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mugget · Aug 1, 2004, 05:33 AM

hi everyone,

i'm just having a look in Theme Park, and i wanted to find out which elements correspond to different elements in the Finder & other places. i'm probably going to have lots of questions, but this is the first i'm wondering about:

where do i find the elements that control the look of the Finder window? not the buttons or anything, i think i know where they are, but what do i need to change to change the look of the Finder window background? ie, to change it from brushed?

DaveV1.0 · Aug 1, 2004, 06:34 AM

The Finder window is located under Thmes/MySpiffyTheme(or whatever)/Global Elements/Metal Window

For non metal window elements follow the same path but instead of Metal Window goto backgrounds

You will also need to take a look at Window Placards

mugget · Aug 1, 2004, 08:08 AM

okay, thanks i've got it. so that's just alot of small files that make it up eh? what if you've got a pattern or picture that you want to tile accross the top of the Finder windows? is that possible?

could you just bring in a larger size element and then use 'Resize element' when it asks in Theme Park?

thanks for this help BTW.

DaveV1.0 · Aug 1, 2004, 09:22 AM

All background images are tiled so you can't reall use a pictuer unless it's a pattern that you wan't tiled but I experimented with a few myself and thought they looked pretty crappy but some may like the look diferent tastes and all that. I forgot to mention to that the top of a window where all the buttons are is the toolbar and is edited seperatly and is just above window placard (or it's near it anyway can't remember).

mugget · Aug 17, 2004, 05:30 AM

okay, after posting here i kind of gave up thinking about using pictures for the Finder windows and other windows.

but after seeing this persons themes: http://osx-navi.main.jp/download/theme.html i'm wondering how the hell did they do that?!

check out this screenie: http://osx-navi.main.jp/download/ima...screenshot.jpg

crazy stuff!

wibs · Aug 17, 2004, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by DaveV1.0:
All background images are tiled

just to expand on that a little, some graphics are tiled in carbon apps and stretched in cocoa apps (or maybe it's the other way around). The metal window backgrounds stretch to expand (but do not shrink) instead of tile for all of the non-corner segments.

So if you wanted a photo as a background for a metal window, it would be sort of possible if you put it in the top center segment, and adjusted its size so that it didn't look too stretched in wide windows but didn't get cut off in narrower windows. It would take a lot of tweaking, but it's possible

.

mugget · Sep 9, 2004, 03:29 AM

i'm back for more help.

well, i'm been messing about with ThemePark... not really knowing what the elements i've been changing did... i changed all of the 'Backgrounds' - PPAT Background 2138 etc.

but now i've just previewed it - not quite what i expected...

could anyone tell me which resources correspond to the outer-most, middle and 'inner' background? or else i guess i'll just have to try it out by trial & error...

thanks.

Gerrit Vanoppen · Sep 9, 2004, 03:41 AM

Originally posted by mugget:
could anyone tell me which resources correspond to the outer-most, middle and 'inner' background? or else i guess i'll just have to try it out by trial & error...

your theme > Elements > Global Elements > Boxes and Wells.

mac15 · Sep 9, 2004, 04:55 AM

Trial and error, themepark isn't some beast. It's pretty easy after a while

smeger · Sep 9, 2004, 06:40 AM

Mugget, remember that ThemePark's theme preview is "stupid" and ShapeShifter's is "smart". The Cocoa preview in ThemePark will clip your PPAT resources to 8x8. If this is a problem, try exporting a guiKit and previewing it ShapeShifter.

This also applies to text colors. ThemePark's preview is generally okay, but if you're totally perplexed as to why something isn't working, you might want to try previewing in SS instead.

mugget · Sep 9, 2004, 07:00 PM

okay, thaks for the help everyone. i'll just go about trying different things while i try to tame this massive beast of an app that is ThemePark.

and thanks for that tip smeager, i'll try that if i get really stuck on something.

fireside · Sep 10, 2004, 01:12 AM

also expanding onto what smeger said if your metal window texture is transparent it will look like crap in ThemePark's preview. also if you're using non-standard weird titlebar caps there will be black around it in cocoa but in carbon its fine. but they're all fine in ShapeShifter. that thing is magic. weird. os x is the biggest jumble of stuff in the world.

mugget · Sep 10, 2004, 06:16 AM

just a question about ThemePark... do all of the 'resources', the picutures that make up OS X come like that, or does ThemePark break them all up so they're seperate like that?

those guys at Apple must really like jigsaw puzzles.

fireside · Sep 10, 2004, 07:28 AM

Originally posted by mugget:
just a question about ThemePark... do all of the 'resources', the picutures that make up OS X come like that, or does ThemePark break them all up so they're seperate like that?

those guys at Apple must really like jigsaw puzzles.

im sure they come like that. i doubt smeger would want to make it even more confusing for theme developers by making everything all pain in the ass like.

smeger · Sep 10, 2004, 07:51 AM

Originally posted by mugget:
just a question about ThemePark... do all of the 'resources', the picutures that make up OS X come like that, or does ThemePark break them all up so they're seperate like that?

those guys at Apple must really like jigsaw puzzles.

They come like that.

Apple does it the way they do so that things like buttons can be different sizes easily. The basis for Apple's theme engine was created before Apple had an easy built-in low-level way of stretching images, so the idea of "end cap, tile something a bunch of times, other end cap" is used pretty pervasively.