background.ini tag trouble

background.ini tag trouble - see screenie

Soooo close

Published on April 20, 2005 By rabidrobot In ObjectDock

I've also posted this inthe newsgroups. I hope this is not considered needless cross-posting, as I think I'll reach a different audience on the forums. And I could really use some pointers.

Hey y'all,

I'm trying to create my first OD background, and of course I have to
jump right in and also include a foreground. Other than that I'm trying
to keep it simple, but have run into a problem I can't seem to tweak away.

First, I am confused as to the purpose and use of the
BackgroundBorderLeft, BackgroundBorderRight, etc. tags. I find the
description in the SkinngTheDock.txt file just a bit too cryptic. Could
someone explain to me in a bit more detail how these work together with
the LeftWidth, RightWidth, etc. tags?

Before I forget, please view this annotated screenshot:
http://webpages.charter.net/cblih/ODScreenieAnnotatedOPT.jpg

My two problems essentially are:
1> Overlapping of the Left and Right background images on smaller docks
- I have seen this with many downloaded backgrounds. One that displays
it that I believe everyone has is the Industech background. Try this
BG with a small icon size basic dock with less than six items, you
should get an idea of what I mean (if you don't want to check the
screenie). One of the sides appears to be stretching for a number of
pixels beyond what is needed to meet the other side.

2> The content, members, icons, docklets, whatever that populate my
docks are drawing too close to the left or right edge. I seem to get
approximately 20 pixels of background before icons are drawn, no matter
how I futz with the LeftWidth / BackgroundBorderLeft, etc. tags. This
bugs me not only because it would improve the effect of the dock that I
am trying to create, but also because I've seen it done successfully.
For example, the Apollo BG draws nice endcaps then several pixels of the
base BG before content. I cannot figure out how this is done.

Thanks in advance for help - I need it!

rabidrobot

Comments

Bichur

on Apr 21, 2005

Overlapping of the Left and Right background images on smaller docks - I have seen this with many downloaded backgrounds. One that displays it that I believe everyone has is the Industech background.

> The content, members, icons, docklets, whatever that populate my docks are drawing too close to the left or right edge. I seem to get approximately 20 pixels of background before icons are drawn, no matter how I futz with the LeftWidth / BackgroundBorderLeft, etc. tags.

Usually happens when the png picture drawn all the way to the edges. More transparent between actual and edge leaves more space.

Since I'm still learning... the only advice I can offer is transparent separators.

industech uses them. Right click on edge until you get option add > new separator.
Once I added some, no over lapping. They don't have to be big. Some of the background descripts mention 8 pix some less I believe.

If you put them on the end you have more cap edge. Some of the dock descripts mention it also.

If I remember correctly, one or two descript mentioned having just some blank pngs to use for the ends so's as not to be confused with the separators. Once new shorcuts added, (one moved over to the other end) change pic to blank pic and delete shortcut title.

rabidrobot

on Apr 21, 2005

Ah, cool, some things to try. Thanks, Bichur!

I had wondered why some backgrounds had transparent borders, figured people were just leaving room...it seems counter-intuitive that extra transparent pixels outside the actual image would help, but I will give it a shot

I had tried the separator workaround. It does the job, even with no separator defined at all! Unfortunately, while it works well for fixing the overlap, by artificially increasing the dock size, and also for adding the extra "endcap" space I desire, it's not possible to add a separator on the end-side of a dock containing a taskbar or systray.

I haven't tried just adding a transparent icon. It could concievably work even with a systray (assuming you don't mind assigning one of those to be invisible). But with a taskbar it would be quite a hassle to keep maintained.

Both these solutions also reduce the "out-of-the-archive" readiness of the background, preferably avoided, but acceptable.

But, I will try editing the pngs to add transparent pixels, and experiment more with the tags.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Essencay

on Apr 21, 2005

I've had a lot more experience building tabbed docks vs. zoomer docks. I found it more difficult to manipulate a zoomer dock than a tabbed dock. Unless I'm mistaken the outsideborder tags only work with tabbed docks.

rabidrobot

on Apr 21, 2005

I misstyped the tag names in the OP, but Essencay knew what I meant. I said BackgroundBorder, but was referring to OutsideBorder (I was using the right syntax in my ini's though).

There are TabsOutsideBorderLeft, etc. and ContentBufferLeft, etc. tags which are definitely tabbed dock specific. The generic OutsideBorderLeft, etc. tags are not labeled as such in the SkinningTheDock.txt file included with ObjectDock.

Also, adding an OutsideBorder*** tag has an effect in my experiements, but I am not sure exactly how it works.

But, OutsideBorder does not work on the foreground. I wonder if having a foreground defined affects how tags behave in the background definition. I will experiment (as I probably should have to begin with) with a more typical background only ini.

BTW, Essencay, I'm a big fan. Using Blue Grille Classic as we type!

Essencay

on Apr 21, 2005

I just read the skinning readme, probably should've read it before commenting...a little rusty here. Everything you said in #4 is right. My take is that outsideborder affects where the icon starts...at least it works that way with tabbed docks. Where as topheight, bottomheight, etc. affects where the background center starts to stretch or tile, depending on the tilecenter tag. I've only made a couple of backgrounds for zoomer docks and I think that image size also impacts the appearance of the dock, especially when using icons less than 48. If the image is too large, things start to overlap, like you've mentioned. I haven't found any sure-fire way of building docks other than just tweaking things by a couple of pixels (adding invisible ones to the image), changing the image size or playing with the tags until things look right. I've never made a foreground image so I'm no help there.

Glad you like my stuff thanks

rabidrobot

on May 13, 2005

Just a quick update in case anyone ever has similar trouble and finds this thread.

When using a foreground image the OutsideBorder... tags are essentially disabled, even for the background image. They do have some effect, but only as if the assigned value was added to the ...width tag. That is LeftWidth = 20, OutsideBorderLeft = 5 is no different from LeftWidth = 25.

I think this is a bug, not a feature, but /shrug, whatcha gonna do?

I know a lot of you looked at the screenshot and are eagerly awaiting the release of the dock graphic...heh. Well, I may release it soon. I've been using it for a few weeks now, as a test. Stay tuned to the OD gallery.

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