yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
I'll add my thanks as well. I really appreciate all the work and the excellent help that you give. I have a few more things to tweak in order to get everything the way I want it, but when I do I'll show it off.

I didn't go the way of minimalist panels at all. In fact I have 16 panels that I use. The Home is just the Professional Home, so really I just added 15 panels, but I might add a few more... maybe a sub-Internet for quick links and/or Facebook stuff. I also might add a sub-Programs page just for GPS programs.

Home

Office Programs

Contacts

** Business Contacts

** Personal Contacts

Agenda

Games

** Card Games

** Board Games

** Puzzle Games

** Arcade Games

Media

** Playlists

Programs

Settings

Internet

On a side note, am I correct in thinking that if I enable 3 panels for the ProHome screen (so I can scroll left/right) that all 3 pieces use the same background? I can't have the Center use one background and the left a different and the right a different, correct?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
wow that's A LOT of panels indeed :eek:

Do you reach them via links or are you using an advanced menubar? Could be handy in a case like this :p

Correct. Every page of a pro panel has the same, non-sliding background.
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
All via links. If you look at the picture I attached in a previous post about the Battery, you'll see the 8 icon at the bottom... those are all links.

Office - Games - Media - Agenda

Programs - Settings - Internet - Contacts

The Games panel has links to the four sub-games panels.

The Contacts panel has links to the two sub-contacts panels.

The Media panel has a link to the playlists panel

That's what I thought...

Oh... hey, not to be greedy, but I just thought of another idea. There are instances were I'd like to have a picture with an invisible link on top. I've done this in a few of my panels by putting the picture on a background, but it's hard to lay these out because if you change things you need to create a new background, save it to the device, change the panel background and then move the invisible links.

Would it be possible to create some picture frame widgets that have no frame? So all you see is the picture. Ideally they would come in three sizes: the sizes of invisible link widgets that you have... oh, and a fourth one that is, say 480 pixels by 75 pixels so that I can put a banner image at the top of a panel?

.... I think I'm going to owe someone a lot of tuna! ;);)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Wouldn't it be more comfortable with the numberbuttons advanced menubar? You could fit all your 8 panel links in it, and should you decide to use more pages on your pro home you would have them right there no matter what page you're on :)

Ehm.... borderless picture frames are already present in MsM libraries (actually with a 1pixel-wide invisible frame, just because mobile shell does not support a 0 pixels frame) :)

There are 5 available sizes:

- Large: full screen width

- Medium: 3/4 screen width

- Small: half screen width

- Tiny: 3/8 screen width

- Smallest: 1/3 screen width

They are all defined squared, but keep in mind that picture frames are auto-adjusting so if you set a large one (480x480) and assign a 480x75 picture to it, it will automatically become 480x75 ;)

lol I'll tell Phoebe (my cat) about this :p :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
Never played with an advanced menu bar... I'll have to give it a look.

Wow... look at that... ask for something an less than an hour later you come through for me! :p

Okay, seeing as that was so easy, here's my next request for you. I'd like to see a Phone Profiles control that looks like this:

The title bar (where the Month is) would say 'Audio' or 'Volume' or something like that. Where the red date is would have either the little Speaker Icon or Vibrate Icon or Silent Icon depending on the mode of course, and then at the bottom where the Green day is it would say either Vibrate (in black) or Silent (in Red) or have the volume level bar. Is something like that possible?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Lemme know how it goes ;)

Am I quick or what? lol :p

Phone profile widget is a bit "tricky", let's see why.

To skin the icon itself I'd need to alter the original spb graphic file, that's something I'd rather avoid (almost everything currently in MsM does not alter the originals, it just adds to them)

BUT

eheh there's always a "but" :p

Profile widget, if we leave the icon on a side, uses the same skins as the shortcut widgets.... this means that any link skin you activated or will activate in MsM will also be available for the profile widget (take a look at the change skin menu for it and you'll see what I mean) :)

So I could draw a link skin similar to what you described just to be used for the profile widget, the profile icon will remain the same, but the "skin in the background" will look more or less like what you asked for :)

(I'm thinking of a skin with the general outlook of the current date one, the text "Audio" on top and the profile icon below... just no text saying "vibrate" or anything.... only the icon and the volume level bars)

Such a skin would show up in the change skin menu for shortcuts too, but it will not make much sense using it.... can you imagine a shortcut to Opera Mobile with a text saying "Audio" on top of the icon? :D I guess I would rely on users' smartness to avoid this lol :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
Hey Vostradamus

Love the new glass and neon sets, really nice work :)

These will go very nicely with some of the stuff I'm working on as well. :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
eheheh believe it or not, I knew you would have said that lol :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] mad_a_22:
wow i like this glass widgets and status. looks so cool. its just that the status has no version for wm7 display design.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Margez:
Thank you very much, Vostradamus!

As always: Great work!

I hope some other MsM fans will like them too.

Best regards.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm afraid I'm not quite following you :p What do you mean? :confused:
[Windows Mobile Themes] kenziesgrandma:
Thanks for the advice concerning CleanRam Vostradamus, I'll keep it set on Level 2. I really like the glass status icons, they work great with my current setup, I have one question though (and I'm sure it's a really dumb one, but I'm just curious). Is there a reason for the clear 'hole' in the glass time panel or is it just for esthetics? (I really like the looks of it, I'm just wondering if I'm missing it's purpose).

Also I was wondering if anyone else has a problem with the large Diamond weather icon? It keeps disappearing on me, it stays in my available skins but it just won't show up when I try to use it.

thanks

Kathy
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I took the graphics and layout for that clock from the one in the "time" panel of mobile shell, I just left it like it was 'cause it was a specific request from a user :) The hole is to accomodate a medium sized default analog clock, which is partly transparent, so that you can sort of see through it :) Of course you can also place whatever else you like in there lol :D

uhm... dunno actually :confused: maybe you could try deactivating and re-activating it. I don't usually use it for it's too large for my taste, but I've run a few experiments with it a short time ago on request of a user and didn't seem to notice anything strange :confused:
[Windows Mobile Themes] kenziesgrandma:
Good morning Vostradamus, thanks for the quick reply. I like the idea of using a transparent analogue clock, thanks for the explanation.

The Diamond weather icon isn't really that big a thing cause I find that it uses more Ram on my device so I decided not to use it anyway but I was just curious. I have tried deactivating and then re-activating and it works for awhile but sometimes after a soft reset it will just be gone. Weird.

Anyway I seem to have come up with another weird glitch this morning. For some reason now if I use the "back" button on the side of the phone or use the "X" at the top of the screen to close out one of my panels instead of going to my Lifestyle Home screen it goes to my Internet panel (it's set up as a Carousel link). Any ideas? I haven't tried a soft reset to see if that fixes it but it was fine last night. Again weird huh?

thanks

Kathy
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Is the internet panel by any chance the "last" panel you reached in carousel mode? try going back to you lifestyle home via carousel (or maybe even via swipe down gesture) and see if it changes... :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
So I'm experimenting a little bit and I'm trying to use 3 panels for my main home screen. I've got a button mapped to the SPB Menu home and when I press that I get returned to the last home screen I was one (left, right, or center). Anyone know of a way to force this to always go to the center now matter which of the three panels I was last on?
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
I guess I’m the user that asked the time panel. While thanking you for the job, I have to say that it doesn’t fully fit my requirements (I know, I said that the Jotha example would have been good). The background should be not higher than the analog clock: same height would be accettable, a little smaller would be better (like in the picture attached) and it shouldn’t have that hole forcing the position of the analog clock.

Think to 3 separate widget: a backing panel as I just described (without the hole), a digital clock without background (just text); a date without background (just text).

Just for my knowledge: as I think you have an Italian version of MS, when you tap on a clock or date widget, you should get the panel of the attached picture, don’t you?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
That would require changing a registry value every time you press that button and before taking you to the home page.
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
Bummer... Okay, thanks for the info.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I do have mobile shell in italian... that's where I took that clock from :p I guess there must be different versions around, with different back panel sizes... Got mine from spb official site, never installed anything other than my MsM so it has not been changed by some mod :confused:

The hole is part of the original graphics... I left it there 'cause I thought you wanted a clock "just like that one", plus without the hole you can't reproduce the same effect with a semi-transparent analog clock ;) On the other hand, if the clock is solid and not semi-transparent then the hole is not a problem 'cause it will just be covered by the clock itself :)

EDIT: I just noticed something on your screenshot.... your device is vga, right? The difference in the panel size could be because of that... my device is wvga, so maybe spb made the shell so that vga devices, having less vertical space available, have a smaller panel, while taller wvga ones have the larger one... could it make sense?
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
I think you are right. Does that mean I can't have a time panel fitting with my resolution?
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
I think my collection will give you just about everything you need here.

I have expanded on the large clean clocks and have dates as well as simple weather texts in the full range of colors and with panels in various sizes that you can mix and match to get the effect you're after. You can see some examples in my earlier posts, but don't download just yet :D I have just finished overhauling everything to be more grid friendly and added new panel sizes and some other bits - I will upload by the weekend.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
not necessarily... I could get those graphics from a mobile shell installed on a vga emulator :p

Maybe I'll add just a backing panel with that style of graphics (and no hole for you said you don't want it)... a fitting digital clock without any background should already be available in my libraries (I think the "reflection small" should do the job) :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Well, all we are waiting.

Well for the backing panel. But the reflection small digital clock is too small, while the reflection big is too big. I didn't find a reflection medium.

And what about the date?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
so should I make another digital clock just like the time panel on vga devices, but without the hole?

As for the date, if I'm to make a "timed panel 2" digital clock it will contain everything, background panel and date included...
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Just if that doesn't worry you too much. I absolutely won't to force you in a job just for me. I can be pleased with the panel time you made.

I understood that you would have made a separate backing panel, not a "whole timed panel 2". It's because I asked you about the date. I should have misunderstood.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
No problem, don't worry ;)

I will just add it to my usual to-do list :p

Yep, I talked about a stand-alone panel at first 'cause I thought that one of the existing digital clocks could have been the "other piece", but seeing that the digital clock still needs to be made because of the size then I guessed an all-in-one thing could have been more comfortable (or not?) :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Yes, an all-in-one widget is more easy to use, but, on the other hand, three separate widgets are more versatile: you can get several arrangements using them (and also other widgets). I'd prefere the second solution.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Ooook then, I'll add the 3 separate things to my to-do list :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Grazie mille! You're always so kind and helpful
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
How to add a Internet Bookmark in Mobile Shell?

I'd like to setup a panel with my favorite links so I can just tap and it'll open the default browser and go to that site. Is it possible to get a link like this only Mobile Shell?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
it's not too immediate, but I think it can be done :)

Let's see how you can create a direct link to a site.

1) create a text file like this:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.google.com

(of course use the url of the site you want instead of google)

2) change the file extension from .txt to .url

3) put the file somewhere on your device

4) in mobile shell, go to "my shortcuts" menu

5) click on the bottom-right icon and pick "add file"

6) select the .url file you created before

Done, now you can add to your screen a shortcut widget pointing to that file and it should open the browser on that url with a single click ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
So... has SPB offered you a job yet? They should!!

I know Mobile Shell has been a success as it is, but can you imagine how big of a piece of software it would be if all your modifications were part of the base package?
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
That's impossible unfortunately. He'd have to stop cursing about the hilarious programming style of Spb then. And I know from personal experience that he never would do that. :D;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
But spb hiring me would mean having someone actually REPLYING to customer's questions.... that's so NOT like spb.... :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
You can bet on it! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] mskip:
Ughh ur no good then ur not lazy enough :p

Mark.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm 100% lazy actually.... too bad that 100% lazy is not even a 1% of spb standard..... :D :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
So... I think I've finalized my layout for Mobile Shell. I say "think" because I tend to tweak alot so I very well may make some modifications later, but for now, this is what I'm using. I'll try to post some screen shots later once I really get all the bells and whistles working right. This is just the skeleton.

Vostradamus, if anyone asks how many extra panel you can put it, I'm running 17 extra panels. This does not include the default ones built into Mobile Shell. I have not noticed any degradation of performance nor any crashes running like this. I'm using a Touch Pro 2 from Verizon running the stock ROM.

I'm NOT running the advanced menu bar option. I might play with it yet, but I kinda like my icons on the home page... then I know for sure which menu I'm going into. I also played with the idea of eliminating a few panels by making some others 3 or 5 wide, but I wanted to go back to the same center panel each time and that can't be done with Mobile Shell right now. :(

Anyway, for all your enjoyment, here's my Mobile Shell skeleton.
[Windows Mobile Themes] RedRamage:
Thanks for the tutorial. I also discovered that if you've already saved a favorite in IE it creates that url file in the \Windows\Favorites folder. You can add this to the shortcuts in MobileShell as well.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
lol I know the feeling :)

My current layout is the one I've kept longer so far, but only 'cause it's full of kittens which I love so I'm delaying the changes.... but I DO want to make changes lol :p

I've gone up to 21 additional panels while experimenting, so 17 sounds fine :) Only thing I noticed was, of course, a higher amount of allocated ram for mobile shell, but it's quite normal with that many panels :p

Will give you a buzz if I'll find a comfortable way to do that ;)

Good find, thanks for sharing! :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] mskip:
Good if you use Internet Explorer as your default viewer but as of yet I havent found a way to open url shortcuts in opera, they always open in explorer.. :confused:

Mark.
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
Nothing easier than that:

Copy the link to opera, open the properties of the copy (in your file manager) and add the url to the link.

Something like:

"path\opera10-arm4i.exe" www.xyz.com

where of course "path" is the real path to the opera executable.

Works like a charm.;) (at least for me :D)
[Windows Mobile Themes] mskip:
Ok must admit I have never actually tried to get urls to open up in opera :rolleyes:

Thats what I love about this community you learn something new every day lol.

Thanks alot mate :)

Mark.
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
You're welcome of course ;).
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
Modular Clocks Update v4.0

Ok this should be the last full rework of the set - from now on updates will strictly be in the form of additional goodies :D

Everything has been renamed and sorted into custom folders for easier finding, I've also split my XML files by widget type so they can be injected individually (it's easier for me to manage like that when I'm adding stuff). I've also reworked all the widget sizes to be more grid friendly.

The entire package is now bundled into a single zip - unpack into your widgets manager folder and inject the xmls in the CBWXml folder:)

The set now consists of:

Full rework of the Simple Clean Clocks in 10 colors (large and small size)

2 sets of Clean Dates and AM/PM indicators (small and medium sizes) in the full color range

2 Sets of Weather Widgets for Temp and City (small and medium sizes) in the full color range

2 Sets of backing panels Dark Trans in 10 Colors and brushed metal finish in 14 shades. The sets now come in 2 sizes 480x120 and 480x160.

Theme files are included if you want to activate them all at once for testing.

To Do List:

-----------

A QVGA Set (I'll give this priority if anyone requests it)

Matching Clean Square Dates using date widget for additional variety

Matching Alarm Widgets

More Panel variants, (solid colors, gradients, textured etc)

More Clock Variants, (additional colors,textures etc)

Cheers

Citizenb
[Windows Mobile Themes] claus1953:
I am interested in a W(QVGA) version.
[Windows Mobile Themes] albarona1:
hi, vostradamus

why your pro. hasn't mskip wp7 widgets

it will be fantastic ..

thanks
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
Why have Mercedes Cars not BMW's suspension? Would be fantastic :D.

No, really, my opinion to this is (speaking strictly for myself):

I do not think it can be the purpose of one Add-On to copy all the widgets of another one (beside that it would not be very nice to the original author). We have included a lot of mskips "old" widgets into this package (with his explicit permission). But vostradamus package should not try to mimick another Add-On-Package.

Besides that would it mean to change a lot of scripts in MSM just to accomodate widgets that already exist in another package, which would surely not be worth the work.(@mskip: Because of the work, not because of the widgets of course :D)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Very very very nice work, grats! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
In MsM libraries there's a neon set of status widgets and analog clocks made especially for Mskip's WP7 theme, I made them some time ago on request of a user :)

Dunno if it would make much sense adding his actual widgets, especially now that he also released a widgets-only package ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
Thanks man :) I hope you don't mind me re-bundling the original large clean clocks with my set - it just made things tidier to put them together in one place. :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
No prob for me of course ;)

Let's just hope some users won't find confusing having the same clocks in 2 different categories :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
Haha! :D Hopefully If they got as far as having everything installed and are busy choosing widgets they have enough sense to figure it out :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
lol I guess you have a point there :p

A little idea for a possible small update: maybe you could add preview images to your package ;) Just put a .jpg image named like the folder together with every .dat file, MsM will automatically recognize it and use it in the preview widgets function ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
On my todolist :D Just trying to figure out a nice quick way to create them - any suggestions?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I usually put all the new stuff all at once on a screen on the emulator and take a screenshot, then I cut the various pieces and place the resulting jpg files in the appropriate folder (and of course I use the same pictures for the qvga version too, just resizing them to 50%)
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
Good suggestion - I'll add it to my bag of tricks - when you do qvga versions of the widgets, do you also just downscale the images?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
yes, of course... otherwise qvga users would have wrong sized previews which, in some cases, would not even fit in the preview window (480 pixels wide widgets for example) :)

You can use good ol' (and free) irfanview to batch-resize the images: very comfortable ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] citizenb:
No I got that part :p I meant to actually do the bmps in the QVGA widgets - do you downscale, or make from scratch at the smaller sizes?

Irfanview is a great suggestion to add to my workflow though - also discovered Total Commander is the best thing since sliced bread for doing the batching to create the dat files :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
sorry, I got you wrong :p

Yep I usually downscale (again using irfanview, lanczos resize algorithm) 'cause it gives good results and is quite fast :)

EDIT: a couple times I also sharpened the downscaled images a little bit, but usually there's no need to.

lol nothing is better than sliced bread (except maybe for sliced bread with some cheese and ham over it) :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] albarona1:
thanks ... at all
[Windows Mobile Themes] mskip:
I will let you off this once ;)

@albarona1 I have a Widgets Only Injection Pack which doesnt interfere with any other mods and installs everything you need in one go.

Mark.
[Windows Mobile Themes] yamm:
plzzzz :(:(

Everything is available but plzzz a memory card widget :(:(:(

i need to see how much memory available on the screen. both RAM + mem card(s)

it can be same like battery widget :) or a milk bottle for example (for a nice looking, girls like thiz hehe) :D