Help

Contents

You can find in that page a complete description of menus and functionalities.
See left-hand side panel to go to a particular section.

For information about the configuration file, go to the configuration file help.

General

Moving a toolbar

To move a bar, left-click anywhere outside a button and move the bar keeping the mouse button down.

Resizing

To change a toolbar's size, go over a toolbar border with your mouse, and once the double arrows display, click and drag until the size is what you want. If you're having problem to resize a bar because of buttons, you can always access the diagonal double arrows at top and bottom left corners (when not docked).

Moving buttons

Any button (shortcut or task) can be moved in its toolbar. Simply drag and drop it with left mouse button.

Previewing folder contents/grouped buttons

Hovering a task button which groups several tasks of same type or a folder shortcut button will display the preview. For shortcuts, it can be resized, and the size will be kept for later preview, unless the size is not enough to contain all items.

Accessing menus

You can access menus by right-clicking the toolbar, see next chapters for details. The new system menu is opened when you right-click on the « Minimize » button of a window.

Menus

Application menu

Right-click anywhere outside a button

Gives you access to toolbars settings and global functionalities.

Always on top

When selected, the toolbar will be over all non-topmost windows.

Auto-hide

When selected, the toolbar will automatically shrink when un-activated.
If the toolbar is docked, it behaves like the regular Windows taskbar.
Else, you can define the shrink direction in toolbar settings (Properties / Parameters 2 / Hide direction), default is « Auto », that means the toolbar will shrink vertically if it is wider than it is tall, else horizontally.

Dock

When selected, the toolbar will be attached to the nearest screen edge, spreading all along this edge. It still can be moved by dragging it to other edges. It is the Windows taskbar behavior.

Add toolbar

Creates a new default toolbar.

Remove toolbar

Deletes the current toolbar. Once deleted, you can't get it back unless you got a configuration file backup.

Copy as shortcut / Paste shortcut

You can create a shortcut to one given toolbar by:

- Selecting the toolbar,
- Clicking on « Copy as shortcut » menu,
- Selecting the toolbar where you want to create the shortcut,
- Clicking on « Paste shortcut » menu

Once done, you can edit the shortcut as any other standard shortcut.

Properties

Opens the « Properties » windows in which you can customize your toolbar. See chapter Properties.

Task selection

Opens the « Task selection » windows in which you can select the tasks you want to display in this toolbar, and the tasks you want to auto-start with application. See chapter Task selection.

Show hidden button

Gives access to the task buttons that were hidden previously. See chapter Hide task buttons menu.

Registration

Opens the registration window where you can enter your product key to unlock your product.

Web ...

Contains web shortcuts to Ki-Toolbar web site:
- Home,
- Online help is this page,
- Report a bug, where you can ask for software updates/modifications or simply notify a bad behavior,
- Contact us, for any question, remark, etc...

Quit

Closes the application (not only the current toolbar).

Task menu

Right-click in a task button

Gives you access to window functionalities for the selected task.

Move to other monitor

Moves the window to the other monitor.

Maximize to work area

Maximize the task window to fit the entire area covered by both monitors.

Maximize

Maximize the task window to fit its current monitor.

Restore

Restores the task window: makes it visible when it was minimized; If it was maximized, it is maximized, else it is set to its previous size. You can restore a window by left-clicking the button when the window is hidden.

Minimize

Hides the task window. You can hide a visible window by left-clicking the button when the window is visible.

Close

Closes the task. This has the same effect than clicking on the cross at top-right corner of a window.

Hide task

Hides the task button in the current Ki-Toolbar taskbar. You can get it back by selecting the task in the main menu / Show hidden buttons ...

Mark task

When you select this menu, a color chooser window will open. Choose any color and click « OK » to apply. If you want to remove the color from the button, select a black color (with red, green and blue components at 0).

Window properties

Shows advanced properties for the window:
- Title,
- Handle,
- Class,
- Position/size,
- Style/ExStyle,
- Parent handle

Shortcut menu

Right-click in a shortcut button

Gives you access to shortcut functionalities for the selected shortcut.

Open

Launches the shortcut. Same effect than left-clicking on the button.

Properties

Opens the shortcut properties window:


You can set the shortcut display name, its path, optional arguments and working directory. You can also choose the shortcut icon in the list corresponding to the file opened with the « Open File ... » button.

Remove

Deletes the button.

New system menu

Right-click in the minimize box of any window

Gives you access to window functionalities for the selected window.

To have detailed information about sub-menus, see Task menu.

For « Hide task », doing it from this menu is like calling the menu on each Ki-Toolbar for the button representing the task.

Settings

Properties window

Opened from the main menu / Properties

Gives you access to toolbar customization.

Parameters 1

Show toolbars

Choose which sub-toolbars to show in this toolbar:
Left and right can receive shortcuts; Tasks will display tasks.

Show buttons labels

For each sub-toolbar, you can choose to show or hide the button label.

Large icons

When checked, the list view associated with the buttons in the given toolbar (folder content for shortcuts, grouped tasks for tasks) will display large icons. Else it displays small icons.

Show tasks for monitor

You can choose to display tasks for monitor 1, monitor 2 or both.

Remove taskbar buttons

When « Yes » is selected, the task buttons shown in this toolbar (if there is any) will be removed from regular Windows taskbar.
Warning: If you choose to display tasks for a given monitor in several toolbars, and this option is not the same in both toolbars, you can get some unexpected results (last properties edition will override previus one).
Note: Due to Windows taskbar management, you could see some brief visual artefacts in the Windows taskbar.

Group buttons

Buttons of the same type will be grouped. When this option is selected, you can see each task by hovering the button with the mouse cursor.

Parameters 2

Hide direction

When a toolbar is « auto-hide », its default behavior (auto) is to hide following its longest side. But you can decide to force it to hide vertically even if it is taller than it is wide, or to hide horizontally even if it is wider than it is tall.
It has no effect when the bar is docked because it will always hide to the screen edge where it is docked.

Orientation

Toolbars are arranged differently if they are wider or taller. You can force the arrangement to vertical or horizontal.

Colors

Toolbar color 1/2

Each toolbar can be colorized with 2 colors that you can choose here. Double-click on the color preview or click on the « choose » button to open the selector.
Windows Vista / 7: Colors can be more or less transparent to leave visible or not the Windows glass.
Windows XP: Only the first trackbar is available. It allows to set the whole toolbar transparency.

Gradient direction

When different colors are choosen, set how the gradient from the first to the second is done.

Text color

Double-click on the color preview or click on the « choose » button to open the color selector for the buttons text.

Active color

Double-click on the color preview or click on the « choose » button to open the color selector for active task buttons. A button is active when its related window is active.

Default color

Double-click on the color preview or click on the « choose » button to open the color selector for the buttons task default color. This color is an additional glow effect on every task buttons upper left corner.

Transparent background

When checked, de-activate the blur effect that comes with Windows glass and makes the toolbar background transparent. No effect on Windows XP.

General

Application language

Select your language in the list. The list is based on the content of the « lang » folder located in your installation folder. You can add any language by putting the language file in this folder with the appropriate name.

Start at Windows startup

Check this to auto-start Ki-Toolbar when Windows starts.

Set wallpaper for monitor

Select the monitor you want to set the wallpaper (list might change according to your monitors):
   - Left monitor,
   - Right monitor,
   - All monitors (area covered by your monitors).
Click on « Go to wallpaper settings », the « wallpaper settings » window is displayed.
Get all details on wallpaper settings on the dedicated help page.

Preview

Once your wallpaper settings are done, you can preview the result. With dual screen, in the case of different wallpaper for each monitor, you see an image for left monitor and one another for right monitor.
Note: When you click on « OK » or « Apply », you have to wait a short delay before the wallpaper is displayed.

Task selection

Opened from the main menu / Task selection ...

Gives you access to taskbar contents customization.

Selecting tasks

Select tasks on the left-hand side list and click on « Add » to move them on the right-hand side list.
To remove some tasks from the right-hand side list, select them and click on « Remove ».
You can choose to include the selected tasks. If so, only those tasks will be visible in the taskbar.
If you choose exclude, all the tasks except those selected will be visible.

Each element, in both lists, has a checkbox in front of it. If you check the box (left click), the task will auto-start with the application. So, if Ki-Toolbar is set to start with Windows, each checked task will start with Windows.

If you want to add a non-listed task in the list, you can enter its full path in the text box above the lists, and click on « Select ». It allows to auto-start any application. It can be necessary for some applications that are listed but the list entry is not the executable name (rare).

Once your selection is done, click « OK » to validate and close the window, or « Cancel » to discard your changes.