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 Post subject: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:48 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:45 pm
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Location: RWC, CA USA
Hi,

I've looked over the tutorial and done as much research as I can but I can not get the imported theme to show as a new usable theme. I really love the Reactor theme from ObjectDock so really wanting to use that since Winstep states that any third party theme can be imported and used. I think Reactor comes with ObjectDock so perhaps there is an issue with that? Not sure but would like to know one way or the other. IF it is usable then I need a clear cut tutorial that can guide me to figure out what steps I may have missed.

Also I wanted the fonts for the shelf made larger, found those settings, I think but I have them set to 14 and Bold and they are not any larger so does this require a reboot of my computer for that to take effect?

Thanks so much
Richard


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 5:41 pm 
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Ok, one very important thing first and foremost:

Nexus (the dock) is what claims to be compatible with themes for all 3rd party docks. This does NOT extend to ObjectDock's tabbed docks though (although as I have already promised here to another user, I will certainly look into that).

So, you can only import 3rd party themes for *docks*.

Click HERE for a themes tutorial also instructions on how you can import themes made for 3rd party docks. Hope it helps!

As for the fonts in the Shelf, here is what I suspect is happening: up until two versions ago, only a single Shelf was supported. Now you can have as many Shelves as you want and that also means each Shelf - like the docks - can have its own, separate, theme.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to add the extra functionality necessary to take this into account (I completely forgot, to be honest), so the Fonts dialog will only allow you to change the font settings for whatever it currently is the 'global' theme (it will tell you what that theme is at the top of the dialog). If your Shelf is using a theme other than that (i.e.; using an individual theme), it won't be affected.

I'll try to tackle both issues in the next release.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:16 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:45 pm
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Location: RWC, CA USA
OK, thanks.

Also I use my second monitor to have the docks on and well now that I have both the "Apps dock" and the shelf dock with my three tabs mostly set up how I like them the bottom "Apps dock" is frozen. It will loosen up and start working but if I move the cursor even a little bit to try to select something it freezes up. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to move over to Nexus and forget about Stardock because of the ridiculous delays and hiccups I was experiencing with the docks functionality but now I seem to be right at square one again but worse! LOL


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:26 pm 
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Perhaps the issue is not with any of the dock applications but with your system then? :wink:

What did you place in your 'Apps' dock? Anything NOT in a *local* disk (icons, shortcuts...)?

Also, open Control Panel, go to Adminstrative Tools then open Event Viewer. Open the 'Windows Logs' tree, click on System. See any red exclamation icons there? Could also be a failing hard disk.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 7:57 pm 
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I can tell your annoyed but it's not my doing. All the apps in the Apps dock are being run from the Program and Program (86) folders so no I don't have a failing disk! LOL After a reboot it seems better.

Also, why does this program when docking these to the sides then take all my nicely arranged desktop icons and slide them over to one monitor? I then took the time to put them back where they should be and then when I rebooted they were back over to one monitor until Nexus was started up and then slide back to their respective placements on both monitors. Strange to me. :?


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 8:09 pm 
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RAMWolff wrote:
I can tell your annoyed but it's not my doing. All the apps in the Apps dock are being run from the Program and Program (86) folders so no I don't have a failing disk! LOL After a reboot it seems better.


LOL. I'm NOT annoyed, just pointing out the obvious. :wink:

That is NOT normal behavior. A dock that did that wouldn't have much success in the market. :)

But precisely because it isn't normal behavior, figuring out what might be causing it may not be easy, and probably a lot of educated trial and error guesses. I pointed out two of the most obvious possibilities.

Also, if it stopped doing that after a reboot, check your RAM usage: if your system is REALLY struggling (as in REALLY chocking!) and it starts paging in and out to disk like mad, that could also happen. Possibilities are endless! Aren't computers great? lol

RAMWolff wrote:
Also, why does this program when docking these to the sides then take all my nicely arranged desktop icons and slide them over to one monitor?


Because you've got the dock set to reserve screen space? That prevents maximized windows from covering it, but it also moves desktop icons 'out of the way' - don't blame me either, that is just the way Windows 'appbars' work, so neither maximized windows cover the toolbar nor desktop icons go under it. :)

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 8:15 pm 
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Interesting. Didn't have that issue with ObjectDock but again Stardock's laziness to not update the program to run on WIndows 10 properly is beyond me... you win, you have a new customer.

I'll look forward to the update when you get around to it. Thanks!


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:39 am 
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RAMWolff wrote:
Interesting. Didn't have that issue with ObjectDock but again Stardock's laziness to not update the program to run on WIndows 10 properly is beyond me... you win, you have a new customer.


The guy who did ObjectDock no longer works for Stardock.

Anyway, don't just give up - try to figure out what might be causing this, see if you can find a pattern. When the dock is acting up again, open Task Manager, check the state of your memory usage, go to the Details tab, check how much CPU nexus-ultimate.exe is using, how much RAM, etc... if necessary we can bring out the big guns, such as SysInternal's (now Microsoft's) Process Monitor and Process Explorer, etc...

Make a backup of your settings then delete items one by one to see if you can find a culprit, or start from scratch by deleting them all and then adding them in one by one, etc...

I too would like to know. :)

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:21 am 
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Just waiting for the font fix. Funny thing happened, not funny really but at one point the fonts DID enlarge and I was happy but there is something weird with how the product determines what I want because when I went to the themes tab it was not on the theme I had chosen but was back to it's default but I never OK'd the changes but it DID change things back to the other theme when I closed the properties dialog. I thought that was very strange not to mention disconcerting... and when that happened all my icons scoothched over to the one monitor. I got frustrated and just rebooted the computer. The default theme was still applied but my icons were back after Nexus initiated again.

Oh the fonts are back to that tiny little font, not matter what I try so that's done. I have older eyes, I need my fonts larger so that's why this is important to me.

My next question is .....

IS there a way to tell Windows 10 to allow the program to start up while the computer is booting so my icons will be in place when things come into view? I looked at the Services under the Control Panel but there was no way I could tell to make WinStep Services to start when the logon screen shows. Would be nice to have that squared away, it IS a little strange for me to boot into my computer and have to wait a minute while Winstep initializes and pushes the desktop icons back to where they are supposed to be.

If there is a registry hack then please let me know. I'm not afraid of the registry at all.

Thanks!

Richard


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:26 am 
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you have 'enable fast boot' ption under general tab in preferences


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:49 pm 
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seeker wrote:
you have 'enable fast boot' option under general tab in preferences


Sigh. I bet he's still got the Fast Boot icon in the dock as well.

RAMWolff, this is NOT directed specifically at you, seems to be a common issue so please don't take it personally or feel bad about it: this just proves (again) that people will simply NOT EVEN SEE and completely ignore something right in front of their noses unless they are looking for it and it is where they expect it to be - and even then they may remain completely oblivious to it.

In reality this is more of a failure on my part, since I don't know what else I can do to bring the Fast Boot feature to the attention of the user without enabling it by default (which I will not do).

RAMWolff, see that gray power button icon in your dock? Check what that item's balloon tooltip information text says.

This is like when other users suggest: "oh, why don't you pop up an information dialog at the beginning of the program?". Because it doesn't work either - nobody reads dialogs when they are trying to 'get on with it', they just blindly press Ok and hope for the best. This is also a fact of life, every programmer with at least a notch of experience under his belt already knows this. :)

Once again it reminds me of that hilarious AskTog (Apple's ex-lead designer) article about 'Maximizing Windows: The Most Difficult Design Problem I ever encountered' on how trying to get users to do such a simple thing as maximizing a window almost turned out to be more than they (the designers) could chew.

"Power users were quickly emerging throughout the application as "the other problem group." They were having just as many problems--and in most cases the same problems--as naive users. In the power users' case, it wasn't for lack of knowledge, but lack of patience. They would read nothing and would follow no instructions if they could possibly avoid it. " :)

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:40 pm 
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seeker wrote:
you have 'enable fast boot' ption under general tab in preferences


Thank you so much!


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 6:07 pm 
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RAMWolff wrote:
Thank you so much!


Do you still have the Fast Boot icon in the dock? You can remove it - now that you've enabled that option in Preferences it's just taking up space in the dock.

Serious question, a but difficult to answer in retrospect but: do you think that if I had made that icon constantly 'jump' for attention right after installation you would have noticed it's there and decided to figure out what it does? Simply placing the icon on the dock doesn't seem to do the trick for most users.

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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:06 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:45 pm
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Honestly? I saw the "fast boot" option right off the bat but didn't know what it was so that's why I didn't enable it. I didn't see it on the bar as I removed all the items in the default load of the bar and got to work replicating my older, buggy ObjectDock bar contents as I just wanted this done as quickly as possible.

Oh and I did follow the instructions on the Theme tutorial page and the ObjectDock theme will not import so not sure what to do about that. I really love that theme. The current bar I have is just to fat. Removing the text from under each icon helps thin it out but still fat. I need larger icons for my eyes. The theme from ObjectDock is, somehow, just right for screen space.... Oh well. I'm happy enough but would be nice to have that theme or find one thats similar to "Reactor" theme...


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 Post subject: Re: How do I bring in a theme from Object Dock?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:40 pm 
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RAMWolff wrote:
Oh and I did follow the instructions on the Theme tutorial page and the ObjectDock theme will not import so not sure what to do about that.


Can you please post that theme's URL here?

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