Shortcuts for Starting YAAC

Rather than typing in the long command line, YAAC can be started quickly on platforms where Java is integrated into the file manager or desktop manager (such as Microsoft Windows or some Linux desktops).

Shortcuts on Windows

Right-click on the Windows desktop. A popup menu will appear. Select New, then Shortcut (example from Windows XP).

Microsoft Windows desktop menu

In the Create Shortcut wizard, browse to where you installed YAAC, and select the YAAC.jar file. Then click Next.

Create Shortcut wizard pane 1

On the next wizard panel, give the shortcut a name. It will default to YAAC (because that is the name of the JAR file), but it can be changed, particularly if you want to set up shortcuts for multiple configurations of YAAC. Then click Finish.

Create Shortcut wizard pane 2

The shortcut will now be on the desktop, but will have a not-very-distinctive icon. To change the icon, right-click on the icon and select Properties from the popup menu.

desktop shortcut with default icon

In the Properties dialog on the Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon... button.

desktop shortcut properties dialog

In the Change Icon dialog, click Browse and navigate to where you installed YAAC, then go to the images sub-folder. Any files with the .ico filetype are suitable Windows icons. Pick one, and then click OK in the Change Icon dialog.

change icon browser dialog

Now the YAAC shortcut is ready for use!

YAAC desktop shortcut with customized icon

Shortcuts on Linux

This example is for Fedora Core Linux, using the Gnome window manager; other Linux dialects should be similar. First, right-click on a bare spot of the desktop; on the resulting pop-up menu, select Create Launcher...

Gnome desktop Create Launcher dialog

Give the shortcut a meaningful name, and specify the command line for activating YAAC (the same command line you would use in a Linux command terminal window).

java -jar /home/username/YAAC/YAAC.jar

(assuming that you installed YAAC in the YAAC subdirectory of your home directory)

Then save the shortcut. An icon should appear on your desktop, showing the Java mascot.

Gnome desktop icon for YAAC

Shortcuts on Raspbian

This example is for the Raspbian operating system using lightdm and lxsession, and assuming the default installation of YAAC in the YAAC subdirectory of the pi user's home directory. Create a text file using a text editor of your choice and save it in the /home/pi/Desktop directory. Name the file YAAC.desktop and enter the following in the file:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=YAAC
Comment=YAAC APRS
Icon=/home/pi/YAAC/images/yaaclogo32.ico
Exec=java -jar /home/pi/YAAC/YAAC.jar
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Terminal=false
Categories=None;