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Island Dog
Island Dog
Join Date 06/2003
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WindowBlinds 7 New Code Guide

July 22, 2009 2:36:34 PM from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Master skinner DanilloOc has taken the time to write a great guide on the new codes in WindowBlinds 7.  This will no doubt be a tremendous help to skinners in creating and updating their skins for Windows 7 and WindowBlinds 7.

  • This is a quick guide to help you add new Windows 7 features to you skin (WindowBlinds 7).
  • You'll need the latest WindowBlinds 7 (beta) to have this code working.
  • The guide is inside a zip and come in two formats, .docx (Microsoft Word) and .htm (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc) and have screenshots all over.

Download

 

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Island Dog
Mirsguy
Join Date 11/2007
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Reply #1 July 22, 2009 4:25:21 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
This is an invaluable resource! Thanks DanilloOC & ID!
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ShelbyGT_The_Car
Join Date 01/2004
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Reply #2 July 22, 2009 9:09:45 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

OK now we are really going places!

Thanks Dan very well done.

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Island Dog
GhoS
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #3 July 22, 2009 9:40:17 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Cool, maybe now more will update or create skins for Windows 7 so we can try out more that work correctly.
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Island Dog
LightStar
Join Date 12/2002
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Reply #4 July 22, 2009 10:16:10 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Way to go! Thanks for providing this extremely useful resource!
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #5 July 22, 2009 10:58:59 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Excellent!...off to try it out. Thank you Dani. Great Post ID.
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #6 July 23, 2009 1:13:56 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
OK...that is some awesome work Dani.Thank you for assembling this for us. One question(for now heheheheh)...I keep seeing a setting for ApplyColor...can you tell us what that is for?
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #7 July 23, 2009 1:35:05 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Now I must go cry quietly to myself about my design choices.
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tippytoenail
Join Date 10/2004
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Reply #8 July 23, 2009 4:15:04 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
I hope I can figure how to make this work for me.
Now I must go cry quietly to myself about my design choices.
Can I go cry with you Brainiac? PLEASE ?
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #9 July 23, 2009 8:05:07 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

After we cry we must think outside the box on how to adapt our ludicrously non MS designs to this new setup...designs that were arrived at by ...thinking outside the box.    hehe,this'll lern ya to use curves,colors,ideas or any independant thought while a skinnin'.   Bless you Microsoft.

 

 Despite some of Vista's silliness that made it into Win7,I dont hate 7 the way I did Vista when it came out.Vista SP3,er...I mean Win7...has some nice features and fixes.    

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danioc
Join Date 07/2001
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Reply #10 July 23, 2009 9:00:37 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
I'm glad the doc is being helpful for you guys.

. I.R. Brainiac: about the "ApplyColour=" setting, it will recolor the image based on various system colors, 2 means highlight colour, 4 means tooltip background colour,3 means button face, and 1 also means highlight color. I Asked Neil and he told me that there is the occasional use for some skin authors with that one.

. About the designs choices, remeber that with new provided start panel codes, you can have the start panel in normal mode with one design and have the expanded and search modes completely different, some parts are still shared between them but with some adjusts here and there, you can make it work
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Mirsguy
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Reply #11 July 23, 2009 9:39:53 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Are we to assume that these adjustments will be able to be made more easily through SkinStudio sometime in the future?

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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #12 July 24, 2009 4:05:16 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
. About the designs choices, remeber that with new provided start panel codes, you can have the start panel in normal mode with one design and have the expanded and search modes completely different, some parts are still shared between them but with some adjusts here and there, you can make it work
A skinner certainly stands a better chance of adapting his designs with this new info than he would without...thanks again mister.
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #13 July 25, 2009 8:35:09 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
A little tip...WB4 block files can cause changes you make to these sections to NOT take effect. Delete the little bastards. I added test graphics and they were showing...pointed them at new images and even deleted entire sections...even rebooted and no new changes were showing...til I deleted the block files. I know why they are called block files...haha,they block you from making changes.
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #14 July 25, 2009 9:01:16 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
possible oops...the expanded left graphic should not include the allprogs area...?
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #15 July 25, 2009 9:07:52 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
another maybe tip...the start menu expansion settings seem to do nothing for me unless written under this section. [StartPanel] HideShadows=1 BackgroundColour=26 StartMenuExpansion=23 ignore this post formatting...the lines of code should look like they do in notepad
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danioc
Join Date 07/2001
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Reply #16 July 25, 2009 2:27:17 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Ok, lets go.
. The .wb4/.wb64 (cache/block) files, open NotePad and past this text:
del /s *.wb4 *.wb64

Save as "WB-cache-killer.bat" and place it inside your WB skins folder,
you then can create a shortcut to your desktop or other place you want,
double click the shortcut and it will erase all skin cache from all your skins.

. The All Programs are has no custom Expand mode, blame Microsoft for that.

. Sorry, yes the expansion code should go in that section too, I'm updating the doc.
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danioc
Join Date 07/2001
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Reply #17 July 25, 2009 3:02:35 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
I just updated the doc, I don't have access to the download link in this article, only ID has.

For now, please download the updated doc from here (until ID update the link here)

WWW Link
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ShelbyGT_The_Car
Join Date 01/2004
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Reply #18 July 25, 2009 11:19:27 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Thanks for all the hard work there Dan and esp. this new update. Lots of new stuff here!

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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #19 July 26, 2009 6:25:37 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Thanks to Dani Ive done my first Win7 Start menu! woohoo! I still think something is off about the all progs and expanded left.The allprogs dosnt need an expanded image and if I include it into the expanded left graphic it gets drawn twice...stacked one above the other. Other than that...perfecto Dani. Jump menus done.Havnt played with the glows yet.I dont see the glows except during a flash while opening a window...no mouseover glows and I havnt watched a file transfer yet for the progress effect. Thanks again Dani.
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #20 July 26, 2009 6:30:30 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
probably a silly question during beta...but what about the search modes white background and black text? any word of something similar to BackgroundColor=?
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danioc
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Reply #21 July 26, 2009 5:03:23 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
IR: . All Programs does not have expand mode and when expanding it will stay all on the left, the trick to avid graphic issues is keep the first pixels from the right side of your start panel on the left side graphics if you know what I mean.

. the taskbar buttons glow, the glows paint behind the taskbar buttons, so you need to make the buttons semi transparent to see it.

. about the search mode back/text colors, for now there's no way to change that, I wanted too.
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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #22 July 27, 2009 3:45:11 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

geez dang site hang

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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #23 July 27, 2009 3:46:52 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

and again

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Island Dog
I.R. Brainiac
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Reply #24 July 27, 2009 3:48:23 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Yes,I believe we are saying the same thing about the allprogs...its a something lost in translation thing.

The glow thingy I didnt see til I added the mask...and it didnt work til I deleted the block files again.

Nice that MS put it behind the button(better control),you would expect them just to shove it on top.

I still see it unmasked while first opening anything pinned.(it completely surrounds the button)

A little tip for the skinners...the mask will show a film on the taskbar if you have any black there in the mask.You should only have black in your mask on mouseover sates.

Another question Dani...does the progress effect lay on top of the buttons or replace the button?

Also...I wonder if this masking will work in other areas like the mouseover flash and the progress bar flash?

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Island Dog
danioc
Join Date 07/2001
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Reply #25 July 28, 2009 7:17:40 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Another question Dani...does the progress effect lay on top of the buttons or replace the button?


As far I can see it replaces parts until completion (when totally replace)

Also...I wonder if this masking will work in other areas like the mouseover flash and the progress bar flash?


The flashing state does not use the masking+glow but if the button is a group, the sub-buttons that paint on right side and behind will use the mask+glow
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