Object class
The first thing you need to do is define what the object does when it is activated. There are several basic types of function an object can perform, each of which has a variety of configuration options. You can set these options by clicking the 'Configure' button. The functions each performs are detailed below.

Label
If you want you can specify a text label that will appear next to the object. The specific formatting of this label will depend on the Theme settings that are currently active.

Tooltip
This will display text by the cursor when the cursor hovers over the object, unless the display of tooltips is disabled in the DesktopX advanced configuration.

General Plugin
Where you want the function of the object to be determined by the a plugin that you have you specify the plugin here. For more details of working with plugins click here.

Shortcut - When activated, this object will launch a program or display the contents of a folder.

You can either choose from the files listed in the dropdown box which have been detected on your machine, or you can browse for the file you want to shortcut to.

You can also select arguments to apply to this program. These arguments will vary depending on the program. For example, if the file you are launching is Notepad.exe, you may specify a file to open in the arguments. For example, entering "c:\audio\winamp\whatsnew.txt" on my system will launch the file which tells me about the current version of WinAmp.

The 'Show' parameter allows you to specify how the program will run. Normal will run the application at it's normal size. 'Iconic' will launch the application minimised, and 'Maximised' will launch the application maximised (suprisingly enough!).

If you choose to launch a folder you can choose to select a system folder from the dropdown box, or browse to select a folder on your computer you want to access. By default, this will launch Explorer displaying the contents of the folder, but if you check the 'Open as popup menu', the contents of that folder will be displayed in a menu.

URL - When activated, this object will launch a web page, or in fact any file that your browser can interpret.

To do this you simply need to enter the address of the webpage you are trying to open.

Custom Class - Certain plugins which have been developed can accept parameters which allow the user to specify which function the plugin will perform.

The attached example is from Yoran's DxToys. In DxToys, 'Parameter 1' specifies the area of functionality which is to be used. This example asks the plugin to manipulate WinAmp, and the second parameter loads WinAmp (if not already loaded), and then play they tracks in the playlist.

Popup - This allows you to display or hide an object or groups of objects that you have specified as popup objects.

To do this you specify the object that you wish to manipulate. All objects available will be displayed in the popup list, so you must define the object as a popup object.

You can then specify what you want to do to that popup. The first option means that it will open (display) a popup or toggle the popup state (switch between on and off) it if can be toggled.

The second option allows you to close a popup which is open. The most common use for this function is to use it for an object within a popup to close it as you would a normal window.

Taskbar - This allows you to emulate the functionality of the WIndows taskbar displaying those applications that are running. Of course, because it is a DesktopX object you will have much more flexibility in the way it works.

You can choose the way applications for newly launched applications appear. You can choose whether they appear to the right of currently displayed applications or even above them.

You can choose to display small (16x16) icons for running applications or large (32x32) icons. The checkbox below this allows you to display text labels next to these icons as Windows does to display the name of the application. The two buttons associated with this checkbox allow you to choose what colour the text of these labels will be in both their selected and unselected states.

The next 4 options are all also concerned with tweaking the appearance of the label items. You can specify the maximum amount of space that an item on the taskbar will takeup. This is most practically of use when using labels.

The distance between items is the number of pixels gap between items on the taskbar.

The icon offset allows you to move the icons down a specified number of pixels from the background graphic.

The final option is a checkbox to specify that the taskbar will be of fixed size. By default the taskbar will gradually grow as new tasks are added to it until it reached the maximum size of the desktop. If you check this option you will need to specify the width of the taskbar in the Summary tab. If the number of applications mean that this width would naturally be exceeded, arrows will appear allowing you to scroll through the open applications.

System Tray - Your system tray will usually contain icons allowing shortcuts to supporting utilities that are running, such as your volume control, display settings and Internet connection.

The settings here identical functionality to those listed for the Taskbar object class.

You can specify in which direction new icons are added to the tray and the distance between them. You can also specify a vertical offset for the icons.

The final option is to make the system tray a fixed size. This requires you to specify a size for the object in the Summary tab, and arrows will appear when this size is exceeded as they are in the Taskbar object.

System - Choosing this option allows your object to perform one of the standard functions that are available in Windows.

Find - Open the find file dialogue
Logoff - User will be logged off from Windows
Popup task browser - Display a menu of the currently running tasks
Restart windows - Close down and restart the system
Run - Display the Run file dialogue box
Screen saver - Start the screen saver
Show desktop - Minimise all applications and show the desktop
Shutdown options - Display the full range of shutdown options
Shutdown windows - Shutdown Windows without a prompt
Windows help - Display the Windows help file

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DesktopX - These types of objects allow you to access some of the core DesktopX options which are normally available from the DesktopX configuration dialogue.

DesktopX Configuration - Lauch the configuration dialogue. It is very useful to have an object with this functionality if you choose not to display the DesktopX icon in the toolbar.

Theme Browser - Launch the DesktopX theme browser to load a theme from those installed.

Unload DesktopX - Does exactly what it says

Layer - By default objects are created as layers which basically means they perform no function and are purely decorative.

You can however turn objects into containers. When an object is a container it acts as a placeholder for other objects. Objects dragged and dropped onto a container inherit properties from it. They move with the container, and if the container is a popup object, they will be visible when the popup is.