Presentation Timer ver. 2.0

copyright 2006 by
David Thomson
Original Code Consulting
www.originalcode.com

Options - Page 2 - Timer
The second page (Timer tab) of the Options window allows you to define preset timer configurations.  Each preset Timer has a name and a set of parameters.  The names of all defined Timers will appear in the Timer menu of the main program.  The figure below shows two presets, "Presentation (15 Min)" and "Keynote (60 Min)".
Presentation Timer Timer Menu

Using the Timer menu to select one of the presets sets the program up in the mode defined by that preset and sets the time to the start time defined for that preset.  The parameters for the "Presentation (15 Min)" preset are shown in the figure below:

Presentation Timer Options Page 2
On the left side of the Timer tab is a list of Timers.  The "Presentation (15 Min)" item is highlighted, so its parameters are shown on the righ of the screen.  The name of the preset can be edited in the list on the left or in the text box on the top of the right side.  It is suggested (but not required) that you include the start time in the name of the timer, as shown above.  This will make it easier to choose the correct  preset from the menu of the main program.
The four buttons under the Timers list are used to manipulate the timer presets.  New adds another timer to the bottom of the list.  Insert Before adds another timer before the highlighted timer.  Delete erases the highlighted timer, and Copy duplicates the highlighted timer and adds the new copy to the bottom of the list.
The Play a Sound button allows you to preview sounds while you are setting up a timer.

The set of controls on the right contains three main options, an array of "Event" definitions (with a vertical scroll bar), and the "Delete -->" button.
As mentioned above, the Name is used in the menu of the main program for selecting what preset to use. Below the Name is a control that allows you to select which display to use.  If you click on this control and hold the mouse down, a drop-down menu will appear from which you can select the desired display.  To the right of the display selection is the Timer Direction control.  This control allows the timer to count up or down.
The array of Events is below the above three controls.  There is room to display three Events, but any number (with a minimum of 2) can be defined.  More can be added by using the vertical scroll bar to scroll down to an empty slot and entering new parameters there.  The "Delete -->" button allows you to delete whichever Event is currently displayed next to this button.  This is set up in such a way that you can never delete the first two Events, which are required for any preset Timer.
The first Event (at the top of the display) defines the start time.  The last event defines the ending time.  After the ending time is reached, if the timer is set to Count Down and When Counting Down: Continue Past Zero is not selected, then the counter will stop.  For other cases, the counter continues counting.
The Times for the defined events must follow in a logical sequence.  If the Timer is set to Count Down, then the Time for the top (first) event should be the largest time, and the Times should decrease for events further down the array.  The program does not check that you entered logical Event parameters.  If illogical parameters are entered, program operation can appear to be erratic.

The parameters for a single Event are:
Time - This is the time at which the Event will be triggered.  As described above, the Times need to be entered in the proper order.
Alarm - This is a user-definable color used for the display.  The portion of the window that uses this color depends on which Display is selected.
Background - This is a user-selectable color that is used for the window background.  This allows the background color to change at different times (Events) during the program.
State - This parameter is used by only some of the Displays and determines how the Display is shown for the Event.
Flashing - If this parameter is checked, the display flashes rapidly when the Event is triggered.
Sound - This parameter is used to specify a sound file that will be played when the Event is triggered.  Leave it blank for no sound.  Only .wav files can be played with this program.  Sample sounds have been included in the ...\Presentation Timer\Sounds directory.  To choose a sound file, press the folder icon to the right of the Sound file name.  Alternately, the file name and path can be typed or pasted directly into the Sound path.  If a file has been selected and you wish to delete it, highlight the entire file name and press the delete key.

In the figure above, the "Presentation (15 Min)" timer is configured with a start time of 15 minutes (15:00:00) with a green clock face.  When 2 minutes remain, the 2nd Event will change the clock face to yellow.  At time 0, the clock face will turn red, the background will turn orange, the clock will flash, and the alarm_clock_1.wav will play.

When the Presentation Timer 2.0 program is first installed, it creates a set of default Timers that demonstrate how some Timers can be set up.  If you change your settings and wish to recover these defaults, you can uninstall and reinstall the program, or you can download the Presentation Timer.ini file from www.originalcode.com and copy it into your Presentation Timer 2 directory.

Note that the default Timers that are present when you install Presentation Timer 2.0 have paths for the Sounds that use the expected, default installation path for the program.  If you choose to install the program in a different location than the default, these sounds will not work when the Events are triggered.  In this case, you should open the Options and reset the Sounds to the correct locations on your system.

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