Hotkey/toolbar links to mark files

I've occasionally been asked about providing some way to load mark files in Guide via a hotkey or toolbar button. There is a way to do this, though it is perhaps more complicated than we might like.

For an example, create a file mark41.txt in your Guide folder, and insert the following text:

11 lat/lon  -69.9 44.01 0
15 timezone -5.000
17 zonename EST
20 home       3
90 stored   -69.9 44.01 Bowdoinham, ME 04008

Details on what the above lines mean are given here. Basically, the lines in this file can define things such as limiting magnitude, colors, locations, etc. In the above case, one's position would be reset to longitude -69.9, latitude +44.01, in the Eastern Standard Time zone (five hours from UT), on the Earth (planet 3). The last line ensures that the title bar will read "Bowdoinham, ME 04008".

Now, you'll have to edit the file toolbar.dat, which lists the options available for the toolbar and hotkeys. The top line will (for the current software) indicate that there are 313 options currently available. Increase this to 314, and insert a line such as

   9841  !01.bmp           Set to Bowdoinham 

When you start Guide, you'll see a new button on the toolbar, and when you move the cursor over it, the hint "Set to Bowdoinham" will appear on the title bar. Click on that button, and Guide will reset your location to Bowdoinham and your time zone to UT-5 (EST).

If you look in Settings... Toolbar, you'll see the "Set to Bowdoinham" item, and can turn the toolbar button on or off, and can select a hotkey to go with it.

You can create 100 files of this sort, with names from mark00.txt to mark99.txt and toolbar codes from 9800 to 9899.