[Superbar] Superbar icon spacing

By Sebaz Vista
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

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Sebaz Vista

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I googled this to no end before and still I can't find an answer, although I'm sure there is one. The space between icons in the superbar is ridiculously high, there's a lot of space wasted and the superbar is not as smart as the dock in OS X, which shrinks according to the amount of apps you have open. Instead of each icon taking up an equal space around it in each direction, it takes way more on the sides than on top and bottom. I read this was designed for touchscreens but it's idiotic of Microsoft to set it that way for everybody, since most people do not have tablet PCs. Overall, the superbar is an inefficient version of the Mac OS X dock.

Also, how do I set an icon other than the explorer one in the superbar that will allow me to point to a specific folder, like it was possible from Window 95 to Vista, and Mac OS X? I know that I can set a target for the explorer icon, but the superbar doesn't allow duplicates as far as I can tell, and I want to have at least a couple of icons pointing to different folders for easy access.

Thanks

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-KJ

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I googled this to no end before and still I can't find an answer, although I'm sure there is one. The space between icons in the superbar is ridiculously high, there's a lot of space wasted and the superbar is not as smart as the dock in OS X, which shrinks according to the amount of apps you have open. Instead of each icon taking up an equal space around it in each direction, it takes way more on the sides than on top and bottom. I read this was designed for touchscreens but it's idiotic of Microsoft to set it that way for everybody, since most people do not have tablet PCs. Overall, the superbar is an inefficient version of the Mac OS X dock.

Also, how do I set an icon other than the explorer one in the superbar that will allow me to point to a specific folder, like it was possible from Window 95 to Vista, and Mac OS X? I know that I can set a target for the explorer icon, but the superbar doesn't allow duplicates as far as I can tell, and I want to have at least a couple of icons pointing to different folders for easy access.

Thanks

Good news: It's possible! :)

Bad news: You'd have to buy VSB or ask someone who has one to edit the left/right content margins of the buttons in 'Windows 7 > Taskbar & Tray Notify > Basic'

Bad news 2: If you use the expanded form, you will have to deal with the lack of content margins (spacing/padding) in the minimized taskbar window -- notice how they are close or overlapping the border.

untithrled8.png

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BetaAddict

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Good news: It's possible! :)

Bad news: You'd have to buy VSB or ask someone who has one to edit the left/right content margins of the buttons in 'Windows 7 > Taskbar & Tray Notify > Basic'

Bad news 2: If you use the expanded form, you will have to deal with the lack of content margins (spacing/padding) in the minimized taskbar window -- notice how they are close or overlapping the border.

untithrled8.png

Some things are best left alone. But, I also would like to see them add variable taskbar sizing rather than just full vs basic settings. Hopefully, MS will make this more customizable whenever that first service pack comes out next year, but its manageable for the mean time after you get used to it.

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A.Gabri

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Good news: It's possible! :)

Bad news: You'd have to buy VSB or ask someone who has one to edit the left/right content margins of the buttons in 'Windows 7 > Taskbar & Tray Notify > Basic'

Bad news 2: If you use the expanded form, you will have to deal with the lack of content margins (spacing/padding) in the minimized taskbar window -- notice how they are close or overlapping the border.

untithrled8.png

Off topic : what is the name of this Visual style ?

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Sebaz Vista

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Bad news: You'd have to buy VSB or ask someone who has one to edit the left/right content margins of the buttons in 'Windows 7 > Taskbar & Tray Notify > Basic'

untithrled8.png

OK, but when you say "Basic", this doesn't mean that it's only available in the basic (non Aero) style, or do you? I don't mind buying Win 7 Style Builder, I'm just trying to find out if it has everything that I need because it doesn't have a trial.

Grand Master

-KJ

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@ Sebaz Vista: Aero inherits the properties from the Basic section from that part, so it affects Aero as well. That said, I'd wait a little before purchasing Windows 7 Style Builder. It's a bit buggy at the moment in some parts.

@ Ji@nBing: It's my Clearscreen Sharp theme being ported to Windows 7. Hopefully by the end of this month I can get to a level of satisfaction with the theme quality to release it. I've been polishing it and changing some things around. Also working on a dark variation for the base for my new Smokescreen theme :D.

So if this all works out as planned I'll have Clearscreen (light base) and Smokescreen (dark base) with patchers where you can choose the frame you want. I'll even add the Aero frames as an option :)

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Ji@nBing

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@ Sebaz Vista: Aero inherits the properties from the Basic section from that part, so it affects Aero as well. That said, I'd wait a little before purchasing Windows 7 Style Builder. It's a bit buggy at the moment in some parts.

@ Ji@nBing: It's my Clearscreen Sharp theme being ported to Windows 7. Hopefully by the end of this month I can get to a level of satisfaction with the theme quality to release it. I've been polishing it and changing some things around. Also working on a dark variation for the base for my new Smokescreen theme :D .

So if this all works out as planned I'll have Clearscreen (light base) and Smokescreen (dark base) with patchers where you can choose the frame you want. I'll even add the Aero frames as an option :)

Cool. Looks really awesome. Be sure to post it on Neowin when it's done :)

Grand Master

Brandon Live Veteran

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I'm confused by this thread.

The taskbar in Windows 7 already scales the spacing of icons as you put more on there. If you have enough apps that they won't fit with the default spacing, the taskbar will squeeze them closer together to fit more (until it can't anymore, at which point it will "overflow" and you get the scroll arrows).

Grand Master

-KJ

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I'm confused by this thread.

The taskbar in Windows 7 already scales the spacing of icons as you put more on there. If you have enough apps that they won't fit with the default spacing, the taskbar will squeeze them closer together to fit more (until it can't anymore, at which point it will "overflow" and you get the scroll arrows).

About the shrinking, I don't think he realizes that it does shrink because it shrinks to a small degree and only when the superbar is full.

Since the dock is centered on Mac OS X, it has to constantly shift both directions to accommodate the effects and new windows.

I've never seen a full dock so I don't know how it behaves then. Perhaps it scales down the icons on the dock of Mac OS X?

From what I understood, he wants is to be able to have the left/right padding of each icon to shrink to the same value as the top/bottom margins before allowing it to overflow.

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Panda X

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I'm confused by this thread.

The taskbar in Windows 7 already scales the spacing of icons as you put more on there. If you have enough apps that they won't fit with the default spacing, the taskbar will squeeze them closer together to fit more (until it can't anymore, at which point it will "overflow" and you get the scroll arrows).

Well XP and Vista did too.

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Sebaz Vista

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My problem is that in Mac OS X the dock is much more efficient to accommodate several icons. While in Win 7 the margins become narrower, there comes a point when it starts a new row and you have to use the arrows just for one icon. Mac OS X deals with this much more efficiently, simply scaling down the dock to fit more and more icons. As usual, Microsoft tries to copy Mac OS X and does a sucky job at it.

Experienced

Panda X

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My problem is that in Mac OS X the dock is much more efficient to accommodate several icons. While in Win 7 the margins become narrower, there comes a point when it starts a new row and you have to use the arrows just for one icon. Mac OS X deals with this much more efficiently, simply scaling down the dock to fit more and more icons. As usual, Microsoft tries to copy Mac OS X and does a sucky job at it.

The dock is god awful though. I don't care if there's 2 taskbands, I don't want 3px icons.

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Sebaz Vista

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You know you dont have to place every single icon on dock/taskbar? Right?

Yes, I know, but sometimes I'm working on a few more programs than usual and I hate having to click the arrow to go to the lower level of the taskbar, which is something that wouldn't happen with the dock.

Grand Master

Brandon Live Veteran

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My problem is that in Mac OS X the dock is much more efficient to accommodate several icons. While in Win 7 the margins become narrower, there comes a point when it starts a new row and you have to use the arrows just for one icon. Mac OS X deals with this much more efficiently, simply scaling down the dock to fit more and more icons. As usual, Microsoft tries to copy Mac OS X and does a sucky job at it.

Huh? You'd need a LOT of icons to fill up the taskbar and make it overflow, unless you're on a super low res screen or something. In what way does OS X possibly "deal with this more efficiently?" Shrinking the icons isn't a viable solution, then you just have more of that OS X mess of things shifting around and becoming harder to target.

There isn't a single thing about the taskbar that tries to "copy" the OS X dock. And not to gloat, but the consensus seems to be that the taskbar kick's the dock's butt.

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