Ovation Pro Extras - Cookies & button bar

by Tony Howat and Richard Hallas

Requires Ovation Pro

Running the application from the RISC User menu system opens a directory containing the new Ovation Pro resources.

Cookies
This new applet accompanies the Customising Ovation Pro article in the magazine. In order to make use of it, you should copy it into the !OvnPro.Applets directory within your copy of Ovation Pro. A Cookies entry will then appear on Ovation Pro's Applets menu the next time you load the program.

Cookies is a new, more advanced version of the Cookies applet that was published on the previous RISC User disc. Previously, choosing the Cookies option from Ovation Pro's Applets menu would just insert a random fortune cookie at the caret position. Now, a window is opened containing the random cookie. Action buttons are provided so that you can choose another random cookie, or write the displayed cookie to the caret.

Multi-row button bar
This new three-row button bar accompanies the Recreating RISC User article in the magazine. It replaces Ovation Pro's standard single-row button bar with a much more useful three-row one, which provides a lot more buttons than normal, organised into a convenient layout.

To try out the new button bar without committing yourself to installing it permanently, simply double-click on the !Macros file on the RISC User disc. Any Ovation Pro windows that are already open will change immediately to use the new button bar.

In order to install the button bar permanently, just double-click on the !Install file. Note that this installer is non-destructive: it moves your existing button bar definition file (the !Macros file that's already inside your copy of Ovation Pro) up one directory level, out of the !OvnPro.AutoRun directory into the main application, and renames it as Old!Macros. Then it copies the new file where the old one used to be. Should you wish to remove the three-row button bar, simply reverse this process manually: open up !OvnPro.AutoRun, delete the !Macros file, move the Old!Macros file into that directory and finally rename it as !Macros.

Copyright  RISC User magazine 1998