[ Theme ] absolute-L [ Author ] Omar Hussain (ohussain@hotmail.com, http://ohussain.tripod.com) [ Credits ] This theme is a port of Absolute E for Enlightenment by Hallvar Helleseth (hallvar@ii.uib.no). All the graphics in this theme are derived from originals by Hallvar. That's not to say I didn't put a lot of work into this, though. ;) Almost forgot - I'm including the Absolute E skin for Winamp by JazzMidi (jazzmidi@mindspring.com). [ LiteStep ] I've tested this theme with LiteStep release 0.24.5, and it works fine, except that Chronos won't work unless you replace the lsapi.dll in your LiteStep dir with a newer one. I've also used this theme with ls-bin-19990820.zip, and ls-bin-19991022.zip (the latest release) without any problems. So you should be fine if you're using a build later than ls-bin-19990820. You can get these builds at: http://www.dev0.de/litestep_builds.html [ Installation ] I've put a lot of time and effort in an attempt to make this theme easy to install and customize, insha'allah if you follow these steps you won't have any difficulties. :) Unzip the archive (with paths) to your LiteStep dir - you don't have to worry about messing up your LiteStep dir, everything in the archive extracts to YourLiteStepDir\themes\absolute-L\. Navigate to the absolute-L\misc\ dir. Install the Vibrocentric font in the usual manner. Double click on the colours.reg to enter the absolute-L colour scheme into your registry. Now you can apply the absolute-L colour scheme from Display Properties. (If you're nervous about doing that, you can tediously apply the color settings manually using the colours.txt file in the same dir.) You may wish to install the WindowBlinds and Winamp skins for this theme (by myself and JazzMidi respectively) which are in this dir. (Note that although the WindowBlinds skin will apply the right colors if you choose the 'Apply skins color scheme' option, there are some color and font settings which aren't covered in there. The best results are achieved if you use one of the two methods described earlier for applying the colour scheme, and _deselect_ the 'Apply skins color scheme' option in WindowBlinds before applying the Absolute E skin.) Navigate to your LiteStep dir and create a subdirectory called Shortcuts. This is where the theme expects to find shortcuts to stuff. Create a subdirectory in Shortcuts called Control Panel. Now open your control panel, select the items you want, and drag them into the Shortcuts\Control Panel\ dir. When prompted, choose 'Yes' to create shortcuts. This control panel folder is used in the popup menu. If you'd rather not do all this, you'll have to edit the step.rc accordingly. [ Choose your destiny! ] I've included four different step.rc files: - panel_menu.rc This is everything - the system control panel and the applications and games shortcut menus. - panel_menu2.rc as above, except the panel is in the top left corner of the screen (0,0). - panel_nomenu.rc This is the panel, and no applications and games menus. The applications and games menu shortcuts on the panel have been replaced by file manager and web browser shortcuts, respectively. (Note that I have included replacement shortcuts to other apps as well. See the [ Customizing the graphics ] section in this document for more details.) - panel_nomenu2.rc as above, except the panel is in the top left corner of the screen (0,0). Choose the configuration you want, and open the appropriate .rc file in whatever editor you use. (Back up your original step.rc and modules.ini files) (If you want the panel to appear such that it's top left corner is at (25,100), for example, open up one of panel_menu2.rc or panel_nomenu2.rc and add 25 and 100 to the x and y coordinates respectively for chronos, lsxcommand, sysVWM, and all the shortcuts. Sorry, I was planning on having the whole panel draggable, but sysVWM and lsxcommand coordinates would have had to be manually entered anyway.) The entire panel can be hidden via the popup menu, and a panel that is already hidden can be shown via the popup menu. [ User vs. step.rc... Fight!! ] In the .rc file you'll have to set up the path to your LiteStep dir, set the paths to your shortcuts, etc. Just follow the comments in the .rc file. Just one thing - if you know that your build of sysVWM supports unique backgrounds on each virtual desktop, then modify the sysVWM LoadModule line to point to your sysVWM.dll. The appropriate commands for the backgrounds are already in place in the .rc file. If you're using the sysVWM 6.2 I included, then just tile whichever of the three backgrounds you like via Display Properties. When you're done editing, save the file as step.rc, copy it and the included modules.ini to your LiteStep dir and you're done. Recycle, reboot, whatever. [ Customizing the graphics ] I was going to include all the .psd files, but that pushed the archive size to 2.3MB so I took them out. If I get requests I'll post the .psd files at my website. For people that don't have PhotoShop, I've included blank .bmps in the absolute-L\blanks\ dir. Here's a description of what they are: a_blank.bmp The shortcut graphic under the Ripple shortcut on the panel g_blank.bmp The shortcut graphic that goes under a_blank.bmp menu_top.bmp The top image in a shortcut menu menu1.bmp 1st entry in a shortcut menu menu2.bmp 2nd entry in a shortcut menu . . . . menu10.bmp 10th entry in a shortcut menu menu_bot.bmp The bottom image in a shortcut menu panel_off.bmp Minimized panel panel_on.bmp Maximized panel If you're using the panel _without_ the games and applications menus, then you'll need a_blank.bmp and g_blank.bmp to customize the File Manager and Web shortcuts that are on the panel by default. To get you started, I've made some replacements for you: File Manager shortcut replacements: Web shortcut replacements: PhotoShop GameSpy Sonique Quake3 Winamp Word To use these shortcuts, copy the appropriate file from the blanks dir to the absolute-L\images\ dir, and edit your step.rc accordingly. If you're using the panel _with_ the games and applications menus, then you'll need the menu*.bmp files to customize the Applications and Games menus. (Note: Say you only want four entries in the games menu, just uncomment the last six entries and adjust the coordinates of menu_bot.bmp so that it appears under the fourth entry.) To edit the .bmps (I hope you have Paint Shop Pro): - Open the appropriate blank .bmp file in Paint Shop Pro - Set Foreground colour to: 220 220 220 for normal white text 37 241 99 for highlighted green text 255 255 70 for highlighted yellow text - Click on the text tool The 'Antialias' and 'Float' options should be checked Font is Vibrocentric Regular, Size is 7 Enter your text and Click 'OK' - You can move the text around until you're happy, but don't deselect it - Click on Image, Effects, Drop Shadow Color is black, Opacity 100, Blur 0, Vert. & Horiz. offsets are 2 [ End ] Enjoy the theme!! I'd like to hear any comments you might have. :)