Active Desktop Tutorial

zalood · 11 Nov 2002

Posted by sboulema
When i use the active desktop i lose my transparent icon text All my icons get a black box around their text. See pic. Any solution for this?

Make the color of DESKTOP background the same with the color of the picture in your ACTIVE destop. As you are using a gradation colored picture . . you will get the same problem on the icons placed on different part of the screen.
(anyway . . how do you make it transparent??)

mupp . .

This is how you prevent all the links from turning purple after click:
Copy the following lines and paste to >> after the <HEAD> tag in your html

<STYLE>
a:link {
color: #0000FF;
font-weight : bold;
text-decoration : none;}

a:active {
color: #FF33CC;
font-weight : bold;
text-decoration : none;}

a:visited {
color: #0000FF; /*replace with color of your choice*/
font-weight : bold; /* this to make bold font*/
text-decoration : none;}/*this to get raid of the underline*/

a:hover {
color: #0000FF;
font-weight : bold;
text-decoration : none; }
</STYLE>

PurpleSmurf · 11 Nov 2002

nm, i got it to dump into an xml file. just need to figure out how to pull only parts of the file in to where i want.

mupp · 11 Nov 2002

madmatt, I've been using FAT32.

zalood, thanks for the tip, but I already figured it out.

Piett · 12 Nov 2002

doh, i fell silly. i thought that matt didn't have that in his tutorial. what can i say? it was late...and apparently my eyes decided that they didn't want to read that part of the tutorial. well, i guess it never hurts to repeat something. /me really humble now

PurpleSmurf · 12 Nov 2002

ok, here's what i've done so far. i may complete this one if you people like it. or i'll do one thats origional. anyway tell me what you think.

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

mupp, that's why you have to use the 8.3 format. If you were to change over to NTFS then you wouldn't have a problem with the long format (did some research). So just in case you do change to NTFS, you will be able to convert back to long format. Glad you got it sorted out.

zalood, I'd like to personally thank you for fielding questions in this thread. Thank you.

now to look into madPlanet's problem, I'll get back to you bro.

bruce_ers00 · 12 Nov 2002

Matt: I am using NTFS and I am having nothing but problems with the shortcut/link launch. I have tried everything within this forum to solve my problem. No luck. I am trying to link folders as well as files (such as clicking a link to launch a commonly used Word document). Any suggestions to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

NeX · 12 Nov 2002

problem as well

with the active desktop thing, i have the same problem as mupp
i have a fat32 system

the only thing is, how do you convert to the 8.3 system?
i was trying to do a photoshop shortcut
c:\progra~1\adobe\
but i cant do:
c:\progra~1\adobe\photos~1\photoshop.exe ?

is it because the folder:
Photoshop 7.0 has a space?
(the problem is with the folder, you cannot find
c:\progra~1\adobe\photos~1\ )

djwhite · 12 Nov 2002

Save it in the normal format, but when you do the VBscript type the location in as 8.3 format

theauditors · 12 Nov 2002

ah, thanks matt, that was it

Phantom · 12 Nov 2002

For those that want another color on the highlight at the calendar and don't know how:

Add: <FONT color="#FF0000"> at the end of "var highlight_start ="

and add </FONT> at the end of "var highlight_end ="

Change the #FF0000 to whatever fits your needs.

Hope I made myself clear(and that someone wants this)

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

Re: Notepad not saving

First things first, good job madmatt! I've been 'lurking' patiently in the desktop threads waiting for this tutorial ever since I first saw your desktop. And now I'm starting to see the results of your good work

Thank you.

I am having a minor issue with the Notepad code tho - Save doesn't live up to its name on my PC. I click it and a window appears briefly on screen (browser?), but nothing is saved to the txt file, nor does the text appear when I refresh the desktop (F5). The only change I made to the code was for the background and text colours, oh and to remove the underlining on the link

Try this..

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>Active Desktop: Quick Notes</title>
<head>

<script language="VBSCRIPT">
<!--

Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 3 

Sub setFile (filename)      
Set a = fs.CreateTextFile(filename, true) 
a.Write(Document.notes.qnotes.value) 
a.Close
End Sub

Sub loadFile (filename)
'Open file to read
if fs.FileExists(filename) then
Set a = fs.OpenTextFile(filename,ForReading) 
Document.notes.qnotes.value = a.ReadAll() 
a.Close
else
Document.notes.qnotes.value = "madmatt.fusion_dtop v5"
end if
End Sub
-->
</script>

</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" onLoad="loadFile('c:\\windows\\qnotes.txt');">

           <form name="notes">
                 <textarea name="qnotes" cols="28" rows="7" wrap="PHYSICAL"></textarea>
                 <a onClick="setFile('c:\\windows\\qnotes.txt');" href="javascript:void(0);">
                   save
                 </a>
           </form>

</body>
</html>

I made a few changes to the original code, including the file name of the saved data. Please make sure that "qnotes.txt" already exists in your "c:\windows" directory before attempting to open/save to.

Let me know.

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

madPlanet, and remember to remove the space between "JAVA" and "SCRIPT" in the A HREF.

Code:

<a onClick="setFile('c:\\windows\\qnotes.txt');" href="javascript:void(0);">

I honestly don't know why vBulletin adds that space.

vdubVR6 · 12 Nov 2002

can I use the same code for sol.vbs-with the network drive shortcut instead- for a network drive, or would that not work.(sorry bit of a newb when it comes to this)! thx

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

vdubVR6, as long as you have access to the directory, and you make the shortcut point to the exact location on the network, it should work.

I have not tested this method personally, but I don't see why it would not work.

tkole · 12 Nov 2002

madmatt, first off, thank you for the very informative guide. Second, I am having a very basic problem that I am almost embarassed to ask. When I go to the web settings in display properties and try to load my active desktop, I get nothing but a blank white desktop. I searched a found a post in another thread that someone uchecked a show icons box and got it to work, however I don't see this box. Do you have any suggestions?

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

Right click desktop
Arrange Icons By
uncheck "Show Desktop Icons"

If that doesn't work, you may want to try and change the background color of your HTML document and/or background color of your desktop (Right click desktop, Properties, Desktop tab, Color). Then see if anything shows up.

tkole · 12 Nov 2002

Thank you, worked like a charm. I will try not to bother with anymore stupid questions.

madmatt · 12 Nov 2002

One of my professors once told me, "no question is a stupid question". Or something similar, I wasn't paying attention.

vdubVR6 · 12 Nov 2002

okay the vbscript itself works but every time I go to exec. from the link it gives me "javascript:void(0)" that error", any ideas, my ahref is -<a onClick="exec('music.vbs'); return false;" href="javascript:void(0)">Launch music</a>- is that correct.

Active Desktop Tutorial

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...will circle this city

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Awesome is as awesome does.

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