I have liteStep, been using it since 1999 and I have had the same themes for YEARS. I have recently been bitten by a bug to rearrange things. I was dealing with old modules being incompatible with the software at work - One of my themes, Amulet, is truly ancient and has been rewritten many times of the years to maintain the original look and feel - One of my themes is Austerity, a pretty safe theme that everybody has and I would use when something in one of the other themes was causing problems. I started re-writing the other themes to use the same modules as Austerity, which I knew was functional on the computers at work.
Then I thought,'why unload and reload the same modules when I switch themes?' So I have move the modules common to all the themes from the theme step.rc file to the main step.rc file, that way they are only loaded once. I found the only thing left in some of my themes was taskbar3.dll, for Austerity, Tasks.dll for the others, geekamp.dll, and jamp.dll, which the theme Amulet does not use. I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to make xtaskbar or taskbar3 do task icons like tasks, or some other, newer module that could be configured to do both, a taskbar for Austerity or separate icons for old school themes like Morph LE, turtle soup, or Amulet...

You can do it easily with xTaskbar via...

UseBigIcon TRUE
ShowIcon TRUE
ShowText FALSE

So how do i keep it from having a 'taskbar'? in tasks I give it a direction, right and down or right and up, and a count and it sets up nice little rows of boxed icons. Here is an example of how I got it set up:

TasksDirection right
TasksWrapDirection down
TasksWrapCount 14
TasksHideMinAppBar
TasksBgImage task.bmp
TasksHighlightSelected
TasksSelBgImage task-sel.bmp
TasksHighlightMinimized
TasksMinBgImage task-min.bmp
TasksX 610
TasksY 0
TasksHeight 48
TasksWidth 48
TasksIconSize 32
TasksBorderX 8
TasksBorderY 8

this one is from Amulet, which has rather large task icons and framed boxes around them and background colors that represent selected, background, and minimize... Could you give me an example that would do the same thing for xtaskbar? Once I see it for one I am sure I could duplicate it for others...

So I guess the verdict is that taskbar3 or xtaskbar can't do it, right?

it can do it...convert your settings over to xtaskbar equivalent commands, add the three I already gave you and you are done. I am not going to write it for you...you will have to at least try on your own first.

;-------------------------------------------------
;------Tasks--------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------------
;TasksX 564
;TasksY -0
;TasksHeight 18
;TasksWidth 18
;TasksSpacingX 2
;TasksSpacingY 0
;TasksDirection Right
;TasksWrapDirection Up
;TasksWrapCount 24
;TasksDragDistance 4
;TasksIconSize 16
;TasksZOrder "OnTop"
;TasksDockWindow ".none"
;TasksBgImage tasks.bmp
;TasksSelBgImage task-sel.bmp
;TasksMinBgImage task-min.bmp
;TasksAutoArrange
;TasksNoMove
;TasksBgColor FF00FF
;TasksTransparency "real"
;TasksHighlightSelected
;TasksHighlightMinimized

xTaskbarPaintingMode ".multicolor"
xTaskbarBorderMethod etched
xTaskbarButtonPaintingMode ".multicolor"

xTaskbarX 564
xTaskbarY -18
xTskbarButtonMaxHeight 18
xTskbarButtonMaxWidth 18
xTaskbarButtonXSpacing 2
xTaskbarButtonYSpacing 0
xTaskbarButtonDirection ".right"
xTaskbarButtonWrapDirection ".top"
xTaskbarButtonWrapCount 24
xTaskbarIconSize 16
xTaskBarAlwaysOnTop True
xTaskBarColors FF00FF
xTaskbarTrueTransparency true

xTaskbartopborder 0
xTaskbarbottomborder 0
xTaskbarLeftBorder 1
xTaskbarRightBorder 1

xTaskbarbuttonmaxwidth 18
xTaskbarHideIfEmpty
xTaskbarWidth 0
xTaskbarHeight 18

xTaskbarButtonxSpacing 2
xTaskbarOnAdd !xTaskbarRepositionBy 0 0 20 0
xTaskbarOnRemove !xTaskbarRepositionBy 0 0 -20 0

xTaskbarUseBigIcon False
xTaskbarShowIcon True
xTaskbarShowText False

I was typing a nice long message and when I hit submit It redirected me to login again - must have timed out - so I will break it up into smaller pieces. this is my attempt, it is not working quite right. I cannot find a way to set the task background image for a task that is normal, selected, or minimized. The tasks are only growing right. I combined the part at the end under 'tips for auto sizing with exact size buttons' and I think that is overriding the wrap count and direction parts. I need the bar to grow to the right (width*count) and grow up up at (height*(count mod wrapcount)), and arrange the tasks accordingly. The text it displays when you hover over it is also different. Under Tasks.dll it would display the executable, for normal executables, or the website loaded for web browsers, or the document open for notepad, etc..., and the text would stay there as long as your mouse was there. But under xTaskbar I get Caption: yada yada... Executable: yada yada... and it vanishes quickly. I am sure there are settings for the text on hover somewhere, but I did not see them in the little .chm file it came with.

I appreciate any help you can give me on this.

You should look more in the ReadMe :P
I have written it, but i know my english and explanations aren't the best.

Just some hints:
I cannot find a way to set the task background image
http://www.xdocs.ls-universe.info/pie.php?xTaskbar2#TextureSettings

For some Tooltip Modifications:
xTaskbarTooltipMode METHOD
METHOD can be one of the following:
".prefix-caption-file" -> Default
".caption-file"
".prefix-caption"
".caption"
".prefix-file"
".file"

Try xTaskbarAutoSize for your Taskbar:
AutoSize MaxTaskbarSIZE(int) [STEPS(int)] [DELAY(int)]
The Taskbar resizes/repositions itself according to the settings!
You must additionally set:

xTaskbarButtonMaxWidth
xTaskbarButtonMaxHeight

MaxTaskbarSIZE is either the maximum Width (Layout .horizontal) or Height (Layout .vertical) of the Taskbar.

Maybe it helps, at least all you want is possible somehow.

I found xTaskBarColors in an example devoted to naming multiple taskbars, but no actual docs on how it works. In my original I had a spec for a background color, but in the example it listed two colors, and I have no reference for what colors mean what in what order... I did try it without the

xTaskbarPaintingMode ".multicolor"
xTaskbarBorderMethod etched
xTaskbarButtonPaintingMode ".multicolor"

part and I got icons with no background and the transparent pink was not entirely transparent, I could see pink on the edges of the icons. I had looked at the button texture settings before but got the impression that they were for colors or textures, did not see how it applied to setting the pictures to be used. I will experiment with that part more tomorrow...

So I get the impression I should remove the part at the end from the 'tips and tricks for auto sizing with exact size buttons...' I understand the max size stuff, but I kind of wish I had a minimum size as well, I do not want the buttons to get smaller...

I was hoping to get more info on how the text tips work, but I am not seeing it - make the tip stay as long as the mouse is over the button, make the message simpler: .exe name unless a document or site of some sort is open in which case the document or website open instead of the .exe name... It truly says exactly what was quoted above, and nothing more... I followed the link about 'Additionally all xPaintTooltip settings are valid for the xTaskbar Tooltip!' and it did not explain this any further... I am not sure what '.prefix' is, and I would like the 'tips' to change according to the task, as tasks.dll did, but it appears that it will treat all tasks the same?

I think there is a whole bunch of xStuff settings that I have ZERO experience in that these docs kind of assume I already know... as in "...STEPS and DELAY specify the Animation (you should already know how to use)..." part I read while trying to figure this stuff out.

I am still using shortcuts2.dll; a special version I got from an IRC chat room a couple of years ago that does not have the 'hover over shortcut stays hovered over when you are not hovering over them anymore...' problem that so many other versions, even the incomplete shortcuts3.dll continue to have...

I was going to look into maybe some xThing.dll that could be set to do what ever shortcuts2.dll could do after I got this tasks thing straightened out...

I know my theme choices are 'old school' and I really cannot find modern themes that even slightly resemble the things I use, but I like that I have been able to continue using my non-generic, machine specific-tinker-to-setup-scripts-for-first-use-on-a-new-machine type themes for as long as I have been and would like to modernize my stuff to be able to use it beyond windows vista service pack 3...

I suspect that maybe xLabel could be rigged to do what shortcuts2 does? maybe labels with no text but an image and action when pressed...

Just look in the various xPaint... Docs in xTaskbar.
ALL settings mentioned in there work for all states.

Basically its always the same: (for all xPaint... Classes)

xTaskbar + "PREFIX" + "SETTING"

"PREFIX" can be "" -> xTaskbarPaintingMode

or anything mentioned in the Module Docs!

For xTaskbar:

Its in the docs! Feel free to enhance the Online Docs once you have understand it. ;)

-> xTaskbarBUTTONPaintingMode
-> xTaskbarNORMALButtonPaintingMode
-> xTaskbarActiveButtonPaintingMode
...
All this applied to all settings mentioned in xPaintTexture.
It is the same for Icons (xPaintIcon), the Text (xPaintText) or the Tooltip (xPaintTooltip).


Tooltip text is simply not customizable in the way you want it!


And yes xLabel can do anything that shortcut2 can do. :P

I am trying here, but this is not making sense to me. Here is what I have:

xTaskbarX 564
xTaskbarY -18
xTaskbarButtonMaxHeight 18
xTaskbarButtonMaxWidth 18
xTaskbarButtonMinHeight 18
xTaskbarButtonMinWidth 18
xTaskbarButtonXSpacing 2
xTaskbarButtonYSpacing 0
xTaskbarAutoSize 480
xTaskbarLayout ".horizontal"
xTaskbarButtonDirection ".right"
xTaskbarButtonWrapDirection ".top"

xTaskbarButtonWrapCount 24
xTaskbarIconSize 16
xTaskbarAlwaysOnTop True
xTaskbarTrueTransparency true
xTaskbarWidth 0
xTaskbarHeight 18

xTaskbarUseBigIcon False
xTaskbarShowIcon True
xTaskbarShowText False

xTaskShowHoverState True
xTaskShowPressedState True
xTaskImageWidth 18
xTaskImageHeight 18
xTaskNormalButtonImage task.bmp
xTaskActiveButtonImage task-sel.bmp
xTaskMinimizedButtonImage task-min.bmp


nad the thing will not grow up, it just squeezes in wy more than 24 and stays the same. It ignores the images and I still have floating icons with traces of pink around the edges. Please, what am I doing wrong here?

?I just caught and changed the last entries from xTask... to xTaskbar... and it makes no difference...

Just one thing:

and

xTaskbarButtonWrapCount 24 must be xTaskbarWrapCount 24

Good luck!

OK, I got most of it working. The only thing left is the border. I took this directly from the example in the help file:
xTaskbartopborder 4
xTaskbarbottomborder 4
xTaskbarLeftBorder 4
xTaskbarRightBorder 4
but it seems to be ignoring the left border and putting the icon off center.

the whole thing as I have it set is:
xTaskbarButtonPaintingMode ".image"
xTaskbarX 610
xTaskbarY 0
xTaskbartopborder 4
xTaskbarbottomborder 4
xTaskbarLeftBorder 4
xTaskbarRightBorder 4
xTaskbarButtonMaxHeight 24
xTaskbarButtonMaxWidth 24
xTaskbarButtonMinHeight 24
xTaskbarButtonMinWidth 24
xTaskbarButtonXSpacing 2
xTaskbarButtonYSpacing 0
xTaskbarAutoSize 670
xTaskbarLayout ".horizontal"
xTaskbarButtonDirection ".right"
xTaskbarButtonWrapDirection ".bottom"

xTaskbarWrapCount 25
xTaskbarIconSize 16
xTaskbarAlwaysOnTop True
xTaskbarTrueTransparency true
xTaskbarWidth 0
xTaskbarHeight 24

xTaskbarUseBigIcon False
xTaskbarShowIcon True
xTaskbarShowText False

xTaskbarShowHoverState False
xTaskbarShowPressedState True
xTaskbarImageWidth 24
xTaskbarImageHeight 24
xTaskbarNormalButtonImage stask.bmp
xTaskbarActiveButtonImage stask-sel.bmp
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImage stask-min.bmp

and the icon seems to be centered vertically, not in a corner, but it refuses to center horizontally.

Through experimentation I have found that the border seems to be applied to outside the image, not to the icon as laid over the image. If I make the border large it moves the entire image, not the icon inside the image...

You want to adjust xTaskbarButtonXSpacing I believe. I am pretty sure this adjusts the X location of the icon within the task.

I found that the way to move the icon within the button is
xTaskbarIconX and/or xTaskbarIconY.

I am sure you have all seen the settings for taskbar3 in Austerity. I was able to translate it relatively easily to xtaskbar2, but a couple of things are not working quite right. Here are my translated settings:

xTaskbarPaintingMode ".image"
xTaskbarButtonPaintingMode ".image"
TaskBarX $StatsX+StatsWidth$
TaskBarY $BarY$
TaskBarWidth $ResolutionX-TaskBarX-SystrayWidth-TimeWidth-55$
TaskBarHeight 48
xTaskbarX $TaskBarX$
xTaskbarY $TaskBarY$
xTaskbarWidth $TaskBarWidth$
xTaskbarHeight $TaskBarHeight$
IF NOT MaximizeOverBar AND BarOnTop
xTaskbarAlwaysOnTop False;True
ENDIF
xTaskBarUpdateInterval 100
xTaskbarButtonDirection ".right"
xTaskBarShowPressedState False
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2 OR TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarLines 1
ELSE
xTaskBarLines 2
ENDIF
IF TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarButtonMaxWidth 46
xTaskbarButtonMaxCount $TaskBarWidth/xTaskBarButtonMaxWidth$
ELSE
xTaskBarButtonMaxWidth $TaskBarWidth/2$
ENDIF
IF StatsOn AND NOT WinNT4 AND NOT Win95
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2 OR TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarBorders 6 4 0 0
ELSE
xTaskBarBorders 6 4 2 2
ENDIF
ELSE
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2 OR TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarBorders 0 4 0 0
ELSE
xTaskBarBorders 0 4 2 2
ENDIF
ENDIF
xTaskBarButtonBorders 0 0 0 0
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2
xTaskBarFontLeftBorder 24
xTaskBarFontRightBorder 6
xTaskBarFontTopBorder 0
xTaskBarFontBottomBorder 0
ELSE
xTaskBarFontLeftBorder 22
xTaskBarFontRightBorder 6
xTaskBarFontTopBorder 0
xTaskBarFontBottomBorder 0
ENDIF
xTaskbarButtonXSpacing 0
xTaskbarButtonYSpacing 0
xTaskbarShowIcon True
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2
xTaskBarIconX 4
xTaskBarIconY 14
ELSEIF TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarIconX 6
xTaskBarIconY 6
ELSE
xTaskBarIconX 2
xTaskBarIconY 3
ENDIF
IF TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskBarIconSize 32
ELSE
xTaskBarIconSize 16
ENDIF
xTaskbarImage taskbar.png
IF TaskButtonsMode = 2 OR TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskbarNormalButtonImage taskbarlarge_normal.bmp
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarActiveButtonImage taskbarlarge_Active.bmp
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImage taskbarlarge_normal.bmp
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImage taskbarlarge_flash.bmp
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageMode "stretch"
ELSE
xTaskbarNormalButtonImage taskbar_normal.bmp
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarNormalButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarActiveButtonImage taskbar_Active.bmp
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarActiveButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImage taskbar_normal.bmp
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonImageMode "stretch"
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImage taskbar_flash.bmp
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageLeftEdge 2
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageRightEdge 4
xTaskbarFlashingButtonImageMode "stretch"
ENDIF
IF TaskButtonsMode = 3
xTaskbarShowText False
ELSE
xTaskbarShowText True
ENDIF
xTaskbarFont "$TaskBarFont$"
xTaskbarFontHeight 13
xTaskbarNormalFontColor "$TaskNormalColour$"
xTaskbarActiveFontColor "$TaskActiveColour$"
xTaskbarMinimizedFontColor "$TaskMinColour$"
xTaskbarFlashingFontColor "$TaskbarFlashColour$"
xTaskbarFontAlign "left"
xTaskbarFontVertAlign "center"


I had to add a section to reduce the width by 55 to keep it from overwriting the systray. I am not sure why, maybe just because my laptop is letterbox and it is using the wrong numbers for the resolution... The other thing was that, in the original, it would show 1 task, then 2 tasks, then on task number 3 it would go to 2 lines, but now it shows 6 tasks on the first line before it goes to the second line. I am not sure how it works, I do not even have a max count number or anything.

In the original it was set up with three images for the buttons, center. left, and right. I could not see way to do that in xtaskbar so I combined the images into one and used the do not stretch left and right int amounts to accomplish the same effect.

I figured out part of the problem, but I do not understand it enough to figure out a solution yet. It seems I need to add the '-55' because these settings do not account for a dynamic sized systray. It seems that the formulas that used to work now only work as if the systray was empty, and more tasks that make the systray wider result in the systray growing without the taskbar shrinking, where as before the two worked in harmony. I think it has to do with exportable variables utilized by taskbar3 but not xtaskbar2? or xtaskbar not recalculating the numbers when they change?

Yup...you have to tell Systray to resize the taskbar.

HOW? remember, I am not that fluent in this stuff, and Austerity uses vtray, not systray. I was looking at the way it ws originally set up, I do not see Omar having vtray tell taskbar3 its new size anywhere.

Pretty sure it did. Anywho...there are Systray events covered in the docs for OnIconAdd and OnIconDel, or something like that. What you need to do is trigger a resize bang for your taskbar.

I have never used mzscript before, but i went into and kind of reverse engineered it and got it to work dynamically, the taskbar resizes now. I had to swap out the taskbar shrink and taskbar grow commands for xtaskbarresize by... but it now seems to work, so that part is working. I do not know why, but the initial command is still TaskBarWidth $ResolutionX-TaskBarX-SystrayWidth-TimeWidth-38$, even with the resizing thing working for added and remved icons, the initial size has changed.


The other part, which i could not see in a script to configure, where it would have 1 task, 2 task, then the odd one goes to the next line... I do not see a way to make that work with xtaskbar, and after 12 tasks a third line appears, though the original would never go above 2 lines...

That would be handled by your Direction and Wrap Count settings.

I have finally gotten it to look and act like I want it to. True, the text that pops up when I hover over tasks is different, but other than that I got all my themes to use xTaskbar instead of tasks.dll or Taskbar3.dll. Thank you for the help, and if you want to re-do the litestep install with xtaskbar instead of taskbar3, I would be happy to save you the trouble by giving you the taskbar and script .rc changes I made.

There is a new installer in the works along with a new OTS version. I am sure they would love help and glad you could get things working and learn along the way.