Since its initial release, Stardock Systems' Object Desktop has been among the best selling OS/2 applications in the world. Many OS/2 users enjoy greater productivity thanks to Object Desktop's helpful features.

Something many Object Desktop users don't know, however, is that there are many undocumented or often overlooked features of Object Desktop that can make your OS/2 system even more productive and fun to use. We've gathered together a few of them to share with you here.

From Command Prompt to GUI with one (or two) commands

Simply put, the "open" command allows you to view any object you specify from the command line, and the "navigate" command opens any folder using the Object Navigator.

The "open" command's uses, however, don't end with being able to open folders in the Workplace Shell, because the open command opens any object's default view in the Workplace Shell. That means that you can open anything essentially the same as double clicking it in the Workplace Shell. This "opens" up a number of uses when you combine this ability with other Object Desktop features.

Uses for the open command include:

"Open ." would open the current folder's default view in the Workplace Shell.

"Open incoming" would open the incoming directory if it was a sub directory from the current command prompt location.

"Open zipfile.zip" would open the Object Archive view of zipfile.zip.

"Open tob.exe" would start the program tob.exe (this is redundant, but it does work).

"Open word.doc" would open whatever application you have associated with *.doc files or, if you have Object Desktop Professional, it would view word.doc using Object Viewers. Note: the association and Object Viewers for this object can overridden by Extended Attributes saved with the program by another application. This is done by some OS/2 applications such as Star Office and DeScribe.

"Open incoming d" would open the details view of the incoming directory. This is an example of the parameters Open uses to force certain views. These non-case sensitive parameters are:

• D or DETAILS for Details View
• S or SETTINGS for the Settings Notebook
• T or TREE/TEXT for Tree View
• I or ICON for Icon View
• N or NAVIGATE to open the Object Navigator with that object.

"Navigate ." to start Object Navigator in the current directory.

"Navigate incoming" to start Object Navigator in the incoming directory, where the incoming directory is a subdirectory of your current path.

Don't use Shadows in the Tab LaunchPad

The problem is related to how objects store their icons in OS/2. Normal objects store their icon information in the OS2.INI files. However, a shadow is only a reference to the original object, so every time the Workplace Shell has to look for that object's icon information, it has to go to the directory where that object resides and query the object to find out what it does. To stop this from happening, always make sure you place the original object in the Tab LaunchPad and not a shadow.

Creating WPS Objects using Object Navigator

Object Navigator eliminates one step of this process by allowing you to create an object with the particulars for a program in one action.

To do this simply select the program or file you want to create the object for in the Navigator's main window. Once the program is selected click in the button on the Object Navigator button bar that looks like a template. This will bring up the "object creation dialog" which will ask you to name the object and where to place it. Fill out the information and you're done.

Clear the /tmp directory

That's it for this month. Next month we'll feature even more undocumented and useful tips and tricks for Object Desktop.

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