Specific Settings

Specific Settings rules are used to customize the features, functions and appearance of specific windows in ways that differ from the default characteristics. For example, you might want to change the default set of title buttons, adjust size and positioning characteristics, or alter the minimization function for a particular window. After creating a Specific Settings rule, you can access the full range of options the particular Actual Tools program offers. You can create as many specific rules as you like and you can delete them as they become obsolete.

Hint You can simply disable a particular Specific Settings rule (by unmarking its check box) to force the associated window to conform instead to the Default Settings rule conditions. It's an easy way of taking the rule "offline" without permanently deleting it. This way - should you ever change your mind and decide to reapply your original settings for that window - you can do so without having to reconfigure them all over again from scratch.

Specific Settings rules require you to provide target window criteria for any new window you wish to create a rule for, and we suggest that you establish these criteria as a first step before altering any of the default rule options values.

Note The order of rules in this list is rather important in the event that you have several rules for related windows exhibiting similar criteria. Although Control Center automatically sorts the list of rules by their preference rank, in such cases you may need manually position any rules with the more specific criteria before (i.e., above) the related window rule exhibiting the less specific criteria. For example, you have established the specific rule for all Windows® Explorer windows with the Program criterion set to C:\Windows\explorer.exe (a less specific criterion) and the Window Caption criterion of a rule for a specific instance of an Explorer window set to Music. The Music window exhibits more specific criteria than the "plain vanilla" Explorer window since it is both an Explorer window and one which displays the specific caption Music in the title bar, whereas the Explorer window is merely a generic Explorer window with no regard for the title bar caption. As such, the rule for the Music window should be placed before the rule for the generic Explorer window in order for the Music window to behave properly. Note, too, that once you have manually arranged the order of such rules you should use with care the alphanumeric sort buttons to automatically rearrange them, lest you lose the functionality of such manually arranged windows (unless their names provide the desired order naturally).