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Ecco Tutorials, Tips and How-to Guides >> Beginner >> Customizing Your Ecco Toolbar and Copying It to Other Computers
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Message started by SeattleUser on 02/24/09 at 13:37:09

Title: Customizing Your Ecco Toolbar and Copying It to Other Computers
Post by SeattleUser on 02/24/09 at 13:37:09

Among Ecco's many distinctive strengths is the ease with which one can customize the program's toolbar on the fly to include selected functions.  The easy customization of the Ecco toolbar arises from the combination of (a) the toolbar button that is part of what might be called Ecco's "function recorder" and (b) drag-and-drop modification of the various toolbar buttons.

(a) Ecco's Function Recorder and Repeater.  As you may or may not have noticed, the button at the far right end of Ecco's toolbar keeps a record of the last twenty or so functions that have been performed.  The recorded functions include almost everything that is done using the pull-down menu system, a context menu (which pops up in response to a right-click of the mouse), a toolbar button, or a keyboard shortcut (such as Ctrl-C for copy, Ctrl-B for bold-facing, or Alt-1 for switching to the calendar view).

Each time a recordable function is performed, the icon used by Ecco to represent the function is displayed on the button at the far right end of the toolbar--which I will refer to below as the "function-recorder button."  (For example, a "B" icon would appear on the function-recorder button when bold-facing is applied to any text, and a "31" icon representing the calendar would appear there whenever one switches to the calendar view by any means other than clicking on the calendar tab appearing at the bottom of the screen.)  You can scroll through the rest of the last twenty functions performed by using the up and down arrows that are displayed along the right edge of the function-recorder button; each press of either of those arrows causes a different icon to be displayed on the function-recorder button.  (The small attached PNG file displayed at the bottom of this post shows a sample toolbar.  The function-recorder button is circled in red.)

You can repeat a function simply by clicking on the function-recorder button at the far-right end of the toolbar.  If the function you wish to repeat is not the most recently performed function but is any of the last twenty performed functions, you can repeat the desired function by using the arrows displayed alongside the function-recorder button as described above to find and select the desired function so that it is displayed on the function-recorder button before you click on the button as needed to repeat the function.  (Of course, another way to repeat any function is simply to repeat whatever pull-down menu selection, context-menu selection, keyboard shortcut, or other means was used for triggering the function in the first place.)

(b) Customizing the Toolbar.  To add a toolbar button for a particular function, do the following:  (1) Use the desired function so the icon for the function shows up on the function-recorder button on the right end of the toolbar. (2) Right-click on the function-recorder button and, without releasing the mouse button, drag to wherever you want your new toolbar button to be located.  As soon as you right-click on the function-recorder button, that button will appear to jump a bit downward and to the left.  As you drag the button icon toward its desired new location where it will be added as a new toolbar button, a large vertical black cursor will indicate where the new toolbar button would be located if you were to release your mouse button without further dragging.  (3) Finally, when you have finished dragging the icon for the new toolbar button to the position where you want it, release your mouse button.  Your newly created toolbar button should now be in place.

The number of Ecco toolbar buttons that you can create and display is apparently limited only by the number of rows you elect to allow Ecco to use for its toolbar amount and by the space available on your monitor for display of the toolbar at the monitor's selected resolution.

To move any previously existing toolbar button other than the non-movable "function recorder" button that is at the right end of the toolbar, simply right-click and drag the toolbar button you wish to move.  As is conspicuously indicated by the vertical black cursor that appears when a toolbar button is being dragged, toolbar buttons can be positioned immediately adjacent to other toolbar buttons or can be positioned so as to have some empty space on one or both sides.

To delete a toolbar button, right-click the selected toolbar button, drag it below the toolbar until the word "DELETE" appears in small letters below the button icon you are dragging, and then release your mouse button.

For additional information, see the toolbar-related portions of the Ecco help file, especially "Adding Toolbar Buttons and Rows" and "Reorganizing the Toolbar."

(c) Copying Your Toolbar Configuration to Another Computer.  To use your customized Ecco toolbar on another computer, find your Ecco.cfx file, copy it, and paste the copy to the appropriate directory on your other computer.  In all versions of Windows preceding Vista, the Ecco.cfx file is located in the C:\Windows directory.  If you have trouble finding where the Ecco.cfx file is located in your installation of Windows Vista, use the free EccoMagic Vista CFX Finder tool that is explained and presented for download at http://forums.eccomagic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1230585897/0.

Title: Re: Customizing Your Ecco Toolbar and Copying It to Other Computers
Post by Admin on 05/04/09 at 12:35:26



You can use this method to add external tools to the ecco tool bar as well.



Tools > Launch > Add File to Menu

Browse to the tool's program file,

fill in a name for the tool,  and select a toolbar icon (upper right corner of dialog)


you can then as described above drag the icon shortcut to your toolbar.


to activate directly,  you can use the Tools > Launch  menu.




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