Guide to Skinning Stardock ObjectDock Plus, Backgrounds/Tiles/Tabs ini's v2.

0 RC1, by Jeff Bargmann, Stardock ---------------------------------------------------------*Info section describes skin basic information. -Note, When creating a skin you can either include just a background (and/or til es) only, or you can also include tabs, but never tabs only. [Info] Name = Simple Tabs ColorMe = 1 be colorized by default. just the dock ; usually want 1 for grayscale png's setup for u se on tabbed docks. ; 0 By default.

; Name of skin ; specifies that this background/tabset wants to ; Usually want 0 for color image backgrounds for

---------------------------------------------------------*SETTING UP A TILE IMAGE FOR EACH ITEMS' BACKGROUND *To have tiles, such as little gradients, as backgrounds for each individual ite m/entry, define the following section, using the standard image tags. [Tile] Image = tile.png TopHeight = 2 ch/tile BottomHeight = 2 ch/tile LeftWidth = 2 ch/tile RightWidth = 2 ch/tile TileCenter = 0 TileVCenter = 1 ; relative path of image ; top margin to draw before starting to stret ; bottom margin to draw before starting to stret ; left margin to draw before starting to stret

; right margin to draw before starting to stret ; don't tile horizontally (0) ; tile vertically (1)

---------------------------------------------------------*SETTING UP A FULL BACKGROUND IMAGE To set a general background for your dock or tabbed dock, use the sections: [Background] OR [BackgroundBottom] -the default, used if backgrounds for others are not specifically defined -used for docks docked to the bottom of the screen -for tabbed docks, used when the tabs are on top (e.g. when it is docked on bo ttom) [BackgroundTop] -used for docks docked to the top of the screen

-for tabbed docks, used when the tabs are on bottom (e.g. when it is docked on top) [BackgroundLeft] -used for docks docked to the left of the screen -for tabbed docks, used when the tabs are on right (e.g. when it is docked on left) [BackgroundRight] -used for docks docked to the right of the screen -for tabbed docks, used when the tabs are on left (e.g. when it is docked on r ight) *on the above sections, you'll use the standard set of tags that you can use for images (Image, LeftWidth, RightWidth, TopHeight, BottomHeight, TileCenter, and TileVC enter) *ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND TAGS: ---OutsideBorderTop ively. OutsideBorderBottom nd draw OutsideBorderLeft ly draw, like a OutsideBorderRight needed ---TabsOutsideBorderTop = 0 don't add on to TabsOutsideBorderLeft = 0 TabsOutsideBorderBottom = 0 abbed dock* TabsOutsideBorderRight = 0 cut down into the tabbed edge ; for that given background section. ; Again, defaults as zero. ---ContentBufferTop = 6 t area on a ContentBufferLeft = 0 iven the specified buffer. ContentBufferBottom = 0 ting the tabs ContentBufferBottom = 0 content buffer there. ary ; For tabbed docks only, sets so that the conten ; given edge when using a given background is g ; Example use, say if we have a large bar separa ; and the content on the top edge, we can add a ; Defaults as zero, so don't use when not necess ; Same as OutsideBorder* tags, except that they ; the TopHeight, BottomHeight, etc tags. ; Also, these *only have effect when used on a t ; Main use, if for example you want your tabs to ; background slightly you could use this on the = 2 = 10 = 2 = 8 ; Adds onto TopHeight, BottomHeight, etc respect ; Designates part of image to be as a "shadow" a ; outside the confines of where it would normal ; shadow would. ; There are independent tags for each edge. ; The default for all is 0, so don't use if not

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---------------------------------------------------------*DEFINING SEPARATORS FOR DOCKS -To define your separator for magnifying (non-tabbed) docks, use the standard im age tag sets in the following sections [Separator] OR [SeparatorBottom] -follows the same pattern as [Background] and [BackgroundBottom] as detailed a bove for which is used when. [SeparatorTop] [SeparatorLeft] [SeparatorRight] -----------------------------------------------------------*DEFINING TABS -For tabs, we can define tab images for use on tabbed docks. There can be differ ent tab images for each of the edges the tabs can be on (ALL REQUIRED if you are defining tabs with your background), and also you can have different images for their selected states too. [TabsOnTop] [TabsOnTopSelected] -Used when the tabs are on top. The first, when the given tab is not selected, and the second (not required) is used when the tab is selected. [TabsOnBottom] [TabsOnBottomSelected] -etc etc, same pattern [TabsOnLeft] [TabsOnLeftSelected] -etc etc, same pattern [TabsOnRight] [TabsOnRightSelected] -etc etc, same pattern *ADDITIONAL TAGS FOR TAB SECTIONS TextVertOffset = 0 ny given state ls up/left (negative value) or down/right (positive valu e) by using this. ; 0 by default, but you can shift the text for a of tabs on any side by a given number of pixe

Can give illusion of tab moving up/down as it is (un)selected.

-----------------------------------------------------------*ADDITIONAL TABS-RELATED TAGS IN [INFO] -The following tags are for use in the [Info] section, and further define tab ap pearance/behavior [Info] TextColor = 0 0 0 bs) ShadowColor = 255 255 255 ning tabs) TabOverlapLeft = 5 ounded tabs TabOverlapRight = 5 our tabs from ts Right ; counterpart to 0. TabContentBufferLeft = 0 bs to have extra room TabContentBufferRight = 0 graphics on the sides d RIGHT=BOTTOM) ; when tabs are on other edges!) -----------------------------------------------------------*PLUS/MINUS IMAGES ON TABBED DOCKS -On the occasion a user has filled a collection on a tabbed dock to larger than can be shown, plus/minus items will be shown. If you have defined tabs and a bac kground both, you can specify custom plus/minus images also if you wish. use: [Extras] PlusImage = my_plus_image.png ; image 128x128 or 192x192 in size recommended MinusImage = my_minus_image.png -----------------------------------------------------------*A FEW WORDS ON COLORIZATION METHODS When creating an image that you want to have be colorized, still make it a 32bit PNG, but ideally have it be black and white. The colorizing method used by Obje ctDock leaves blacks as black, and whites as white, and then for all the shades inbetween will add a varying degree of color. Pixels with the RGB value 128,128, 128 will receive the exact color specified by the user, where shades of gray clo ; Each are 0 by default, but if you want your ta ; on the left/right side because you have large ; of your tab image, use these. ; (NOTE!! LEFT/RIGHT tags only, here LEFT=TOP an ; tabs text color (not needed if not defining ta ; tabs text shadow color (not needed if not defi

; Each are *5 by default*, and recommended for r ; If you're using square tabs however, to stop y ; overlapping eachothers' edges, set this and i

ser to zero will result in darker more pronounced variations of the color. Grays cales closer to white (255) will result in a light soft variation of the color. A side note, usually find that strong edges are a good thing! Happy skinning :)