Commodities Drawer

The Commodities drawer, illustrated in Figure 10-6, is in the Tools drawer and contains the Commodities Exchange programs. These programs monitor your keyboard and mouse input to the Amiga.

Figure 10-6.

Commodities Window

AutoPoint	Automatically activates the window under the pointer.
Blanker	Causes the screen to go blank if there has been no keyboard or mouse activity for a specified period of time.
ClickToFront	Lets you bring a window to the front of the screen by double-clicking in it.
CrossDOS	Controls text options for CrossDOS drives. See Chapter 11 for more information.
Exchange	Monitors and controls all the other Commodities programs.
FKey	Assigns special functions to keys.
MouseBlanker	Causes the mouse pointer to go blank when you are typing.
NoCapsLock	Temporarily disables the Caps Lock key.

Using Commodities Tool Types

All of the Commodities programs share a common Tool Type:

CX_PRIORITY=<n>

Assigns priorities to the Commodities Exchange programs.

All the programs are set to a default priority of 0. If you enter a Tool Type that changes the priority to a higher value, that program has priority over any other Commodities Exchange program of lower priority.

For example, you can have two commodities that allow you to assign operations to functions keys. If both programs have an operation assigned to F1, the program with the higher priority intercepts the key, making it unavailable to any other Commodities programs.

There are two Tool Types that apply only to programs that open a window:

CX_POPUP	When set to NO, prevents the program window from opening when the icon is opened. The program activates when you double-click on its icon, but its window remains closed. The default is CX_POPUP=YES.
CX_POPKEY	Determines the hot key for a commodity. When the hot key or key combination is pressed, the program's window is automatically brought to the front of the screen. If the window is hidden, it is opened. Hot keys do not start commodities that are not already running. The syntax for specifying hot keys is CX_POPUP=<key>.

When specifying key combinations, leave a space between the two keys. For example:

CX_POPKEY=F9
CX_POPKEY=Shift F4
CX_POPKEY=LShift LAlt LAmiga X

Acceptable Key Combinations

When specifying key combinations for a Commodities Exchange program, you can use any of the function keys (F1 through F10) and any of the keys in the typewriter area of the keyboard (numbers, letter, symbols, and so forth). Keys from the typewriter area must be preceded by a qualifier. The allowable qualifiers are:

Qualifier	Key
Alt	Either Alt key
Ralt	Right Alt only
LAlt	Left Alt only
Shift	Either Shift key
Rshift	Right Shift only
LShift	Left Shift only
LAmiga	Left Amiga
RAmiga	Right Amiga
CTRL	Ctrl
Numericpad	Specifies a key on the numeric keypad
Rightbutton	Hold down the menu button
Leftbutton	Hold down the selection button
Middlebutton	Hold down the middle button of a three-button mouse

Qualifiers can also be used before function keys, but are not mandatory. You can use any combination of qualifiers; however, they must be followed by a standard key or function key. A qualifier is only recognized once in a combination:

LAlt RAmiga LAlt F10

is the same as

LAlt RAmiga F10

The following are acceptable combinations:

Alt F6

LAmiga 8

Ctrl LShift Y

Leftbutton Ctrl CapsLock*

Numericpad 8**

*Hold down the selection button, then press Ctrl+Caps Lock

**Use the 8 in the numeric keypad. The 8 in the typewriter area does not satisfy the combination.