Main Dialog

The Main Dialog is the initial dialog that is seen when Plucker Desktop is started. There is a main list, a toolbar, a statusbar at the bottom, and a menu.

The list displays all your current Plucker channels. The first column shows the name of the channel and the second column shows when that channel is due for an update.

The toolbar butttons are shortcuts to the eight most commonly-used menu items. The menu items are described below.

Beginner tip: Tooltips are available for the toolbar buttons. Hover over a toolbutton to read its description, or read its longer description down in the status bar at the bottom of the dialog.

The menu items, described in order of their appearance on the menu, are:

• File > Add new channel... Adds a new channel. It will first ask you for a name of the new channel, then pop up a Channel Dialog for your to describe the new channel to be added.
• File > Add a new channel using wizard... Calls up the Add Channel Wizard which will add a new channel, based on your answers to a few questions.
• File > Configure selected channel... Calls up the Channel Dialog to allow setting properties of the channel currently selected in the list. If you have multiple channels selected, it will choose the topmost one as the one to configure.
• File > Delete selected channels... Permanently deletes the selected channels. A prompt will ask to confirm that you wish to delete them.

• Import/Export > Paste URL as new channel Pastes a URL on the clipboard as a new channel. This is handy from copying a URL from your web browser's address bar and pasting it as a Plucker channel.
• Import/Export > Paste files as new separate channels Pastes a set of files as separate new channels. To use this, select some text or html files somewhere on your computer and copy the filenames to the clipboard. Then choose this menu item to paste them into Plucker Desktop. You will be asked for a name of each channel, and a configuration dialog will be shown for each. Power user tip: You can also drag and drop a set of files onto the channel list.

• Update > Update selected channels Updates all the channels that your have selected in the list.
• Update > Update all due channels Updates all the channels that are currently due. A channel is due when the current time is past the time in that channel's 'Due' column.
• Update > Update all channels Updates all channels in the list, regardless of whether or not that channel is currently due.

• Options > Preferences Calls up the Preferences Dialog to set some shared settings for Plucker Desktop such as fine-tuning to the interface, the HTML editor, channel spidering behaviour, the Plucker showcase, and the proxy used to access the Internet.
• Options > Set default configuration for new channels Calls up the Channel Dialog. The settings that your set in this dialog will become the initial settings filled in when a new channel is added with the File > Add new channel command or the File > Add new channel using wizard command.
• Options > Install handheld viewer software... Calls up the Install Handheld Software Wizard which will install the handheld software onto the device, based on the answers to a few questions.
• Options > Rerun setup wizard... Reruns the Setup Wizard which will tailor Plucker for your particular and computer and handheld, based on the answers to a few questions.

• Help > Help contents... Shows the Plucker Desktop help.
• Help > Help on this dialog... Shows the Plucker Desktop help, jumping directly to the section on the main dialog.
• Help > Search help... Looks in the help for a specified keyword phrase.
• Help > Tip of the day... Shows a tip of the day. You can toggle showing these on startup, as well as set the type of tip, using the controls in the Preference Dialog's Interface tab .
• Help > About Plucker Desktop... Shows version number, build date, copyright information, and the people who brought you this software.

Power user tip: You can right click anywhere in the channel list, and a popup menu will appear. This menu has a selection of the File, Update and Import/Export menu items.

Power user tip: Double clicking on a channel in the list works the same as selecting the channel, and pressing the File > Configure selected channel... menu item. So does pressing the 'Return' key when the list item is selected.