OK. I'm making another theme and I need some assistance. Current screenshot below.



Now, is there a way to position the icons in the quicklaunch area? I've managed to give the icons a negative vertical position in the tasks area, but not the quicklaunch. Also, can the text be aligned in the task area in the same way that the icons can? I'm hoping so

Progress Report. Nexus skinned. I don't know that the style this theme follows works well for a dock. Hopefully the modules will all make up for that.



I really like having the varied heights for the buttons in the startbar. It does mean you get a slight gap between the bottom of a maximised window and the startbar though. I'm sure I'm missing something there as well

Very nice!!! Hey, you're on a roll, heh?



Nope for both questions, but send the theme over to the Winstep support address and I'll see what I can do before the next official release.

Guess the answer is now yes for both questions, but you will need to download the next beta.

Awesome! I'm off to look for a new beta version

This looks great! It's nice to see a theme that is really different -- and attractive (as opposed to the umpteenth variation on Vista or Leopard). For me, that's what skinning is all about. I can't wait.

I'm also looking forward to the offsets that JC is bulding into the next beta. I seem to be hung up on porting themes from other products, so maybe that will get me going again.

Burt, any other requests? Now is the time for them!

Tiggz already asked me for the ability to replace the NeXuS icon (something I was always pretty much against because of branding issues) but I guess he does have a strong point, in that the NeXuS icon style sometimes really does not blend with the icons selected for a specific theme. Same for the sub-dock arrow pointers.

On an unrelated note, check this out, if you haven't already:

http://forums.wincustomize.com/?aid=177260#1460873

Hey nice article on WinCustomize! I certainy uploaded my theme at the right time The new theme Tiggz has created looks slick! But of course I need to ask "How did he get a grey Nexus icon!?!"

Err, you can select several colors for the NeXuS icon. Right Click the NX Control Icon -> Appearance and Sounds -> Control Icon Color.

Any other requests? How can I resist!

There are a couple of things that come to mind; although none is a particularly big deal.

1. Nexus overlays that are over the dock background, but under the icons. I'd like to have a basic background witha shadow (for sub-docks or wharfs), but a more elaborate frame that covers up the the shadow (for the main dock).

2. A systray button that is independent of the task tile.

3. The ability to vertically offset the tabs and mini-tab icons independently for inverted and regular Winstep shelves. When I try to skin Winstep with shadows, I end up having to manually tweak these elements every time I invert WS.

Hmm. Wasn't I the one who was grousing about the increasing complexity of skinning?

4. Functionality: more modules. A VWM ad a battery meter would be at the top of my list, and I would think a remote control for media players would be popular as well.

Are you sorry you asked yet?

Awesome. I didn't realise that. I'd be happy enough if you could edit that and the setting was saved with the theme. Then if you were using a theme?say the newly released 555 ?you would see a grey icon. But if you went to a blue theme you'd see the blue icon.

Or can you already do that?

Hmmm, seems to me that allowing separate bitmaps for the main dock and sub-docks would be a more efficient way of pulling this off... no?



Ah, yeah! This always was a popular request... wonder why I never actually implemented this.



For inverted shelves, would not automatically inverting the mini-tab icons in memory accomplish the same thing?



Hehe! Yes you were! The good thing is that I always make sure Winstep Xtreme remains backwards-compatible - therefore, even when I add new features, you don't really HAVE to use them to make a new theme. The complexity is there, but isn't, at the same time.



Yes, yes! You have no idea on the pile of module ideas I have been sitting on. And it really bothers me that I can't add them right now, but priority after this release must be for the new GUI and multi-language abilities.



Nah, hehe!



Alas, the NeXuS control icon color should be a skin setting, not an user setting as it currently is. No idea why I didn't make it so in the begining. Guess I will correct that for 8.2.

YES!!



Only if the WS inverted bitmap has exactly the same dimensions as the uninverted(?) one. My problem is that I want my shelf when docked to the top to have a shadow under the bottom (tabbed) edge, as if the light source were in the upper left. But when I have the self docked to the bottom, there is no shadow above the top (tabbed) edge, and a shadow below the bottom edge. Here's what it looks like.



Ahh! Maybe, if I add a transparent spacer at the bottom of the tabs. Can I do that with the mini-tab icons though? Don't the bitmaps have to be square? I'll give it a try...

Update on this theme. I don't like how the gradient is handled in NeXus. I've tried editing the non-scaleable areas but it always looks the same. I'll continue to play with that. Other parts need editing and improving as well.

The text in the WorkShelf tabs is slightly off centre. Can I force it to sit to the left slightly?

Oh, and the icons in the mini-tabs are from my 555 theme. I haven't got to those yet

That theme is looking great, Jason! Highly original!



Don't forget you can specify individual images for all the four possible dock orientations (top, bottom, left and right).



Sure. In the Shelf Advanced Skinning dialog, play with the offsets in the Active and Inactive Tab Label sections.

Ah, don't forget that with Xtreme 8.2 you can now independently specify the shelf content offset from the edges. Negative offsets are allowed so content is closer to the shelf edges.