttons showing on parent menus, all menus or not at all. A Parent menu is the first menu in a sequence of menus. Also, remember that when you drag a sub-menu away from its parent menu ( by clicking and dragging on its titlebar ), it becomes a Parent menu itself - and will remain on screen until you deliberately close it. Titlebar relative position allows you to choose the location of the buttons in your titlebar. Just drag the buttons to the position you want. Menu Arrow Style allows you to specify what kind of arrows are displayed when a menu item leads to a sub-menu. If 3D is selected then the arrows will have a 3D look, otherwise they will have a flat look much like the arrows in normal Windows menus. These flat arrows will automatically be displayed in black for a light button background and white for a dark background. The last choice of the three is for a bitmap or icon of your choice to represent the arrow. Some menu items may have a command key equivalent for their function. This command key will usually appear as a small letter at the right of the menu. Press this letter on the keyboard together with CTRL and that item will be executed. Note, however, that items leading to sub menus have no command key equivalent. With the Command Keys option you can select one of several styles for the command key, or disable this function altogether. Command Key Symbol Style allows a choice of 3D, Mac-like or bitmap/icon style for a command key symbol. <a name="The Title Preferences tab"></a>The Titlebar Preferences Tab The Title tab allows you to configure how the title bars of your menus will look. <img src="prefstitlebar.jpg" align="middle" width="550" height="498"> The Titlebar metrics defines the vertical size, in pixels, of the title bar of your menu. This number must not be greater than 99. If it is set to 0 then the menu will have no titlebar, just like the menus in Windows. Selecting Don't Show Text on Titlebar is useful if you just want to display the actual titlebar bitmap without any text. In Font you can specify the font used to display the titlebar text as well as its color and size in points. Remember that pixels and points are not the same: There are 20 points in 15 pixels. Clicking on the Font button will invoke the internal Font Browser. Text Alignment allows you to specify how the text in the titlebar shows up, either centered or justified to the left or right. Text Style allows definition of Case. Position is fairly self explanatory, you may wish to have your titlebar in a position other than at the top of your menu. When using lateral title bars you should be aware that on menus with only one or two items not all titlebar buttons ( close/rotate/etc... ) might be displayed due to lack of space. If you select Use inactive, NextSTART will use different backgrounds / text colors for the titlebar depending on whether the menu is the active one or not. If this option is disabled, the sections referencing inactive attributes will be ignored. The Titlebar background is where you define the background of your titlebar. If Gradient is selected then you can have a gradient background that starts with the first color and finishes with the second. To use other colors just click on the color buttons and choose a new color from the color palette. You also have a choice of Horizontal, Vertical or Diagonal Gradients, which may be 'wrapped' on your titlebar. You may also choose a solid color, or a bitmap of your choosing. If you choose bitmap, you may also choose to have it tiled instead of stretched. The Transp.Bitmap option is the same as Bitmap, except in this case NextSTART scans the titlebar bitmap for areas with the magenta color - RGB (255,0,255) - and renders these areas transparent. Do not choose this option unless you intend to use bitmap transparency, as the drawing of menus then becomes more processor intensive. The Menu 3D effects is where you define if the title bar has a ‘Flat’ or ‘3D’ look. If 3D is selected then you can also define the colors used to obtain this effect. If Overlap inner frame is selected, the titlebar 3D frame overlaps the borderline that surrounds the menu. This option is enabled by default. <a name="The Buttons Preferences tab"></a>The Menu Button Preferences Tab The Buttons tab allows you to configure how each button (item) in your menu will look. <img src="prefsbutton.jpg" width="549" height="499"> The Vert.size box defines the vertical size, in pixels, of each of the buttons in your menu. This number must not be greater than 99. In the Max.width box you can specify a maximum button width (in pixels). This prevents items with very long names from creating extremely wide menus. NextSTART will, however, always respect a minimum width for each menu. In the Min.width box you can specify the minimum button width (in pixels). If the maximum and minimum width values are the same, the menus will always have the same horizontal size. This can be useful when using fixed size bitmaps for the buttons. Text Alignment allows you to specify how the text in the button shows up, either centered or justified to the left or right. With the later two options you can also define the Text offset or menu ‘margin’, i.e.; how many pixels should exist between the menu’s border and the start of the button’s text. Under Text Style you can also specify the text Case. If you select Use inactive, NextSTART will use different backgrounds / text colors for the menu body depending on whether the menu is the active one or not. In Font you can specify the font used to display each menu item as well as its color and size in points. Remember that pixels and points are not the same: There are 20 points in 15 pixels. Clicking on the Font button will invoke the internal Font Browser. The Buttons background is where you define the background colors of your buttons. If Gradient is selected then you can have a gradient background that starts with the first color and finishes with the second. To use other colors just click on the color buttons and choose a new color from the color palette. As with the titlebar, your gradient may also be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. You may also choose a bitmap for these buttons which may be tiled or wrapped to the button or to the entire menu. The Transp.Bitmap option is the same as Bitmap, except in this case NextSTART scans the button bitmap for areas with the magenta color - RGB (255,0,255) - and renders these areas transparent. Do not choose this option unless you intend to use bitmap transparency, as the drawing of menus then becomes more processor intensive. The Button Frame is where you define if the menu has a ‘Flat’ or ‘3D’ look, and the type of the 3D look. If 3D is selected then you can also define the colors used to obtain this effect. <a name="The Separator preferences tab"></a>The Separator Preferences Tab The Separator tab allows you to configure how menu separators should look. <img src="prefsspacer.jpg" width="549" height="499"> Separators ( also called 'Spacers' ) can be used to split menus into distinct sections. A separator is inserted into a menu by going into the Menu Editor and inserting special items called 'Item Separators' into one or more key points of a menu. You can also type an 'header' identifying the menu section, which will be printed on top of the separator. Since not all themes look good with separators - and pre-2.1 themes don't even support them - when making a theme that does support separators you should make sure that Enable Separators is checked. If your theme also supports separator 'headers', then you should check Show Separator Text as well. Separators are not supported on horizontal menus, only on vertical menus. The vertical size of a separator item is always the same as that of a menu button. There are basically three types of separators: Blanks, Flat/3D lines and bitmap separators. Blanks simply show an empty menu button. Lines split the separator button in 'two'. A separator bitmap, on the other hand, covers the whole separator button, and can be a transparent bitmap as well. If you are using a line as a separator, you can also specify its left and right pixel offsets from the edges of the menu ( so the separator does not actually touch the menu edges ) in the Offsets section. If your theme supports separator 'headers', you can also specify the Font used for the headers, its color, justification and offset - in pixels - from the edge of the menu. <a name="The Endcap preferences tab"></a>The Endcap Preferences Tab The Menu tab allows you to configure how the endcap in a menu should look. <img src="prefsendcap.jpg" width="549" height="499"> In Endcap Metrics you can define the size in pixels of a menu's endcap for both vertical and horizontal menus. A size of 0 means the menu does not display an endcap. If you select Use inactive, NextSTART will use different backgrounds / text colors for the menu endcap depending on whether the menu is the active one or not. NextSTART can also display a fixed string ( like the name of the theme ) in menu endcaps. In Endcap Text you can specify this string as well as the font used to display it, its color and size in points. Remember that pixels and points are not the same: There are 20 points in 15 pixels. Clicking on the Font button will invoke the internal Font Browser. The Endcap background is where you define the background colors of the endcap. If Blend with Menu is selected, NextSTART will extend the menu body background onto the endcap. If Gradient is selected then you can have a gradient background that starts with the first color and finishes with the second. To use other colors just click on the color buttons and choose a new color from the color palette. As with the titlebar, your gradient may also be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. You may also choose a bitmap for these buttons which may be tiled or wrapped to the endcap. The Transp.Bitmap option is the same as Bitmap, except in this case NextSTART scans the button bitmap for areas with the magenta color - RGB (255,0,255) - and renders these areas transparent. Do not choose this option unless you intend to use bitmap transparency, as the drawing of menus then becomes more processor intensive. The Frame section is where you define if the endcap has no frame, or a ‘Flat’ or ‘3D’ look, and the type of the 3D look. If 3D is selected then you can also define both colors used to obtain this effect. <a name="The Menu preferences tab"></a>The Menu Preferences Tab The Menu tab allows you to configure how your menu will behave. <img src="prefsmenu.jpg" width="549" height="499"> If Auto Drop Down is selected, sub-menus open automatically as the mouse pointer moves over buttons with sub-menu items. How long must the mouse hover over the same button for this to happen can be defined in the Dropdown Delay section below. You can also specify what happens when you click twice on a menu item leading to a sub-menu. If Toggle Sub-Menus is selected the sub-menu will close, otherwise it remains open and the mouse click is ignored. In Scroll Buttons you can specify the position and behavior of the two scroll buttons that appear if the menu is just too big to fit on screen. If Together at Bottom is selected you can scroll the whole menu up and down without ever moving the mouse pointer from the bottom menu area. If it is unchecked, then you will have to move the mouse pointer to the top of the menu to scroll up and back to the bottom to scroll down. If Automatic Scrolling is enabled then there is no need to click on the scroll buttons to scroll the menu, just position the mouse pointer over one of them and the menu will begin scrolling automatically. The Menu Alignment section defines where you wish the sub-menus to appear in relation to their parent menu. If you select Overlap Menus then sub-menus will be slightly offset onto their parent menus, causing an overlap effect similar to the one used in regular Windows menus. You can also specify by how much a sub-menu should be offset from its parent menu. At Icons you can specify if you want small icons (16x16), large icons (32x32) or no icons at all for your menus. Horizontal Menus defines the style of horizontal menus. These can be made to stretch from one edge of the screen to the other or to simply use as much space as required. You can also specify if vertical menus originating from an horizontal menu have a titlebar or not, if they are forced to the same width as their parent button, if, when dragged, they automatically auto-rotate into horizontal menus and if the titlebar of a rotated menu shows no titlebar and only the titlebar buttons. A menu can be made horizontal by specifying so in the Hotspots tab or by clicking the rotate titlebar button, if one exists. Maximum items per menu is 9999 per default. You may wish to make this a number somewhat less, but unless you wish to shorten the length of your onscreen menu, or make sure your menu never has scroll buttons, there is little point in doing so (see the section on Menus for more explanation). You can also specify where folder items appear in a menu by selecting one of the options in the Show folders at section. In Menu Frame you can select the color used to draw the borderline surrounding the menu. You may also choose to have a single or double frame, or no menu frame at all. If To Body is selected, the 3D frame of the menu surrounds only the body of the menu ( i.e.; NOT the titlebar area ). This enables you to achieve a 3D effect where it looks like the menu is composed of two independent pieces: the titlebar and the actual menu body. In the Menu Selection Bar you can decide if a menu item should be highlighted or not when selected. If you want the selection bar to automatically follow the mouse pointer as you move it over the menu then you should also select Follow Pointer. You can also specify the colors of the selection bar and highlighted text as well as if a gradient should be used or not. There is also an option to use a bitmap for the selection bar, and this may be tiled, as with the menu and titlebar buttons. Note that if you don't use a menu selection bar then you also won't be able to navigate the menu using the keyboard. <a name="The Sound and Animation Tab"></a> The Sound and Animation Tab In this page you can define specific sounds and animation styles for your menus <img src="prefssound.jpg" width="549" height="499"> In Sound Options, you can define particular sounds to match particular menu events, such as open and close menus, rollup, always on top, and also you may define a sound for the execution of a particular item (selection and running of a program or command) In Animation options, you may choose from a variety of menu-opening behaviors such as slide down, slide right or left, or explode from center. You may also choose the Animation speed by selecting from the arrows shown. Left is slower, right is faster. You will need to experiment with the speed, to find the most appropriate for your system. Sounds and Animations can be globally disabled in the Global Preferences tab. Disabling them there means no sounds will be played and/or no animations run even if a theme does include them. <a name="The Tasklist Tab"></a>The Tasklist Tab The choices available here are relevant if you choose to allow NextSTART to handle your system tray and task bar, instead of Explorer. <img src="prefstasklist.jpg" width="549" height="499"> Tasklist position and Style determines the location and orientation of your buttonised task list. You may use a gradient, a solid or transparent bitmap for its background, a fully transparent background, or the default solid background. Its style may be of buttons, or simply of icons. Its position may be in any of the four corners of your screen and its orientation may be either horizontal or vertical. If you choose button style for your task list, you may also choose to have a frame, or not, and the colors for this frame may be defined in Button Frame. You may also choose to have a static or push-in style of button. You may also choose different icons to represent your applications in User Defined Icons. If you leave the Icon Path box blank, the specified task is not displayed in the task list. You can select an application either by their executable name ( i.e. 'nextstart2.exe' ) or by providing a word that exists in the application's window caption ( e.g.; 'WinWord' ). You can choose to have 16x16, 32x32 or 48x48 icons representing your tasks in icon size. Systray Position may be in any of the four corners of your screen (though generally not the same position as your task list) and there are two choices of style. If you choose the buttonised style, you may also choose to auto hide the systray and define the time-lapse for this to occur. Miscellaneous preferences allow choice for both systray and task list to always be on top, and for tool tips to be shown. If you select Hide Desktop icons and Ns Task Management, these two functions will be automatically executed every time NextSTART runs - avoids the need to manually execute them after each reboot. They are disabled by default. Note that NextSTART's task list recognizes 3 types of mouse clicks: Left clicking on a task list button will restore/bring forward the associated application, right-clicking will minimize it and middle-clicking will 'kill' the application. There is no confirmation request for terminating an application, so be careful. You can also 'drag over' a document or file onto a tasklist button - this will restore/bring onto the foreground the associated window/application. <a name="The Hotspots Preferences tab"></a>The Hotspots Preferences Tab The Hotpots tab allows you to configure up to 36 independent menus or actions. Each menu or action can be associated to a specific application or window. You can also define where the menus show up and where you have to click to make it happen. <img src="prefshotspots.jpg" width="549" height="499"> Under Hotspots you can add, modify or delete hotspots. You can have a maximum of 36 different hotspots (0 to 35). Press the Add button to add a new hotspot, the Del button to delete the current hotspot or, alternatively, click on the Hotspot combo to choose the hotspot you want to modify. Hotspots can be clustered in Groups. Hotspots in the same group are self exclusive, that is, you can only have a menu within a hotspot group on screen at a time. This can be useful if you are mapping several hotspots to, say, a desktop bitmap holding several items ( like a menu ), but you only want to have one of those items active at a time. Clicking on a hotspot would then close any open menu associated to a different hotspot in the same group before displaying the new menu. This pretty much mimics the normal sub-menu system in NextSTART: Click on a sub-menu item and any previously open sub-menus close before the new sub-menu is displayed. If, on the other hand, you want to have multiple menus associated to different hotspots open at the same time, then you should give their hotspots different group names. Like this, if you have, say, a menu associated to hotspot 0 open and then click on hotspot 1, the menu associated to hotspot 1 pops up *without* the menu associated to hotspot 0 being automatically closed. Selecting the Disabled checkbox will mark that hotspot as inactive. This enables you to temporarily prevent an hotspot from firing without having to delete it from the hotspots list. The AutoRun option allows you to automatically run the menus/actions associated to a specific hotspot when NextSTART executes. This can be very useful if you wish to have certain options automatically executed after a reboot or your default menu automatically open. You can define hotspots which, not being associated to any windows or screen edges/corners, are created only to be run once at system startup. In Launch With you can define which mouse button or screen edge/corner is used to launch individual menus. You may also define a Hotkey here to use instead of a mouse action. The Apply Hotspot to and Hotspot Area is where you define where the hotspot is located. The Application Name holds the name of the window you want to ‘own’ the current hotspot, that is, the hotspot will only exist over that particular window. If you want to display a menu by clicking on the Windows desktop, then this box should be left blank or hold the word ‘Desktop’. You can also use the Find Window tool ( the magnifying glass icon ) to point at the Window you wish to apply a hotspot to. If you leave the Exact Match checkbox blank, NextSTART will only perform a partial match for the contents of Application Name , that is, the hotspot will be activated even if the words in Application Name are only part of the title of the window you just clicked on. This is specially useful for applications like Excel, where the current open document is part of the windows caption ( for instance, 'Excel - Book1.xls' ). If you specify an exact match and the contents of the Application Name field are 'Excel - Book1.xls', the hotspot will only be activated when you're working on that particular document. On the other hand, if Exact Match is unchecked and Application Name holds just 'Excel', the hotspot will be activated regardless of the current document name. The Horiz.Pos. and Vert.Pos. boxes hold the coordinates of the hotspot – in pixels – relative to the upper left corner of the owner window. These four values thus define a rectangle inside this window, which, when clicked on, will show the menu associated to that hotspot. As before, the best in this case is to press the Select Area button as this will enable you to draw that rectangle yourself without having to specify physical coordinates. When you press this button the NextSTART preferences window and menu are hidden and the cursor turns into a cross-hair. Click on the place you want the hotspot to start and drag to draw a rectangle. When you release the button the Horiz.Pos. and Vert.Pos. boxes will have been filled with the correct coordinates of the hotspot. A hotspot – and corresponding menu – can, as stated before, be associated to the Windows desktop itself or to a particular window. The difference is important. If you define a hotspot associated to a window, the menu will only appear when that window is on screen and you click inside it and on the hotspot area. Move the window and the hotspot moves with it. The Initial Position and Hotspot Action is where you define what the hotspot does, the title of the first menu that shows up – in the First menu title box – and the coordinates, in pixels and relative to the upper left corner of the owner window, at which it should appear. If you previously used the Select Area button to let NextSTART know where the hot spot is, then the Horiz.Pos. and Vert.Pos. text boxes - which hold the menu’s top left coordinates - will already have been automatically filled. By default NextSTART always shows the menu just after the hotspot area. Be careful with this if you choose your entire desktop area as a hotspot, the menu might end up off-screen. If, on the other hand, you prefer the menu to show up at the exact place where you clicked on the hotspot, then enable the Snap To Mouse option. This will make the menu snap to the current mouse position. Note, however, that the menu will never pop-up off-screen, so NextSTART might automatically adjust its initial position to prevent this from happening. When a menu shows up, its position is always relative to that of the window that owns the hotspot. However, since the Windows desktop is fixed and covers the entire screen area, a menu associated to the desktop will always appear at the same absolute position. Not so if you associate the hotspot to a window or application. In such a case the initial position of the menu will depend on the on screen position of it’s owner window. Move the window to the right and the next time you click on that hotspot – which also moves with the window - the menu will have moved the same exact distance to the right (unless this would cause it to be displayed outside the screen area, of course). If you don’t specify a menu title in the First menu title box, then the title used for the first menu of this hot spot will be the name of the initial folder or the actual menu name. The Properties button under the Hotspot Action section allows you to specify different themes to be used under this hotspot only, or to execute programs or play sounds specific to this hotspot. The contents and name of the section at the right of Hotspot Action depend on the type of action you chose for this hotspot. The action can be one of 5 types: <ul> <li>Run Program: Executes the program you specify</li> <li>Internal Command: Executes one of the many built-in Internal commands</li> <li>Show Folder: Shows the specified folder as a menu. </li> <li>Show Menu: Shows the Menu you specify. </li> <li>Show Tasks: Shows a dynamic menu with all the currently running tasks.</li> <li>Apply Theme: Loads the specified theme.</li> <li>Show Themes: Shows a menu displaying all the existing themes.</li> </ul> If you selected the action as 'Show Folder', under Menu Name, Properties: The All Files, Exec Only and CPL Only options allow you to filter the files that are displayed in the menu: <blockquote> All Files : All files and folders are displayed (default). Exec Only : Only folders and files with the extension exe, com, bat, pif, cpl and lnk (shortcuts) are displayed. CPL Only : Only *.CPL files (Control Panel files) are displayed. Folders are NOT displayed. User Specified : Shows folders and allows you to specify which type of files are displayed ( e.g.; *.txt;*.doc ). </blockquote> In Folder Path and Folder Path 2 you can define up to two folders whose contents will be displayed by the menu. Why two folders? Under NT there are two main program folders. The ‘All Users’ folder – usually at C:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs – and the current user folder, which, for most users who run NT in their home PCs, is at C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs. By specifying the two paths when running under NT, the user can combine these two folders into a single menu. But NextSTART is not limited to only displaying the contents of the programs folder. Here is a list of other useful folders for users of Win9x: ‘C:\Windows\Recent’ – Holds shortcuts to your most recently used documents. ‘C:\Windows\Favorites’ – Holds the contents of Window’s Favorites menu. ‘C:\Windows\ Desktop’ – Holds the contents of the Window’s desktop. If, on the other hand, you selected 'Run Program' as the hotspot action, the Menu Name, Properties button allows you to specify the program's arguments, start up directory and if it runs minimized, maximized or in a normal window. For any hotspot action that leads to a menu, you can also specify if the menu is vertical or horizontal, if it is always on top or not, and what happens when you execute one of its items: If 'Close Menus Automatically' is selected, all menus and sub-menus belonging to that hotspot are automatically closed. With 'Parent Menus stay open', only any open sub-menus are closed. With 'All Menus Stay Open', no menus or sub-menus are closed when a menu item is executed. <a name="The Menu Editor Tab"></a>The Menu Editor Create your new menus here, group your favorite or most used applications or games together, or perhaps make a system menu holding your most useful commands. <img src="prefsMEditor.jpg" width="549" height="499"> NextSTART 2.1 comes with a default menu. Backup your NSMENUS.INI file and experiment with the Menu Editor to get a feel on how it works. New creates a new menu, Delete is useful if you change your mind or no longer require the menu and Properties allows you to assign particular properties to a menu. Once you have created your new menu, you can then Add items to it, Insert them at particular points in it, or move existing items in your menu up or down. Delete is also an option you may wish to use. When you have chosen 'Add', click on the command button and you will be shown a number of choices as defined below. Each item in a menu can be one of 7 types: <ul> <li>Run Program: Executes the program you specify.</li> <li>Internal Command: Executes one of the many built-in Internal commands.</li> <li>Show Folder: Shows the specified folder as a menu. </li> <li>Show Menu: Shows the Menu you specify. </li> <li>Show Tasks: Shows a dynamic menu with all the currently running tasks.</li> <li>Item Separator: Shows a separator in the menu, but only if the current theme supports them.</li> <li>Apply Theme: Allows you to create a menu entry that loads a specified theme.</li> <li>Show Themes: Shows a menu displaying all the existing themes.</li> </ul> As you choose one of these options, new options become available. For example, choosing to Run Program then gives you options to browse for your program and assign particular properties to it, and choosing Run Internal Command will then make available a dropdown list box with the currently available commands. Please note that some of these commands are NT specific and as such will not apply to Windows 9x. These menus you have created may now be assigned to hotspots (see above). <a name="The Themes Tab"></a>The Themes Tab This is where you load and import new themes, or save out or export your own newly created themes. <img src="prefsthemes.jpg" width="549" height="499"> Load theme is where you make a choice from the number of preinstalled themes which come with NextSTART 2. Once you have created your own themes, or imported new ones, they will also be listed here. Some themes come with wallpapers. When this happens the Load Wallpaper checkbox lights up. If you do not wish to change your current wallpaper, simply remember to uncheck this option. Some themes also come with fonts. Enable the Install Fonts option if you wish fonts to be automatically installed on your system. Import Theme from zip is where you perform operations on zipped themes you have downloaded from the internet. If you have downloaded your theme to a directory *other than* \winstep\autoinstall, you should browse to that directory and press the unzip button once you have selected your file - alternatively you can also Drag & Drop your zip file to the zip filename text box. However, if you place all your downloaded zipped NS themes in the autoinstall directory, NextSTART detects their presence and Autoinstall will show in the text box. Pressing the unzip button will install all the themes you have in the autoinstall directory, in one action. WARNING! Zip files stored in the Autoinstall folder will be automatically deleted after installation. Zipped themes stored in the Autoinstall folder will also be automatically installed when NextSTART runs. If you are updating an existing theme, checking the Always Overwrite Files option will prevent NextSTART from issuing an overwrite warning for each file in the theme. Save theme is where you save your newly created theme, or indeed any alterations you may make to the defaults as loaded by other themes. Before saving a theme you should type your name in the Author box. If should also check the Save Wallpaper option if you want your current wallpaper to be part of the theme. If the wallpaper is a bitmap in BMP format, it is a good idea to convert it to JPG before exporting the theme, since this will drastically reduce its size. NextSTART automatically converts JPG wallpapers to BMP when loading because some OS versions do not support wallpaper bitmaps in JPG format. If your theme uses any special fonts, checking the Save Fonts option will make NextSTART copy the fonts used in the theme to the theme's folder. Export theme to zip is a useful option if you plan to distribute your themes to others. When your theme is loaded, you can automatically export it to a zip file which will take the name of your theme and place it in the export directory, by simply pressing the zip button. The export process will zip your bitmaps, background wallpaper and any sound files you may have in your directory. If you use specialized fonts in your theme, you should also place a copy in your theme directory, so that these may also be saved out, along with the .wst file which is the theme definition file used by NextSTART. There are many theme designers constantly making new themes for NextSTART. Users who do not wish to do so, can either use one of the many themes that come by default with NextSTART or they can download hundreds of new themes from sites such as <a href="http://www.skinz.org">www.skinz.org</a> <a name="The Global preferences tab"></a>The Global Preferences Tab The Global tab allows you to configure miscellaneous elements of NextSTART. <img src="prefsglobal.jpg" width="549" height="499"> In Titlebar Mouse Actions you can specify the action associated to a specific mouse click on a menu titlebar. The Double Click Delay can be used to specify if you want NextSTART to distinguish between single and double mouse clicks on a hotspot. This can be important if your hotspot covers the entire screen or you have icons spread all over the desktop. NextSTART is unable to distinguish if you are clicking on an empty area of the desktop or on an icon and it can be terribly confusing to double-click on an icon and have both your application and a NextSTART menu launched at the same time. To avoid this, when you first click on a hotspot NextSTART waits a little longer to see if there is another click coming. Once it has waited the time specified in Double Click Delay with no further clicks happening, it launches the menu. The default Double Click Delay value is calibrated with the normal interval Windows uses to distinguish between double clicks and two single clicks in quick succession. If this is not enough for you or you normally double click faster, you can respectively increase or decrease this value. Just remember that the higher the value the longer it will take for your menus to be launched. The opposite is also true. In fact, if your desktop hotspot does not cover any icons, you can set this delay to the minimum and your menus will launch immediately. The Bump Edges Delay is similar to the Double Click Delay but controls how long NextSTART takes to recognize that you are bumping your mouse onto a screen edge or corner. This can avoid annoying accidental menu misfires when you are working on maximized applications. Menu Scroll Speed allows you to define how fast a menu scrolls when you click on its scroll buttons. You can globally enable or disable Sound and Animations in the Sound and Animations section. If disabled, no sounds will be heard and no animations performed even if the theme you are currently using has them. In Preferences Hotkey you can define a new hot key combination to invoke the preferences window or simply disable this function altogether by selecting None from the dropdown box. The default key combination is CTRL-F12. If you uncheck Show Icon in Systray you can prevent NextSTART from adding a tray icon. Enabling Run NS on Startup will make NextSTART auto run next time you reboot Windows. With this option selected you do NOT need to place a shortcut to NextSTART on your Startup folder. If Show File Extensions is checked, then all files whose extension is not .LNK, .URL, .PIF and .CPL will have their file extensions displayed on folder menus instead of just the filenames. Checking Show Hidden Files and Show System Files will make NextSTART display hidden and system files in this menus as well. The Force Power Off and Force Shutdown are options you might want to try if NextSTART's 'Shutdown Windows' internal command does not work properly for you. Un-checking Show Pref.Tooltips will disable the tool tip help given by NextSTART that explains the actions of the graphical buttons in the preference tabs. The Show Launch Errors option was created to allow NextSTART to work properly with shells other than Explorer (such as LiteStep). When Explorer is not the shell, opening a folder in a window through a NextSTART menu can sometimes result in NextSTART reporting a 'File Not Found' error message - although the action is successful and the folder is displayed. Un-checking Show Launch Errors prevents this error from being reported, but it also prevents real launch error messages (such as trying to run a program that no longer exists) from displaying. The Reserve Screen Space section allows you to prevent maximized windows from using all the desktop area (much like the Windows taskbar reserves an area at the edge of the screen for itself). This can be very useful if you want to make sure that maximized windows do not cover the NextSTART task list icons, for instance. Here you can specify how many pixels at the top, left, bottom and right edges of the screen are protected from being covered by maximized windows. Any maximized windows already open are automatically resized to use the new available desktop area when you press the OK button, and existing windows are 'pushed' out of the reserved areas (unless this would also push them off the screen). <a name="The Preferences window Command Buttons"></a>The Preferences window Command Buttons The row of buttons at the bottom of the preferences window perform the following actions: The OK button applies and saves any changes you made and closes the preferences window. The Cancel button reverts all changes made and also closes the preferences window. The Preview button allows you to preview changes to the look of the menus without saving. The Restore button reverts all changes made but remains on the preferences window. The Help button summons up the help file. Finally, the Exit button exits NextSTART. A confirmation will be requested. Note that what happens when you press the Help button depends on you having Microsoft Internet Explorer installed or not. If IE is installed, NextSTART will display the HTML help file with its internal browser. If IE is not installed, then NextSTART will try to launch the default browser for that system, and report an error if it does not succeed. <a name="The Menus">The Menus</a> <a name="Introduction to the Menu system in NextSTART"></a>Introduction to the Menu system in NextSTART Menus provide a list of commands that can be executed. You are probably more than familiar with the menu system used by Windows. NextSTART, however, introduces you to a completely flexible menu system where just about anything can be configured. In the future, all the menus used in the remaining components of the WinSTEP 2000 project will assume the look and feel you specify under NextSTART. <img src="nsscrollb1.jpg" width="178" height="503"> <a name="Anatomy of a Menu"></a>Anatomy of a Menu Generally Menus have the following layout: Titlebar: The titlebar holds the name of the menu. You can use it to move and close the menu and to access the preferences window. Titlebar buttons: There are four types of titlebar buttons, which enable you to execute specific actions: Close the menu, Rotate it from vertical to horizontal and vice-versa, Roll it up or down or make it Always On Top. Menu area: The menu area holds the actual contents of the menu. If there is an arrow to the right of an item this means that clicking on that item will open a sub-menu, otherwise the item is a 'command item'. If there is a letter instead, then pressing CTRL together with that letter key on the keyboard will execute this item. If the menu is empty - i.e.; it has no items - then a single button with the word '(Empty)' will be displayed. On the other hand, if the menu holds more than 9999 items then the last entry on the menu is a special button labeled 'More...'. This button, when pressed, will open a new sub-menu containing the remaining 9999 items and so on... Separators: A separator ( or spacer ) provides a way to separate individual sections in the menu area. Separator items can be added to a menu in the Menu Editor, but note that they will only show up if the current theme supports them ( some themes would look bad with standard separators ). Endcap: An endcap is normally used so that a menu does not look 'incomplete'; i.e.., if you are using a titlebar with rounded corners, an endcap provides a way to 'finish' the menu with rounded corners as well, instead of with a rectangular button. Selection Bar: The selection bar allows you to know which item is currently selected. If you prefer you can have no selection bar at all or have the selection bar automatically follow the mouse pointer as it navigates the menu. Scroll Buttons: If a menu is too big to fit on screen, then two special buttons will be appended to it. These two buttons allow you to scroll the visible contents of the menu up or down. <a name="Moving Menus"></a>Moving Menus To move a menu simply click on the titlebar and drag. Note, however, that moving the main menu will automatically update its relative position to the owner window in the hotspot list. What this means is that the next time you click on that hot spot the menu will appear at the last position you dragged it to. Sub-menus, however, will not remember new positions. If you try to drag a menu that has an open sub-menu tree then NextSTART will first close all the open sub-menus. If you drag a sub-menu, however, this turns into a special menu independent from the parent menu. It will stay on screen until you deliberately decide to close it. <a name="Closing Menus"></a>Closing Menus To close a menu and any open sub-menus after it, right-click on the menu’s titlebar or on the close titlebar button. If you have the selection bar enabled then you can also press the ESC key. To keep a menu on screen and close only any open sub-menus after it, left-click on the menu’s titlebar. To close all menus, click anywhere else on the desktop or on another window. Note that this will only work if you have selected the Close all menus option in the hotspots tab of the preferences window. In that case you will have to right-click on the first menu’s titlebar. <a name="Navigating the Menus"></a>Navigating the Menus To navigate a menu you can use either the mouse pointer or - if you have the selection bar enabled - the keyboard. When using the mouse to navigate, simply click on the item you want selected. If that item leads to a sub-menu ( denoted by an arrow at the right ) then a new menu will appear next to it, otherwise the associated command is executed. It’s always a good idea to have the menu selection bar enabled as this will also allow you to navigate the menu using nothing but the keyboard if you want. You can then use the up and down arrow keys to change the currently selected item, or you can press a letter key and the selection bar will cycle through all the items whose name starts with that letter. When using the arrow keys and the beginning or end of a menu is reached, the selection bar will simply wrap-around. If the menu is too big to fit on screen, it will automatically scroll to show the currently selected item. To jump directly to the beginning or end of a menu, use the Home and End keys. You can use the left and right arrow keys to jump between sub-menus and parent menus: Pressing the right arrow key or the enter key on an item that leads to a sub-menu will open that menu. Pressing the enter key over a command item will execute that command. Pressing the left arrow key will close the current sub-menu and pass control to it’s parent menu. Pressing ESC will close the current menu. <a name="Executing command items">Executing command items</a> To execute a command item with the mouse, simply click on the item that you want to execute. You can also execute command items using the keyboard, in one of two ways: If the Hot keys option is enabled in the menu preferences tab, then the command item might have a letter displayed at the right. If that is the case, then you can press the CTRL key together with this letter to execute the command. If the selection bar is enabled, then you can also navigate the menu as explained in the previous section and execute the command by pressing the enter key. If you hold the CTRL key while pressing enter, the menu will not close automatically. <a name="Opening submenus as folders"></a>Opening sub-menus as folders To open a sub-menu item as a folder in Explorer instead of as a NextSTART sub-menu, simply double click on that item. There is no keyboard equivalent. <a name="Scrolling Menus"></a>Menu Scrolling When the menu is too big to fit vertically on the screen, it will display two scroll buttons. These scroll buttons can be located either both at the bottom or one at the top and the other at the bottom (classic Windows style): <img src="nsscrollb1.jpg" width="178" height="503"> ....<img src="nsscrollb2.jpg" width="178" height="502"> It can be argued that having both scroll buttons at the bottom has more advantages, since you don't have to move the mouse so much when scrolling up and down. In the end it's all a question of style and personal choice. If the Automatic Scrolling option in the Menu tab is enabled, then there isn't even any need to click on a scroll button: just move the mouse pointer over it and the menu will start to scroll automatically. Since NextSTART can hold anything up to 9999 items in a single menu, theoretically the limit will not be reached. However, If you wish to reduce the length of your menu on screen, you may change this value to something more reasonable (30, for example) and then a 'More' button will appear at the bottom of the menu. Clicking on the 'More' button will bring up the rest of the menu adjacent to the first. If you were to have, say, 70 items in a menu, then the next menu will also show 'More' and so forth. To quickly access the 'More' button, press the END key on the keyboard. This will make the selection bar jump to the end of the menu. <a name="Menu examples">Menu examples</a> The following holds examples of what can be accomplished with NextSTART. These examples are part of the theme pak that comes with the program. <img src="Themes-ns2.jpg" width="450" height="450"> <hr> <a name="Working with Themes">Working with Themes</a> <a name="Theme Bitmaps">Theme Bitmaps</a> When using bitmaps for the various items in NextSTART, these must be placed in the folder specified in the bitmaps tab and have the following names: <table border="1" cellpadding="2" width="91%" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" bordercolordark="#666666" bordercolorlight="#CCCCCC" ffffff"> <tr> <td width="23%">Wallpaper.bmp/.jpg </td> <td width="77%">Theme Wallpaper. </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">Tasks.bmp/.jpg </td> <td width="77%">Tasklist buttons + Systray Pop-out button. </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">Systray.ico</td> <td width="77%">Icon used for Systray button. Should be 16x16. </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">TitleA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">TitleI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>VTitleA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Vertical Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>VTitleI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Menu Vertical Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>HTitleA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Horizontal Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HTitleI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Menu Horizontal Titlebar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ButtonA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Menu Buttons.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ButtonI.bmp/.jpg </td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu menu buttons.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ButtonAS.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Menu button highlighted by selection bar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ButtonIS.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu menu button highlighted by Selection bar. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">HButtonA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Horizontal Menu Buttons.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">HButtonI.bmp/.jpg </td> <td width="77%">Inactive Horizontal Menu menu buttons.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">HButtonAS.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Horizontal Menu button highlighted by selection bar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">HButtonIS.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Horizontal Menu menu button highlighted by Selection bar. </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">SpacerA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Separator.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">SpacerI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Separator.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>ScrollA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Scroll button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>ScrollI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Menu Scroll button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>HScrollA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Horizontal Menu Scroll button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HScrollI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Horizontal Menu Scroll button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">EndcapA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">EndcapI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>VEndcapA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Vertical Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>VEndcapI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Menu Vertical Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>HEndcapA.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Horizontal Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HEndcapI.bmp/.jpg</td> <td>Inactive Menu Horizontal Endcap.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%" height="24">CloseA.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%" height="24">Titlebar Close button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">CloseAP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Close button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">CloseI.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Close button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">CloseIP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Close button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RollupA.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Rollup button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RollupAP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Rollup button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RollupI.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Rollup button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RollupIP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Rollup button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RotateA.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Rotate button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RotateAP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Rotate button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RotateI.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Rotate button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">RotateIP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Rotate button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">OnTopA.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Always on Top button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">OnTopAP.bmp/.jpg/.ico </td> <td width="77%">Titlebar Always on Top button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">OnTopI.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Always on Top button.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">OnTopIP.bmp/.jpg/.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Titlebar Always on Top button depressed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%"> </td> <td width="77%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ArrowA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Sub-menu indicator Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ArrowI.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Sub-menu indicator Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ArrowAS.ico</td> <td width="77%">Sub-menu indicator Arrow highlighted by Selection bar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ArrowIS.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Sub-menu indicator Arrow highlighted by selection bar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">HzArrowA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Sub-menu indicator Arrow in horizontal menus.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HzArrowI.ico</td> <td>Inactive Menu Sub-menu indicator Arrow in horizontal menus.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HzArrowAS.ico</td> <td>Sub-menu indicator Arrow highlighted by Selection bar in horizontal menus.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>HzArrowIS.ico</td> <td>Inactive Menu Sub-menu indicator Arrow highlighted by selection bar in horizontal menus.</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">UpArrowA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Scroll up Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">UpArrowI.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Scroll up Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">DnArrowA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Scroll down Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">DnArrowI.ico</td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Scroll down Arrow.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">LfArrowA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Scroll left Arrow (Horizontal Menus).</td> </tr> <tr> <td>LfArrowI.ico</td> <td>Inactive Menu Scroll left Arrow (Horizontal Menus).</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RgArrowA.ico</td> <td>Scroll right Arrow (Horizontal Menus).</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RgArrowI.ico</td> <td>Inactive Menus Scroll right Arrow (Horizontal Menus).</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ComSymbA.ico</td> <td width="77%">Command Key Symbol.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ComSymbI.ico </td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Command key symbol.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ComSymbAS.ico</td> <td width="77%">Command Key Symbol highlighted by Selection bar.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="23%">ComSymbIS.ico </td> <td width="77%">Inactive Menu Command key symbol highlighted by Selection bar.</td> </tr> </table> When the theme is saved, these files PLUS any sound files that are part of the theme are automatically copied to a subdirectory in the themes folder, and the Bitmaps path in the bitmaps tab is updated to reflect this. When a theme is loaded or imported from a ZIP file, NextSTART automatically updates the bitmap and sound paths so they point to the right place in that user's WinSTEP directory structure. The arrow and command key symbol icons must be 16x16 icons and the symbols should be centered in the icons. If NextSTART cannot find a specified icon file, it will use the default symbol instead. When using bitmaps for the titlebar buttons, all bitmaps should have the same width, otherwise some buttons might overlap or look too far apart. Titlebar buttons are vertically centered in relation to the titlebar, i.e.; if your titlebar is 20 pixels high and your buttons 16 pixels, there will be a 2 pixel gap between the edges of the button and the edges of the titlebar. This does not occur horizontally, though, so when several buttons are used, they will be placed one after the other. If you want the same two pixel gap horizontally between buttons, then leave a two pixel horizontal gap on each side of the button when designing its bitmap. If you want a button to adjust to whatever background is used on the titlebar, then use icons instead of bmp files. The titlebar background will be seen through the transparent parts of the icons. If NextSTART cannot find a specified bitmap button, it will use the equivalent Newstyle button instead. Button bitmaps can now be applied to the whole menu. Menu full transparency can also be specified in the Menu background section of the buttons tab. Be advised that, due to the absence of OS/Hardware support for full transparency, true menu transparency would be simply too processor intensive to implement, therefore this function is 'simulated'. It is not perfect and there will be cases where you will be able to see through the 'illusion'. There are many theme designers constantly making new themes for NextSTART. Users who do not wish to do so, can either use one of the many themes that come by default with NextSTART or they can download hundreds of new themes from sites such as <a href="http://www.skinz.org">www.skinz.org</a> <a name="Using sub-themes with menus">Using sub-themes with menus</a> Its perfectly possible to have different themes associated to different menus. This allows effects similar to the one used in the Windows Start Menu, where the main menu has a sideways title bar and uses large icons - while the sub-menus have no title bar and use small icons. To accomplish effects similar to this, you must understand that there is one thing called the current 'default' theme ( which is loaded through the Preferences screen ) and sub-themes that can be 'hard coded' to specific menus or hotspots. The concept is simple: Any menus that have no specific theme 'hard coded' to them will display the current default theme. For instance, to emulate the Windows Start Menu this is what you need to do: 1 - Create a theme with a sideways titlebar and 32 pixel icons that looks like the Start Menu. Save it as 'Main Menu'. 2 - Create a theme that looks like the Start Menu's sub-menus ( no title bar and 16 pixel icons ) and save it as 'Sub Menus'. This will be your current default theme, and for now all menus will look like that. 3 - In the Menu Editor tab, select your main menu ( should be 'NextSTART' if you haven't changed its name ) and click on the menu Properties button at the top left corner. In the dialog box that shows up, select 'Main Menu' from the list of themes shown in the 'Themes to load with Menu' section. Make sure that 'sub-menus inherit themes' is NOT selected. And that's it. What will this do? Well, you hard coded the 'Main Menu' theme to the first menu that shows up when you click on the default hotspot. However, since you did not select 'sub-menus inherit theme', all its sub-menus will use the current default theme ( the 'Sub Menus' theme ). You can use variations of this method to accomplish different effects. Sub-themes can be 'hard coded' to menus created in the Menu Editor ( as we did above ) or to any hotspot that displays a menu. In the later case you can 'hard code' a theme to a specific hotspot by clicking on the Properties button found in the 'Hotspot Action' section of the Hotspots tab. Note that when loading a theme through the Preferences screen, NextSTART will prompt you if you wish to discard 'hard coded' themes first ( but only if any exist ). This was done on purpose to avoid situations where the user would load a theme and nothing would apparently happen because the menus had specific themes hard coded into them. <hr> <a name="Uninstalling NextSTART">Uninstalling NextSTART</a> To uninstall NextSTART use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. <hr> <a name="Known Issues">Known Issues</a> Non TrueType fonts should not be used on menus with vertical title bars. This is because only TrueType fonts can be rotated. If you specify a non-TrueType font, Arial will be used instead. Under Windows 98, the 'Start Screen Server' internal command tries to enter Standby mode in 15 seconds instead. This seems to be an OS specific issue. Some systems seem to have trouble with the 'Shutdown Windows' internal command. If your system is one of those, try tweaking the 'Force Power Off' and 'Force Shutdown' options in the Hotspots tab. If that still doesn't help, the Microsoft Knowledge Base has several articles about this that might help you troubleshoot your system. For instance, try <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q238/0/96.asp">Q238096 - How to Troubleshoot Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Problems</a> NextSTART 2.1 uses the Zip32.dll and Unzip.dll from the Info-ZIP group to export/import themes from zip files. Some other utilities may also use these DLLs, which might cause version conflicts. If you have trouble zipping or unzipping theme files from within NextSTART, check the versions of the DLL files in your System folder. When you have your taskbar hidden, either by using NextSTART's task management or the 'Hide Taskbar' internal command, windows might still not maximize to the bottom of the screen. To accomplish this, make sure your Windows taskbar is set to auto-hide and NOT set to 'always on top'. <hr> <a name="Tips">Tips</a> Use two hotspots to activate the same menu, one of them being a bump on a screen edge or corner. This way, if you have an application maximized and no direct access to the desktop, you can always bump the screen edge or corner. If you want one of your menus to show up automatically every time you reboot your computer, enable the AutoRun option for its associated hotspot. You can use drag and drop to add items to your menus in the Menu Editor. When playing full screen DirectX games, hotspots are still active and it's perfectly possible to activate one by accident while playing the game. To prevent this, right-click on the Systray icon of NextSTART and uncheck 'Enable Hotspots' on the menu before running the game. Another possibility is to leave the preferences window open - NextSTART de-activates hotspots when this window is on-screen. Would you like to have an auto-hide option for NS Task Management? Create two new hotspots: The first is an internal command that hides the normal windows taskbar ( 'Hide Taskbar'). The second should be activated by bumping the screen edge where your NS Tasklist resides and be associated to the 'Enable/Disable NS Task Management' internal command. Now add the first hotspot to the list of hotspots run automatically when NS starts. This will hide the normal windows taskbar. Now, whenever you want to activate/deactivate NS task management, simply bump the appropriate screen edge. It works very well, just remember to add a suitable bump edge delay in the Global Preferences tab, otherwise it will be very easy to bump the edge by accident. <hr> <a name="Running NextSTART with LiteStep">Running NextSTART with LiteStep</a> Nextstart and the LiteStep shell work just fine together. There are only two minor glitches which are both easy to fix: 1) Make sure you do *not* load popup.dll in the LoadModule section of your step.rc file. Either comment out the line or remove it altogether. If you don't do this, and try to bind an NS menu to the right mouse button, you'll get the LiteStep popup menu instead. 2) Assuming you install and initially configure NextSTART running Explorer as your shell (recommended), the first time you switch shells to LiteStep and load NextSTART, your menus will probably not work. Don't panic. Activate the NextSTART configuration panel By pressing Ctrl-F12 or from the systray icon, go to the Hotspots Definition tab. on the left side of the panel, see the "Apply Hotspot to" area. Chances are the textbox beside the magnifying glass icon will say either "Desktop" or "Program Manager". Just drag the magnifying glass icon out onto your desktop and let it go. The text box should now say "LiteStep". Click "OK" to save your changes and your menus should work just fine. Note that you will have to do this for each hotspot you have defined. If you switch between shells regularly, another great idea is to define your hotspots twice (e.g. hotspot 0 and hotspot 1 are identical in all respects save one points to "program manager" and the other to "litestep" - same with 2 and 3, etc...) That way changing shells won't affect your menus at all. <hr> <a name="Questions and Support">Questions and Support</a> You can download the latest version of NextSTART from <a href="http://www.winstep.net">http://www.winstep.net</a> or from our mirror site at <a href="http://www.rehash.org/winstep2000/">http://www.rehash.org/winstep2000/</a> For questions and support just e-mail us at <a href="mailto:support@winstep.net">support@winstep.net</a> or you can try the following newsgroups which are currently available on the <a href="news://news.basiclink.com">news.basiclink.com</a> server... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.binaries">winstep.binaries</a> - post your latest themes and Winstep related screenshots, etc... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.general">winstep.general</a> - General discussion on Winstep and related topics... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.news">winstep.news</a> - The latest news and announcements from the Winstep staff... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.nextstart">winstep.nextstart</a> - Discussion of officially released versions of NextSTART... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.nextstart.beta">winstep.nextstart.beta</a> - Discussion of beta release versions of NextSTART... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.nexus">winstep.nexus</a> - Discussion of officially released versions of NeXus... <a href="news://news.basiclink.com/winstep.nexus.beta">winstep.nexus.beta</a> - Discussion of beta release versions of NeXus... Join our community in a real time chat by visiting the #winstep channel on any EFNet server. You may also wish to join the WinSTEP2000 discussion mailing list: <a href="http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/WinSTEP2000">Click to subscribe to the WinSTEP2000 Beta Tester's Mailing List</a> or join our "WinSTEP 2000 Announcement List" to receive important announcements related to all of our WinSTEP 2000 products: <a href="http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/WS2K-ANNOUNCE">Click to subscribe to the WinSTEP2000 Announcement Mailing List</a> NOTICE: The Announcements list does NOT permit user discussion. <hr> <a name="Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a> Special thanks to: JosΘ Carlos Baldo for designing the NextSTART 1.0 logo and for helping with the graphical layout of the program. Sue Wotton for helping to write this User Guide and bug testing NextSTART 2.x. Ric Sharma for his great NeXT related suggestions and insight, and for all that bug testing. Brent Edwards for his great advice on running NextSTART with LiteStep. And finally but not the least, many thanks to all the wonderful people who dwell on the WinSTEP2000 mailing lists. Thank you for all the great suggestions and help testing NextSTART - we owe it all to you. <hr> </body> </html>