You can use negative values in the width and height settings and also percentages.

So for a taskbar that needs to go all the way across the screen you would simply put 100% in the width.

If however you needed a systray to the right of that which was 100 pixels wide you would use a width of -100 and dock the object to the left of the screen. The systray object would be docked to the right of the screen.

Is it possible to have an area to the upper right AND left of the screen reserved for objects of set size and have the variable region between used for the taskbar object?
Below is a simplified ASCII rendition:
__________________________________________________
shortcuts /=============================\ systray
_________/ =====want tasks here========= \________

If I used a negative value solely, then I would technically have to sacrifice the shortcuts or systray. Much easier in LS, but DX incredibly entertaining objects too.

(thanks thus far!)

Short answer yes.

Long answer follows:

Create Object1 (shortcuts) which will be set length of 100. Dock to the top and left and that's all.
Create Object2 (Taskbar) Dock to left and top and position to the right of the shortcuts. Because the left hand side of it will always be in the left half of the screen it can be docked to the left. Now set this to -100
Create Object3 (systray) Dock to right and fixed width of 100. Position to the right of Object2.

Boxxi: You can set stretching or tiling margins in the object properties so that it will tile/stretch when the graphic is resized to cater for other screens. Depending on your image you may need to set a lower limit for screen resolutions it supports.

pjpowell is hoping that in DX2 dxscript will allow resizing of objects (currently doesn't allow it) because that would make it a whole lot more powerful. Different conditions showing totally different images and stuff would be very cool. Objects that reconfigure themnselves to make best use of the space dynamically and suchlike.

That can already be done using DXscript. But it is a bit complicated currently because each object has to be moved individually. You can't just move the parent and let DX move the children or grouped objects as the parent->child->group relationship is not recognised by dxscript.

mrbiotech, have a look at my Stinger DX theme. https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?Library=3&skinid=2523 It contains a horizontal bar across the top that will fit any resolution (within reason). I have a clock and email checker aligned to the right, and menus aligned to the left. It might serve as a guide for what you want to do.