Introduction to Meta-Mouse
Meta-Mouse™ 2.0 is a program designed for 32-bit versions of Microsoft® Windows® whose purpose is to improve the visibility of the mouse cursor and/or provide more entertaining mouse cursors. This is accomplished in several ways:

• The cursor can be made much larger, or changed to a variety of interesting and useful shapes.

• The normally "white" and "black" parts of monochrome cursors (the usual type) can be changed to other colors.

• The cursor can be made to blink on and off at various rates.

• The cursor can be made to "wobble".

• The pointing cursors can be mirror-imaged (left-right reversed).

All the commonly-used system-defined mouse cursors can be changed, including the Normal, App Starting, Busy, I-Beam, and Sizing cursors. Additionally, cursor files from third-party sources can be used with Meta-Mouse by simply copying them into the appropriate directory. Full-color and animated cursors are supported in all cases where the display device drivers can handle them.

Distribution of Meta-Mouse as Shareware

Purchasing a Licensed Copy of Meta-Mouse

Installation Instructions

Directory Structure; How to Add Third Party Cursor Files

Special Behavior Options

Selecting and Testing Cursor Shapes

Using Mirror Imaging to Create Left-Handed Cursors

Changing the Color of a Cursor

Making a Cursor Blink or Wobble

Effects of the "OK", "Cancel", and "Exit" Buttons

Starting Meta-Mouse Automatically on Windows Start-Up

Meaning of the Prefix Tags in the Cursor Lists

Getting Technical Assistance


Distribution of Meta-Mouse as Shareware

This program is distributed as "shareware"; it is NOT "free". You may use the unlicensed version of the program for a period not to exceed 30 days in order to evaluate its suitability for your purposes.

If you continue to use this program after the 30-day evaluation period, then payment of the license fee is required. Each license applies to one computer only. Corporate site licenses are available; call for pricing information at 1-800-356-7047.

This program may be freely copied and distributed if and only if the following conditions are met:

(1) 	Only the unlicensed version may be distributed. If you have a licensed copy, you may distribute only the file MMOU20.ZIP as included on the original floppy disk.

(2) 	No fee is charged other than a normal time usage fee required by some Bulletin Board Services, or a small disk duplication fee not to exceed $8.

(3) 	The program is distributed in its original, unmodified form.

(4) 	This document file is included with the executable file and all ancillary files without modification.

This program may not be bundled with, or transferred as part of, any package which is sold or for which any licensing fee is charged.


Purchasing a Licensed Copy of Meta-Mouse

To order your own licensed copy of Meta-Mouse using a credit card, just call Cylex Inc. at 1-800-356-7047. To order by mail, send a check to the address below. Checks from outside the U.S.A. should be specified in U.S. dollars.

Cylex Inc.
2501 Afton Court
League City, TX 77573-3438
U.S.A.

Price (includes shipping):

Inside the U.S.A.:	$23
Outside the U.S.A.:	$26

(Residents of Texas add 7.5% state sales tax.)


Installation Instructions

Installation is accomplished by running the INSTALL.EXE program. First, select "Start / Run..." from the Windows taskbar. If you are installing from a floppy disk, then enter "A:\INSTALL" (or B:\INSTALL) as the program to run. If you have obtained this program in a ZIP or other archive file, then specify the path to the installation program in the directory containing the uncompressed archive contents (for example, "C:\TEMP\INSTALL").

The installation program will initially request a directory name or "Destination folder" into which the program should be installed. The default setting is "C:\Meta-Mouse". If you want to change this, just type the desired path into the edit control.

If you want to have a "launch" or startup icon for Meta-Mouse on your desktop, check the box labeled "Create a shortcut on the desktop".

If you would like Meta-Mouse to start automatically each time Windows is started, then check the box labeled "Start automatically at system boot-up".

The rest of the installation is automatic. Note that Meta-Mouse makes use of long file names, but that all the files on the installation floppy disk or in the distribution archive file are stored only in DOS 8.3 format. The installation program renames these files to their required long filenames and places then into the correct subdirectory structure required by Meta-Mouse. Simply running METAMOUS.EXE from the floppy disk or archive file will not work correctly; you must run the installation program. Distribution of the Meta-Mouse files in 8.3 format is done to assure that their names will not be corrupted by a "copy" operation in an operating system environment that does not support long filenames.


Directory Structure; How to Add Third Party Cursor Files

All the cursors available in Meta-Mouse are read from external files with extensions of CUR or ANI. Each cursor file is kept in one of the following subdirectories of the Meta-Mouse main directory:

NORMAL
APPSTART
BUSY
IBEAM
SIZING

Each cursor list in the Meta-Mouse window is a list of all the CUR and ANI files in the subdirectory of the corresponding name.

To "import" third-party cursor files for use in Meta-Mouse, it is only necessary to copy them into the appropriate Meta-Mouse subdirectory. If desired, any cursor file can be made to appear in more than one category if copies of the file are placed into multiple Meta-Mouse subdirectories.

You can also copy or move the cursor files supplied with Meta-Mouse between its various subdirectories as listed above. For example, if there is a cursor that appears in the "App Starting" list that you would like to use as the "Normal" default cursor, just move its file to the \Meta-Mouse\NORMAL subdirectory (using Windows Explorer). Note that if you do this while Meta-Mouse is running, the changes will not be immediately reflected in the list boxes in the Meta-Mouse control window. Exit and restart Meta-Mouse to bring the lists up to date.


Special Behavior Options

Once Meta-Mouse is set up the way you want, you probably don't want to see its control window each time you start the program. You probably also don't want to see its Taskbar button hanging around all the time. In the lower left corner of the Meta-Mouse window, there are two check boxes that control its behavior.

The "Minimize at startup" option prevents the display of the control window on program startup. The program will instead immediately enter either a minimized (Taskbar button) or hidden state.

The "Hide when minimized" option causes the window to be hidden (not show in the Taskbar) when it is minimized. The program continues to perform its cursor-modification functions, but there will be no other evidence of it on the screen. To access the control window, just "launch" the program again from its desktop icon, Windows Explorer, or the Start menu, as required. Instead of starting a second invocation, the original running program will show itself.

If both of the options described above are activated, then each time the program is started, the only visible effect will be that the mouse cursor changes shape and/or color.


Selecting and Testing Cursor Shapes

Any changes in cursor shape, color, or behavior resulting from selections that you make in the Meta-Mouse control window take effect immediately. Changes in the "normal" system cursor will be seen when you click on any selection in the list. Changes in the I-beam and window sizing cursors can be seen by moving the mouse cursor to any area of the screen that would normally invoke these cursors. A test area is provided for I-beam cursors. A good place to test the window sizing cursor is the edge of the Taskbar.

The "App starting" and busy cursors are a little harder to invoke on demand, so Meta-Mouse provides Test buttons for each of these just above the associated list display. The Test buttons cause the corresponding cursor to be shown for approximately 4 seconds.

As of this writing, animated cursors are supported only by Windows display device drivers that use 256 colors or more. If you are using a 16-color display driver, the animated cursors probably won't "animate".


Using Mirror Imaging to Create Left-Handed Cursors

Enabling one of the "Mirror Image" options causes the corresponding cursor to appear reversed in left/right orientation. The hotspot is also moved as required. Please note that the current version of Meta-Mouse only mirrors static cursors; animated cursors will not be affected.


Changing the Color of a Cursor

Cursors which are (a) monochrome and (b) non-animated can be changed in color by clicking on the rows of color buttons. There are two rows of buttons. The first row assigns a new color to any part of the cursor that was originally white. The second row assigns a new color to any part of the cursor that was originally black.

When new colors are selected, all cursor categories that meet the color-change requirements (monochrome, non-animated) will be simultaneously affected.

As of this writing, color cursors in general are supported only by Windows display device drivers that use 256 colors or more. If you are using a 16-color display driver, you probably won't get color.


Making a Cursor Blink or Wobble

To improve the visibility of the on-screen cursor, Meta-Mouse provides the blink and wobble functions.

Blinking can be set to various rates and duty cycles as seen in the control window. The cursor will not blink while it is moving, and blinking will not begin until the cursor has been stationary for a short time. The minimum delay before blinking is 2 seconds. For the 2-second flicker the delay will be about 5 seconds, and for the 4-second flicker setting the delay will be about 10 seconds.

Blinking works only on non-animated cursors.

"Wobble" is mutually excusive with blinking, and works with all cursors including animated ones. Enabling wobble causes the cursor, after being allowed to remain stationary for about 2 seconds, to rapidly oscillate in position within a small radius of its original position.


Effects of the "OK", "Cancel", and "Exit" Buttons

OK

Clicking the OK button causes the current cursor setup to be saved to disk for use the next time the program is started. It also causes the Meta-Mouse control window to be either minimized or hidden depending on the setting of the "Hide when minimized" option.

Cancel

Clicking the Cancel button restores the cursor setup to whatever it was before any changes were made. In effect, the state of the program reverts to that at the moment the OK button was last clicked. The Meta-Mouse control window will be either minimized or hidden depending on the setting of the "Hide when minimized" option.

Exit

Clicking the Exit button terminates the operation of Meta-Mouse and restores all cursors to their Windows defaults.


Starting Meta-Mouse Automatically on Windows Start-Up

If you would like to have Meta-Mouse start automatically on Windows start-up, and did not select this option at installation time, this section describes how to set up auto-starting.

(1) 	Double-click "My Computer" on the desktop.

(2) 	Double-click (C:).

(3) 	Double-click the "Windows" folder.

(4) 	Double-click the "Start Menu" folder.

(5) 	Double-click the "Programs" folder.

(6) 	Double-click the "StartUp" folder.

(7) 	Right-click in a blank area of the "StartUp" window. Select "New / Shortcut".

(8) 	In the "Command line" edit control, type "C:\Meta-Mouse\Meta-Mouse.EXE" (without the quote marks). Click the "Next" button. (If you changed the default Meta-Mouse directory during installation, then enter the correct location of the program.)

(9) 	Edit the shortcut name so that it is "Meta-Mouse" (or whatever you would like). Click the "Finish" button.

(10) 	Clean up the screen by closing windows left open by this procedure.

If there is a launch icon for the program on the desktop, then (after step 6) you can use the right mouse button to drag in into the "StartUp" window. Select "Create Shortcut Here". Ignore steps 7 through 9.


Meaning of the Prefix Tags in the Cursor Lists

The names of cursors in the Meta-Mouse cursor lists are preceded by one of the following prefix tags: [ac], [am], [sc], or [sm]. These indicate the type of cursor file, and have the following meanings:

[ac]

Animated Color

[am]

Animated Monochrome

[sc]

Static Color

[sm]

Static Monochrome


Getting Technical Assistance

If required, technical assistance for Meta-Mouse is available during business hours at (713) 332-3782.