New Features in RightOn 2.1

Clicking the right mouse button in the title bar of a window will send it to the bottom of the window stack, behind all others.

The left-mouse double click event now works consistently in all situations.

It is now possible to exclude the main Windows Desktop window by simply adding "Desktop" (without the quotes) to the Exclude textbox.

Also, RightOn is no longer sensitive to extra blanks in the Exclude dialog box.

New features in RightOn 2.0

Installing RightOn

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New Features in version 2.0
New Features in RightOn 2.0

Many users of RightOn 0.1 called and wrote with suggestions for improvement.  The following are a few of their comments which have made it into RightOn 2.0:

*	Full support for the middle mouse button (if you have one).

*	A whole new 3-D look for the dialog boxes and controls.

*	New event type: Left mouse double clicks!  If you don't like double-clicking the left mouse button, you can set  up the middle or right button to send left mouse double  clicks.

*	Ability to modify keystrokes sent to applications with any combination of Alt, Ctrl, and Shift.  For example, here are a few of the possible keystroke combinations you can set up the right (or middle) mouse button to send:

Alt-Enter   (to display Properties of a file), or,

Ctrl-Escape (to bring up the Windows Task Manager)

*	The displayed icon changes based on the state of the program.  If the program is on, the normal icon is displayed, and if the program has been turned off, the icon appears "grayed" out.  This feature allows you just to look at the icon to determine whether the program is on or off, without having to open up the system menu.

*	The ability to setup the configuration and the excluded applications list independently for the right and middle buttons.

*	Bug fix from version 0.1: if there were no applications specifically listed in the Exclude dialog box, RightOn was behaving as if all applications were excluded.

Installing RightOn

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Main Index
Using RightOn

  RightOn is a Windows 3.1 utility which allows you to program the right and middle buttons of your mouse to send virtually any keystroke to the window the mouse is in.

You might set up the right button to send the Return key, to make dialog boxes which appear on the screen go away. Or maybe you want to turn your middle mouse button into a left-mouse double-click and launch applications at the touch of a button.

Throw in the ability to modify the simulated keystrokes with any combination of the Shift, Alt and Control keys, and you've got a configurable, personalized power tool at your fingertips!

What's New in RightOn 2.1?

RightOn Overview

Installation

Running RightOn

Setup

Exclude

About

System Requirements

How to contact the author


Overview

What is RightOn?

RightOn is a user-configurable mouse utility which allows you to turn your right and middle mouse buttons into virtually any key stroke combination that you could perform from the keyboard.

Most of the time your right and middle buttons just sit there, unused.  RightOn allows you to turn them into useful keystroke combinations.  For example, in your favorite editor you can set up RightOn to do the keyboard sequence for copy when you click the right button, paste for shift right mouse, cut on Ctrl-right click.

What if I use an application which uses the right [or middle] mouse button?

If an application uses the right or middle button for its own purposes, you should "exclude" that application.  See the Exclude section for more thorough details.

How can I use RightOn to get the window on the top out of the way so I can see another window behind it?

Easy.  Clicking the right mouse button in the title bar of the window will send it behind all other windows. This way you can look at windows which might be obscured behind a window in the foreground without having to move, resize, or minimize the window.

Does it matter where the mouse is on the screen when I click the right/middle button?

It only matters when you have RightOn set up to send left-mouse double-clicks.  Simulated left-mouse double clicks occur at the cursor location where the button was clicked.  For all other event types, the keystroke sequence gets sent to the currently active window no matter where the cursor was when the event occurred.

It all sounds too good to be true.  What doesn't work?

Ctrl-Alt-Delete won't reboot your machine.

Installation

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CTL3D.DLL

This is a dynamic link library which provides the three-dimensional look to the dialog boxes, and is an emerging standard.  Microsoft recommends that it be installed in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, where it would be available to all applications on your machine.

RightOn will still run if this file is in the same directory as the RightOn executable, so you do not have to copy this library to the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, but as more applications use this library, it becomes inefficient to have multiple copies on your disk.


Installing RightOn

Installation of RightOn is still easy, but there are a few things to look out for.  The following assumptions are made:

*	You received RightOn in a compressed .zip file.

*	Your Windows 3.1 directory is C:\WINDOWS

*	You will be installing RightOn into its own directory, C:\RIGHTON.

1.	Create a new directory on your hard disk, for example C:\RIGHTON, and either unzip the distribution file there, or move the files from whatever directory you unzipped them to the C:\RIGHTON directory.

2.	(Optional) One of the files, CTL3D.DLL, should be copied to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.  You can accomplish this from the DOS prompt by typing the following commands:

cd	C:\RIGHTON

copy	CTL3D.DLL	C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CTL3D.DLL

dir	\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CTL3D.DLL

Important note: If you have other applications which also use CTL3D.DLL, you should check the dates of the files (e.g. from a directory listing) and make sure that the latest version of CTL3D.DLL is installed in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.  Note that the newest version may not be the version that came with RightOn.

Creating a RightOn group in the Program manager (optional)

3.a)	Now bring up the Program manager. From the File menu, select New.  A dialog box will appear asking if you would like to create a new Program Group or a new Program Item:  select Program Group, and press the OK button.

3.b)	In the Program Group Properties dialog, enter "RightOn" for the Description field, and press the OK button.  You may leave the Group File field blank.  A new program group will be created.

3.c)	You should now be in the (empty) RightOn group in the Program Manager.  From the File menu, again select New.  This time, however, choose Program Item.

3.d)	For the Description field, enter "RightOn", and in the Command Line field, enter "C:\RIGHTON\RIGHTON.EXE".  You may fill in the other fields if you like.

Creating a RightOn entry in the Program Manager StartUp group (optional but recommended)

When you have an icon appearing in the StartUp group of the Program Manager, it is automatically loaded when Windows is started.  If you would like RightOn to be automatically installed for all your Windows sessions, do the following:

4.a)	Go into the Program Manager, and bring up the StartUp Group.  You may either create a new program item by using the same method as above in 3.c) and 3.d), or you can just do a shortcut copy by holding down the Control key and dragging the icon in the RightOn group over to  the StartUp group.

Running RightOn

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Running RightOn

RightOn can be launched several ways.

1.	In File Manager, go to the directory where RightOn has been installed (for example, c:\righton) and double click the left mouse button on the file "righton.exe."

2.	In Program Manager, select Run from the File menu.  A dialog box will appear, and in the box marked Command Line, enter C:\RIGHTON\righton.exe, and hit the OK button.

3.	See the help available in Installing RightOn about making RightOn part of the Program Manager's StartUp group.  This way, RightOn will automatically be loaded when Windows starts without you having to do anything.  This is the recommended solution.

When RightOn is running, it appears as an icon at the bottom of the screen.  RightOn cannot be restored from its iconic state, nor can it be maximized or hidden.

Go back to Installing RightOn

Setup

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Setup RightOn

The Setup dialog box, which is used for configuring both the right and middle mouse buttons is accessed from the System menu by selecting either Setup Right Button or Setup Middle Button.

The Setup dialog box is where you can tell RightOn which keys you want it to send to the target window when the right or middle mouse button is clicked.

Below is the dialog box for setting up the Right mouse button.  Click your mouse on the picture of the dialog box below for more information on the various parts of the Setup [Right or Middle] Button dialog box.

How to Exclude Applications

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Modifiers

For each simulated keystroke that RightOn sends, you can turn on any combination of "modifier" keys.  This means that instead of just sending an Enter key to a dialog box, you can now send Alt-Enter, for example, which has special meaning in Windows.


Configuring RightOn

These four combo boxes are where you tell RightOn what keystroke you want it to send when the right (or middle) mouse button is pressed and released.

At any given time this gives you four possible keystrokes options in response to your mouse event, depending whether you are also holding any combination of the Shift or Control keys.


OK Button

The OK button signifies that everything in the dialog box is to your liking, and you want RightOn to continue with the configuration selected.  If you exit the program after selecting OK, then the configuration will get saved and recalled the next time that RightOn is run.


Cancel Button

The Cancel button tells RightOn to disregard any changes made during the time the dialog box was displayed.


Exclude

It is not always desired to have RightOn sending keystrokes to applications which themselves use the right or middle mouse button.  For example, the Paintbrush application which comes with Windows uses the right mouse button to select background colors.  Some word processors and spreadsheet programs use the right mouse button to pop up a menu.  It is less common that applications will be using the middle mouse button.

In general, it is not desirable to program RightOn to send a keystroke to the program, when the program itself is looking for a right (or middle) mouse button click.  In some cases this conflict can lead to a program or system crash.

To tell RightOn not to send the programmed keystrokes to a particular application, bring up the Exclude dialog box by selecting Exclude... menu item from the System menu.  In the edit box for the right and/or middle buttons, enter the name of applications as they appear in the title bar of the window, separated by commas.  It is not necessary to enter the dash and name of any document which is specified after the application name.

You may exclude the Windows Desktop by specifying "Desktop" (without quotes).

Right Button Exclude List

This textbox is where you specify which applications you want RightOn to leave alone when you press the Right mouse button.  You would do this if an application you frequently use already uses the Right mouse button for its own purposes.

Middle Button Exclude List

This textbox is where you specify which applications you want RightOn to leave alone when you press the Middle mouse button.  You would do this if an application you frequently use already uses the Middle mouse button for its own purposes.

Since it is possible to set up the exclude list for the right and middle buttons independently, and most applications do not use the middle mouse button, you may not need to enter anything in this textbox.

About dialog box

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About

Selecting About... from the system menu brings up the About dialog box, with the usual icon, OK button, and whom to give the credit (or blame!).

System Requirements

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System Requirements

Simple.  You must have a two- or three-button mouse and Windows 3.1 or better.

That's it.

Windows 3.0?	No.

Any questions?

Good!

Seriously, Windows 3.1 or later is required because there are calls to Windows functions which did not exist in versions of Windows prior to 3.1.

How to contact the author

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How to contact the author

If you have any comments, problems (related to the program only, please!), and most important, any suggestions for improvement, please contact the author!

Steve McCarthy
6707 39th SW
Seattle, WA 98136 USA

(206) 932-3351

Internet E-mail
smccrew@hebron.connected.com

Note: this is a new e-mail address!  Use this E-mail address and disregard the addresses in previous versions of the program.

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