3 PAGES                                                       Main Table of Contents

Creating a Custom Page

Customizing an Existing Page

Creating a New Page

Autosave

Deleting a Page

Saving a Page to a Function Key

Show Keys (On-screen Key Menu)

Aspen Graphics has the ability to store and retrieve a total of 1,000 pages. You can save any window, window layout, or combination of window types as a page. Once you save a page, you can recall it by selecting its name from the List of Pages or by entering its name on any Aspen screen. You can also assign a page to a function key, and pull it up using that key.

There are three restrictions to naming a page. They are as follows:
  1. Do Not use a symbol or instrument as the name of your page. Symbols can be incorporated into the name of the page but can not be the entire page name. (i.e. ibmquote is ok).
  2. Do Not use a number as the name of your page. Numbers can be incorporated into the name of the page (i.e. 20quotes is acceptable).
  3. Do Not use any Aspen Graphics commands. This will disable the command.

Creating a Custom Page                     Top of Page

      The two methods for creating custom Aspen Graphics pages are customizing an existing page or creating a new page.

Customizing an Existing Page                     Top of Page

Customizing an existing page is the easiest and fastest way to personalize pages. The following steps will show you some of the ways to alter a page to your liking. In these steps, the following methods will be discussed:

In the following example, you will be modifying an existing page. These steps will show you some of the many ways you can customize a page. It is important that you start with a clear screen, and pull up the exact same page as in the example. If you do not have this page, please call Aspen Research Technical Support. To clear the screen type .clear .
    1. From a clear screen, open a menu. (Hold right mouse button and click left mouse button one time, or tap the key one time).
    2. Single left click on Retrieve Page.
    3. From the List of Pages, single left click on 1_mult_windows. A page similar to the one in Figure 1 will appear.

 

Figure 1
    1. Single click in the middle of the Chart window with the right mouse button. It will become the active window, and its border will be blue.
    2. Type sp# . The chart will show a graph for the current S&P contract.
    3. Single click in the middle of the Quote window with the right mouse button. This will highlight the Quote window.
    4. Type sp# . The quote window will show quotes for the current S&P contract.
    5. Single click in the middle of the News window with the right mouse button. This will highlight the News window.
    6. Type /dow . This will display all stories with the keyword "Dow" in them.
    7. Single right click in the middle of the Clock window. This will highlight the Clock window.
    8. Tap the btntilda.gif (1192 bytes) key one time. This command will bring up a menu inside the clock window.
    9. Single left click on Digital. The analog clock will change into a digital clock.
    10. Single right click in the middle of the Chart window. This will activate the Chart window.
    11. Type .size . The border around the window will turn purple.
    12. Tap the left arrow key  9 times, and press . The Chart window will be approximately half as wide as it was originally.
    13. Using the right mouse button, move the Chart window back over to the right (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

 

    1. Type t&s . A time and sales window will appear on the screen.
    2. Type msft . The time and sales window will reflect pricing for Microsoft.
    3. Re-size the Time and Sales window to fit into the blank space (see Figure 3).

Figure 3
    1. Bring up a menu in the Time & Sales window.
    2. Single left click on Character size.
    3. Under the Custom Fonts category, single left click on Select.
    4. Under the Fonts category, perform the following:

      5. a. Single left click on the down "elevator"button.
      b. Single left click on Times New Roman.
    1. Under the Size category, select 10.
    2. Single left click on OK. The font in the Time and Sales window will change (See Figure 4).

Figure 4
    1. Type .save. "Save Page As:" prompt will appear.
      Do not name a page exclusively a symbol or a number, or any Aspen Graphics command. If you enter a name that has already been used for a page, you will be prompted with the message: "Overwrite Existing Page?" You can either single left click on Cancel and modify the name, or overwrite the page by double left clicking on Proceed.
    2. Type aspenpage .

Creating a New Page                     Top of Page

You can create pages from scratch using the Window Selection Menu. The Window Selection Menu contains several categories of window types. To build a page, you select the windows you want from the Window Selection Menu. This next section will step you through the building and saving of your own custom page.
    1. Type .clear . This will clear the screen.
    2. Bring up the Main Menu by holding the right mouse button and clicking one time on the left mouse button, or by tapping the btntilda.gif (1192 bytes) key one time.
    3. Select Add Window from the Main Menu.
    4. Under the CHARTS category, select Qtr. A quarter page chart will appear on the screen (see Figure 5).
If the Window Selection Menu is in the way of viewing the chart, click and HOLD in the middle of the menu with the right mouse button. Drag the menu to a more desirable location on the screen.

Figure 5

 

    1. Under the QUOTES category, select Header3. A quote window will appear.
      2.
    2. Move and resize the quote window so that it resembles the window in Figure 6.

Figure 6
    1. Under the NEWS category, select Default. A news window will appear.
      2.
    2. Move and resize the news window so that it resembles the window in Figure 7.

 

Figure 7
    1. Under the TIME & SALES category, select Default. A Time and Sales window will appear.
      2.
    2. Move and resize the Time and Sales window so that it resembles the window in Figure 8.

Figure 8

 

    1. Type \sp#. All the windows except the news window will show data on the current S&P contract.
    2. Type .save . The "Save Page As:" prompt will appear.
      Do not name a page exclusively a symbol or a number, or any Aspen Graphics command. If you enter a name that has already been used for a page, you will be prompted with the message: "Overwrite Existing Page?" You can either single left click on Cancel and modify the name, or overwrite the page by double left clicking on Proceed.
    3. Type newpage . The page will be saved under that name.

 

Autosave                     Top of Page

      The Autosave feature can be used to automatically save screen layouts as a page is being built. Autosave writes your page layout to the hardrive about once a minute. The layout is saved to the List of Pages as _AUTOSAVE1. Each new revision will be saved under the name _AUTOSAVE1 and the previous revision will be saved as _AUTOSAVE2. In all, you can retrieve up to 5 previous revisions. As new versions are saved, they will be displayed in the List of Pages as _AUTOSAVE1 - AUTOSAVE5.

      The Autosave function can be toggled on and off by single left clicking on Autosave in the List of Pages.

      You will not want to leave the Autosave feature on all the time. If you do, your screen will display a message every minute that it is saving your page.

Deleting a Page                     Top of Page

To delete a page from the List of Pages, follow these steps:
    1. Bring up the main menu, and select Retrieve Page, or type .pages .
    2. Highlight the page you want to delete. DO NOT click on the page or tap .
    3. Tap the Delete key one time. The page will be removed from the List of Pages.
    4. If the incorrect page was deleted, single left click on Undelete. This will bring the deleted page back to the List of Pages, saved with an underscore (_) in front of the page name.
    5. If the correct page was deleted, double left click on Purge. This will remove the page from the Aspen Graphics system.

Saving a Page to a Function Key                     Top of Page

Pages can be assigned to function keys for quick and easy access. To assign a page to a function key, follow these steps:
    1. Type .keys . The Main Function Keys menu as shown in Figure 9 will appear.

 

Figure 9
    1. Single left click on F7, and an edit box will appear to the right.
    2. Type the name of the page you want to assign to this key, and tap the key one time. Your page is now assigned to that key.
    3. Click on Done, or tap the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes) key.

Show Keys (On-screen Key Menu)                     Top of Page

The showkeys feature displays your custom keyboard commands in a menu across the bottom of our screen. To display the on-screen key menu, type .showkeys . When the showkeys line is first displayed, it covers the bottom of your existing page. Pages called up afterwards will be adjusted to the screen.

The On-screen Key Menu is assigned to the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes)K key. Holding the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes) key and tapping the K key will toggle the menu on or off.

Showkeys displays the Key Menu for keys btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) through btnf12.gif (1413 bytes). Hold down the btnshift.gif (1423 bytes) key to display the btnshift.gif (1423 bytes) btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) through btnshift.gif (1423 bytes) btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) keys. Hold down the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes) key to display the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes) btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) through btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes)btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) keys. Hold down the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes) and btnshift.gif (1423 bytes) keys at the same time to display the btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes)btnshift.gif (1423 bytes)btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) through btnctrl.gif (1396 bytes)btnshift.gif (1423 bytes) btnf12.gif (1413 bytes) keys.

To remove the showkeys menu, type .showkeys .