First of all, I want to thank Xcilion for making such a tight skin. But what I’m doing is composing a tutorial for the people who were just like me, who were saying, what in the world to do with all this stuff? I haven’t been using this program for long, its only been a couple days, but I have been reading up on it for a while. I have been looking at all the nice skins and was wondering how in the world did they get that done? In my eyes all I saw was a bunch of icons but no info on what to do wit them. So then common sense kicked in and told me to look at the default theme that comes with the program, and take a look at some of the setup that was there. Then BOOM! It all hit me, I think I almost kinda sort figured out how to use this program. So here is the steps I did to get my desktop to what you see in the screenshot. Just use this as example to get your desktop up and running, I believe this should be close to use towards most themes out there, im not sure, but take a shot!
First Step: Create a New theme. To do this you load up WA Advance and Desktop, then tap and hold on the desktop. Go to Theme, then Click on Create at the bottom left of your screen. This should take you to a screen to name your theme, so name it what ever you want, in my case I name it Vista Portable. Then hit the check mark in the top right, and that should take you back to the themes page, then select the theme in which you just named.
Second Step: Now that you have selected the theme, you should now have a blank desktop with just a background and the start bar at the top. Now in my case, I like to have the today bar at the bottom, this is solely up to you. To activate the Today Bar at the bottom, just tap and hold on desktop and click on Show Todaybar. Then you shall see the bar pop up.
Third step: I like the idea of having the sidebar on the desktop with the clock on top, so lets add that in now. What you do is, Tap and Hold on desktop, click on New, click on Dock, and this should take you to the screen to build the dock. For background choose the “sidebar” picture located in the Sidebar folder provided to you when you downloaded the theme from the website. So in my case, I have the files I downloaded for the them on my storage card, so my file is found in: \Storage Card\Windows Vista – WAD\Sidebar\ (yours may be different, just locate it from where ever you saved the files at. Now you want to select “Right” under the Dock to Edge Menu, and name the dock what ever you want, In my case I named it “Sidebar” Then click the checkmark in the top right corner.
Fourth Step: Now you want to add the clock to the dock. Tap and Hold on desktop and select, New then Analog Clock. Its gonna ask for the “Clock Face” Select the one that’s in the “Windows Gadgets” folder , which is inside the folder where all the themes icons are. Then place it in your desired location.
Fifth Step: Add a My Computer device to your desktop. What to do is. Tap and Hold on desktop and select New – Button. For the Icon I chose to use the Mobile device which was located in the Hardware folder of the Icons. For Action, select “Toggle Dock” and leave the Control section blank for right now and Click the arrow at the Top Right to exit screen. Now Tap and Hold on desktop again and select New – Dock, and for this dock I chose the bexplorer Icon in the Windows folder, because it looks close enough to the My Computer folder on a Desktop PC. You want to make the Opacity to 100, Have Visible by default Checked, and a feature that I liked is the Hide this dock after executing a subitem, I have it checked, but this is solely up to you. Leave Dock to edge set as “none” and then name the dock to what ever you want, in my case I named it as My Documents. Now click the Checkmark in the top right corner.
Now Tap and hold on the My Compter device you made previously and select properties, now go back to the Control section, and select the My Documents dock you had just created, then click the check in the top right corner. Now everytime you click on the My Computer Icon it should toggle the My Documents Folder you just created.
Sixth Step: Now to add some shortcuts inside the My Documents Dock you just created. Make sure the My Documents Dock is open, and Tap and Hold inside the dock. Select New – Shortcut, The first I made was the My Documents folder from my Storage Card. In the New - Shortcut Meny, Under Path To Executable, Select \Storage Card\My Documents (if this is the case for you), Then under Path to image, I chose the My Documents Folder under the Icons\Folders section in the Folder where the themes icons are located. Then Edit the text settings to your liking, then click on the checkmark in the Top Right Corner. Now do the same for any other folders you would like in the My Documents Dock. I chose, my Documents, My Videos, My Music and My Pictures, which are all linked from my Storage card. Line the icons to your liking, and lock them to dock.
*You can use the above steps to create your other docks (folders) to your liking. On my device I have:
My Computer (toggles) - My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos (Dock Name = My Documents, Dock Icon = Portrait Dock qvga (in default them folder) )
My Organizer (Toggles) – Contacts, Calendar, Messaging, Notes (Dock Name = PIM)
Control Panel (Toggles) – Links to Remove Programs, Sounds & Notifications, Today, Memory, System Info, T-Mobile Hotspot Login (Dock Name = Control Panel, Dock Icon= besettings)
Then create shortcuts for Microsoft Office inside of Sidebar Dock and Place them to your liking.
That’s pretty much it kid-os, any questions or concerns, just let me know and I’ll help as much as possible.
*New Edit: I was playing around with the theme a little more and started to browse the forums a little bit, and realized something that I didnt think about, and not that its something to try to ot not try to take credit for, just something to add to the tutorial, so here goes:
As previously stated in the tutorial, for instance, to have the "My Computer" Icon on desktop to toggle the "My Documents" Dock (which has the My Music, My Pictures, My Documents, My Videos folders in it) instead of having the Desktop Icon to toggle the folder open and close, you can use the close button icon located in the windows folder of the theme, to actually close the folder for you. Heres the steps:
- Tap and Hold inside of "My Documents" Dock, Select New-Button
- For Icon, browse the windows folder of the theme, select the close button
- Under action select "Hide Dock"
- Under contorl select "My Documents"
- Click checkmark in top right corner
- Postion the close button that you just created right on top of the close button that is in the top right corner, now you are able to close the window just as you do on a windows desktop.
- Just make the "My Computer" Icon on desktop to "open dock" and not "toggle dock" and that's it!
- I take no credit on this
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*New Edit: To make your start menu Vista Like, heres the steps:
First: Tap and hold, select new dock: Background = Taskbar (located in Interface Folder) Name = Taskbar, then drag taskbar to bottom of page and line it up evenly.
Second: Tap and hold, select new Dock: Backgrond = startmenutransparent Name = startmenu, then drag to the left side of screen and line up on top of “Taskbar”
Third: Tap and hold, select new Button: Icon = Startmenu Button Action = Toggle Dock Control = Startmenu, then line up the button to your liking, usually to the left side of taskbar.
Fourth: Add Icons and Folders to Startmenu Dock of your choice, by Tap and Hold, New Shortcut, Select what ever you want, Drag into plack, Lock Items.
To Hide the orginial Taskbar thats at top of screen: Just tap and hold desktop and select Full Screen!
That’s it: Any other input would be greatly appreciated.
*By The Way, This Is Portrait Mode Only, I havent figured out Landscape Mode As Of Yet! Sorry!
Tutorial - Windows Vista Portable
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Linear Mode
