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Additional tips & tricks


As you've noticed, this user-guide is full of practical tips and tricks related to the various topics discussed. Here are a few more....

Save position/size of desktop windows
You probably know that TOS 2.06 saves the size and position of any open window on the desktop (it also saves the position of a window's scroll-bar), but did you know that it also saves the same information for closed windows?!
Why is this of interest? You probably don't want to clutter up your desktop with several open windows all the time (as you won't be able to access any icons elsewhere on the desktop)... but when you do open a window you don't want to waste time resizing/repositioning them either, so.... how about windows opening like you want them, when you need them?

  


This is what you do:






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Creating a boot floppy disk
A hard disk is practical in many ways...

Even though hard disks have dropped down considerably in price since the mid 80s when the Atari ST came about, not every Atari ST user has one, for a variety of reasons:


Actually there are several solutions around which should fit almost any wallet (ask in the Atari ST newsgroups or contact an Atari dealer for more information), but for those who still don't have a hard disk, here's a neat trick.... create a boot-disk!

A boot disk (as the name implies) is a floppy disk you use each time you boot (start up) the computer and loads some of the essential programs you want your computer to have. The boot disk can for example contain the following (as long as there's room for everything):

     

If you have a hard disk, a boot floppy disk is handy for emergency situations where you've got problems with the hard disk (i.e. damaged hard disk driver software). The floppy disk could contain the hard disk driver in its AUTO folder (for automatic "mounting" of the hard disk when loading) or elsewhere on the disk (for manually running the hard disk driver, mounting the hard disk drive). Read the notes on mounting a hard disk drive from a floppy disk for more information)

If using the GEM clipboard, be sure to leave the floppy disk unprotected (so you can write to it).
The CLIPBRD folder is created by the computer the first time you use it (i.e. copy/paste within a program that supports the GEM clipboard. From then on it uses this folder to store temporary items that you may work with).

(Refer to the keyboard shortcuts to find out how to boot from a floppy disk).



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Installing a replacement file-viewer ("Guck")
If you double-click on a text file (well, actually anything which isn't a program, and hasn't already been defined as "document type" in the installation of a program) ....you've noticed that the following dialog comes up:

     

You will be able to read (or print) the contents of an ASCII text-file this way, but with some limitations:

You can resolve all the above limitations and more by installing an alternative file-viewer such as "Guck", which is a small TTP program, easily installable using the installer program that comes with it. From now on, when double-clicking a text file, "Guck" will be used to display it. You can also view the most common Atari ST graphic formats such as ".IMG" (however, for formats such as ".GIF" and ".JPG" you will need to use a dedicated graphic viewer such as "GrafTool").



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Printing within TOS 2.06
Most programs that allow for printing have their own printer drivers and setup options which don't have anything to do with the TOS 2.06 desktop, so whatever you want to print from a certain program has to be set up there. But it's still possible to do some (limited) printing from the desktop itself. The settings for the printer are accessible by going to the "printer" CPX-module.
Unfortunately, the options there are quite outdated for today's printers as the printers used back in the days when the Atari ST was designed were dot-matrix printers.
If your printer is Epson compatible you can (hopefully, but no guarantees) do the following (make sure the above settings are set to "Dot Matrix" and not "Daisy wheel") from the desktop:


As the desktop printing options of TOS 2.06 are pretty limited (and don't support all available printers), 
here are some additional tips:






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Temporarily changing a program's default directory
When a program is installed you get to choose if it should default to its own location or the currently active desktop window. Programs which haven't been installed follow the same rules, but refer to the settings in the desktop configuration menu.
(The default directory setting tells a program where to start looking for files. This could be in a situation where you drag a file to its icon, or where you double-click a file with an extension that is recognized by an installed program).

When the default directory is set to "Top window" the program starts looking inside the active window on the desktop. You simply can't double-click or drag a file anywhere without first activating its window (i.e. by clicking on the window once, if it isn't already active). But here's a neat little trick which will allow you to temporarily use any other window as a program's default path!

Let's say that we've installed "ZIPJR.TTP" to handle all files ending with ".ZIP" as shown below.
Whenever a .ZIP file is double-clicked, ZIPJR.TTP will decompress it, and the contents will end up in the same directory as the .ZIP file itself.
.... in this particular case however we want the contents to be extracted to a different directory, but we're in a hurry and don't have time to first move the file and handle the file in that new location...

     

     

This feature was actually a bug in earlier TOS versions, but when the programmers at Atari found out about it they decided to leave it alone and officially stated that it would be kept for future versions of TOS.
If only all other software bugs would give such pleasant side-effects!



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Updating a program's path automatically
TOS has an undocumented ability to automatically update the paths of installed programs whenever they're moved!
Let's say you've installed the .ZIP compression/decompression program "STzip" which will decompress any .ZIP file when double-clicked (if using the appropriate argument settings).
Next we move (not copy) this program (ZIPJR.TTP in this case) to another location on the hard disk or floppy disk. We'd assume this would involve having to reinstall the program all over again to provide for the new path, but not so!
.... as soon as we move any (pre-installed) program this information is automatically updated and saved to the NEWDESK.INF file. If you've made any other changes to the desktop in the meantime (added/removed icons etc.) this information will also be saved.

Information is automatically updated and saved...

Information is NOT automatically updated and saved...



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