I`m sure this is welcome as well as reassuring news to all of us.

Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
The newsletter of the Mile High Computer
Resource Organization, Denver, Colorado
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MICRO is a member of the Association of Personal
Computer User Groups
July Meeting
25 July
Actual Multiple Monitors
??August
Annual Picnic
26 Sept
TBD
31 Oct
Elections and TBD
12 Dec
Annual Holidays Party
(beginning to see a pattern?)
Dale Harrington presents this discussion;
(see page 5 of this newsletter)
*********************************
I'm sure this is welcome as well as
reassuring news to all of us.
Page #1
.
(Please check the club website at
www.micro-pc.org )
*************************************************
INDEX
November/December Meeting Subject 1
M. I. C. R. O. Data
2
---Board of Directors
2
---MICRO BENEFITS
2
MEETING INFORMATION
2
---Calendar
3
Actual Multiple Monitors
5
Need Help?
8
Classified Ads
8
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"Chaos, Panic, and disorder; I see
my work here is done.
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
M.I.C.R.O. Board of Directors
Meetings:
Officers:
President:
Vice President:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Joe Jimenez
Allan Perotin
Dale Harrington
Mark Zimmer
307-1687
233-0424
693-8821
934-6540
Directors:
Web Designer: Barbara Cott
Membership: Dennis Bangston
Jim Kochman
Barbara Cott
Stan Lasby
Bob Wordell
Bob Williams
719-6846
321-6891
320-1517
399-3152
759-1071
Committee Chairs:
Editor:
Jerry Berry
755-2592
(All phones are AC 303 unless otherwise specified)
Available at all meetings are answers to
your computer questions and problems.
M.I.C.R.O. Benefits:
Regular meetings of the Mile High Computer
Resource Organization are held on the last
Thursday of each month except for
November/December, when a combined meeting is
held on the first or second Thursday. Up to date
information is on the club web site. The meeting
location is at the Clements Center, 1580 Yarrow
Street, Lakewood, Colorado. Doors open at 1800,
the program starts at 1900, with a problem solving
session after the formal program. Meetings end at
2100.
Training sessions are presented at the Clements
Community Center in the computer room.
Newsletter:
A subscription to the club newsletter, the
MICROScope, is part of MICRO membership.
Manuscripts for publication therein are solicited and
encouraged. Articles should be in the computer of
the editor by the 15th of the publication month.
Email to <[email protected]>. No
guarantee of inclusion is possible, but everything
will be carefully considered. The editor reserves the
right to make corrections and edit to fit the
newsletter format. If possible submit in .odt or .txt or
.doc format, with any graphics as .jpeg.
MICROScope is constructed using OpenOffice.org.
Club Newsletter -MICROScope
Free Personal Ad space, one inch per issue.Free
individual assistance through our Help List
Inexpensive Training classes.
Free Special Interest Groups.
MICRO will present free hands on meetings at
various ;locations when enough interest is
expressed, typically four members. For more
information call Joe Jimenez.
Non Member Advertising Rates:
Display:
Full Page
Half Page
Quarter Page
Eighth Page
1 mth
50
30
19
12
3 mths
130
82
50
35
6 mths
245
150
90
67
12 mths
450
275
165
120
Renewal:
Your renewal month is maintained on the club roster
available at check in each meeting. You may renew
at the meeting or print and mail the renewal form on
the newsletter's last page with your dues of $25.
Mailing Address:
The Mile High Computer Resource Organization
PMB 211, 1685 S. Colorado Blvd, Unit 5
Denver, Colorado 80222-4011
MICRO maintains a web site at
<www.micro-pc.org>,
Rates quoted are for digital copy, JPEG or text. Call
the editor for details.
Mel Brooks said: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
Page #2
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
Schedule of Events
1900: Board Meetings
Second Thursday of each month
Clements Community Center
1580 Yarrow Street, Lakewood, Co.
1900: General Meetings
Last Thursday of each month
Clements Community Center
1580 Yarrow Street, Lakewood, Co.
303-987-4820
Yarrow Street is located one block West
and one block North of the intersection of
West Colfax Ave and Wadsworth Blvd.
For additional information please visit our website.
The latest info and directions are located there.
conducted at the Clements Center. Contact J.
Jimenez or Dale Harrington for details
"If you don't know where you're going, you could
wind up somewhere else." (Attributed, rightly, to
Yogi Berra)
MICRO-led computer and Internet classes are
This graphic should be posted on every personal computer...
Page #3
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
The Evolution of the newsletter editor...
Can It Get Any better Than This...
Page #4
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
Actual Multiple Monitors (AMM)
Utility software that fills the
gaps in the Windows user interface
when working with several monitors
at once. Actual Multiple Monitors
provides such essential controls as
Taskbar, Start menu, system
tray and Task Switcher on each
connected display, quickly allocates
windows between monitors (either
manually or automatically),
improves the look and feel of your
desktop with the multi-monitor
desktop wallpaper and screen saver,
and allows you to create as many
desktop profiles as you need. With
these enhancements your
productivity may be increased!
Publisher: Actual Tools #101 –
1001 W. Broadway Suite 381
Vancouver, BC V6H 4E4 Canada
A software development
company which specializes in
desktop enhancement applications
for the Windows operating system
family. The company was founded
in 2001 by the software engineer
Michael Tretyakov. Providing
innovative solutions and services,
Actual Tools helps people, both
home and corporate users, to
innovate and increase their
efficiency.
Page #5
Website: www.ActualTools.com
Version Reviewed: 5.1.1
System Requirements: Windows 8, 7, Vista,
XP, 2000 (x86/x64)
License: Try before you buy—30 day trial
Cost: $24.95
Test System:
Dell XPS, Windows 7 Ultimate,
3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600, 8GB RAM, AMD
Radeon HD 6450 video card, 2 Asus
VW246 24” monitors.
Rating: 4 stars - ****
From the website: “If you are the
owner of at least two displays you
have surely noticed that even
modern versions of Windows provide
very basic support for multi-monitor
environments. The extended screen
estate requires some special tools to
get the real benefit from—otherwise,
you risk spending as much time on
routine window manipulations as on
your actual work.
Actual Multiple Monitors provides
specially designed tools to maximize
speed and comfort when working
with multiple monitors.”
Features:
Multi-monitor Taskbar: makes
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
window navigation quick and easy on
secondary displays
Multi-monitor Task Switcher:
cancels the need to turn your
attention to the primary display
every time you switch between tasks
using <Alt+Tab>
Multi-monitor background
(wallpaper): gives additional
abilities to customize the desktop
background
Multi-monitor screen saver:
allows running any screen saver in a
multi-monitor mode
Desktop Divider: allows you to
divide the entire large desktop or
each monitor into several nonintersecting areas (tiles).
Desktop management tools:
provides various tools to manage the
multi-monitor desktop efficiently:
desktop profiles, desktop icons
manager, etc.
Desktop mirroring tools: provides
various types of desktop mirroring to
improve the workflow
Advanced multi-monitor window
management: speeds up the
allocation of windows within the
extended desktop
Multi-monitor mouse: adds new
handy features to use the mouse
efficiently in a multiple displays
environment
Page #6
Review:
The installation file was easy to
download and install. It took about 5
minutes total from starting the
download to launching the program.
I used the 30 day trial version,
so each time I launched the
configuration window, the days
remaining window opened first. The
program itself starts when Windows
is launched and sits in the System
Tray/Notification area.
Configuring for multiple
monitors was relatively easy and
straightforward. The controls were
easy to figure out and locate. I
consider myself an expert user, but I
believe even a novice user would be
able to configure this program with
little guidance.
The program contains a lot of
features and I did not try all of them.
I set it up for two monitors,
extending my primary (left) to my
secondary (right). Since both
monitors were the same brand and
model number, I had to make sure to
identify which one I was using before
configuring it.
I set up the taskbar in the
“multi-monitor”, “mixed mode”,
which allowed my #2 monitor to
have task bar that was not simply a
duplicate of the #1, but had the
“Start” button and “Notification area”
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
along with individual shortcuts for
windows operating in the #2
monitor. The #1 taskbar showed all
the normal functions. This was
simple to do and I like the flexibility
it provided when using the second
monitor.
I set up a separate
“Background” slide show for each
monitor along with separate “Screen
Saver” slide shows in each. This was
a nice change from having the same
background and screen saver on
both screens all the time.
You can actually assign a
specific monitor to each program so
it goes to there each time you start
the program. Using the “Desktop
Divider” feature, you can subdivide
each monitor into smaller “tiles” and
assign programs to a specific “tile”.
During installation, the program
detected many of the installed
programs and created “Specific
Settings” for each one that allows
you to quickly customize their
windows. You can add other
programs to this also.
The “Desktop Divider” feature
allows you to divide each monitor
into “tiles” that sort of behave like
individual desktops. Given my
“mature” vision, I only tried creating
2 “tiles” per monitor to test this. It
made it handy to split each screen
Page #7
and then assign individual programs
to a “tile” so they always opened in
the same area. I’m sure younger
folk with better eyesight would be
able to work with smaller tiles and
get more use from this feature.
I found the “Help” section a bit
confusing because it contains
information applicable to other
Actual Tools programs. Also, some
of the descriptions were more
focused on “what” instead of “how”.
I was unable to test with more
than two monitors due to limitations
of my video card. Using multiple
video cards would allow more
monitors.
Overall I liked this program and
the features it provides. The most
useful to me would be the added
taskbar control, the ability to have
different backgrounds and/or screen
savers in each monitor, the “Desktop
Divider”, and the ability to assign
programs to a specific “tile” on each
monitor. However, being cheap, I
don’t think it is worth $24.95. If it
were free, I would probably use it,
particularly on my home desktop
with two monitors. I can however,
see where it would be very useful to
someone using their laptop with a
secondary screen or projector in a
business environment.
Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
The editor welcomes your feedback.
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Volume XXVII No VIII July 2013
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