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.

Choosing dimensions for OutlookBar is easy. The height can be almost anything you like, as long as all buttons are visible and there is a space for the items to be shown. OutlookBar adds scroll buttons to allow hidden items to be scrolled into view, but it will help your users if you make the applet as tall as possible.

The width must be enough to display all button-text, and to display the images can their captions (depending which of these elements is widest).

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 OutlookBar's main panel, the area where the items are shown. The default value is FFFFFF (white). If you set a BgGradientColor to use a gradient fill, the BgColor forms the top or left color of the gradient. The BgColor is also used (always without a gradient) while OutlookBar is loading images. (Note that OutlookBar 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.)

BgGradientColor
This optional parameter lets you use a gradient fill for the main panel where the items are shown. The default color is F4F3EE (very light gray). If you want a solid (non-gradient) background, set the color to match your BgColor.

BgGradientVertical
A choice of 'yes' or 'no' according to whether the main panel's gradient should be vertical ('yes') or horizontal ('no'). The default value is yes.

ButtonAnimationAmount
A number which sets the speed of animation when a button is clicked and its page and items scroll into view. The default value is 10; larger values produce faster animation.

ButtonColor
Sets the fill color of OutlookBar's buttons. The default color is ECE9D8 (tan).

ButtonGradientColor
Sets an optional gradient color for the buttons, creating a vertical gradient-fill. The default is to match your ButtonColor (in other words, if this parameter is missing or blank, the buttons will have a solid color).

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

ButtonHandCursor
A choice of 'yes' or 'no' to whether a hand-cursor should be shown when the mouse moves over a button. The default value is no.

ButtonTextColor
Sets the color of the text shown on the buttons. The default color is 000000 (black).

ButtonTextFocusColor
Sets the color of text on a button when the mouse moves over it. The default is 316AC5 (light blue).

ButtonTextAlign
Sets the alignment of text on the buttons, from a choice of 'left', 'center' or 'right'. The default is left.

Button3D
A choice of 'yes' or 'no' to whether buttons should be 3-dimensional or flat. The default is yes.

Button3DRaise
If Button3D is set to 'yes', this parameter lets you choose whether buttons should get a thicker 3D border when the mouse moves over them. Choose 'yes' to show the ticker border, or 'no' to leave the button style unchanged. (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'no'.)

Button3DHighlightColor
If Button3D is set to 'yes', this parameter sets the color of the two highlighted edges of the buttons. The default color is FFFFFF (white). (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'no'.)

Button3DShadowColor
If Button3D is set to 'yes', this parameter sets the color of the two shadowed edges of the buttons. The default color is ACA899 (brown). (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'no'.)

FlatButtonBorderColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the color of all button borders. The default color is ACA899 (brown). (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

FlatButtonBorderFocusColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the color of a button's borders when the mouse moves over it. The default color is 316AC5 (light blue). (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

FlatButtonFocusColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the color of a button when the mouse moves over it. The default color is BDCFEC (light blue). (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

FlatButtonFocusGradientColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the lower color of a gradient-filled button when the mouse moves over it. If this parameter is blank, the FlatButtonFocusColor will be used, resulting in a non-gradient fill. (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

FlatButtonSelectColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the color of a button when selected. The default is to match your ButtonColor. (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

FlatButtonSelectGradientColor
If Button3D is set to 'no', this parameter sets the lower color of a gradient-filled button when selected. If this parameter is blank, the ButtonColor will be used. (This parameter is ignored if Button3D is 'yes'.)

DefaultTarget
Every button 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 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).

ItemFont
Sets the name, size and style of font to use for the captions of items, with each part separated by commas. The default is Sans,8,plain. This parameter is constructed in exactly the same way as ButtonFont.

ItemHandCursor
A choice of 'yes' or 'no' according to whether a hand-cursor should be shown when the mouse moves over an item. The default is yes.

ItemTextColor
Sets the text color of items' captions. The default color is 000000 (black).

ItemTextFocusColor
Sets the text color of an item's caption when the mouse moves over the item. The default color is 316AC5 (light blue).

ItemSpacing
Sets the amount of vertical spacing between the items. The default value is 10 pixels, and the minimum value is 2.

LoadProgressBorderColor
While OutlookBar loads the images for the items, it displays a progress bar. This parameter sets the border color of that bar. The default is 000000 (black).

LoadProgressFillColor
This parameter sets the fill color of the progress bar (the part of the bar that indicates the loading progress). The default is 00FF00 (green). (The background color of the progress bar will match your BgColor.)

LoadText
Specifies the text to be displayed while OutlookBar loads the images you are using. The default text is Loading images.... The text you choose must be short enough to fit into the width of the applet - OutlookBar does not wrap this text onto a second line.

LoadTextColor
Sets the color of the LoadText shown while OutlookBar loads images. The default is 000000 (black).

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).

PageAnimationAmount
A number which sets the speed of animation when a scroll-arrow is clicked and held down to scroll through the items in the current page. The default value is 3; larger values produce faster animation.

ScrollArrowColor
Sets the color of the two scroll arrows shown when there are more items below a button which can be scrolled into view. The default color is ACA899 (tan).

ScrollArrowBorderColor
Sets the color of the borders around the scroll arrows. The default color is ACA899 (tan).

SelectorBorderColor
When the mouse moves over an item or one of the scroll buttons, a selector rectangle is shown. This parameter sets the color of the selector's border. The default is 316AC5 (light blue).

SelectorFillColor
Sets the fill-color of the selector shown when the mouse moves over an item or a scroll arrow. The default is BDCFEC (light blue).

SelectorFillOpacity
Sets the opacity of the selector's fill color, with a value from 0 (completely transparent) to 100 (completely opaque). The default value is 35.

SelectedButton
A number which specifies the button that should be selected when OutlookBar starts. One button must always be selected, and that button's items will be visible. The default is 1 (to select the top-most button).

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.

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.

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

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

SplitScrollArrows
A choice of Yes or No to specify where the scroll arrows should appear on the page. The default is No, placing both arrows at the top of the page. If this parameter is set to 'Yes', the buttons are split apart, leaving the Up button at the top of the page and moving the Down button to the bottom.

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: 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 four parameters below place buttons into the menu. Clicking a button causes OutlookBar's buttons to rearrange themselves, revealing the items that the selected button contains. A button can also link to a URL when clicked. You must include at least one Button parameter, or OutlookBar 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 buttons, but you forget to include a Button4 parameter, OutlookBar 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 OutlookBar to display for each button. The buttons will be displayed in a column in numerical order, starting from 1, and you can include as many buttons as you like.

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 item 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.

Message1, Message2, ..., Message_n
An optional text message which will be displayed in the browser's status bar (in compatible browsers) when the mouse moves over the button with the same number.

Items
These parameters create 'items' for each of the buttons, which are revealed when their button has been selected. An 'item' must specify either an Image or a text caption (or both). The parameters are all prefixed with a number and a hyphen. The number refers to the Button you are adding this item to: 1-Image1 is the first item added to Button1. 1-Image2 is the second item for Button1 and so on. To add items to Button3, you would use 3-Image1, 3-Image2, and so on.

The Item, URL, Target and Message parameters for the item should be numbered exactly the same way as the Item parameter they work with.

1-Image1, 1-Image2, ..., 1-Image_n
These parameters specify the absolute or relative URL of the image to display for this item. Every item must display either an image or a caption, but can display both. All images must have the same dimensions: we recommend using images between 24 and 40 pixels wide/high. (The images do not have to be square - you can use 24x24 images, or 20x30 images, it's up to you as long as each is the same.) Flash applets support only non-progressive JPEG images. To use GIF images, allowing transparency, you must convert the images to Shockwave Flash (SWF) format. Our Design Studio application can do this for you.

1-Item1, 1-Item2, ..., 1-Item_n
These parameters specify the text you want OutlookBar to display below the item's image. You don't have to include an Item parameter if you only want to display an image for an item. You can create line-breaks in the text using a pipe symbol (|). So this value: Go|Home  would display like this:

 Go
Home

1-URL1, 1-URL2, ..., 1-URL_n
The optional URL to which the Item with the same numeric prefix and suffix should link when clicked. 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.

1-Target1, 1-Target2, ..., 1-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.

1-Message1, 1-Message2, ..., 1-Message_n
An optional text message which will be displayed in the browser's status bar (in compatible browsers) when the mouse moves over the Item with the same numeric prefix and suffix.