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Neowin Toolbar?

Asked by samo123_uk,

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Enthusiast

BeeJay

Posted
Posted

Looking great you guys! This is coming along very nicely!

One issue. I am very up tight about the organization of my browser. I like to use the toolbar, but I only want it activated when I am using NeoWin.

When I leave the NeoWin site, I disable the toolbar. However, when I go back to reenable it later (after the browser has been closed and reopened), the toolbar always starts to the far right of my bottom toolbar row (instead of remembering it's previous position). Is there any way to force it to either remember it's previous position, or position itself in a new row by default?

All the hassel that I have to go through to unlock my toolbar, enable the toolbar, then reposition the toolbar before I can start using it... well makes it almost not worth the trouble. I am afraid that I will stop using the toolbar because of the inconvienance... which would really be too bad because it is quite useful. :)

Since I have never built a desk band object before, I have no idea if your application even has any control over it's positioning. It is possible that Internet Explorer wouldn't allow you to set the position.

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Community Regular

TommyTourettes

Posted
Posted

I've found the best layout that works for me is to get rid of a couple of the "junk" buttons(search, aim, icq, msn, etc) and keeping the neowin toolbar to it fits perfectly to the right of these buttons and to the edge of the screen, cutting off the "beta" at the end. Also you'd have to make sure you get rid of the text labels for it to fit right. Here is a link to a jpg of what my toolbar looks like if anyone's interested in checking out what I'm talking about.

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Mentor

Geronimo

Posted
Posted

i dont know if it has been posted yet, but ever time i close IE I get an error says IE is causing problems and will be closed. This is after i either File->Close or the X, also tried Alt+F4. Happens both on my home machine and laptop.

XP

IE 6

Neowin Toolbar beta .51

/edit only happens the first time i open IE after I start up.

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Community Regular

TommyTourettes

Posted
Posted

Yeah I noticed it too lately, but more frequently than just the first time I run IE after boot up. I don't really mind it though, I'm sure it will be fixed eventually. I know a lot of the time it tells me the crash(after I close it anyway) is due to neowinband.dll, which I know is the file the toolbar uses.

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Collaborator

CaPeRKiNG77

Posted
Posted

Unfortunately that is one of the major bugs we have yet to track down. I think it might have to do with the dynamic updating of the bar, but I could be wrong. I know I always had a problem with a Sysfader type error, and if I'm right this is similar to the error you all are encountering. I took a few days off of programming the bar because I just got a new 64MB vid card and was giving it a thorough hammering, but I will begin looking at it again tomorrow to try and track this bug down and finish the plugin api. If I'm lucky I'll be able to confine the bug to the exact area I believe it to be. If I track it down I'll PM Vader with a fix for you all, and until then I ask on behalf of Vader and myself to kindly endure this bug as we work on it. Thanks for reporting the errors, and if possible in the future, please PM me or Vader with a screenshot of the error, or place a screenshot of it here.

PiMPiN

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Contributor

Vader

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

The bug that is being discribed is a problem I'm working on now. I ocurres when the toolbar can not get a windows handle to it self or if windows deletes the current one. The menu issue that hapens (See further up) is due to the Delphi implemtation or the windows menu structure so I've been recoding the thing over the last couple of days :) is hopefully it should be fixed on the next release.

I know this bug is a right pain in the rear but please bare with us as PiMPiN said hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Thanks,

Vader

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Community Regular

TommyTourettes

Posted
Posted

Here's a screenshot of an error I get about once or twice a day(happens either when I close it or click a link):

toolbar_error.jpg

The error that happens every time I close IE basically is just the regular error that says IE closed unexpectedly and has an option to restart it(checked by default :devious: ). I assume this is due to the toolbar since it started happening a lot after I installed one of the toolbar versions.

  • 0
Community Regular

TommyTourettes

Posted
Posted

I just installed Windows XP Pro last night and noticed another thing with the toolbar. It is a slightly different color then the rest of the toolbars, which I can't seem to fix by playing around with the Appearence -> Advanced settings. If I change the "3D Objects" color it changes the Neowin toolbar but not the others, so thats no good. Anyway, I'm still anxiously awaiting the next realease ;)

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Contributor

Vader

Posted
Posted

Hi,

Sorry for any delay with the reply but I've been working away alot :)

1. The bar is takes it's colour from the 3d Objects as you found (I've added it to the list of 'Issues' :).

2. Hopefullt I've killed the bug where it crashes (Fingers crossed, as I've not had it crash in 2 days).

I should have a new version up tomorrow sometime which I'll need testing quite heavly, and it comes in a little different style ;) as I'm using a re-coded object and menus.

Cheers,

Vader

  • 0
Contributor

Vader

Posted
Posted

Ok just uploaded a new version (0.63).

Neowin toolbar

So download and enjoy :)

Can anyone who downloads this either PM me or post a reply with comments (good and bad), ideas, bugs or basicly anything

Also now the toolbar is at the stage I starting to be happy with it it probably requires some icons for it, so any volentieers ;)

PimPin check your PM's for the source code

Cheero,

Vader

  • 0
Enthusiast

BeeJay

Posted
Posted

I haven't tried this in a few weeks, and I like what I see. Although, I am not so sure the pink tinted buttons are appropiate for my Windows 2000 machine here at work, I am very pleased that the toolbar remembers its last position. :D

Don't get me wrong BTW... I really like the fancy XP style buttons. Do those buttons support OS color values? If so you could use the 3D Button color to color the background.

Unfortunately, I have two issue to report. BTW could you include a text file with the install in the future which includes a list of revisions and known issues? I kind of blew right past that screen during the install. There does not appear to be a copy in the program folder as I had hoped. So, I apologize if I am reporting something that anything which was already known. :o

ISSUE #1

When any interface object (such as a button) on the toolbar is selected, and I am for instance typing this reply in the web page, the standard Windows shortcut keys are not functional. I cannot use CTRL + C, CTRL + X, or CTRL + V to copy, cut, or paste my text.

The only way I have been able to get around this problem has been to either disable the NeoWin Toolbar (which only fixes the problem until I reenable it again) or close and reopen Intenret Exporer while being careful to not click any of the buttons on the NeoWin toolbar.

ISSUE #2

I have always installed the toolbar to "C:Program FilesNeowinToolbar". This install was no different. I even verified the Install path under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareNeowinToolbar also pointed to this location, and it does.

At the end of the installation I allowed the installer to open the Configuration dialog. After tweaking my forum list, I clicked the OK button to save the changes. Then an error dialog appeared which read "Unable to write to C:Program FilesNeowin ToolbarConfig.ini."

I have been able to manually work around the problem by creating the "Neowin Toolbar" folder, saving the changes, then copying the Config.ini file over to the "NeoWinToolbar" folder (where the Toolbar was installed to).

Perhaps this path be hard-coded in the options dialog?

  • 0
Contributor

Vader

Posted
Posted

Hi BeeJay

The button colour should be a silver grey. Can you post a screen shot?

1. Not much I can do with this at the moment with out rewriting the IE deskbar interface :( The way to get around it is to press the tab key and they should then work :), however I will try to find a way around the problem.

2. Thanks I had left a reference to the standard dir in the program, which is now gone.

3. The position of the toolbar is not savable again it will need the same thing as no.1, This is from a MS employee that deals with the IE programming.

EDIT:

I may of found a way to stop the CTRL+ keys not working so if you can give the version I've just uploaded a go BeeJay. If this works for you I'll place the details in the change log - Thanks

/EDIT

So I've upoaded the new version with the above and a couple of other fixes

Cheerio,

Vader.

  • 0
Enthusiast

BeeJay

Posted
Posted

I figured it would be easier to send you the screen shot directly... so check your hotmail account.

Hmm... perhaps it is just my monitor... but the buttons look like they have an ever so slightly pinkish tint to them. Although, upon further examination, it appears to be very similar to the light background color that is used through out the standard blue gray NeoWin interface. I will take a look at the screen shot at home to see if it still looks pink on that monitor.

It is not a horrid pink color. It just stands out a bit much from the current shade of gray I am using right now. This is just an aesthetic observation... this certainly won't stop me from using it though, so no need to worry about it. :)

Sweet! Your focus fix/hack works beautifully (even with any of the toolbar buttons appearing to have focus)! :)

  • 0
Grand Master

twist

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by Vader

What is the error you get?

EDIT:

Ok I've just tried to replicate this error and can't, so anyone else with the problem??

Just so you know the installer writes a registry entry in HKLMSoftwareNeowinToolbar which contains the install dir and the toolbar then works from this.

Vader

sorry bout the slow reply. it tries to update the ini file on the c: drive even though i installed it on d:

  • 0
Grand Master

OrangesOfCourse

Posted
Posted

Problem..

When you type in a search.. you cant backspace.. atleast i am not able to.. :( and one more thing.. can u make it so that after the search it clears the field :ermm:

Thanks for the toolbar :)

  • 0
Enthusiast

BeeJay

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by twist

damn you guys are quick!

Hehe... what an interesting coincidence. This just happend to get fixed today because I happened to download a new version to play with. :) Since I also happened to install it to a custom folder, I was able to reproduce this error. After providing Vader with a bug report, as well as my theory to the cause of the problem, the issue was (probably) quite easy to locate and correct. ;)

Vader deserves lots of praise for all of the work he has put into this project! Thanks again Vader! This is turning out quite nicely.

  • 0
Community Regular

TommyTourettes

Posted
Posted

Sweet... I like the new style a lot and it seems to be near perfect(the backspace thing is the only thing I noticed) so far. Hopefully the bug that made IE crash randomly or when you close it is fixed, haven't seen any post about it so that could be good. Oh yeah and that difference in color thing that bothered me using XP is fixed now too :) Great job guys, thanks again.

  • 0
Collaborator

CaPeRKiNG77

Posted
Posted

Here's another idea that I haven't been able to perfect yet, chevons. If you're not sure what a chevron is, it's the little ? that appears when a toolbar is too long for the current window. Vader, I know it's possible with the toolbar toolkit, but I haven't found it yet.

PiMPiN

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