ChartOverlay has a crosshair cursor that lets you make precise drawings. If you check With Extensions, the crosshairs will extend to the edges of the overlay window; and you can use them to compare data at different points in the window. If you prefer not to have crosshairs, you can uncheck the With Extensions or the Enable Crosshairs option. You can use the Menu to choose between a Cross and an Arrow if you prefer not to use crosshairs.

To make it easier to see the data over which you are trying to position the cursor, you can replace the center of the crosshairs with a circle with a radius of 5 pixels. With the circle enabled, you can either sight along the lines of the crosshair to determine your position or you can request a dot in the center of the crosshairs.

The crosshairs are drawn by inverting the colors of the points in the background; although this changes the colors of the background data, it does not cover the data.

In order to keep cursor movement as smooth as possible, the cursor is contracted when it is moving rapidly. However, when you slow down, the crosshairs again extend to the edges of the window.

Choosing Always on Top will keep the overlay visible and on top of your chart even when you are working with the chart. This can be helpful if you are changing symbols or time frames. For example, you might want to draw a Retracement or a Trendline for one symbol and then overlay that drawing on another symbol. If the overlay is in the way (eg, if you want to click on something behind the overlay), you can hide it temporarily using the Hot Key (see below).

The Check For Updates During Startup option allows you to request that ChartOverlay interrogate the Omnium Software web site each time you start the program. If this item is checked, you will be notified when a new version is available.

A very small number of users have reported a "sticky" cursor meaning that the cursor lags behind their mouse or trackpad motions. This may be caused by an out-of-date driver (check you manufacturer's website for updates). If you experience this, try unchecking the With Extensions option or the Enable Crosshairs option. You can also adjust Only redraw cursor 0 times per second; if a value other than zero is used, the rate at which the cursor is redrawn will be reduced, giving your processor a better chance to keep up; try a value of 10 or 20. Another possibility is to modify the Visibility options (below).

Enable Debugging Log should be left unchecked unless you have experienced program crashes or unless you have been asked by Omnium Software Support to turn it on.

Checking Allow Multiple Copies makes it possible to have more than one overlay window.

Text on Buttons puts a small text label on each Toolbar button, making it easier to recognize. Having this text makes the toolbar wider and taller, however, so you may wish to turn it off to save space. If you do not have the text visible, you can point at any of the buttons briefly to get a popup window with a brief description of what the button does.

Hide Toolbar makes the toolbar completely invisible, making more of the background window visible. If you choose to hide the toolbar, you can use the right-click Menu to access any of the toolbar functions.

If you check Allow Extensions Without Retracements, you do not need to draw (or select) a Retracement before you can draw an Extension. Instead the Extend button is always enabled and you can draw a Retracement/Extension pair simply by placing three points on the overlay. The first two points represent an initial move; the third represents a Retracement (Correction) of that move. A more complete description is available here.

If you have requested more Fibonacci levels than you actually need, you can easily remove unwanted levels for a Retracement or Extension you have drawn by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on them if you have checked the Remove Fibonacci Levels by Ctrl-Checking on Them option here. If you also hold down the Alt key, ChartOverlay will remove all Retracement (or Extension) levels for the selected item

This option also applies to the parallel warning lines of an Andrews' Pitchfork.

These options appear here rather than in the Fibonacci dialogs because they affect all Fibonacci objects you draw and even affect the way the dialogs and buttons work.

These options control the appearance of the overlay window.

The choice between Dynamic and Static is made automatically when you first use ChartOverlay. Dynamic requires a system feature that is only available for Windows® 2000 and Windows® XP. For earlier versions of Windows®, Static is the only choice. There are two principal differences between the two modes. The advantage of Dynamic mode is that any changes in the background are immediately visible. The disadvantage is that your system must do more work to support it. If you find that you're having performance problems, you might want to switch to Static mode. When you run in static mode, certain actions you take will refresh the background automatically (eg, moving or resizing the overlay, erasing an object, or changing to or from logarithmic scaling). Normally, however, you will need to use the Refresh button on the Toolbar.

In Static mode, a brief delay is required for refreshing the background. If you observe that the background is not being properly refreshed, you may want to increase Refresh Delay, which is specified in seconds. This delay value will depend on the speed of your processor.

When you choose Transparent, your overlay window will be clear and you will be able to see the background directly. If you prefer Translucent, the background of the overlay will be a little cloudy (how much depend on your choice of Translucency Level. You will be able to see through the overlay, but the overlay background will also be visible. If you choose this mode, you will be able to specify whether you want a Translucent Toolbar or Translucent Lines. If you make the Toolbar or the lines translucent, you will be able to see through them but they will be fainter (depending on Translucency Level). In Translucent mode, the background of the overlay window will always be translucent.

You can choose from one of four Crosshair Colors (Black, White, Dark and Light). Be warned that Black and White do not show up against black and white backgrounds, respectively. Light seems to be the most versatile choice. We tried allowing arbitrary crosshair colors, but that interfered with the colors used to draw the objects.

Checking Hide Title and Toolbar will leave the Title and Toolbar out of any images that you choose to save (if the toolbar is hidden, it won't appear in the image regardless of this setting). If you choose this option, only the drawing area of the overlay window will be saved.

JPEG Quality applies only when you choose to save images in the JPEG (JPG) format. The JPEG format can increase compression by sacrificing a specified amount of quality. GIF and PNG will give you better compression and do not sacrifice quality. Choose a value between 0 and 100.

The Hot Key allows you to hide or show the overlay window with a single keystroke combination. This can be useful if you want to temporarily expose the window behind the overlay (see Always On Top above). If the overlay is hidden, the Hot Key will make it appear. If the overlay is the active window, the Hot Key will hide it. There is a third state in which the overlay is visible but another window is the one Windows® considers active; in this case, pressing the Hot Key once will make the overlay Active; pressing it again will make Hide the overlay (ie, you may have to press the Hot Key twice to Hide the overlay).

When you start ChartOverlay, you may get a message that says

Failed to register Hot Key [Ctrl + Alt + F]. Hot key is already registered. Please modify or delete the value in the Options dialog.

This is normal. The message is telling you that another application that you use has already declared its intention to use the same Hot Key combination. You can use this part of the Options dialog to choose a new combination that does not conflict. In the worst case, you may have to try more than one new combination.

To change the Hot Key, place your cursor in the Hot Key edit box and press the key combination you want to use. If you use a sequence that has already been claimed by another program, it may be ignored (or the associated action may take place).

The text with the blue background provides a brief summary of some of the editing features of ChartOverlay.

The Control Key can be used to modify some of the editing functions. If you are using the arrow keys to move the objects you have drawn (up, down, left or right), Movement (Arrow Keys) specifies how many pixels to move them for each keystroke. If you are using the + and - keys to stretch or shrink the vertical scale of your objects (adjust both the top and bottom of each object up or down), Compression (- and + Keys) specifies how many pixels to adjust top and bottom for each keystroke. If the ctrl key is not pressed, a value of one is used.

Although ChartOverlay gives you a lot of control over the colors schemes for various objects, this may not be sufficient when you draw several objects of the same type (eg, Retracements or Pitchforks). In such cases, it may be confusing to have several similarly colored objects overlapping one another.

If you check Enable Color Sequence, ChartOverlay will instead select (in order) one of the colors specified on this tab for each object you have added to the overlay. All lines in a single object will have the same color, but different objects will have different colors. Text objects are not affected by this option, nor are Trendlines or Parallel Trendlines unless their Speed Resistance, Gann or Action/Reaction options are selected.

You can change any of the colors in the sequence by clicking on it and selecting a new color from the menu that pops up.