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Below is a list of questions you may have. If your question is not answered here, please feel free to send an email to the author.
Why is browsing the Internet with WebTop not recommended?
What happened to my Taskbar?
Ok... so where's the menu?
Can WebTop display a web page on the Internet?
Does WebTop support ActiveX or Java?
What about security? Isn't it dangerous to support ActiveX and VBScript?
Could you walk me through the process of making these changes?
How to I create a link that will start a program?
What if I want to open a document link mydoc.doc?
What other options are there for the launch directive?
How can I create a link that will open a folder?
How do I add my demo page to the menu?
Question: Why is browsing the Internet with WebTop not recommended?
Answer: Simply put; security. One of the primary features of WebTop is the ability to start applications from the page. Because of this, there are going to be people with nothing better to do than to create pages that will damage your computer. If you use a page that someone else has created, be sure you look through the code before you load it into WebTop. Better yet, only download pages from the WebTop Gallery. GCJR Software is not liable for any damage caused by pages downloaded from other sites.
Update: As of version 1.2, only programs you have added to the 'Programs' list in the Options dialog can be started from WebTop. This greatly increases the security of WebTop.
Question: What happened to my Taskbar?
Answer: It's still there. By default, WebTop covers the entire screen and hides the Taskbar. If you want to always have access to your Taskbar, place a checkmark next to the Don't hide WindowsTaskbar item in the Options dialog.
Question: Ok... so where's the menu?
Answer: WebTop uses a right-click menu instead of a traditional menu. To display it, just click your right mouse button in the WebTop window. You can learn more about the menu options here.
Question: Can WebTop display a web page on the Internet?
Answer: Yes it can. If there is a link on a page you're viewing, just click it. If you want to load a page manually, select the Load Page... menu item and type the web page address as the filename. It doesn't matter what folder you're in, just as long as you start the address with http:// or www. it will recognize this and load the page. Please read the first question for security information.
Question: Does WebTop support ActiveX or Java?
Answer: Yes. WebTop supports HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, CSS, ActiveX and Java. Of course, you must have the Java Virtual Machine installed on your computer. You can download the latest version at http://www.sun.com/.
Question: What about security? Isn't it dangerous to support ActiveX and VBScript?
Answer: It can be, but you do have control over that. WebTop allows you to turn off images, sound, video, scripting, Java and ActiveX in the Options dialog..
Question: Could you walk me through the process of making these changes?
Answer: Sure.
- Bring up the WebTop menu by clicking the right mouse button in WebTop.
- Select the Options... menu item.
- Click the Features tab at the top of the dialog.
- Here you can see the checkboxes to enable these features. If you want to turn on off, simply remove the checkmark from the feature.
- Click the Save button at the bottom of the dialog. These changes are instant and don't require you to restart WebTop.
Question: How to I create a link that will start a program?
Answer: WebTop has a special link directive named launch. Here's a simple example of how to use it. Lets say you want to start Notepad; your link will look something like
<a href="launch:c:\windows\notepad.exe">Start Notepad</a>
As you can see, it's similar to the mailto directive except that you pass the full path and filename of the program or file you want to open. If you put the path of a file, the default program for that file type will start and load the file.
Question: What if I want to open a document link mydoc.doc?
Answer: There are a couple ways to do this. Because this is a Word document, you could just create a launch link to the file.
<a href="launch:C:\My Documents\mydoc.doc">Open mydoc</a>
You could also use the optional param for the launch directive like this:
<a href="launch:C:\Program Files\Office\winword.exe?
param=C:\My Documents\mydoc.doc">Open mydoc</a>
Obviously, this is more involved, so you will probably want to use the first example.
Question: What other options are there for the launch directive?
Answer: Currently there are only two. param is used to send additionally parameters to a program. Usually this is a file the program will load. dir is another option which allows you to specify a starting directory. This can be useful if you want the program's open file dialog to open in a specific directory.
Question: How can I create a link that will open a folder?
Answer: For this you will want to use the folder: directive. For example:
<a href="folder:C:\My Documents">Open My Documents</a>
This will start Windows Explorer and display the "My Documents" folder.
Question: How do I add my demo page to the menu?
Answer: This is a simple process. First, you need to create a folder inside the 'WebTop\Demos' folder. The name of this folder is what wil display in the menu. Then put your page and any files it needs into this new folder and name your page 'index.html'. The next time you start WebTop, your demo will be listed.
If you have any further questions, please feel free the send them to the author.
Copyright © 2002 Glenn Chittenden Jr.