First Skin Opinions

[balala]

!HideMeter and !ShowMeter take effect on the next regular skin update. However, they do not require an !UpdateMeter if nothing but the visible state has changed, just !Redraw.

LeftMouseUpAction=[!HideMeter MeterOne][!Redraw]

This was my assumption as well. From my experience the meters are hidden / shown only on next update. !Redraw in conjunction with !HideMeter / !ShowMeter makes sense.

[balala]

If I'm missing something and there is some error or confusion in the docs, can you link to it and point out the issue?

No, it is ok.

[balala]

"Do the bangs to !HideMeter or !ShowMeter do that immediately, or only on the next skin update?"

Example code:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=3000

[StringStyle]
X=54
Padding=15,5,15,5
FontColor=220,220,220
SolidColor=0,0,0,150
FontSize=8
FontFace=Segoe UI
StringStyle=BOLD
StringAlign=Center
AntiAlias=1

[MeterVisible]
Meter=STRING
MeterStyle=StringStyle
Y=0
Text=Is this visible?

[MeterShowHide]
Meter=STRING
MeterStyle=StringStyle
Y=30
Text=Show / Hide
LeftMouseUpAction=[!ToggleMeter "MeterVisible"]

Update is set to Update=3000 (three seconds).
Check what is happening when you click the Show / Hide string, then replace the LeftMouseUpAction with LeftMouseUpAction=[!ToggleMeter "MeterVisible"][!Redraw] and check it again.

[eclectic-tech]

Now that this thread has been totally hi-jacked ...

I get that !Redraw could be used.

But you miss my point entirely, if a skin is updating 5 times a second (Update=200 in the [Rainmeter] section), why would you need to use !Redraw, it is not needed in this skin. In another situation it has it's purpose, but not in this context.

Let's get back to waiting for the OP to post (if we didn't discourage him already with all this off-topic banter)

[balala]

Now that this thread has been totally hi-jacked ...

Right!

(if we didn't discourage him already with all this off-topic banter)

Hope not...

[paulsim]

Actually this thread has been good as I was asking myself this very question. I now have a better understanding of the redraw bang and why it might be used. So, it's all good! I am just at work right now and can't do much here and now. Follow up is coming!

[balala]

Follow up is coming!

Ok, we're waiting for it!

[paulsim]

So yeah... I have a little space to play with Rainmeter. This is 7680x1440 when running Nvidia Surround. All of the Rainmeter stuff is exclusively on the right monitor. The one I wrote snapped into the upper left corner so it's good. What I was trying to do with the [Background] is to slightly differentiate the drop down area. I will most likely use the the command you mentioned to extend it all the way across the monitor. Now that I have a taste for it, the clock and the monitors are going away for something that I come up with.

I guess my question here is, is there a better way to achieve a that effect other than a semi transparent rectangle that I have to just eyeball the vertical pixel height?

[balala]

I guess my question here is, is there a better way to achieve a that effect other than a semi transparent rectangle that I have to just eyeball the vertical pixel height?

A Shape meter maybe?

[eclectic-tech]

So yeah... I have a little space to play with Rainmeter. This is 7680x1440 when running Nvidia Surround. All of the Rainmeter stuff is exclusively on the right monitor. The one I wrote snapped into the upper left corner so it's good. What I was trying to do with the [Background] is to slightly differentiate the drop down area. I will most likely use the the command you mentioned to extend it all the way across the monitor. Now that I have a taste for it, the clock and the monitors are going away for something that I come up with.

I guess my question here is, is there a better way to achieve a that effect other than a semi transparent rectangle that I have to just eyeball the vertical pixel height?

The top menu is using a shape meter that you can set to any width or let the end user choose the size.

As for the drop down items, determining the height is difficult due to the fact font sizes do not correspond to pixel height directly, and can vary from one font to another. In general, I have found that a font's pixel height is approximately 1.4 times the font size; a font size 10 will cover approximately 14 pixels in height, a font size of 24 will cover approximately 33~34 pixels. Based on that formula, you could determine the size of the drop down menu.

You might want to look at using a container meter to display your drop down items (similar to this example). Using a container meter would allow you to eliminate the need to group and hide/show menus items; you would resize the corresponding container meter to "expose" the drop down menu items when you hover/click the top menu items.

Just some thoughts... I created several menu skins over the past few years, but before some of the new features in Rainmeter were available.
I may have to look at using some new techniques and revisit those projects.

Feel free to use or reject any of these suggestions, or ask questions...