The next unofficial version - Updated 30 September

A widely-reported problem concerns Circle Dock's handling of shortcuts (ie LNK files). Eric had written perfectly valid code to handle shortcuts correctly and his code should, by rights, work. But as many of you reported, it often doesn't work and the problem is not Eric's, it's Microsoft's buggy code - a bug, incidentally, that has been present in all 32-bit versions of Windows since Windows '95. Others have solved it and I managed to track-down a solution which I've implemented: and it works perfectly.
When a file is added to the Dock, its Description (which is used for the label) defaults to the file name with its file type extension, eg: "Word.exe". This has been changed such that the file type extension is no longer included - so "Word.exe" becomes simply "Word".
"Add Blank Icon" has been renamed "Add File, Folder or Special Item" for clarity.
There is a new button on the 'Dock Item Properties" dialog: 'Special'. This allows you to add certain Explorer folders (eg: My Computer, My Documents) and the most commonly used Control Panel items.

29 September Additions

Drag-and-Drop functionality has been considerably enhanced with the addition of code kindly supplied by "DrWicked":
- Drag and drop of items (including shortcuts - but not Windows folders) from the desktop (or Explorer) onto CD. If the item is dropped onto a CD dock folder it places it in that dock folder instead of at the current CD level.
- Drag and drop of items that are already on the CD into dock folders. You can even drop a dock folder into a dock folder.
- Drag and drop of existing items (or dock folders) up one level (if not at the top level). To do this, drag and drop onto the Center button. Previously, this was how one would delete items. Now to delete items just drag them off the CD outside of the bounds of the CD. At the top level, an item can still be deleted by dropping it onto the Centre button but the user will be prompted to make sure they want to delete the item.

I have also incorporated "DrWicked"'s code to create an on-screen button which can optionally appear whenever Circle Dock is hidden. This is most useful in touch-screen environments but could also be useful generally. A new set of settings determines the image to be used, its size and opacity on the new "Toggle Button" section of the Configuration dialog.
In Version 0.9.2.5 (the first of my unofficial releases), if the Dock was set to be invisible when loaded, it would sometimes briefly flash when it started-up. This has now been fixed.
The "poof" animation now works.

30 September Additions

The number of "Special Items" has been increased to 19 and now include "Log-Off User", "Restart PC" and "Shutdown PC". All "Special Items" have default images attached to them but you can change the display image for one of your choice.
A new setting has been added to the "General" section which will add (or remove) Circle Dock from the list of programs that Windows automatically starts. No more copying shortcuts to your Startup Folder!
If "Fast Draw" was enabled and you mouse-click on its background whilst it is building the current layer, there was a chance that additional, duplicate, items would be added to the Dock. This has been fixed.

~~That's it, so far. I will update this post as and when new items are added, or changes made, until the next version is released.~~ No further new features will be added for the next release which is currently being tested. I anticipate releasing this new version in a few days.

If you have any request for new features - or have a bug to report - please add it to this Topic.

Thanks!!

I am currently investigating using other shapes including ellipses, spiral, rectangular and triangular. But I'm making absolutely no promises as to whether any new shapes are added or any time-frames. I'm also investigating the possibility of adding Docklets - but I need help with this: does anyone have the RocketDock/ObjectDock API for Docklets?

I'd like to thank "DrWicked" for his support and generosity in freely giving me his source code additions. That has saved me considerable time and also allows me to include new features I've not even considered!

Mark

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