Main Settings

Special Settings


*xTaskbar taskbarname
Define your own Taskbar name! (Or for having more then one Taskbar.)
Important: If you only need one Taskbar, you do not need to set this! (See Examples)

Example settings without custom Taskbar(name) (90% of the users will use xTaskbar this way!):
xTaskbarX x-coordinate
xTaskbarY ....

Example settings with custom Taskbar(name), in this case "Task":
*xTaskbar Task
TaskX x-coordinate
TaskY ....

Main Settings


Key:
• = PlaceHolder, must be replaced with the xTaskbar name. Default is "xTaskbar".
(Button Type) = PlaceHolder, can be one of the following:

  1. "" (Nothing/Blank) = Default value for ALL Button States
  2. "Normal" = Normal Button State
  3. "Active" = Active/Selected Button State
  4. "Minimized" = Minimzed Button State
  5. "Flashing" = Flashing Button State
  6. "Hover" = Hover Button State See Also: xTaskbarShowHoverState
  7. "Grouped" = Grouped Button State See Also: xTaskbarUseGrouping
INT = Integer or whole number
BOOL = Boolean Value (true or false)
COLOR = Color in Hex (FFFFFF = White, 000000 = Black, ...)
ACTION = Bang Commands, Applications, all Litestep can execute.

OverlayTaskbar Setup


Overview
First of all, a "OverlayTaskbar" isn't a normal Taskbar, it's only a plain "Image Overlay"!
You can use OverlayTaskbar for AlphaMap Overlays, Texture Overlays, Colorizing, ...
You can combine as many OverlayTaskbar's as you want, they can overlap each other, ...

How to create a new OverlayTaskbar
*[Taskbarname]OverlayTaskbar x y width height "SettingsPrefix" #a (0-255)

x, y, width and height:
All position and sizing options of the normal xTaskbar is available to setup the position and size of the OverlayTaskbar.
For a complete and automatically adapted Overlay use for instance:
*xTaskbarOverlayTaskbar 0 0 100% 100% ghost #
or for a 20 Pixel Border on the right side without Overlay:
*xTaskbarOverlayTaskbar 0 0 -20 100% ghost #
...

"SettingsPrefix":
For all OverlayTaskbar settings you need the "SettingsPrefix", which works exactly like the "xTaskbar Name" for normal xTaskbars!
Syntax:
*xTaskbarOverlayTaskbar 10 10 24 24 ghost #
The correct Syntax for the OverlayTaskbar settings are now:
GhostImage "ghost.png"
GhostSaturationIntensity 125
...

Flags:

Last Value:
The last Value specifies the overall Alpha Value for the Overlay!

Supported Settings for a OverlayTaskbar
All SolidColors or Image Settings are valid to setup your OverlayTaskbar Overlay!
SettingsPrefixImage
...

SettingsPrefixSolidColors
...

Simply look in the following Section of the ReadMe.

xTaskbar Background Setup


General Settings

Normal Images Setup Solid Image Setup

Attention: Only valid, if "xTaskbarUseSolidColors" is set!

Exported Variables


(Note that you will need to define dummy variables if you include these in scripts/rc files with standard $evar$ syntax, since when LiteStep reads these files xTaskbar has not yet added them, causing LiteStep to think the variables are undefined.)

Only useful if used in HANDTYPED BANGS (LSXCommand) or if you use it in mzscripts or with "xLabels" special "!ParseEvars" Bang Command!

To use $evars$ in Bangs, which contain the "CURRENT" value, use the escape code %# and prefix the "!ParseEvars" Bang!
$xTaskbarcurrentwidth$ becomes %#xTaskbarcurrentwidth%# and so on ...

If you use a Custom TaskbarName or more than one taskbar, "xTaskbar" naturally becomes the name of your Taskbar!

↑

Button State Settings

Overview "Button Image Settings"


The "(Button Type)" in front of each setting means that every setting can be:
Normal, Active, Minimized, Flashing, Hover or Grouped
If you don't set any of these 6 specific modifiers, the default settings will be used for all modes. (See Examples)

  1. You MUST enable "Hover" in general via the setting "xTaskbarShowHoverState"
  2. You MUST enable "Grouped" (or Grouping in general) via the setting "xTaskbarUseGrouping"
Example:
xTaskbarButtonSaturationIntensity 70
All Button States have a SaturationIntensity of 70!
xTaskbarMinimizedButtonSaturationIntensity 70
Minimized Buttons have a SaturationIntensity of 70!

OverlayButton Setup


Overview
First of all, a "OverlayButton" isn't a normal TaskbarButton, it's only a plain "Image Overlay" over the existing ones!
You can use OverlayButtons for AlphaMap Overlays, Texture Overlays, Colorizing, ...
You can combine as many OverlayButton's as you want, they can overlap each other, ...

How to create a new OverlayButton
*[Taskbarname]OverlayButton x y width height "SettingsPrefix" #at

x, y, width and height:
All position and sizing options of the normal xTaskbar is available to setup the position and size of the OverlayButton.
The Overlay is always relative to the current ButtonSize, so most of the time you will probably use "100%" for width and height!
For a complete and automatically adapted Overlay use for instance:
*xTaskbarOverlayButton 0 0 100% 100% OverlayButton #
or for a 20 Pixel Border on the right side without Overlay:
*xTaskbarOverlayButton 0 0 -20 100% OverlayButton #
This would display an OverlayButton which is 6 pixel bigger then the normal button ("Glow Effect")
*xTaskbarOverlayButton ~6 ~6 100%+12 100%+12 testoverlay #a
...

"SettingsPrefix":
For all OverlayButton settings you need the "SettingsPrefix", which works exactly like the "xTaskbar Name" for normal xTaskbars!
Attention: If you don't set a specific State Overlay, the Overlay of this state is not the Default!, so you can for instance apply an Overlay only for the Active State.
Syntax:
*xTaskbarOverlayButton 10 10 24 24 OverlayButton #
The correct Syntax for the OverlayButton settings are now:
OverlayButtonNormalButtonImage "ghost_n.png"
OverlayButtonActiveButtonImage "ghost_a.png"
...

Flags:

Supported Settings for a OverlayButton
All SolidColors or Image Settings are valid to setup your OverlayButton Overlay!
SettingsPrefixButtonImage
...

SettingsPrefixButtonSolidColors
...

Simply look in the following Section of the ReadMe.

Button Image Settings


(Button Type) = PlaceHolder, can be one of the following:

  1. "" (Nothing/Blank) = Default value for ALL Button States
  2. "Normal" = Normal Button State
  3. "Active" = Active/Selected Button State
  4. "Minimized" = Minimzed Button State
  5. "Flashing" = Flashing Button State
  6. "Hover" = Hover Button State See Also: xTaskbarShowHoverState
  7. "Grouped" = Grouped Button State See Also: xTaskbarUseGrouping
General Setup Normal Images Setup Solid Image Setup

Attention: Only valid, if "xTaskbarUse(Button Type)ButtonSolidColors" is set!

Overview "Button Icon Settings"


The "(Button Type)" in front of each setting means that every setting can be:
Normal, Active, Minimized, Flashing, Hover and Grouped
If you don't set any of these 6 specific modifiers, the default settings will be used for all modes. (See Examples)

  1. You MUST enable "Hover" in general via the setting "xTaskbarShowHoverState"
    Additionally you must enable the Hover Icon Settings explicit with "xTaskbarUseHoverIconSettings"

    • UseHoverIconSettings BOOL
      If defined, Hover Icon Settings are enabled, otherwise current State settings are used.

  2. You MUST enable "Grouped" (or Grouping in general) via the setting "xTaskbarUseGrouping"
    Additionally you must enable the Grouped Icon Settings explicit with "xTaskbarUseGroupedIconSettings"

    • UseGroupedIconSettings BOOL
      If defined, Grouped Icon Settings are enabled, otherwise current State settings are used.
Example:
xTaskbarIconX 5
All Button States have a IconX Position of 5!
xTaskbarMinimizedIconX 5
Minimized Buttons have a IconX Position of 5!

Button Icon Settings


(Button Type) = PlaceHolder, can be one of the following:

  1. "" (Nothing/Blank) = Default value for ALL Button States
  2. "Normal" = Normal Button State
  3. "Active" = Active/Selected Button State
  4. "Minimized" = Minimzed Button State
  5. "Flashing" = Flashing Button State
  6. "Hover" = Hover Button State See Also: xTaskbarShowHoverState and xTaskbarUseHoverIconSettings
  7. "Grouped" = Grouped Button State See Also: xTaskbarUseGrouping and xTaskbarUseGroupedIconSettings

Overview "Button Font Settings"


The "(Button Type)" in front of each setting means that every setting can be:
Normal, Active, Minimized, Flashing, Hover and Grouped
If you don't set any of these 6 specific modifiers, the default settings will be used for all modes. (See Examples)

  1. You MUST enable "Hover" in general via the setting "xTaskbarShowHoverState"
    Additionally you must enable the Hover Font Settings explicit with "xTaskbarUseHoverFontSettings"

    • UseHoverFontSettings BOOL
      If defined, Hover Font Settings are enabled, otherwise current State settings are used.

  2. You MUST enable "Grouped" (or Grouping in general) via the setting "xTaskbarUseGrouping"
    Additionally you must enable the Grouped Font Settings explicit with "xTaskbarUseGroupedFontSettings"

    • UseGroupedFontSettings BOOL
      If defined, Grouped Font Settings are enabled, otherwise current State settings are used.
Example:
xTaskbarFontHeight 20
All Button States have a FontHeight of 20!
xTaskbarMinimizedFontHeight 20
Minimized Buttons have a Text FontHeight of 20!

Button Font Settings


Scrolling ButtonText, if Text is too long for the Taskbutton

(Button Type) = PlaceHolder, can be one of the following:
  1. "" (Nothing/Blank) = Default value for ALL Button States
  2. "Normal" = Normal Button State
  3. "Active" = Active/Selected Button State
  4. "Minimized" = Minimzed Button State
  5. "Flashing" = Flashing Button State
  6. "Hover" = Hover Button State See Also: xTaskbarShowHoverState and xTaskbarUseHoverFontSettings
  7. "Grouped" = Grouped Button State See Also: xTaskbarUseGrouping and xTaskbarUseGroupedFontSettings

↑

Bang Commands And Events

Bang Commands


All Values in '[...]' are optional, means if you didn't specify more than ONE Taskbar, you never need to specify [TASKBARNAME]!!
[TASKBARNAME] must naturally be replaced with the current Taskbarname, you want to be affected!
The exact purpose of every bang should be quite obvious.

Taskbar Button Events


• ActionsOnButtonDown BOOL
If defined, the activation of actions on ButtonDown is used, instead of ButtonUp.

Taskbar Events


↑

Special Taskbar Settings

The following "Substring" references use the "Standard Wildcard" Syntax!

You can remove the Buttons of specific Applications with the following:

*xTaskbarRemove "SubString from Class or Windowname"

All Applications, which "Class" or "Windowname" match the "SubString", will not be shown in any Taskbars.

Example:
*xTaskbarRemove "*free*"
All Applications, which have the string "free" somewhere in their Classname or Windowname, will be ignored from xTaskbar.

You can define Custom Icons for Applications with the following:

*xTaskbarIcon "SubString from Class or Windowname" "FULL Path to a (Icon-)File"

All Applications, which "Class" or "Windowname" match the "SubString", get the Icon from the choosen (Icon-)File in all Taskbars. *xTaskbarIcon supports Icon Extraction based on IconIndexNumber, so you can extract even more Icons.

Example:
*xTaskbarIcon "*free*" "c:\winnt\explorer.exe,8"
All Applications, which have the string "free" somewhere in their Classname or Windowname, get the Eight Icon of Explorer.exe, which is in this case an "Alert Icon".

↑

Examples

Main Layout Examples


First the standard settings, which are all the same for the following examples:

xTaskbarusesolidcolors
xTaskbarbordermethod etched
xTaskbarusebuttonsolidcolors
xTaskbarbuttonbordermethod raised
xTaskbaractivebuttonbordermethod sunken
xTaskbarminimizedbuttonbordermethod bump

xTaskbarx 20
xTaskbary 20
xTaskbarwidth $resolutionx-40$ (remove this setting, if another value is used below!)
xTaskbarheight 32 (remove this setting, if another value is used below!)

xTaskbartopborder 4
xTaskbarbottomborder 4
xTaskbarleftborder 10
xTaskbarrightborder 10

xTaskbarbuttonxspacing 4
xTaskbarbuttonyspacing 2

xTaskbarbuttonmaxwidth 200

xTaskbarfontleftborder 24
xTaskbariconx 4

1. Normal SingleLine Taskbar:
Guess what, you only need the standard settings :)

2. Taskbar With Two Lines horizontally filled and a Vertical Wrap with the 6th Button:
xTaskbarheight 58 (we should start bigger due to second line)
xTaskbarlines 2
xTaskbarwrapcount 5 (you can also cut this out cause the Default in this case is also 5)

3. Taskbar With Two Lines vertically filled and a Horizontal Wrap:
xTaskbarheight 58 (we should start bigger due to second line)
xTaskbarlines 2
xTaskbarlayout .vertical
xTaskbarwrapcount 2

4. SingleLine Taskbar, which grows on Wrap ( 4 Buttons ) vertically:
xTaskbarwrapcount 4
xTaskbaronlineadd !xTaskbarresizeby 0 26
xTaskbaronlineremove !xTaskbarReSizeBy 0 -26

5. SingleLine Taskbar, which grows/shrinks with each added/removed Button:
xTaskbarwidth 0 (we should start with zero, cause no buttons)
xTaskbaronadd !xTaskbarresizeby 200 0 (our TaskButton should be 200px width)
xTaskbaronremove !xTaskbarresizeby -200 0 (our TaskButton should be 200px width)

For all Layouts, you can define the Direction and WrapDirection with the according settings!

These 5 layouts should give you an impression how to create your desired taskbar layout.

Multiple Taskbars


A little Example, which shows TWO Taskbars and the use of xTaskbarDisplay:

*xTaskbar tbleft
*xTaskbar tbright

tbleftx 2
tblefty 2
tbleftwidth 152
tbleftheight $resolutiony/2$
tbleftlayout .vertical
tbleftdisplay "normal+minimized"
tbleftusesolidcolors
tbleftsolidcolors c0c0c0 000000
tbleftsolidbevelsize 1
tbleftusebuttonsolidcolors
tbleftbuttonmaxheight 24
tbleftleftborder 2
tbleftrightborder 2
tblefttopborder 2
tbleftbottomborder 2
tbleftfontleftborder 20
tblefticonx 2

tbrightx 154
tbrighty 2
tbrightwidth 152
tbrightheight 24
tbrightdisplay "active"
tbrightusesolidcolors
tbrightusebuttonsolidcolors
tbrightleftborder 2
tbrightrightborder 2
tbrighttopborder 2
tbrightbottomborder 2
tbrightfontleftborder 20
tbrighticonx 2

Tips'n'Tricks


If you want a autosizing Taskbar, with Taskbuttons that have a exact size (eg. 64x64), do this:
Use xTaskbarAutoSize or:

The Taskbutton Width and Height are automatically calculated, so your xTaskbarWidth must EXACTLY match the following calculation.
((xTaskbarWidth-xTaskbarLeftBorder-xTaskbarRightBorder)-(ButtonCount-1)*xTaskbarButtonxSpacing)/ButtonCount
If the rest of this calculation is 0, then all Taskbuttons have all the exact same size (the result).

Specific Example: The Taskbuttons are 64x64, centered at the top if the screen and grow towards each side of the screen. The xSpacing between the buttons is 6.
xTaskbarHideIfEmpty
xTaskbarx 0c
xTaskbary 5
xTaskbarWidth 0
xTaskbarHeight 64
xTaskbarButtonMaxWidth 64 (you don't need this, if the calculation is exact)
xTaskbarButtonMaxHeight 64 (you don't need this, if the calculation is exact)
xTaskbarTransparencyMode true
xTaskbarLeftBorder 3
xTaskbarRightBorder 3
xTaskbarButtonxSpacing 6
xTaskbarUseBigIcon
xTaskbarIconSize 64
xTaskbarShowText false

xTaskbarOnAdd !xTaskbarRepositionBy -35 0 70 0
xTaskbarOnRemove !xTaskbarRepositionBy 35 0 -70 0

One tricky point is important!
You must add the xSpacing together with the desired ButtonWidth, but the FIRST Button doesn't need this! If you don't care it may bother you later :P
2 Solutions:
1. Start with a Width of 0 and use LeftBorder and RightBorder so that they are together as big as your xSpacing.
2. Don't use a xSpacing and add/remove only the desired Width (64)

The above calculation in details:
First Button: ((70-3-3)-(1-1)*6)/1 -> 64/1 == 64 rest 0
Second Button: ((140-3-3)-(2-1)*6)/2 -> 128/2 == 64 rest 0
Third Button: ((210-3-3)-(3-1)*6)/3 -> 192/3 == 64 rest 0
...

If you refer to this, you can achieve all you want :)

↑

Contact

Please report bugs, if there should be any, to:
andymon@ls-universe.info

Homepage:
www.LS-Universe.info
Here you find News, Updates, and some more.

↑