STAY -ON- TOP UTILITIES
Note pads, Sticky Notes, Editors, Spell Check, SysOps.
Windows 3.+, through 95+

There are some applications that need to be accessed quickly, repeatedly and be readily available. In MS Windows substituting a stay -on- top menu [tool] bar for a display of icon buttons is a quick "access" approach that resolves the "how to turn on" anything, anytime, anywhere, problem.

Tool bars such as DeskMenu, for Windows 3.+ and 95+, is a good example of many stay -on- top, speech friendly, direct access, text base, drop menu [tool] bars. However, there are some applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, paint and graphics programs, which when "active" dominate the full screen display. While they will not cover up stay -on- top tool bars, they will hide the normal "inactive" icon buttons once an application is "minimized" and put -on- hold.

Still to be resolved are: 1. "Where to put the icon", when the program is on [inactive] hold, and 2. "How to get it back again", when the inactive icon is covered up. Once an application display is "minimized" it becomes an inactive icon, and is lost behind the next newly activated application display.

"Tile" displays only subdivide the full screen into ever smaller, and less useful, Windows. "Cascade" displays are only a partial answer, as they off - set the full screen display, and will eventually fill and move off - screen.

Stay -On- Top Utilities are applications that run -on- top of other applications. Even when minimized their inactive icon stays accessible on top of active applications. Among utilities you may want to stay -on- top are: tool bars, note pads, sticky notes, editors, spell checkers, grammars, speech screen readers, and system operation applications.

Here are two examples of stay -on- top Windows utilities which convert normal applications into stay -on- top applications.

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01-01-98