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.

The applet can be as wide or as narrow as you like, provided it's wide enough to display the text on the buttons. Any extra width will be divided equally between each button. The applet's height must be sufficient to display the upper panel (containing the status area, icons and caption) and the lower panel of buttons. Any unused space below the buttons will be filled with your chosen BgColor.

To avoid the trial-and-error of finding the best size, set the Testmode parameter to 'yes' and click anywhere inside the applet: the minimum width and height will be shown in a tooltip message. You can then edit the HTML code and set Testmode back to 'no'.

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, which is visible as the border around the applet and two thin horizontal lines within the applet. This color is also used to fill any 'dead space' below the applet if its height is taller than needed. The default value is 000000 (black). (Note that NeonBar 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.)

ButtonStartColor
Sets the gradient start-color of buttons when unfocused. The default is to match your chosen PanelStartColor.

ButtonEndColor
Sets the gradient end-color of buttons when unfocused. The default is to match your chosen PanelEndColor.

ButtonExtraHeight
Specifies the number of extra pixels to add to the height of the buttons. The text on the buttons remains vertically centered. The default is 4.

ButtonFont
Sets the name, size and style of font to use for the text on the buttons, 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.

ButtonGradientType
Sets the gradient style of the buttons, from a choice of Radial (a flat button) or Linear (a 3D curved style). The default is Linear. (If no gradient is wanted, set the ButtonStartColor and ButtonEndColor to the same value.)

ButtonTextAlign
A choice of left, right or center to specify the alignment of text on the buttons. The default is center.

ButtonTextColor
Sets the color of the text on a button when unfocused. The default is C0C0CC (light gray).

ButtonTextFocusColor
Sets the color of the text on buttons when the mouse moves over them, with a default of F0F0FF (blue-white). Individual buttons can override this with their own TextFocusColor parameters.

ButtonFocusStartColor
Sets the gradient start-color of buttons when focused, with a default of FF0000 (red). Individual buttons can override this with their own FocusStartColor parameters.

ButtonFocusEndColor
Sets the gradient end-color of buttons when focused, with a default of 800000 (mid-red). Individual buttons can override this with their own FocusEndColor parameters.

CaptionFont
Sets the name, size and style of the font used to display the optional Caption. The default is Sans,8,plain. This parameter is constructed in exactly the same way as the ButtonFont parameter.

CaptionText
Specifies the optional text-caption to display in the upper-right of the applet. If this parameter is blank (which is its default value) no caption will be displayed, and the other caption-related parameters will be ignored.

CaptionTextColor
Sets the color of the caption text shown at the top-right of the applet. The default is F0F0FF (blue-white).

CaptionTextShadowColor
Sets the color of the text shadow applied to the caption. The default is 000000 (black).

CaptionTextShadowOffset
Sets the number of pixels by which the caption shadow should be offset from the caption both vertically and horizontally. This may be a positive or a negative number. The default is -2. If no shadow is wanted, set this value to 0.

HomeIconStatusText
If ShowHomeIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the text shown in the status area when the mouse moves over the Home icon. The default text is Back to the home page.

HomeTarget
If ShowHomeIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the name of the frame or window into which the HomeURL should open. If this is left blank, the frame name set in the DefaultTarget parameter will be used.

HomeURL
If ShowHomeIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the absolute or relative URL to link to when the Home icon is clicked.

IconColor
If ShowHomeIcon and/or ShowMailIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the color of the icon(s) when unfocused. The default is 808080 (gray).

IconFocusColor
If ShowHomeIcon and/or ShowMailIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the color of an icon when the mouse moves over it. The default is F0F0FF (blue-white).

MailIconStatusText
If ShowMailIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the text shown in the status area when the mouse moves over the Mail icon. The default text is Send email.

MailTarget
If ShowMailIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the name of the frame or window into which the MailURL should open. If this is left blank, the frame name set in the DefaultTarget parameter will be used. If the MailURL is a mailto: URL, this parameter is ignored.

MailURL
If ShowMailIcon is set to 'yes', this sets the absolute or relative URL to link to when the Home icon is clicked. This may be a mailto: link to an email address, or a link to a web page (or just about anything else, of course).

ShowHomeIcon
A choice of yes or no according to whether you want to display the Home icon in the upper panel. The default is yes.

ShowMailIcon
A choice of yes or no according to whether you want to display the Mail icon in the upper panel. The default is yes.

StartStatusText
Sets the initial text (such as a Welcome message) shown in the status area when the applet starts. The default is blank (no text).

StartStatusTextColor
Sets the color of the starting text shown in the status area. The default is to use your chosen StatusTextColor.

StatusFadeSpeed
Sets the speed of the fade effect used for text in the status area. The default value is 2 and the minimum value is 1. For faster fading, include this parameter with a higher value.

StatusFillColor
Sets the fill color of the status area. The default is 000000 (black).

StatusFont
Sets the name, size and style of the font used to display text in the status area. The default is Sans,8,plain. This parameter is constructed in exactly the same way as the ButtonFont parameter.

StatusTextAlign
Sets the alignment of the text displayed in the status area, from a choice of Left, Center or Right. The default is Left.

StatusTextColor
If StatusUseButtonColor is set to 'no', this parameter sets the color of the text shown in the status area. The default is F0F0FF (blue-white).

StatusUseButtonColor
A choice of yes or no to specify whether the text shown in the status area should always match the color of the focused button. The default is no (meaning that the color set in the StatusTextColor parameter will be used).

DefaultTarget
Every button can link to a separate URL, and it can open it into a separate frame or window: we provide numbered Target parameters for that. Similarly, the Home and Mail icons can act as links to web pages, and there are HomeTarget and MailTarget parameters for those too. However, you probably want most (or maybe all) of these 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 also 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).

LineColor
Sets the color of the two thin horizontal lines shown above and below the buttons. This color is used when no button is focused. (When a button is focused, the color of the lines is taken from the button's own color or from the button's individual LineColor parameter.) The default color is 800000 (mid-red).

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).

PanelStartColor
Sets the gradient start-color of the panel above the buttons, which contains the status area, caption and home/mail icons. The default is 606060 (dark gray).

PanelEndColor
Sets the gradient end-color of the panel above the buttons. The default is 131313 (very dark gray). If no gradient effect is wanted for the panel, set this color to match your chosen PanelStartColor.

SelectedButton
If the Sticky parameter is set to 'Yes', this parameter can be used to specify that a particular button should be selected (highlighted) when the applet starts. The value is the number of the button to be selected, where 1 is the left-most button. The default value is 0, meaning no button is selected. If no button should be selected at startup, either set this value to 0 or remove it from 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.

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

SoundButtonHover
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse moves over a button. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

SoundButtonRelease
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse is released after clicking a button. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

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

SoundIconHover
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse moves over the Home or Mail icon. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

SoundIconRelease
Specifies the absolute or relative URL of an MP3 audio file to play when the mouse is released after clicking the Home or Mail icon. If you don't want to play a sound for this event, just leave this parameter out of your datafile.

Sticky
A choice of yes or no, according to whether the last-clicked button should be shown as selected (and remain selected until another button is clicked). The default is no. This parameter must be set to 'yes' in order to use the SelectedButton parameter, and our PageSync and Item Selection features.

Testmode
A yes or no value, with a default of 'no'. This parameter is included in most Cool Focus Flash applets, and is used to help you determine the best width and 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 width and height displayed in a tooltip message, and you can copy these values 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.

Note 1: The Height value shown is the exact required height. Any extra height will be filled with BgColor, but will not be used by the applet. Note 2: If you've specified a list of font names in the applet's font parameters, it's a good idea to check that the applet will be big enough whichever of those fonts is used: with Testmode set to 'yes', move each font name to the beginning of the list and refresh the page to see if Testmode reports that larger dimensions are needed.

Buttons
The parameters below are the most important ones: they create the buttons to be displayed by NeonBar, the URLs each button should link to, and display options for each button. You must include at least one Button parameter or NeonBar will display nothing at all!

The parameters all have numbers after their names, and the numbers you use must be consecutive, starting from 1. If you want to include 6 buttons, but you forget to include a Button4 parameter, NeonBar will stop looking for any more, and will only find buttons 1 to 3.

Button1, Button2, ..., Button_n
These parameters specify the text you want NeonBar to display for each button. The buttons will displayed in numerical order, starting from 1, and you can include as many items as you like, subject only to the width of the applet.

URL1, URL2, ..., URL_n
The optional URL to which the button with the same number should link when clicked. If you don't want the button to act as a link, don't include a URL parameter for it. To make items behave like links in all respects except linking somewhere (which can be useful for testing), use a dollar sign ($, or when encoded, %24) as the first character of the URL.

Target1, Target2, ..., Target_n
The name of the frame or window into which the 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.

TextFocusColor1, TextFocusColor2, ..., TextFocusColor_n
Specifies an individual color to use for the text on the button with the same number when the mouse moves over it. If you don't include a TextFocusColor parameter for a button, the color set in the default ButtonTextFocusColor parameter will be used.

FocusStartColor1, FocusStartColor2, ..., FocusStartColor_n
Sets the gradient start-color of the button with the same number when focused. If blank, the default ButtonFocusStartColor will be used.

FocusEndColor1, FocusEndColor2, ..., FocusEndColor_n
Sets the gradient end-color of the button with the same number when focused. If blank, the default ButtonFocusEndColor will be used.

LineColor1, LineColor2, ..., LineColor_n
Sets the color of the thin horizontal lines above and below the buttons when the button with the same number is focused. If blank, the color will be derived automatically from the button's focus-color.

StatusText1, StatusText2, ..., StatusText_n
Specifies the text to be shown in the status area when the button with the same number is focused. The default is blank (no text).

Message1, Message2, ..., Message_n
Specifies an optional message to display in the browser's status bar (in compatible browsers) when the mouse moves over the button with the same number. The default is blank (no message).