Bugs I've found in Object Bar (current beta) v2.1 Build 754

Also some suggested features

1. With a "Windows Start Menu" as part of my bar, but when clicked on, it often promptly disappears. I'll click again, and it may disappear quickly again. After clicking a few times, I can usually get it to stay put.

2. Hiding the real windows taskbar often doesn't hide it entirely depending on the size of the start button or other elements of the start menu. Currently, I see a little crescent of the start button which is part of my current WindowBlind theme.

3. Adding a System tray to a bar, often leaves many tray icons invisible with a space for the icon. This is true particularly with Norton Internet Security, my Netgear Wifi Software, and my Winfast Nvidia 7900gt software.

4. Linked to the above problem, pop-up messages from a tray item often points to the wrong item. With tray items being hidden when not in use, it never seems to show the item that is giving a message as it should.

5. The Start Menu should popup near the location that the Start Menu button is located. For instance, my bar is placed at the top of my screen. If I click on the Start Menu button that I created, it often open up at the bottom of the screen.

Suggested features:
1. It's nice to be able to assign shortcut keystrokes to an item on an object bar, When the keystroke is pressed, it would be cool to have the item blink for a moment, (even if it is in a dropdown menu), to help the use see visual confirmation that they executed the correct keystroke.

2. Skinning an object bar is limited since it is not possible to add Alpha Transparency to individual parts of the skin. It is possible to make the entire skin semi-transparent, but that is not what I would want to do with my skin. I would be able to make the background of my skin semi-transparent while having the buttons and menus and taskbar and tray all solid. If this is possible, then I have been unable to successfully implement it.
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Reply #1 Top
Hi Timothy,

Thank you for the list, we'll be looking into fixing the things you mentioned. Some things I dont anticipate we'll be able to take care of though, pop-up messages (#4), since ObjectBar does not have influence over them. Also, hopefully I'll be able to take care of #2 but we'll see, I have to find out what WindowBlinds is doing.

Thanks again for the list

Best Regards,
-Jeff
Reply #2 Top
Yup #2. Hiding the real windows taskbar with DesktopX produces the same result when oversized start buttons are used in WB themes.
Reply #3 Top
WB5? or WB6? I feel the problem is fixed for WB6?
Reply #4 Top
Well, #3 and #4 are the biggest issues for me, since I don't use WindowBlinds anymore. Despite what Jeff said, I do think that #4 is being caused but the ObjectBar code; it seems to forget the position of the icons when applications add/subtract them in the tray. For me, it's the AVG AV icon that disappears as soon as another app adds an icon to the tray (usually Thunderbird's new mail notification). The mixed up tooltips don't happen as often, so it's harder to come up with a repeatable scenario. Unloading ObjectBar and re-starting will fix both of these issues, temporarily (hey, I get a lot of e-mail! .

I'm glad to hear this is being worked on! Out of the whole Object Desktop suite, I find I only use ObjectBar and RightClick.

P.S. I meant to say that it seems the tooltip problem is related somehow to the re-sizing of the systray when icons are added/removed, and not the actual icons themselves.
Reply #5 Top
There is a newer build than the one in this post.  have you updated and retested.
Reply #6 Top
Yes, sorry about that, I do have the latest version. The issues brought up in this thread (#3 and #4 at least) are still present in the latest release.