
Edith Manual        AutoRaise       18th September 1994


ABOUT AUTORAISE

   AutoRaise is  supplied with  the Edith  Professional
   system. It is  a GEM accessory  that raises  windows
   for  you.  It  is   freeware,  but  works  best   in
   combination with Edith.


HISTORY

   The first version (1.1) of AutoRaise was released in
   1991. It was widely spread partly as it appeared  on
   the cover disk of the  British magazine ST User.  An
   enhanced version was posted in march 1993, which had
   a much  smarter way  of  deciding whether  the  user
   would actually like  a window to  be topped or  not.
   The early  versions  were very  small  (around  2K).
   Starting from version 3.0, the size of the accessory
   is about 30K. A  small price to  pay for the  people
   who asked me  to make  the update:  this version  is
   specially adapted for Falcon, WINX and MultiTOS. Why
   is it  that big?  Because I  was lazy  and used  the
   custom ZFC library for building large  applications.


COPYING

   AutoRaise is  freeware.  You  may  freely  copy  and
   distribute the AutoRaise  executable, provided  that
   this document file  is included,  and ABSOLUTELY  NO
   MONEY is charged for it. For distribution as a cover
   disk issue or PD disk please contact ZFC. All rights
   reserved; AutoRaise and these documents are (C) 1994
   ZFC Computing. All rights reserved.


WHY USE AutoRaise

   1. If you have always  had to click  on a window  to
      top it, especially with single tasking TOSes, you
      simply don't know what  you've been missing.  Try
      AutoRaise, and you will feel far more comfortable
      with GEM than you did (it might even prevent  you
      from buying  that cheap  Pentium you  saw in  the
      paper this morning...)

   2. If you use/have used Double Click's  'equivalent'
      DCTOPPER: this program sticks to all  conventions
      and is  hence  TOS-independent. It  tops  windows
      less quickly, and hardly ever tops a window  when
      you don't want it to.


HOW TO INSTALL

   Put AUTORAIS.ACC and AUTORAIS.CFG in the root folder
   of your boot drive.



DESCRIPTION, INSTRUCTIONS

   When AUTORAIS.ACC is installed, its name appears  in
   the Desk menu. When  you click on  the menu item,  a
   control window pops up.

   1. for all TOS versions

      The switches you're interested in are  `Auto-Top'
      and  `Save'.  These  are   used  to  switch   the
      AutoRaise function on and  off, and to save  this
      in the configuration file AUTORAIS.CFG.

      If Auto-Top is switched ON, you can raise windows
      by simply moving the mouse onto it. However:

      - A window  is topped  only after  the mouse  has
         been stationary for one tenth of a second.  So
         you  can  still  move   the  mouse  across   a
         background window  without  causing it  to  be
         topped.

      - Windows will not be topped when any of the four
         shift keys or the mouse buttons are held down.
         So e.g. when you wish to drag a file out of  a
         background window  of the  desktop, hold  down
         the right button, then move to the  background
         window and pick up the file.

      - AutoRaise does not allow the current top window
         to get  completely  covered  when  it  tops  a
         window.

      - Any  change of  the top  window NOT  caused  by
         mouse movement will be `respected', so you can
         open and close windows by key commands without
         having to worry about getting the mouse on the
         right window. AutoRaise will not top a  window
         until you've moved the mouse again.



   2. for FALCON, MULTITOS or WINX

      The control window  now also  contains a  section
      for setting more detailed preferences. The scroll
      widget on the upper left always contains one item
      `Default' and may contain  the names of a  number
      of GEM  applications and  accessories. The  three
      switches in the lower half of the AutoRaise panel
      are used to make application-dependent  settings.
      If the name of an application does not appear  in
      the widget,  the  `default' settings  apply.  The
      switches are stored per  application. To set  the
      behaviour for a particular application, click  on
      its name and set  the switches. Applications  can
      be added  and removed  from  the list  using  the
      `New' and `Delete' buttons.  The settings can  be
      saved by clicking on the `Save' buttons.

      The meaning of the three switches is as follows:

      A. Raise windows locally--- if this switch is ON,
         the  accessory   will   automatically   switch
         between    windows     of     the     selected
         application(s).

      B. Raise windows from this application--- if this
         switch is OFF, windows from other applications
         will not be raised when this application  owns
         the top window.

      C. Raise windows to  this application--- if  this
         switch is  OFF,  windows of  this  application
         will not be raised when the current top window
         belongs to another application.

      In the near future,  many programs will make  use
      of the  new features  of MultiTOS.  Two of  these
      features can  be a  reason for  NOT wanting  some
      windows to be raised:

      A. Some windows receive left button mouse  clicks
         in background windows. Therefore it may not be
         necessary to raise a window at all.

      B. More  and   more   state-of-the-art   software
         packages (such  as Edith,  the text  editress)
         can be configured to send keyboard information
         not to the top window, but to the window which
         the mouse points to. It is then very  annoying
         when  background  windows  are   automatically
         topped. However,  it  is still  convenient  to
         automatically switch  to  windows  of  another
         application.



Edith Manual        AutoRaise       18th September 1994

