Forgive this very DO8 newbie question, but I've been searching and looking at everything in the forums since yesterday afternoon re icons and haven't come across anything related to the type of thing I hope to do.
DOpus is fantastic but I am finding one thing a challenge, I found it visually very hard to work in DOpus with the default icons so different than what I'm used to in WE, esp. since I work with WE at work. To make life easier and to standardize the look so that I'm working in the same type of graphical environment in both places (less confusion ), I hunted and hunted for WE-like images and meticulously replaced key ones with these Windows Explorer-like PNG files. Unfortunately, I had to make a slight folder rename and the reference to the icons changed so I got happy faces the next time I started the computer and used DO . Okay, easy enough, just reset the path to each of my handful of custom icons. Tedious but it works.
However, that got me to thinking that there must be an easier way to deal with this situation. Is there perhaps some way to have a complete WE-like custom icon pack that we can set up as the default icons for DOpus to use rather than having to use individual image files that require a hardcoded path? I'm thinking along the lines of a DOpus shell32.dll-like deal that just automatically has the right icons assigned to each and every feature so that we just make one change in DO and the WE-like icons appear? That's about the only thing I'd see change in DOpus.
Here's hoping that something exists already or that there is way to do this. I've been reading about IconPackager and will look into it even though not sure it might do this type of thing (?). I'll find out about it, though.
Since v9 Opus has an icon system now which works quite well - allowing full packs of icons to be created and distributed. At this stage there's only the default icons and here in the forums there's a vista icon pack.
There's no specific WE pack and I guess that copyright issues would prevent someone creating one identical to the windows icons.
Yes, I'd seen references to DO being up to v9 but I just tried using 8 again before going that route. But it seems that the new icon abilities make it the way to go as the difficulty lies in working in 2 different environments.
Important note -- will all my settings files work okay in v9 from v8? It took me such a long time to set everything up to what I need that I'd hate to lose all that effort. I'd just import everything into v9 and wondering if there are glitches in this process.
Thanks!
p.s., I just wanted to add something, an example of the importance of changing the icons -- when I initially decided to use another app that I had this kind of difficulties with, Firefox, the issue was with using Firefox at home then coming to the office and using IE. It was a bit of a daily headache to shift modes between environments until I found an IE-like theme for FF. But then they came out with a portable FF version and I use the exact same version in both places and could then switch to a preferred skin which is quite different from IE in looks but that is nicer and that has extra functionality built into it. No more mind shifts and confusion every once in a while in using more than 1 browser.
DO is in that initial position for me. It's not that I prefer the look of WE, etc., it's what I'm used to and what I have to continue to use at the office. So as long as the icons are the same between DO at home and WE at the office, I'll be okay (at least until there's a portable DO and that's what I start carrying around on my USB flash drive, too!!!).
Your Opus 8 settings will be converted to Opus 9 automatically so nothing should be lost. (The installer will offer to make a backup of your Opus 8 settings just in case you decide to go back to 8.)
There is already a portable version of Opus, if you buy the extra USB export feature in Opus 9.
[quote="nudel"]Your Opus 8 settings will be converted to Opus 9 automatically so nothing should be lost. (The installer will offer to make a backup of your Opus 8 settings just in case you decide to go back to 8.)
There is already a portable version of Opus, if you buy the extra USB export feature in Opus 9.[/quote]Thanks, I'll consider all of this carefully.
Tell me something, I've just installed 9, is there a way to globally restore the default icon set? I've searched the forum and looked at the help files but haven't found anything related to this. It would be so much easier if I could click a "restore" button and then customize from the icon pack, if needed.
I'm just doing a straight replace manually putting default icons back in, but curious where this feature is because it's not in any of the likely spots.
If you've changed the actual images used by your toolbars, then the only way to get those back to the internal icons is to edit them again.
If you haven't customized your toolbar very much (other than the icons), resetting to the default toolbar may be quicker - to do this, go into /dopusdata/buttons and delete the Toolbar.dop file, and then restart Opus.
Actually, the problem arose from pointing to individual icons. I've been doing some research and it seems that DLL files, or ICL, etc., can be used. I even experimented a bit. I put together an ICL file and tried customizing with that. I think I had some difficulty with some. Some images were accepted via the ICL file and others not (could be one of the ICL files was not strictly compatible, don't know). Some DLL files also were accepted. I know that a copy of the shell32.dll icon works perfectly with DOpus, so bonus there.
Also, what I learned was pretty cool. If you have any of these library type files, you can rename them and they'll work. i.e., an ICL can be renamed to DLL and vice-versa and this switching makes them work in certain situations perhaps because one is changing the the extension (?).
Anyway, further experimenting will be necessary. With one ICL (or DLL) file containing all my preferred icons, even if I rename a folder, etc., pointing to new location still easier. After all, the icons can be named in order within the ICL file and then you copy the pathname to the clipboard. I didn't mind making changes this way as it is easy when you point to new location and just dump the path in from the clipboard (unlike when I used individual icons!)
Now the only thing left in my WE icons ICL are some of the images. A lot of the icons in shell32.dll are the same but some come out of shellstyle.dll (if memory serves re the name). But problem is that those are bitmaps pieces, or something. Some of the missing buttons are the PREVIOUS and FORWARD buttons and I believe they come out of this file.
So the last few WE icons have been impossible to find so far. The only major google hit for WE icons is a file that SEO's right near the top. But I don't know which WE the "developer" has based his icons on because they're not like the standard WinXP's WE icons. If anyone knows of WE-looking icons that are not found in shell32.dll, for example, pls advise. I tried making my own by just copying the WE toolbar but, as anticipated, they come out quite poorly and so were unacceptable.
Well, thanks to everyone for their help! Much appreciated.
I re-visited this as DOpus as still not quite right. My difficulty is that I'm very visual and I must cope with using WE at home and then coming home to DOpus here and that can get confusing. When I work full time at home, having a different icon set to perform the same tasks between different types of apps for the same purpose (i.e., WE vs DOpus), it won't matter as I'll get used to the defaults of the app I stay with at home. But until such a day arrives, I find life easier to standardize home to appear similar to what I have at the office. i.e., the example I gave before from before I started using Portable Firefox. I used an IE theme for FF to keep life simple. Once Portable came along, no problem, of course. I use the same Portable version in both places with the same skin; which is very, very different from the default IE look.
At any rate, I came up with an ICL that contains the icons I'm using. A few I pulled from shell32.dll, a few came off the XP icons one (thanks!) and the missing images that I couldn't find even with ResHacker so who knows where they really are, I resorted to just making screenshots of. As always, the end result of something like this is pretty gross but I can live with the 3 somewhat nasty icons for now. They're not bad, just not nice and crisp as they should be.
[First line, for less confusion, it should read: "and I must cope with using WE at work".]
Just out of curiousity, where are the default icons located in DOpus, pls? I did a search of the DLLs and EXEs and didn't see them. Perhaps I'm missing something ...
Again, tagging along on Nudel's messages... Dopus is portable as well... so why not solve the Dopus problem the same way you solved the Firefox problem, and use Dopus at work AND home?
I think Dopus icons are 'hidden' pretty well... and wouldn't help you inside Windows Explorer anyway so... .
About matching Opus to Explorer... what other icons could you NOT find... it's not as though Explorer even has "that" many icons to begin with... I would imagine they are all obtainable, and could be used in Opus.
Good Morning! Sorry for delay in responding. I'm in the middle of an apartment move and just started a new contract . All good stuff, but makes life interesting.
The 3 buttons that I couldn't find are highlighted in blue in the screenshot:
REFRESH
CUT, and
UNDO.
Like I said, they don't look all that bad in the toolbar but they're not up to the crispness of the other icons because they're from screenshots. That's why they're a tad hazy and fuzzy. I'm happy enough with the end result but if anyone knows where these icons actually are so that I can extract originals, pls let me know. Or very crisp PNGs work well, too. I can make ICOs easily out of those. Anyway, they're not in the shellstyle.dll, recommended on the net as a place where some of the WE icons could be found. Not these, though, as far as I could see. Nor are they in shell32.dll. Anyway, worth an additional try. I did some lengthy searches on the net for WE icons but the ones that came up weren't WinXP WE ones but of earlier Win versions.
The icon circled in red is the one I was asking about as it comes from the default DOpus toolbar. I'd like to get the original of that one, too, to add to the ICL file. I like the look of it.
Oops, missed one. The UP ONE LEVEL icon to the left of the REFRESH icon, third from the left is also from a screenshot. It just looks a little crisper than the rest so forgot about that one.
Sorry for delay. Just moved house and finished up yesterday. However, my computer is still all disassembled. Will probably get it all hooked up again over the weekend (right now I wish I had a laptop!).
Thanks for these images. Saving now to work with. Much appreciated.
D
