The «Auto-Switcher»
Magnifying
Glass Pro includes a unique feature referred to as the
“Auto-Switcher”. The Auto-Switcher
allows the magnifier to be aware of which “Target” (application, window, or
element) the cursor or caret is over at any given moment. When the Target
changes, so does the associated “Profile” -- automatically switching to the
settings the user has chosen for that application. Unlimited custom Profiles may be built and assigned to various user
applications, saving both time and aggravation, as the user is able to work
without having to stop and tweak settings.
What is the Auto-Switcher
used for?
1. The Auto-Switcher allows the magnifier to,
in essence, turn itself on and off, depending on the program being used at the
moment.
While Magnifying Glass Pro is not always needed, many
people desire that the application be active for certain types of work or with
specific programs. An engineer might
want high magnification and contrast when viewing a diagram or working with a
circuit editor, but not need either of those when emailing his co-worker or
selecting an icon on his desktop.
Auto-Switcher can be set to automatically toggle the magnifier on and
off, as the mouse moves from one task to the next.
2. Different Profiles may be automatically selected for different
program needs
Sooner or later, as you use magnifying Glass Pro, you
will find that you can increase your performance and enjoyment levels by
adjusting various options and settings.
Perhaps, when editing photos, you find that 4X magnification with no
special effects works well, and that you like the Glass to move with the cursor
– but when working with files in Explorer you find that 2X and high contrast is
preferred – and that you like the results to show in a fixed window on your
second monitor. Or, maybe you are
working with enlarged scans of photographic negatives, but you prefer to proof
them as positives, with no magnification.
Auto-Switcher can dynamically handle the transition from one setting to
another, as quickly as the mouse is moved from one application to the next.
3. Different settings can be used
for different activities
Perhaps you are a webmaster and you frequently edit
pages on which text and images are mixed.
You find that you prefer examining the details of your pages with 6X
magnification and a magnifier that follows your mouse, but find that it is
easier to add new text when using double magnification in a fixed window at the
bottom of your page, using the Gray Scale effects setting.
How can this be set up?
One way would be to create various
Profiles for the Glass, then manually switch between them. However, with the Auto-Switcher, the program
can switch itself from one Profile to the next.
Customizing
Profile Settings
·
To begin, start up a program that
you will be enhancing with Magnifying Glass Pro.
·
As you move around in that program,
play with the magnifier’s various settings, finding which choices work best for
you.
·
When you are comfortable with your
settings, go to the “Glass options Profiles” section of the controls interface
and save your new Profile with a descriptive name -- something that will help
you to remember what this particular Profile is for. While “Photos” and “Text” are probably better
than “Settings_1” and “Settings_2”, “MSPaint_Color_4X_Fixed” and
“IE6_Text_2X_Follow” might be better still.
·
Be sure that you save each profile
before moving on to the next!
Notes: Profiles may not be
over-written from inside the magnifier application. If a Profile named “Astronomy” already
exists, then a revised Profile saved with that same name will actually be
called “Astronomy (1)”. To save a
Profile with an existing name, simply open that Profile, make the desired
changes, then select “OK” at the bottom of the “Glass options Profiles”
section. The Profile that was last
loaded will be saved with the updated settings.
To delete a Profile that is no longer being used, simply select that profile in
the “Glass options Profiles” area, then click
Delete. Your deletion request will
require confirmation before action is taken.
The Profile named “(Default)” is special in that it
loads automatically each time Magnifying Glass Pro is started. This Profile is also user-definable and you
will want to give it your most frequently used setting combination. As with other Profiles, any changes made to
settings while using the (Default) Profile will be immediately saved to that
Profile. It might be better thought of
as “(MostRecent)”. This Profile may not
be deleted from within the program and is required for the magnifier to
function.
After a Profile has been created, it
may be assigned to an application so that it will automatically activate when the mouse
is moved into that application’s area. Programs assigned to Profiles are known
as “Targets”.
Defining Targets
Three types of Target designations
are recognized by the Auto-Switcher. The
first and most general is “Whole Screen”. This Target has the lowest priority and is
only used if no other Target has been found.
As the mouse cursor is moved across a screen, the Auto-Switcher checks
each item that is passed over. If no
Target application is detected, then the entire screen’s settings are set to
(Default). It is not possible to remove
all settings from the screen, but it is possible to make them inactive.
The next type of Target is “Application”, which denotes a
specific, running program. For example,
a Profile called “Text Editor” can be activated by the Auto-Switcher when it
detects that the program, “Notepad.exe”, is running. All it takes is for the mouse cursor or the
text caret to be on any element of the Notepad program – windows, menus,
buttons, etc.
The third Target type is “Window or Control”, sometimes referred
to as “Window or Element”. This Target
indicates either a specific window or an item inside of a window (a button,
panel, editing field, etc.) belonging to a specific program. An example of this type of control is the
built-in calculator which ships with Microsoft Windows. While the program itself is called
“calc.exe”, the window that it runs in is named “Calculator”. When the Calculator’s window is open, it
contains many buttons and a long field for the input and display of
numbers. If we want our Glass to
activate a certain Profile only when we position the mouse inside of this long
field to input numbers, then we must specify this type of Target. It is necessary to tell the Auto-Switcher to
find not the whole application, or even the application’s window, but rather to
find the specific field within a portion of the window.
Specifying Targets is done on the
Magnifying Glass Pro menu page, “Targets”.
The process for specifying a new Target follows.
Assigning Profiles To Targets
To be useful, Targets need to be
assigned to Profiles – otherwise, the Auto-Switcher will not know what to do
when a Target is detected. Again, the
Targets menu page will be used.
For this example, let us suppose that you wish to use a Profile called “Typing
Texts” whenever you work with Microsoft Word, a Profile, “Photo”,
when working with the Window’s image browser, and a Profile, “Circuits
Editor”, when using a program to edit electronic circuits. …and as always, there exists
the (Default) Profile which will be
used when none of the others are active, maintaining a minimal set of magnifier settings
for use when the cursor is not on one of the previously mentioned
programs.
On the Auto-Switcher menu,
several options may be found.
The most important is the check box which tells Auto-Switcher whether to
be “on” or “off”. When checked,
Profiles will be activated as Targets are detected. When unchecked, Profiles can still be
changed, but manually rather than automatically. Unchecking the box causes no deletions or
lost settings -- checking the box reactivates Auto-Switcher at any time.
Note that, if no Target of the type
“Whole Screen” is active, even if several exist, the behaviour of the Glass in Auto-Switching
mode can appear quite strange. In this
case, (Default) is effectively
disabled and the last used Profile may remain active. To remedy this, be sure that at least one
“Whole Screen” setting is always kept active.
It is also possible to assign a
Target a Profile, then to delete that Profile.
This can “confuse” the Auto-Switcher.
Profiles should always be maintained for their associated Targets. The only time that a Target does not need an
associated Profile is when the Glass passing over a Target is intended to “turn
off” the glass – to make it invisible, or hidden. In this instance, Auto-Switcher does not
require a Profile.
Auto-Switcher works by analyzing
what is under the mouse cursor or active text caret at any point in time. It then associates the pre-assigned Profile
to the application detected.
·
Cursor and Caret: In this mode, “Auto-Switcher” works on the
Target both at the movement of the mouse cursor and on the movement of the text
caret.
·
Cursor:
Auto-Switcher detects the Target only for the mouse cursor.
·
Caret:
Auto-Switcher detects the Target only at the appearance or by movement
of the text caret.
By means of these variable settings,
it is possible to change the behaviour of the Glass depending on whether you
are editing text in the Target application or are simply mousing over it. For example, if “Notepad” is your Target and
you have set it to change Profiles only by Caret, then the Glass will be
switched to the appropriate Profile only when you begin actually editing the
text in the application, not when your mouse first enters the application’s
space. The mouse could be set to
activate a totally different Profile for that same application – giving both a
“reading-optimized” Profile and a “writing-optimized” Profile.
Further, it is possible to make two
seemingly identical Target/Profile combinations in Auto-Switcher’s list, but to
have one activated by “Caret” and
one by “Cursor”. Then, when the focus is moved away from the
Target by either means, yet another Profile could become active; perhaps (Default), or the Profile assigned to a
different application.
·
If the Glass over the Target is set
to “Visible”, then the magnifier
will appear when over the Target.
·
If the Glass over the Target is set
to “Invisible”, then the magnifier
will disappear when over the Target.
By using this option, it is possible
to make the Glass disappear, then reappear, as it
passes over various Targets. Perhaps you
only want the Glass to magnify the Calculator,
while remaining invisible for all other programs. Simply set it to become “Visible” in the
Profile coupled with the Calculator
Target, but “Invisible” in (Default)
as well as in any other Target’s Profile.
Note that it is possible to copy
Profiles and Auto-Switcher settings to other machines, rather than having to
create them anew for multiple users. To do so, copy the \Data folder, which lives inside the C:\Program
Files\MagniGlassPro (or similar) directory, to the equivalent new location. This should save a lot of time for classroom
and corporate users.
WARNING:
When installed on Windows
Comparison Options:
The
full name (with path) of an .exe
file
The
name of a window or control produced
by a running program
Existing profiles may also be easily
edited, from the Targets tab. Simply
select the existing target you desire to edit, then
select the Edit button.
How does this work?
When working with Magnifying Glass
Pro, the Auto-Switcher may be toggled on or off either through use of the right
mouse button on the program tray icon, or through
use of a hotKey (which is also user selectable). The tray icon will always show the state of
the Glass (black for OFF, white for ON) and whether the Auto-Switcher is
activated or not (a small red “A”
appears next to the Glass in the tray).
Also, if the Glass is active but is set to “Invisible”, then the tray
icon will appear white, but about two-thirds obscured.
This simple chart shows the
different meanings for the tray icon:
|
|
Glass Black |
Glass is available but is NOT
active |
|
|
Glass White |
Glass is available and is ACTIVE |
|
|
Glass Obscured |
Glass is available and is ACTIVE
and is INVISIBLE |
|
|
Glass with red "A" |
Auto-Switcher is ACTIVE |
|
|
Glass without "A" |
Auto-Switcher is NOT active |
|
|
No Glass Icon |
Magnifier application is NOT
running |
Note that the Glass can be set to Invisible status for
the “whole screen”, yet be Visible for specific applications. This, in effect, means that the Glass could
appear ON when over certain applications,
but appear OFF when moving over the
background screen, between applications -- and this can be confusing! To not become confused by such behaviour, simply look at the Glass tray icon to
view its current state.
When the mouse cursor is moved across the screen or
over the windows or controls of a program, Auto-Switcher determines which Target is currently under the cursor (or caret) and
compares what is found to its list of Targets.
If a Target is found with an “activate Auto-Switcher” option, then the Profile assigned to that target is applied to the
Glass.
The settings for Auto-Switcher are adjusted from the Auto-Switcher tab.
These settings include the user’s assignment of a hotkey combination to
enable/disable Auto-Switching and the adjustment of the frequency for the
application’s checking for what Target is under the cursor.
Note: The
default for this timer setting is 0.30 seconds.
The Auto-Switching mode may be enabled or disabled at
any time. When Auto-Switcher is
disabled, the Glass may still be manually switched to various profiles. Manual
switching is done either with a user assignable hotkey or by using the right
mouse button on the Glass taskbar icon, with “Switch to Profile”.