Success Story of Tobiel Sayre:

Optimizing daily procedures with Macros, Position and size your window for mouse-based Macros

Review info: Reviewer: Tobiel Sayre Residence: Frankfurt, Germany Published Date: May 19, 2005 Actual Window Manager: Actual Window Manager: Home Page Download Now! Articles

Where did you find the program?

I found it on http://www.toejumper.net/rescue3/sharedisk.htm, a site full of advanced utilities for all kind of things that are free or affordable and of great use for Windows XP users.

Like success story writer Mathews, I was also googling for tray minimizers. However, I was already using 2 other programs for this, one of which was cheap and one was free. Yet, I'm a guy who likes to look into several leading or possible solutions to a current problem before settling with a given issue, even if I find myself registering a program or two in the long run, hoping I can find something above average or even what I think is currently the best and will last a bit longer when the other applics interacting with it are updated on my computer.

Although toe jumper net only listed Actual Title Buttons, that made me commence a free trial of Actual Title Buttons, which beat my other managers and even supplemented them, so I could work with all 3 of them at once.

Then, when I tried to register Title Buttons, on that evening I was so awkward when moving around the Shareit! order form, at first I only managed to order the whole suite Actual Window Manager. Good thing I did though, inspite of the fact that, in the meantime I found out how to order just title buttons.

Actual Window Manager turned out to be the utmost in sublime managing of my windows, and you save a substantial amount by ordering all tools at once. The program, or programs, to be exact, are constantly updated and even custom taylored to the requests people can just post in their new forum's special subpage "forthcoming new feature requests". They've got an RSS feed, which adds up to their optional newsletter and automatically notifies you if something of your interest has been changed or developed including special offers etc. The forums are for everybody, not just users or registered users! Other users may solve your problem or answer your question free!

Michael T. of support@actualtools.com has responded numerous times to many E-mails and posts of mine in less than half a year, and this was not just a lot of work for both of us, but one hell of a lot of fun, and every day the results help me do so many things better I'm finally starting to write them down. I would like to encourage other users to do likewise. Users who translate, improve, or help the program or author with examples of the programs they apply Actual Tools to can count on quite rewarding experiences heading their way, even if they don't see a truck unloading golden bricks at their condo the very next day. Which is why they have special links for people willing to participate and may have a special offer every once & a while, plus they got offers for "normally" registered and new users as well.

See, in the past I was using, unlike Mr. Mathews, in fact, a screen that was basically to small, a 15inch Laptop was all I had. And in this case, you need a good window manager just as much as the lucky owner of several big screens like Mathews has to have. Because your task bar is always clogged up. The typical old IE browsers didn't support multi tabbing, and bingo - there you were. You already had 20 resident programs running that were visible in the task bar and then your browser messed up the rest or could only show you groups of open windows.

Success 1:

By minimizing almost anything you want, any specific WAY you want (to the tray, for example), you unclutter your task bar even on a small screen. Once you`re used to the features, of course you don't want to do without them on a large display either, as I can now see on a 19 inch screen externally hooked up to the lap top which is set as my current main monitor (the 19" display, not the laptop).

Success 2:

Crazy windows not progammable by means of XP OS or managing programs can be treated even if they don't accept a button.

2 examples show you what to do if windows STAY ON TOP against your will and don't support buttons:

A) The free DJ Mixer + streamrecording programs N 23 show a nice deck of two turntables with speed control for any MP3, playlist or audio/radio stream/URL. It's skinnable and doesn't burn up your RAM or spy on you like windows media player, if you configure it the right way.

But the turntable deck won't accept buttons. Just tell Actual Title Buttons to always show an icon in the system tray, click on the icon, and - wham! you've minimized a window the way you want even though it won't accept a button.

B) Registry Mechanic build 4.00 has an improved results window. But most of the time you're dealing with their stubborn SCANNING window which stays on top, is not transparent, and will not allow any window buttons. Actual Window Manager makes it transparent.

Actual Title Buttons is then instructed always to show an icon in the system tray. You click, you click again, it dis- and reappears without stopping the scan, and other things are on top and visible.

2 other window managers didn't manage to do this, or not as well at all.

An e-mail to PC Tools revealed they're not changing that window much either.

But why worry' Everything's working. Ain't that nifty'

Success 3:

Many important windows are so badly set up by Microsoft, you can't see crucial things without scrolling, especially using a small display. Now this can have dangerous results, because it's not always me clicking or typing away on a keyboard or mouse, no, its one of my beloved KEY TEXT macros making the mouse drag, double click, click or do all kinds of things, or an infrared device in my phone, or a bluetooth printer etc.

We're looking at no less than the Win XP system recovery and backup window, their SP2 security center window, their system preference windows etc. All of these are set to a ridiculous size which isn't changeable like a normal window.

Thus, scroll bars appear which mouse based macros detest and cause a lot of trouble when your theme or resolution is altered the least bit.

Actual Tools offers complete change of the window, even with custom buttons, change of alignment, size, anything, and, as of version 3.6, also shows you the exact size of the window before and after you resize it, POSITIONING it where u need it.

You can even make it ghost, click through the windows you made transparent, and activate something in a window several layers underneath this ornery window, plus the scroll bar is gone because the window appears in its full size, but not too big either. WOW! Even if the window changes it's size, Key text can also use screen coordinates related to the window in stead of the screen, and scrolling is over, and you can tell the window when to appear or not to at all (WINDOW PLACEMENT FEATURE, WINDOW ACTION MENU).

Success 4:

Balloon tips occasionally hide BEHIND the TASK BAR. Actual Tools makes the TASK BAR TRANSPARENT, and now you can read all the hidden balloon tips that shouldn't be there in the first place, and analyze what's happening in your system and eliminate the problem. So much for that!

Success 5:

Internet Explorer windows closed by mistake a bit to early by yourself, something that happens even when browsing multi-tabbed style, are now guarded by a little box coming up and asking you: Are you out of your mind' Do you REALLY think closing this window is a good move right now', if you add this feature in the custom window rule you made for this window, if you like.

You can always ACTIVATE or DEACTIVATE a rule instead of reprogramming the window completely each time around, so again, you save a lot of time. This window guarding safety question popup can be added in 2 different ways not just to IE Explorer, but any window, and is part of Window Guard, one of the six separately available tools of the Suite; so if you only need specific features, you don't have to pay for the rest, or can add it later on.

Also, you can ANALYZE, EVALUATE, and find out just what TYPE of window it is, and which OTHER WINDOW rules could be causing it's behavior, no matter whether the program, the operating system or the windows manager contains the rule. Far out, man! You need that for a lot of things, believe me.

But I'm not going to write 7 success reasons for each success story; it's more fun and faster to find out on your own. Sometimes I just roll up some windows, or make them GO TO BOTTOM, or STAY ON TOP, even without a button for this, if I like.

These things all seem to be downright elemantary basics, eh' Wrong, because if they go wrong the next 2 successes would elapse, and they ain't dat basic at all no mo'!

Success 6:

What used to be handled by 3 separate window managing programs simultaneously to make everything work out, is now substituted by 1 SOLE program that has to be TSR! Here I save RAM big style, and CPU as well! Which cuts down on hardware prices and speeds up the BUS.

Success 7:

Because these essential platforms are established, all 638 of my intricate MACROS, not to mention the other ones, assigned to programmable keys in my external keyboard do not go wrong very often, if they do, it's not because of the window manager, but because of still being in an early stage of development, plus troubleshooting's a cinch in comparison to having to separate several potential hazards in a macros program loop if 3 managers, a skinner, a sound assignment program and so forth are all working on the same window.

To get an idea of how ghastly an insufficient windows handling module can be, here's an example of what happens when I press only ONE key on my relabeled and reprogrammed keyboard:

Nice music is played, while the mouse calls up stardocks suite manager, changing the Cursor XP mouse scheme, which is superior to just a windows mouse scheme, changing 120 system icons, the boot screen and logon for the next start, the sounds, the screen saver, symetrix skin, beatnik clock, the clocks skin, config, and sounds.

Then the program holiday lights calls up its own theme adding animated gifs of nice girls and animals and deco to the wallpaper changer, which switches between a variety of active lake or misty mountain backgrounds or holiday settings on the desktop.

In this surrounding full of things I made the way I wanted (Logons, sounds, skins, cursors, bootscreens, animations, savers etc. all homemade), the program XP Clean gold starts only one of its many registry sub scans, because the mouse goes clicking around and calling up windows and so on, the PANDA Platinum antivirus security suite scans the computer for phishing, trojans, jokes etc, while Ad-Aware, in another specially selected skin from their site, scans for spyware.

While doing all of this, my favorite blackjack games appears automatically, so I can have some fun while these things are done, and also a Backup of Outlook Express and IE favorites only is operative in the background, by the way (program OE Backup version 3.30).

All of this only works because the KEY TEXT MACRO TRIGGERED MOUSE lands at the exact positions in windows resized and placed by Actual Window Manager, sometimes ghosted and minimized or sent to bottom or top.

Now I press a 2nd button, for the game only. All of the rest was done automatically, by means of touching only one hardware key, and no mouse with my own hand, and only 512 DDR RAM and a mere centrino laptop processing unit!

One entire page was necessary to describe everything one touch on a keyboard initiated!

Now troubleshoot a macro comparative to that WITHOUT a good window manager!

All of these successes enabled one big complex of achievements I CAN FORESEE. Without that much imagination, you'll be likelely to believe I CANNOT FORESEE just as many things that I spontaneously turn out to be using, that are also part of Actual Tools. (And of course there is more that I CAN foresee.)

Success 8:

I. e., there's a cute little window showing that my free SMART SURFER 3.0 is testing transfer speed of the cheapest, or fastest, or favorite provider it is intending to hook me up to when I connect to the internet by means of cable, let's say, at home.

Never had I expected this window to show any buttons belonging to my general window rule configuration meant for other windows. Realizing it showed SOME of my custom buttons, I tried blowing up it's size a bit, which worked also, but wasn't planned for at all. Now that it had space enough for doing so, it not only displayed SOME of the special buttons set up up in my general Actual Window Manager rule, but ALL of them! Here I am, realigning, changing program priorities and transparency values of a window neither meant for this by the program or me, in the beginning!

Amazing, yet unpredictable. Needless to say, there will always be new pleasant surprises like this you'll be making use of constantly your own way.

Which functions in our program Actual Window Manager do you use most?

• Tray minimizing
• Positioning
• Resizing
• Placing
• Aligning
• Trancperency
• Sending to bottom
• Making window stay om top
• Some ghosting
• constantly using different title buttons or menu contexts or preset rules for all of this.
• and some WINDOW GUARDING (Do you really want to close this window')

The reason I don't roll up that much is that some programs do that by themselves, such as N 23 recorder has it's own roll up window button.

Later I'll have more, but a forum get's more interesting if more different views, applications, tips and tricks by other users are added, so I'm not going to block up more space now. Maybe after some updates, or so.

In the meantime enjoy, and do tell us about your simplest or most complicated ways of using the program, anything! It helps and its so interesting! The simple items as well!

Best regard-s and lots of fun, yours Toby