Dock Window

• It can be resized and placed anywhere on the screen
• YOu can set the window to have a top or side bar.
• you can change it from a floater to a normal window (or vice versa) by clicking in the zoom box of the window.
• There are two distinct parts to the window:- 1.The left hand side contains the tabs 2. The right contains the currently active module. (discussed later concerning individual modules)
• The tabs are all of different colours and clicking on one of these will activate the corresponding module.
• If you want to have the module in a window by itself or to place it into another window then just drag the tab. Drag it to another window and it will hilite the window, you can drop it there or somewhere else on the screen and a new window will be created.
• By double clicking in the tab area you will be presented with a dialog box for the options of that window.
• Try setting the pattern to Silver and using a tall thin window and see what you think.
• You can set the window to have the same pattern as the desktop to let it blend seemlessly with you desktop.
• To create a new window choose a module from the modules menu and it will create one with the module contained inside it.

About the Modules

• There are 8 different types of modules.
• 1. The launcher module - you drag files, applications or folders to this module and it will then provide an icon that you can click on to open the file, launch the application or open the folder.
• 2. Process - This shows the icons of the currently running applications, so you can drag files so that application will open them. Or click to put that application in front. Or you quit the application without brining it to the front.
• 3. File utility - This provides a set of icons that have a few different functions for file manipulation. Doing batch file changing
• 4. Peeker - This is designed to let you drag a file and it will display a preview depending on the type of file. eg, text, pict, any file with an inbuilt preview etc.
• 5. Url address - This is for storing address and letting you launch a browser with the url. The url's are editable and drag & drop as text.
• 6. Memory - This shows the current memory usage of all currently running applications with both progress bars and text figures in kb.
• 7. Disk Volumes - This shows the volumes and disk usage off all currently mounted volumes. Using both progress bars and text figures in Mb.
• 8. Cpu Usage - This shows the relative percentage of cpu usage of all applications in the last 30 seconds.

Launcher Module

• Drag files, applications or folders to this module (it will show a blue border when the drag is inside the module.) and this will add the file to the launcher.
• Once you have your favourite applications, folders or files in there then you can use it to launch them or open them.
• Dragging files onto one of these icons will result in either launching the application with those files or moving those files to the folder.
• If you hold down the command key and click on the icon it will open the folder containing the file.
• If you hold down the shift key and click on an application it will launch the application in the background.
• If you hold down the control key and the icon is a running application it will tell the application to quit (using apple events). (a warning is given if you do this for the finder as it will most certainly crash the computer).
• You can drag the icon (it effectively becomes an alias file) and drag it to another icon in the launcher or the process module to open the file with the application you drag it to.
• If you drag the icon to the desktop it just becomes an alias file.
• If you drag it to the trash it will delete the icon from the launcher module.
• If you change the shape of the window then all the icons will immediately move into position (with the rows taking highest priority, the number of columns is then determined by how many icons are present)

Process Module

• This contains the currently running applications.
• The functionality is basically the same as the launcher module (concerning applications).
• Click on the icon to bring the application to the front.
• Drag files onto it to open the files with that application
• Hold down the control key and click on the icon to tell the application to quit (with apple events).
• Drag the icon to create an alias.
• To hide a process just hold down shift and click on the icon you don't want to see.

File Utility Module

• The first three icons are the "apple menu items", "control panels" and "extensions" folders icons.
• Clicking on any of these will open the folder
• Holding down shift will open the folders without activating the finder
• Holding down the command key will show the system folder (where the folders are contained)
• Dragging files onto the icon will move them to the corresponding icon.
• Dragging the icon will create an alias and move it to wherever you drop it.
• The next icon is the command - i icon which is probably the most useful.
• Clicking on this will prompt you to open a file then you will be presented with a dialog box of information about the file. (this is the same as if you dragged one file onto the icon)
• This lets you change the file type, creator name and flags of the file.
• If you drag lots of files onto the icon you will be presented with another dialog box, which may be confusing at first.
• This allows you change one or any selected attributes of all the files you dragged onto it
• The check boxes on the left indicate whether to change it or not (checked means you will be changing all the files for the attribute.
• the check box with the same name and just to the right indicates what to change it to.
• Very good for changing file types or creators when you have a lot of files.
• The lock and label icons perform a similair function.
• The alias icon must be clicked on first, then when you drag files onto the icon it will create an alias and put it in the folder you chose.

Peeker Module

• If you drag a file into this it will display it in some way depending on the type of file
• If the file has a preview (ie. a PICT resource showing contents of the file) it will show that picture (types supported :- photoshop, canvas, marathon)
• Shows any PICT file
• shows any text file or any file that contains text.
• Will show as much as you let it by changing the size of the window.
• If that isn't available then it will display the data fork

Url Module

• Drag a text clipping on the module and it will create a url address
• double click to create an address with a dialog box
• hold down the command key to edit the address.
• Drag to the trash to remove the item.
• uses internet config, so it won't work without it - this means that I can keep this program minimal when possible.
• urls must start with - http://, mailto:, ftp:// etc.
• Title can be anything you want.

Memory Module

• This shows the memory used by all the running processes and how much is used and free.
• To hide a process just hold down shift and click on the icon you don't want to see.

Disk Module

• This keeps track of the mounted volumes on your computer and the space used and total space of the drive.

Cpu Module

• This updates occasionally showing the percent cpu usage of active processes since last updating.
• Keep in mind that if you have this window showing and DockMaster is the front application it will most probably show up as using most of the cpu. In part becaus you are asking it to continuously check, and also front applications tend to get more time.
• To hide a process just hold down shift and click on the icon you don't want to see.