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Identifying a skin(?) and 2 How-to Q

Get help with creating, editing & fixing problems with skins
xMafiax
Posts: 2
Joined: August 4th, 2010, 4:14 am

Identifying a skin(?) and 2 How-to Q

Post by xMafiax »

First of all, I hope this is the right place to post this, 'cause every topic in this section seems... way more complicated than what I'm about to ask xD

Second, yes I googled and used the Search Tool, but I just can't find the kind of answer I was looking for. I'm sure these questions someone has already asked before (especially the "How-to" question below), I just couldn't get to the post, so flame me if you must, but help me still if you can.


Okay now, with all that being said, for my first question I need help identifying somethings, which I believe to either be a certain skin or custom made buttons.



I have looked around the forums, and I found this post about Creating Buttons. (By the way, I'm still a bit iffy about the terminology of Skin, not completely sure if "Skin" and "custom made buttons" have a difference or not, other than that "Skin" is a .ini file and can be a lot of things.)

There's also this other one desktop I saw, he had hotkeys of just "words". I saw this awhile ago, and sadly I did not save the picture, but I'll do my best to describe it in words. Basically his shortcuts were words, and instead of "doube clicking" them, he can single click; just like those RocketDock icons except it doesn't bounce or do anything crazy. Now, I'm wondering if this is also a "Custom made button" thing, or is there a skin that does this kind of thing (/similar to this kind of thing).

I'm asking if there's a skin for this kind of stuff because well... 1) yea I'm lazy. 2) If it's a skin, there's more than likely that either by the same author or the skin might come with something cool I like along with it. [My hope of killing 2 or more birds with one stone].

Second question, the "How-to".

I want to know/read/learn on how to two 2 things:
1) Allow the "News" to show my facebook things
2) How to config a slightshow skin.

(1) I'm having problems with Enigma's RSSreader to show my facebook things. I googled this and found someone asking the same thing, but the person got it working fine after restarting his/her computer, which didn't work for me. I think I have to "login" somewhere... but I can't find the place at all after going through the config and the edit .ini notepad.

(2) I downloaded LongHorn's slideshow skin (found on Deviant Art), and I was wondering if there's a guide or place with instructions on how to... do all the config.

Code: Select all

;Metadata added by RainBrowser
;http://rainmeter.net/cms/Rainmeter101-EditingSkins

[Metadata]
Name=
Config=
Description=
Instructions=
Version=
Tags=
License=
Variant=
Preview=

;End of added Metadata


[Variables]
ImagePath=C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Picture


[Rainmeter]
Background=Frame.png
Update=10000

[Name]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\QuotePlugin.dll
PathName=#ImagePath#




[Image]
MeasureName=Name
Meter=IMAGE
X=4
Y=6
W=120
H=90

[MeterGlass]
Meter=IMAGE
ImageName=Glass.png
X=4
Y=6
W=120
H=90

MENU
------------------------------------------
[MeterMenu]
Meter=IMAGE
ImageName=Menu1.png
X=129
Y=4
Hidden=1

[MeterApp]
Meter=image
X=130
Y=6
H=60
W=14
For example, I have 100 pictures, how exactly would I go about making them to all show in this slideshow?
The size of the "box" that the pictures are gonna be shown in is small, which values do I change to make it bigger? (I'm guessing it's the X, Y, H, W. and I have changed those, saved and refreshed the skin, but nothing changed, it stayed the same size, what did I do wrong?)
Also if possible, is there some sort of code to give each picture shown on this, a 5 second interval before it changes?

(I'm basically wanting a slideshow similar to Vista's sidebar, and so far this skin is the best one I've seen all day [literaly], if you have or know of a "better" slideshow skin, please suggest it to me).

Well, that's all.
Thanks in advance, even a simple link to the right direction or to a guide/instruction page would be a great help.

and sorry for my English, I apologize if some parts seem... weird and makes no sense at all.
User avatar
JpsCrazy
Posts: 667
Joined: April 18th, 2010, 2:16 pm
Location: NY, USA

Re: Identifying a skin(?) and 2 How-to Q

Post by JpsCrazy »

I hate to be the one, but read the 101 and the Manual.

Okay.
So. Skin is the correct term.
Custom made skins vs regular skins are simple. If you download something and you don't edit the .ini, then it's regular. If you find a skin someone has, but can't find it availible for download chances are they made it/they customized it. It's not worth asking 'what skin is this' - ever.
The word buttons are the Enigma Launchers (Enigma theme is a default theme included with Rainmeter). To be simple, it's a meter=string and a LeftMouseUpAction=!Execute ["Somepath"].

Where'd you get the Facebook skin?
Either the answer is easily solved in the variables, or the author has some instructions on it either in the folder it came in (Program Files/Rainmeter/Skins) or where you downloaded it.
For the slideshow, change ImagePath=C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Picture to where you want to get your pictures from.
And then change the W and H under [Image]

You're english is fine, I just suggest reading the 101, Tutorials, The Manual, basically everything here: http://rainmeter.net/cms/Support
xMafiax
Posts: 2
Joined: August 4th, 2010, 4:14 am

Re: Identifying a skin(?) and 2 How-to Q

Post by xMafiax »

Thank you for the reply JpdzCrazy, highly appriciated. I will start reading those 2 links in the morning/asap.
JpsCrazy wrote:If you find a skin someone has, but can't find it availible for download chances are they made it/they customized it. It's not worth asking 'what skin is this' - ever.
May I ask why is that? is it 'cause they don't normally share their skin with you?
Is it okay to ask if you're not sure whether or not the skin is customized or regular?
JpsCrazy wrote: Where'd you get the Facebook skin?
What facebook skin? The one I'm trying to get it to work on the "News" skin? I'm using the default Enigma's if that answers it.

JpsCrazy wrote: For the slideshow, change ImagePath=C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Picture to where you want to get your pictures from.
And then change the W and H under [Image]
Thanks, the ImagePath thing worked like a charm, but the W and H didn't seem to... work the way I wanted it to. It did make the image bigger, however, keeping the "shown" box portion the same size, so now instead of seeing the whole picture, you see the small top left corner of it. I also tried changing the value under [MeterGlass] to match the one under [Image] but that didn't seem to work either.
User avatar
JpsCrazy
Posts: 667
Joined: April 18th, 2010, 2:16 pm
Location: NY, USA

Re: Identifying a skin(?) and 2 How-to Q

Post by JpsCrazy »

xMafiax wrote: May I ask why is that? is it 'cause they don't normally share their skin with you?
Is it okay to ask if you're not sure whether or not the skin is customized or regular?
Because either 1 - the person doesn't want to make it availible for download for one reason or another. Or 2 - they don't want it to seem like they stole their skin.
A big, big part of Rainmeter is finding something, and then editing it to make it your own. To make it better. If everyone posted their edits to every skin, there'd be hundreds of the same skin with slight variations.
xMafiax wrote: What facebook skin? The one I'm trying to get it to work on the "News" skin? I'm using the default Enigma's if that answers it.
Oh. You're trying to edit the normal News RSS to make it Facebook.
I'll be honest, I don't know much about that RSS Skin, I've never really kept it for long.
Worst comes to worst, you can find skins specifically for your Facebook feed.

xMafiax wrote: Thanks, the ImagePath thing worked like a charm, but the W and H didn't seem to... work the way I wanted it to. It did make the image bigger, however, keeping the "shown" box portion the same size, so now instead of seeing the whole picture, you see the small top left corner of it. I also tried changing the value under [MeterGlass] to match the one under [Image] but that didn't seem to work either.
All I can say is you'll have to change them all proportionally.
Go back to what you had originally. Add x amount to W and H for [Image] and then add that same amount for the W and H of other sections. Just keep tweaking it until it works.