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VUTRAX Technical Support
VUTRAX SOFTWARE ADVICE NOTICE 177 (Issue 3
- 19 May 2000)
VUTRAX 12 - CUSTOMISING TOOLBAR BUTTONS
VUTRAX 12 onwards allows provision of new bitmaps for
existing DRAFT toolbar functions, and
introduction of new buttons for functions not offered in
the standard button library.
For each button proceed as follows:-
- Use Windows Paint, PaintShop Pro, or some other bit
image paint package to draw the button as
follows:-
- Size: 20 pixels square.
- Colours: Use the basic Windows 16 colour palette (4
bits) unless your system is 'full colour'.
- Save: Into your VUTRAX directory with the name
<bitmap name>.BMP . Choose
<bitmap name> to be alphanumeric plus underline
and hyphen, with no embedded spaces.
Other symbols may upset things. e.g. \VUTRAX\TRIAL.BMP
- Although there are many ways to introduce the buttons
into the system, we suggest that you adopt the
following:-
- Finally, either:-
- Use the TOOLBAR dialogue to move this entry to
where you want it in the toolbar,
introducing gaps as required, and deleting any duplicate
entry.
or
Important
When you upgrade, the .BMP files will be retained,
but your entries in the .BTN files may be lost if a
different issue of DRAFT is included in the upgrade. The
final step in the sequence above (use of the
Toolbar editor or altering the <user customised>
field) will mark the file as 'user customised' and it
will usually be preserved even at the risk that some
buttons may now not work.
Nevertheless you are strongly advised to keep a
permanent copy of your new entries to edit back in
after an upgrade.
Futher, we can not guarantee that the menu position
fields and titles are invariant - please check all
works as intended after any upgrade before you rely on
your buttons.
Do not alter DRAFT.BTN - this file has a different
format and its contents are checked during system
build so that it can be relied on in delivered systems.
If you get in a mess (e.g. DRAFT hangs after your
changes) rename/delete the file you altered so that
DRAFT builds a new one.
Promoting your Button
If you would like your button integrated with the next
issue of DRAFT, send it (floppy or e-mail) to
the office together, with the .BTN file entry. Only
standard 16 colour buttons will be considered. If we
have a good response we may make all acceptable buttons
that we do not integrate available for
Internet download. Thus any buttons you provide must be
public domain.
Document History:
Issue 1: March 1998 for introduction of Vutrax 12.
Issue 2: 14 May 2000 to specify limits on field sizes,
raise these limits for DRAFT 38.11, and include
corrections & clarifications.
Issue 3: 19 May 2000 to explain how to have the
changes preserved during DRAFT upgrades.
Circulation:
As requested. Referenced from standard documentation.
Internet Site.
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