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Skinning and UI Suggestions for PortableApps Menu ***NEW IDEAS*** 02.06.07

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January 16, 2007 - 7:01pm
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dragonmage
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Skinning and UI Suggestions for PortableApps Menu ***NEW IDEAS*** 02.06.07

Skinning and UI Suggestions for PortableApps Menu

Background

+ A single png could be used to replace background.jpg and background_top.bmp.
- It would also allow for transparent and semi transparent areas.
- It would keep file size of themes down. ( I'm using a 600k background_top.bmp in the theme I'm working on, to allow for trans at the edges of the ridges) http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r62/jmh77/PortableApps%20Skins/HeavyE...

Margins

+ There should be margin adjustment for menu items.
- distance from left and right sides of menu
- distance from top and bottom
- distance between items

Buttons

+ Menu items should be multi-state buttons (at least 3 states normal,selected,pressed)
+ Exit button should also have 3 states

Icons

+ Ability to use larger icons ( at least for the folder section of the menu)
+ Ability to change the icons in the app area of the menu
- maybe a setting for the user to pick the app defaults, or themed icons. if a themed icon doesn't exist it will use the default.
- themed icons would be in a folder in each theme directory
+ Adjustment for icon offset from the text

Popup Menus

+ I read that there might be category popup menus for the app list. If so it would be nice if the were also skinnable

Logo

+ Would it be possible to disable the PortableApps.com text and logo ate the top?
- We could do it as part of the background to maintain theme continuity or leave it off
- If you object to that can we at least set margins for it to move it around?

Thats just what I've thought of since discovering you guys and your great menu yesterday

ADDITIONS

Drivespace Gauge

+ If you could make the drivespace indicator image the full length of the available area (instead of a small tiling image) and have it display only as much of the image as the space that's used, we could them have it display different colors the closer it gets to full. (I hope you understand what I mean)

MORE ADDITIONS 02.06.07

Text
+ I see Pam as having 4 seperate text areas ( the Apps area, the Folder area, the Drivespace area, and the Drive Name area) Now assuming that these can be designated seperate areas, the following ideas should be capable of being selected for each area.
- Choose font (including size , bold , italic , underline)
- Chose color
- Choose font effects ( Outline , Drop Shadow ) with a second color selectable for the outline or dropshadow

Buttons ( Exit and {future} Eject )
+ Ability to chose size and position

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January 17, 2007 - 2:23am
dragonmage
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Mock up

Mock up of some of the suggested features http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r62/jmh77/PortableApps%20Skins/HeavyE...

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January 17, 2007 - 10:14pm
dragonmage
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Anyone else

have any suggestions for the GUI?

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January 18, 2007 - 8:59am
(Reply to #3)
The MAZZTer
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Per-pixel alpha PNG?

Now you're speaking my language! Smile

Nice feature set. For the time being, to reduce the size of your mask background_top.bmp bitmap, try saving it as a monochrome bitmap, which should greatly reduce the size. I'm not sure if PortableAppsMenu would be able to load it then, though...

For the ideas about the logo, I think it's simpler to make it a PNG itself and allow us to modify it, or to embed it directly into the background image. Then we can change or blank it out as we see fit.

Signature automatically removed for being too awesome.

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January 18, 2007 - 10:28am
(Reply to #4)
dragonmage
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background_top.bmp

as far as I can tell background_top.bmp has to match background.jpg exactly , except that areas you want trans have to be magic pink. If you only want to round the top corners you only have to make background_top.bmp the height of the rounded area. If you want to round the bottom corners (or use trans down one side like I did) you have to make it the full size of the menu.

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January 20, 2007 - 11:51am
dragonmage
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Still wondering

how you feel about these ideas John, and everyone else. The Margin and Logo ideas being particularly important to my designs of the skins I will be porting to PAM.

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January 30, 2007 - 10:22pm
dragonmage
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Bump

No one has anything to add to this?

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January 31, 2007 - 10:46am
Steve Lamerton
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I

believe that in another topic John said that he couldn't add PNG support as there were no open source Delphi PNG libs...

Yours

Steve Lamerton

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January 31, 2007 - 12:24pm
(Reply to #8)
dragonmage
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So it seems

I had thought I found a solution to that here https://portableapps.com/node/4959 but apparently not

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January 31, 2007 - 3:19pm
(Reply to #9)
Steve Lamerton
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Yeh,

if I knew any Delphi I would try to port libpng or something, but I only know C++ with wxWidgets and VB.NET. Just had a quick look round, what about this

PNG Delphi
https://sourceforge.net/projects/pngdelphi/

Yours

Steve Lamerton

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January 31, 2007 - 3:48pm
(Reply to #10)
grizadams73
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bad license

from the page you linked to:

License: Other/Proprietary License

This is the project that John said shouldn't even be listed on sourceforge, due to the license.

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January 31, 2007 - 9:13pm
(Reply to #11)
dragonmage
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Even so

The other suggestions I've made would add a lot to the menu even without the png background.

I wonder if there's possibility for alpha-blended bmp. I've seen some programs that used a bmp that was doubled in size with the second part being white for the client area and black for the trans area to supposedly blend the edges smoother.

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February 6, 2007 - 9:23pm
dragonmage
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More Ideas

Just throwing out some more suggestions

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April 13, 2007 - 3:46pm
Simeon
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I just had an idea...

I dont know whether this problem will still exist in the next Menu release, but its kinda nasty to exit the Menu before deleting Apps (YES! I had to delete some).
So why dont make the menu auto-exit/close after I press the Options->Delete Apps button?

"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard P. Feynman

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April 14, 2007 - 9:12pm
(Reply to #14)
dragonmage
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Good idea Simeon

Good idea Simeon

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April 15, 2007 - 8:42pm
(Reply to #15)
Zach Thibeau
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Well

Have you tried using the C++ version of pam found in the beta testing that (can't remember his name) it has a function to remove apps without exiting the menu. Maybe john can do that in delphi for the next release

your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau

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April 16, 2007 - 1:55am
(Reply to #16)
Simeon
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No

haven't tried it.
Waiting for Johns release.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard P. Feynman

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

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April 23, 2007 - 3:46pm
(Reply to #17)
Kevin Porter
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I would highly recommend it

I would highly recommend it and it can be found here.

Kevin
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April 23, 2007 - 4:01pm
(Reply to #18)
SmithTech
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I tried it, and I'm waiting

I tried it, and I'm waiting for the next release of PAM.
The theme switching is useless if it doesn't save your setting, and in the 3.2 version it wouldn't even apply the theme.

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April 23, 2007 - 4:06pm
(Reply to #19)
Patrick Patience
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But.

It's prefect for my start menu pack because it just reverts back to your regular theme unless you want to change it to the Windows theme default. Blum

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