DesktopX 2.4 Developer’s Guide
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2
Development Basics
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2.1 Creating a theme
If you are planning to start working on DesktopX objects it is often easier to start with a blank
canvas so you aren't distracted by other objects on your desktop.
The easiest way to do this is to select ‘New Theme’ from the ‘Theme’ tab on the DesktopX
configuration dialog that you were introduced to in the User’s Guide.
After choosing whether to save your existing theme, you will then be asked to confirm that you
reset all of the existing theme's elements like wallpaper and work areas.
On the ‘Theme’ tab, you will find all the theme related items that you can define. These are ways
of ensuring that the user experience of this theme will be consistent.
Hiding elements
You have two options here. ‘Hide desktop icons’ means that no icons will be displayed on the
desktop, not even IconX objects. By doing this you can be sure that the desktop will be totally
clear. You can also remove the taskbar from the desktop by checking ‘Hide Windows taskbar’.
This will mean that the user has no access to the start menu, running applications, or system tray
unless you create objects to replicate these functions so you should use this option cautiously.
Workarea
This button allows you to fool Windows into thinking the desktop is actually smaller than it is.
Why would you want to do this you may wonder? Well, one example is if you create objects
along the edge of the screen, like the windows taskbar. If you do this without reducing the area
then there are two things that occur; either maximized applications cover your objects so you
can't see them, or your object covers the window so you can't see that. Obviously, you don't
really want this so in this scenario. If you click the 'Work area' button and then check the 'Reduce
work area' box, then enter a number in the 'Bottom' box to specify the number of pixels you want
