Some Beginner questions

Some Beginner questions

Magnus7 (guest) 26 May 2016 00:24

hi there,

good work, i think this dock is great; i was looking for an alternate dock to rocket dock, and so gave this a try.

i have some beginner issues, was hoping someone can help me :-

1. is there a way to create a desktop shortcut to hide/unhide sliderdock, as if CTRL+Space was depressed? this is my most important issue.

2. is there a way to launch a program from an icon inside the iconseeker with 1 click?

3. when i hover my mouse over an icon outside of the iconseeker, a tag/balloon appears with some details of that icon. i don't mean the description panel. it's like a label. is there any way to disable this completely?

4. when i hover my mouse over an icon outside of the iconseeker, that icon is highlighted in red (i switched the iconseeker to default slider pattern1, the one which matches the sliderdock logo). is there a way i can change this completely, to a different highlighting effect maybe, and of a different color, independent of whatever color my iconseeker is?

5. very minor detail : i learnt from the official site that this product is called 'Sliderdock', but once the program is installed, my quicklaunch icons indicate the product as 'SliderDock'. would like to know, which is the officially correct name : Sliderdock or SliderDock? don't misunderstand, i think this dock is great, regardless!

Magnus7 (guest) 26 May 2016 00:27

EDIT* for item 2. above, specifically 1 left-click, not middle button or right.

ps. sry, i couldn't edit my first post so had to put in edits as a reply.

Re: Some Beginner questions

coderOmega 26 May 2016 00:58

hi,
thanks for the support.
To answer your questions
1. you can use autoHotKey to create a small script that would imitate the ctrl+space command when clicking the icon then exit itself when done.
The script would be :

Send {^Space}
Exit

in ahk the "^" symbol is for the Ctrl key
I haven't tried the code but it should work without any problem.

2. There isn't a way to launch an app with a single click.
The reason for this was to allow to drag the icon to reorganize them and the single click launch was causing some problem with it.

3 and 4. There isn't an option to disable the tooltips when you hover your mouse or to change the color of the highlight.

5. The name of the program is SliderDock. The reason the website shows Sliderdock is because it didn't support a capital letter in the middle of the name.
But really I don't mind either way.

I'm glad that you are enjoying SliderDock.
It was a nice project to work on but I had to stop development due to health issues so there won't be any improvement from now on.
I hope you can still enjoy the application despite that.

Magnus7 (guest) 26 May 2016 10:07

hey thanks for the fast reply.

I do hope your health improves. I have decided to continue using this dock because it is easy to use and quite stylish.

I have tried to learn and use autohotkey in the past, but failed. I will give it another try. As for the cosmetic changes, I'm sure someone more well-versed in customizing than I would come up with something, since this dock has garnered quite a fanbase.

Regards.

Magnus7 (guest) 26 May 2016 22:34

hi there,

could you guide me with that .ahk please? I have installed autohotkey, and proceeded to create a new ahk file on my desktop. then I deleted the words on the top of the file and just plugged in what you said :-

Send {^Space}
Exit

after that I saved the file, but it does not work when I double-click on it.

i'm finding it hard to understand how I can use the autohotkey program to achieve a windows shortcut to auto-hide sliderdock, because I am not assigning any keyboard key to active 'CTRL + Space'. actually I have posted on autohotkey forums, but I doubt anyone would reply me soon, they probably think i'm some prankster…

coderOmega 26 May 2016 22:58

to test if ahk works at all at the beginning of the file just add the line

MsgBox % "test"

this line should show a popup when you run the script.
If it does then the problem might be somewhere else.

Last edited on 26 May 2016 23:01 by coderOmega Show more

Magnus7 (guest) 27 May 2016 00:28

hi, I have just added that line to the file. it does come up.
i'm getting "test" in a pop-up box.

so right now my file only has these exact 3 lines :-

MsgBox % "test"
Send {^Space}
Exit

i'm activating the file on desktop, but the dock does not auto-hide?

coderOmega 27 May 2016 01:27

I think I know why.
The script does work but SliderDock doesn't receive the command because of the way it's handling the shortcuts.
Basically SliderDock interecpt keyboard keys before window receive them while ahk send command to window which redistribute them to other apps.
Because of that feature ahk and other 3rd party apps cannot interact with SliderDock's shortcuts.
In earlier versions SliderDock did use windows inputs but it was unstable and caused the application to crash so that is the reason for the current way it now works.

I guess because of this reason there is sadly no way to have a desktop shortcut control SliderDock.

Magnus7 (guest) 27 May 2016 07:49

ok, still thanks very much for your help.

Magnus7 (guest) 27 May 2016 09:47

Hello there Dimitri,

I have found a method, but it is not a complete workaround. Basically it only works while you are working on the desktop, the moment you switch to another window, the dock will re-appear. I think what it actually does force the desktop pane forwards but I could be wrong. The shortcut can be downloaded @sevenforums, under tutorials : 26379-show-desktop-shortcut-create.html. Sry I realized I can't post a link.

It's a shortcut to replicate 'show desktop' function as in the taskbar button strip on the furthest right. this is not to be confused with shortcut to desktop 'from explorer view' (c:\users\username\desktop).

I need your help for 1 more thing at the moment. Previously you said that :-

"There isn't a way to launch an app with a single click.
The reason for this was to allow to drag the icon to reorganize them and the single click launch was causing some problem with it".

I understand what you mean, but could you show me the way to temporarily toggle this, as I am testing something, and I will be careful not to drag/re-order or add any new icons while the single click launch is in effect.

coderOmega 27 May 2016 10:53

The double click is hardrwitten into the code and there is no toggle to change it to single click.

After reading your comment I thought of using ahk to double click the SliderDock tray bar icon but I found a wall where relaunching the script would lose the tray icon position but I found an interesting script that will do what you are asking here : https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/7129-run-a-program-or-switch-to-an-already-running-instance/

I modified it slightly but basically it's a script that will launch the launcher lol.

so here is what you'll need to copy into an ahk file :

SliderDockPath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\SliderDock\SliderDock.exe"
RunOrActivate(SliderDockPath)

; ===========================================================================
; Run a program or switch to it if already running.
;    Target - Program to run. E.g. Calc.exe or C:\Progs\Bobo.exe
;    WinTitle - Optional title of the window to activate.  Programs like
;       MS Outlook might have multiple windows open (main window and email
;       windows).  This parm allows activating a specific window.
; ===========================================================================
RunOrActivate(Target, WinTitle = "")
{
    ; Get the filename without a path
    SplitPath, Target, TargetNameOnly

    Process, Exist, %TargetNameOnly%
    ;If ErrorLevel > 0
    ;    PID = %ErrorLevel%
    ;Else
        Run, %Target%, , , PID

    ; At least one app (Seapine TestTrack wouldn't always become the active
    ; window after using Run), so we always force a window activate.
    ; Activate by title if given, otherwise use PID.
    If WinTitle <> 
    {
        SetTitleMatchMode, 2
        WinWait, %WinTitle%, , 3
        TrayTip, , Activating Window Title "%WinTitle%" (%TargetNameOnly%)
        WinActivate, %WinTitle%
    }
    Else
    {
        WinWait, ahk_pid %PID%, , 3
        TrayTip, , Activating PID %PID% (%TargetNameOnly%)
        WinActivate, ahk_pid %PID%
    }
    Exit
}

If I remember correctly, SliderDock's default behavior when launching it when it's already running is to show itself.
If that is the case this script should work for you.
I don't have access to a windows 7 computer anymore so I can't test it myself but I tried with another app and it works.

Edit : actually never mind the script. have you tried to run SliderDock's shortcut when it's already working?
It should do the same.

Last edited on 27 May 2016 11:32 by coderOmega Show more

Magnus7 (guest) 27 May 2016 13:22

I've tested with sliderdock's shortcut itself. I tested while it was on desktop. It doesn't work, but I don't think it's really a big issue anymore.

Regarding the single launch, the dock once in operation, does it exist within explorer shell? if so, I could try find the 'folder' if I can get it on explorer view, and alt+T, then maybe I could switch all within that 'folder' to quick launch under folder options. do u think that is possible? I still have to find the dock first.

coderOmega 27 May 2016 13:42

SliderDock isn't integrated in the explorer shell

Magnus7 (guest) 27 May 2016 13:50

I see.

ok found another way to 'hide' the dock lol : just use win aero-flip back to desktop pane, and the dock stays under. to bring it up again, make another window other than the desktop active. the dock re-surfaces.