NOTEBOOK ICONS by James Main Kenney Use a picture of your favorite computer as an icon! Those of us who occasionally stray from the civilized classical world of Kyocera 8-bit notebooks into the dark-age jungle of Windows have inevitably encountered icons -- those little pictures that one can click on with a mouse button to "launch" programs or do other things (sometimes even things we actually wanted to do). Although they apparently were originally intended for illiterate or multinational users, icons are usually accompanied by a caption; together, these may or may not convey some idea of the identity of the file. The same screen area could, of course, be used for precise full-line menu descriptions, but...heck, the lil' pitchers are so dang cute! Users of programs that transfer files between Kyocera notebooks or their drives and IBM-type computers, such as Desk-Link, LapDOS, or PC-PDD, may be disappointed by the icons available in PROGMAN.EXE or MORICONS.DLL if they want to run these programs under Windows. The files with ".ICO" extensions that accompany this file are individual icons that may better satisfy your needs. (These are only for use by Windows -- DO NOT TRY TO LOAD THESE INTO A KYOCERA NOTEBOOK!) They must be used with the .ICO extension to be recognized as icons. Three of them are representations of the major Kyocera types: the Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, the Tandy 200, and the NEC PC-8201A, and are as detailed as the 32X32 pixel resolution will allow. (See if you can find the low-battery lights and tell that they are red!) The 16 colors available included no shades of tan, so the 8201A had to be done using white, red and a deep red-brown (sorry!). Tandy 102 users will have to use the Model 100 icon: no 102 was available to sit for a portrait, and probably only the nameplate would show a slight difference (no, not the words!). For use with a communication program where a customized log-on file has been created for the Club 100 BBS, these three icons have been modified with "CLUB 100" on their keyboards. The Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4 is also represented, and this icon can probably serve just as well for the Model 3. Copies with "COMP NEWS", "CN 80", and "CN PC" added to the screen may serve Computer News interests. For contrast, a generic modern notebook icon in three different colors is also provided (use?). Try to identify the well-known logo suggested on the screen. To install an icon in Windows 3.1, enter the Program Group (window) you want it in and follow the usual procedure for installing or modifying a file: If the program is already installed, click on the old icon, then on "File", on "Properties", and on "Change Icon". In the icons window, type the path and full filename, such as "C:\...\TANDY100.ICO". If the program is not installed, click on "File", on "New", and on "Program Item", then enter a caption ("Description") and the program path and filename, and click on "Change Icon". All of these icons were created using the shareware program IconMaster, by the late Phillip A. Kaufman. His widow, Molly Kaufman, 19987 Moran Lane, Saratoga CA 95070, can provide IconMaster v1.2D for $20 ($30 with a collection of 2500 icons). Creating and collecting icons may have real hobby value. Perhaps Windows has some use after all!