Shortcut Creator v2.3

Description:
Windows Mobile uses shortcuts extensively but has only rudimentary tools to create them. Shortcut Creator can create and edit shortcuts with easy access to all their properties.

he program has been tested on HTC Magician with WM 2003SE and has been reported to work on HTC Wizard with WM 2005. The program can work on devices with English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese culture, with other cultures the program works but the strings inside the file dialogs are garbled. The program does not support screen rotantion.

Installation:
Option 0 - Automatic using the CAB file:
Copy ShortcutCreator.cab to the "\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" directory on your device and run it. This will create the directory "\Program Files\ShortcutCreator" and some subdirectories under it, copy there all required files and create a shortcut named "Shortcut Creator" inside Programs.

Option 1 - Manual:
All the required files are under the "Files" directory and its subdirectories inside ShortcutCreator.2.0.zip Create an installation directory where you like on your device and copy there ShortcutCreator.exe, FileDialog.dll, FileDialog.resources.dll and GetFileInfo.dll from the "Files" directory, then create a shortcut to ShortcutCreator.exe where you like.

If your device is not using English culture create a subdirectory under the installation directory named after the culture (that is "it" for Italian, "de" for German, "fr" for French, "es" for Spanish and "pt" for Portuguese) and copy there the file FileDialog.resources.dll from the corresponding directory inside ShortcutCreator.2.0.zip

Uninstallation:
If installed as in option 0 use the Remove Program applet, otherwise simply delete all the files. Shortcut Creator does not pollute the system in any other way.

Usage:
A Windows Mobile shortcut is a small, one line, text file with extension ".lnk" Normally Windows Mobile hides the extension and shows only the shortcut file name.

A shortcut can contain these parts:
- the path of the target file, that is the application to be executed on selection of the shortcut;
- the parameters to be passed to the target;
- the path of a resource file from which get a icon to associate to the shortcut (if missing the first icon found in target file is used);
- a resource identifier to select a specific icon from the resource file (if missing the first icon found in the resource file is used).
Shortcut Creator permits to edit separately the different parts of a shortcut.
Main.jpg is the main screen of Shortcut Creator. The notes in it explain the function of the different controls.

Note on extended text edit box:
Due to the limited size of the screen the editing of long lines of text is not easy. To improve this the text boxes in Shortcut Creator offer two extensions when you start editing the text.

The first makes the box expands downward to show all the text. A small red button appears at box right top and by tapping it you make the box to collapse to its normal state. The box also collapses to its normal state if you start using another box or tap another button. This extension applies to all the text boxes but the shortcut name and the resource identifier.

The second extension makes a small gray button appears at box left top and by tapping it a list of predefined string drops down. Selecting an item it is copied to the box. This extension applies to the shortcut directory and the resource file path.

Note on copy and paste support:
The text boxes of the main screen of Shortcut Creator support copy and paste functions. To access them, with the cursor in the text box (you should see the cursor inside it), open the context menu (tap and hold the text box) and select the function. Parameters text box offers an extra function (Copy a path...) that opens a file selection dialog and copy the selected file path to the clipboard. From there it can be pasted where required.

Note on .bak file creation:
This feature is meant to keep a copy of the original shortcut before any modification. Therefore, the backup is created only if you open an existing shortcut and overwrite it (and obviously if enabled with the check box in the main screen). In this case the backup is saved in the same directory of the original shortcut and with ".bak" appended to the original name, that is the file name is in the form .bak.lnk

Moreover, only the original is kept, that is if you open x.lnk, modify it and save, x.lnk contains the new shortcut and x.bak.lnk the original ones. From then on x.bak.lnk is no more overwritten and when you are satisfied with x.lnk you should manually delete x.bak.lnk

Note on icon browser:
Icon Browser.jpg is the icon broser screen. The notes in it explain the function of the different controls.

Due to limitations of the Compact Framework icon searching and loading from resource file is slow. Therefore, be prepared to wait when you tap the Browse button. How much depends on the device CPU/clock but a few minutes is normal (anyway you can always stop the operation by tapping the screen).

Moreover, it is possible that not all the icons are discovered. A complete check of a resource file can be done with desktop based tools like Resource Hacker (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/) but this requires that the file is transferred to the desktop.

To partially solve the slowness problem, after you have browsed a resource file, icon infos are kept and when you tap the Browse button again there is no delay. If you change the resource file a new search and load operation is required.

Moreover, after having browsed a resource file you can cache icon infos so that the next time you browse it the loading time is faster. To do this, after a complete (not aborted) browsing select Menu/CacheIDs. If the resource file is updated the cache is no more valid, to update it do a refresh, by selecting Menu/Refresh, and then cache the infos again selecting Menu/CacheIDs.

The drop down list of the shortcut directory texy box shows the path of the cached resource files.

Icon cache infos are kept in a file named ShortcutCreator.idc in the same directory where ShortcutCreator.exe is. To completely discard the infos simply delete the file.

More information:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=275577

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