ObjectBar 2 beta updated

Lookin' good.
Does it have some of its lost functionality from 1.65 back?

*Whisper* Rightclick ? *whisper*

Second Meowy before I go try it myself.

Make the new controls scriptable (with parameters like drive letters) and implement them into desktopx and You will make my day.

Wow. Amazing beta.

Just a few things that NEED to be changed to ControlCenter 2.0 and the overall app before the final release -

• Make everything Cleartype if anything is going to be it.
  
• What is that Luna doing in the CC?!
  
• The gradient effect on the buttons and 3D text would be nice to have back.
  
• The WB import says WB3, and doesnt work if the skin uses flat menus. (no custom image)
  
• There is an option in the File menu of the Theme Editor to open the Theme Editor. Oops.
  
• The option to reload a theme would be nice.
  
• I would like to be able to make a nice theme without having to go into the text file, or even into the OB directory.
  
  

Well double click on 'My computer' and other special folders now doesn't crash!

However, the devstudio input focus / cursor bug is _still_ there! Do the developers _use_ object bar I wonder ? If you switch to another app and back to devstudio via object bar (ie not alt-tab) the cursor disappears and the app does not respond to any keyboard input until it's clicked on. Please, please fix this.

The Send-to bug is still there on the filesystem menu. Right click a folder, say, select filesystem menu, then send-to. Instead of a list of send-to targets, there is another send-to menu, which does nothing.

I care less for fancy cpu meters and the like, and more for basic functionality

Rob

ps will echoing this to support@stardock.com help ?

Yeah, I hope the "sizing and positioning" stuff that will be addressed includes

- Making the "More Bar Sizing/Positioning Options" dialogue box actually have any effect
- "Disable animations" also disabling the sliding on and off screen.

And ditto what binster said -- if it will help, I'll echo this to any e-mail address you tell me.

SFT

Has anyone taken the time to upload any of their new Object Bar skins to WinCustomize.com? I haven't seen many recent updates and would like to see what folks are doing with it.

I use RightClick a lot and love it, but see some overlap with ObjectDock Plus. Show me some cool stuff!!!

Thanks, Craig (cmuggle)

Downloading the new beta right now (BTW, your server is SLLLOWWW - I am on an OC line with VERY high bandwidth, and it has taken a good 5-10 minutes and I am only up to 50% - and I am ONLY Updating ObjectBar. Last time I did an update was 10-7 and it took hours (I updated about 6 or 7 programs).

Anyway, I have had some problems w/ ObjectBar. Maybe they are fixed in this beta, maybe not, but just in case here are the enhancements/bugs that I would LOVE to see fixed in the 2.0 release:

Running XP Pro w/ latest hotfixes, etc. OB v 1.65.007

1) at one point, OB just stopped using the window blinds skin. No rhyme or reason that I can figure out, but I would go to the options and select Use Window blinds skin. Didn't matter if I used the taskbar skin, or the top/middle/bottom start skins. It would not use them. I have basically a flat white OB skin. I USED to work fine, but not now. Maybe the change coincided with an OB update? I can't remember, but the only way for me to use a new skin is to acutally install a new Theme. I don't want to use someone else's settings/bars, I want to use my own and just some other skin. 90% of the time I use the WB skin and am happy with it, but now this wont work.

2) When I click to change the skin there is an option "use skin from another theme" WHile I have downloaded some 20 themes, the only themes listed in this dropdown box are ones that I have actually loaded up in the past. There is now "Browse..." option here. The ONLY way that I can even load up a skin from another theme is to actually go to Load->Theme and lod those themes up and run them for a sec or two. Once I am done with that they will appear in my Theme manager. ONLY THEN will they appear on the drop down for the "Use skin from another theme" option. THis is a pain in the butt. There should be a "Browse..." option in that drop down so I don't have to go through loading anf unloading other FULL themes, then reload my own, just so I can get another theme in that drop down so I can load the skin from it. Anyway, I did that and saw the other themes listed in the drop down. Then I selected one. See item #1 - the skin did not load.

now on to more functionality:

3) When creating bars (I use mine as a top bar like on a mac and keep my windows taskbar on the bottom auto-hidden) if I create a "Folder Menu" to add to the TopBar, I can use text and/or icons on the OB for that menu. However if I create a "Popup Menu" I cannot. I can use ONLY text. I should have the same option to use text and/or icons. The way that I use Object bar is that I hide all of my desktop icons. Then I have menus that are grouped (I have one titled "Net" that I click on and a popup menu appears that shows email, browsers, and other shorttcuts that I have configured. I have one title GrafX, and the popup menu has links to Photoshop, ACDSee, etc.I have one for Music that has links to Winamp, WMP, Samplitude, etc.). I would like those titles to be Icons rather than just text. Since they are a popup menu I don't have that option.

4) I would like the width of the title of the menu to be customizable. For example I blieve that if I have a popup titled Music my choices are to either have the width of that title of the popup menu auto fit to the word (Music, or GrafX, etc.), or to evenly distribute all of my popup titles across the entire width of the TopBar. This means that everything is evenly spaced, or all crowded at one end. I would like to be able to define this width in pixels so I can space out the text or icons on the TopBar the way that I would like them.

5) Ditto for the separator. Lets say I have 3 menu items on the top bar, then a separator, and then 3 more menu items. The menu items above the separator (above in the theme editor that is, not to be confused with a side bar) are all crowded to the left, and the items below the separator are all crowded to the right. It would be nice to be able to configure the size of the separator in pxels so that I can layout everything on the bar as precisely as possible.

6) Similar problem with the virtual desktops plugin (whihc btw, has crashed on my machines quite a few times to the point where whatever desktop I am in, I am stuck there and cannot access the other dekstops, nor the apps running in them. I have to kill OB to get it to work). There is an option on the VDT plugin to keep the desktop sizes on the bar the same size. Apparently this does NOT mean they remain the same size on the bar, but rather the same size as each other! If I have a TopBar item whose text changes dynamically (like many of the MacOS Themes), then the VDT will change their size on the OB dynamically as well, in order to fill up any empty space. I would like to configure the desktop size in pixels individually, just like you can configure the color of each dektop individually. Also it would be nice for there to be the following on/off options:

a) Alt-Tab accesses ALL running programs from ALL desktops
custom keys for switching desktops (ctrl-tab conflicts w/ Firefox's switching between tabs key commands)
c) When a program is opened on a desktop, all of it's child windows (popups, etc.) remain on that desktop
d) If the above is not checked and a popup appears in another desktop the application does not then move to the current desktop
e) ALL running programs on ALL desktops appear on the windows taskbar
f) Each desktop has it's own task bar (default)
g) If all programs are on all taskbars, then clicking on that program in the taskbar does/does not switch you over to that application AND it's corresponding desktop.
h) when a popup/child window appears on a dektop other than the current one, alert me:
i) make the desktop with the popup glow
ii) popup a message in the current desktop asking me if I want to switch desktops


I have say, opened up FireFox on dektop #2 and then I switch to desktop #1. Firefox opens up a popup, and it appears in desktop#1, and the entire application appears now in the (current) desktop #1. I want to keep the app & it's child popups in their original desktop. If I open up IE (desktop #1) and click on a link that openes up in another window, but that link is slow, so while I am waiting I switch to Desktop #4, and then finally the new window opens, it opens in desktop #4 (current). I want to control all of this.

7) If I have an objectBar that is a sidebar, and I either autohide it or click to hide it, then I should be able to have an application use that (now free, once the bar is hidden) space on the desktop. Currently I can't always do that.

8) Often an app will maximize to the desktop, with it's open/close/minimize buttons hidden behind the object bar, and inaccessible. Can we fiz this somehow? Right now I have to temporarily set the OB to autohide, close or shrink the app, and then UN auto-hide the OB.

Whew! THat's a lot!

Thanks for reading, and hopefully some of these will get fixed! I see that the new beta of OB is done DLing & updating, so I'mm gonna give it a whirl.

Alex F/Brain21

OK, running the v2.0 Preview 1 build 715. I see NO changes over 1.65.007. Everything looks exactly the same. I looked for the CPU & other stuff (under plugins, Other, multifunction, etc.) and didn't see them. Is there something else that I must do? I unloaded and reloaded OB to no avail. Same old skin problems as well... Can't get anything other than the white BG unless I use a completely different theme!

Alex F/Brain21

OK, more info on the skinning...

If I select (Top Bar) Change Skin->Use skin from another theme and that theme that I select has MORE THAN ONE SKIN then(!) I can load up any one of the multiple skins. However, if that theme has only 1 skin, I can't load that skin up. Use WB skins still doesn't work.

As far as the bar size stuff I set a menu size to min=100, max=100 and it did nothing.

Also I just discovered the advanced editor whihc is ONLY accessable be creating a menu item for it and then clicking on it. In the basic theme editor, under "File" there should be an Advanced Editor menu option. There is only a basic editor menu option which does nothing since I am already in the basic menu editor. I think you guys already know this though...

Thanks again,

Brain21

P.S. when laoding up another skin from another theme, it should load up the whole skin. IOW the popup menus too. As it is now, I have to load up a skin for each and every bar, and popup menu item, etc. even if they are all from the same skin. There should be at LEAST a check box item to inherit the skins from the popup menus etc. as well. I would still keep the ability to individualize each one though, and what about just changing the color rather than loading up a skin?

Update:

My computer blue-screened (not related to stardock in anyway). Anyway, when I rebooted the machine, I can now use the current window blinds skins for the object bar. I had rebooted before and it had not helped. Who every heard of a BSoD being a good thing? Weird...

Alex F/Brain21

Getting tired of me yet?

Another enhancement... When I use text on the TopBar (or any bar or menu) I would like to have control over the font. The size, the type face, and the color, and I would like to have this control in both the normal state, and in a selected state.

Lets say I have a popup menu on the bar. The theme is a white color scheme with black text. However when I move over a menu item the "selected" skin (kinda like the windows hilighted color) is black. THis means that I can no longer read the text when my mouse is over that selection. IT would be nice to be able to control it so it matcvhes the theme.

Ex. I am currently running the Alienware Morph skin. The color scheme is white, blue, & black. So I would like to create a bar that is white w/ black text on it. When the mouse moves over a selection the background I would like to turn black, but I would then like the text to turn BLUE to match the rest of the color scheme. When I move the mouse away the bg turns white and the text is black again.

THis is something that I would like to easily configure (thru the basic or adv editor) w/o having to create a completely new skin for it. IOW, I should be able to use someone else's skin, or import a WB skin, and tweak it's appearance (well, certain aspects of it) on my own.

Thanks!

Brain21

Geez, it's been almost a month since I last posted in this thread!

Anyway, still using 2.0 preview 1 build 715 as before.

Again, I am trying to add RSS feeds and OB crashes. WHen it restarts, all of the new stuff listed normally under the Separator under available elements (RSS feeds, etc.) is again gone.

Is there going to be a new preview build or something that has this & other listed bugs fixed anytime soon???

Thanks,

Brain21

Brad,
I posted about the funcions which are lacked in ObkjectBar/Virtual Desktops and which are available in CC here.
https://forums.stardock.com/?ForumID=190&AID=93328
I'd appreciate if you kindly refer this.
Please don't misunderstand me. My opinion about OB is that it is a very good one .
Regards.

I can't seem to get the new beta, it tells me I have the latest installed, which was last updated on 10/7/2005

Scott,
You are right.
But please see the date of the post by Brad Wardell. The post was on October 8, 2005.
The latest version is 1.99e[b].002 (dated October 7), as you say, and Brad was talking about this version.

Hope this helps.