Toolbars
The Ultima Online 2D client does not come with toolbars; everything is freeform in your backpack. However for those players who like having the tidiness that comes with a toolbar, you can have a virtual toolbar in ABCUO by purchasing a toolbar from any provisioner.
The toolbar object is a simple object that you keep in your backpack. There are three basic things you do with it:
Single-click the toolbar object and select the "name" option to assign a name to the toolbar object.
Double-click the toolbar object to open the actual toolbar window.
Drag and drop an item onto the toolbar object to add that item to your toolbar.
The toolbars are not true toolbars or utility belts like in most other games. When an item is added to the toolbar, the item doesn't actually move inside there - the toolbar is not a container, your item will remain where it was before (such as your backpack). The toolbar merely contains shortcuts to your items to allow for easy access. Instead of having to seach through your backpack for an item, you can simply click it in the toolbar.
There are two types of toolbars available: the item toolbar and the equipment toolbar. Here are my toolbars:
Item Toolbar
Almost any item can be added to an item toolbar. Usage of the item toolbar is straightforward: pressing a button in the toolbar is equivalent to double-clicking the actual item.
In most cases, the toolbar keeps track of the precise items you add to it. For example if you have an ethereal llama in your toolbar, by clicking the button you will attempt to mount the llama referred to by the toolbar. If you have a second llama in your backpack, that second llama will not be used.
There are a number of items that the toolbar treats differently, looking for items of a given type instead of that particular item. Potions are one example of this. If you have a greater agility potion in your toolbar, clicking the button makes your character drink any greater agility potion in your backpack, not just that particular greater agility potion that you added to the toolbar. The item toolbar behaves this way for the following types of items:
Potions
Craft Tools
Harvest Tools
Orange Petals
Rose of Trinsic Petals
Bandages
Arcane Gems
Bolas
Lockpicks
Fire Horns
Smoke Bombs
Egg Bombs
Spell Scrolls
Shrunken Pets
Hovering your mouse over any of these generic items will not show the item properties.
The buttons in the toolbar remain in the toolbar even if the corresponding item is removed from your backpack. However the button will be removed from the toolbar if that item no longer exists in the world.
Equipment Toolbar
Only equipable (weapons, armor, clothing, etc.) can be added to an equipment toolbar. When a button is pressed in the equipment toolbar, your character will equip that item. As with the item toolbar, pieces of equipment in the toolbar will remain in the toolbar even if you don't have the item in your backpack, however if the item is completely deleted from the world the item will disappear from the toolbar.
Toolbar Customization
The form of the toolbar can be adjusted using the arrow buttons around the sides. The toolbar can be flipped to orient vertically or horizontally, and the number of rows/columns can be adjusted. Pressing the red button in the corner switches the toolbar to maintenance mode, where you can re-order the items within the toolbar or remove items from the toolbar. Press the arrow button to open the movement tool, to adjust the position of the toolbar window on your screen. The toolbar configuration is saved between logins and reboots.
Spell Hotbar
Provisioners also sell a spell hotbar. The function is almost the same as dragging out spell icons from spellbooks and laying them out freeform on your desktop.
A few considerations when choosing whether to use the spell hotbar rather than dragging out spell icons or using hotkeys/macros:
Hotkeys/macros will have the best response time, so are most useful for pvp or frequently used spells.
Icons on the spell hotbar only need to be clicked once; desktop icons need to be double-clicked.
Icons on the spell hotbar are fixed in a grid and cannot be accidentally lost by right clicking.
The spell hotbar generally takes more time to configure.
The spell hotbar is stored on the server, so the layout is automatically transferred when you log in from a different computer.
Icons in the spell hotbar do not highlight when activated (for special moves such as lightning strike).
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