Help for “Those Buttons”

Updated online help available at:  http://www.thosebuttons.com/v21/help/ThoseButtonsHelpOnline.htm

A lot on information is available in the Forum:  http://www.thosebuttons.com/forum

A button contains some information that you put in it

Ø      Simple text

Ø      Application start

Ø      A “boiler plate” document

Ø      An elaborate set of application key strokes

Ø      The choice is yours

You can push The Button to open a web page, automatically press a few tabs to arrive at the user name and password, enter them and move on quickly.

Where ever you are ready to type something – Press one of Those Buttons

Ø      Web Sites

Ø      Instant Messaging

Ø      Blogs

Ø      Finance and Investment

Ø      Data Bases

Ø      Medical Applications

Ø      Spread Sheets

You have a use for Those Buttons, think about it!

How to Use Those Buttons

Open your email program and start a new email.  While typing something into the body of the email, just press one of Those Buttons.  The Example – Simple 1 button will send John Smith’s Signature è When a button has something in it, press one of Those Buttons.

What to put in one of “Those Buttons”

Ø      You can right click and copy the Clipboard to a button. 

Ø      You can also highlight some text in your application and Get Highlighted text to a button.

Ø      You can type in the Settings for a button

Be careful, you can put a lot in there!  When you send it, it goes real fast. Too fast!

We need to slow it down – use a tag <<pause 1>> to wait 1 second.  (Actually, it is 1000 milliseconds)

Like this:

The yellow duck waits <<pause 2>> two seconds before swimming.

This is real good for waiting for things to load up on a web page. Many factors affect how fast things happen on loading a web page:

Ø      Your computer speed

Ø      Your network speed (Broadband, DSL, Dial-up)

Ø      The web page server

Ø      The Internet

Load up a web page and enter your user name and password

If you want one of Those Buttons to load up a web page and enter your user name and password, you should watch the page and see how long it takes for things to happen.

Ø      Open your browser and type in the web address.  How many seconds does it take to load? 

Ø      When it loads, press the TAB Key until you arrive at - Enter user name.  How many TAB Keys was it? 

Ø      Type in your user name and TAB Key until you get to the Enter password.  How many TAB Keys was it? 

Ø      Type in your password and likely you press the Enter Key to accept the user name and password, thus logging in.

Now you know about your web page, here is how to set one of Those Buttons

Click Add a Button

Right Click on the “Another New Button” that was added and click - Setting for this Button, from the menu

Erase the stuff in The Button now or modify the existing go tag. 
What you want is something like:

<<go http://www.mywebsite.com/logon>><<pause 4>><<Tab 5>>MyUserName<<Tab 1>>MyPassWord<<Enter>>

Sure you can keep going and add a lot more.  You may need to do a little experimenting to get it right, but it is worth it!

In The Button settings display:

¶ This symbol means there is an Enter there, just so you can see it, if it has not been typed as a tag like <<Enter>>.

Tags are surrounded with <<  >>.  A good tag will change color automatically.

You will likely give your button a name and adjust its appearance.  Ok to save it!

So launch a web page and <<pause 8000>> if you think it takes 8 seconds to launch and load.  Ok <<pause 8>> and <<wait 8000>> are the same thing.  8000 is milliseconds or 1/1000^th of a second.  You can put 1 to 10 as a pause/wait and we make it seconds; anything more than 10 and its back to milliseconds.  If you want to wait 12 seconds, and we hope you don’t really need that much, <<wait 12000>>.

The Tab Key works on most web pages.  In The Button you can press the Tab Key and the Tabs go in there.  They are a bit hard to see and count that way.  Use a tag <<Tab>>, we can see one of those.  If you want 5 Tabs you can <<Tab>><<Tab>><<Tab>><<Tab>><<Tab>> or <<Tab 5>> or 5 invisible tabs.  

Problem:  Those Tabs are sent so fast that the web page does not catch them all, we need to slow it down.

     The ugly way:

<<Tab>><<Pause 250>><<Tab>><<Pause 250>><<Tab>><<Pause 250>><<Tab>><<Pause 250>><<Tab>><<Pause 250>>

That is 250 milliseconds or ¼ of a second.  Can you type that fast? 

     The better way:

<<Pace 250>><<Tab 5>>

     The sometimes way:

<<Pace 250>><<Tab 4>><<Pause 750>><<Tab>>

<<Pace 250>> What is this?  Pace sets the amount of time we automatically wait before sending a key, like tab.  <<Pace 250>> is ¼ of a second.  The time value is the same as it is for wait or pause.  If you think you need 1 second between keys <<Pace 1>> or <<Pace 1000>>, both are the same thing.  1000 is milliseconds or 1/1000^th of a second.  You can put 1 to 10 as a pace and we make it seconds; anything more than 10 and its back to milliseconds.  <<Pace 250>> is pretty good on most web pages.

Why do I have to set this wait and pace myself?

Ø      Every computer is different

Ø      Every network is different

Ø      Every web page is different

Ø      Every application is different

Sure, we have some magic numbers inside trying to make the best on most computers and environments, but you are the best at figuring out how fast it should be. By the way, <<Pace 0>> makes it as fast as can be and it is set that way by default. You do not have to put it there.  If you pause/wait or pace something like 25 it is hard to see the change, the computer knows it, but it is real hard to see. After all it is only .025 seconds!

Where do “Those Buttons” go?

You can send one of Those Buttons to most any application or program you are using. If you are typing a Microsoft Word document, press The Button and the text will be sent to your document. If you are writing an e-mail, press the same button and the text will be sent to your e-mail message. The exceptions are the case when a button has a <<go do run>> tag.  These of course, start up a new program.  Whatever the active application is, the keys or text goes there. 

Oops! Stop it!  Sending text to the wrong application?  Just mouse click anywhere out of that application and it will stop.  

What if I want to, or the application changes the window?  Yes, a complicated matter.  We have the <<GET-WINDOW>> tag.  This can be used in your button to keep the automatic stop from happening.  Sometimes, like in Microsoft Excel 2003, when you send keys to the menu a new window opens.  In some cases this window can look like a new application to Those Buttons and the sending automatically stops.  To prevent this built in behavior we use the <<GET-WINDOW>> tag immediately after the new window opens.  The keys will then be sent to the new window.  When you send keys that close that window we do the <<GET-WINDOW>> tag again to get us back to the original application.

What about the Desk Top or Start Menu?  Yes very dangerous and difficult.  We do not allow you to send one of Those Buttons to the Desk Top or Start Menu by default.  If you really want to, and you know what you are doing, and are sure you really want to, you can add the special tags <<OK-PROGRAMMANAGER>><<OK-STARTMENU>> to your button.

What Tags?

From the most basic to the very complicated, we have it covered.  If you can type it, one of Those Buttons can send it.

The <<go do run>> tag has 3 names because we really did not know which one was the best.  They are the same.  The best way to define them is by example:

<<Go http://www.thosbuttons.com>>

- Starts your default web browser and loads www.thosebuttons.com

<<Do iexplore.exe www.ebay.com>>

- Starts the Internet Explorer web browser and loads www.ebay.com

<<RUN "My Documents\test.txt" >>

- Starts the default program that handles the file test.txt and opens the file test.txt if it exists.  Note that the full path name contains a space between my and programs therefore we use quotations.

     <<Go "MAILTO:?subject=Those Buttons - You have to take a look at this program">>

- Automatic E-Mail, bet this one will be a favorite.

Hey, any key can be put in a tag. Why? For what?  <<R 1>> sends 1 R. <<R 10>> sends 10 Rs.  Could be pretty useful . . .   Almost every tag allows a number specifying the repeat count: <<Up 12>> is arrow up 12 times.  Tags can be typed upper or lower case.

Funny keys that are not a letter or number need a tag: