(To change the profile or message store used for appointments and tasks, see "Outlook Profile Or Store.." in the Main Menu section.)
To view the Configure dialog, bring up TenClock's main menu by right-clicking or double clicking on your clock, and select "Configure...".
This brings up the Configure dialog, which allows you to select your location, and some general aspects of your clock that either don't change much or require a more elaborate interface than just a menu item. If you move your mouse over an item in the dialog, you will see a usage tip - the illustration below has a tip displayed for the "Start clock minimzed in system tray..." check box near the bottom.
Selecting your location
If you enter your location, TenClock can show your city name and track the sun's position. To enter your position, first select your US state, Canadian province, or country from the "State, Province, or Country:" list at top left, and then select your city from the "City:" list at top right.
If your city isn't in the list, you can type in your city name in the edit box just below the lists. This will allow your city name to be displayed on the clock. If you know your latitude and longitude, enter them in the edit fields to the right of the city name, and then your clock will be able to track the sun's position.
You should enter your real latitude and longitude, but you don't have to enter your actual city name - you can enter any alternate text you like.
To have the best of both worlds, select your city using the the lists, which will set your latitude and longitude, and then enter any text you want in the text field just to the left of the latitude and longitude fields.
The latitude field has four areas: "N" or "S" for North or South on the left, followed by latitude in degrees:minutes:seconds. Click on any field to select it, then type "n" or "s" for North or South, regular numbers for the actual latitude, entering degrees minutes and seconds separately. The tab key will advance you from area to area.
The longitude field is similar to latitude: use "e" for East and "w" for West there.
Here is Timbuktu, which is at 16 degrees 46 minutes 33 seconds North, 3 degrees 0 minutes 42 seconds West. The longitude "seconds" field has been selected by clicking on it:
TenClock expects the time shown on your clock to be correct for the city you select. If you go roving around the world selecting different cities, you'll find that the sun tracking is thrown off, by the difference between your local time and the selected city's local time.
Show city name on clock
Click on this checkbox if you would like your city's name (or whatever alternate text you've entered) displayed on your clock.
Show second hand
The second hand casts an entrancing shadow as it ticks along - but it also uses more of your processor, since the display has to be updated every second. If you have an older computer and it seems to slow down when TenClock is running, turn off the second hand to restore performance.
Show date
This option will display the current month and day (such as "Nov 11") near the top of your clock.
Show clouds
Turn the cloud display in the world map and globe (and cloud image retrieval) on and off with this option.
Show Precipitation Forecast
This turns forecasts on and off - see Precipitation Forecasts for details.
Start clock minimized in system tray
The "system tray" is on your task bar next to your system clock, typically at the bottom right of your screen:
TenClock always shows its icon in the system tray when it is running. If you don't see it immediately, click on the left-pointing arrow
to show hidden icons, and you will see TenClock's icon:
If you select "Start clock minimized in system tray" you won't see TenClock when your computer starts, but there will be an icon for TenClock in the system tray. You can show TenClock by clicking on its icon.
Clock color theme
Click on a color in the list to select it, and your clock's appearance will adapt to the new color (and also the tool tip and Appointments Calendar). Try them out, and see which one is your favorite. The ones from "Granite" on down near the bottom of the list will also put a background picture on your clock. Your clock will update instantly as you click on the different entries, so you can try them all quickly.
Add your own clock image
Drop a "jpg" image in TenClock's "images" folder, and it will show up under the Clock color theme menu after you restart TenClock. The only tricky bit is finding TenClock's "images" folder. Here's how:
- hold down the Windows Key and tap the 'R' key to bring up a run prompt (you can let go of the Windows Key now)
- type in %APPDATA%\TenClock\images
- press the Enter key
That should show you the images folder, with "ammonite.jpg" near the top.
Your image should be roughly square, with a minimum dimension of 162 pixels in order to show full detail at 100% size. It also should be fairly bright with gentle contrast, in order to let the clock show properly. See the "ammonite.jpg" image for a decent example.
Any image size will work, since TenClock will scale your image if necessary to fit the clock. If you have a tileable image, you can tell TenClock to tile the image instead of scaling it by appending "_t" to the image name, as in "mytile_t.jpg".
Remember to restart TenClock after adding or changing an image, and look for it near the bottom of the Clock color theme menu.
Shadows follow the sun in real time
(Note for TenClock to follow the sun properly you need to select your city as described above)
TenClock can alter its shadows in real time as the sun moves across the sky, to show you where the sun is at any time during the day. Select "Shadows follow the sun in real time" and you will see the lighting change on your clock, and even on the calendar in the tool tip.
There's just one question for you to answer: which way should the shadows fall? Imagine the sun rising in the east, and picture which way the sun would be as you look at your clock on your screen. If you're imaging the sun as being to your right, then select "At sunrise, shadows fall To my left". And of course if you're imagining the sun being to your left at sunrise, select "At sunrise, shadows fall To my right". If you can't decide easily, try the "To my left" option, and change it later if it doesn't seem to work for you.
Shadows falling to the left at sunrise:
Dim clock slightly at night
Select this option to darken the clock very slightly between your sunset and sunrise (for this to work properly you should select or enter your location at the top of the dialog):
Show Outlook reminders
If you prefer TenClock to Outlook® for most of the day, select this option and then you can close Outlook and still have reminders for your appointments and meetings. The reminder will pop up from your task bar, as shown below. The first time a reminder shows, there will be no sound. However, TenClock will make a relatively quiet but attention-getting sound on following reminders if you don't dismiss the first reminder. The reminder will show at most five times before giving up on you. To dismiss the reminder, click on it or click on TenClock itself.
Reminders are shown only for appointments or meetings that have had an alarm time set using Outlook.
Play reminder sound
If you don't dismiss TenClock's reminder the first time it shows, you'll hear a sound on the second and following reminders if you check this option. With this option unchecked, TenClock will always be silent.
The default reminder sound is fairly quiet and subtle. The actual sound used is taken from the file called "tenclock.wav" in your TenClock folder (typically C:\Program Files\TenClock). If you'd like a different sound, delete or rename "tenclock.wav", copy your new wav file into the TenClock folder, and rename it to "tenclock.wav". You'll find some alternate reminder sounds in the \TenClock\Sounds folder. Usually you can play a wav file just by double-clicking on it, if you want a preview. The original default sound is in there as "psst.wav". Please note that "forced.wav" is crass.
Outlook appointments color on clock
Click on the colored button to the right of this heading to set the color that TenClock will use to display appointments on your clock. The color will be overlaid with shading and partial transparency onto the face of the clock using several of TenClock's custom 3D rendering engines, so your clock will stay pretty.
Delay appointment retrieval at startup by N seconds
Enter a number such as 20 in the small control for the "seconds" value, and TenClock will wait 20 seconds after it starts before it pulls a list of your appointments (and tasks) from Outlook.
The delay is handy if you sometimes want to quit TenClock immediately after restarting your computer, for example if you've hooked up a projector to your computer and you're about to boot up and start a presentation. The delay allows you to quit TenClock very quickly by picking "Exit" from its main menu. Without the delay, you might have to wait several seconds for TenClock to respond (and you might even be pestered to enter a password if you use one with Outlook).