Introduction

Eyedrop is my version of a minimalist theme. It lacks a lot of the bangs and whistles that other themes have but still provides enough functionality to make it an appealling and useful theme. At least, this was my goal. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a minimal theme so I hope I have cattered for the majority. Please feel free to e-mail me your feedback on this theme.

Cheers
Charles Worm

Compatibility

Development Platform

Litestep Build: Litestep 0.24.7 Beta
Operating System: MS Windows XP (SP1)
Hardware: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 1,024MB RAM, GF4 Ti4200

Compatibility Checks

Conforms with the OTS: Yes.
Earlier Litestep builds: Untested and unconfirmed.
Other flavours of Windows: Untested but I would expect it to work the same.
Multi-monitors: Yes.
Resolution indipendent: Yes. Supports all resolutions from 640 x 480 and higher.

Modules

Modules - Version
jdesk.dll - 0.711
popup2.dll - 2.1.1
shortcut2.dll - 2.0
vtray - 1.06
label.dll - 1.99
RabidVWM.dll - 1.1.1
lsxcommand.dll - 1.8.4
ckHotspots.dll - 2.3
dynamp.dll - 0.43
lsbox.dll - 2.95

Installation

Please see the theme installation section of the OTS site for detailed instructions.

Usage

NOTE: This theme uses hotspots to automatically hide and show the top bar and system tray. The theme has not be designed to work if you turn off hotspots.

Interface

Below is a cropped image of the Eyedrop interface. Features of the interface have been numbered and explained below.

1. Virtual Desktop Manager: Workspace indicator and switcher.
Left mouse click - Switch workspaces.

2. WinAmp Controls: Buttons to control the winamp player. This works with Winamp 2, 5 and should work with Winamp 3 but has not been tested.

3. Media Title: Displays title for the current track being played in winamp.
Left mouse click track title - Show/Hide WinAmp.
Right mouse click track title - Display ID3 info for current track.

4. Media Play time: Displays the play/remaining time for the current WinAmp track
Left/Right mouse click track time - Toggle time between play time and remaining time.

5. Current Time / CPU Usage: Displays the current time of the system CPU usage.
Left/Right mouse click - Toggle between current time and CPU usage.

6. Current Date / Uptime: Displays the current date or the amount of time the PC has been running.
Left mouse click - Toggle between current date and uptime.
Right mouse click - Open "Date and Time Properties".

7. Bar handle: Pins/releases the bar from autohiding.
Left mouse click - When the bar is not hidden, click this handle to pin the bar or release it so it automatically hides.

8. Popup: Hotspot to display the Popup
Left mouse click - If hotspots has been turned off you can click this button to display the Popup.

9. Sytem tray: Display system tray icons

10. Sytem tray handle: Pins/releases the system trayfrom autohiding
Left mouse click - When the bar is not hidden, click this handle to pin the bar or release it so it automatically hides.

11. Tasks Popup: Hotspot to display the list of running applications in a popup.
Left mouse click - If hotspots has been turned off you can click this button to display the Tasks Popup.

Theme Variables

A number of elements for Eye-drop can be configured in the themevars.rc file. Refer the comments in the file for a description of what can be changed.

Hotkeys

Three hotkeys have been defined in themevars.rc.

WIN + C - Opens lsxcommand.

WIN + ALT + T - Toggles the interface on and off. Useful for when playing games.

WIN + ALT + H - Toggles hotspots on and off. Again, this is useful for games, but you may find the auto-hide functionality gets out of sync if you use it. In some cases you can correct it by clicking the handles a couple of times, but often it's just easier to recycle the theme.