You’ve just installed a great tool to help you organize anything that is important to you. SideBar is a windows tool for maximizing productivity allowing you to easily create, group, and save all your favorite programs, shortcuts, network paths, and urls for quick access.

Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 1

How it works ................................................................................................................................... 1

Features .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Groups ......................................................................................................................................... 2

Add a group ......................................................................................................................... 3

Import Bookmarks .............................................................................................................. 3

Edit a group ......................................................................................................................... 4

Add items to a group .......................................................................................................... 5

Expand a group ................................................................................................................... 6

Use a group item ................................................................................................................. 7

Edit a group item ................................................................................................................. 7

Stocks group ........................................................................................................................ 8

Add/Edit Stocks ............................................................................................................... 8

Energy Prices group ............................................................................................................ 8

Calendar ...................................................................................................................................... 9

Display Modes ......................................................................................................................... 9

Linked Calendar....................................................................................................................... 9

Viewing Events .................................................................................................................... 9

Creating Events ................................................................................................................. 10

Configuration ............................................................................................................................ 11

Control Bar ............................................................................................................................ 11

Settings .................................................................................................................................. 11

Taskbar Icon .......................................................................................................................... 14

How it works SideBar works by letting you decide what you want access to. You create groups and then within those groups you create items that link to your favorite programs, documents, URL’s, folders, etc…

Have you ever had a common group of programs that you use? Would you like a way to organize them together without creating a bunch of folders or shortcuts on your desktop? What about wanting to group a folder, shortcut, program, URL to a website, and a network path all together in one place? The groups feature in SideBar let you make these things happen easily. SideBar is non-intrusive and stays hidden on the side of the screen. It only shows when you put your mouse all the way over to the edge of the screen. Once you have finished choosing what you want to do in Sidebar and remove your mouse from its borders SideBar goes back to hidden mode and stays out of your way. SideBar docs itself to the right or left side of your screen and will auto resize itself based on the resolution of your monitor. SideBar offers several different options for you to tell it what side of the screen you want it to reside on.

Features SideBar can help make your life on the computer easier and quicker with its unique and useful features. Groups are the heart and soul of SideBar. The calendar can be a useful tool giving you a quick and easy way to access and schedule important events. The configuration capabilities of SideBar allow you the flexibility to use and see SideBar your way.

Groups The power of SideBar falls here. Groups are a way to organize anything you want in a common location. Once you have created a group when you mouse over your group name it will turn bold.

Add a group

Simply click the “Add Group” link on the side bar and the “Add Group” window will appear.

Group Name: Enter anything you want here, it’s going to be the displayed name of your

group.

Import Bookmarks: (This is optional, you do not have to check this box if you don’t want to import bookmarks for the group you are creating.) Checking this checkbox allows you to import your bookmarks from a web browser. Upon checking a drop down of web browsers is displayed.

Trash Button: Cancel changes and close screen, nothing is saved.

Save Button: Save changes. This will create a new group in SideBar and will be displayed immediately.

Import Bookmarks

Importing bookmarks is part of the add group process and is activated once you check the Import Bookmarks checkbox. After clicking the save button the bookmarks editor window is displayed. Any bookmark that is checked will automatically be imported into your new group and an item will be created for that bookmark. You can choose to import one, none, or all of the bookmarks SideBar has detected.

Select all bookmarks: This checkbox is checked by default which selects all bookmarks

to be imported. Unchecking this will uncheck all bookmarks.

Individual bookmarks: Each bookmark can be individual checked/unchecked. Anything checked will be imported and an item in your new group will be created for that bookmark.

Save Button: Once you are ready to close the window click the save button for your new group to be generated with any bookmarks you checked.

Edit a group

If you would like to change your groups name or delete a group then you will want to edit it. To edit a group simply right click on a group in the SideBar. The edit group window will display for the group you clicked.

Group Name: Displays your group name. Here you can change the name of your group.

Trash Button: Deletes your group and all items in it.

Save Button: Saves all changes which will be displayed in your SideBar immediately.

Add items to a group

Once you have created your group you will want to add items to it. To add items to a group find the group you want to add items in and click the + button.

After clicking the button the Add New Group Item window will be displayed.

Name: Enter the name of the item you want displayed within your group.

Path/URL: Here you enter any path/url/shortcut you want to execute when you click your group item. Example of what you can put here are:

o Folder path: C:\games\poker, anytime you click this group item the poker folder is opened.

o URL: www.google.com, anytime you click this, a web browser will open load google.com.

o EXE: c:\windows\calculator.exe, anytime you click this, the calculator program will run

o File: c:\images\mykids.jpg, anytime you click this, the default image program will open and display mykids.jpg.

o File: c:\excel\bill.xls, anytime you click this Microsoft excel will open up your bill.xls workbook.

Browse/Folder Button: Clicking this will open a file browser window. In this window you can navigate to any file or program you choose. Clicking open will automatically load

that path into the path/url of the add group item window.

Save Button: clicking this will save all of your changes and immediately create the new

item in your group.

Expand a group

To expand a group simply put your mouse over the group name you wish to expand (group should turn bold) and click it. The group will automatically expand to show all items within it.

Use a group item

Using a group item is as simple as expanding the group your item is in and then mouse over the item you want to use and clicking it. The item will change color when you mouse over it indicating which item will execute when you click. From there anything could happen because you told SideBar what to do when you created the group item! In the example picture below Microsoft Word is being clicked telling SideBar to open Microsoft Word.

Edit a group item

To edit a group item simply expand the group your item is in and then mouse over the item you want to edit and right click it. SideBar will immediately display an Edit group item window with the item you clicked.

Name: The name of your item is displayed. You can change if you choose.

Path/Url: The path or URL of your item is displayed here. You can manually change this or click the Browse/Folder button to use the file explorer and find a new path.

Trash Button: Clicking this will delete your item from the group. Sidebar will immediately update the group by removing the group item.

Save Button: Clicking this saves any changes you made to the group item.

Stocks group

This is a custom group that can be set to display in the settings screen (see here). The stocks group allows you to specify stock tickers you want SideBar to go grab stock quotes for whenever you ask SideBar to do so. When you click on the stocks group name it will expand the stocks group and go grab real time stock quotes for any tickers you have specified. This gives you an easy way to keep track of stocks that are important to you.

Add/Edit Stocks

To add edit stocks in your stock group simply click the + in the stock group and the Stock Manager window will appear.

Simply enter in a comma delimited list of the stock tickers you want SideBar to grab quotes for and click Save.

Energy Prices group

This is a simple non configurable group that can be set to display in the settings screen (see here). When clicked this group simply grabs the current market prices for natural gas and crude oil.

Calendar

Another neat feature of SideBar is the calendar control. When configured to display (see here) SideBar will display, at the bottom, a calendar that you can view and manipulate. The calendar has two view modes: full and compact.

Display Modes

Full: when in full display mode (image above) the entire calendar is shown letting you see all days in a month and change dates. To toggle the calendar into compact mode, click the arrow down in the upper left hand corner.

Compact: when in compact only the current day and date are displayed. To toggle the calendar back to full mode, click the displayed day/date.

Linked Calendar

SideBar calendar has the capability to link to Google or Microsoft Live calendars (see settings). Linking a calendar will give SideBar the ability to access your Google/Microsoft calendar events and display them in the SideBar.

Viewing Events

Events on a linked calendar will display as blue dates. Hovering a mouse over the date will give you the event name and its start time. Example below is hovering over the 10th.

Creating Events

You can also create new events on a linked calendar. Simply click on a date and SideBar will open a browser with your linked calendar. In that browser you can create one or more events. Once you are done creating events close the browser SideBar opened (this tells SideBar you’re done) and SideBar will go get and display the new events you just created. Example: (Assume I clicked October 16th from calendar above). SideBar opens a browser with my date and I created a new event named: “Look A new EVENT!” (See below).

Once I close the browser SideBar goes and gets the event I just created and displays it with the event information.

Configuration

Control Bar

X icon – closes the application

Information icon – displays application information (also gives you the opportunity to help support SideBar)

Gear icon – displays the settings dialog allowing you to change many different configurable options in the application.

Pin icon – allows you to tell SideBar to stay open (“pin”) or close itself (“unpin”) when you mouse out. Default mode is “unpinned” meaning SideBar will close itself when you mouse out.

Any area between the Information icon and Gear icon you will see a cross icon . When you see this icon if you hold left mouse button down and drag you will be able to move the SideBar. The SideBar will dock on either the left or right side of your monitor. When moving the SideBar once you release the mouse button it will detect which half of the screen it is on and auto dock/snap to the edge.

Settings

After clicking on the gear icon in the control bar you SideBar will display a settings screen allowing you to change many configurable options within the application.

Title Text: allows you to change the text displayed on the main SideBar

Run at startup: This checkbox tells your computer if you want SideBar to automatically

run when your computer starts (recommended). If unchecked SideBar will not start itself when you turn your computer on.

Show stocks and energy prices: These checkboxes show optional groups at the top of all your other groups defined.

Calendar: This section allows you to define the calendar feature of SideBar.

o Show Calendar: This checkbox will show the calendar if checked and hide it if unchecked.

o Link radio buttons. No link: SideBar calendar is not linked to anything and will just display the

date.

Link to Google: Allows you to link your Google calendar to the SideBar calendar. SideBar calendar will display all of your Google events. If you click on a date in SideBar it will take you to that date in your Google calendar.

Link to Microsoft Live: Allows you to link your Microsoft Live calendar to the SideBar calendar. SideBar calendar will display all of your Microsoft Live events. If you click on a date in SideBar it will take you to your Microsoft Live calendar.

o Background: allows you to choose what background color the calendar will have.

Text color: allows you to specify what color all text will appear within the SideBar application.

Highlight color: allows you to specify what color items will appear within groups when you mouse over them.

Background color: allows you to specify what the window background color will be of the SideBar application windows.

Group background: allows you to specify what the group background color will be.

Group Order: This section allows you to change the order of the groups displayed in side bar. It works by selecting an item (left click and hold) and dragging it to the position you want it to be in. When at the position you want it to be in release the mouse button and drop the item. The order of the items will automatically change in the settings screen and in the main SideBar window!

o Before:

o After:

View data file: This is an advanced feature only intended for power users and

developers. This is the file that feeds SideBar its data. If you change anything in here it could adversely affect SideBar and how it runs. If you want to modify data it is recommended to make a backup of the original first.

Taskbar Icon

SideBar creates a Windows Taskbar icon allows quick access and even more configuration options.

Left click: Tells SideBar to show itself (if it is hidden).

Right click: displays a context menu of options.

o Set Opacity: displays a slider that allows you tell SideBar how transparent you

want it to be. Decreasing the value of the slider tells SideBar to increase its transparency allowing you to see through SideBar. Sliding all the way to 0 will make SideBar completely transparent and invisible.

o Dock Location: Allows you to tell SideBar to dock itself on the left or right side of your monitor.

o Always on top: (Checked by default) this tells SideBar to display itself on top of all other programs. This allows you to access SideBar no matter what application you are using by simply moving your mouse to the edge of the screen. When unchecked this means SideBar will not display on top of other program and in order to see use SideBar you must be at your desktop.

o Close SideBar: closes the SideBar application.