Auto-hiding Rainmeter

[CirqueForge]

Sorry if it's a stupid question or if it has been asked before, I could not find an answer to this. I'm looking for a general way to auto-hide Rainmeter in general, as I like to have my desktop clear most of the time.

I have absolutely no experience in scripting but do have some in coding. From searching other posts, I think I would need to use these two lines:

Code: Select all

MouseOverAction=!Execute [!RainmeterShowMeter]
MouseLeaveAction=!Execute [!RainmeterHideMeter]

I've tried putting it in various places in the configuration file, but it will not work. How would I go about with implementing auto-hiding for Rainmeter?

[jsmorley]

Do I understand that you want a way to auto hide all of Rainmeter? How many skins do you have loaded? Would you be ok with a hot spot in a screen corner as a way to toggle Rainmeter on and off?

[CirqueForge]

Do I understand that you want a way to auto hide all of Rainmeter? How many skins do you have loaded? Would you be ok with a hot spot in a screen corner as a way to toggle Rainmeter on and off?

Yeah, I pretty much want to hide all of it. I have 14 skins, including the application and folders bar. If I'm not misunderstanding you, a hot spot would be a spot/button where I would hide/unhide it, right? I would be fine with that implementation, if the spot doesn't have to be marked a distracting color.

[jsmorley]

Yeah, I pretty much want to hide all of it. I have 14 skins, including the application and folders bar. If I'm not misunderstanding you, a hot spot would be a spot/button where I would hide/unhide it, right? I would be fine with that implementation, if the spot doesn't have to be marked a distracting color.

Ok, if you get the latest 1.3 beta at http://Rainmeter.net (there are ways to do this with 1.2, but we are releasing 1.3 in a week anyway, and there is a really easy clean way to do it with 1.3)

Now, from the Rainmeter context menu, click on "Edit Settings".

You will see a [section] for each of your configs/skins. They will have the name of the config in braces, followed by a bunch of settings like Active= and WindowX= and WindowY= and such.

To each of these sections, add a line:

Group=HideMe

Save Rainmeter.ini...

Now let's create a really simple little skin.

In a text editor, add the following:

[Rainmeter]
Update=500

[MeterCornerImage]
Meter=Image
W=10
H=10
SolidColor=0,0,0,1
MouseOverAction=!Execute [!RainmeterToggleGroup HideMe]

That's it. Save that in a new folder and file in My Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\CornerHide\CornerHide.ini

Now from the Rainmeter context menu do a "Refresh All", then load that new skin.

By default it will be an invisible square in the upper left corner of your screen that when you mouse over will hide and unhide all other Rainmeter skins.

If you want to move it, the best way is to use Rainbrowser, and under "Skin Settings" set the WindowX and WindowY where you want it. It will be hard to drag as it is invisible.

You can change the SolidColor= to any color (it's red,green,blue,alpha) and transparency you want, or even use an image or icon if you prefer by changing SolidColor= to ImageName= and putting in the name of an image.

[CirqueForge]

The implementation fulfills part of my request. When I mouse over it, it hides it well. But most of the time, when I wanted to reshow Rainmeter, I couldn't do so. I tested it with a solid color and the spot apparently stays there, but then disappears when I showed the Rainmeter. I do not know if it is the beta's fault or the script's fault.

Anyways, is there a fix to it? I'm thinking to force it to redraw, but I don't know which command will do that.



Edit: Tried to fix it myself, and apparently, I had to refresh the .ini and I put this line in:

Code: Select all

MouseLeaveAction=!Execute [!RainmeterRedraw CornerHide]

It fixed the problem and it works fine. Many thanks to you, jsmorley.

One more question, does the command "!RainmeterToggleGroup" close and reclose the group or just hides and rehides the group until I mouse over the spot?

[jsmorley]

The implementation fulfills part of my request. When I mouse over it, it hides it well. But most of the time, when I wanted to reshow Rainmeter, I couldn't do so. I tested it with a solid color and the spot apparently stays there, but then disappears when I showed the Rainmeter. I do not know if it is the beta's fault or the script's fault.

Anyways, is there a fix to it? I'm thinking to force it to redraw, but I don't know which command will do that.



Edit: Tried to fix it myself, and apparently, I had to refresh the .ini and I put this line in:

Code: Select all

MouseLeaveAction=!Execute [!RainmeterRedraw CornerHide]

It fixed the problem and it works fine. Many thanks to you, jsmorley.

One more question, does the command "!RainmeterToggleGroup" close and reclose the group or just hides and rehides the group until I mouse over the spot?

It just hides/unhides them. I prefer this to toggling them closed/open as it is so much "snappier" and the skins are not refreshed.

As to the other issue, you need to be sure NOT to put Group=HideMe in the section for [CornerHide], only the ones you want to hide/unhide. It works fine for me without needing any redraw of CornerHide? It is possible that it is the fault of the current public beta, we did have a small tweak to the MouseOver/MouseLeave functions this week. There will be a "release candidate" of 1.3 in about 8 hours, you might try that when I get it out.