i dont always do it the same way but i think i do this most often
http://prntscr.com/la2hvt


though imho there is one unnecessary step there
http://prntscr.com/la2inz

Sorry, can't run the beta here yet Jorge as don't have my backup drive. However, from what I see here looks good and the Mac way makes perfect sense. Question - how can I get a GridStack onto a hotspot in the QL of the NS Taskbar?

However, the following issues/questions remain un-addressed :

Where is this "....relatively recent alternative digital clock mode that actually looks really good and modern" supposed to be? I certainly don't see it anywhere here.

The histo colour in the in-shelf/in-dock histogram meters does *not* save with the theme, so every time somebody changes themes, they don't get the right histo colour.

Also, I have a problem with a desktop twin NET module that uses a transparent bitmap and isn't showing the 'NET OUT' text which should be below the bar meter at the bottom of the bitmap despite correct configuration - full details and pic here : https://forums.winstep.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10863 (I've indicated the area where the txt should be with a pale frame for illustration.)

There certainly are. I usually open WS Prefs from the Prefs icon on the shelf, or occasionally from the context menu on the dock control icon. NS Prefs usually from a menu.

Personally to access WorkShelf Preferences I left click the left mini-tab of a Shelf, which goes straight to Preferences.

In reality left clicking the left mini-tab should open that Shelf's properties dialog and NOT preferences, but I'm afraid new users wouldn't find it otherwise (and veteran users might be relying on this behavior already)? Also, makes for a nice shortcut - but I've always been torn about this.

Perhaps I should turn it to 'single click opens properties, double click opens preferences' ?

As for NextSTART Preferences, I use a little trick almost nobody knows about now that nearly every single damn menu theme does NOT provide a titlebar: double clicking the titlebar of a menu opens NextSTART Preferences. This works even if the menu appears to have no titlebar: you just double click the top edge of the menu.

For the moment, you can't - and while I see how this would be useful and fall in line with the ability to invoke docks from NS hotspots, we have a problem: the docks you can invoke in NS are first created in WorkShelf and they appear in the Dock & Shelves Manager tab, although they can be disabled.

But, in much the same way you can NOT access *sub-docks* from NextSTART either, there is no way to create a Grid Stack other than by attaching it to an icon in a dock, shelf or drawer. Grid Stacks, like sub-docks, also do not appear in the Dock & Shelves Manager, so there is no way to manipulate them other than from the parent icon.

So, at the moment I am not really sure how to solve this problem.



You need to renew the prescription for your glasses, Ric.

Set the clock style to digital -> right click the in-shelf clock module -> clock settings -> In 'Digital Clock Color' enable 'Show time only'.



I never said anything about *USER* changes being saved, what I said is that the settings that define the color of histograms in a particular theme can be set by the SKINNER in the theme configuration files. They can also be changed by the user after loading the theme, but this will not save the new colors to the theme.



You should know already I need to look at the net meter theme configuration file to figure out what is happening - so you need to send it over. lol

Sorry, skimmed over this part.

True, but that happens because the Shelf menu is built separately (it's top level when you right click the left mini-tab) and then referenced by that menu.

Perhaps I can find a way to join the two menus in that particular case.

Umm, no, single click for Prefs and double click for Props would be better I think, as this is such old established behaviour and heck even the icon is called WsPrefs.*

As for NS Prefs, yes, I'm aware of the default titlebar double click behaviour but have configured it differently here.

It really is a crying shame about nobody doing titlebar buttons - instantly means the theme doesn't get a look-in here.

I always provide them - usually close, roll-up and rotate, and sometimes also on top. Often also with mouse-over icon - would be really nice if we had that again. (At least, I think we did have it on account of seeing the icons in some very old themes inc. a couple of mine.)

Ok, I've merged the two menus.

Ah right. Thought I'd ask as nearer the beginning of this thing, ISTR, starting a GS from dock, shelf as well as QL was floated. Anyway, so it should be possible to have a QL hotspot for an icon in a shelf etc., but I imagine this would open the GS by the original icon?

LOL! Feck, never realised this would change it Jorge! Yes, fine looking clock, perfect for something like Atmospherica and DarkTech, but in some themes it would look distinctly out of place. Also, if everything else was moved up a little, there would be aample space for the date as well. Anyway, so what would be so wrong if skinners could perhaps set the colour and font of the text? It's only a tiny step really and I'm sure you would see a lot more digital clocks in themes. (I presume this would already work with a WsClockD.* icon?)

Oh, right, so at the moment we can only save it by manually editing the appropriate config line in the config file?

Should be on its way to support email soon. I'll also inc. the full description of the prob and original bitmap.

<- What am I wearing? Glasses.


EDIT: I've sent you a reply by email with the corrected config file, but for some stupid reason the IP range where the Winstep server IP address is included is currently blocked from sending mail to Outlook.com users (despite the IP not being included in ANY of the Internet spam blacklists).

I'm already on it to delist the Winstep IP address (although they don't make it easy to do this, if at all possible), so in the mean time here is the issue:

Instead of

NetEnabled05=True

you had

NetEnabled05True

LOL! Damn, I really need new ones! At any rate for distance and reading - intermediate seem fine, but haven't got those with me. :/ And they're all only 8 months old!

Bugger! I feel such an idiot now Jorge, how the heck could I have missed that! LOL! And I compared it side by side with other files as well. Hmph!

I'll get the email when I get it, but this certainly will do anyway. Many thanks for solving this so quickly Jorge.

All I had to do was LOOK at it (hint, hint, lol ahahah)...

As for the emails, it took them 3 days and I had to insist more than once, but it has *just* been solved. You should start getting forum notifications again too.

Yeah, the problem is the well established behavior, because for consistency sake it should be the other way (you single click the control icon of docks to access that dock's properties panel).

Yeah, sticks out like a sore thumb really. Ah well, at least we can *both* laugh about it!

These affairs can be a real PITA. Glad you got it sorted.

I'll check in a moment.

:Edit: No luck so far, but who's in a hurry? Oh, and just a quick supplementary question. If instead of using a combined bitmap as in that example, I were to use separate 'In' and 'Out' bitmaps, with identical XY coordinates for everything, would that work or would I need to add some additional configuration? [/Edit:

Yes, it's a bit of a conundrum. But, consistent it should be. Maybe it might be the lesser of two evils to change the Nexus control icon behaviour? That Is, single click brings up prefs, and props are then accessed from context menu? (As double click already taken up by hide function.)

Personally, I'd have no problem to adjusting to either option.

Very good news related to this for you and sacco_belmonte (and all others with non-English non-Latin character versions of Windows):

I was in the process of adding two new tab types: Downloads (which as the name says shows the content of whatever is in your Downloads folder) and 'All Programs' (which is a tab type only available under Windows 10 and *should* - haven't tested it yet - show ALL the applications installed on your system) and while working on the former I run into some downloaded files I had here with foreign characters.

As a result, I run into the same issues you did (question mark icon, unable to launch the file). This was actually a very good thing because it allowed me to try and figure out a way to work around this issue.

The problem occurs when the filename of the file (which at this point is still in shell namespace format, i.e.; as a virtual shell item) is retrieved: because the Winstep application does not support Unicode and the filename of the file itself contains characters that do not fit into the current code page ANSI character set, the filename returned is corrupted. Accordingly, any attempt to act on that filename (to launch it or get an icon) returns 'file not found'.

So, the solution to this problem was NOT to try and convert this file into a file system file, but rather handle it as a virtual shell item and keep it that way (the former uses filenames, the latter uses numeric pointers, so it is not affected by this ANSI vs. Unicode mess).

By doing this I was able to both properly retrieve the file's icon *and* launch the file.

Still working on this, but, for now at least, I think it's really good news.