Various questions (calendar, feeds, finding plugins/skins)

[meorime]

Hello!

I'm brand new to Rainmeter/Engima. I'm a "poweruser" who can tweak existing scripting, but by no means am I a scripter myself. I can also run Photoshop decently, but am in no way an artist. I'm running Windows 7.

That said, I have some questions based on what comes in the default package! I found y'all through Lifehacker (my husband finally convinced me to add it to my feed). I *love* the simplicity of the Engima skin and it frankly never occurred to me that the Windows desktop could be adapted in such a way.

Now, on to the questions:

(1) Plug-ins. I've been browsing the forums looking for "plug-ins" and looking at posts that show what others have done. I'd love a more robust version of the weather skin and see it on many desktops, but how do I find them? I'll see posts with some links to various weather sites, or showing text-based code, but no links to the skins that would match the code. Am I missing something obvious?

(2) Calendars. I actually very much prefer the Windows Calendar program that came with Vista, so much so that I copied it over to my Windows 7 installation and still run it. Is there any way to somehow display the week's events using the Enigma calendar skin based on what I already have programmed in Windows Calendar?

As an alternative, I can export it to Google calendar, BUT, I had to do treat it as five different calendars (that's how I have it in the Windows Calendar program because I wanted color coded events). That means that I have five different XML file links, but the skin only allows for a single calendar link which defeat my need to see all my events for the week.

(3) Drives. I found how to display my drives, but I'd LOVE to make those clickable so I can open them from the Enigma skin! Is that possible?

(4) Buttons. In configuration, there are five possible "apps" to define. They're pulled by the menu (which I'm using) AND by the individual launcher buttons (launcher1, launcher2 and so on). Is there a way to define additional "apps" so I can make buttons that are separate from the menu? I have some folders and files that I open frequently and would love to have displayed using the Enigma look.

(5) Feeds. I actually prefer to use Google Reader to display all my feeds because I browse through many of them. But there's no single link I can use that seems to work in the configuration that will allow Rainmeter to sort of sample those feeds. Is this something that's possible?

In other words, a link to my Google Reader that will, when polled by Rainmeter and displayed via Engima, provide a list of the latest topics, sort of an aggregate of all the feeds I have subscribed there?

(6) Clock. Same question as above with weather I think. Where are these amazing skins coming from that I see in people's desktop samples? Just personal designs or are they available for others to use and enjoy? I'd love a digital clock in the Enigma style that shows the seconds, for example.

Many thanks in advance, and sorry for the lengthy post!

Cheers!
-M

[sgtevmckay]

I can get a few of these before I turn into a pumpkin

For question one:
Weather.
it is a matter of how much or hoe little.
I noticed that you mentioned robust...so i will point you here:
http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1044&start=20
This may be a bit much for many, but if you are a meteorological monger like myself, I will have a full5 dat version available soon
There are Many others:
Here at the forums there the share your creations , but this is a mix of skins and screen-shots
the is also DeviantArt
Customize.org
Skin Base
ChrystalXP
and many many more.
The is a number of links here:
http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewforum.php?f=34

#3.) is actually fairly simple to accomplish.
But as no road is traveled well without preparation...I will direct you to read Rainmeter 101
http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=616
And then read the manual:
http://rainmeter.net/cms/Manual
This generally answers about 60% of all the questions.

5.) should be do-able
In your Google reader you should have a RSS Link from the address bar. This address should be able to be placed in the Enigma reader.
for a more specifically tuned Reader, the RSS Feed from Google reader will have to be parsed and the skin made to get exactly what meets your needs.

#6.) again as with teh weather...I would direct you to the many skins sites listed.

Take some time go over Rainmeter 101 and the manual...and if you have questions after that, you know where to find us.

to the Rainmeter forums
Have fun

[meorime]

Thank you so much for the links and the tips! I'll dive in more thoroughly tomorrow.

Take care!
-M

[JamesAC]

I use Rainlender to achieve #2, as far as I know it is another program from the original developer of Rainmeter which can handle .ics files and add events and tasks to them.

you can find it here

At the moment it is not something that is possible within Rainmeter itself

[meorime]

James, thank you. Between Rainlendar and Rainmaker and the delightful discovery of customize.org, my desktop has undergone a remarkable overhaul. Even found a little utility that lets me associate new icons with file extensions, although I've only messed with a small bit.

All I can say at this point is... whee!

Cheers!
-M