Published on March 6, 2002 By Third Eye In WinCustomize Talk
Is there a way to limit the size of a popup?
ie: The standard WinXP "all programs" popup shows the full text of a link or
folder. I would like to have my popup always be the same size and to not
grow larger than lets say 200px regardless of the length of text.

Is there a way to define how long a bar takes to hide?
ie: I would like to place one bar on top of another and to have the bottom
bar hide first immediately and for the second bar (the one on top) to hide
after about 30 seconds.

Is there a way to attach two bars together to achieve the above affect?

I have looked over the two OB tutorials that I could find but they did not
mention if my requests were able to be achieved. Any guidance would be
greatly appreciated.

TIA

Comments
on Mar 06, 2002
bar sizes can be set, because i have done it acidently myself

a good place to start would be theme properties, select the section of interest, and look on the "Arrangement" tab. at the bottom there are a couple of numbers for minimum and maximum item size. i am guessing these should allow this effect.

i dont know of any way to effect popup time, but it is an outstanding request.

as for joining two bars together, i am not really sure what you mean there. you can link bars together, but i dont know what you are after.
on Mar 06, 2002
I have a popup set as a companion skin. The problem with this is that the only way I have found to edit my companion skin is to open it with SkinStudio. Is there a way to define the width constrant within Skin Studio?

Next:
Ok, I have 2 bars. One is on top of the other. Top bar holds my SysTray and TaskBar. The Bottom one holds my shortcuts, RecBin and clock.

Right now I have them connected but what I would like to do is to have the bottom bar hide immidately. The top bar would then move down to take it's place and hide after about 30 seconds. If I bumped the bottom of my screen I would like the bars to unhide and for the top bar to stay on top of the bottom bar.

I hope that is more clear
on Mar 07, 2002
i seem more now

for editing the skin, i dont use skin studio, so i cannot comment on that directly.

if you can find an example OB skin that does what you want, then it should be possible to work out how it is done, and then apply the same tactic to your skin.

i dont know of anyway to set up two autohiding bars on top of each other, but i have never tried

i think people have mentioned the idea of a response time setting for autohide, but i dont think it has been implimented yet. i cannot see any sign of it in the theme configuration box.
on Mar 07, 2002
I havent found a theme yet that allows for the restraint of the bar width. Maybe OB just cannot do it yet? I'll keep trying

I don't think that the two autohiding bars are possible yet either. I think I have tried just about every combination possible to acheive the affect but If any of the developers are reading this then here might be a good place to put it


Under Theme Editor: Item-> Behavior -> Popup Properties

The ability to set the "Popup Direction" to "Down and align below item" and
"Up and align above item".

Objective: If you have a standard "Windows Style Start Bar" with a button
that launches a second full screen-width bar/popup this would allow for the
launched bar/popup to open up underneath the top bar pushing the top bar up.
When you hide the launched bar/popup the top bar would lower back to the
bottom of the screen seeming to push the launched bar down and out of view.

This would also work if you have your bars docked to the top of your screen.
on Mar 08, 2002
since these look like needing program "improvements" it might be worth posting these questions on the objectbar newsgroup. i dont know if Jeff (the OB developer) reads this board, but he does follow the newsgroup.
on Mar 08, 2002
I had already placed my request in the newsgroup... no one reponded so I thuoght I would try here as well
on Mar 11, 2002
Did anyone erspond? I woudl like to know as well.