If you do not wish to read the manual, please at least read the Important Notes section.
Main Menu
Most of the time you probably won't use the menu so we'll only briefly describe it.
File
About
Displays details about Fraser Application Monitor.
Save
Saves the list of Serial and Parallel applications being monitored. Monitored application lists are automatically saved when Fraser Application Monitor closes so you don't really need to use this menu option.
Add Items
Parallel
Allows you to manually add applications to the Monitored Parallel Apllications list.
Serial
Allows you to manually add applications to the Monitored Serial Applications list.
Note: This is not the recommended way to add applications to the monitored application lists. It is better to run the application then add it from the list of Available Applications.
System
Reset Serial Apps on Load
When checked, this tells Fraser Application Monitor that on startup it should begin monitoring with the first application in the Monitored Serial Applications list. If it is not checked then monitoring will resume wherever it left off when the program closed.
Start Minimized
When checked, Fraser Application Monitor will minimize itself to the Windows System Tray when it starts up.
Main Screen
Available Applications
The Available Applications list displays all the applications running on your computer that have a window associated with them and that are not currently being monitored by Fraser Application Monitor. The image here shows one application available. To the right of the list of available applications are three buttons - Serial, Parallel and Refresh. The Refresh button refreshes the list of available applications. Series and Parallel add applications to the list of monitored applications. To monitor an item, first select it in the list of Available Applications then click either Serial or Parallel to add it to the respective list.
Monitored Serial Applications
The Serial Applications list displays all currently monitored Serial Applications. Serial Applications are monitored in series which means one application is monitored until its time runs out then the next application in the list is monitored. After the timer of the last item in the list runs out, the first item is once again monitored.
The application that is currently being monitored will show up in green. If the item is selected, the selection indicator will be green and if the application is not slelected then its name will be in green text.
To the right of the Monitored Serial Application list are four buttons - Active, Remove, + and -.
The Remove button removes items from the Serial Applications list. If the removed application is currently running then it will show up in the list of Available Applications. The Active button sets the selected Serial Application as the currently active or monitored application.
The + and - buttons move the selected Serial Application up and down in the list. Since the Serial Applications are run in the order they are displayed in the list, you may want to re-arrange them.
Monitored Parallel Applications
The Parallel Applications list displays all currently monitored Parallel Applications. Unlike Serial Applications that are monitored one after another, Parallel Applications are monitored independently of any other monitored application.
There is only one button for Parallel Applications which is the Remove button. As you might have guessed, this button removes the selected application from the list of Monitored Parallel Applications. If the application is running when it is removed then it will appear in the Available Application list.
Details
The Details section displays details about the currently selected Serial or Parallel application.
Bring To Front and Show Message define what happens when the monitored application timer runs out. If Bring To Front is selected then the monitored application will be maximized and made the top-most window on your desktop. If Show Message is selected then one of two things will happen. If Fraser Incident Manager is minimized then you will see a balloon type message from the Fraser Application Monitor Windows system tray icon. If Fraser Application Monitor is not minimized then a small window will pop up in front of other windows on your Windows desktop.
When you place a check mark in the Min(s) box, you can then set the number of minutes the selected application is monitored. If you uncheck the Min(s) box you can then set the time of day that Fraser Application Monitor will remind you about the monitored application. Note: The time of day value is only available for Parallel Applications.
If you put a check mark in the Run box then if an application's timer runs out and the application is not currently running, Fraser Application Monitor will attempt to run the program listed in the run box. The program to run must include the full path to the application so it is best to use the Browse button to find the program you want to run.
Command line parameters for the application you want to run must be enclosed by <>. For example, to run Firefox and have it open to the Fraser Application Monitor home page you would enter C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe <http://appmonitor.numberware.net>.
Note: If you put a check mark in the Run box but do not provide a path to the file to run, the path box will turn red to notify you that you need to provde a path to the application.
Other
Below the details is the Enable/Disable button which turns on or off application monitoring. Below that is the message strip. The message strip displays the current status of Fraser Application Monitor. If monitoring is disabled then it will display 'Monitoring disabled'. If monitoring is enabled and there are no applications to monitor it will display 'Not monitoring any applications'. If there are Parallel Applications but no Serial Applications then it will display 'Monitoring parallel applications'. If it is monitoring at least one Serial Application then it will list the amount of time left on the active Serial Application's timer and the name of the active Serial Application.
System Tray Icon
If you minimize Fraser Application Monitor, it will become an icon on the system tray. If you left click the icon, Fraser Application Monitor will be restored. If you right click it you will see this menu. Close will close Fraser Application Monitor. Like left clicking the icon, selecting Restore form the menu will restore the Fraser Application Monitor window. The last item is not a menu item but rather a status message like the status message at the bottom of the Fraser Application Montior main window. In this example it show that ServiceCenter's timer will expire in 10 minutes.
Really, Really Important Notes
Manually Added Application Names
Fraser Application Monitor determines which monitored applications are running by checking the Title of the main Window of the running application. This may not be the same as the name of the program. For example, the title of a Firefox window is never Firefox. It is always the name of the web page displayed followed by Firefox like 'Google - Mozilla Firefox'. So if you are manually adding programs to be monitored using the Add Items menu, make sure you enter the full window title and not just the name of the program.
Running Applications With Fraser Application Monitor
If you check the Run box and enter the pathname for an application to run when a monitored application's timer runs out, make sure the title of the opened application matches the name listed in the monitored item list. For example if you want to monitor Firefox displaying the Google web page then the monitored application name will be 'Google - Mozilla Firefox'. But if you tell Fraser Application Monitor to run Firefox without supplying the Google URL (firefox.exe "www.google.com") as a startup parameter to Firefox then Firefox will open with whatever web page you have set as your home page. If this is not Google then the next time the monitored item's timer runs out, Fraser Application Monitor will not find the 'Google - Mozilla Firefox' window it is looking for and will open another copy of Firefox.
Parallel Application Min(s) Settings
If you have more than one Parallel Application to monitor, you should make sure their Min(s) setting is an odd number of minutes so the monitored application's timers don't run out at the same time. If they do you may miss being notified of one or more items. If you have an item with a 10 minute interval and another one with a 20 minute interval, you will get notification of the first item at 10 minutes. Its timer will be reset and ten minutes later you will be notified of the first item again however, immediately after that you will be notified of the 20 minute item. If you have both applications set to Bring To Top the 20 minute application will hide the 10 minute application.