AnyClock version 1.4 for 1998.


Installation:
Click the setup.exe program to begin installation.  The files will be copied and an icon
and directory will be set up for you in the startup menu.  To uninstall the program 
simply go into the "Add/Remove Programs" from the control panel and choose the "Anyclock"
name and click on "Add/Remove" to remove the program.  Please note that older 
configuration files may not work correctly under this latest version.  If you find you 
have a problem with a configuration file please delete and recreate. 


This is an analog clock display.  The clock can use any 256 color bmp for its clock 
face and can be customized for hand size, position  and color.  The clock can be set 
up with five alarms along with hourly, half-hourly and quarterly chimes and even a 
"tick"& "tock"  sound.  The date can also be displayed and customized.  For Win95 
only.

This program is freeware.
By Patrick Dugan (patrickd@getonthe.net)


The clock program was written because I wanted an analog clock display to which I 
could apply any clock face.  The clock options to move the hands, resize, change 
color, etc. came slightly later and then came alarms and sounds.  When you use a 
new clock face you must create a bmp file that is 256 colors and no more than 3 
meg in size.  You can also use the wallpaper background as the "clock face" so the 
clock hands and date appear by themselves.  Obviously the clock faces are left up 
to you.  I supplied a few faces and sounds but the idea is that you will want to 
create your own.  Company logos, team logos, advertisements, love ones faces, etc. 
are just some uses to which it can be put.  

If you wish to reach me via email write to:
patrickd@getonthe.net or patrickd@usti.com

Using

When AnyClock first starts it uses default clock face and settings.  The clock will 
appear on your screen and to access features simply right-click on the clock and a 
menu window will appear. If you double click the clock face it will hide the clock.  
Clicking the tray icon will bring the clock back and right clicking the tray icon 
will bring up the menu.


This window allows you to access various options for customizing your clock.  The four 
brown buttons bring up new windows, the blue button brings up the help file you are now 
reading and the last red button stops the program entirely.  You can close this window 
(or any of the others) by pressing the small "x" in the upper right hand corner.

	When you press the first brown button (Clock Face) it will open a new window 
that allows you   to select a new clock face from a bmp file. 


 The bmp file can be no more than 256 colors and can be no larger than 3 meg in size.  
Typically the bmp you use would be square to create a perfectly round or square face 
but you can use rectangles in which case the clock will be oval or rectangular in shape.  
The top selector box allows you to choose the drive, the second box selects the 
directory and the last box selects the bmp file.  The drive/directory information will 
be stored so it will return to the same place you loaded from last.  The Clock shape 
radio button box at the bottom allows you to pick either a round clock face, a square 
or both.  The "both" selection allows you to have a "rounded square" clock that can be 
adjusted for rounding off the corners by the corner size.  You can also set whether the 
window position is always on top, none (no priority) or always on bottom.  You can 
hide the application from the taskbar and also allow the clock to be dragged about by 
the mouse.  On the bottom is a feature that allows you to "steal" the background so the 
clock appears to be transparent.  The small checkbox to the right of that button  
determines whether the transparency will remain when you restart the clock.  You can 
specify the size of that clock face by the TWidth and THeight.  Those settings will 
not affect a clock face that uses a regular bitmap.  Rather than explaining further 
you should try each setting and see for yourself what effects happen.

	The next window allows you to adjust the hour, minute and second hands.   The 
three buttons underneath the word "Color" brings up a color requestor box to set the 
color of the hands.  The upper middle check boxes determine whether the hands display 
or not.  The "seconds on top" box determines if the second hand appears on top of the 
other hands or below the other hands.  The upper right "Center" check box will try to 
place the hands in the center of the bmp file for you.  The lower selection "Mirror" 
will cause the clock to appear in mirrored format.  This includes the hands, date 
and day.  This options is useful in creating a clock that might appear in bars or 
barber shops.  The "Hands Left" and "Hands Top" numbers to place the hands where ever 
you desire.  The left setting refers to how far left or right the item will appear.  
The top setting determines how far up or down the item will appear.  The "auto hand 
size" if checked will attempt to adjust the hand size to match the bmp you are using.  
Usually this is sufficient but if not you would un-select that option and adjust the 
"length and width" for each hand. The "Tail" determines whether the hands have the 
small "tails."  The last option at the lower right is the "hands together" option 
which by default keeps the hands together.  You can un-select that option if you 
want to separate the hands for some reason. (e.g., a pocket watch face might have 
a second hand located below the hour and minute hands and would be smaller.)

	The Date window allows you to place the date and day of the week on the 
clock face.  The program can attempt to place the locations for you (AutoP) or 
you can adjust them to whatever location you want.  Here you can also adjust the 
font used for the day/date displays.  Typically you would want to use a 
non-proportional font so the size remains the same each day.  The color selectors 
(Date Color and Day Color) at the bottom determine the color of the background.  
You can select the font's color while selecting the font type and style.  You 
can also set the fonts to use a transparent background (TransP setting.)  

	The next window is the alarms/sounds window and here you will select 
the sounds that you would like associated with various events.  There are 4 
chimes, 5 alarms and even sounds that can be attached to the tick and tock.  
You press the browse button (which will open up a small browser window) to 
locate a wav file to attach to the event.  You can press the test button to 
listen to that sound to see if it is acceptable or not.  The check box next 
to the event should be checked or that sound will not play.  Since the tick 
and tock have to occur quickly the sounds associated with them should be very 
brief.  (Under one second)  The tick & tock sounds are more for fun as they 
tend to be hard drive/cpu hoggish.  The hourly chime will repeat the wav file 
according to the number of hours or play only once depending on the "Chime 
number of hours" check box.  All the other chimes play only once.  


The configuration window allows you to load or save clock configurations to a file.  
These configurations will contain ALL the settings that are currently in place 
including alarms, hand settings, etc.  This will allow you to save the settings 
that you may have developed for your custom clock so you can quickly switch 
back and forth between various clock designs without having to reset everything 
again.  To load a file simply double-click it to load it in place.  To save a 
file simply type in the name (if you click once in the filename box above it 
will copy that filename to the save name box so you don't have to retype a 
name already present) and once named press the save button and the new 
configuration will be ready.  The file saved is a simple ASCII text file and 
if it becomes corrupted or fails to load you can delete it and create it again.  
I supplied a few configurations already for you to try that demonstrate various 
clock designs.  The clocks were either saved from photos of clocks/watches or 
were generated by graphics programs.  In the case of the larger clocks I used 
a program called Pov-Ray to create the images.  Obviously when you create a new 
clock face you should remove the hands so this program can fill them in.

Of course the best way to learn about the various options is to play with the 
settings and try to create your clock faces and settings.  




Version History:

1.4
February 9 1998
Some clock configurations were initially designed on a large screen mode and consequently
became "unseeable" on smaller screen sizes.  The clock is now designed to move itself 
back into view if it finds itself "off screen."  Added transparency to clock face and date
backgrounds.  Added mirror function so clock can be viewed completely backwards as though
viewed in a mirror.  Improved/simplified the color selection for hands and date backgrounds.
Added a "chime hour once" so you can choose to ring number of hours or chime only one
time.

1.3
Never generally released
Made a few changes to allow mirror functions and keep clock from appearing 
"off screen."

1.2a
January 20 1998
Correcting some of the font saving problems.  Also corrected the sound if a "tick tock" 
sound was playing you wouldn't hear the alarm.  Also "tick tock" sound wouldn't play on 
each second it was playing too fast.

1.2
January 2 1998
Placed the WAV sound playing event into a thread.  What that means is the clock's hands 
do not stop while the sound plays.  Added a "hands extend" feature that keeps or removes 
the "tails" present on each hand.  

1.0
May 15 1997
First version.  Allowed any clock face to be applied to an analog clock.  Lots of features
to allow a lot of customizing of the clock.

