Here is version 2. People didn't like version 1's graphics so I made it a bit better. I havn't been keeping up with graphic design these days so its still sort of shoddy. If anyone wants to collaborate with me on version 3 (as in making the graphics for the desktop), just e-mail me at: daemonk@aol.com and we can work something out.
*Note** this is a beta version of version 2. I have not finished the navigator mode of the desktop yet.
changes from version 1: -graphics improved...I hope -all positioning are done in CSS, no more annoying HTML tables. yay. -all the images are transparent. learned how to take advantage of png's transparency behavior. -icons are draggable: the link boxes are draggable (drag using the light blue squares). the desktop button menu is draggable (click on desktop button, a menu will show up, drag using the little blank square below the desktop button). -a reset button is added. its basically a refresh button. so if you want the desktop back to its default positions, just click on reset. -switching modes hotkeys ARE NOT implemented yet. -the size of the file is about 376 kb I think....a lot smaller than before.
requirements: I've been running this desktop for about 3 or 4 days now, and I havn't noticed any slow down at all. running active desktop from what I notice, takes the same resources as running IE. so if your computer is able to run a decently large page in IE, you should be able to run this. -you need IE, the latest version. -1024x768 resolution -win xp, need active desktop -basically if you can run photoshop, I am pretty sure you can run this.
instructions: 0. download the zip file and unzip into a directory. 1. right click on desktop. go to properties. go to customize desktop. 2. click on the web tab. 3. click on new. 4. go to browse. 5. choose index.html from the directory you unziped the files into. 6. press okay. 7. choose the index.html file from the list. click synchronize. 8. if the checkbox is checked, uncheck lock desktop items checkbox. 9. press okay. apply. 10. now you should see a little square box with the html inside of it. oh but before you do anything with that box, first right click on the desktop. go to arrange icons. then click on hide icons. 11. now the nasty icons are gone. move your mouse near the edge of the square box. a gray border should appear that'll let you move it arround. click on the maximize button. now you should be able to see the whole thing. 12. you can go back to the customize deskop/web tab and lock the box if you want so the gray border won't show up when you move your mouse to the edge of the box.
*NOTE*** if the images doesn't load on the page (blank boxes with red check box shows up where the images should be): -make sure all the image (png files) are in a folder named "images". And the script files (.htc files) are in a folder named "scripts". So the root directory of the extracted folder should have: index.html, folder named images, folder named scripts.
credits: -Webfx, http://webfx.eae.net this site is godly. both the drag script and png behavior script are from this site.
short list of features: -almost everything on the desktop can move. if your mouse turns into a "move" cursor when its mouseover something, that means you can move it. -only four hotkeys are implmented. press '3', window explorer will pop up, '4', for IE, '5' for AOL (I use it..heh), '6' for AIM. -the desktop button. click once to open, click again to close. the little squre under the desktop button when you open the menu is the "handle" used to drag the menu.
wow.. thats a long comments.. but thats good.. the active desktop could be intergrated a bit better.. as for the tables / dhtml usage thats prefreance.. the use/abuse of the pngs is a good thing but peronaly not my style lol.. looks like youve got alot of time into this... unfortuanly i cant rate on the actual performance of your setup here as it would horribly mess up my curruent active desktop project up... from what ive read / can see of this looks like you're doing alright... (if i can find a box to test drive this the rating may change...) btw nice link you provieded [B]:: edit :: [/B] okay so i got this thing on a different box (/me loves new lan) and its very nice lots of things i dig about it, but, unfortunatly there is a but, there are a few things that i dont... your applicatoin menu / personal menu have hardlly anything in commen with the way this, or any of my boxes are set up... but who cares.. thats easily editable... you could, if you wanted to take the time, build a form to help those who dont wanna dig through code set this up.. okay so thats my only gripe about it... other than that.. just the above comments (original rating 85) [B]:: edit :: [/B] i hate you =P i just got done clicking around this thing.. almost everything moves lol GREAT WORK... just gotta work on the intergration a bit more.. i donno howmany html / dhtml junkies hang in and around custo it may prove difficult for them to make their workarounds so you might conder including a 'readme.txt' file in the zip explaining how to further customize this to meet the needs of the end user....
yeah, building a form to make it easier to edit is something I am looking into right now. I plan to add an edit mode (basically a mode where instead of the links in the app menu boxes, you'll see a form and submit button...etc, etc) in the future; but unfortunately I don't have much experience in cgi/perl (but even if I did, runing cgi scripts off your harddrive needs installation of other programs...too much of a hassle for people). I did find a javascirpt/dhtml way to sort of do the same thing, but its still very much in the testing phase..maybe version 3. I still need to finish navigator mode....that'll take a while. BTW. for people who don't know what navigator mode is..its basically a multi function "program" (not really a program) with my phone/adress book, class schedual, favorite links, tools (currently, I plan to add a memo notepad and desktop alert alarm clock in the tools section).
Excellent stuff! I've been using the one you provided me with a few weeks ago, and it's fantastic. I agree with Syko, a forum would a be agood idea. I'd post more comments, but I am soooo bust right now. I think you know what I'll say . . . html rules. Period. BTW, interesting wallpaper choice . . . :-)
dude.. that wallpaper is just go ugly... next time hook up with me and i will give you a good wallpaper.. other than that very nice work on the active desktop :)
Thu, Apr 10th at 09:56pm (6 years ago)
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yeah, building a form to make it easier to edit is something I am looking into right now. I plan to add an edit mode (basically a mode where instead of the links in the app menu boxes, you'll see a form and submit button...etc, etc) in the future; but unfortunately I don't have much experience in cgi/perl (but even if I did, runing cgi scripts off your harddrive needs installation of other programs...too much of a hassle for people). I did find a javascirpt/dhtml way to sort of do the same thing, but its still very much in the testing phase..maybe version 3. I still need to finish navigator mode....that'll take a while. BTW. for people who don't know what navigator mode is..its basically a multi function "program" (not really a program) with my phone/adress book, class schedual, favorite links, tools (currently, I plan to add a memo notepad and desktop alert alarm clock in the tools section).