The Pop-up
Menu - Configuring it
The HoverDesk
Pop-up menu is accessible by right clicking any where within the desktop.
A left click outside the menu will hide the menu again.
To access the pop-up menu, you must have "Hide Desktop Icons"
enabled in the HoverDesk General Configuration.
Applying
the Textures
Right
click the Main Tile and select
Menu Editor.
The first window of the Menu
Editor is split up into two boxes
The top box Menu Textures is used for
selecting the textures to apply to the menu.
Click the browse button for each part of the menu.
Top
= webmenu_top.bmp
Bottom = webmenu_bottom.bmp
Normal = webmenu_norm.bmp
Selected = webmenu_norm.bmp
Divider = webmenu_nrom.bmp
Arrow = arrow.bmp
Arrow Sel. = arrowA.bmp
Click OK
then right click in the light grey area
of the desktop.
You should have a menu which looks something like this.
Still needs a bit of configuring
done to it right??
Let's move on then!
Configuring the Font
Open up the Menu Editor window again.
*Note you can now access the Menu Editor window from
the pop up menu.
The bottom box Positions
is for positioning the text, icons and arrows.
Also you can set a maximum title width and maximum item text width (in
pixels) in this part of the window.
There's no point trying to configure
this yet until we've set the font and whether we want icons to show or not,
so in the left side of the window click Menu Options.
This window is again split into
two boxes.
The top box Font Options speaks for itself.
Click the font
button 
Since we've been using Tahoma all the way throughout this theme, let's
stick
with it again.
Font
= Tahoma size 8 bold
Under the font button you'll see the Normal Color
button.
This button sets the color of the font when the menu
item is unselected, or normal.
For this theme set it to red = 192, green = 192,
blue = 192
Next button down is for Highlighted Color.
This sets the color of the font when you hover over
the menu item.
For this theme set it to red = 255, green = 183,
blue = 11
Under this again
is a checkbox for Outline Caption.
Checking this box applies a 1 pixel border around the
text.
For this theme please make sure the box is checked.
Moving up and
right is a box called Title.
In this box you can type in a word/phrase whatever you
want. This word/phrase will be the title of the very first pop up menu when
you right click on the desktop.
For this theme, we're not going to use a title in the menus so just delete
whatever word is in there.
Under this is
the Title Color button.
This button sets the color for the text in the title.
Since we're not using a title in this theme we can skip by it.
Next is a checkbox,
Title in Bold.
Checking this box makes the title text bold.
Again, we're not using titles in our menus so just leave it unticked.
Under this is the Outline
Color button.
This sets the color of the 1 pixel border around the
text (if you have the outline caption checkbox ticked)
For this theme we are using the outline feature so click the button and
set the color to red = 40, green = 40, blue = 40
Now click OK,
right click in the light grey area of the desktop and see how it's looking
now.
Hmmmmmm, weird...the title text is still showing...no problem because we're
going to hide it eventually.
Configuring the Appearance of the Menus
Open up the Menu
Editor window again and select Menu Options
in the left side.
*Note you can now access the Menu Editor window from
the pop up menu.
OK we're moving
into the bottom box Menu Options now.
Auto-open
Submenus: Checking
this box will open the submenus when you hover a menu item.
I prefer to click to open sub menus so I always uncheck this box. It's
totally
up to you whether or not to tick this box
Auto-Sort menu contents: checking this box
sorts the menu contents into alphabetically order.
Again this is totally up to you whether to tick it or not. I always do tick
it.
Overlap submenus: This is a new option for
2.4 When you open a sub menu it will appear next to the parent menu. Now
you
can make the sub menu overlap the parent menu so that appears to the left
and slightly on top of the parent menu.
For most themes it looks great and I normally always use it, but for this
theme, it doesn't look quite right so I'll be leaving this box unchecked.
Personal preference whether you tick it or not. For other themes try
experimenting
with it and see what looks best.
Overlap Value: You can set how many pixels
you want to overlap the submenus over parent menus with this option.
For other themes try experimenting with it and see what looks best.
Use Transparency: A checkbox for menus which
have the 'magic pink' in them.
Our menus do have pink in them so please make sure
this box is checked to get rid of the pink.
Show Icons: Checking this box will make the
menus show the icon associated with each menu item.
I prefer not to show icons in my themes. It's totally up to you whether or
not to tick this box, but to make it easier to follow the tutorial I'd
suggest
not ticking it.
Show Extentions: Checking this box will show
the extentions for files within folders.
I like to have my extentions showing, so I have this box ticked all the
time,
but it's totally up to you whether or not to tick this box.
Hide System/Hidden files: Checking this box
will hide hidden and system files.
It's totally up to you whether or not to tick this box.
Drop Shadow on text: Checking this box will
add a drop shadow effect to the text within the menus.
For this theme please put a tick in this box.
Shadow Depth: In this box you can set the
depth of the drop shadow (if you have the Drop shadow on Text checkbox
ticked)
For this theme please set it to 2.
Now click OK
and see how it's looking.
OK, it's getting
there, but it still needs more configuring.
Notice the big gap where the icons used to be.
Notice the item text for the menu editor and the Quit HoverDesk going over
the
side of the menu.
And we still need to hide the title text.
Configuring the Positions and Length of
the Text
Open up the Menu
Editor window again
*Note you can now access the Menu Editor window from
the pop up menu.
Let's stay in the Menu Appearance window
this time.
In the bottom box
Positions we're going to set the positions of the text etc.
*Note all the values are measured in pixels
Title
Offset X: Offsets the title text horizontally
(a value of -1 will center the text)
For this theme we want to hide the title text so set this to 130.
Basically what we've done there is set the title text to appear in a
position
it is impossible to see it since the texture is only 120 pixels wide!!
Title Offset Y:
Offsets the title text vertically (a value of -1 will center the text)
We've already hidden the title text, but you could use this box to hide it
as well with a figure such as -30
Title Max length: Sets
the maximum length of the title text
Well we've hidden the title so we don't need to bother with this.
For other themes experiment with by setting a figure then OKing it and
opening
various menus to see how it looks.
Item Text Length: Sets
the maximum length of the item text
Before we can set a figure in this we need to set where the text will start
from (but since I know the figures I will tell you to put a value of 90
in this box)
Item Text Offset X: Tells
HVD how far in from the left to start the text.
For this theme set it to 8
Icon Offset X: Tells
HVD how far in from the left to position the icons.
For this theme we're not showing the icons so we can skip this part.
Icon Offset Y: Tells
HVD how far in from the top of the normal texture to position the icons.
For this theme we're not showing the icons so we can skip this part.
Arrow
Offset X: Tells HVD how far in from the left
to position the arrow. (to indicate a sub menu)
For this theme please set this value to 105.
Click OK
and see how it's looking.
If it looks the image above
great!! that's exactly how it's supposed to look.
There is another window in the Menu
Editor called Menu Contents.
It is used to customize your menus to suit your computer and needs.
I'm not going to go into explaining how to customize your menu contents,
it's
fairly straightforward anyway and it's nothing to do with creating a theme.
