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Success Story of Kyle Rich:
Customize Internet Explorer, Acrobat Reader and Windows Paint for Better results.
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Review info: Reviewer: Kyle Rich Residence: Salt Lake City, UT Published Date: March 5, 2003 Actual Window Manager: Home Page Download Now! Articles |
There are several articles written that give examples of windows you can minimize to your tray, or that you can make transparent. This is redundant, however, because it is advertised that ANY window can be made see-through, or minimized to the system tray. It is much more productive, however, to see examples of things that are genuinely and functionally useful! Though these ideas are NOT going to rock your world, here are a few uses to which I have thus far put Actual Window Manager, starting with the least ground-shaking.
Program to customize: Internet Explorer
No matter what I do, it seems that Internet Explorer always opens at a size less than the full screen. I like surfing the web with the maximum viewable area, because the Internet is full of information, and the bigger the window, the more information on screen at any given time. With Actual Window Manager, I was able to specify that any instance of Internet Explorer is to be run maximized. Long have I cursed Microsoft for making windows work like this, and now do I bless Actual Tools for granting me this fix!
Program to customize: Adobe Acrobat Reader
Anyone who has had access to the Internet for a half year will have come across a PDF document, which opens in Adobe Acrobat Reader. But did you know that there are full fiction and non-fiction novels available in PDF form? Having read many books on my computer, I've grown tired of the plain white background nearly always present in a PDF document. With Actual Window Manager, I was able to spice up my reading experience.
First, you make Adobe Acrobat Reader transparent. You must do this (as far as I've been able to tell) by opening Acrobat Reader without opening a document into it, and THEN creating your window rule. Then set a nice ambient (colorful?) desktop background, and disable desktop icons temporarily (Windows XP users only), open your book in Adobe, maximize it, (Ctrl-L) and fit to width (Ctrl-2). This makes my readings as big as possible, and gives me the beauty of my very own desktop to enhance the mood. :)
Program to customize: Windows Paint
Have you ever found a picture, an animation, an icon, avatar, or design element you liked on a webpage that you wanted to copy and color your own way?
By opening Microsoft Paint and making it transparent, it would be easily possible to TRACE the outline of any image that strikes your fancy, allowing you to color it in with the "Fill with color" tool. (Just don't forget to make sure you close all outlines you draw, so you don't end up coloring your whole new picture...)
Just don't forget -- these are naught but ideas. With Actual Window Manager, you can customize any window to appear any way you look! Experiment, be creative, have fun, and increase productivity all with Actual Window Manager.
Salt Lake City, UT
