topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 7:06 pm
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Ath [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev1 ... 126 127 128 129 130 [131] 132 133 134 135 136 ... 145next
3251
Finished Programs / Re: Idea: New Folder by F-key for Windows 7
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:39 PM »
Welcome, Brian,

This is my first post/request/idea, so I hope I am doing this right  :huh:
-Brian De Braganza (March 04, 2011, 03:35 PM)

You started off just fine ;)

3252
Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:35 PM »
We have another milestone here: :P

f0dder-7500- 04-03-2011.png

3253
General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ?
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:30 PM »
I probably shouldn't but I'm currently looking at Git.
Oh yes, you should, if you have the time, resources and interest in it.
Making a more educated choice now (early/pre-start) is way better than to change half way through your project, if you then discover a feature in the other solution you absolutely must have, for whatever reason.

3254
Oh, I scribbled a small message on my blog about my coding snack of today (small self-promotion :-[)

3255
General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:13 PM »
It took a while, but I've found the thread I mentioned, and it has a solution as well :up:

3256
Thanks for the thanks :D

3257
Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar
« on: March 04, 2011, 02:04 PM »
So, in future, I'll go for a few bottles of each beverage. That should fix it!
-cranioscopical (March 04, 2011, 01:58 PM)
:drinksmiley: ;D ;D ;D

3258
Living Room / Re: Are *you* Computer Literate?
« on: March 04, 2011, 01:59 PM »
At first scan I though it was for real, but then the pun began :eusa_dance:

3259
General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking
« on: March 04, 2011, 10:23 AM »
What if you just shut down all the apps & services that do other internet connections? AFAIR, there's an app for that, made just recently, to stop stuff when watching a video, but I haven't been able to find that thread yet :huh:.

3260
General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking
« on: March 04, 2011, 09:59 AM »
There's a Microsoft KB article about IPsec installation and usage. That's able to block/unblock, but I haven't read enough of the details to see if it can also properly list whether the ports are actually transferring data.

3261
Now I got to give myself a touch-screen for my next birthday, so I can test it's original use-case :P

3262
XML specifications that are massively large, like that for a web.config file, are simply unmanageable, but not because they are XML. They're unmanageable because they're so complex, and errors aren't readily apparent sometimes.

That's my biggest fear with .NET stuff, that I mess up all those massive and complex gazillion attribute elements, by making one trivial typo :tellme:
And the error messages thrown aren't helpful at all, usually it's something like "Initialization error" or "Exception was thrown..." without any useful stacktrace.

3263
I've just posted my Coding Snack over here

I might be a bit early for US standards, but I'm in the Europe timezone, so it's already past noon here ;)

3264
Application Name WinButtons
Version 3.6.1.0
Short Description Display a window with large buttons to allow applications to be started, commands sent to applications, submenu's to be shown, useful for a touch-screen equipped computer
Now Application-focus sensitive, supports Drag&Drop of files on buttons
Supported OSes Windows
Web Page This thread and a DcMembers page
Download Link From my DCmembers site
System Requirements
  • Some applications to be started, or
  • Keyboard sequences to be sent, or...
Version History
  • 3.6.1.0 October 23rd 2012: Open dropped .ini or .wbuc if dropped on the surface/button and no On Drop command set
  • 3.6.1.0 October 23rd 2012: WinButtonEdit 1.1.0.3: Bugfixes
  • 3.6.0.2 October 20th 2012: Bugfixes
  • 3.6.0.2 October 20th 2012: WinButtonEdit 1.1.0.2: Bugfixes
  • 3.6.0.0 October 9th 2012: Added support for [VarParams] for display and entry of parameters, directly applied to buttons
  • 3.6.0.0 October 9th 2012: WinButtonEdit 1.1.0.0: Added support for [VarParams] and other new features of WB 3.6.0
  • 3.5.1.1 October 11th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.5.2: Ask confirmation before update and quit WBE on update
  • 3.5.1.1 October 8th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.5.1: Adds Image parameters configuration window
  • 3.5.1.1 October 8th 2011: Version bump to align updates with WinButtonEdit
  • 3.5.1.0 September 26th 2011: New feature: Borderless buttons now support splitting the caption on @LF@
  • 3.5.1.0 September 26th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.4.4: Preview support for WinButtons 3.5.1 feature
  • 3.5.0.2 September 24th 2011: New features: Borderless buttons, Button Layout combining Image and caption and PNG file support
  • 3.5.0.2 September 24th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.4.2: Support for Borderless buttons and several improvements
  • 3.4.2.3 September 13th 2011: Minor bugfixes, fixed dcuhelper missing files :-[, added numkeypad samples
  • 3.4.2.3 September 13th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.3.3: Several anomalies and bugs fixed
  • 3.4.2.2 September 11th 2011: Adds FlipKeyColor feature and improvements after receiving and testing a real touch-screen
  • 3.4.2.2 September 11th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.3.1: Adds checking for updates (dcuhelper) and updated for new WB options.
  • 3.4.1.1 September 7th 2011: Bugfix for CursorRestore feature
  • 3.4.1.0 September 6th 2011: Improved CursorRestore by providing a configurable buffersize
  • 3.4.1.0 September 6th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.2.0: Updated for new CursorRestore options.
  • 3.4.0.1 September 2nd 2011: New feature: CursorRestore
  • 3.4.0.1 September 2nd 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.1.1 supporting CursorRestore and displays Preview window position
  • 3.3.2.1 July 27th 2011: WinButtonEdit 1.0.0.0 released (no changes since RC10)
  • 3.3.2.1 July 5th 2011: Version bump to celebrate that the new version number actually was put into the exe
  • 3.3.2.0 July 4th 2011: New feature: Optional resize of .bmp image to button-size
  • 3.3.2.0 July 4th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.9.3.0/RC10
  • 3.3.1.2 July 2nd 2011: New feature: Display icons from .exe, .dll, .ocx and .icl files on buttons
  • 3.3.1.2 July 2nd 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.9.2.3/RC9
  • 3.3.0.0 June 20th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.9.1.1/RC8
  • 3.3.0.0 June 19th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.9.1.0/RC7
  • 3.3.0.0 June 18th 2011: WinButtons prefered file extension now .wbuc
  • 3.3.0.0 June 18th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.9.0.0/RC6
  • 3.2.1.0 June 16th 2011: 2 Bugfixes for WinButtons
  • 3.2.0.1 June 14th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.8.4.1/RC5
  • 3.2.0.1 June 13th 2011: New feature Drop files on a button
  • 3.2.0.1 June 13th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.8.3.1/RC4
  • 3.1.2.1 June 11th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.8.2/RC3
  • 3.1.2.1 June 9th 2011: Updated WinButtonEdit to 0.8.1/RC2
  • 3.1.2.1 June 5th 2011: New feature: Group context switch based on current focussed control
  • 3.1.2.1 June 5th 2011: WinButtonEdit 0.8.0 (RC1) configuration editor added to the set (exe only)
  • 3.0.0.2 April 22nd 2011: Major new feature: Condition availability of buttons (totally hidden, invisible or disabled)
  • 2.6.2.3 April 15th 2011: Bugfix release for the transparency issues, reported by cranioscopical (thanks!)
  • 2.6.2.1 April 14th 2011: Support for an alternate Hide method using althide setting or -ah parameter, Caption also set as each button's Tooltip
  • 2.6.1.2 April 13th 2011: Minor updates in environment variable support, documentation updates, DcMembers server updated
  • 2.6.1 April 12th 2011: New feature, environment variable expansion supported in captions and commands, bugfixes
  • 2.6.0 April 8th 2011: New feature, variable replacement with parameters
  • 2.0.1 March 13th 2011: Minor fix, left and top are not limited to main monitor
  • 2.0.0 March 11th 2011: Major update, adding focused application button-context switching
  • 1.0.0 March 4th 2011: Initial release (after several private pre-releases)
Author Ath


Description
Solving a Coding Snack request for a tool to display large buttons to be used on a touch-screen, that ended up in the Unfinished section because it never really got honored.
Then the March 2011 Fundraiser event came around, so I tried to get this request eventually realized, and, combined with the rather large feature-set, compared to the Coding Snack 'requirement' of being small and quickly created, I decided to aim for a release during the Fundraiser event.

Features
Display a set of large buttons, with descriptive captions, that can open a sub-menu, start an application, send keystrokes to another application (using WinSendKeys), or whatever can be done using a windows command-line.
The window can have enabled/disabled a border, close button, taskbar button, different colors and sizes per button, display a bitmap or icon instead of a text-caption, hide itself (and optionally a preceding chain of WinButtons instances) during execution of a command, wait for completion of the command, or exit after starting a command.
Version 2.0 adds the feature of focussed-application sensitive button-context switching, and arrangeble button-configurations, with different size buttons, based on arrangement-types. Buttons can be extended to double size (1 direction only), 1/2, 1/3rd, 1/4th, 1/6th or 1/9th default size, and combined into 1 'button-area', see the screenshots for a chaos example  :)
The 3.0 version adds an optional condition per button to Enable/Disable a button on a file/directory availability, exe loaded in memory or an AutoIt3 function evaluation. The result can be a totally not available button (the window is re-drawn), visible/invisible or enabled/disabled button, a (long) tooltip per button instead of the default caption tooltip, with support for AutoIt3 macro's like @CRLF@ to have newlines in the tip.
Version 3.1 adds a configuration editor called, surprisingly, WinButtonEdit. It's a GUI to change all features available in WinButtons. Additional information is available in WinButtonEdit.readme.txt. (Currently without sourcecode, mainly because of RC1 status)
Another new feature is the option to set a global and per group button surface and text color.
The Group context switching feature has been enhanced to allow switching on specific controls and application windows. This gives a feature to present a set of buttons that link to relevant information, depending on the control currently having focus.
Version 3.2 Adds support for Drop Files on a button if it has a dropcommand defined for that button (requested by ewemoa)
A full description of all features is included in the zip-file in WinButtons.readme.txt
Version 3.3 Changed the preferred file extension from .ini to .wbuc (WinButtons Configuration). Open associatin can be set from WinButtonEdit (0.9 and up)
Version 3.3.1 Adds the feature of displaying an (indexed) icon from .exe, .dll, .ocx, .icl and .ico files.
Version 3.3.2 Adds optional scaling for .bmp images on buttons to the size of that button.
Version 3.4.0 Adds optional CursorRestore option, to restore the cursor to teh last known position outside of the WInButtons windows, when using an (external) touch-screen (should be real-world tested though...)
Version 3.4.1 Improves handling of the CursorRestore by a configurable buffersize, and better handling of the buffer if the mouse position is not changed
Version 3.4.2 Adds optional FlipKeyColor option to better indicate a button was pressed. WBE now offers a Check for updates... menu-item, to update both WinButtons and WinButtonEdit. Uses dcuhelper.exe and .dcupdate files.
Version 3.4.2.3 A lot of small fixes to WinButtonEdit and a minor one for WinButtons come with this update, as well as extra samples & screen shots and the missing .dcupdate files of the previous release  :-[
Version 3.5.0 Adds support for Borderless buttons, (enables the Metro UI design of WPhone 7 and Win8), combining Image and Caption on a Borderless button and PNG file support for smoother graphics display.
Version 3.5.1 Adds Borderless buttons with 'split' captions using @LF@ macro.
Version 3.6.0 Adds the optional display of parameter edits/comboboxes/checkboxes as variables in command-lines configured for a button.
The tooltip of each button shows the effective command-line, instead of any configured tooltip.
Added a common confirmation per button, besides the -asc/-ask command option.
WinButtonEdit is updated to support all these features and options.
Version 3.6.1 Adds default feature of opening a .ini or .wbuc files that is dropped on WinButtons.

What's new
  • Version 3.6.1: Drop a .wbuc or .ini file with a non-empty Buttons section and the file will be loaded if no On Drop command is defined for the button it is dropped on.
  • Version 3.6.0.2: Removes some bugs found during testing, allows a button-Condition to automatically check the condition, even if no button is pressed (-ref option), as demoed in ConstanceJill.wbuc configuration.
  • Version 3.6.0: Optional display of parameters to be entered and applied to configured command-lines per button. The already available :varVarName: replacement feature is used for this.
  • Per button common confirmation message before running the command configured for that button.
  • WinButtonEdit asks for confirmation before starting DCUHelper, and asks to save the current file if it wasn't saved
  • WinButtonEdit now has an Image parameters window for easier config, with sliders and up/down controls
  • Borderless buttons can have a split caption by using @LF@ at the position where it should split (multiple if needed) see updated metro.wbuc
  • Borderless buttons, .png image support, combining image and caption on 1 button (borderless button only)
  • Added some screenshots to this post
  • Several improvements after testing with a real touch-screen, generously donated by nudone
  • FlipKeyColor option
  • Update fetching using DCHelper/DCUpdater
  • Enhanced CursorRestore option
  • Added CursorRestore option, and WBE also offers to copy the current preview window position to Top and Left after dragging the preview in the desired position
  • Released WinButtonEdit 1.0.0.0, since no questions where posted for several weeks. No changes since RC10
  • Added option scaling for.bmp images
  • Updated WinButtonEdit 0.9.3.0 (RC10, should be the last RC...) with scaling supported in the preview
  • Display a (indexed) icon from .exe, .dll, .ocx, .icl and .ico files on buttons.
  • Updated WinButtonEdit 0.9.2.3 (RC9) configuration editor (select icon from supported files, some bugfixes/improvements)
  • Updated WinButtonEdit 0.9.1.1 (RC8) configuration editor (drag&drop for WBE, set file-associations, Move button to Group)
  • Bugfixes: Close button won't work on XP when movable is enabled, and :dropItem<n>: gave upto (count - 1) dropped items (nothing with 1 item dropped)
  • Added Drop files per button (dropcommand) to WinButtons
  • Default button surface and text color
  • Group context switch based on control/window instead of just active exe
  • A condition per button to determine if that button should be available. Much more fine-grained then the Groups feature
  • Tooltip per button, that supports AutoIt3 macro's
  • Multiple commands executed from 1 button, with a configurable separator
  • Variables can be defined and re-used in a lot of parameters of the configuration. They can even use parameters! A full description is in the readme file.
  • Commands and captions (button, window, messages, questions) support environment variable expansion (the familiar %varname% syntax)
  • Button caption is now also set as the tooltip for each button. (Thanks cranioscopical for the tip!)
  • Alternate Hide method to resolve possible compatibility/repaint issues.
  • Transparency issues on Win XP (pre-Win 7?) resolved.

Planned Features
  • Quick create/edit of a button configuration, as WinButtonEdit can be a bit daunting for new users
  • Feature requests welcome :up:

Screenshots
I created a few dummy menu's. (included in the zip-file)
This is a vertical, no-border, 2 buttonrows menu with 10 buttons, 'Submenu 5 extra words' is opened, and it's button 'Run & Wait' pressed, giving another vertical menu. (A bit crowded):
WinButtons-2-submenus.png

The same menu, but now a border without close button is shown, and button 'Submenu 4' was pressed, showing the same vertical menu with 2 buttons:
WinButtons-1-submenu-border.png

Most buttons are the default size of 128x128 pixels, except 'Button 10', that's 100x100 pixels.

This menu was the model for the application-icon, buttonsize down to 78x78, so the entire window is about 256x256:
WinButtons-icon-base.png

A menu showing a chaos of different sized (buttonarrangement) buttons:
WinButtons-chaos-demo.png

A screenshot of WinButtonEdit:
Screenshot - 09-10-2012 , 23_56_48.png Screenshot - 10-10-2012 , 00_16_47.png Screenshot - 10-10-2012 , 00_14_34.png Screenshot - 10-10-2012 , 00_14_56.png

A small part of a configuration ini file: (4 buttons)
Code: Text [Select]
  1. [Buttons]
  2. button1=&Back <--
  3. command1=-exit
  4. button2=&Run && Exit
  5. command2=-hideWinButtons -?
  6. button3=Run && &Wait
  7. command3=-sub :debug: -t :top:-(:height:/2) -l :left: -w :width:*2 -h :height:*2 :hndlist: submenu4.ini
  8. color3=0xFFD147
  9. button4=Send S&cite something (in new document)
  10. command4=-hide-send scite ^n "A single sentence"

Some screenshots of the numkeypad samples included since v3.4.2.3:
(Based on nudone's touch-screen panel)
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_47_56.png

Large numpad (NumPad On):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_49_26.png

Right-hand large numpad (NumPad R):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_50_02.png

Small numpad covering 5 rows (NumPad s5):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_50_39.png

Small numpad covering 4 rows (NumPad s4):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_51_10.png

Right-hand small numpad covering 3 rows (NumPad sr):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_52_01.png

Right-hand small numpad covering 3 rows (NumPad sr3) (not hiding any other keys):
Screenshot - 13-09-2011 , 21_52_35.png

Since v3.5.1: Borderless buttons with split caption (metro.wbuc example):
Screenshot - 27-09-2011 , 00_52_25.png

WinButtonEdit 1.0.5: Image parameters window:
Screenshot - 08-10-2011 , 16_25_16.png

WinButtons 3.6, showing some odd input controls (Textbox, Combo, Editable combo and a checkbox)
Screenshot - 10-10-2012 , 00_09_55.png Screenshot - 19-10-2012 , 21_04_12.png

Usage
Installation
  • Unpack the zipfile in it's own directory. You are required to edit some ini/wbuc files, so it better not be a subdirectory of Program Files, to avoid UAC issues.
  • Edit WinButtons.ini/WinButtons.wbuc to change the captions and commands to the desired settings, using WinButtonEdit
  • Optionally: Give colors to the buttons, or select images or icons to display on the buttons
  • Optionally: Create extra ini/wbuc files, containing more commands, to be used as submenu's
  • Optionally: Create button-groups to enable context-switching buttons dependent on the currently active application
  • (A full description of all options and features is available in WinButtons.readme.txt)

Uninstallation
If an association was set using WinButtonEdit, then run WBE and de-select any checked option under menu Options/'Set file association for .wbuc'
Delete all WinButtons related files from the computer, (no settings are stored in the registry, except file association), remove any shortcuts created.

Known Issues
  • On Windows XP the settings closebutton and movable can't be combined, a solution is to be found (for now, movable is disabled in this case)
  • Images and caption texts or colors can't be combined (yet) They can using Borderless buttons (v3.5.0 and later)
  • After a -hide, the restore afterwards displays the entire chain of windows...(Explained in the readme)

Download
Available are the AutoIt3 source for WinButtons, WinButtons.readme.txt, sample configuration files, all resources and compiled exe's:
This download links to v.3.6.1.0 on the DCmembers server. Older downloads removed from this message... (available on special request but should not be needed)
Source for WinButtonEdit is not (yet) included because it's in a RC state, IMHO, and I'm not sure I want to release this source...

3265
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: O&O Migration Kit for Windows 7
« on: March 04, 2011, 04:42 AM »
Just ordered my free serial, thanks!

3266
and just isolating myself
Doesn't it feel like you are actually isolating yourself? A blog is a non-restrictions entrypoint for any reader, but restricting your output to e-books (although free) is going to scare away a lot of your current readers, IMHO

3267
to expand the scale of the thermometer if we reach $6,000 and keep the fundraiser going

Wasn't that what you did during the previous fundraiser?, it felt (and feels) so natural and rewarding to be happening :-*

3268
General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ?
« on: March 04, 2011, 01:31 AM »
They change only on F5, and sometimes they don't. I have to open/close the repo/folder for them to update.
That's related to 2 things: Settings in the TortoiseXX tooling (Check out 'Icon overlays'), and the sometimes flaky icon-cache of Windows (including Win7)

3269
the attribute got added

What did that pesky attribute look like? (so we know what to avoid :D)

3270
I have numerous confidential files on my desktop

That's where the confusion is: You shouldn't store documents on your desktop. They ought to go in the (My) Documents folder, that is supposedly stored on the network-server (assuming you have a Windows Active Directory controlled network), so you can access them from any place you logon to the network. Password protecting the PC is a natural and enforced requirement, including screensaver lock, I reckon. If you don't have these facilities, then your administrator has made a few mistakes...

3271
Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)
« on: March 03, 2011, 04:48 PM »
Thanks, I have DcUpdater installed, so I should get it as soon after you release that :)

3272
Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)
« on: March 03, 2011, 04:34 PM »
there are no plans to add extra stuff like alerts, maps, etc
There are just a few small things I'd like to ask, like an auto-refresh feature for the weather (or is it already there but the interval > 30 minutes?, a configuration setting would be nice) and a sort of non-offscreen check for the Options and About windows, as I've put the main window in the right-bottom of my screen (though that may change) and these other windows are half-invisible because they are placed relative to the main window.

3273
Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock disappears on start up
« on: March 03, 2011, 03:45 PM »
Hm, some overzealous AV package trying to keep your computer free from experiments?

Is your XP of the vanilla 32 bit taste, or is it the rare 64 bit stuff (you mentioned the AMD64 bit), might be there's something itchy with x64 issues of Windows XP, but I can't tell... :-[

3274
Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)
« on: March 03, 2011, 03:32 PM »
WOW!  :Thmbsup:

This is great. At first I thought, Hey, my Windows 7 has a gadget that does that, why would I need sWeather???

But, experimenting away a bit, and finding the WOEID (even very close to the place I live!) and now actually seeing all the extra info I don't get from the Windows gadget, I think I have to toss out that gadget. THIS IS MUCH BETTER! :-* :-*

(And it is quite chilly in Codyville atm, -9 C)

3275
Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock disappears on start up
« on: March 03, 2011, 02:44 PM »
just would rather is stayed on the screen when rebooted after being off for a while so that would not have to be done each time.
That's something of your Windows configuration. Are you in a company environment where the installed applications, desktop, screensaver, etc. is strictly and unchangeably configured by your "friends" the sysadmins, you love to hate, and other annoyances enforced?

Pages: prev1 ... 126 127 128 129 130 [131] 132 133 134 135 136 ... 145next