I'm running Omar's build with Austerity. I'm not a total LS newbie, but pretty close.

The only thing I need (on a regular basis) from the taskbar is the system tray. Is there some way I could just display it across the bottom (or top) of my screen by itself?

I guess I could modify the taskbar and reduce it's height, and remove all the stuff on it that I don't want. But there are times where I'll need that stuff, just not all the time. So I'd like to bring it back occasionally when needed.

Is there a way I can bring up just the system tray with a hotkey? Or just create a toolbar with it on it alone?

I welcome any suggestions or approaches I don't know would be possible.

Thank you

uhmmm...sounds more like you should be looking to switch themes than pull all that off.

Maybe going the other way would be better. Maybe I could find a little freeware utility that would give me the systray.

oh, I also meant to ask... about an easy way to display the taskbar once it has been hidden. If it is there, I can just click on the gripper to remove it. Is there an easy way to show it again, without having to recycle?

Utilities: Litestep+xLabel+xTray. What Dev means is that Austerity is not modification-friendly. The code that makes it up is strange and fragile, and some of the (old) modules it uses are buggy.

Taskbar: how is it being hidden, and what taskbar?

Start downloading more themes from here. Austerity, when it was new, barely stretched any of the capabilities LS and its modules had at the time.

Oh, and: http://wiki.litestep.com/Themes:Development

@Cerbie, Okay, I understand. That makes sense.

I'm on my work machine, so I need a very stable theme that won't give me very much downtime.

I love customizing, but my customizations are not so much graphic (i.e. skinning), but programmatical.

Can you recommend some stable themes that are...
+ good to use as a base to start customizing
+ fairly no-nonsense, I'm not looking for pretty stuff.
+ function over form.
+ theme documentation would be nice.
+ stable... have I mentioned that yet? ;-)

Thank you.

M3 recommended via another thread. Liking it very much.

Man, I love forums.

Customizing: any of my or xcal's themes (mine are all far more dated--I'm working on it, and doing well, BTW!). Stylebar, as already noted. Ecystep is a nice new one, that is simple but coded well. Static-'s themes are good, too. Like xcal's, West's might be a little complex, but Popsicle at least is put together rather well.

Beware fractal.design's stuff. Neat, but 'sghetti code galore! :) Get his themes; just don't expect them to be stable.

Documentation will be iffy, but xcal's and West's especially are well-organized. A little on the complex side, as noted, but very much learnable. Ecystep is a nice one to dive into right off, as it just makes nice use of xModules (www.ls-universe.info) without anything extra thrown in.

Also, based on your list of wants, Litestep is definitely for you. BTW, when it comes to stability, learn this:
1. Task manager's "new task" is your friend.
2. ctrl-alt-F1 brings up a menu to recycle, quit, and kill LS, as well as bring up a run prompt.

Why? Well, in tinkering, you will break things. Period. Very often, some odd little bug will have propagated through recycles and cause LS to just go nuts, and need a nasty termination and start; rarely do such bugs transfer to a stable configuration (once you stop messing with settings, it will likely work indefinitely w/ no hassles).

Stable: mostly anything but fractal's. Also watch out for themes that still use TextEdit (xTextEdit is different!), shortcut, popup (xPopup, again, is different), label (xLabel is cool), and lsbox. Some will crop up here and there, and can be problematic.

"Beware fractal.design's stuff. Neat, but 'sghetti code galore! :) Get his themes; just don't expect them to be stable."
Its tough being at the bleeding edge, but someones gotta take point :P
I should really add that to my sig line :D

;) Cool.

I was trying to allude to Carroll, but jabberwock and bandersnatch are three syllables (jubjub bird, as well), and getting rid of 'the' changes the stress pattern, so I couldn't get it to work (that's why it starts with 'beware', though).

M3 has provided me with a nice little separate system tray, exactly what I need. And it didn't take too long to reconfigure it to be a left-justified, wrapping at 7 icons, horizontal toolbar of justice!

But I'm also looking forward to checking out your other recommendations.

Thank you