TrayDay v5.1: by MJM Software (see end of this readme.txt for version history) DESCRIPTION: 1. Overview TrayDay places an icon showing the date (day of the month) in the system tray (the part of the taskbar which includes the clock). The icon resembles a page of a "tear-off" calendar. You can therefore see the date at a glance - often quicker and easier than resting your mouse over the clock, searching for an "Insert Date" menu, or having to reach for your diary. Move the mouse over the icon and the day of the week will appear. Double click on the icon with the left mouse button to copy the date to the clipboard, or to insert it automatically into your application - depending on the "Left Double-Click Action" chosen in the Options dialog box (select "Options..." from the menu displayed by right- clicking the icon). The format can be short or long date as defined in your Control Panel - Regional Settings - Date, or it can be user defined. The copy date and insert date functions are also available through the right-click menu; this enables you to select the date format without changing the options. Other menu items are "Register..." (see below), and "Exit". By placing a shortcut to TrayDay.exe in your startup folder, you can have the date always available. 2. Shift Icon (Registered version only) Because other applications may add icons to the system tray, the TrayDay icon may move further away from the clock (assuming that you have your taskbar either at the top or bottom of the screen). Select "Shift Icon" from the right-click menu, to move the icon to beside the clock. Under Options "Shift Icon After Startup" - you can choose to have TrayDay shift the icon automatically 1 minute or 2 minutes after starting. This is particularly useful if TrayDay is in your startup folder with other applications: the order in which icons are added to the tray is difficult to determine. Choosing this option gets round this by moving the icon to the clock after other applications have loaded. Most users should find that 1 minute is enough, but those with slower systems and/or large startup groups may need to select 2 minutes. 3. Icon Background You can choose the icon background through the Options dialog. Select "White" and the calendar "paper" will be white, "Gray" for pale gray, or select "Transparent" for the colour of the tray itself to show through. If "Transparent" is selected, icon text changes to black; this option may be particularly useful if you have chosen a non-gray taksbar. 4. User Format Select "Help" from the Options dialog for information on the date letters to use in your user format. Note that you can include "D" in your user format to give the ordinals "1st", "2nd", "3rd" etc. Time letters can also be specified. Note that h or hh will give the hour using the 12 hour clock, while H or HH will use the 24 hour clock. Use t or tt to specify A/P or AM/PM; this will only work if these letters (or alternatives) are set in your Control Panel - Regional Settings - Time. Also note the possibility of text in the user format, surrounded by single quotation marks. This means, for example, that you could define a "date stamp" with your name and date < 'Your Name, 'm/d/yyyy > - or even miss out the date and have your name available at a double-click! To include a single quotation mark in your text, enter 2 of them together - for example, < 'Today''s Date' > will give "Today's Date". Use \n or \t to give a new line or tab - but don't enclose them in single quotes or they will treated as text. You can include counters in the user format using #, ##, or ###. These give a number with a minimum of 1, 2 or 3 digits, filled to the left with zeros if necessary. When a counter is included in the user format it is set to 0, or to a specified number (up to 7 digits) enclosed in brackets: #(n), ##(n) or ###(n). Also 2 new items appear on the right- click menu - "Increment #", which manually increases the counter by 1, and "Counter Reset", which resets the counter to 0 or n; the counter is also reset at startup and at midnight. If you change the user format to include a counter, and have been using a counter previously, you will be asked if you want to reset the counter or retain the previous value. The counter function is useful for users who wish to "date stamp" files or messages. For example, < yyMMdd##'.doc' > will give "96062200.doc", "96062201.doc", "96062202" and so on. The counter can be specified in the form +, ++, +++, +(n), ++(n) or +++(n). This operates in a similar way, except the counter is incremented automatically after each time a user date is copied or inserted (the "Increment #" menu item does not appear). For example: < 'E-mail '+(1)', sent 'd MMM yy' at 'HH':'mm > will give "E-mail 1, sent 24 Jun 96 at 14:26", "E-mail 2, sent 24 Jun 96 at 14:43" and so on. If your user format specifies both an automatic counter (+) and a manual counter(#), TrayDay will ask if you want the automatic counter to be reset every time the manual counter is incremented (by selecting "Increment #"). This gives the possibility of using for example < #(1)'-'+++ >, which will automatically give "1-000", "1-001", "1-002" etc, then on selecting "Increment #": "2-000", "2-001", "2-002" etc. Click the arrow at the right of the User Format box in the Options dialog to find a list of your ten most recent user formats. You could even use this to store stock text items or phrases - each format can have up to 255 characters. [If a user format does not give the result you expect, the first thing to check is that any text is correctly surrounded by single quotation marks - otherwise letters such s, m, h, d etc will be interpreted as date or time format characters.] *** This program requires Windows 95. *** *** When a date is being inserted (typed) into an application, you can stop it by clicking the TrayDay icon. *** *** Users with double or multi-byte character sets such as Japanese should note that the insert function operates differently - for technical reasons it uses the Clipboard to copy then paste the date, thus deleting any information already on the Clipboard. For other users clipboard information is preserved, as the insert function simulates keyboard input - but note that only characters which can be typed directly from the keyboard will appear; use Copy Date and then Ctrl-V to paste, if you require other characters in your text. *** TO INSTALL: Copy TrayDay.exe and this readme.txt to a new folder; for convenience you could call this folder "TrayDay". To run, double-click TrayDay.exe. To set TrayDay to run at startup create a shortcut for it in your StartUp folder. (Hint: Using the Explorer, right click and drag TrayDay.exe; drop into the StartUp folder; choose "Create Shortcut Here" from the popup menu.) TO REGISTER: TrayDay is a shareware program. If you like TrayDay and wish to use it for longer than 28 days, you should register; this will also enable the "shift icon" function mentioned above. Registration costs 10 UK Pounds (sterling) or 15 US dollars. Online registration by credit card (through sw-reg.com) should be available now. Check the following World-Wide-Web page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MJM_Software/trayreg.htm You can also register via Compuserve; GO SWREG and quote ref: 11021. Alternatively send 10 UK Pounds (sterling) or 15 US dollars, or the equivalent in other major currencies, as a cheque (check) payable to Martin McKean. Include with the payment your name, address, and e-mail address (if applicable). Mail payments to the following address: Martin McKean 3 Johnsburn Road BALERNO Edinburgh EH14 7DN United Kingdom Whatever way you choose to register, upon receiving payment, a registration code will be sent or e-mailed to you. FOR SUPPORT, FEEDBACK and FURTHER INFORMATION: Visit the MJM Software home page on the World-Wide-Web: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MJM_Software/ Or e-mail the author at: martin@mckean.demon.co.uk or Compuserve 101351,2115. Versions in French, German and Italian are available; follow links on the above WWW page to download. Other languages may follow. DISTRIBUTION: Distribute the unregistered version freely, but please make sure that TrayDay.exe and the readme.txt are kept together - preferably in the original .zip file. CREDITS: Special thanks to Jeremy at RTV Software for advice and testing. DISCLAIMER: Martin McKean and MJM Software take no responsibility for any damage to goods or lives through misuse of this program. This program has been tested to be free of bugs to the best of our capabilities. We disclaim any responsibility for any damage your computer or your data may incur through the use of this program. Martin McKean MJM Software Copyright 1996 -------------- VERSION HISTORY: 5.0 Added choice of date icons 5.0a Corrected a problem some users (with 256 color display or less) experienced with the color of the help box 5.0b Enhanced non-English language support 5.1 Changed the way insert date works: from copying to and pasting from the clipboard, to simulating keyboard input (applies only to single byte character set languages). This means that the user's clipboard data is preserved, and insert date now functions in dialog boxes and wherever keyboard input might be expected. Added choice of delay for "Shift Icon After Startup"; some users had reported that 1 minute was not long enough. Enhanced right-click menu and Options dialog box. Added counter, time, new line and tab options to user format. Added combo box to give recently used user formats. Altered Options Help box to reflect these changes.