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smeger · Feb 22, 2006, 02:36 PM

After the longest beta test in the history of the world! Grab ShapeShifter 2.3 now!

Most of the changes in this release are under the hood, future-proofing types of things. The biggie is that there's now a much smarter method of determining when ShapeShifter needs to disable itself for safety reasons. People were annoyed with having to reapply their theme whenever any themed app changed version, so now you don't have to, but we haven't sacrificed any safety in the process.

You can now also tweak text colors independently in guiTweak, which means that it's easier to tweak something to look how you want. You can also use this to do things like make your Dock transparent with a given theme or change Mail's sidebar color for a given theme.

Finally, dark themes are more usable now in Carbon apps like Photoshop, and there's a spiffy indicator that lights up when new Downloads are available from ShapeShifter's Download tab. Artists, you can submit your downloads here, and I hope that you do. If anyone wants to step up to the plate to design a Photoshop template for ShapeShifter downloads, please contact me using the above page.

Features

ShapeShifter's Download tab now has a shiny indicator that lights up when new themes are available for download.
guiTweak now allows you to manually set colors in any theme. For each color present in a theme, you can change them to the color of your choosing, let Core Image set them, or remove them from the theme. You can use this to easily turn off stuff like Mail list background or Dock customization, or to add it to a theme that doesn't have it. You can also tweak text colors after hue shifting a theme.
You can now type the name of a theme to select it (Tiger only).
ShapeShifter can now optionally notify you when a new version is available.
"Growl" (if present) will be used to indicate that themes were applied successfully when the normal indicator sheet has been turned off.
Completely revamped the app skin compatibility system. ShapeShifter is now much smarter about how it disables app skins when a new version of a skinned application has been released.
Minor improvements in menu drawing performance.
Minor improvements in application launch speed when a theme is applied.
Includes Smart Crash Reports 1.0.2.

New Theme Capabilities

Dark themes with light text colors are much more usable within Carbon apps such as Photoshop.
ShapeShifter now honors the Aqua/Graphite setting in menu highlights for themes that were designed to differentiate between the two.
DVD Player can now use custom application skins.
guiTweak now works properly on "pct" images.

Bug Fixes

Window titlebar widgets of Panther themes used in Tiger no longer have green fringes.
Finder desktop and icon view label colors are properly themed again in Tiger. Selected desktop icon labels no longer use the selected menu text color when a color is not explicitely set in the theme.
Application skins created for a version of iTunes earlier than 5.0 will not be used if the installed version of iTunes is 5.0 or higher. And vice versa.
Finder windows no longer occasionally draw with a completely black background.
Resolved an issue that caused excessive logging from some Carbon applications, and that caused text within Carbon bevel buttons, popup buttons, and pushbuttons to display incorrectly (Eudora, Ircle).
Resolved an issue that could cause small visual glitches in certain apps (like Proteus, when using themes that include patterns larger than 8x8 pixels).
The System Preferences Dock icon is no longer badged with the ShapeShifter icon at inappropriate times.
Quitting guiTweak with an unsaved tweak, choosing to save the tweak, and then cancelling the save no longer prevents guiTweak from being quittable thereafter.
Saving a guiTweak document by closing the document and then choosing to save from the sheet no longer results in a crash.
Resolved an issue that could cause crashes when using themes that don't include enhanced menu customization.

fisherKing · Feb 22, 2006, 04:29 PM

first, thanks...nice.

one small thing.

dL'd & installed, and am running 2.3.

still, when i open it, it tells me a new version is available, gives me the option to dL...
which i already did.

no biggie.
works great,
will explore tonite...

Mediaman_12 · Feb 22, 2006, 05:02 PM

Another small thing, not Intel compatible yet ether.

Juneappal · 09:39 PM

Is it possible with SS to lock a certain element? I want to try out different themes, but I want my home-made apple menu icon to never change.

Also, When I "find" in Safari or Preview, I can never see the found text - it is highlited in a light grey. Is that setting one of my choices in the "tweak" feature?

air · Feb 22, 2006, 10:01 PM

does this mean bbx's theme will finally come out

smoke-tetsu · Feb 23, 2006, 12:14 AM

Shapeshifter 2.3 doesn't seem to be applying the appskins to iTunes 6.0.3 on my mac.

digitaljames · Feb 23, 2006, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Juneappal

Is it possible with SS to lock a certain element? I want to try out different themes, but I want my home-made apple menu icon to never change.

No.

digitaljames · Feb 23, 2006, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by smoke-tetsu

Shapeshifter 2.3 doesn't seem to be applying the appskins to iTunes 6.0.3 on my mac.

If the theme is made with the latest version of Tpark then it will apply the iTunes skin. If the theme has a older hacked in iTunes skin then it won't.

digitaljames · Feb 23, 2006, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by air

does this mean bbx's theme will finally come out

no, Omega will require the bells and whistles in SS 3.0.....and that's not anywhere near....

MacMan4000 · Feb 23, 2006, 01:00 AM

Awesome! Downloading now. Thanks!

MindFad · Feb 23, 2006, 01:11 AM

What is the software issue (or is it hardware?) issue with not having this and the latest ThemePark running on Intel? (Curious—not attempting in any way start some GUI flamewar.)

digitaljames · Feb 23, 2006, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by MindFad

What is the software issue (or is it hardware?) issue with not having this and the latest ThemePark running on Intel? (Curious—not attempting in any way start some GUI flamewar.)

Here's the run down by Jason...

http://www.geekspiff.com/themeEndianness/

badidea · 12:16 PM

Shapeshifter still makes some of my menu items disappear (like display, network and bluetooth for example) - this doesn't happen when Shapeshifter is not installed but just happened again after I activated SS and switched a theme!

Very annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!!

edit: seems to be Application Enchancer and not Shapeshifter - disabling SS alone does not help but disabling AE helps!

Fireball XL5 · Feb 23, 2006, 03:05 PM

Whoo waaaa!

Hal Itosis · Feb 23, 2006, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by badidea

some of my menu items disappear (like display, network and bluetooth for example)!

Is ApE doing that?!

Whatever it is, it's been bugging me too.
Bluetooth... gone EVERY login.
Network, Keychain Access, and MenuMeters
get kicked off every 2nd or 3rd login.

grrrrrrrrrrrrr

badidea · Feb 24, 2006, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by Hal Itosis

Is ApE doing that?!

Disable ApE and check if it helps - it did in my case and I would like to see some confirmation!

Kevin · Feb 24, 2006, 06:06 AM

This all reminds me of extensions back in the OS 9 days.

smeger · Feb 24, 2006, 03:59 PM

The disappearing menu items thing is caused by a bug in the Bluetooth menu extra. It happens sporadically whether APE/Shapeshifter is installed or not. I don't really know the details, but more info and a fix here.

badidea · Feb 25, 2006, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by smeger

...but more info and a fix here.

Great, thanks!

Maflynn · Feb 26, 2006, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by air

does this mean bbx's theme will finally come out

Silly rabbit,bbx's theme is never coming out. Look up vaporware in the dictionary and you see bbx. by far the most overhyped non-show theme. While he has popped in here defending his stance he should not have released screen shots and news of what he was doing. he is only eclipsed by gomac with his undelivered theming app that was going to change the world as we know it.

This is one of my bone of contentions with OSX theming, you get someone who is a talented devloper and he shows off proof of concept drawings and gets everyone gets excited. We wait, wait and wait. I think if your going to develop it then do it, stop with the screen shots and hype.

Hal Itosis · Feb 26, 2006, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by smeger

The disappearing menu items thing is caused by a bug in the Bluetooth menu extra. It happens sporadically whether APE/Shapeshifter is installed or not. I don't really know the details, but more info and a fix here.

Beautiful, outstanding... it works!
THANK YOU smeger, rosyna, et. al.

Unsanity rules.

Kevin · Feb 27, 2006, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

Silly rabbit,bbx's theme is never coming out. Look up vaporware in the dictionary and you see bbx. by far the most overhyped non-show theme. While he has popped in here defending his stance he should not have released screen shots and news of what he was doing. he is only eclipsed by gomac with his undelivered theming app that was going to change the world as we know it.

This is one of my bone of contentions with OSX theming, you get someone who is a talented devloper and he shows off proof of concept drawings and gets everyone gets excited. We wait, wait and wait. I think if your going to develop it then do it, stop with the screen shots and hype.

Actually to be fair he was told that a version of SS that would support his theme was going to be out ages ago.

That version of SS still wont be out for ages to come it seems.

So maybe those who told him that shouldn't have?

I think his theme was used to sell the SS idea and to get people to jump on the train.

SS is still not up to par with what they said it would be (To support his theme) and it's been a few years.

In other words, he can't put his theme out till SS supports what Unsanity told him they would years ago.

Maflynn · Feb 27, 2006, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by Kevin

In other words, he can't put his theme out till SS supports what Unsanity told him they would years ago.

I know, I heard that over and over by people making excuses for him. The sad fact is he generated a lot of hype with his theme and its a no show - vaporware pure and simpl.

I agree that smeger may have been premature in letting bbx know about certain features but lets be honest if he really wanted to release the theme he could have. As I mentioned he's not alone in the hype department, all too often we see what looks like a good mockup of a theme but it never comes to fruition, he's just the king of theme vaporware because of the level of hype and his inability/unwillingness to deliver the theme.

puppetswhokill · Feb 27, 2006, 05:39 PM

By George, I think I have it!

Jasoco · Feb 28, 2006, 11:21 AM

For product compability information with the Intel-chip based Macs (ICBMs)...

Clever.