Configuring Desktoplet

You can change several options that affect the behavior of Desktoplet window by right-clicking on its icon in the taskbar and choosing the commans on the Options menu displayed:

The following options are available:

• Auto-hide

  Select this option if you want the Desktoplet window to automatically disappear after you select a desktop item to open or click away from it with the mouse. If, however, you want the window to remain on the screen after you use it, clear this option. In the latter case, you will need close the Desktoplet window manually, by clicking on the X button in its title bar, or by pressing the Escape key.

• Keep on top of other windows

  Select this option if you want the Desktoplet window to remain above all other windows. (Note that this option has effect only if the Auto-hide option above is cleared.)

• Show taskbar button

  Select this option if you want a separate button to appear on the taskbar when the Desktoplet window is displayed. You may want to select this option if you have selected the Auto-hide option above, and you also want to be able to use the Alt+Tab key to navigate to the Desktoplet window. If you clear the Show taskbar button option, then Desktoplet window will not appear in the Alt-Tab window list.

• Show primary display only

  (This option appears only if your desktop expands to more than one display). Select this option if you want Desktoplet to show the contents of the primary display only. If you would rather it display the whole desktop area, clear this option.

You can also choose the More options command to display the Desktoplet Properties widndow that lets you customize other aspects of the the behavior and appearance of Desktoplet:

Remember that if you make changes to the properties, you must press the OK or Apply button in order for them to take effect!

This dialog box contains the following areas:

• Taskbar icon

  Use this area to choose the icon that you want Desktoplet to display in the taskbar. (Note that this option does not change the icons of the shortcuts to Desktoplet that you might have on your desktop or on the Start menu. To change such an icon, right-click on the shortcut and select the Properties command from the shortcut menu).

• Display the icon at Windows startup

  Select this option to automatically display the Desktoplet taskbar icon every time you start Windows (This is the recommended option). You can also select whether the icon should be displayed for the current user account only (that is, the account with the login name and password you used to start the current Windows session), or for all user accounts of your computer. Note that the For all users option supercedes the For the current user option.

• Hot key

  Select this option if want to be able to open the Desktoplet window by pressing a key combination of your choice.

• Window background

  This option lets you specify how the background of Desktoplet should be painted:

  • Color

    Select this option to paint the background of the window with a single color. To change the color, click on the colored bar with the mouse and select the color you prefer. You can also select the gradient options, to make the color gradually change to a different color, horizontally (from left to right) or vertically (from top to bottom). You can also use the Selection area to change the color of the rectangle that appears around the selected items.

  • Image

    Select this option to display an image from a file that you have on your hard disk. (To browse for the image file, click on the ellipsis button). Note that the supported graphics formats depend on your version of Windows. Basically, if your version of Internet Explorer can display a graphics file, you can use it as a background image for Desktoplet, too.

• Window border

  This option lets you select the kind of the border you want to be displayed around the Desktoplet window.

• Window margins

  These options allow you to specify extra amounts by which to increase the size of Desktoplet window (measured in pixels). You may find this useful if you want to display the background image which proportions are different from those of Desktoplet. In such a case, you can increase the margins to make the proportions of the Desktoplet window to match the proportions of the graphics image. Note that you can determine the current size of Desktoplet by right-clicking on its title bar and choosing the Show window size command from the menu.

---

Copyright © 2008, WinAbility® Software Corporation. All rights reserved.