Copyright: ® 1993,1994,1995 Charles Williams


The Author
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  About The Author, and MY Copyright

The Author is a 16 year old (26/11/95) boy from the UK. A Visual Basic programmer by nature, a lover of the simple things in life, Charles decided to create Swiss Penknife partly because the icon in PROGMAN.EXE caught his eye, and partly because he needed a utility that was the perfect Shell. The end result is seven month's work, from various sources and mutations of the original "System Monitor", packed full of features. The Author is proud of it, and has tested it on a variety of systems and versions of Windows. He thanks his disgruntled friends and parents for their support, Microsoft for creating Visual Basic 3.0, and PC Format for putting it on their CoverDisc. Oh yes, and CompuServe for the fantastic resources.

Swiss Penknife was written in Visual Basic 3.0 and requires VBRUN300.DLL, as well as various extensions in the murky guise of .VBXs. THREED.VBX, PICCLIP.VBX, PUSH.VBX, CMDIALOG.VBX and MCI.VBX. The source code is available for viewing and improving, with the author's permission, but you can use bits of it for your own programs.

The future? A C++ version, maybe. Support for other CD-Rom based media, animations and suchlike. Faster execution, tidier code, better help file, ability to make other programs stay on top? We'll see!

 Thanks go to:

J.Braeuchi for the Caption Time code,

Microsoft for the great, underestimated programming language Visual Basic.

CompuServe for being brilliant, useable and there.

The MSBASIC forum on CompuServe for the wide range of source code, help and tips.

Karl Peterson for the INIFILE.BAS stuff. Great, and just what I needed! Thanks.

All the people who answered my enquiries and queries about the worst programming problems imaginable.

Thanks to my testers:

Timothy Wintle,

Mark Thomas,

Anthony Wright,

Biddulph High School Network,

Anyone who tries this out...namely YOU!

PC Format and Future Publishing for great magazines, laughs and information.

Creative Labs, Epson, Intel, Microsoft again, Microlin, CompuServe

And special thanks to: My Mum for feeding me, talking to me and asking good questions.

My Dad, for the computer, memory, hard drive, printer, sound card, CD-Rom drive e.t.c..., inspiration, criticism and teaching me essential aspects of life.

My brothers and sister for staying away from the computer.

The Teachers at Biddulph High School, like Mr.Hands and Mr.Bloor.

Tiffanie.

 No Thanks:

Some duff code from MS BASIC.

The joker who encrypted their code for Tooltips with a password, and FORGOT TO TELL ME THAT IT WAS PASSWORDED! Thanks for nothing, guys. I got by without you.

Wayne “Prat” Jennings

Thanks and No Thanks simultaneosly:

Carl Machin, Peter Moss, Christopher “Eckemail” Exon and Andrew Spencer a.k.a the Computing Community.

Clare Monaghan for not speaking to me for three months. <G>

Copyright

Swiss Penknife is Freeware, but the source code has been slaved over for months. The author does not think it fair to just throw the source code into the fray. Instead, the code is provided so that budding programmers can see what a 16 year old accomplished after learning Visual Basic for a year and a half. Please use the code, and some modules are designed to be just placed in to the code. Improvements must be suggested to the author, not coded and recompiled. Even so, please give credit where credit is due. If you do recompile the code to your needs, give a poor old 16 year old some credit for his hard work!

I would really love to re write Swiss Penknife in C++. If you know how to do this, please PLEASE write or E-Mail me with the info and sample code perhaps, so that I can learn C++ easier. I have Visual C++ 1.5. If you use the code, mention the author in the program, maybe in the credits. Where I have used other people’s code, I have given them credit. Please treat me the same.

Finally, I must sincerely apologise for any breaches of copyright I have inadvertantly caused. If I have omitted any names or credit, it is in error and not on purpose. If you feel that I have not given you credit for any of your code, write and tell me. I will apologise profusely.

This Windows Help file was written by Charles Williams

using Help Builder Version 1.07 and refers to:

Swiss Penknife Version 1.01 / 29/11/95

Copyright 1995 C.Williams

 Tutorial

 Contents

P.S.:

Money is accepted heartly if you want to make a donation to the Mega-HiFi Fund, University Fund or the Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE 32 Fund. Job offers will be considered if they are near to me.

P.P.S Do you want a volume control adding? Just a suggestion...Send any more suggestions to:

Send any Bug Reports, comments, suggestions (and money) to:

Charles Williams

Wellhouse Farm,

Rudyard Road,

Biddulph Moor

STOKE-ON-TRENT

Staffordshire

ST8 7JW

United Kingdom

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Internet Email: 100334.677@compuserve.com


Configuring Swiss Penknife
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 Configuring Swiss Penknife

System Requirements:

Important:

Swiss Penknife can play CD Audio, sounds, midi music and other Multimedia Files as long as they are installed on your system. Swiss Penknife automatically disabled features that your computer does not support.

Swiss Penknife V1.1  requires the following software and hardware:

Minimum hardware requirements: An Intel486™ SX 25-MHz processor-based PC with 4 megabytes of RAM, a VGA display adapter and a Mouse.

Software Requirements: MS-DOS* and Microsoft Windows 3.1 or above.

Files: Total: 257kb of program and readme files, 335kb of source code,  87.4kb of bitmap resources, 143kb of Setup files, making 822.4 kb in total.

CMDIALOG.VBX	Common Dialogs VB Extension

THREED.VBX	Three Dimensional Controls VB Extension

KEYSTAT.VBX	Key Status Indicator VB Extension

MCI.VBX	Multimedia Common Interface VB Extension

PUSH.VBX	Custom Push Button Interface VB Extension

PENKNIFE.EXE	Swiss Penknife Executable

PENKNIFE.WRI	Swiss Penknife Information and Help Write file. (3.1 Format)

PENKNIFE.INI	Swiss Penknife Initialisation File

PENKNIFE.HLP	Help File

Installation Instructions:

Setup

1.Create a directory on the destination drive, called PENKNIFE or SWISS. Copy the files in the ROOT directory to that directory. Then create a directory called SOURCE in the PENKNIFE, or SWISS directory and copy all the files in the SOURCE directory in the source drive to the newly created directory. Finally, copy the VBX’s to the WINDOWSsystem directory. You can create an icon for Swiss Penknife, see the Windows documentation, or you can make Swiss Penknife in to your shell, so it will load instead of Program Manager. To do this, edit WIN.INI (backing it up first) and change the line Shell=progman.exe to Shell=d:.exe and restart Windows. If a different shell is there, you can still replace it with Swiss Penknife.

2.The program is ready to run straight from installation. It uses existing Windows components, and the only additions it makes are the VBX’s and an initialisation file.

To Start

Double click on Penknife.exe, or its icon in Program manager, or load using the command line d:.exe where d: is the drive, and is the directory.

The Info Toolbar should show for a second, and then System Toolbar should appear. The System Toolbar shows the System, GDI and User memory and the NUM, CAPS, SCROLL and INS indicators.

To change toolbars, click on the button on the far right of the Toolbar. If you are at all unsure of the purpose of a button, hold the mouse pointer over the button for a few seconds and a ToolTip should appear. This should make your life slightly easier. As far as possible, tooltips should make sense, and if they don’t, or  you could improve them, write to the author at the stated address.

To activate any of the features stated, either switch to the Info Toolbar and press the respective button. (Hold mousepointer over the button to find out what it does), or press the Access Menu button and explore the menu. Selecting About shows the About Box.

Setup is situated on the Info Toolbar.

 (Windows 95 screenshot)

Swiss Penknife is extremely easy to configure. The program contains its own Setup dialog which concerns itself with the smaller features of the program. Separately set up is the Caption Time feature which has another small dialog. The restrictions are handled manually by editing the INI file.

Setup

The Setup dialog (uppermost on above diagram) has five options which control the small features of Swiss Penknife. They are saved in the INI file when Swiss Penknife exits, but most of them take immediate effect, like the Tooltips, for example. The five options are:

Save Settings on Exit: Decides whether or not Swiss Penknife saves the settings before exiting. This will take effect on exit. Selecting this option and disabling it will dim out and disable the components below that depend on saving the settings on exit. If the settings are not saved, the previous settings will be loaded instead.

Enable Tooltips: Tooltips are the small boxes that appear above buttons and controls with a little bit of explanatory text. They are the latest programing craze, proving to be very popular and useful. This takes immediate effect.

Save Position: Decides whether or not to save the position information so that Swiss Penknife loads exactly as you last left it when you quit. If this is disabled, Swiss Penknife will load up the default Info Toolbar. This will take effect when Swiss Penknife closes.

Stay On Top: As explained in the INI File section, enabled, this option keeps Swiss Penknife floating above other windows that are not On Top. This is useful to keep Swiss Penknife in view all the time. This will take effect immediately.

Save Alarms: This option makes sure that the alarms are saved when Swiss Penknife exits, otherwise thechanges will be lost and the previous settings loaded instead. Disable this option if you wish to keep the same alarms set all the time. This option will only affect alarms on exit.

Caption Time

The Caption Time dialog allows you to configure the Caption Time to your liking. It is very simple to use and only has two option in effect. The original code for this feature was written by J. Braeuchi, modified by myself for Swiss Penknife. (My thanks to Mr Braeuchi for excellent code and the permission to use it!) Er, anyway, the effects of all the options are immediate, and are as follows:

(Clock Position) On the Left: Align the current time on the LEFT of the caption, or

(Clock Position) On the Right: Align the current time on the RIGHT of the caption. (The two are mutually exclusive and cannot be selected simultaneously.)

Enabled: Enabling this option activates the timer that controls the Caption Time. The effect is immediate and the Clock Position set previously will also take effect. The current time is displayed in the dialog caption so that you can see the effects. Disabling this feature disables the Clock Position option and stops the timer.

For information on configuring Swiss Penknife using the INI file, see Using the INI File.

 Setting the Alarms

The Alarms are set up by entering the Alarm Setup Dialog. This dialog briefly informs you on entering your alarm times and messages. As you can see, there are two alarms, each with an independant time and message. Simply enter your message and alarm for each, or either, alarm and press enter to exit. If you want to clear an alarm, delete the time. You can also delete the message, but it does not affect the alarm. If you want to clear both, repeat the above twice, once for each alarm, or go to the menu, select Accessories, then Alarms, then Clear Alarms. This will clear them for you, and they will stay cleared if the changes are saved.

When an alarm goes off, a message box appears and the computer bleeps. The message box will contain the time that the alarm was set to go off, the current time, and the message. Pressing Enter, or clicking OK, will accept the message box and it will not appear until the next time. If an alarm is set when Swiss Penknife starts up, the alarm will go off on startup as a reminder.

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Using the INI file

 Toolbars

 Utilities

 The Interface

 Shortcut Keys and Tips

 Contents


Contents
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 Swiss Penknife Help Index

About Swiss Penknife

General

Swiss Penknife has been tested on 486SX and DX2 systems, various Pentium systems and a 486SX network. The purpose of distributing Swiss Penknife extensively as Freeware is to give it a chance to be tested on more systems, and to provide a service, for free, that is unavailable as far as the author knows. The Visual Basic source code is also freeware, so that more people can use the code for their own applications.

Swiss Penknife began as ‘Task Monitor’, a lowly utility that monitored system memory and key status. Task Monitor grew to add a prehistoric Task Manager toolbar, and became System Monitor, then System Toolbar to avoid name conflicts with another program.

System Toolbar was a beleagured AS-Level project that was written in VB over a few months by an inexperienced 16 year-old. (It was started when he was 15, finished when he was 16.) Then, after finishing G.C.S.E’s and the AS level, System Toolbar was completely rewritten and formed Version 1 of Swiss Penknife as its purpose became clear.

There are many programs that accomplish many of the small, niggling tasks that have not been covered by the programmers of Windows. The problem with them all is that they take up too much memory when loaded, and they sometimes conflict. Also, there are still some utilities that have not been programmed properly.

Hence the advent of Swiss Penknife, with its purpose to be the Swiss Penknife of computing.

How To...

 Tutorial

 Configuring Swiss Penknife

 Using the INI file

Contents

 Toolbars

 Utilities

 The Interface

 Shortcut Keys and Tips

 Setup

 The Author


The Interface
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 The Interface

From left to right and top to bottom: Calculator, Alarms, unusued, Program Manager, unused, Task Manager, CD Player Toolbar, Character Map, unused, File Manager, System Editor, Window Information, Clipboard, Run Program, Help, Activate Screensaver, System Toolbar, Write, System Information, Open/Close Media, unused, unused, Caption Time, Close Swiss Penknife, Access Menu, Notepad, unused, Shutdown Windows, Time Toolbar, Task Manager Toolbar.

The Interface of Swiss Penknife is easy to use, drawing on the Windows 95 interface for support. Above are typical buttons you will find on exploring the features of Swiss Penknife. To activate the options they contain, press the button once. It will depress just like a normal Windows button.

 The 'X' button.

To use Swiss Penknife to its maximum potential you must learn to use the interface properly. It is very simple and straightforward, a simple point and click windows system, with options enabled and disabled automatically. When you first use Swiss Penknife you will most likely be faced with the Info Toolbar which has a row of buttons, then the logo and the name of the program. On the far left there is a button with an X on it, this button closes Swiss Penknife down and saves the settings, of that option is enabled. On the far right, a second button has a picture on it that resembles a menu. Click this button and observe the menu that pops up with various options. Here you can change the toolbar and use options. To learn how to do this, see the Quick Tutorial.

The buttons are easy to distinguish because they have descriptive bitmaps on them. If you are unsure what a button does, hold the mouse pointer over it for a few seconds. If Tooltips are enabled, a small yellow box should appear above the button with a description. The Tooltips also work for other features such as the combo boxes and the Media Player element. IF you are unsure, hold your mousepointer above the element for a few seconds!

 The only button that is not obvious! (According to my testers.) This button is the Window Commands button. Okay? Remember it!

 The Menu

The Menu is one of the most important aspects of Swiss Penknife. The button on the far right controls this, and on the menu are all the available options. It is very easy to get to grips with, and though the concept may be a little alien at first, you will be surprised at how quickly you can navigate through Swiss Penknife. It takes very little effort to press a button and click an option. All the options are placed with obvious names, and some are grouped into submenus that are accessed by moving over an option with a little arrow on the right of it.

Some of the options from the menu are available on the toolbar itself, depending on which toolbar is active. The Info Toolbar itself has access to all other toolbars and utilities. One feature which is on the menu is the Window Commands menu which pops up when you press the respective button on the Task Manager Toolbar. The popup menu is derived from the main menu, as the source code shows.

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Toolbars

 Utilities

 Shortcut Keys and Tips

 Setup

 Contents


Using the INI Files
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 Using the INI File

Swiss Penknife has its own Initialisation file which it reads on startup and writes on exit. The INI file allows a lot of flexibility in customising Swiss Penknife, allowing you to restrict available features, store alarms and the settings that Swiss Penknife uses. The file itself is divided up into three sections. The first, Restrictions, allows you to individually disable features. An example is shown below: (If you have a colour monitor, Sections are shown in Red, Entries are shown in Dark Green, and Strings are shown in Blue.) To disable an option, change the String from 'True' to 'False', to enable it, change the String from 'False' to 'True'.

[Restrictions]

MainEnable=True	;System Toolbar

TaskEnable=True	;Task Manager Toolbar

TimeEnable=True	;Time Toolbar

InfoEnable=True	;Info Toolbar

CDPlEnable=False	;CD Player Toolbar

MediaEnable=True	;Media Toolbar

SysInfoEnable=True	;System Information

CaptionTimerEnable=True	;Caption Time

AlarmEnable=False	;Alarms

RunEnable=True	;Run/Program Launcher

WinfoEnable=True	;Window Info

ShutdnEnable=True	;Shutdown Menu

ProgsEnable=True	;Preset Programs

ScrnSaveEnable=True	;Screensaver Activate

The second Section controls the Alarms. Swiss Penknife overwrites values on exit here, if they are changed while the program is run. You can enter an alarm manually by typing a valid alarm in as a String. Both Alarm 1 and Alarm 2 can be configured this way. The messages can also be changed manually by typing in a suitable message for the required alarm. Message 1 refers to Alarm 1, and Message 2 refers to Alarm 2. Valid times are 12:00PM, 23:00 or 12:00AM, for example. Mixtures of 12 and 24hr times are not accepted. To erase an alarm time or message, just remove the String altogether.

[Alarms]

Alarm1=	;Alarm 1 Time

Message1=	;Alarm 1 Message

Alarm2=	;Alarm 2 Time

Message2=	;Alarm 2 Message

Swiss Penknife also records its own settings when it exits. Below are all the settings it records. Some of these settings are permanently disabled by the Restrictions section, in which case these settings are ignored. Most of these settings are created when you change a setting in Setup.

[Settings]

Toolbar=4	;Set which Toolbar appears on startup

ToolTips=True	;Tooltips (context sensitive popup help)

SaveSettingsOnExit=True	;Save settings on exit.

SavePos=True	;Save position and initial toolbar

AlarmSave=True	;Save alarms

Ontop=True	;*Make Swiss Penknife float on top.

AlarmEnable=True	;Enable Alarms

LeftAlign=False	;**Align time to left of window caption

* When Swiss Peknife is made to 'float on top', it stays above other windows all the time, unless they are also floating on top. This feature is useful as it makes sure that Swiss Penknife can be seen all the time.

** The Caption Time places the current time in the caption bar of the currently active window. This option means that it can be placed to the left or to the right of the caption. This option is set by the Caption Time Setup.

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Configuring Swiss Penknife

 Toolbars

 Contents


Shortcut Keys and Tips
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 Shortcut Keys and Tips

Shortcut Keys:

To use these shortcut keys, hold down Alt and press the letter that corresponds with the option you want. (If it does not work, switch to the indicated toolbar and try again.)

A: System Information 	(Info Toolbar)

B: Clipboard 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

C: Calculator 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

D: CD Player Toolbar 	(Info Toolbar)

E: Write 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

F: File Manager 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

G: Windows Shutdown 	(Info Toolbar)

H: Swiss Penknife Help 	(Info Toolbar)

I: Media Toolbar 	(Info Toolbar)

J: Character Map 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

K: Task Manager Toolbar 	(Info toolbar)

L: Time Toolbar 	(Info Toolbar)

M: Access Menu	(Any Toolbar)

N: Notepad 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

O: Open/Close Media 	(Media Toolbar)

P: Program Manager 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

Q: Window Information 	(Info Toolbar)

R: Run Program 	(Task Manager Toolbar or Info Toolbar)

S: System Editor 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

T: Task Manager 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

U: Set/Unset Alarms 	(Time Toolbar or Info Toolbar)

V: Activate Screen Saver 	(Info Toolbar)

W: Window Commands 	(Task Manager Toolbar)

X: Exit Swiss Penknife 	(Any Toolbar)

Y: System Toolbar 	(Info Toolbar)

Z: Caption Time Setup 	(Info Toolbar)

Known Problems with Swiss Penknife

The following software limitations are known to exist with this program:

 Occasionally, menus may appear when they should be disabled. Restarting Swiss Penknife usually sorts it out.

 Minimising Penknife using the Window command menu can result in a General Protection Fault. The solution is, as yet, unknown.

 The speed of Swiss Penknife is quite slow compared to programs written in C, C++ or Delphi. The author is, at the moment, trying to master C++.

 Using Windows at a resolution lower than 640 by 480 results in missing buttons and features. The best resolution to run Swiss Penknife at is 640 by 480, 16 colours minimum.

 Window List is not strictly a Task List, and should not be treated as such. Visual Basic cannot create a Task List, so the next best thing is a Window List. Some Windows may not respond as expected.

Tips:

 Install Swiss Penknife as your shell, replacing Program Manager. Shell has a lot more features and takes up less memory. If you loaded all the programs that accomplish features that Swiss Penknife has, you would see that Swiss Penknife occupies less memory. Also, Swiss Penknife can load Program Manager if needed, and has its own run command.

 Play a CD while you work, it really helps! The tempo influences your typing, so if you have some techno or dance, you find that you work quicker. Classical is not recommended, nor is Heavy Metal. I wrote this help file and Swiss Penknife listening to dance music.

 Use Task Manager Toolbar to get rid of troublesome programs that refuse to close down. Use 'Kill' if the program does not respond to 'Close'.

 Keep the Caption Time feature enabled. This feature displays the time in the caption of the currently active caption bar. You will never have to have 'Clock' loaded and cluttering your work space, nor will you have to look under lots of windows! It's there, right where you need it!

 Email me? (Naah, that's sad! Pathetic. Rubbish tip. Is it?) Well, how about a donation? Hmm...

 Enable Tooltips. They are useful, and soooo cool!

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Toolbars

 Utilities

 The Interface

 Setup

 Contents


Toolbars
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 Toolbars

System Toolbar:

 System, GDI and User Memory displays, simultaneously, and alarms if memory gets lower than 20% on any of them. System memory is the memory windows uses to pass messages and store the Master List. GDI (Graphics Device Interface) Memory is used to communicate with the Video adapter, store resources that are needed by the programs and Windows itself. User memory is where the program variables and temporary files are held, along with your work!

 NUM Lock, CAPS Lock, SCROLL Lock and INSERT key status display at the same time as the memory displays. They update when their respective key toggle changes. Especially useful is INSERT which affects many programs, but is only usually shown by word processors. There is no keyboard light for it either.

Task Toolbar:

 Window List and commands allows you to control hidden and visible windows satisfactorily, you can minimise and maximise windows that normally do not allow this and you can close windows with relative ease with two clicks of the left mouse button. A Kill button is provided for problematic programs, but can have adverse affects.

 Program launcher allows you to launch programs. There are nine preset programs ranging from System Editor to Clipboard. There is a program launcher dialog box too, to run programs that are not preset.

Time Toolbar:

 Continually updating panels show the current date and time, updating every second.

 There are two independant alarms that can be configured independantly. Each one displays a different message that you specify. The alarms are saved on exit, and activate once at startup.

Info Toolbar:

 Access to all the features quickly and easily at the click of a button. Change the toolbars, launch System Information, run a program, change the alarms, set up the caption timer, view Window Info.

 View the About Box or activate the screensaver. You can also shut Windows down, restart the computer, restart Windows, or exit Windows to run a DOS program. All the features work in Windows 3.1x and Windows 95.

CD Player Toolbar:

 Play a CD while working or displaying other information. Displays currently playing  track and the total number of tracks on the CD.

 Play any track by selecting its number from the combo box, skip controls that actually *work*! (I.E. no messing about, skip back skips to the previous track, and skip forward skips to the next track properly.)

Media Toolbar:

 Select a Multimedia file to play, according to the types of media installed on your system. Swiss Penknife is capable of playing AVI Video, MIDI files, WAVE Audio files and MultiMedia Movie (*.MMM) files.

 Swiss Penknife displays the currently loaded file name, and will automatically display AVI and MMM files in an external window.

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Utilities

 The Interface

 Shortcut Keys and Tips

 Setup

 Contents


Tutorial
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 Tutorial

You can position Swiss Penknife over this help file, or arrange the help file above it while you follow the tutorial.

Beginning Swiss Penknife:

First start Swiss Penknife, either by selecting and activating PENKNIFE.EXE in File Manager (or other file manager), selecting the Program Manager item if it exists, typing the path and the executable name in the Program Manager Run command or other command line program launcher.

When it loads, if it is the first time, the Info Toolbar will load first. This toolbar has buttons to switch to the other Toolbars, or utilities. To the far left there is a button marked X, and a button with a menu icon on it to the far right. (Depending on your screen resolution they could be directly adjacent to the toolbar, or miles away!) Now, first we will explore each toolbar in turn starting with the System Toolbar.

Press the second button on the left of the toolbar (the first of a group of five) and the toolbar should change to the System Toolbar. This toolbar will already display the memory and key status of your machine. The two buttons on the far left and far right of the toolbar should still be the X and the menu. Select the menu button, far right, and at the very top of the resultant menu the words 'System Toolbar' should be ticked or 'checked'. Now, select the text below that, still on the menu.

The toolbar should change to theTask Manager Toolbar now, and the text on the menu should be checked to indicate that. Clicking the combo box on the left will display all the windows that are visible or hidden in Windows. Select one, any one. The selected item will appear inside the box and the list will disappear. (You will notice that their appears to be two Swiss Penknives open, but they are one and the same thing.) Now press the [image] Window Commands button to the right of the combo box. A menu pops up with various self-explanitory options. Do not select any for now, you can experiment in your own time.

Go through each toolbar in turn by selecting the item on the menu. If you have a CD-Rom drive, the CD Player Toolbar option should be enabled, if Windows has CD Playing drivers. You will see that if it is enabled, it will have already loaded the details of the CD inside, if their is one. If there is no CD inside, put one in and observe the loading. Press play to play and stop to stop. The controls are like any CD Player around. The Tracks List allows you to select any track and play from that track onwards. Stop the CD and select the number 2 on the Tracks List (if their is one). The CD will begin to play from that track. Very good. Let's keep that excellent music playing while we continue.

Media Toolbar is very similar, allowing you to only select the Multimedia that your machine supports. If there is any media available, find one and observe it. The file name appears in green beside the controls. Video and Movies are played in a separate window, music and sound effects will conflict horribly with the CD music, or not as the case may be!

Familiarise yourself with the controls. You should begin to feel at home with them, try clicking buttons and trying the Tooltips out. Finally click the X button to see what happens. Select 'No' and we will proceed to the Utilities.

The Utilities:

Select the menu button and move your mouse pointer over to the 'Accessories' option. Select the 'System Information' option when it appears. (If not, click, it will appear eventually.) System Information pops up and floats above other windows, like Swiss Penknife itself. This is your system. All the details Windows can provide, useless and useful. Oh, Pentiums look like 486's unfortunately, but that is Windows 3.1's fault! Select 'Next' and look at the other information. Close the window. Now, go back into the Accessories menu option and select Caption Time, examine with that, play with the options a little, watch the results in the caption bar, get bored and close that too. That dialog was 'Modal' so you were restricted to closing it before continuing.

Explore away. Window Information updates itself as you move the mouse pointer around. Look at all the information about any program you move the pointer over. I bet you did not know that! (Unless you programmed it!) Freeze display is best accessed by the shortcut key as the display will update and tell you about Window Information if you try to click it. Select the Alarms to set them. Unfortunately you can only test them when they actually go off, so set times that are only a few minutes from now. Midnight tends to bodge up, but who stays up until then anyway!? (Yeah, yeah, I'll fix it.) A message box will announce your alarm with a beep.

Well, that is the tutorial. Enjoy Swiss Penknife! (Moral and psychological support is available from the author. <g>)

Other Topics

(Advanced Topics)

 Configuring Swiss Penknife

 Using the INI file

Contents


Utilities
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 Utilities

System Information:

 Searches your system and uses Windows to inform you approximately what processor you have got, what drivers you have installed, total memory (virtual, base and extended added together), video resolution and colours in the default palette.

 Switches between Hardware and Software information and General Information, including such *useless* information as the double-click time, left/right set mouse buttons, time since Windows started in milliseconds, and so on.

Caption Time:

 Displays the current time in the caption bar of the active window. (Updates the last-activated window if the active window is Swiss Penknife)

 Displays the time to the left, or to the right of the caption.

Alarms:

 Two independant alarms, with independant times and messages.

 Time validation, and reminders of the alarms at startup.

Setup:

 Switch the Tooltips, alarms, save settings, toolbar mode, on top and Caption Time settings on and off.

 Saves all settings on exit in the PENKNIFE.INI initialisation file.

Initialisation file:

 Save the Alarms, settings and modes permamently, but edit them in a text editor.

 Restrict the toolbars that can be displayed, restrict the use of the various settings and features. Especially useful to restrict some settings on networks.

Miscellaneous:

 Tooltips (not easy to program, source code included for your delectation).

 Toolbar format at bottom of screen. Packed with information, but out of sight. The toolbar is as tall as the Windows 95 toolbar, so as to comply fully with Windows 95 visually, while retaining a nice Windows 3.1 look too.

 On Top feature. Swiss Penknife floats above other windows, and stays on top all the time. It can be disabled if required, using Setup.

 Current time is displayed by Swiss Penknife when the program is minimised.

Other Topics

 Tutorial

 Toolbars

 The Interface

 Shortcut Keys and Tips

 Setup

 Contents