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Actual Window Manager Reviewer's Guide
The main purpose of this guide is to reveal the key topics that are likely to be of interest and to provide a product reviewer with all necessary information.
Contents:
- What is Actual Window Manager?
- Who uses Actual Window Manager?
- Getting started
- Points of interest
- Testimonials
- About Actual Tools
- Availability and Pricing
1. What is Actual Window Manager?
Actual Window Manager is a desktop organization application that introduces unconventional window navigation controls for more convenient and enjoyable working with the computer. Actual Window Manager includes all Actual Tools software. Actual Multiple Monitors gives you the best multi-monitor management. Actual Virtual Desktops gives you an opportunity to use virtual desktops on all monitors. Actual Title Buttons adds new Minimize to Tray, Stay on Top, Roll up, Move to Monitor, Maximize to Desktop, Set Priority, Make Transparent and other buttons to any window's title bar and context menu. Actual Window Guard allows you to keep your workspace in optimal condition for efficient and comfortable work.
Actual Window Manager increases productivity of a Personal Computer and consequently increases productivity of a person who works with it. Actual Window Manager decreases the time a person usually waste on switching between windows of different documents, keeps a desktop in order, increases productivity of work with two or more monitors and makes work convenient and comfortable. It can automate some routine window control operations so the user should not draw his/her attention away from some important idea to click the mouse to maximize a window, for example.
Figure 1. Actual Window Manager main window.
Actual Window Manager has many productivity tools, which people use to control windows, monitors, virtual desktops and etc. Users are able to minimize any window to tray or to any edge of the desktop, create desktop mirrors of windows, applications, displays; close annoying windows automatically, move windows between monitors for one click, maximize certain windows or minimize them on startup, save and restore any window's size and position and much more. Every our client finds in Actual Window Manager something interesting for him or her:
- "I use Actual Window Manager in different ways for different applications. I used to be constantly annoyed that HTML Help windows would not remember their size and position - now I know they will show up in exactly the size and position that I want."
Mount Shasta, CA
- "The upgrade to Windows Service Pack 2 (SP2) delivers a special upgrade for Tablet users that completely reworked handwriting-to-text translation. The upgrade is a huge improvement but it comes at a price. The handwriting input is done through a floating Input Panel that grows in size as you write. The growing Input Panel slowly obscures everything on your screen until you enter the text. There is a piece of freeware someone developed for the pre-SP2 Tablet operating system that makes Input Panel partially transparent, but it doesn't work on the new Input Panel.
Actual Window Manager comes to the rescue with Window Rules and transparency. By creating a Window Rule for Input Panel, you can make it transparent to whatever degree of opacity you want!"
Willow Grove, PA
2. Who uses Actual Window Manager?
Computers all over the world become more and more powerful so people use more programs simultaneously and that is why we have a need for such an instrument as Actual Window Manager. Our software is intended for a broad range of Windows users who want to have a better control of their desktop and escape from thousands of needless and tedious manipulations with windows. Numerous researches have shown a considerable increase of productivity when users simultaneously work with several monitors and large amount of windows controlled by Actual Window Manager. The audience of Actual Window Manager is large, just to name a few groups: home users, online traders, various officers (lawyers, accountants, help desk assistants) and IT professionals, such as system administrators, programmers, web designers, web developers and others.
3. Getting started
The system requirements are as follows:OS: Windows 7/Server/ Vista/2008/XP/2003/2000
CPU: PIII 500 MHz or equivalent
RAM: 128MB Ram
Installation:
Actual Window Manager installation consists of a few easy steps and doesn't take much time. You should just follow the Actual Window Manager Setup Wizard.
Figure 2 and 3. Actual Window Manager Setup Wizard.
4. Points of interest
The following list of Actual Window Manager's full functionality may give you a certain insight of what benefits a user can expect from the program:
- Full Windows integration
- Individual settings for every window .
- Multiple Monitors Support
- Multi-Monitor taskbar
- Desktop Mirroring
- Desktop Management
- Easy Navigation
- Virtual Desktop
- Transparency effect
- Minimizing
- Stay on Top
- Roll-Up/Unroll
- Hotkeys support
- Windows 7 visual style support
Actual Window Manager adds new buttons to each window's title bar. These buttons look and work like standard Windows buttons. Besides, Actual Window Manager expands each window's system menu. Click the right mouse button on window's title bar to change window settings.
Figure 4. New buttons in window title bar and large system menu.
You can easily set your options for any window or application individually and save them. It allows you configuring your windows as you like.
Figure 5. Actual Window Manager settings for the most popular applications.
Today, more and more people use at work and at home two or more monitors, so the AWM gives many various opportunities to improve the work with multiple monitors:
Actual Window Manager gives a unique taskbar to all monitors. Each taskbar has the Start button, Show Desktop button, clock, notification area, toolbars and allows using all Windows features (including those introduced in Windows 7). You can use Pin to taskbar, Jump Lists, Aero Peek, Aero Shake, etc. on all taskbars.
Figure 6. Multi-Monitor Taskbar.
It allows you creating mirrors on your desktop. You can mirror area around the mouse pointer, arbitrary part of desktop, specified window or particular monitor. With Desktop Mirroring, you can solve many problems when working with multiple monitors. For example, use one monitor to mirror only necessary information to client.
Figure 7. Desktop Mirroring.
Actual Window Manager allows managing Screensaver and Background. You can set different wallpapers (or screensavers) on each monitor, one picture (screensaver) across all monitors and much more.
Figure 8. Desktop Management.
There are two additional title buttons in Actual Window Manager to manage windows with work on multiple monitors - Move to next monitor (or monitor number #) and Maximize to Desktop (to all visible area).
As a multi-tasking OS, Windows allows you running multiple programs simultaneously. As a result, you have a few windows open at any time. However, when working with lots of applications, your desktop can easily become overcrowded. Actual Window Manager will help you resolve this problem. You can allocate and classify all of your windows by moving them to virtual desktops.
Virtual Desktops provides a "virtual" space as if you have several logical monitors instead of a single physical one. You can extend the real estate of the workspace and move a window from virtual desktop 1 to virtual desktop 2 etc. (the actual number of virtual desktops is not limited!). Actual Window Manager optimizes the work with several tasks and you get a quick access to all launched applications thus reducing the single-desktop clutter. It usually helps when work with one monitor, but in today's world, even with multiple monitors, you may not have enough space on one desktop at work with lots of windows and applications.
Figure 9. Virtual Desktop.
With Transparency effect, it is very easy to organize many windows opened simultaneously. Along with common techniques of switching between application windows, Actual Window Manager offers depth-based window ordering thanks to fully customizable transparency levels that can be saved individually for each window. For example, while typing something in MS Word, you need to follow information in the Internet browser window - just push Win-Y (it toggles the transparent effect on/off), and the Word window will become transparent allowing you view the contents of the underlying browser window.
Figure 10. Transparency context menu.
to a small icon in the system tray lets you save the taskbar space while providing access to minimized applications via the system tray icons. If you often open several windows simultaneously and keep an eye on the refreshment of information on them, you can also minimize them to tray, to avoid closing them by mistake. And when this information is required again, you can open this window and see what has changed. If you are interested in the latest news or wait for an answer in forum or eager to know the refreshment of quotations of rate, Actual Window Manager will not let you miss anything;
Figure 11. Browser windows are minimized to a system tray.
The 'Stay on Top' feature helps you place the selected windows on top of other ones, so that it is always accessible and are not hidden by other windows.
Figure 12. With the e-mail pinned on top, you can drag and drop all day without actively switching windows.
This feature is extremely useful when you drag-and-drop some information from E-mail to your contacts or content in MS Word.
Manual, automatic and mix controls. If you often write letters or articles based on some information from the Internet, Roll up function will be convenient.
Figure 13. By rolling up and pinning the e-mail you can quickly check information underneath.
The document can be reduced so only the title bar remains visible. You can look through or check the data in the web and then restore the text of the letter by clicking Unroll button.
You can minimize programs to the system tray, always keep them on top, roll up windows, make them semi-transparent, etc. with customizable keystroke combinations.
Figure 14. Hot key support is a very convenient way to control windows.
5. Testimonials
"As traders, we are always looking for ways to increase the space on our monitors and your Actual Window Manager is a real time-saver."
"I've been using "Actual Tools" products now since the beginning and have enjoyed every aspect of their features. They have always treated me more than fair and I would recommend their software to all interested parties. Keep up the great development, guys. All I can say is, try it, you'll like it and come back for more!"
"I do a lot of work with up to 10 windows open at a time, and it's nice to be able to sit a document with valid info always on top to copy from it to other programs."
"This product is one that has become more and more valuable to me as I do a great deal of work with network administration and remote administration."
"I just brought your "Actual Window Manager" and it is excellent. Also It has replaced several other programs that only did a little of what your programs IS doing. The others said that their program would do certain thinks but didn't: yours is doing these well."
"I like to keep a small Excel window on top of another application... This is of great benefit, as it allows me to remain more focused on the mental processes involved"
6. About Actual Tools
Founded in 2001, Actual Tools is a quickly developing interactive software company, focused on developing, publishing and distributing desktop enhancement applications that add a new look and feel to an average Windows operated PC system. The company's flagship product Actual Window Manager has become a "must-have-software" in homes and offices in more than 100 countries.7. Availability and Pricing
Actual Window Manager is available as 60-days trial download. Actual Tools offers multiple-user discounts on licenses for Actual Window Manager, starting at US $49.95 for a single-user license. The details are available at http://www.ActualTools.com/ .If you have some questions concerning our software or need some additional information, please contact us at press@actualtools.com . We are always happy to help you!
Product page link: http://www.ActualTools.com/windowmanager/
Direct Download link: http://www.ActualTools.com/files/aimsetup.exe
E-mail: support@actualtools.com
Company web-site: http://www.ActualTools.com
All screenshots used in the text of Reviewer's Guide are available in original resolution on http://www.ActualTools.com/press/review/img.zip
