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Topic: «ghost mode » on forum: Beta Testing   Views: 14595
 
Joseph
Guest
 
Posted: 02/22/2006 17:28:17
 
 
 Hi Alexey and Michael,

I'm having a lot of fun trying out the latest version of AWM, and you've made a great product here, thanks for these forums so people have had the opportunity to make suggestions to make this program even better!

One of the features I was most looking forward to is the ghost mode and it works great. The situation has come up a few times when this sort of feature would have been ideal, a progress monitor etc, that I don't want interfering with the work by having to move it around all the time. I have a couple of ideas about this to make it more functional however. If there was a hotspot on the ghost'ed out window, say the actual ghost button so I can access it without going to the task bar context menu to turn it off.

Also, disable the ghost all applications option, there is no need for this, one does not need every application ghosted and that is easy to set the program to work that way, which would cause a lot of chaos trying to undo!

I also like the option of being able to combine transparency and pushpin ontop as a universal rule, I can't think of a single instance where I don't make a transparent window always on top.

Will comb through the other posts here, and hope havn't said anything redundant. More later as I continue daily usage of this indispensible app!

cheers, Joseph
 
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Alexey Fadeyev
Administrator

Moderator
 
 Posts: 1436
Joined: 09/30/2005
Posted: 02/26/2006 02:16:37
 
 
 Hi, Joseph. We're glad that you like our new version of AWM, and thanks for your suggestions.

1. "Ghost hotspot". It would be very useful feature but it has many technical difficulties preventing its fast implementation. We'll try to implement something like in future releases following the 4.0.

2. "Disable ghost for All". Yes, we're already come to this idea too. Also, some another options senseless for "All Windows" will be removed.

3. "Always combine Transp and Pushpin". It has some sense but, in our opinion, not enough to make it general. Possibly, we'll leave it as an option but turn it on by default.

Thanks again, and waiting for next useful notes...
 
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Joseph
Guest
 
Posted: 02/26/2006 15:44:36
 
 
 Hi Alexey,

Thanks for your time and consideration of everyone's ideas. Very interesting reading everyone's suggestions and comments!

There are a few programs that I use in addition to AWM to add functionality to the title bar and task bar, some of their features might have some potential cross over application to AWM.

TaskBar Manager link is an application that allows one to drag the items in the taskbar into whatever order they want. There are several similar programs around like this one, but most involve a seperate interface than the taskbar where you create the order by drop and drag, then click apply. You can also remove a program altogether from the taskbar ( and not send it to system tray ) This is paticularly useful on dos windows, which AWM dosn't work on. TaskBar Man. allows simple and direct dragging of programs right in the taskbar and has become an essential workplace organizer here.

PS Tray Factory link allows cleanup of the system tray. You can further tidy up your tray by sending icons to the PS Tray icon, leaving whatever ones out you want ( and by changing the order in which you 'release' them from the remainding icon you can have the icons display in a preferred order ) I used to use a simlar program called Tray Pilot which slided all icons and option of the clock too into a small button on the left side of the system tray. For organizing workspaces I find this application to be indispensible as well.

WintopMost link is a program that is generally redundant with all the similar applications out there ( including AWM ) however it has one useful feature not seen anywhere else which is to completly remove the close button, which is another step up from accidental closing. This is of paticular usefulness to dos window applications which AWM dosn't have support for.

These are programs that I'm using to fill in various holes of organizational need and maybe of use here as some of the features work in the same zones.

cheers, Joseph
 
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Alexey Fadeyev
Administrator

Moderator
 
 Posts: 1436
Joined: 09/30/2005
Posted: 02/27/2006 06:43:41
 
 
 Hi, Joseph.

Thanks for the interesting information about third-party products and their useful features. We'll analyze them thoroughly in the near future. Only one little note: tray icons grouping is planned to implement in one of next-to-4.0 versions.
 
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Guest
Guest
 
Posted: 02/27/2006 14:31:13
 
 
 Hi Alexey,

Good to hear about the tray icons! Here would be an ideal tray icon management feature: one where you can drag the items around and they also stay in the groups. As it stands if I want this sort of functionality I have to take off the wonderful winxp feature of grouping similar tasks, such as notepads or browser windows ( a situation that has motivated me to correct with tabbed applications ) but is still useful if you have several instances of irfanview, instant messages, or email letters open. If you have grouping turned on and draggable task bar application in effect, for some reason the icons will be switched as you drag and everything gets very confusing and messy quick. Draggable taskbar is more useful in my humble opinion then grouping if it comes down to a decision between the two, but it would be nice to use both.

I've noticed some cpu issues with AWM config. I first noticed this when opening a pdf file with Foxit, an Adobe alternative. I tried recreating this with both Adobe and Foxit and the same results and then noticed that the AWM config window was using a fair amount of cpu ( 6-15% ) This office computer is approx 1.5 ghz and will see if there is a similar situation on home computer which is much faster. The problem was alleviated after killing both pdf reader processes and AWM, however AWM config was spiking on it's own as well. Please let me know what other sort of info would be of use in this situation.


Is it possible to make all system messages ( ok/cancel, and save as prompts ) semi transparent?

Along the lines of combining features, how about a custom macro button ( with a small set of selectable extra icons ? ) where people could define a combination of things to apply in one fell swoop. Like a resize to 600x800:pushpin:trans x 20% button that applies all of that at once. Then that sort of macro button you could put a rule to only show up on email or notepads etc.

I'm sure you're aware of the always on top issues with Outlook, Word, Excell and other MS products. Generally what I do is take a screenshot of an Excell doc. and open it back up in irfanview, pushpin, always on top and then reference it from there.

I also can't get winamp to stay on top whatsoever. I know there's better media players out there, but I always use the 'stick' skin of the default player, which nests itself quite tidy into the title bar. I've seen some windowblind skins and a firefox extension that has winamp controls ( the firefox extension also works on several other media players ) Honestly it would be wonderful to have a media player button set in the active title bar. Play/Pause, Stop, Skip Fwd/Back, and Vol up/down.


cheers, Joseph
 
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Alexey Fadeyev
Administrator

Moderator
 
 Posts: 1436
Joined: 09/30/2005
Posted: 03/02/2006 10:53:28
 
 
 Hi Joseph.

Quote
Here would be an ideal tray icon management feature
I'm afraid I don't fully understand your suggestion considering taskbar and grouping, so, please, could you be more exact?

Quote
I've noticed some cpu issues with AWM config.
Is the situation with CPU loading stable, i.e. do you can to reproduce it, or it was an accidental effect?

Quote
Is it possible to make all system messages ( ok/cancel, and save as prompts ) semi transparent?
Yes, but it requires creating the specific rule for the every such window, because most of them have the same window class and the program.

Quote
how about a custom macro button
We've been thinking of such feature for a long time already, but it seems to be hard to configure for the general user. Maybe, in the next versions or, even, in a separate product.

Quote
you're aware of the always on top issues with Outlook, Word, Excel
And again, please, clarify what issues did you mean.

Quote
it would be wonderful to have a media player button set
See the comment to the "custom macro button" suggestion.
 
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Joseph
Registered user
 
 Posts: 10
Joined: 03/02/2006
Posted: 03/02/2006 13:16:53
 
 
Quote
Here would be an ideal tray icon management feature

I'm afraid I don't fully understand your suggestion considering taskbar and grouping, so, please, could you be more exact?

With WindowsXP you have the option in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties to 'Group similar taskbar buttons'

This is something I've had to sacrifice for the ability to drag open applications that are on the taskbar, because any program that has this feature seems to randomize the icon appearance of grouped programs.

For intance, if I had a group of 3 emails that I dragged past my browser, the group of letters would 'pick up' the browser icon and things become quite hard to identify after that as everything gets visually mislabled.

So taskbar dragging and reordering that still worked complimentary with WinXp's grouping is a feature I havn't seen in such programs.

Quote
Is the situation with CPU loading stable, i.e. do you can to reproduce it, or it was an accidental effect?

On my home computer which is 3ghz+ there is no cpu issues at all, but on my work computer which is 1.5 ghz  it seems to hover around 3-10% fairly consisently. I don't usually leave the config window open once finished with it, so it's not impacting activity but thought it might be of interest.

Quote
Yes, but it requires creating the specific rule for the every such window, because most of them have the same window class and the program.

I've been experimenting with this in Dreamweaver and seeing if it's practical, and it sure is interesting! I wouldn't necessarily recommend this a feature, except for progress bars and ok/cancel windows, not save/open dialogs.

Quote
And again, please, clarify what issues did you mean.

How AWM dosn't necessarily work with MS products in combination with always on top. I can't get Word or Excell documents to stay on top consistently, a few clicks between the programs I'm working on and I'll see the pushpin toggle off, and almost always if I move the  MS doc around it will 'loosen' the pushpin. I always use transparency in combination with pushpin, not sure if that has any bearing on the situation. I generally try and convert the document to an image or plain text and open it in something else more co-operative, and refer back to the original if I'm not sure about the formatting.

That's great to hear you're considering macros and media buttons, I'd definitly make good use of them.

cheers, Joseph
 
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Tobiel Sayre
Registered user

home user/amateur skinner
 
 Posts: 37
Joined: 07/14/2005
Posted: 03/04/2006 03:00:20
 
 
 I feel the ability to be able to copy a window rule which we already have helps a lot.

I add some features still missing with TweakWindow 1.5. This is not a big tool and not a must for everybody. But imagening I was to design ActWinMan in a WELL SELLING version covering MAJORITY user needs, I must admit its hard to add every feature of other tools not just for licensing, but also for simplicity reasons and the problem of keeping it errh, foolproof. Plus of course the viewpoint of the developers - aggh - and the corporate viewpoint. Wow seeing it from both ends lately, as a hobby admin and tester and PR man on other sites, its quite awesome what this suite does for whom.

One thing it already has is a modular system. You can get and use only separate tools or upgrade later towards the full suite. THIS could grow a bit further. Its ingenious. There could be more upgrade packs and stages, like getting 5 instead of 1 or 2 tools and getting 10 or ALL tools, whatever.

Only in a system like this I could see its being successful the way some of us want, because many of our wishes should be separate modules. That also keeps it reasonable on our RAM, CPU, GPU, and appearance/speed results for ActWinMan itself and the OTHER apps it draws performance away from if overconfigured.

In general, AWM is much more compatible with other things ALREADY than people think. But of course even if completely compatible it can happen that you tell 1 app to do the opposite than you tell AWM easily, the results automatically get harder to control.

And I even notice sometimes there is a side effect of making everything compatible. You have less options the old way or in general. And less problems. A matter of taste.

So as said I hope there will be sort of a successful typical medium foolproof compatible testable NORMAL PACK at a medium price.

And there will be an advanced compatible set of modules for lovers of extreme customization, freaks or not.

Hey I think you are VERY helpful and grateful in a unique way (interesting URLs btw). And I treasure your experiences. As you know I am a user here, nothing else. I am impressed.

Next time we make suggestions we should come by ourselves and enjoy 14hrs of PHP coding at minus 40degrees centigrade (joke), but first I would have to spend some years learning that. What a shame. A challenge for some other life though. Lifes so short. Wish you the best. ;)

Some tray icon grouping exists in object dock. THAT item was better in objectBAR where you make the whole systray yourself. Oh well, still its tricky to get these things together effectively, admitted. :(

And from the viewpoint of each separate tool we often wish to combine, that is not even necessarily a mistake. Compatibility + making things foolproof comes with a price to pay for that - less individual tricks are supportable. Easy to dream and write. Hard to MAKE things and keep them successful in GENERAL.

If everything we suggested is done - what happens? A big expensive central thing evolves - almost an OS. With its own delicacies and pros and cons. And THEN I visualize our inputting the NEXT line of things we need. One day Ill trade PC back to horse and a cow. Luckily, every once and a while dreamers find something that simplifies or improves things for MOST people.

And there even are SEVERAL ways it might happen. There you go again, which path to follow? Cheers

SATYROBE/TAXIFUNK/Tobiel Sayre registered user; non-staff
 
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