Display Properties
- The [Desktop] Tab
Remember the quote from
the last section by Microsoft? “A theme is a background plus a set
of sounds, icons, and other elements to help you personalize your
computer with one click.”
Themes and their
modifications, as we saw in the previous section, are built from a
number of different components. This section focuses on the
[Desktop] tab which contains a number of those component parts.
Whether or not your intention is to design a new theme, in essence
you are doing just that when you make the first change to the
interface. Whether you save the theme with a snappy, personalized
name or just let it use the [Old Theme Name (Modified)] format, this
section we are about to explore is one of the building blocks for
theme creation. Use one of the methods discussed earlier to open
[Display Properties] and place the focus on the [Desktop] tab. (Fig.
UI-15)
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Fig. UI-15 |
As you can see from the
screenshot, the primary focus of the [Desktop] tab is the possible
backgrounds that can be used in XP. Scroll through the list and
click on each one to see a preview in the monitor display. The icon
to the left of each image name indicates the image format. Assuming
that XP was installed to C:\Windows, the bitmap (.bmp) images will
be located in C:\Windows while the JPEG (.jpg) images are located in
C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper. The supplied images may get you off to a
good start but you certainly aren’t limited to those selections. Any
image with a .bmp, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .dib, .png, .htm, or .html
extension can be used as a background.
The [Browse] button is
used to select additional images. Click [Browse] to open the window
as shown in Fig. UI-16. Notice that the [Browse] window opens to the
[My Pictures] folder by default, but you can select any drive,
folder or network resource to search for images. The default search
criteria is set to only search for Background Files. Click on the
drop down selection box for [Files of Type:] as shown in Fig. UI-17
and select either [All Picture Files] or [HTML Documents] as the
search criteria.
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Fig. UI-16 |
Fig. UI-17 |
The [Position] button
(Fig. UI-15) is composed of three settings which facilitate
positioning of the selected image and how it displays on the
desktop. Select one of the background images from the list and
click [Position] to display the following choices.
[Center] places the selected image directly in the
middle of the screen. How much desktop area is covered is
dependent on the size of the original image. No adjustment is
made to the original image dimensions.
[Tile] creates a repeating
pattern of the image until the entire desktop surface is
covered. Images which are geometric or have a regular
repeating pattern work best when tiled, eliminating the severe
breaks that will be evident where the images abut each other.
Again, no adjustment is made to the original image dimensions.
[Stretch] expands the selected
image both horizontally and vertically until the desktop
surface is covered. The size and orientation of the original
image play a large role in how the finished desktop appears.
Try and select an image which is sized width and height
proportional to the desktop for best results.
The [Color] button
opens a selection screen to a number of color presets or the
ability to use any custom color. The only limitation imposed is
the graphics color quality setting governing the system. The
desktop color can be set and used in conjunction with the [Center]
command for an image to have the desktop color frame the image.
To get a good feel for
the way pattern and image size interacts with the different
controls, select a number of default images and view them using the
[Center] [Tile] and [Stretch] controls. Pay particular attention to
the types of patterns that work well with the different controls,
resulting in minimal distortion and a pleasing overall visual
effect.
The [Customize
Desktop...] button is tucked away down at the lower left corner of
this [Display Properties] tab. Judging from the amount of mail
I’ve received here, and questions from the support and consulting
work, this control should have been a bit more visible. It seems
it is quite easily overlooked yet it leads to a number of
frequently requested user options. Click [Customize Desktop...]
(Fig. UI-18) and the [Desktop Items] Property Sheet (Fig. UI-19)
focused on the [General] tab will open.
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Fig. UI-18 |
Fig. UI-19 |
The
[Desktop Icons] section is the first category of offerings. Users of
previous Windows versions may find it a bit strange that XP installs
with only the Recycle Bin icon on the default desktop. Some users
find the ‘clean’ desktop appearance appealing, preferring to
navigate to needed files and folders via alternative methods. But if
you’re one who likes the folders and shortcuts you’ve been
accustomed to close at hand, place a checkmark next to the items you
want restored to the desktop.
The [Change Icon...] button makes it a simple
task to assign a new icon to the desktop elements selected
previously. Click on whatever item you wish to change followed by
clicking the [Change Icon...] button. The [Change Icon] Property
Sheet (Fig. UI-20) will open. There is a display of icons you may
use as a replacement for the one you selected previously by clicking
on it and selecting [OK]. If none of the available choices thrill
you, specify a different search path in the [Look for Icons in this
File:] box at the top of the window. If you did a default setting XP
installation, %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll entered in the field
will provide a rich source of icons. For a trip down memory lane to
icons you may have forgotten ever existed, try
C:\WINDOWS\system32\moricons.dll.
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Fig. UI-20 |
The
[Restore Default] button does exactly what you would expect. If you
don’t like the change you made, click [Restore Default] and you’re
back to the default XP icon.
The [Desktop Cleanup] area is the final
selection on this screen. If housekeeping isn’t your forte, you
might find this useful. XP includes the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. The
wizard scans your desktop for shortcuts which have not been used and
moves them to the [Unused Desktop Shortcuts] folder it creates on
your desktop. It’s important to note that this only applies to
shortcuts, not to folders or other items. The wizard gives you the
option to keep or move the shortcuts before any changes are
implemented. Figures UI 21-25 illustrate the Desktop Cleanup Wizard
and the resulting folder.
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Fig. UI-21 |
Fig. UI-22 |
Fig. UI-23 |
Fig. UI-24 |
Fig. UI-25 |
Return to the [Desktop
Items] Property Sheet and change the focus of the tab to [Web] (Fig.
UI-26). Many people find it convenient to have web content available
on the desktop. News, investment, weather, or your normal home page
are all good candidates for Active Desktop content.
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Fig. UI-26 |
The [New] button opens
the [New Desktop Item] (Fig. UI-27) screen. Here you can either
click the [Gallery] button to open a Microsoft website where Active
Desktop content can be downloaded or use the [Location] area to type
in the URL of the website. If you don’t know the URL, use the
[Browse] button which will open to your Favorites menu (Fig. UI-28)
where you can select the site you want. The URL will be entered into
the [Location] (Fig. UI-29) area automatically. Click the [Finish]
button and the [Add Item to Active Desktop (TM)] confirmation window
(Fig. UI-30) will open. Select [OK] to verify the site selection or
click [Customize...] to enter the [Offline Favorite Wizard] that
allows some quick settings relating to management of the offline
content.
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Fig. UI-27 |
Fig. UI-28 |
Fig. UI-29 |
Fig. UI-30 |
The [Offline Favorite
Wizard] screens are shown below in Figs. UI 31-34. Since the same
options are available in more detail from the [Desktop Items]
property sheet under the [Web] tab they will be covered there. Take
a look at the screenshots just to familiarize yourself with them.
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| Fig.
UI-31 |
Fig.
UI-32 |
Fig.
UI-33 |
Fig.
UI-34 |
Now that some Active
Desktop content has been added, return to the [Web] tab under
[Desktop Items] and you’ll see something similar to Fig. UI-35. For
this discussion I’ve checked the box for [The Elder Geek] to add it
to the desktop. Highlight one of the URL’s in the web page section
and the [Delete] [Properties] and [Synchronize] buttons become
active.
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| Fig.
UI-35 |
[Delete] - Highlight
the site, click the button, confirm and poof. It’s gone.
[Synchronize] -
Highlight the site and click. Desktop web content is immediately
refreshed.
[Properties] -
Highlight the site of choice and click the [Properties] button. The
dialog box shown in Fig. UI-36 will open with the the focus on the
[Web Document] tab. Notice the naming convention used for this
property sheet. It will show the URL followed by the word
Properties. The Property Sheet will contain three tabs: [Web
Document] [Schedule] and [Download].
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| Fig.
UI-36 |
[Web Document] (Fig.
UI-36) contains the basic information about the site you have
chosen as it relates to this computer. The site URL, the number of
times this computer has accessed the site and some general summary
information are included. The one user defined option on this page
is [Make This Site Available Offline]. Leave this box checked and
the site content will be dynamically updated without user
intervention according to the schedule created in the [Schedule]
and [Download] options. Uncheck the box and the [Schedule] and
[Download] tabs will disappear since there will be no offline
content updates.
[Download] (Fig.
UI-37) configures the amount of content that is made available
offline from the Active Desktop site. The [Content to Download]
section specifies how far down in the link structure below the
home page you wish to download, whether you want to download
external links and how much total disk space will be allocated to
offline content. If you want to be notified when the site content
changes, fill in the e-mail and server names in the [When this
page changes, send e-mail to:] section after checking the box. The
final section allows you to enter site login information by
clicking the [Login] (Fig. UI-38) button if the site requires a
username and password.
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| Fig.
UI-37 |
Fig.
UI-38 |
[Schedule] (Fig.
UI-39) sets the ‘how and when’ for synchronizing desktop items. If
you want to synchronize your content manually, select the top
radio button [Only when I choose Synchronize from the Tools menu].
To set a defined schedule for synchronization select the lower
radio button [Using the Following Schedule(s)]. There can be more
than one schedule to correspond to different active desktop
content.
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| Fig.
UI-39 |
[Add...] - To create a new schedule, click the [Add...]
button to open the [New Schedule] (Fig. UI-40) Property Sheet.
Set the time and frequency options and assign the schedule a
name. If you have multiple sites and schedules, assign the
schedule the same name as the site for easier reference. The
check box at the bottom allows you to automatically connect to
the internet for the scheduled update. Click [OK] and you’ll
be returned to the [Schedule] tab.
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Fig. UI-40 |
[Remove] - Select
and highlight a schedule. Click [Delete] and it’s gone.
[Edit...] - This is one of the places where the design of a
user interface can drive you nuts. Common sense would dictate
that this button would take you back to edit the screen that
was accessed when the [Add] button was pressed and you set the
update time and frequency options, but it doesn’t. While it
does allow editing of a selected schedule, it does it in much
greater detail via a series of four tabs
[General] (Fig. UI-41) - Tells you the name of the schedule,
when it is scheduled to synchronize content, when it last
synchronized the content and when the next synchronization is
scheduled to occur.
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Fig. UI-41 |
[Synchronization
Items] (Fig. UI-42) - The first option is choose a network
connection method via the dropdown box. The second option is
to select what content you want to synchronize and the third
option is to allow automatic network connections if not
already connected at the scheduled time of synchronization.
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Fig. UI-42 |
[Schedule] (Fig.
UI-43) - The first thing you want to do on this tab, before
setting a schedule, is go to the bottom of the property sheet
and check [Show Multiple Schedules] if you have more than one
schedule. This places all the schedules into a drop down box
at the top of the sheet. In addition, it makes a [New] and
[Delete] buttons appear so you can delete obsolete schedules
or create a new schedule. Use the [Schedule Task] (Fig. UI-44)
[Start Time] and [Schedule Task Daily] boxes to enter your
preferred settings. The [Advanced...] (Fig. UI-45) button
allows you to further refine the update schedule. By carefully
manipulating the dates and frequency on this screen you can
have minute by minute updates if the kind of content you use
requires this frequency level.
[Settings] (Fig. UI-46) - This final tab allows further
refinement to task completion, idle time and whether or not
the tasks should be run if the computer switches to battery
power.
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