SharpCenter - Configuration Management

SharpE provides with a very friendly GUI-based tool to configure many of the attributes of the Sharp Environment, such tool is the SharpCenter and, in the default configuration, is available at SharpE Menu -> Configuration -> SharpCenter.

Contents

  1. General Features Of The Typical Screen
    1. Left Frame
    2. Right Frame
  2. Home
  3. Desktop
    1. Desktop Tab
    2. Objects Tab
    3. Menu Tab
  4. Menus
    1. Adding a Menu
    2. Deleting a Menu
    3. Editing a Menu
  5. Services
  6. Themes
  7. Toolbars

General Features Of The Typical Screen

First of all, let it be clear that every screen consists of a left frame and a right frame.

Left Frame

The left frame is for browsing in a hierarchical fashion the various categories and sub-categories of component, services, and, generally, all other configurable attributes.

Except for the main Home screen, every other screen shows two green icons at the top of the left frame: a house-shaped icon and a left arrow.

No matter which screen or how "deep" in the hierarchy you are, the house-shaped icon (or Home link) will always take you back to the Home screen; the left arrow will take you to the one level up from where you are.

Right Frame

This is where the various attributes are set, created, modified, added, deleted, or otherwise edited. This frame varies in appearance; it may consists of a single panel or tabbed panels; it may include "Add" and "Edit" buttons along the top; it may include "Apply" and "Cancel" buttons along the bottom.

If "Add" and "Edit" buttons appear along the top, it means just that...that you can actually add (and delete) and/or edit more components; to do just so, highight the component of interest and on the right of it, you will have some rather self-explanatory choices.

Should these buttons not be available, it means that you cannot add or delete anything at this level, you may only change settings or request to edit a particular component.

If "Apply" and "Cancel" buttons appear (and are enabled) along the bottom, it means just that...that you can cancel your edits if you do not want them, after all, and that you need to apply them if you want them to take effect.

Should these buttons not be available, it means that the settings in this screen take effect immediately.


Home

This is the starting screen when SharpCenter is first launched from the Configuration Menu; this is also the screen where you will come back to every time you click on the Home link, wherever you are.

On the left frame, this screen shows the main configurable categories: left-justifiged their names; right-justified, how many of them you will find in such category.

On the right frame, you will find various information about the people and organizations that have made and still make this project possible...all together, now: Hip, Hip...Hooray!


Desktop

Here, you can configure various desktop-related features and behaviors regarding wallpaper, desktop objects and mouse right-clicks (while on the desktop). To that end, this frame contains 3 tabs, namely, Desktop, Objects, Menu.


Desktop Tab

Here you may select certain desktop behavior.

Objects Tab

Here, you may select certain attributes regarding objects on the desktop. Each attribute has its own explanation.

This tab is for specifying which menu is bound to mouse right-click and shift-right-click. The drop down list in both cases is the same and is populated with the list of all defined menus. Menus are defined via the main Menus category (see below).


This category consists of 2 screens, "Menus" and "Menu Options"; the latter is pretty simple and self-explanatory, so this section will focus on the "Menus" subcategory.

In the "Menus" subcategory, you define all the menus you want to have access to. These can be added to the TopBar?, the TaskBar, and as sub-menus to other Menus. You can also set one or two of these menus to be accessible at a right-click of the mouse (Refer to Desktop, above).

In "Menus", you may add new menus, delete old menus and edit existing ones.

Adding a Menu

To add a new menu, you need to use one of the exising menus as a template; don't worry too much about this copying step, you can always "morph" any menu into anything else. You can go about adding a new menu in two ways.

Copy an existing menu first (cumbersome method):

  • Select the menu you want to start from.
  • Click on the copy icon on the right margin of the same row.
  • This creates a new menu with a similar name.
  • Now, click on "Edit" along the top of the frame to change the name of the new menu to something more appropriate. Change the name, close edit mode.
  • Back to the highlighted menu, now click on "Edit" on the right margin of the same row to enter the Menu Editor and actually change the contents of the menu...the starting point will be identical to the menu you used as a template (copied from).

Click "Add" (simpler method):

  • Click on "Add" along the top of the frame .
  • Specify an appropriate name for the new menu.
  • Pick an existing menu to use as a starting point. For your convenience, the drop down list is already populated with all existing menus. Pick one.
  • Click on "Add" in this subframe. This will send you directly into the Menu Editor.
  • Customize menu.

Deleting a Menu

To delete an entire menu simply click on the red cross mark.

Editing a Menu

To edit an existing menu, you first need to enter the Menu Editor by clicking on the "Edit" hyperlink on the right margin of the same row of the menu. Once in it, you may add, delete or edit menu items.

Menu items are of predefined types including separators, labels, links, dynamically mapped directories, (sub) menus and others. For your convenience, there are also a few predefined options, namely, the Control Panel, available Drives, Desktop Objects and a list of Most/Recently Used items. A sample screen is shown below.

To add a menu item, click "Add", pick a menu item type and fill up all other necessary data (it will vary by type).

To delete a menu item simply click on the red cross mark.

To change the order of the menu items simply drag and drop.


Services

Here, you can manage SharpE Services, including configuration.

Left-justified on the right frame, you will find the type of service; right-justified, what you can do about it. Notice that for the Start/Stop and Enable/Disable action links, the displayed label does not directly indicate what the current status of the service is; instead, it indicates what will happen to it if you click on the link. In other words, "Stop" indicates that the service has already been Start(ed), and a click would Stop it. Similarly, "Disable" indicates the service is currently Enable(d) and a click would Disable it.


Themes

Here, you can create and otherwise manage the themes that customize the appearance of sharpE.

With Themes, you can customize your interface from the style of your desktop icons, cursor set, coloring (including transparency and alpha blending), and even font...try that with Explorer!

There are a lot of options here and we could tell you all about it, but it is best if you just play around with them.

Not only is SharpE rich in providing you with a lot of control over your own theme, it does it, as you can see, in a very friendly way; so, go ahead and customize the look of it to your heart's content...we dare you.


Toolbars

Here, you can create and manage SharpBar? configurations.

Toolbars can presently be placed along the top of the monitor, along the bottom or inside one another.

Toolbars are containers of modules; some modules have predefined functionality (clock, system tray) and are ready for use, others are customizable (buttons, menus). Within a toolbar, modules may be either left-aligned or right-aligned and are packed accordingly, so, pay attention to the order in which they are listed.

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