Copyright: c 1994 Will Ballard


WillDock 1.0

Thank you for taking the time to download WillDock.  Here is the brief description:

WillDock is designed as a shell supplement.  It provides two of the most common graphical shell tools that for some reason were not included in the base Windows package, a global menu and a toolbar.  Using a combination of either or both of these you can speed up your entire workday.  Program Manager is good for what it does, but a vertical toolbar provides a faster and more natural interface for quick application launch.  Yes, there are a few toolbars available, but none with this ease of use because WillDock uses the same metaphors as Program Manager.  Creating an icon in Program Manager involves only dragging the .exe from File Manager -- same in WillDock.  Literally drag, press, and go.

Help is available on the following topics:

General Use

Menu Configuration

Assigning Buttons

Button Configuration

Changing Settings

Order Form


Assigning Buttons

You may assign a program to a button (which when pressed will then run that program) by simply dragging the .exe (the cute gray rectangles with blue bars) from File Manager to the button that you wish to assign it to.

A few caveats:

•	WillDock has space for a theoretical maximum of 128 items, though it will be slightly less depending on your screen resolution.

•	Changing screen resolution will not adversely affect WillDock or your button settings however, the number of visible buttons on the screen at once will be computed based on the current screen settings.  You may need to scroll through the WillDock bar (using the arrow buttons) in order to locate some applications.

•	Take advantage of the arrow buttons (located at the bottom of the bar), they will help you to organize the programs that are most often used together.  It is best to think of the bar as a large hoop, with only part of it facing the screen at any one time.  Press the arrows to roll the hoop around to get another face.  This allows a large number of items to be controlled from the bar without having to go through a complex configuration.

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General Use

Right clicking on the desktop (wallpaper) will activate the global menu.  Navigate through it using the right mouse button.  This is the quickest way to group and launch applications.  You may have up to 60 items in the menus total in the shareware version.  If you so desire, this menu may be disabled from the Settings Dialog, which can be accessed through the menu, or by changing the [Settings] Hook =0 in the willmenu.ini file.

Single left clicking the toolbar buttons will launch the application shown by icon on the button.

Single middle clicking on a toolbar button will pop up a small box giving the descriptive text associated with the program.  Dismiss it by pressing Escape or left clicking in the box.

Single right clicking on the toolbar buttons will give you the Properties Dialog for the button, allowing you to use alternate icons (if they are available, the shareware version will not allow you to use icons in other files, only those in the .exe), set a piece of descriptive text, or browse for a file.  Browsing may be used instead of drag and drop button assignment.

And on the topic of drag and drop.  You may launch specific data files by dragging them from the File Manager to the appropriate icon button on the toolbar.  This is handy for launching all of those (readme. read.me ...) odd text files that never use the same extension twice.  This does not work with all applications, but is great when it does -- experiment.

The toolbar will save when you exit Windows, or when you exit the toolbar.  This is important if you are in the habit of turning off the power without exiting windows first.  Be warned -- you will lose the buttons you set in that session!


Button Configuration

Using this dialog you can select the path icon and description for each button.  This may be used in conjunction with drag and drop or instead of.  This allows you to edit the command line to include any switches that may be essential.

This will only search for icons in the current .exe in the shareware version.


Menu Configuration

This is best described by example rather than by instruction.  Here is a snippet from the willmenu .ini file as it ships with WillDock.

[Settings]

Hook=1

Startup=1

ButtonVerification=1

LastPage=0

[Root Items]

ItemCount=4

Item1=Apps, popup

Item2=Programming, popup

Item3=SmallTools, popup

Item4=System, popup

[Apps]

ItemCount=4

Item1=c:\windows\fileman.exe,File Manager

Item2=c:\windows\notepad.exe,Notepad

Item3=c:\windows\write.exe,Write

Item4=c:\windows\pbrush.exe,Paintbrush

[SmallTools]

ItemCount=3

Item1=c:\windows\clock.exe,Clock

Item2=c:\windows\calc.exe,Calculator

Item3=c:\windows\charmap.exe,Character Map

[System]

ItemCount=2

Item1=c:\windows\progman.exe,Program Manager

Item2=c:\windows\control.exe,Control Panel

As you can see, it is important to get the item count and the heading (the thing in brackets) right.  The heading must match the heading listed under [Root Items] and the number of headed items must equal the item count in the [Root Items] section; be sure to include the comma, space, popup combination at the end of each entry in the [Root Items].  You must remember to number sequentially, otherwise and error will occur.  Remember that the complete path comesf first, followed by a comma, then the title that you wish to appear in the menu.  A failure of WillDock is almost always due to an improperly configured willmenu.ini.


Changing Settings

From the global menu, which is accessed by the right mouse button, you select Settings to get to the Settings Dialog.  From there you can select three options:

Verify Button Change -- this allows you to turn off the verification when you drag and drop assign a button on the toolbar

Startup Last Page -- this allows WillDock to remember the last set of icons that were displayed on the bar, returning you to that icon "page."  If this is disabled, you will be returned to the root page.

Use Global Menu -- this turns on the global right mouse button menu.  If you accidentally turn it off, you can set the [Settings] Hook=1 to re-enable it in the willmenu.ini file.


Order Form

Take the time to fill out this handy order form.  This will allow me to keep track of my customers and mail you a shareware sampler disk of my current programming projects and instructions on how to remove the initial dialog nag.

The registration fee is $15.00.  Make the check out to Will Ballard.  Stick it in an envelope with this form and mail it to:

Will Ballard

410 Lincoln Dr.

Idaho Falls, ID 83401

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