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Creating objects is easy. There are two ways, a quick way and the proper way.
The quick way is to drag a file out of Explorer and drop it on your desktop. This will use the file's icon to create a link to the file, but it's hardly going to show off the best of the features of DesktopX.
To create a proper object you need to do it from scratch. If you don't want to to go through this you can always modify other objects which have been created. One of the great things about DesktopX is that objects and themes can be exchanged between users. Wincustomize is a great place to find new objects and themes. Once you have them, click these links to learn about loading themes and importing objects.
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To create a new object you can select the option from the appropriate section of the DesktopX configuration dialogue, the DesktopX tray icon, of right clicking on the desktop as shown in this example. This will create a blank object that looks like this:
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Right clicking on your object will present you with a variety of options. 'Open' will perform whatever function the object has been set up to perform. You can choose to 'Clone' (duplicate), the current object or delete it. You can set the objects parent, which is described later. Rather than your current selection, you can choose to select all or none of the object in your theme. You can set the object to be persistant. Persistant objects are ones which are theme independent. They will be visible in all themes that you load. Exporting the selected object will allow you to save the item for use elsewhere in other themes or for sharing with others. Remember to upload any of your really good objects to WinCustomize. The penultimate option will be dependant on the function that the object is performing and allows you to configure that option. This example is to launch a website, so 'Set target' allows you to specify the website that will be launched. Properties is the key option that you want at this stage, as it allows you to configure the object. |
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Full details on configuring the object are available in the following sections, but first you must understand the concept of 'States'.
Objects can be configured to look different at different times. The 'Default' state is when the mouse cursor is away from the object and not interacting with it. In addition to this there are several other states:
Mouse down:
Occurs when the mouse button is pressed down, before it is released
Mouse up: This follows the mouse down event, and occurs when the mouse
is released
Mouse over: This state occurs when the mouse is moved over the activation
area of the object
Show: This is when the object is made visible, for example as a popup
Hide: Occurs when a visible object is hidden
Command executed:This state is triggered after the object has executed
the command it is set to perform
In addition to these built in states, you can define your own for use in messaging. Details on doing this are here.
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The final thing that you should know about is the object browser, which is available from the DesktopX configuration, DesktopX icon, or right click menu. This is a summary of all the objects in the theme and their key settings. You will find this useful in selecting objects (CTRL selects multiple objects), and opening their properties. This will also allow you to select hidden objects and manipulate them as you would any other. |
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