Today's Lesson: "HELLO WORLD" the first program all programmers have to make.

In this lesson we will cover how to create a simple text object, change its color, font, and size, we will even make it change color and size when we move our mouse over it. We will take this 1 step at a time, so you can follow along.

For this and all the Step-By-Step DX Tutorials you will need to purchase DesktopX for $14.95 from Stardock.

Lets get started.

You will see the DesktopX STARTUP Screen (yours wont say PROFESSIONAL unless you purchased PRO)


Once you see this screen, click on "CREATE" because we want to CREATE a new Widget.

It will load the DesktopX SETTINGS Window:

We just wish to get these screens out of the way for now, we are not going to use them. Click "CANCEL" on the SETTINGS window, and DONE on the STARTUP Screen.

You should have a blank screen now with a new icon in your system tray:

You can access this properties window at any time by RIGHT-CLICKING on the object and selecting PROPERTIES.

When you added the object, it brought up the PROPERTIES window, now select the "STATES" tab to change to this TAB.

• In this window, select "TEXT" (see the arrow!) and it will show you a Text Entry area.
• Type in "Hello World I'm a DX Object" or whatever you want it to say!
• Click on "APPLY" and you will have your first DX Object:

• RIGHT-CLICK on the new Object and select PROPERTIES
• Click on the STATES Tab
• Click on the FONT button (see arrow!)
• Use this window to pick a font, style and size, and then select OK
• You will need to select APPLY on the PROPERTIES window to have these changes show on your object.
• If you don't like look, repeat the process above until it looks the way you want.

• RIGHT-CLICK on the new Object and select PROPERTIES
• Click on the STATES Tab
• Click on the COLOR button (see arrow!)
• Use this window to pick a color you wish to use for your text then select OK
• You will need to select APPLY on the PROPERTIES window to have these changes show on your object.
• If you don't like look, repeat the process above until it looks the way you want.

Well, in DX this is VERY simple.

• RIGHT-CLICK on the new Object and select PROPERTIES
• Click on the STATES Tab
• Click on the ADD button (see arrow!) under the STATES window.
• Select Mouse over from the drop-down list, click OK.
• This will create a BLANK STATE for the object. If you look at the original State that was already created (the default one) it shows Mouse Away DX has code built into it to handle this simple Rollover task.

• Use the COPY FROM button under the STATES area and pick Copy Parameters from 'Mouse Away' State this makes the Mouse OVER state identical to the Mouse AWAY state.
• The idea here is to save time. This makes it so that both states are the same to start with.

• We are going to change the font to BOLD and its Size to 14 so that when we move the mouse over it, it will turn BOLD and grow in size.
• You can pick whatever combination of font, color, size & style you want to make it look the way you want.
• Click OK on the window below when you are Done.

• You will need to select APPLY on the PROPERTIES window to have these changes show on your object.
• If you don't like look, repeat the process above until it looks the way you want.

Test it out, move your mouse over the object and see what it does.

Check back as I add new Step-By-Step Tutorials on how to make this a link to a folder, web-site, or just about anything you want!

I hope you have enjoyed this step into DX, and look forward to the next installment.