Transform Your Desktop With Toolbars
Fred, there's a surprisingly useful launch bar built right into every copy of Windows (I'm NOT talking about the Quick Launch bar, which is just plain lame), and I'm surprised that I've never seen you or anyone else mention it.
How would you like a program launcher that integrates seamlessly into your task bar with a simple right-click?; How would you like to be able to drag and drop anything you want onto it, including shortcuts, programs, documents, or folders, and even customize the icons?; How would you like those folders to become fly-out menus when you click on them, as many layers deep as you like?; Believe it or not, IE's Links toolbar does all of that quite well when it's on the Windows Task Bar, and it works even if you don't use IE;if you have a different browser set as your default browser, internet shortcuts in the Links bar will open in that browser instead of IE (when launched from the task bar instead of from inside IE).
I have my task bar set two levels high, with one level for open programs and the other level for the Links bar. On the Links bar I have shortcuts to all of the programs, websites, and folders that I use regularly, and those shortcuts are all organized into fly-out menus (folders) who's icons I've customized so I can tell them apart without having to have the text names showing. If you don't have need of as many shortcuts and menus as I do you can simply replace the Quick Launch bar with the Links bar, and organize everything into much less space. It's worked great for years, and so far I've never found anything that worked enough better to be worth changing. Thanks for a GREAT newsletter!; I'm an IT consultant and have been a PLUS subscriber for years, and many of my most valuable tools and tricks have come from your newsletter. ---John McCurdy
Thanks, John! We have covered that, but it was a long time ago; it's good that you brought it up again!
Windows' Toolbars are, as you imply, underutilized and underappreciated UI
resources that enable you to customize and transform your desktop in powerful
ways. (Access the Toolbars menu by right-clicking on the Taskbar and choosing
Toolbars.)
Everything in a Toolbar is a shortcut, file or folder, but viewable and usable
in different ways, depending on which kind of Toolbar you choose. Each of the
various Toolbars--- Address, Links, Quick Launch, etc.--- has different
functions and limitations. For example, Links and Quick Launch Toolbars are
similar in that every item on them is a shortcut. But they're different in that,
by default, Links has shortcut labels and Quick Launch doesn't. (You can change
this default behavior of each by right-clicking and selecting or deselecting
Show Text.) Links shortcuts you create on the Taskbar automatically show up on
the Links Toolbar in Internet Explorer and visa versa. Quick Launch shortcuts
don't.
At the bottom of the Toolbars menu you'll find a New Toolbar item. When you
select it, you're shown a dialog box with a cascading menu of your system. You
can drill down to choose any drive or folder on your PC, including My Computer
and My Documents. Choosing a folder will use the folder name as the name of the
Toolbar, and display the contents of that folder as Toolbar items. But watch
out! These are not shortcuts. the New Toolbar option gives you a secondary view
of actual files and folders. When you rename or delete items created with the
New Toolbar feature, you really do rename or delete the actual files. (When you
rename or delete items on the Links and Quick Launch Toolbars, conversely, you
modify only the shortcuts--- the original files aren't touched.)
You'll find other Toolbars on the menu: at the least an Address Toolbar for
quick-launching Web pages, probably a Windows Media Player Toolbar, possibly an
iTunes Toolbar, and maybe others.
These are the basic facts about Toolbar behavior. Here are a few nice Toolbar
tips.
Your Toolbars can be separated from the Taskbar by dragging and dropping the
dotted slider bar at left onto the desktop (right-click on an empty part of the
Taskbar and deselect "lock the Taskbar" if you find a check-mark there).
By dropping Toolbars onto the desktop, they become just like other open windows.
By dropping one Toolbar on top of the other, you join them both into a single
window. Go ahead and drop as many Toolbars as you like into that window, and
adjust sizing and placement of each by dragging the sliders. Experiment with
combinations of large and small icons, text and no text and whether individual
Toolbars show their labels (all with the right-click Context menu).
"Dock" them to the left, right, top or bottom of your screen by dragging and
dropping them to the edge of your choice. Make them pop-out "menus" by
right-clicking on the docked Toolbars and choosing both Always On Top and
Auto-Hide.
Make the Desktop a pop-out menu, and hide icons on your real desktop
(right-click on the Desktop, and choose Arrange Icons By/Show Desktop Icons).
You can still drag and drop to the desktop, but you won't see the icons until
you pop out your "Desktop" Toolbar. The advantage of this is that you can access
desktop items without closing any windows you have open.
Here's another useful Toolbar tip:
http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-01-26.htm#2
Click to email this item to a
friend
http://langa.com/sendit2.htm
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10) Code Load Success Story
After his site was listed in a "Load The Code" section, code-loader John Carson wrote:
Hi Fred, Just a quick Load the Code success story. My site appeared in your e-newsletter; my visitors jumped [twentyfold]! Many thanks, John Carson
Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter
what size.) Please click over to
http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the thousands of
LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The
Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web
site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt
)
Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some
professional, some very personal:
View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm
Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting
At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm
Pat Rosenheim, PC Mechanic (Mass.)
http://patrosenheim.com/
N. Marshall Gibbs, free stories & ebooks
http://www.nmarshallgibbs.com/
Millenium Software
http://www.milleniumsoft.com/
Spanish Football League
http://spanishleague.blogspot.com/
Good Ground
http://www.servantsite.com/KMcClelland/
Free Buy/Sell/Swap Listings (UK)
http://swapshop.karlsforums.co.uk/
"Jim's Scratchings" (Ireland)
http://belclare.blogspot.com/
Another Opinion Among Many
http://coreythompson.com/
Councilman Dave Lambert's Blog (Troy, MI)
http://blog.dave.lambert.net/
PC technical forum re: malware
http://www.malwareteks.com/news.php
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