Taking Control of Windows – Part 2

In Part 1 I explained some of the uses of WinWarden.   Now I want to explain what is the main use – transparency.

You might think that transparency looks really cool, but that’s not what’s best about it.  What is best about transparency is the added functionality it gives you.

You can work on one project, say editing a document and at the same time see if something else you are doing e.g. installing a program has finished by having the document on top and making it semi-transparent so that you can see what is going on behind it.

I often use transparency when I want to see some text and copy from it or modify it somewhere else.  I can simply open a text editor on top of the program , enable transparency and read the information underneath as I work on the new document.

Alternatively you might have a desktop widget which you are watching (e.g. stocks and shares, the weather etc.).  Transparency allows you to see the relevant information while you’re working on something else.

Or you may just love your desktop wallpaper and want to see it while you work.

WinWarden allows you to control the degree of transparency which is important as you may need different levels of transparency for different tasks, or depending whether what’s on top or what’s underneath is more important.

Here’s what 20% transparency looks like:

And here’s 80% transparency:

To make a window transparent, just right click on the WinWarden icon, move the mouse to “transparency” and move to the desired percentage and click (left click).

If you want WinWarden to keep that setting for that window until you override the command, right click on the WinWarden icon again and select “Remember”.

Another useful feature of WinWarden is the “Always on top” feature which keeps a window on top of all others.  I find this useful when I want to take notes say from a website.  I’ll open a Word document, and make it small.  With “Always on top” my little Word window stays put when I go back to the website (or another document) to scroll up and down, click a link or whatever.

As I said I have found this functionality really useful.  

I hope you will to.

Jason

Using Launchy and Google Desktop together

In a previous post I explained the virtues of Launchy.  (Launchy is a free program which lets you launch any program, and even folders or files really easily).

Launchy can be taught what certain abbreviations mean and this learning function is really useful.

Here’s an example.  the first time I wrote in Word, Launchy guessed many different things, among them was Microsoft Wordpad.  There’s nothing wrong with Wordpad; it’s just that I meant “Microsoft WORD”.  So I actually wrote “Microsoft Word” in the search bar which Launchy then recognized.  I selected that entry and Word opened.  I then closed Word, called up Launchy again (by hitting Left ALT + Space – the default hotkeys for Launchy) and wrote “Word".  Launchy now knew that I meant Microsoft Word because I had just used it.  In fact I don’t use other programs beginning with “w” much so just hitting “w” has Launchy guessing “Word” and I just hit enter and it opens up.

In a similar way I taught Launchy that “g.” means Google Video, “ppt” means “Microsoft PowerPoint etc. – you get the picture. 

While Launchy can find individual documents (if you add “.doc”, “.txt” etc. to the extensions which Launch catalogs) it can’t find documents based in words that appear in the body of the document.

But that’s OK because there’s another great free utility which does that really well, as well as it does it on the web:  Google Desktop.  (Once installed, Google Desktop opens when you hit the left control button twice)

Google desktop is great at finding document names and words or phrases within documents.

Once I realized this, I had Launchy ONLY catalog programs (.exe) and program shortcuts (.lnk) and folders (.directory) because Launch, as I explained above is smart and can learn abbreviations I use it only for programs and folders.  I use Google Desktop to find individual files by file name and by words and phrases within files – a wining combo – each – Launchy and Google Desktop doing what it does best.

Jason

P.S. the search window for both Launchy and Google Desktop appear and disappear via the same key combinations.

For Launchy that is Left Alt + the Space bar - hit this combination once and the searhc window appears, hit it agina and it disappears.

For Googe Desktop that is the left "Ctrl" (Control) button - hit this combination once and the searhc window appears, hit it agina and it disappears.

P.S.  If your Launchy closes, which happens sometimes and you start it up again and discover that the directory was wiped out (if you type something and Launchy has no suggestions you know this has happened) just open Launchy and right click just under the Launchy window.  Hit “options” and “catalog” and then select “rescan catalog” and Launchy will rebuild the catalog.  (You may have to teach it again as per the explanation above)

Taking Control of Windows

As I’ve shown repeatedly in this blog, Windows can be improved in many ways.

There's a nice free program called WinWarden.  (Actually there are lots of great free programs at the same website – worth checking out)

Some things WinWarden does can be done without it.  E.g.:

You can change the shape and size of any window in Windows by clicking the middle of the three icons in the top left-hand corner of any window.

 

in particular THIS one:

And dragging the edges of the window to get the desired size.

With WInWarden you can re-size windows quickly to certain useful sizes.

Right-clicking on the WinWarden icon

 

brings up the following menu:

Hovering the mouse over “Cover” brings up another menu:

I find this very useful whenever I need to compare two documents or copy between them.

Select e.g. “Right Half” for one document and “Left Half” for another

(the menu works for the currently active window) and within a couple of clicks you have a divided screen with one document on each of the two halves of the screen.  (If you prefer “Top Half” and “Bottom Half” – same idea).

Now THIS is new … after having chosen “Right Ha;f” (or “Left Half”) right click on the WinWarden system tray menu again and hit “Remember”.  Now, even if you go to something else in the meantime, when you come back to the relevant document(s) the settings will be as before.

Here’s an example of two files locked into the right and left halves of the screen:

There are other functionality enhancements that come with WinWarden but more on that next time.

Jason

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