# RocketDock Documentation

# Introduction

## 1. What is RocketDock?

Have you ever glanced over the shoulder of a Mac user and seen the nifty little bar of icons at the bottom of their screen? This is known as a "dock." For those of you that haven't seen this, a dock is simply a bar that can be set to the edge of your screen with a background and a row of icons. The function of a dock is to bring applications and other various shortcuts to you in an organized fashion relieving your desktop of clutter.

## 2. Features

- Compatible with MobyDock, ObjectDock, RK Launcher, and Y'z Dock skins
- ObjectDock Docklet support
- Unicode compliant
- Simple drag-n-drop interface
- True multi-monitor support
- Supports alpha-blended PNG and ICO icons
- Icons zoom and transition smoothly
- Auto-hide
- Popup on mouse over
- Layering options
- Horizontal and Vertical offsets
- Fully customizable
- Runs great on slower computers
- Supports many languages and can easily be translated

## 3. System Requirements

- Windows 2000/XP/2003
- 500Mhz or faster CPU
- 10MB RAM free

## 4. Supported Languages

Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian

# Managing Items

## 1. Adding New Items

The first thing most people want to do after installing RocketDock is add new items. There are a few different ways of doing this:

You can simply drag -n- drop a new item into RocketDock from almost any location; your desktop, an Explorer window, the Quick Launch Bar, and the Start Menu.

Another way to add items is by right clicking on RocketDock and viewing the "Add Item" menu.

From here you have a few options to choose from and each will add a different type of item to RocketDock. Let's break each one down.

- File: You can choose any type of file to add to RocketDock. When clicked it will open that file in its default application.
- Path: You can add any folder to RocketDock. When clicked the folder will open in Explorer.
- Blank Icon: This option creates an item with no icon settings. When clicked it will bring up the RocketDock "Icon Settings" window so you can manually configure its properties. This is useful when you want to add special items that are not files or folders. An example would be a link to a webpage.
- Separator: Adding a separator between icons helps you organize them into different categories, or just add a visual break.
- Dock Settings: This is a special item. In case you removed the Dock Settings item on RocketDock, this will add it back in.

## 2. Docklets

Docklets are like mini applications that do one task and run inside RocketDock. They vary from system meters for RAM usage to a Recycle Bin item that changes the icon depending on whether the system Recycle Bin is full or empty. You can add docklets to RocketDock by dropping them in the RocketDock Docklets folder located at:

C:\Program Files\RocketDock\Docklets (default location)

Afterwards right click on RocketDock and in the "Add Item" menu there will now be additional options to add each docklet you have in the folder.

Note: RocketDock has support for ObjectDock docklets only.

## 3. Customizing Items

You can change the way each item looks on RocketDock. Simply right click on an item you want to change and select "Icon Settings."

From here you will now see the Icon Settings window where you can change the properties of your item.

### Folders

Here you will see a list of all the folders you currently have in your RocketDock Icons directory located at:

C:\Program Files\RocketDock\Icons (default location)

You can add any icons to this folder and have them available. You can also use the "Change Folder" button to point to another directory. The "Default Folder" button will bring you back to the default RocketDock Icons directory.

### Icons

This pane will show you a preview of all the icons available in the folder you have selected in the Folders section. You can use the "Default Icon" button to change the item's icon to the system default.

### Preview

You can see which icon you have selected to use for your item.

### Properties

Here is where you change how your item title displays, where the item links to, and other special actions available.

- Name: Set the label that appears when your mouse goes over it in RocketDock.
- Target: Here is the location of the item on your computer.
- Start In: This sets the working directory for the target application.
- Arguments: Sets optional parameters for the target application.
- Run: This sets the minimize state of the window when the item is launched from RocketDock.
- Find Target: Allows you to change the Target field by selecting a file or folder of your choice.
- Popup Menu: This will choose between displaying special actions in the RocketDock context menu for an item. A good example is when having an Internet Connection shortcut present in RocketDock with the "Display Special Actions" option checked.

## 4. Removing Items

You can remove items from RocketDock two different ways. The first is simply dragging the item off RocketDock and dropping it on your desktop. It will then simply vanish. The second is right clicking on the item and using the "Delete Item" option.

You can remove separators in the same fashion. Docklets can only be removed by dragging them out of RocketDock.

## 5. Drag 'n Drop

You can drag files and folders into the items on your dock.

If you drag a file/folder into an application item it will launch and load the file/folder if that application supports it. For example if you drag a PNG onto a Photoshop shortcut it will launch and load that image.

If you drag a file/folder into a folder item then it will be copied into that folder. Each item will react the same way as an item would on your desktop.

If you drag files/folders into an item that points to the Recycle Bin they will be deleted.

# Dock Settings

## 1. General

- Language: Choose the language you would like RocketDock to use. By default it should choose your system's language.
- Run at Startup: Check this option if you would like RocketDock to launch when Windows starts up.
- Lock Icons: This setting will make it so any item on RocketDock cannot be removed or deleted.
For quick access you can hold the "Control" key on your keyboard while dragging an item to move or delete it.
- Disable Icon Labels: Turn off the text under each item when moving the mouse over RocketDock.
- UberIcon Effects: If you have UberIcon installed you can enable this setting to utilize the UberIcon plugins to animate your RocketDock items when clicked.
- AutoHide: This will have RocketDock hide off the screen when your mouse is not in the activation area (edge of the screen where RocketDock sits).
- AutoHide Duration: This option sets the length of time (in milliseconds) that it takes RocketDock to finish popping up after hiding or going away.
- AutoHide Delay: This option sets the length of time (in milliseconds) RocketDock will wait before hiding or showing.

## 2. Icons

- Quality: Set the rendering quality of icons while zooming.
- Size: Set the initial size of your items on RocketDock.
- Zoom: Set the maximum size your items will increase during mouseover. Commonly known as "bubbling out."
- Zoom Width: How many icons will shift in size during the zoom.
- Zoom Duration: How fast (in milliseconds) the items will take to finish increasing size.
- Zoom Flat: A special kind of zoom where all your items will shift size at once, creating a flat appearance.

## 3. Position

- Monitor: If you have more than one monitor you can choose which one RocketDock will display on. The "Monitor *" setting will treat all your monitors as one.
- Screen Position: Choose which side of your monitor RocketDock will sit at.
- Layering: Choose how RocketDock will display over windows. "Always on Top" means RocketDock will appear above all windows. "Normal" allows windows that are new or in focus to cover RocketDock. "Always on Bottom" makes RocketDock stay below all windows.
- Popup on Mouseover: This allows RocketDock to pop over any window when covered and go back once you are finished.
- Centering: Allows you to change where on the edge of your screen RocketDock will sit.
- Edge Offset: You can decide how far off the edge of your screen RocketDock is.

## 4. Style

- Theme: Choose the theme you would like RocketDock to use. You can add more themes by dropping them in the RocketDock Skins folder located at: C:\Program Files\RocketDock\Skins (default location)
- Opacity: How transparent the background is.
- Select Font: Select the font, its color, size and style.
- Outline Color: You can choose the outline color of the font.
- Shadow Color: You can choose the color of the font shadow.
- Outline Opacity: Choose how transparent the label outline is.
- Shadow Opacity: Change how transparent the shadow on the label is.

## 5. Quick Access to Options

You can access a few of the different options by right clicking on RocketDock.

You can choose Screen Position, Locking Icons, Monitor, and AutoHiding. You can also see a shortcut to the Dock Settings, so adding this item to RocketDock is not necessary. Now a feature you might not have noticed before is the "Take Screenshot" option. When selected this will make RocketDock take an alpha blended PNG image of itself and save it to your desktop with a sequential number.

## 6. Reset Options

In the Dock Settings window you will find a "Defaults" button, this will reset all RocketDock settings back to how they were when you first installed RocketDock.

Note: This will not effect any of your items.

# Finding Help and Contributing

## 1. Where to Go if You Need More Help

If you have further questions about RocketDock you can simply visit our forums. You can also find tutorials to show different ways of customizing RocketDock.

## 2. Help Translate

If your language is not supported and you would like to help translate, or update a current language file you can find instructions here. If you would like to translate this documentation, please contact us in the forums.

## 3. Spread the Word

Telling others about our software is a great way to help out. Posting links on your website is a great way to start. you can find banners or submit your own in the forums.

## 4. Visit Our Shop

We have an online shop called the Punk Software Swag Shack. You can buy things like shirts, mousepads, or hats that you might just like. A portion of the proceeds go to feed starving Punk Software programmers.