Messages

26

LaunchBar Commander / Icon display: mean quality

« on: March 22, 2011, 11:18 PM »

Hi,

I read the thread https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21776.0
and with those settings all is ok.
But I would like to use a dark background. Then, all icons with a round or oblique outline look really ugly - they have a shadow in the colour of the background of the default skin - all icons that come from the program files.
If I make icons on my own (4th from the left), or the icons have an outline strictly horizontal/vertical then it is ok.

27

LaunchBar Commander / Repositioning of windows / Fixup OnTop Status - can it be optimized?

« on: March 22, 2011, 10:13 PM »

Hi,
I like the feature that LBC tries to keep the borders free where its docks are sitting. However sometimes (no, more often than that) this is not succesful, and a window is positioned with its top-menu just beneath the dock that is at the top border of my screen, thus unaccessible for the mouse to drag around or to reach the menu. A right click on the LBC dock reveals a menu entry "fixup OnTop Status". If I click it, the wrongly positioned window is immediately positioned where it should be, just below the dock. After this repositioning LBC seems to be closed for a moment (the docks disappear), and then restarted - this part seems to be unneccessary. It is time consuming, at least on my subnote with a slow 1.8" HD and an ulv processor it takes quite some seconds... In case this fixup ONTop Status is necessary, could there be another menu entry to just reposition the other windows?
Even better: can the build in commands (like fixup OnTop) be added as a dock entry? Then it would be a one click feature (instead of: right click, then position the mouse on the correct menu entry, then left click). Or get a hotkey?
Or, at best, can the recognition be improved that a window is positioned within that forbidden zone?

thank you
poyan

winXP Prof.

28

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Dock positioning/resizing by external programs

« on: January 26, 2011, 07:53 AM »

Hi, mouser,
thanks for your reply.
1.
dragging around a window:
yes, you are right, that could be a problem: however, that should be no problem for you to write some code so that LBC follows the window?!?
If not, a hotkey could reposition the dock.
I personally don´t drag these windows around by mouse, I use my scripts for positioning the windows. And these scripts are controlled by hotkeys (or by commands included in a dock).
 
Why using window-related docks
I work with very many different programs, and not all of these are well designed (nearly none, in fact).
That means, that some features, which I need frequently, cannot be accessed directly, they need several actions within the menues. Or, I need some combinations of actions. Some are really complex.
A very simple example: I want to have a text formatted yellow+bold+italics+orange background+set hight to 20pt + use verdana instead of times. And your editor has no macro functionality. And that you have to do repeatedly... That is boring and time consuming and makes me mad. Instead: one click onto an icon in my dock, that shows the text: 20pt (in verdana), yellow on an orange background. It´s much faster, much more convenient...

Why attaching to the window
I work with a lot of different programs, thus I have at the moment 15 different docks with around 10 to 20 individual icons (=commands). All docks at the margin of the monitor: they would be one beneath the other... (Ok, that would just need some code to bring the right one on top)

More important: I use a 28" monitor - that means, that I have a really long way sometimes from the window to the dock and then back again. Not rarely, I´m at the edge of the mouse pad and hve not reached the dock, that means, lift the mouse, position it on the mouse pad and then try to reach the dock again. So I imagine that a dock attached to a window would allow shorter ways.
The optimum would be if the attached dock would behave like the corresponding window: if the window is activated, the dock comes also to the foreground. If another window is activated, the old dock is no longer in the foregound. If a window is minimized, the dock also disappeares, and so on....

I think I could manage this with my scripts, but I would need a dock that allows to be controlled. I guess it would be better if the control of the windows and the dock would come with the dock.

Sure, this is a feature that is only of interest for users who are willing to do some coding to enhance the usability of their programs. But that could also be a new service: offering (predefined, but easily changeable)  individual controlbars for programs which do not have this feature.

2.
using hotkeys for displaying a LMC menu
That would mean I would have to position the mouse at the wanted position first, then pressing the hotkey... That are two unnecessary two actions (with every window)...
I will give it a try...

Kind regards
poyan

29

LaunchBar Commander / Dock positioning/resizing by external programs

« on: January 22, 2011, 01:28 PM »

Hi,
I'm still looking for a dock allowing multiple docks, which are displayed according to the active program, as described in this thread: https://www.donation....msg213845#msg213845

Since LBC basically offers multiple docks plus the possibility to submit codes via the commandline for building docks plus offers docks positioned freely on the desktop ("floating") I was again playing around with it. The only problem I have is that the dock-windows seem to be not resizable and cannot be positioned by codes from third party programs/scripts. If that would be possible the docks could be "attached" to (=positioned just above/asides) the window of the corresponding program, thus allowing a kind of an individual toolbar for programs which do not offer customizable menus/toolbars, and this toolbar-dock would be located not somewhere at the possibly far away located side of the monitor, but just at the program-window thus being in sight permanently and easily accessible with the mouse, without the need to push the mouse around the screen - at least an issue with the modern, large monitors of 22" or even more.

Therefore I suggest that the LBC dock-windows should be customizable as far as possible by external code: position on the screen (left, top), size (width, height), z-order (from always on top to regular to minimized/hidden/tray). Or, LBC offers this feature by internal codes, that is: positioning/resizing other program-windows and the corresponding LBC docks...

Any chance?
poyan

30

LaunchBar Commander / multiple docks - depending on active program

« on: July 28, 2010, 08:56 PM »

Hi,
just stumbled into LBC since it promises what I am looking for...

My demands:
I have programmed a lot of little scripts (I use a program named shortcut; www.typer.de; freeware for personal use but limited in number of "macros") that help me in daily work which has to be done repeatedly. Many apply to one or two programs (of a considerable number of different programs I have to use). I prefer to have a one-click-access to most of them, and some which I use more rarely could be put into a submenu. This means that the feature "switchable submenu" and calling these submenus by specially designed tabs
--- as described here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=20317.0 ---
is NOT what I would like... too many clicks and too many submenus... (however I will give it a try).

At the moment I use rocket dock (which is no longer supported) and object dock, the one on the left side, the other at the bottom of the screen. As a "submenu" I use the stack docklet.
To get the feature "dock displayed depending on active window" I change the ini-files of rocket dock / object dock by a script that is called by buttons in a submenu (stack docklet). However this change requires 1. two mouseclicks to initiate the change and 2. a shutdown and a restart of rocket dock / object dock. This costs some time. So I was quite interested when I read about LBC and multidock, however, it does not really offer the feature I described?!? Nevertheless you seem to think in this direction as I found here in the forum a thread concerning the display of a specific launchbar when an usb stick is inserted... https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21678.0

In short, what I suggest:
A launchbar
      (or a set of launchbars)
which is specific to a program
      (or a set of programs, or a specific situation like the insertion of an external drive/usb stick)
is automatically displayed if the program
      (or one of a defined set of programs)
is started or activated...

Kind regards

Yango