Width & Height
The width and height of the applet are set in the HTML code you add to the web page. Be sure to change the dimensions in the <object> and the <embed> tags.

Gridlock's height must be sufficient to display the menu bars for all the required levels (maximum 3 bars, which is usually less than 80 pixels, depending on your parameter settings). To avoid the trial-and-error of finding the best height, set the Testmode parameter to 'yes' and click anywhere inside the applet: the minimum height will be shown in a tooltip message. You can then edit the HTML code and set Testmode back to 'no'.

Gridlock's width can be almost anything you like. Scroll arrows are added automatically to the ends of bars if needed, so all buttons are always available. Obviously, the wider the applet, the more items users can see at once without needing to scroll.

Parameters
The parameters below should be added to your datafile in the form NAME=VALUE (for instance, BgColor=FF0000). Each parameter should be on a separate line. You can leave blank lines in the list to organize the parameters into groups if you want to. The parameter names are not case-sensitive, and neither are the values, so BgColor=FF0000 is the same as bgcolor=ff0000. You can add the parameters to your file in any order. Most parameters have a default value which we show in bold text below: if you don't include the parameter in your datafile, the default value will be used automatically.

BgColor
Sets the background color of the applet. The default value is FFFFFF (white). (Note that Gridlock can only change the background color after it has loaded. To have the same background color shown before the browser starts loading the applet, change the BgColor setting in the HTML code too.)

BgContent
The absolute or relative URL of an optional JPEG of SWF image placed behind the menu bars, such as a site logo. This fills the 'dead space' below the top-level bar.

BgContentLeft
Sets the horizontal position of the BgContent image (if used) in pixels. The default value is 0 and any positive or negative value is allowed.

BgContentTop
Sets the vertical position of the BgContent image (if used) in pixels. The default value is 0 and any positive or negative value is allowed. If FullWidthCaptionBar is set to Yes, the 0 position corresponds to the point immediately below the first-level bar. Otherwise 0 is the top of the applet area.

CaptionStartColor
Sets the upper color of a gradient-filled top-level menu bar. The default is 808080 (gray).

CaptionEndColor
Sets the lower color of a gradient-filled top-level menu bar. The default is 333333 (dark gray). If this parameter is blank (or left out of your datafile), no gradient will be used and the bar will be colored with CaptionStartColor.

CaptionSelectStartColor
Sets the upper color of a gradient-filled top-level menu bar caption when the caption is selected. The default is to match your CaptionEndColor.

CaptionSelectEndColor
Sets the lower color of a gradient-filled top-level menu bar caption when the caption is selected. The default is to match your CaptionStartColor.

CaptionArrowColor
Sets the color of the arrow symbol in the scroll buttons at either end of the top-level bar. The default is C0C0C0 (silver).

CaptionArrowFocusColor
Sets the color of the arrow symbol in the scroll buttons at either end of the top-level bar when the mouse moves over the scroll button. The default is 00FF00 (bright green).

CaptionTextColor
Sets the text color of Captions in the top-level bar. The default is C0C0C0 (silver).

CaptionTextFocusColor
Sets the text color of a Caption in the top-level bar when the mouse moves over it. The default is F0F0FF (white).

CaptionTextSelectColor
Sets the text color of a Caption in the top-level bar when selected. The default is 00FF00 (bright green).

CaptionSeparatorColor
Sets the color of the thin vertical separator lines between each Caption in the top-level bar. The default is 505050 (dark gray).

CaptionExtraHeight
Applies an optional amount of extra vertical padding to captions in the top level menu bar. This value can be anything from 0 upwards, and the default is 4. (Odd numbers will have 1 added automatically to allow even distribution of the padding above and below the text.)

CaptionExtraWidth
Applies an optional amount of extra horizontal padding to captions in the top level menu bar. This value can be anything from 0 upwards, and the default is 8. (Odd numbers will have 1 added automatically to allow even distribution of the padding either side of the text.)

CaptionFont
Sets the name, size and style of font to use for the top-level Captions, with each part separated by commas. The default is Sans,8,plain.

• Name: You can include any number of font names, separated by pipe symbols (|), and the applet will use the first font available on the user's system. To ensure compatibility, finish with one of these generic names: Sans, Serif or Typewriter.
  
• Size: The size of the font in points.
  
• Style: The style can be plain, bold, italic or bold-italic.

ItemStartColor
Sets the upper color of a gradient-filled 2nd or 3rd-level menu bar. The default is 808080 (gray).

ItemEndColor
Sets the lower color of a gradient-filled 2nd or 3rd-level menu bar. The default is 333333 (dark gray). If this parameter is blank (or left out of your datafile), no gradient will be used and the bar will be colored with ItemStartColor.

ItemSelectStartColor
Sets the upper color of a gradient-filled 2nd or 3rd-level menu bar item when the item is selected. The default is to match your ItemEndColor.

ItemSelectEndColor
Sets the lower color of a gradient-filled 2nd or 3rd-level menu bar item when the caption is selected. The default is to match your ItemStartColor.

ItemArrowColor
Sets the color of the arrow symbol in the scroll buttons at either end of the 2nd and 3rd-level menu bars. The default is C0C0C0 (silver).

ItemArrowFocusColor
Sets the color of the arrow symbol in the scroll buttons at either end of the 2nd or 3rd-level bars when the mouse moves over the scroll button. The default is 00FF00 (bright green).

ItemTextColor
Sets the text color of Items in the 2nd and 3rd-level bars. The default is C0C0C0 (silver).

ItemTextFocusColor
Sets the text color of an Item in a 2nd or 3rd-level bar when the mouse moves over it. The default is F0F0FF (white).

ItemTextSelectColor
Sets the text color of an Item in a 2nd or 3rd-level bar when selected. The default is 00FF00 (bright green).

ItemSeparatorColor
Sets the color of the thin vertical separator lines between each Item in the 2nd and 3rd-level bars. The default is 505050 (dark gray).

ItemExtraHeight
Applies an optional amount of extra vertical padding to Items in the 2nd and 3rd-level menu bars. This value can be anything from 0 upwards, and the default is 4. (Odd numbers will have 1 added automatically to allow even distribution of the padding above and below the text.)

ItemExtraWidth
Applies an optional amount of extra horizontal padding to Items in the 2nd or 3rd-level menu bars. This value can be anything from 0 upwards, and the default is 8. (Odd numbers will have 1 added automatically to allow even distribution of the padding either side of the text.)

ItemFont
Sets the name, size and style of font to use for the 2nd and 3rd-level Items, with each part separated by commas. The default is Sans,8,plain. This parameter is constructed in the same way as the CaptionFont.

SelectedCaption
Specifies the index of a top-level Caption to be selected when the applet starts. If no selection is wanted, set this to 0 (which is the default value). To select the first item in this bar, use 1, and so on.

SelectedItem
Sets the index of a second-level Item to be selected when the applet starts. The default is 0 (no selection). Note that this will be ignored if SelectedCaption is set to 0, or the selected caption doesn't contain an item with this index.

SelectedSubitem
Sets the index of a third-level Subitem to be selected when the applet starts. The default is 0 (no selection). Note that this will be ignored if SelectedCaption or SelectedItem are set to 0, or the selected 2nd-level item doesn't contain an item with this index.

Note: The three selection parameters above can be overridden on individual web pages using the Item Selection feature.

ArrowHandCursor
A choice of yes or no which specifies whether a hand cursor should be shown when the mouse moves over any scroll-button (at any level). The default is no.

ArrowWidth
A number which sets the width of the arrow scroll-buttons at all levels. The minimum value is 7 and the default value is 10.

DefaultTarget
Every caption and item can link to a separate URL, and it can open it into a separate frame or window: we provide numbered Target parameters for that. However, you probably want most (or maybe all) the links to open into one particular frame. Enter the frame name in this parameter, and every item without its own Target parameter will open the link into this 'default' frame. You can use the HTML names _self, _top, _parent, _blank or _new. If you leave this parameter out of your datafile, links will open into _self (the frame or window containing the applet).

FullWidthCaptionbar
A choice of yes or no, with a default of yes. If set to 'yes', the first level menu bar will extend the full width of the applet. If set to 'no', it will be autosized to match the width of the captions it contains.

Name
Specifies a name for this instance of the applet. This is only necessary if you are using the applet in conjunction with our free Satellite add-on, and it's explained in the documentation for Satellite, available from the Cool Focus web site. If you are not using Satellite with this applet, it's best not to include this parameter in your datafile (although nothing bad will happen if you do).

LimitWidth
A number parameter which can be used to limit the amount of horizontal space used by the menu bars. The default is 0, and any number lower than 100 is interpreted as 0. If the value is greater than 100, each menu bar's width will be limited to this amount, and the menu will be centered within the applet area. If the value is 0 (or any value less than 100), the bars will use the full width of the applet and the menu will be placed at the left of the applet area. (If you don't understand that, we don't blame you! The examples in this documentation show it more clearly than we can explain it.)

ScrollAmount
A number which specifies the distance in pixels to scroll a bar at each animation step. The default is 3. Use this in conjunction with ScrollDelay to fine-tune the scroll animation.

ScrollDelay
A number which specifies the delay in milliseconds between each animation step. The default is 3. Use this in conjunction with ScrollAmount to fine-tune the scroll animation.

SoundCaptionClick
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse is clicked on a top-level caption. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

SoundItemClick
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse is clicked on a 2nd or 3rd-level item. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

ShowVersion
A yes or no value. This parameter is included in all Cool Focus Flash applets, and its default is no. If set to 'yes', the version number of the applet (and other details) will be shown when the applet starts. This is included only for troubleshooting purposes, to help you determine which version of an applet you're using. It should be set to 'no' (or removed from your datafile) before you publish your page.

Note: If the applet is not registered, this information will always be shown when the applet starts, regardless of the ShowVersion parameter's setting.

Testmode
A yes or no value, with a default of 'no'. This parameter is included to help you determine the best height for the applet. (Because of this, it's best to use this parameter when you've got everything in the applet the way you want it.) Set this parameter to 'yes', then view the applet in your browser and click anywhere inside the applet. You'll see the minimum height displayed in a tooltip message, and you can copy this value into the page's HTML code. When you're done, remember to set the Testmode parameter back to 'no' or delete it from your datafile.

Transparent
A yes or no parameter, with a default of no. If set to 'yes', the area of the applet that would normally be filled with BgColor will be made transparent, showing the HTML content (such as a page background) behind the applet. Note that transparency severely affects the performance of any animated applet like Gridlock, making the scrolling very slow and choppy.

Captions
The three parameters below place menu captions onto the top-level menu bar. A caption can either act as a direct link to a web page (or some other resource) by including a URL parameter for it, or it can open second-level bar of items, or both.

You must include at least one Caption parameter, or Gridlock will display nothing at all!

The parameters all have numbers after their names, and the numbers must be consecutive, starting from 1. If you want to show 5 captions on the bar, but you forget to include a Caption4 parameter, Gridlock will stop looking for any more, and will only find captions 1 to 3.

Caption1, Caption2, ..., Caption_n
These parameters specify the text you want Gridlock to display for each menu caption. The captions will displayed in numerical order, starting from 1, and you can include as many captions as you like: scroll buttons will be added to the bar automatically to scroll hidden captions into view if necessary.

URL1, URL2, ..., URL_n
The optional URL to which the caption with the same number should link when clicked.

Target1, Target2, ..., Target_n
The name of the frame or window into which the caption URL with the same number should open. If you don't include this parameter, the frame name set in the DefaultTarget parameter will be used.

Items
The parameters below create up to 2 additional menu bars for each caption, which are shown when the mouse clicks over a caption. They are all prefixed with one or more numbers and hyphens (up to a maximum of 2 numbers and 2 hyphens) and have one number after their names. These numbers tell Gridlock which menu bar the item belongs to and which position it takes on that bar. Here's an explanation of the prefixes and suffix:

Suffix: The number that appears after the word Item (or URL, or Target) denotes its position on the menu. So Item1 appears at the left of the bar, Item2 is to its right, and so on.

Prefixes: The prefixes denote the item's parentage. For example, 1-Item2 means that if you click Caption1, you'll see this item on the second-level bar, second from the left. As another example, 1-4-Item2 means that if you click Caption 1, then click the fourth item from the left in the 2nd-level bar, you'll see this item on the third-level bar, second from the left.

1-Item1, 1-Item2, ..., 1-Item_n
These parameters specify the text you want Gridlock to display for each item. The items will displayed in numerical order, starting from 1, and you can include as many items on each bar as you like.

1-URL1, 1-URL2, ..., 1-URL_n
The optional URL to which the Item with the same numeric prefixes and suffix should link when clicked. Like a caption, an item on a second-level bar can open a URL, open a third-level bar, or both. (There is no fourth level, so an item on a third level bar should always sp[ecify a URL, otherwise it will do nothing at all when clicked!)

1-Target1, 1-Target2, ..., 1-Target_n
The name of the frame or window into which the URL with the same prefixes and suffix should open. If you don't include this parameter, the frame name set in the DefaultTarget parameter will be used.