Copyright: Copyright 1993 by David Gerton


The Communicator Badge

Contents

Welcome to StarBar - The Best Little App a Trekkie ever had....

Click on the bar in the place where you want more information...

Or choose one of the following:

Registering StarBar

Display Panel

Control Panel

Displaying System Resources

Staying Ontop

Attaching Sounds to Events

DDE Linking


The Communicator Badge

The Communicator/Badge

The communicator/badge (combadge) has two functions:  clicking the left button on the badge will turn StarBar into an icon, while right clicking the badge will bring up the Main Control Panel.

A sound can be attached to the combadge in the Main Control Panel so that clicking either of the mouse buttons will produce a sound.  See Attaching Sounds to Events.


Main Display Panel

The Main Display Panel can provide a variety of information:

Date and Time in Standard American Format

Date and Time in Military 24 hour Format

Current Stardate

Current TNG Stardate

Simply click on the time to change the display mode.  One mode will automatically cycle through all display modes.

Beside the Time and Date functions, StarBar can be configured to display information about the available system resources.  It can give this information in two ways, as a percentage attached to the end of the date/time and as a graph.  See Displaying System Resources.

StarBar, whether minimized or in bar-mode, can be made to "float" on top of other applications.  See Staying Ontop.   Simply check the "Stay On Top" box in the Main Control Panel.

There are several keyboard commands you can use while StarBar is active:

Any of the arrow keys may be used to move the bar around the screen.

The F1 key will bring up help (this file).

And the F2 will request Jean Luc Picard to read you the current Stardate (next version).


Displaying System Resources

StarBar can be made to display the amount of available system resources.  If you choose to use the graph, it will turn from Cyan to Bright Red if your system resources begin to run down (about 25% remaining).  In the event that your resources fall below 20% , StarBar will quietly shut down to make more resources available.

To display the system resources, open the Main Control Panel and check the "Free Resources" box.  When this box is checked, another box is visible, the "Bar Graph" check box.  Check this box if you want StarBar to display the system resources graphically as well as numerically.


Self Destruct Sequence

Self Destruct Box

This tool offers an safe and easy way to:  exit Windows, restart Windows, or reboot your PC.  These three functions require a triple mouse click on the box.  With each click, the box will change from Yellow to Red to let you know how close to an exit you are.  The way you perform the third and final  click determines what kind of a shutdown you want:

To Exit Windows and go back to DOS, left click.

To Restart Windows, right click.

To Reboot your PC, hold shift-left click.

These three events can have separate sounds attached to them.  See Attaching Sounds to Events.

All three methods will check with all other active applications to make sure your work is saved.  You will have the option of saving any unsaved work before the exit takes place.

To abort a self-destruct sequence, simply click somewhere else on the bar or press any key.  The color of the box will go back to gray to let you know it has been aborted.


Main Control Panel

You can get to the Main Control Panel by right clicking on the combadge.  It offers a variety of functions including configuration of StarBar, sound set-up for WAV support, control over the system resource display, StarBar registration, DDE link initiation, and a Stardate to Julian and back conversion calculator (see Registering StarBar).

Click one of the following to learn more:

Registering StarBar

Attaching Sounds to Events

Displaying System Resources

Staying Ontop

DDE Linking


Staying On Top

StarBar, whether minimized or in bar-mode, can be made to "float" on top of other applications.   Simply check the "Stay On Top" box in the Main Control Panel and StarBar will remain visible at all times (but not the focus, so you can keep working).  To be even more helpful, StarBar was made small enough to fit on the title bar.  You can either drag it there with the mouse, or use the arrow keys to move it.


Attaching Sounds

If you have a PC with multimedia support, you're in for a real treat!  You can use the Main Control Panel to make sounds play when certain events occur, such as the top of the hour chime, clicking the combadge, and so on.  Here's how:

1.	Open the Main Control Panel by right clicking on the combadge.

2.	Choose an event from the event list.

3.	Click the speaker button.  This will bring up the WAV Selector.

4.	You may choose a specific sound to play when the event occurs

5.	Or you may choose a directory and click the Random WAV check box.  This will make StarBar pick one of the sounds in that directory randomly when that event occurs.

6.	Click the Okay button and you're ready!

The WAV Selector has a sound check button that will play the sound so you may decide if its the one you want.  You may also press Cancel to save the previous sound selected for that event (if any).


DDE Links

StarBar can be made to establish a live DDE Link in other applications.  This will allow you to copy the current Stardate, time, or system resource usage into a spreadsheet, word processor, or just about anything.

To establish a DDE Link, go to the Main Control Panel by right clicking on the combadge.  Click the button with the chain links on it.  Go to your application and paste the link there.  This is done differently for each application but usually there is a "Paste Link" item in the Edit Menu.

A sound can be attached to the Link Button.  See Attaching Sounds to Events.

Note:  Do not try this with Windows Write since it supports only DDE linking of bitmap graphic images.


Registering StarBar

Registering StarBar does several things: it supports the Shareware concept keeping great applications like StarBar on the market and cheap; it improves your karma; it gets rid of those annoying dialog boxes; and it allows you to use the Stardate to Julian calculator (see Main Control Panel).

Send $8 U.S. funds to:

David Gerton

Ambient Systems

1330 S.W. 3rd Avenue

Suite 413

Portland, Oregon 97201-6635

You will receive a User ID and Serial number to enter in the Main Control Panel that will give you the above mentioned advantages.  This will also make you a registered user of future StarBar releases.

Former StarBar registrants will have noticed that old registration information does not work on this version.  A hack was discovered and so an new (and more complicated) formula had to be developed.  Please apply to the above address for a new User ID and Serial number or contact David Gerton on one of the electronic services displayed in the Main Control Panel -- no charge.


DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) allows any DDE compliant application to share information with any other DDE compliant application.  All applications worth their salt fit in this category.


WAV (Windows Audio something) is a sound file format.  They can be played through your sound card, such as a SB, AL, PAS, etc. (They'll have to register to get more than their initials in here.)  WAV files can be found just about any electronic information service (such as AOL, CS, W), your local bulletin boards, and even in stores (such as EH, SE, and so forth).


To Minimize an application is to turn it into an icon.  This does not turn it off, it's still working -- just out of the way.  To Restore an application is to bring it back from an icon (by double clicking the icon).


TNG Synchronization displays the Stardate that Picard announces at the beginning of first run shows.  Do to breaks in the season it can get off.  It's usually most accurate at the beginning of the season.  You can use the Stardate to Julian calculator to find the exact date of the show.


Windows, despite advanced memory management, is confined to using only 64K of RAM to keep track of it's graphical resources.  This is because of limitation of DOS, not Windows.  When this memory gets low, the system begins to bog down.  If it gets too low, it loses track and will behave strangely.


Live long and prosper, Babe!

Special thanks to my beta testers:

CJ Ferry, Mike Rybak, Peter Savas, Henry Van Bogaert,

Alan Grobey, and Kirby Fling.


The Proceed Button saves the changes you've made and hides the Control Panel.


The Shutdown Button closes StarBar but leaves Windows running.


The Help Button gets this.