How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

ARCmoogle · Post by **ARCmoogle** » October 7th, 2010, 10:47 pm

Ok so i just started using rainmeter about 2 days ago and really like it, but it all seems so confusing to me and id like to know how to do a few things, such as add a shortcut to the toolbar of rainmeter IF its possible to do so with other programs (such as Minecraft) And second i was wondering if at all possible how to get my desktop to look like the pictures at the bottom. And yea i know it tells me howto install the things on that site but i just don't understand even that. I'd appreciate a more detailed explenation on how to do this stuff. I'm not to smart with this whole thing. Iv read a few other posts on the forum and understood NOTHING about it, i didn't really look for anything in the forums like my own so I'm sorry if i just re-posted something.

Aarowaim · Post by **Aarowaim** » October 8th, 2010, 1:54 am

Ok, so from what I understood, you want to learn a bit about making skins and how to recreate some desktops that have been made from rainmeter. I can help you to learn to make a skin, but to do this, I need to know what part of the other posts that you did not understand.
If you do not understand what meters, measures and variables are, please read up about these @
http://rainmeter.net/cms/Rainmeter101-EditingSkins

After reading that or understanding what a skin is made of, I can help you to learn how to make/edit/install skins.
Now, to install a skin, you need to unzip any .zip or .rar files and place the contents into the rainmeter skins folder.
When you install rainmeter, it should place the skins folder at My Documents\Rainmeter\Skins

If you want a skin to load, you must place it in a new folder in the skins folder. For example, if you wanted to install a skin called simple sentence, you would first go to your skins folder, right-click and New Folder. Now name the folder whatever you think will help you remember what skin it is. Then place all of the simple sentence skin files into the folder you just made. For example, it might be in My Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\SimpleSentence.

You understand all of this right? If you have any questions, please ask so that I know what you do not understand and I may clarify.

Next, after succesfully installing a skin, you can start modifying skins. In order to do this, you MUST have a program like notepad.
To edit skins, open the .ini file with notepad. and you should see text that starts with [Rainmeter].
Now, most people put the customizable information under the [Variables] section so that you do not have to hunt for the settings.
First off, I would recommend trying to find where they have the shortcut path.

Before I finish with this editing tutorial, I would like to know what skin you are editing so that I can work along with you and provide accurate information.

ARCmoogle · Post by **ARCmoogle** » October 8th, 2010, 2:10 am

Dark_Rainmeter<---thats the one (edit)

Aarowaim · Post by **Aarowaim** » October 9th, 2010, 3:58 pm

Well, I can't find a shortcut bar in Dark_Rainmeter, so I will assume that either I didn't look hard enough, or Dark_Rainmeter does not have one. I'll have to settle with using The enigma launcher 1 to demonstrate skin editing.

Editing a skin (the skin I'm editing is underneath these steps).

STEP 1: Find the meters and measures that control what you are editing the skin for. In this case, we want to find the meters and measures that activate a shortcut. This skin doesn't have any measures, so next we'll look at the meters. Notice how one of the has a LeftMouseUpAction?

This means that when you finish your click, it will do whatever it says there. Do you see the part (I've turned it red for you) that says ["#App1Path#"]? This means that it will activate the variable AppPath1. Let's look for the variable AppPath1.

...O, look it isn't there, but under the variables section it says @include (which means that it reads data from whatever file is mentioned). Let's find the file that has all the variables. (I have the contents of that file in the spoiler and the AppPath1 is highlighted red).

Now that we know where it activates the shortcut, we can make a copy of the skin and change the shortcut.

STEP 2: Edit your skin
Since we are making a new shortcut, copy the skin we are editing. Now, let's add our own variables for the new shortcut (I highlighted the new variable I added in blue). Also, please note that you have to find the path to the program. If you use windows, you can find the path in windows explorer's address bar. Please also understand that you need to add the .exe file into the path or else it'll just open a file explorer window to that path.

So, let's say that I want to add a rainmeter shortcut, I would find the path to rainmeter.exe (On my computer, it's
C:\Program Files (x86)\Rainmeter) and then add \rainmeter.exe (the file I want to open).
So, I end up with "C:\Program Files (x86)\Rainmeter\rainmeter.exe" (I added quotation marks because the path has spaces in it's name. If you do not add the quotation marks, rainmeter will not read the path properly).

STEP 3: Trouble-shoot.
If I were to run the updated version of this skin, it wouldn't open rainmeter. The reason for this is that I forgot to change all the #App1#
#App1Label#
and #App1Path#
into #App6# #App6Label# and #App6Path#.

This is why it is so important to troubleshoot. Sometimes you'll forget to make sure that you finished updating EVERYTHING that uses what you changed, e.g variables, meters, measures.
If you changed the name of any measures, please make sure that you tell all the other meters, measures and variables that you changed it.

NOTE: The below spoilers are the skin I used to help teach, they are not completed as per the above tutorial.

I had to move the variables over here.

Post by **jsmorley** » October 9th, 2010, 4:08 pm

You could use http://jsmorley.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2wun7p which is the successor to the Dark_Rainmeter stuff and does include a launcher skin.

Aarowaim · Post by **Aarowaim** » October 9th, 2010, 4:16 pm

Thank you jsmorley

.
Anyway, if you want to find out what they used in a screenshot, I use a website called tineye.com that can usually find the wallpaper used (won't work if the wallpaper is crowded with skins in the screenshot.)
The hardest part is sometimes finding out what skins they used, but you can usually find out by asking on this forum.

For example, using tineye.com and my knowledge, I know that the first screenshot consists of:
Wallpaper=http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lh9CPFcbU94/RrJJdlKuRyI/AAAAAAAAAFo/0eEZ6GXLJXk/nps2vm.jpg

Skins

Enigma\Sidebar\Reader\Reader.ini
Dark_Rainmeter\TimeDate\DateTime.ini
and a launcher skin that I haven't seen before.

How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

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Re: How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

Re: How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

Re: How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)

Re: How to do..Multiple things? (2 questions asked)