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completely free. If you find it useful and you'd like to show your
appreciation, please consider a small
donation by clicking the appropriate link below. Your donation is greatly appreciated
and will help keeping SideSlide alive!
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SideSlide is an
advanced, unobtrusive, dockable, skinnable, instantly accessible, highly
configurable Desktop Extension on Steroids! SideSlide will help you to
finally clean desktop clutter and will make your computer friendlier and
faster than ever before. Get instant access to everything you have and
so much more...
The main reason behind creating SideSlide is to
switch from this, and much worse, to that,
and much more:
As a general guideline, be sure to
Right-Click everything and
use <Ctrl> and <Shift>
when dragging or selecting items to explore SideSlide's options.
Launch at System
Startup
When installing SideSlide you can select
to have it automatically launch at system startup. If you did not select
this option, you can
manually
create a shortcut to SideSlide.exe in the Startup group.
Docking and Undocking
the Workspace
SideSlide's workspace
can be resized and docked to the sides or the top part of the screen.
To dock the main window, drag it
via the title bar to different sides or right-click the button at the
right side of the title bar and select the docking position. To show
the main window, bring the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen
(Click to show the workspace immediately without waiting) or
by using <Windows Key>+<S>. To show/hide the workspace,
right click the icon
in the system tray.
The Workspace
The workspace is your drawing board to
which you can add different kinds of objects: Containers, news
feeds, pictures, reminders,
file and directory shortcuts, command prompt commands, web URLs and notes.
There are several ways of adding new objects:
1/3
-Drag
& Drop your favorite applications,
files, documents, pictures and text from your web browser to create
notes and reminders.
Drag & Drop different objects while holding down the <Shift> key:
Picture files: Open the picture inside
the workspace.
Text files: Open the text in a note
container.
Text from your web browser, Outlook
email items, etc: Create reminders*.
* Drag text from your web browser without
holding down the <Shift> key to create notes, and addresses from your
web browser's address bar to create new web URL shortcuts.
The video below shows how you can drag picture and
text files into the workspace (if the SideSlide workspace is
hiding at the edge of the screen, drag the file to there and the
workspace will reveal itself).
Web Snippets -
SideSlide as a research assistant tool:
Drag & Drop text and images from your web
browser to the workspace and create web snippets.
Drag & drop text and images to the same container:
* Hold down the <Shift> key when dragging images to
the workspace to open the image.
3/3 -Click on an empty place in the workspace
to show the floating toolbar:
Drag the toolbar from its title
to keep it open and to easily add new objects (close by clicking anywhere
in the workspace).
Stop the toolbar from
appearing by unselecting
Settings >> Global Settings >> Show floating toolbar or
by clicking the red close button (x) at the upper
right corner of the toolbar.
Opens the Add RSS
News Feeds dialog allowing you to add multiple news feeds:
Web URLs copied to the clipboard before opening
this dialog will appear in the text box.
Add multiple feeds by clicking the
Add button and then the Process button or a single one
by immediately clicking Process.
Click the Remove button to remove
selected feeds from the list.
Close this dialog by clicking the
Cancel button or by using the Esc key.
The new feed will appear in the
workspace inside a container:
Keyboard navigation in news feeds:
- Open a specific news feed by entering the feed's name.
- Use the <Space> button to open the next feed and <Shift>+<Space> to
open the previous one. - <F5> to refresh the feed. - <Key Down> and
<Key Up> to select headlines. - View feed items by using the Enter key (open on the site or with
the RSS Viewer).
Keyboard navigation in RSS
news feeds:
Refresh the feed by clicking the Refresh button
(right of the shrink/expand button) in the container's toolbar.
When you expand a shrunken RSS container:
The last update label at the bottom of the container
will display the minutes passed since the last update.
Quickly shrink the RSS container back using the
right mouse button, by dbl-clicking
the last update label or dbl-clicking an empty place (in between or to the
sides of the headlines).
When dbl-clicking to unfold folded RSS
containers, you can right click an empty space inside the feed
items list to fold the container back.
Right click a label or the the icon of shrunken
RSS container to show the RSS container menu items in addition to
the regular container menu items:
Go to URL - Open your web browser with the RSS
feed web address.
Copy URL - Copy the RSS news feed address to
the clipboard.
Reset Icon - Reset the container icon to the
default one after selecting a custom icon. The RSS feed icon is taken from the
website's favicon if available.
Open feed items by
clicking a headline (the headline will be marked as read).
Right click a headline or <Shift> and left
click in order to open the item on the website. If the Open
directly on the site menu item is not checked, the RSS Viewer
dialog will be displayed:
The RSS Viewer dialog allows you, from left
to right: Refresh the news feed, choose a different
news feed, go Back or Forward to the last or next headline,
open the active item on the website and keep the viewer open and on top of other
windows.
Close this dialog by clicking the Close button or by using the Esc key.
Opens
the Reminder dialog allowing you to schedule a new reminder:
Select the reminder's color,
set the text and time. Click the [+] and [-] buttons to add or
subtract 10 minutes from the time.
Add new reminders by
dragging text (from the web browser, Outlook email items, etc)
to the workspace while holding down the <Shift> key.
The new reminder will be shown
in the workspace:
Multiple Reminders Example.
Dbl-Click
a reminder or right click and select Edit to change any
of its settings.
Move all
reminders in the workspace together by selecting a single
reminder (Click and Drag) while holding down the <Ctrl> key -
Move to the
sides of the workspace in order to line them up.
The reminder
window will pop-up at the bottom right corner of the screen, above
the system-tray:
When the
reminder window pops-up an alarm will sound. Replace
the alarm.wav file in the program's directory to change the
sound.
Snooze
- Remind again in 5 minutes.
Open -
Add 5 minutes and open the reminder for editing.
The video below shows how
you can add and organize reminders in the workspace.
File Shortcut {Ctrl + F} - Add a file
shortcut to the workspace:
Select the newly added file
shortcuts to show the shortcut mini-toolbar (you can also use
<Ctrl> click to show the toolbar). Use the toolbar
commands to quickly apply style settings on selected shortcuts:
Zoom-In, Zoom-Out, manually set the size, toggle bold font, sort
ascending (A to Z), sort descending (Z to A) and select color:
Choose a custom color or color which is based on the icon
colors.
Drag the shortcut mini-toolbar to change its position.
Quickly resize selected shortcuts by holding
down the <Ctrl> key and using the mouse wheel.
Select all shortcuts in the
workspace or within a container using <Ctrl>+<A>.
Drag selected shortcuts to arrange
them anywhere in the workspace; top to bottom in multiple columns
if needed.
Drag the selected shortcuts
while holding down the <Ctrl> key to keep the original layout
(without arranging them).
When dragging shortcuts by clicking
their icons instead of the shortcut label:
Move shortcuts between containers
(the same as dragging the shortcut's label) and activate shortcuts
with others as command-line arguments.
Drag shortcuts out of
folder link containers in order to
move or copy them to other folder link containers or any other
directory when dragged to the Windows Explorer.
Refresh shortcuts/icons in the
workspace using <Shift>+<F5>.
When you finish adding new
shortcuts and arranging the workspace, you can prevent accidental
changes by right-clicking the workspace and selecting
Arrange > Lock Editing:
NOTE: When dragging files, pictures,
web snippets, etc, from Windows to add
new items to the workspace and it's locked, the workspace will
unlock for a period of 10 seconds allowing you to arrange the
shortcuts before locking up again.
Switch shortcut locations
by moving a shortcut close to the one you want to replace:
* Drag a shortcut while holding
down the <Ctrl> key to
prevent this
behavior.
Containers
can be used to keep file and directory shortcuts, text, URL's, pictures
and used as folder links to connect to actual folders on disk. Containers
can be detached from the
workspace, expanded and folded to occupy less space.
* You can also use containers to keep other containers by checking
the 'Capture/Nested Containers' option from the Settings >> Containers
menu (this is an experimental feature that might be removed in
the future, and is a bit buggy).
Delete containers by right clicking the container's name label
and selecting Delete.
Match Size, Align Left and Align Top: Use
these container right click menu options to arrange all other
containers based on the chosen container dimensions and
location.
Change containers' position by dragging the
container you want to move from the container's label. Move all
selected containers together by holding down the <Ctrl> key:
Undo containers' position using
<Ctrl>+<Z>.
Toggle container selection by
clicking a container's name label while holding down the <Ctrl>
key.
Change containers' names using
the right-click menu command Rename.
Create
Launch Groups and open all shortcuts
within a container by using the menu command Shortcuts >> Start All Shortcuts.
Folder Link (the 2nd button
from the left in the container's toolbar) allows you to link container
to an actual folder on the disk and have it accessible from anywhere:
Use it to copy files IN and OUT
of the folder: Drag files to a folder link container to move
or copy them from the original location. Drag a file from a
folder link container to other folder link containers or to
the Windows Explorer to copy or move the files. Hold down the
<Ctrl> key to toggle between Move and Copy.
Drag files from folder link containers
by dragging shortcut icons:
Move and copy selected shortcuts by
dragging them using the shortcut icons (instead of the shortcut label)
to other folder link containers or to the Windows Explorer.
When dragging an icon with the right mouse button and then
dropping the files in the Windows Explorer, you will see the
popup menu that allows you to move or copy the file to the new
location.
Right Click and select Refresh Folder to add existing files into the container.
Select Refresh on Expand
& Unfold to automatically refresh the folder when the container
is unfolded or expanded.
Container right click menu:
The right click menu allows you to start
shortcuts from within the container without expanding or unfolding
it.
Select
the note button from the container's toolbar to view and write
the container's note:
Create new note containers
by dragging a text file [.txt] to the workspace while holding
down the <Shift> key.
TIP: Drag text from your web
browser to create web snippets.
Shrink
and Fold containers in order to conserve space by clicking
the corresponding buttons in the container's toolbar:
A shrunken container will
automatically expand when the mouse is over the container's
small 'shrink' button at the upper left corner - Change
this behavior via the Settings menu.
Before resizing expanded
containers, click the container's label or an empty
place inside to delay the container from automatically 'shrinking back'.
Dbl-Click
an empty space inside the container to quickly shrink it
back.
Drag shortcuts from the workspace
or the Windows Explorer to unfold and expand containers in order
to place them inside.
Dbl-Click a container's
label to fold or unfold the container.
When a folded container (the
[+] button is visible) can't unfold to the bottom and be fully
visible, it will 'flip' and the toolbar buttons
will relocate to the bottom of the container:
If you dbl-click the container's label
to unfold it (as opposed to clicking the Unfold button),
it will automatically fold back when launching a shortcut.
Change this behavior by unchecking
the
Fold on click menu option.
When expanding a shrunken
container, it will always be fully visible regardless of its
location in the workspace:
Right-Click a container to select
foreground background colors:
Reset: Reset to the default
theme colors.
Switch: Switch between background
and foreground colors.
Use this dialog to change the color of multiple selected containers.
Detach containers from
the workspace and hide them at any edge of the screen (the same
as with the workspace itself) by selecting the container menu
option Detach, or dragging selected containers (drag
multiple containers by holding own the <Ctrl> key) out of the
workspace if the Drag to Detach menu option is selected.
Once the container is detached, it is locked
for editing. Edit its content by attaching it back to the workspace.
Currently, only note containers and containers
with shortcuts can be detached. RSS containers and picture containers cannot be detached from the workspace.
When the container is detached, click the [+]
button to attach it back to the workspace, or right click to
show the menu from which you can also close the detached
container window and then delete it from the workspace itself. Attach all
detached containers back to the workspace using the Arrange menu
option Attach All.
Move detached containers to the edges of the
screen in order to hide them. Click and drag anywhere
inside a detached container in order to move it around the
screen.
Detached Containers Part 1:
Detached Containers Part 2:
Picture {Ctrl + P} - Add pictures
to the workspace.
Quickly add new pictures
to the workspace by dragging picture files from the Windows Explorer
while holding down the <Shift> key.
Select multiple tags for each of the shortcuts in the workspace.
Make shortcuts visible and quickly accessible when working on a specific
task. In addition to that, you can use shortcut tags to
start multiple shortcuts
together, besides the Start All Shortcuts option for shortcuts in
the same container:
Select and display available tags:
Show All: Unhide all shortcuts
after selecting to have only shortcuts that share a specific tag
visible.
Access shortcut tags when hovering
over a shortcut icon:
Left or Right click the 'asterisk'
icon to show the Edit Tags dialog:
Select multiple shortcuts
and create new tags using the shortcut right-click menu command
"Edit Tags...".
The
icon indicates there
are tags selected for the shortcut:
Once a tag is added, left click the
asterisk icon to show a popup menu with the selected tags:
Click a tag to show all other shortcuts
that share the same tag and hide all the ones that don't (including
containers that don't have any shortcut that share the selected
tag).
To unhide the hidden shortcuts; click
the ribbon showing the selected tag:
Hide the asterisk icon by unchecking
the Right-click Menu>>Settings>>Shortcuts>>Show Tags option.
[main menu]
Arrange
Lock Editing {Ctrl + L} - Lock shortcuts
and containers in place to prevent accidental moving. When trying
to move a locked item, the lock button is briefly shown:
Click the lock button to
unlock the workspace for a period of 10 seconds in order to
quickly make changes even when the workspace is locked.
When trying to move or
resize containers, or shortcuts inside containers and the
workspace is locked for editing; the container border will flash in red.
Unselect All {Ctrl + U} - Unselect
all selected shortcuts and containers.
Select All Shortcuts {Ctrl + A} -
Select all shortcuts in the workspace or the container in focus.
Attach All
{Ctrl + F3} - Attach all detached containers back to the
workspace.
Shrink/Expand All {Ctrl + F1} - Toggle
Shrink/Expand for all containers
in the workspace.
Fold/Unfold All {Ctrl + F2} - Toggle
Fold/Unfold for all containers in
the workspace.
Align - Align shortcuts and containers to grid.
Hold down the <Ctrl> key to
suspend shortcut and container alignment.
Hold down the <Ctrl> key when
dragging items in order to move all objects from a certain kind
(containers, pictures, reminders and shortcuts) together while
maintaining their layout.
To move containers and shortcuts
alongside all the rest they must be selected.
Select a group of shortcuts,
hold down the <Ctrl> key and move them pass the right workspace
border in order to align them to the right.
Top/Left/Right
- Select the screen corner the main window will collapse to.
Selecting any of the corners will also re-center the
workspace.
Collapse now {Esc} - Immediately
collapse the main window to the selected screen corner. You can
also press the title bar Dock button (top-right most button).
Animate
(Slide-In) - Use a slide-in effect when
the window and detached containers are docked to one of the screen
edges.
Wide border: Workspace - Select this option
to show a wider border when the window is collapsed.
Wide border: Detached Containers - Select
this option to show a wider border for detached containers.
Refresh All {F11} - Refresh all RSS news
feeds in the workspace.
Search RSS News Feeds:
'Search as you type' within the headlines
and/or descriptions (see the check-boxes) of all available news
feeds in the workspace.
Close this dialog by clicking the
Close button by using the Esc key.
When the dialog is closed, the last search item
will be added to the Recent Search Terms menu:
Highlight Search Terms: Display news feed
headlines in red in case
one of the terms in the Recent Search Terms list is found.
This feature is useful to track various items that are important
to you. The headline will be colored in red in case the
search term
is found in the news feed headline or the description. The
search term will also appear at the beginning of the
headline inside square brackets.
Clear Recent List: Remove all recent
search terms from the list.
Load on startup - Open all feeds when the
program starts.
Open directly on the site - When clicking
headlines: Do not use the RSS Viewer and open the item directly
on the site. You can always open it directly on the site by
right clicking a headline or left clicking while holding down
the <Shift> key.
Proxy Server - Set a proxy server address if
required by your network.
Containers
Drag to detach -
Detach containers by dragging them
to the edges of the workspace. You can always detach containers
using the container right-click menu.
Auto expand
on mouse-over - Select this option to have
shrunken containers automatically expand when the mouse is over
the Shrink/Expand button, without the need to click it:
Click to expand but auto shrink - Click the
Shrink/Expand
button to expand containers, but move the mouse out
of the container and it will shrink back.
Fold on
Click - Select this option to automatically
fold back unfolded containers after launching a shortcut or
clicking a headline.
Experimental:
Capture/Nested
Containers:
Select this
option in order to allow containers to store other containers,
rather than only shortcuts, pictures and reminders.
See examples:
example1example2
* Please note: This feature is still
a bit buggy and will probably be removed from future versions.
Require
Confirmation for Start All Shortcuts - See the
Container menu for more.
Hide folder link buttons: Hide the folder
link buttons from containers' toolbar.
Hide note buttons: Hide the note buttons from
containers' toolbar.
Shortcuts
Show
Asterisk Icon
- Show/hide the asterisk icon
(change/select shortcut tags) when the
mouse is over the shortcut's icon.
Dbl-Click
to Start - Uncheck this option to use single
click to start shortcuts (use <Ctrl> to select).
Verify - Verify that all shortcuts
in the workspace are pointing to actual files and directories
on disk.
Reminders
Clear Reminders - Delete all
reminders.
Global Settings
Transparent - Make the
workspace translucent/opaque
.
Drop shadow
(*) - Use a shadow effect underneath the
main window and detached containers.
Delete
Confirmation - Require a confirmation before
deleting shortcuts and containers.
Show date & time - Show the
current date & time in the title bar.
Global
Hotkey (Win+S) - Enable the global hotkey
to allow showing/hiding and docking/undocking the main window
using the keyboard.
Hotkey reveals detached containers - Hidden detached containers will be
shown alongside the
workspace when using the Global Hotkey. This option is useful
if you need to see where all the detached container are
located at. You can also use the Wide border option from the
Dock menu to better keep track of
their location.
Resolve
shortcuts - With this option enabled, all
Windows shortcut files you add to the workspace will be added
as SideSlide shortcuts: Shortcuts to the actual target files and
not shortcuts to the Windows shortcut files (*.lnk).
Clear workspace - Clear the workspace
and start from scratch.
Ignore changes & restart - Ignore
all changes made under the current session and restore the previously
saved workspace.
[main menu]
Save workspace / F8
Save
the workspace to disk. The workspace is automatically saved when you
exit the program (also when the program is forced to close when restarting
or shutting down your computer). All of SideSlide's settings are save
to the SideSlide.ini file in the installation folder and containers
are saved to the Containers subfolder.
Crash Recovery:
If SideSlide was not properly closed (program or computer
crash, etc), it will ask you if you want to restore to the
last saved state from the recovery backup file when you start it
up again. The recovery file is newer than the SideSlide.ini file
and you should usually (unless you have a reason not to) select to
restore the workspace.
Open settings folder
- Opens the folder where the container files and the workspace
settings are located.
Check for update...- Checks if a newer version is available.
Online help - Opens
your browser and navigates to this page.
The
Display Properties window (F4) allows you to change various style
settings such as the default colors, wallpaper, default shortcut font
style and size, and icon size:
Select a theme to change the wallpaper,
colors and buttons accordingly. If you are interested in designing
your own theme check out the Skin folder.
You can save themes by choosing wallpaper,
buttons
and colors, selecting the Save button and Yes.
Font: Font used for shortcuts
and RSS feeds.
Large Icon Size: Normally should be
kept 32, but if you're using a program that can resize the desktop
icons, such as XPize, you can change it here.
Close this dialog by clicking the Cancel button or by using the Esc key.
[main menu]
Exit - Exit the
program and save the workspace to disk.
Open file location - Open the selected shortcut
folder and select the file using Windows Explorer.
Change to relative path - Change the selected
shortcuts drive letter to @ (see below for more).
Mark on Launch - Advanced: Select this option
to set the shortcut's Mark on Launch attribute: Enter a tag, and
when you launch the shortcut, it will be bordered to indicate that
it's running. To remove the border that is showing around the
shortcut, you have to launch any other shortcut that includes the
selected tag. This feature is especially useful is you have some
sort of "start" and "stop" shortcuts and you need to know if the
application is running (in the event that it is hidden, or on a
different monitor/virtual desktop). To remove the shortcut's Mark
on Launch attribute, simply select Remove Mark on Launch
from the shortcut menu.
Use relative paths for shortcuts
(when using SideSlide from a USB drive):
In the shortcut's target path,
use the at symbol: '@' instead of the drive letter and the shortcut
will be executed from the same drive SideSlide is on.
You can also change multiple
shortcuts using the shortcut right click menu command Change
to Relative Path.
Icon: Use a custom icon to display
the file with.
Parameters: Any additional parameters
for the program.
Requires Confirmation: Show a
confirmation dialog before launching the program.
Command:
Execute a command prompt
command instead of a file. You can launch command prompt commands
straight from the workspace: Add any file to the workspace and right
click (or <F2>) the newly added shortcut; select Properties and check
this check-box.
Useful Shortcuts and Commands:
Shortcut to "My Computer": Add "c:\windows\explorer.exe"
and the following line into the parameters field: "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
Commands - Add a new shortcut and check the Command checkbox:
Show/Hide, Dock/Undock the main window and detached containers (when the
option is selected) using the Windows key + S. Disable
the Global Hotkey from the Settings >> Global Settings right click menu.
Find and execute shortcuts in the
workspace or in any of the detached containers by simply entering the first few letters of the shortcut
you wish to locate and launch:
Press the down arrow key to list all other
shortcuts that contain the searched string. The search string can
belong to any part of the shortcut's name:
Press the Esc key to clear the text from the
search field so you can enter a different search string. Press the
Esc key again, click the X at the upper right corner
of the search box or click anywhere in the workspace to close the
search box.
RSS News Feeds:
When you enter the name of an RSS News Feed container,
the container will expand or unfold and you will then be able to select
and view headlines using the keyboard. You can also use the
<Space> button and <Shift>+<Space> to browse through available
news feeds.
RSS News Feeds:
When you enter the name of an RSS News Feed container,
the container will expand or unfold and you will then be able to select
and view headlines using the keyboard. You can also use the
<Space> button and <Shift>+<Space> to browse through available
news feeds.