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Last post Author Topic: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR  (Read 48754 times)

rbeeger

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slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« on: April 01, 2007, 09:44 AM »
Hi,

I created a new skin for FARR.  It's meant to be minimalistic or well ... slender  :)

[attach=#1][/attach]

It's also meant to be used with transparency switched on.
Since it's tuned for FARR's popup window, there are some usability issues in the configuration windows of FARR:
  • The close icon is very small and hard to aim at. That's because the title bar of the window is very small and I didn't want to see a dominating  close button on the popup window. The close icon also only appears when the mouse is over it. It is in the top right corner.
  • Text input fields don't have any borders. That's because I wanted the text input field in the popup to be borderless.
@mouser: Would it be possible to have an option to define a skin for the popup and another for the other windows. I would provide a version of this skin without the usability problems for use on those other windows.

The screenshot shows FARR with disabled status bar, disabled tool bar and hidden column headers. The column headers are also skinned. So if you like to have them visible, that should be no problem.

To install the skin copy the skn file contained in the attached zip file to FARR's skin folder and then select it in FARR configuration on the "Display"-page. To get around the mentioned usability problems, you can temporarily change to another skin, make your changes to the configuration and return to slenderFARR before closing the configuration.

Enjoy,
  Robert

2008-01-12 : Added border less variant.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2008, 09:32 AM by rbeeger »

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2007, 10:02 AM »
coooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:

May I add this to the set of skins installed by default with FARR ?

Regarding the usability issues.. Perhaps i can make a special exception to turn of this skin while configuring the options.

jgpaiva

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2007, 10:24 AM »
Beautiful!!!
It'll be my default skin from now on :D

rbeeger

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2007, 10:25 AM »
coooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:

May I add this to the set of skins installed by default with FARR ?

Sure,I'd be honored to have my skin added to the default set of skins  :Thmbsup:

Regarding the usability issues.. Perhaps i can make a special exception to turn of this skin while configuring the options.

Yeah, that's probably a solution. Typically the configuration windows aren't used that often. So they can stay unskinned.


cnewtonne

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2007, 01:30 PM »
nice work. It is my default skin now.

lanux128

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2007, 08:52 PM »
works nicely for me.. good job, rbeeger. :Thmbsup:

btw, the options dialog can be closed via Alt-Spacebar-C..

ws-slenderskinshot-1.png

tomos

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2007, 06:21 PM »
looks lovely!

how do you disable tool bar -
is that simply the help & options icons in top right?

anyways, couldnt find how to remove them too..

thanks,
tom
Tom

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2007, 06:27 PM »
you dont have to technically remove the toolbar, just click and hold to the left of it and drag it to far right which will hide it.

vinodkk1

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2007, 11:01 AM »
Can I have the download link for the latest FARR  alpha/beta release

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2007, 12:02 PM »
i've sent you the latest private alpha version (anyone who wants it please just send me an email to [email protected]).

lanux128

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2007, 08:37 PM »
mouser, maybe you should put a sticky "how to get the download link for the latest FARR alpha release".. :)

esteth

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2007, 06:19 AM »
mouser, maybe you should put a sticky "how to get the download link for the latest FARR alpha release".. :)
not to sound stupid, but the top sticky allready says how to get the download link in huge red letters :P

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2007, 06:26 AM »
hehehe.. never doubt the lanux creature!!!

i only added the huge red letters after lanux made his post  :-[

lanux128

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2007, 08:24 PM »
i only added the huge red letters after lanux made his post  :-[
hmm.. i must be second-guessing mouser.. 8)

cnewtonne

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2007, 11:03 AM »
rebeeger,
with this skin, can you move FARR window? If not, how do you propose this can be done?

Also, is there a way to control the font size, color, background color in FARR's window?

rbeeger

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #15 on: April 11, 2007, 11:57 AM »
rebeeger,
with this skin, can you move FARR window? If not, how do you propose this can be done?

Also, is there a way to control the font size, color, background color in FARR's window?
There is a small caption bar at the top of the window. You can click on it and move the window around. To aim at that region with your mouse cursor can be quite challenging. Move the cursor to the top of the window until the resize cursor appears. Move the cursor a very little bit down until it changes back to a normal cursor then press the left mouse button and move the window.
There is a simpler method for changing the location of the window. Resize it on all four sides until it takes up the place you want.
I know that this would be horrible for a skin used in other applications, but since I normally don't move FARR's window, I don't think it's a big pain.

Cheers,
  Robert

cnewtonne

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #16 on: April 11, 2007, 02:48 PM »
what about the 2ns part of my inquiry?

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #17 on: April 11, 2007, 02:51 PM »
ps.
the newest farr does not use skins on the option dialogs so the problem regarding the skin in the options is not relevant for now.

Nod5

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #18 on: January 11, 2008, 03:19 PM »
This skin is really slick.

One idea to make it even more minimal: add an option to make the "help" and "options" icons normally invisible but visible when the mouse pointer is held over them.

edit:
It could be even more minimal if there is some way to make the horizontal dividing lines between the input box and the match list and between the match list and status bar invisible. And remove the black border for the FARR window.

It would be really cool if it was possible to through the above and through transparency minimize the GUI so that it on launch only displays a blinking caret somewhere on the screen, waiting for input!  8) BTW, is there some way to make the caret itself more bold? I have set "Arial bold 14" for the input box and the caret looks a bit to thin in comparison to the typed characters.

« Last Edit: January 11, 2008, 03:34 PM by Nod5 »

rbeeger

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #19 on: January 12, 2008, 09:38 AM »
I created a variant that doesn't have a border around the window. I still prefer the original variant, but it wasn't a big problem to modify the skin. So here it is. You'll find it in the first post of this thread.

Unfortunately it isn't possible for a skin to make any of the other adjustments proposed by you.

Cheers,
  Robert

This skin is really slick.

One idea to make it even more minimal: add an option to make the "help" and "options" icons normally invisible but visible when the mouse pointer is held over them.

edit:
It could be even more minimal if there is some way to make the horizontal dividing lines between the input box and the match list and between the match list and status bar invisible. And remove the black border for the FARR window.

It would be really cool if it was possible to through the above and through transparency minimize the GUI so that it on launch only displays a blinking caret somewhere on the screen, waiting for input!  8) BTW, is there some way to make the caret itself more bold? I have set "Arial bold 14" for the input box and the caret looks a bit to thin in comparison to the typed characters.



Nod5

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2008, 10:07 AM »
Robert, great!  :Thmbsup: I guess the other obstacles on the "road to minimality" are things only mouser can do something about.

Lashiec

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #21 on: February 29, 2008, 09:18 AM »
Would it be possible to have only the main FARR window skinned? I love the skin, but seeing the rest of the FARR windows skinned (especially when you call Windows "Open" dialog) turns me off.

rbeeger

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #22 on: March 01, 2008, 08:57 AM »
Would it be possible to have only the main FARR window skinned? I love the skin, but seeing the rest of the FARR windows skinned (especially when you call Windows "Open" dialog) turns me off.

Glad you like the skin.
There is no way for the skin author to determine what parts of FARR are skinned or not.

@Mouser: Could you add an option to only skin the main window and the menu on the main window with the currently selected skin? Although the options window itself isn't skinned, the Open dialog (used in "Options > Display > Play sound on display") and other windows like "Options > Updates ... > Set Plugin Memo Font" are skinned.

mouser

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #23 on: March 01, 2008, 11:27 AM »
yes i think i can; i'll put it on my todo list which i am going to take a whack at this month,

Nod5

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Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR
« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2009, 02:31 PM »
this is still my main skin in FARR - minimal is best. But a drawback is that the vert/horiz scrollbar doesn't match the minimal style of the FARR inputbox.
slenderFARRskin.png

Is there presently some easy way for me to change that?
I followed the initial advice in this thread https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=14454.0 to downloaded Skin Builder from http://www.link-rank.com/download.htm , opened the slenderFARR skin, imported scrollbars from another skin and saved. But just like Andish in that thread I get the "This skin is for older versions" error in FARR when I try to load the modified skin. Has some way around that problem cropped up by now?