The project menu provides an assorted set of functions that help you configure and tailor the way in which XSM works:
The project menu is just one set of menu options on the entire XSM menu bar. The overview provides a complete top level list of all menus.
The preferences dialog allows you to specify which fonts will be used for the three major uses. The main text font, is used for most dialogs but is not used when large amounts of text need to be displayed within a window, for example when a dividend summary is shown. For large amounts of text, the text font is used. This can be any font, fixed or proportional. Those displays that need a fixed font, will use the specified fixed font. Typically this is confined to the price display/edit dialog, where it is easier on the eye if all numbers line up. It is recommended that a fairly small font is used for this purpose.
The selection for the update method needs to be made on the basis of your available input choices. If you are reading information from a teletext device, then selecting Teletext will allow XSM to decode the display format used by teletext. The ascii format allows the price loader to simply present lines of security names with their prices. If you don't have an automated mechanism for price retrieval, then you should not specify any security as having an automatic update. In such cases, the teletext/ascii selection is not applicable and can be safely ignored.
The prices path specifies where all the price files can be located.
Normally this is set in /etc/default/xsm but can be
overridden by the path specified in the user's preferences or via
the xsmprices environment variable. If you previously
defined a path
but wish to revert to the " default " price files, then simply
delete the information given so that the field is blank.
Macro files are the mechanism that you can use to extend and enhance the functionality of the XSM application. This menu option will allow you to add or remove macro files from the list that is loaded when XSM first starts.
If you remove a macro file with the 'REMOVE' button, then if it has already been loaded it will remain in memory but the next time XSM is started, the file will NOT be loaded. If you add new macro files to the load list, then those will be loaded if you select 'OK'. Whenever you select 'CANCEL' any files you have added to the list will be ignored, but those that you may have removed with the 'REMOVE' button will remain marked as removed. If you wish to add them back to the list then you will need to explicitly do so.
XSM uses an inheritance approach to colours. This means you can tailor the colours used by all the major display windows both independently and as a class. When a window has no explicit colours assigned to be used by it, then the default colours are selected. This dialog controls the settings of those default colours.
To change the colour for a particular purpose, first select the appropriate function, for example, the 'Background' button. Then used the list of colours to select a new colour. You may repeat this for each of the "purposes" shown. If you are selecting colours for a specific display window, then there may be many different purposes to chose from. You should note that the foreground and background colours will be used by XSM when displaying text summaries (i.e. dividend or transaction information) but not for rendering features such as menu bars, sliders, etc. These remain under the control of the standard Motif/Display manager colour selections.
If you press 'STORE SELECTION' then the XSM database will be updated, so that future invocations of XSM will use the colours that you have just defined. If you don't press this button, then the colours as they are defined will apply only to the current invocation. If you wish to remove the previously stored colour definitions from the XSM database simply press 'CLEAR SELECTION'.
THIS COMMAND IS ONLY SUITABLE FOR TELETEXT BASED SYSTEMS.
This issues a request to a binary that must be called 'nameldr' and is on the current working path. The binary must prepare teletext based pages, that contain all the security names currently known to the system. XSM will take this list, sort it, remove noise and duplicates, and then display those securities which are not already in use by the system.
Multiple securities may be selected from this list and created in bulk.
This will close the XSM session. All windows opened by XSM will be closed, and any settings that have not been explicitly saved to the disk will be lost.