I am having a werid problem when I start setting up a "new" panel, to replace the old "funky" stock pronto panel What happens is that I go to "gallery' and pick out the buttons i want. Then I "double click" on any button (lets say pause) and go to the the alias set-up. This button (green and gray dots -alias's) may OR maynot be available? Some are. Some are "grayed out". But move to a different button, and the grayed out button is now green? Huh? Anyone know why? And why are the functions marked werid? Like maybe forward is markred as a cross, and reverse is a double cross,or whatever symbol? Very strange. Anybody got an answer. I spent 3 hours getting nothing done!

Thnaks Larry

Gray dots are devices and panels. You need to expand them (click the +) to get to the buttons inside. Buttons will also be grayed out if they are a) the same button you're aliasing FROM, or b) would create a logical repeating loop.

Your questions are good.

Reagrding the Alias options - A grayed out one is not available and a green is for inclusion in the action list of a button. Why? Well you will notice a grayed one either is expandable (+) hence it has selectable choices below it or it will not be selectable at all. Why is that? Well it could be either the button you are working on and therefore you cannot select itself to avoid a circular reference or it could be part of a macro that already calls this button and again would lead to a circular reference.

The weird names in the Alias list - Well you will notice that the character assigned to those that have weird names are graphics and the Alias list which is stricly text based cannot handle graphics and assigns an ascii character instead that is outside the normal text character range. If you want to use these you will have to resort to a bit of a tedious method that uses the fact that you cannot select yourself. Open the device panel and button you want to use. Open up the alias list and navigate that device and panel. The grayed out one is the one of interest. Write the character down associated with it and now go back to the place where you really want to use this button and select it. That's it!

Sorry, missed the second part of your question. To fix the alias list character problem, you need to upgrade from Internet Explorer 5.0 to 5.01.

Daniel,

What the heck does Explorer 5 to 5.01 have to do with anything? I think you do not understand what Larry was getting at. See my post. he is referring to the Alias list from within rhe ProntoEdit Porperties window when trying to assign a button alias to an action list. Any button with a grahical character as the name will show up "weird" in the Alias list.

Howard, using IE 5.0, names that had graphics inserted appeared as garbage in the Alias list. Once I upgraded to 5.01, per Daniel, they all appear exactly as the name was entered....including graphics.

Howard: Right. And that exactly has something to do with Internet Explorer 5.0. It was found a long time ago that only systems running IE5 were affected by "garbled characters" on the alias list. Then, one day, it was found that upgrading from IE 5.0 to 5.01 solved the problem. Microsoft's web browser is more than just a surface problem -- it's deeply integrated with the system. One of the supporting files included with 5.0 had a bug, which was fixed in 5.01.

The major thread concerning this is:

[Link: remotecentral.com]

FYI only....W2K comes with 5.01 standard. No need for the update.

Nigel: it seems W2K has its own problems with ProntoEdit -- the need to manually install a pronto.css file, and some learning problems.

Daniel, being NT based, W2K does have the pronto.css problem. I simply copied the file into the root directory of my C: drive and this was resolved.

I had originally installed RC5000 Setup in a Windows 95 partition and had learned all of my IR codes there. I then installed and started using W2K in another partition and haven't had to relearn anything. Therefore can't comment on that one!

One of the things I have noticed is opening CCF's. It seems to be sporadic but opening a CCF and choosing replace sometimes causes RC5000 Setup to crash. I restart the app and it's fine. I've actually got into the habit of closing and reopening RC5000 Setup prior to trying to open a different CCF.

Also, I started to mess with IRDatabase this week. I had some problems with my dial-up in W2K so I downloaded and installed the app using my Win95 parition first. This was also a good place to test it. It worked fine. Tried in W2K....when i run the IRDatabase app, all the text is missing, all I see is device, manuf., and model icons. If I click on a device, I see total garbage in the columns that would normally decribe the IR lines!

Not too concerned though. Once I read that IRDatabase is not dynamic e.g. it statically stores the IR code in the end device and not as a pointer, I have decided not to persue.