General Options

12Ghosts - General Options

Many options are the same for all 12Ghosts, that's why we call them "General Options". You can enable a tray icon, create shortcuts in the START menu, or define a hotkey.

You should find either a tab "General" or a button "General" in the dialog box of each Ghost. The command "General Options" is also the second command in the context menu of almost every Ghost.

What's great, you may apply any setting in General Options to all Ghosts at once. Simply click the small button left of each option. You may even apply all General options to all 12Ghosts by pressing Apply to All (where applicable, and of course not the hotkey).

Icons and Sounds

• Tray Icon - Display or remove the taskbar tray icon. Click on the tray icon with the left mouse button to activate the default action. Click with the right mouse button to activate the context menu.
• Flying Icon - Display or remove the free movable icon. Click on the movable icon with the left mouse button to activate the default action. Click with the right mouse button to activate the context menu.

  The free movable icon can be moved anywhere on the screen and it will always stay on top. There may be enough room on the top of the screen where most windows just display a blue bar, or you may use the area to the right where the vertical scroll bar leaves room unused. Please make sure that you really move the icon and not just click it because then the default action would be started.

  To move this icon with the arrow keys, up, down, left, or right, it needs to have the focus. Either double-click on the icon, or right-click and press Escape to set the focus to the movable icon.

• Icon Animated - Some tray icons have animation features: 12-SaveLayout closes its eyes and lets the icon dance on the desktop while saving and restoring, 12-Backup visualizes the copying process, 12-Timer "wakes up" for a moment when it re-checks all timers, 12-ShutDown starts blinking if the cursor is over or near the icon, and 12-Sync flashes shortly when synchronizing the time.
• Mute All Sounds - Many actions are accompanied by identifying sounds. These sounds are intended to make the user aware of certain situations. You may customize most sounds in each Ghost or turn off specific sounds. With this option you will mute all sounds at once.

Shortcuts

• No dialog box at startup (show at second start) - Start silently. To open settings click on the tray icon, press the hotkey, or just start the program a second time. You may also add "/s" (silent) as parameter in a shortcut or batch file.
• Always running, add Startup shortcut - Add a shortcut to the Startup folder when the Ghost starts. This will ensure that the program is launched automatically every time Windows starts. To open the Startup folder right-click on START, select open, double-click Programs, then double-click Startup.
• When stopped remove Startup shortcut - You might want to have the Startup shortcut removed when you manually stop the program (but not when Windows shuts down). The idea is that you probably want to restart a Ghost at Windows boot-up if it was running before shut down. Once you close a Ghost manually, however, you may not want to have it restarted automatically. To make sure the Ghost is always started, even if you inadvertently stop it, un-check this option.
• Shortcut in Start Menu - Create or remove a shortcut in the Start button menu. To open the Start folder click on START with the right mouse button and select open.
• Shortcut in Start - Programs - Create or remove a shortcut in the Start - Programs menu. To access the Programs folder click on START with the right mouse button, select open, and double-click Programs.
• Shortcut on Desktop - Create or remove a shortcut on the Desktop.

Help, Animation, Language

• Pop-Up - Change the delay of the pop-up help (Bubble Help, Tool Tip). This is the time you need to hover with the mouse pointer over a control until the pop-up help appears. Drag the slider to the left to have the help pop-up immediately, further to the right to increase the delay, or to the far right to turn it off completely.
• Language - Select a different language here. Note that you need to close the settings window for the changes to take effect. (Corrections and enhancements are welcome! See common_lang.txt for more information.)
• Animation - displays an opening animation for windows and icons. Change the animation type, speed, and sound. The first two animations, Ghosts and Icon, require Microsoft DirectX. Please see the FAQ section for more information on Microsoft DirectX.
• HotKey - Change the window hotkey. A window hotkey only works while the Ghost is running. Even without a tray icon or flying icon, you may still access the Ghost via the hotkey easily.

Save and Restore all Settings

You may save all 12Ghosts settings. It is recommended to do this regularly for backup reasons. The settings are saved into a .12g file that you could copy to a new computer or user profile.

There are four buttons to save, restore, or completely remove all customized settings. This includes all program settings as well as General options. Always save settings to a backup file before restoring!

• Save - Save all user defined settings for this Ghost. Protect your settings or transfer them to a new computer or user. To restore, just double-click the saved file.
• Load - Load custom settings from a file. Note, this will overwrite all current settings!
• Defaults - Remove all custom settings and restore the installation default settings. You might want to save your settings before.
• 12Ghosts - Save all user defined settings for all 12Ghosts. To restore just double-click the saved file. With 12-Backup you may do this automatically and regularly.