# Odometer Applet

Copyright © 2000 by Arjan Scherpenisse

# Odometer Applet

The GNOME panel `Odometer` applet, shown in is an applet which tracks and measures the movements of your mouse pointer across the desktop. It is part of the gnome-applets package. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the Panel and choose +Panel+ + ->Add to panel+ + ->Applet+ + ->Amusements+ + ->Odometer+ + + + + + + .

Figure 1. Odometer Applet

## Usage

Once it is present, you don't need to do anything to the odometer. It just sits quietly in your panel and keeps track of all your mouse movements. In addition, moving the mouse pointer over the odometer produces a `tooltip` telling you whether the distance is expressed in metric units (centimeters, meters, kilometers) of in feet (inches, feet, miles). The upper value indicates your total trip distance, and the lower value is the partial trip distance, that can be resetted at will.

Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the following items:

- Reset This resets the odometer applet to zero again.

- Properties opens the `Properties` dialog.

- Help displays this document.

- About shows basic information about `odometer Applet`, including the applet's version and the author's name.

## Customization

You can customize `odometer` applet by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties. This will open the Properties dialog(shown in ), which allows you to change various settings.

The properties dialog box (which calls itself Odometer setting rather than properties) is divided into two sections, one for general options, and one for themes.

General

  Figure 2. Properties dialog (general preferences tab)

  The `general preferences tab`, shown in , has four options:

  Use metric

    If the use metric checkbox is checked, mouse pointer distance travelled is shown in meters (centimeters, meters, and kilometers) . If it is not checked, the distance travelled is shown in feet (inches, feet and miles). By moving the pointer over the odometer you can produce a `tooltip` which shows you whether it is currently displaying meters or feet.

  auto_reset

    If the auto_reset checkbox is checked, the odometer numbers return to zero each time it's started or each time the session is started. This allows you to display your daily mouse trip distance if you used to restart you gnome session every morning.

  enabled

    If the enabled checkbox is checked, then the odometer will keep counting how far you have moved your pointer. If not, it will return the numbers to zero until you re-enable it.

  digits number

    The digits number field determines how many digits the odometer will display. The default is four, and the range is from 1 to 10.

Theme

  Figure 3. Properties dialog (theme preferences tab)

  The `theme preferences tab`, shown in , has a variety of themes you can choose from. They are found by default in `$PREFIX/odometer/`.

After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Close button.

## Known Bugs and Limitations

This applet has no known bugs.

## Authors

The `odometer applet` was written by Fabrice Bellet (`<Fabrice.Bellet@creatis.insa-lyon.fr>`), and based on the `Mouspedometa` for KDE by Armen Nakashian, which in turn was based on the Motif-based `Xodometer` by Mark H. Granoff. Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line.) If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use `Bug Report Tool` (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Arjan Scherpenisse (`<acscherp@wins.uva.nl>`). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to `<docs@gnome.org>`. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA