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MrChris2000
MrChris2000
Join Date 06/2003
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Professional 'style' skins?

March 10, 2008 8:02:28 PM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Ok, so I've been using ObjectDesktop for a while now, and I love all the various components etc, however one thing bugs me. Where are the 'professional' skins? By that I mean a lot of the content (certainly the featured content - and everything on Colours), is very cutesy and has large icons and pictures of wizard hats etc, but thats not something I could really use on my works system.

At present the best I've found is the 'Acrylic' skin from WB6.1 coupled with WinFX and some judicious objectdock items, which all looks very nice, but I can't help thinking theres a gap in the market. WinCustomise has hundreds (probably thousands) of weather and clock gadgets, but very few productivity items - something like a task list or email gadget that looked (for want of a better word) 'dapper'.

Am I just not looking in the right location or is this an actual problem with the skinning community as it stands?

I'm curious to hear others thoughts on this (mainly to see if its just me or not!).

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MrChris2000
MrChris2000
Join Date 06/2003
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Reply #1 March 10, 2008 8:03:30 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Damn, wrong 'general' forum, sorry, can a mod please move this over to the object desktop general page please.
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MrChris2000
ZubaZ
Join Date 11/2001
+917
Reply #2 March 10, 2008 8:07:22 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Most people skin for themselves and choose to share here.  The Master skins for sale *may* be the exceptions.  Maybe people with your aesthetics aren't skinning.  I dunno.  Most skinners also seem to want to take their desktop in new directions . . not the same old stuff.

Having said that . . skins like Aero Executive are perfect in my opinion and very "dapper".
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MrChris2000
DigitalCHET
Join Date 05/2001
+27
Reply #3 March 10, 2008 8:35:09 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Premium skins offer the best solution for both the style-conscious and usability-minded user. They're made with those ideals in mind and come out looking clean and professional.

Take a look at the premium skins page for further reference. Sure, they cost a little, but the quality is worth it.
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MrChris2000
SKoriginals
Join Date 03/2005
+68
Reply #4 March 10, 2008 8:41:21 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
I think you just need to look a little deeper. What you want is out there just not as easy to find if looking through just the first few pages of whatever type of skin.
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MrChris2000
fontinalis
Join Date 10/2007
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Reply #5 March 10, 2008 8:51:44 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Try Harmony.
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MrChris2000
eieio
Join Date 03/2003
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Reply #6 March 10, 2008 9:03:18 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
No offense intended but what you may consider 'dapper', others may consider 'crapper', to turn a phrase. Point being, there are likely quite a few that feel the same as you and quite few that feel the opposite.

To paraphrase SK, dig a little deeper, you may find those gems you are looking for.
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MrChris2000
MrChris2000
Join Date 06/2003
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Reply #7 March 10, 2008 9:44:11 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Hey, I completely agree that tastes differ, I'm not trying to impose mine on anyone else (certainly that wasnt the intention). I had a quick look over the premium skins and quite like Argos as its nice and simple.

I suppose what I'm really getting at is that I thought there would be more 'productivity' elements to object desktop when I bought it and I'm not seeing those yet. All the widgets I've found are as my examples state, very basic and dont really help streamline my workflow. For example a quick search just now for 'calendar' on wincustomise presents a range of very basic calendar views, but nothing that integrates with outlook & google calendars to present a unified view of my schedule. Something like that would add real value to my desktop and I'd be prepared to pay a nominal fee to get it.

Its applications like that ('mashups' if you're familiar with the concept), that I thought Object Desktop would eventually spawn. If you watch the new iPhone SDK demonstration at apple.com you'll see they got people from salesforce.com to come in a build phone apps that do much the same thing but without having to navigate their website or spend a long time customising things.

I take the prior posters comment on board that I could go and do this for myself and certainly I'm grateful to those people who do contribute skins and widgets etc to the community, I'm not trying to do them down.

Hopefully that makes sense, I'm not trying to rant, merely to express an opinion that may or may not be incorrect - I guess I'm really just wondering if I'm alone in this opinion or not.
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MrChris2000
Bebi Bulma
Join Date 04/2004
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Reply #8 March 10, 2008 10:03:26 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
I think most of ODNT is geared towards eye-candy customization. However, I'd be lost without Enhanced File Dialog, that one is all productivity. ObjectDock is also productive, using it to replace my quick launch bar and a quicker way instead of using the start menu (tabbed docks with OD+ is awesome). ObjectDock isn't part of ODNT though.

On the other hand, ThinkDesk is more geared towards productivity applications.
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MrChris2000
DigitalCHET
Join Date 05/2001
+27
Reply #9 March 10, 2008 10:41:17 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
No, you're not alone. It's true that the true potential of ObjectDesktop, or perhaps DesktopX even, as an applications platform hasn't even been stlightly tapped.
It's still quite young but hopefully -if support for Vista gets worked out- things will get better.

We have some great talent such as Tiggz, Gef, RomanDA and VadM (to name just a few) who've made considerable efforts to the most out of the platform, but yes, there's still a lot more that could be done with it.
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MrChris2000
TheD2JBug
Join Date 07/2001
+39
Reply #10 March 10, 2008 10:56:51 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
there are several professional looking skins.
Just look in the galleries
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MrChris2000
ZubaZ
Join Date 11/2001
+917
Reply #11 March 10, 2008 11:28:07 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
For pure productivity . . ObjectBar (and it's step-child RightClick  ).
I'd be lost without it.
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