Creating your own desktop / virtual workspace skin for Lotus Notes
by florian vogler :: Lotus Notes Client Management
As promised, here are the instructions on how to create your own Lotus Notes skin for (the free, just now released in the previous post) MarvelClient Skinning Edition:
When creating a new skin, tiles can have ANY size LARGER than the default Notes tiles (a little bit smaller, too, however if it gets too small to render the database icon, title etc. into the tile, don't expect the Notes client to not crash ;-)).
Note: Displaying bookmarks as (virtual) workspace does not support larger images - it's up to you, whether you want to create a skin that works for both the classic Notes desktop and the bookmarks as workspace display or just the Notes desktop.
Unfortunately, at least as of "now", the text on icon tiles is always black for non-selected tiles, blue for selected (we are looking into it) - keep this is in mind when designing the icon tile, as a black icon tile or dark background "shining trhough" will render the database title unreadable
The database / bookmark icon is always at the top left of an icon / bookmark tile. Period.
(Applies to all other objects, such as position of unread mark display, twisty, and title, too)
All icon objects (database icon, title, twistie) are moved by 4 pixels down and to the right when clicking on icon tiles. So if you design your new set, the selected tile should fit with that "4x4-pixel-shift"
Repeated: Make sure that def_twistie_old has the same size as def_twistie_new (to fit clickable area) and is only changed in size
If you don't want to replace a particular bitmap / skin a particular object, just remove the respective file
Seeing the results of your changes requires a client restart (to reload the images)
- The image files supplied in the download are defined as follows:
Note: this is the same download as in the previous post
- def_background.bmp: the background image - details under 2.)
- def_icon_down.bmp: the image for selected icon tiles
- def_icon_up.bmp: the image for normal / non-selected icon tiles
- def_sitemap_down.bmp: the image for selected portfolio databases (e.g. bookmark.nsf)
- def_sitemap_up.bmp: the image for normal / non-selected portfolio databases
- def_twistie_old.bmp: a placeholder image which is replaced with def_twistie_new at runtime -
the def_twistie_old.bmp should not be changed regarding colors/contents/format, but only resized according to the exact size of def_twistie_new.bmp
- the size determines the "clickable" area of the final twisty.
- def_twistie_new.bmp: the image of the notes twisty / hinky-minky (=to select server for replicas)
- def_r6_default.bmp: the replacement high-color icon image for newly created databases
- old_r6_default.bmp: the original "default" Notes 6/7 database icon for newly created databases
note: any transparency in the original icon must be replaced with the color black for MarvelClient to replace the image at runtime. - def_r6_mail.bmp: the replacement high-color icon image for mail databases
- old_r6_mail.bmp: the original "default" Notes 6/7 mail database icon
note: any transparency in the original icon must be replaced with the color black for MarvelClient to replace the image at runtime.
- you can create as many old_r6_* and def_r6_* icon pairs as wanted/needed (ok, performance may suffer it it's several hundred or so ;-))
- all of the above images can be 24bit or 24bit+8bit alpha (=32bit) bitmap files
- for the background image, alpha is not supported, but 24bit only.
- using a 16bit background image creates a (very) weird effect when navigating through notes and back to the workspace
in other words: 24bit bitmaps for the background only
The background is not optimized / resized for the current resolution of the client to be skinned - if the background is too large, the client will only render as much on screen as fits the resolution;
if the background is too small, it will be tiled - whilst for photos this is a drawback, you can certainly also take advantage of this with a tiled background (e.g. Escher or a repeatable pattern - by default, the Notes client uses a pattern, too)
Note: Displaying bookmarks as (virtual) workspace does not support larger images - it's up to you, whether you want to create a skin that works for both the classic Notes desktop and the bookmarks as workspace display or just the Notes desktop.
(Applies to all other objects, such as position of unread mark display, twisty, and title, too)
Comments
black pixels within the original bitmap should be fine, but i was able to reproduce this problem with r5 default icons.
we'll try to fix this, but it may take some time...
thanks for you feedback,
Markus
Markus Seitz, 2008-08-21 17:48
it is not working for me, checked the procedure some times.
Can it be a problem that we have following
C:\\Program Files\Lotus\Notes
with notes.ini and mc_skinning.dll
and data dirctory is
D:\\Software\lotus\notes\data\
with folder skinning
The log.xml is also not working
any suggestion ar welcome
regards
Thomas
Thomas Roßmayer, 2008-07-31 14:01
Irv, 2008-04-21 22:36
As usual .. get some frictions ... for example not all Icons get replaces (some mail archives show new icon, some still have the old style). And wasn't able to find the bmp-files used by other databases, so currently 'limited' beautification :-)
Anyway : appreciate that work !
Gottfried Palinkas, 2008-04-22 11:19
I testet a little bit, but I could not find out, what is different in this icon.. It is not:
- the usage of all 16 colors + transparency (It works with other Icons)
- the usage of black
- the usage of the dark- grey color next to transparency
Hope you find the solution....
Tode
Torsten Link, 2008-08-22 11:30
what is meant with "- you can create as many old_r6_* and def_r6_* icon pairs as wanted/needed"?
For what other databases can I create icon pairs?
Torsten Onkes, 2008-07-30 16:18
sometimes there's some random noise within the transparent part of the image. since these parts are masked anyway you won't see these pixels. to map old & new images we use checksums (so we can support a large number of mappings without affecting performance).
unfortunately this noise alters the checksum. but i'm confident we'll find a different approach that isn't afffect by this noise (and is still "flicker free").
btw - i'd really like to see your skin^^
Markus
Markus Seitz, 2008-08-22 15:52
Example: The old R5 default database icon contains some black dots and it is not replaced...
Any suggestions ?
Regards
Tode
Torsten Link, 2008-08-21 11:31
For once I can have a workspace I can enjoy and show to Notes detractor ;-)))
Jérôme Deniau, 2008-08-20 19:08
Thanks,
John
John Turnbow, 2008-08-11 15:42
Abhay Singh, 2009-02-04 11:49