VT Voilà Manual
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VT Voilà Manual |
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VT Voilà is a suite of interface enhancements that considerably
speeds up user interaction with large (and very large) screen configurations.
We recognized two main problems the multi display user must face:
Moreover, if the user is working on one or more panned screens (even more space available!), another problem may arise:
VT Voilà is a simple yet effective solution for these inconveniences. However, we have to admit that there is a major drawback in VT Voilà: it is highly addictive. We have observed customers that, while forced to use other computers, were frantically hitting the VT Voilà hot keys trying to make their cursors jump. Even on single screen systems!
All of the VT Voilà features can be always activated, but a multi
display setup is necessary to see the benefits each feature.
Each utility is recalled using an hot key. By default the very immediate
command-F1 to command-F4 keys.
But let us see VT Voilà in detail:
Hey!
Hey! helps you in finding your mouse pointer, lost in the huge screen space: when you hit the corresponding hot key, a red circle appears around the mouse pointer. The circle is big enough to be noted in any multi display setup and disappears after a few moments.
As a convenience, inside the circle a number appears, remembering you which is the current Hot Jump position (see below).Jump!
Jump! makes the mouse pointer.. well.. jump from one place to another. Any distance is covered instantaneously and Hey! is invoked at the target, so you can quickly regain the focus on the new location.
But where does the pointer jump to? There are two Jump kinds: the Main Jump and the Hot Jump and in both kinds you will memorize where you want the next jump to be. After all, don't you usually buy return tickets?
As you would expect, a Jump! position remembers the screen position even in Village Tronic's panning displays, so you can even Jump! to a part of a panned display that is not currently visible.One useful trick: you can jump when you are dragging an item, transforming the usual drag-and-drop gesture in a much more powerful drag-and-jump-and-drop operation.
Main Jump
Main Jump jumps between the main screen and the other screens. The main screen is the one with the Apple menu bar (and usually the dock). When you hit the Main Jump hot key, if the pointer is on a screen different from the main screen it jumps instantaneously into the main screen, in the position you last jumped off by using Main Jump. And if the pointer was on the main screen, it jumps exactly on the last position you jumped off on one of the other screens.
As often happens, trying it is way easier than explaining it: just try!
This kind of jump is very useful to reach the menu bar from wherever on your screens: just leave the mouse pointer near the menu bar before the first Main Jump and then you'll be able to jump back there in a snap, no matter which application window you are using and how much far away your are from the main screen.
As Hey! does, also Main Jump draws a red circle around the pointer at the end of the jump. Moreover, the circle reports whether you landed on the main screen (black dot) or on one of the other screens (black circle). Just to avoid any possible confusion..Hot Jump
It's true, Hot Jump is not as immediate to use as Main Jump. But it's way more powerful: you can memorize and jump to up to 5 different locations on your screens!
Each time you Hot Jump, the current pointer position is memorized and you move to the next Hot Jump position, and so on. If you decided to have three Hot Jump positions, you'll cycle positions in this order: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2... every time you hit the Hot Jump hot key.
So if you are working between three applications in three screens, just configure Hot Jump by jumping from the main windows of the three applications and then with no more than two jumps you can move to any screen. And every time you jump to a screen, the mouse pointer is exactly where you left it so you can immediately start working again in the target application.
You can mix Hot Jump operation with Main Jump so if you need to access the menu bar you don't have to modify one of the Hot Jump positions.
When you jump, a number appears in the right circle: it is the number of the position you just jumped in. And if, at any time, you need to remember which is the current position number (so you can know which position you'll memorize the next time you Hot Jump), you can just Hey! and the number inside the red circle will tell you which is the current Hot Jump.Voilà
Voilà has two functions: it allows you to move through your multi display setup with a speed second only to Jump! and it provides a quick overview of all your screens. All of this directly under you mouse pointer.
When invoked, Voilà makes a small scaled representation of your screens appear right under the mouse pointer. Clicking on any position inside the scaled representation makes your pointer jump directly into the chosen position, no matter how far away it is.
Since Voilà is providing a full representation of all your screens, you can immediately have an idea about how the screen space is used and where everything is. This is especially useful when using panned resolutions, where only a part of the screen is visible at any time.
Depending on what you are doing and you habits, you may prefer a bigger or smaller Voilà preview: you can decide how big is the Voilà overview both in the VT Voilà system preference and by using the scroll wheel or the up and down arrow keys when the overview is shown. The scaling factor can range from 4x to 32x: the bigger the factor, the smaller and less detailed will be the Voilà overview.
If you want to use Voilà just to have an overview, you can easily dismiss its overview by clicking anywhere outside it or by hitting any key (except the up and arrow keys and commands).
The Voilà overview can be made as transparent as you like, so you can still see the screen contents below it, if you want.
This software is bundled with Village Tronic cards featuring panning on Mac
OS X. You'll find VT Voilà in the latest driver installation for
your Village Tronic graphics card.
VT Voilà is a optional installation in the card's driver installation,
but it is activated by default.
To download the latest drivers for your card please visit the Village Tronic download section.
System Requirements
VT Voilà requires Mac OS X version 10.3.9 and 10.4.4. A compatible panning enabled graphics card from Village Tronic is required in order to offer full functionality.
From version 1.1 VT Voilà is Universal Binary.Software installed
Here is the list of the installed software:
VT Voila.app Application /Library/Application Support/Village Tronic/ VT Voila.prefpane Preference Pane /Library/Preference Panes Moreover, the installer modifies the ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist file to include VT Voila.app in the applications opened at startup. You can modify this setting using the VT Voila preference pane or the Accounts preference pane (Login Items panel).
Once VT Voilà is started, it will create a preference file called com.villagetronic.vtvoila.plist in ~/Library/Preferences/
Uninstall
To uninstall VT Voilà please use the VT Voila uninstaller that you can find in the Uninstaller folder in the driver installation CD or disk image.
| VT Voilà configuration is set up in the VT Voilà preference pane, in System Preferences. To access it, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click on the VT Voilà icon: |  |
Activation set up
Startup activation
You can choose to activate Hey! Jump! and Voilà! at every system startup directly from the VT Voilà preference pane or using the standard Mac OS Accounts preference pane (Login Items panel).
By default, after installation, VT Voilà is activated at startup.
Immediate activation
You can choose to activate or deactivate VT Voilà at any time by pressing the Activate/Deactivate VT Voilà Now button. Since VT Voilà does not show on the Dock, this button is an easy way to know if VT Voilà is activated.
Settings set up
Hot Jump level setting
By default, Hot Jump remembers two different locations on your multiple screen environment. But if you are using many different applications on many different screens you may want to increase that number up to 5 locations. To do so, simply move the slider.
Please remember that more Hot Jump locations are recorded, more locations you will have to cycle to arrive where you want. By experimenting you'll be able to find the right setting for your needs. And you'll be able to change it whenever you want.
Voilà transparency setting
When Voilà is invoked, an overlay image representing a scaled down version of the full multi display setup is shown. By default this overlay is not completely opaque: in this way you can still have an idea about what the overlay is currently hiding.
Since there are so many different habits in using multiple screen setups you may want to change this transparency setting. You can choose anything from a completely opaque overlay (0% transparency) to a fully transparent overlay (100% transparency). The latter option may be useful only for quick navigation inside the panned screen, since you won't get a clue about the complete virtual screen contents..
Voilà scale factor setting
When Voilà is invoked, an overlay image representing a scaled down version of the full multi display setup is shown. By default this scaled image is one eighth of the full dimension of the screens: a scale factor of 8 is applied.
Depending on you personal preference and on which task you want to accomplish, you may want to change the dimension of the overlay window. This dimension can vary from 1/4 to 1/32 of the full dimension, in 1/4 increments.
Once Voilà is activated, you can zoom in or zoom out the overview by pressing the up arrow or down arrow keys or using the scroll wheel.
Using this system preference you can set up the default scale factor that is set every time VT Voilà is launched.
Hot Keys set up
All of VT Voilà features can be invoked by a hot key. By default those hot keys are set from command-F1 to command-F4. That is already quite handy in the majority of configurations. But you may want to change those hot keys, maybe because you are already using them for something else.
To change an hot key simply click on its current value. An input window will appear where you can select which modifier you want to use with the chosen key. Since usually you'll want to use the command key, this selection is made for you by default (but you can uncheck it if you want).
Once all modifiers are chosen, you have only to press the chosen key. You can keep pressed the shift key if you want to use the uppercase key but the caps lock will be ignored (to avoid the much too frequent errors where caps lock is forgotten).
The input window will close and the hot key will be immediately changed. Clicking on the appropriate buttons in the input window you can revert to the default hot key setting or cancel the input operation.
Let's say for example that you want to change the Hey! hot key with something difficult like command-option-control-A. To do so, you will have to click on the Hey! hot key (by default command-F1), then click on the control and option checkboxes (the command one is already checked), then press the "a" key while you are keeping the shift key pressed. The input window will close and show the new hotkey as follows:
Please note that the shift key is reported to avoid any confusion. You can assign any hot key to VT Voilà features, even plain characters like "s" or "a". But please try to avoid using keys or hot keys that are already in use by other applications or the operating system: results may be unpredictable.
Notebook users: Mac OS X by default uses the keyboard's function keys to activate special system functions. The F1-F12 functionality is obtained by using the fn modifier key. In this case the standard VT Voilà keys are activated by pressing fn-command-function key.
It is possible to directly assign the F1-F12 functionality to the function keys in the "Keyboard&Mouse" system preference, checking the "Use the F1-F12 keys to control software features" in the Keyboard pane.
In this case, the special system funtions are still available using the fn modifier key.Card set up
When a supported card is installed on the system with its driver, the "Card" panel is available and VT Voilà offers some special configuraion options for those cards.
Deep display sensing activation
This setting affects the way your Village Tronic card checks which kind of display is connected to it. To provide a precise sensing the card uses a set of tests called "deep sensing". This kind of sensing, if the display does not reply correctly, can take a while to be completed. In these cases, you may experience intermittent lag in your mouse movement at intervals of about 10 seconds. In these cases you can disable Deep Sensing with this radio button.
At startup time the card will sense the display connected to it so there is no need to enable this setting unless you are switching display while the computer is running. And even in this case, it is sufficient to turn it on for about twenty seconds to allow proper display recognition.
The default setting is "Not active" and usually you don't need to change it since the display is fully characterized at startup time.
Village Tronic home page: www.villagetronic.com
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