Previous Next Chapter

Commodities Drawer

The Commodities drawer, illustrated in Figure 10-6, is in the Tools drawer and contains the Commodities Exchange programs. These programs monitor your keyboard and mouse input to the Amiga.

Figure 10-6.

Commodities Window

AutoPoint

Automatically activates the window under the pointer.

Blanker

Causes the screen to go blank if there has been no keyboard or mouse activity for a specified period of time.

ClickToFront

Lets you bring a window to the front of the screen by double-clicking in it.

CrossDOS

Controls text options for CrossDOS drives. See Chapter 11 for more information.

Exchange

Monitors and controls all the other Commodities programs.

FKey

Assigns special functions to keys.

MouseBlanker

Causes the mouse pointer to go blank when you are typing.

NoCapsLock

Temporarily disables the Caps Lock key.

Using Commodities Tool Types

All of the Commodities programs share a common Tool Type:

CX_PRIORITY=<n>

Assigns priorities to the Commodities Exchange programs.

All the programs are set to a default priority of 0. If you enter a Tool Type that changes the priority to a higher value, that program has priority over any other Commodities Exchange program of lower priority.

For example, you can have two commodities that allow you to assign operations to functions keys. If both programs have an operation assigned to F1, the program with the higher priority intercepts the key, making it unavailable to any other Commodities programs.

There are two Tool Types that apply only to programs that open a window:

CX_POPUP

When set to NO, prevents the program window from opening when the icon is opened. The program activates when you double-click on its icon, but its window remains closed. The default is CX_POPUP=YES.

CX_POPKEY

Determines the hot key for a commodity. When the hot key or key combination is pressed, the program's window is automatically brought to the front of the screen. If the window is hidden, it is opened. Hot keys do not start commodities that are not already running. The syntax for specifying hot keys is CX_POPUP=<key>.

When specifying key combinations, leave a space between the two keys. For example:

CX_POPKEY=F9
CX_POPKEY=Shift F4
CX_POPKEY=LShift LAlt LAmiga X

Acceptable Key Combinations

When specifying key combinations for a Commodities Exchange program, you can use any of the function keys (F1 through F10) and any of the keys in the typewriter area of the keyboard (numbers, letter, symbols, and so forth). Keys from the typewriter area must be preceded by a qualifier. The allowable qualifiers are:

Qualifier

Key

Alt

Either Alt key

Ralt

Right Alt only

LAlt

Left Alt only

Shift

Either Shift key

Rshift

Right Shift only

LShift

Left Shift only

LAmiga

Left Amiga

RAmiga

Right Amiga

CTRL

Ctrl

Numericpad

Specifies a key on the numeric keypad

Rightbutton

Hold down the menu button

Leftbutton

Hold down the selection button

Middlebutton

Hold down the middle button of a three-button mouse

Qualifiers can also be used before function keys, but are not mandatory. You can use any combination of qualifiers; however, they must be followed by a standard key or function key. A qualifier is only recognized once in a combination:

LAlt RAmiga LAlt F10

is the same as

LAlt RAmiga F10

The following are acceptable combinations:

Alt F6

LAmiga 8

Ctrl LShift Y

Leftbutton Ctrl CapsLock*

Numericpad 8**

*Hold down the selection button, then press Ctrl+Caps Lock

**Use the 8 in the numeric keypad. The 8 in the typewriter area does not satisfy the combination.

Top Previous Next Chapter