| The desktop and taskbar parts of the user interface can be made using the entire desktop size of 240 width by 320 height, then after you've finished designing your interface, you can simply crop or cut the 240x294 for the desktop and the 240x26 for the taskbar and save them as separate 24 bit color bitmaps for your theme.
Or you can create two separate images, a 240x294 desktop and a 240x26 taskbar, and create your theme that way. I find the first option easier but it's your choice.
Here is a Screenshot of the Dimensions:
After you've created your images for the desktop and taskbar and saved them in 24 bit color bitmap form, you'll want to put them on your device. The location of the user interfaces can either be in main memory or on a storage card (compact flash or sd card) but you should put them all in a folder under the name of the user interface for the sake of keeping things organized.
Simply, place them in a folder, let's call this one SampleUI, and place your Taskbar.bmp and Desktop.bmp inside the SampleUI folder. Inside this folder you will want to create two folders named Taskbar and Desktop. Your desktop and taskbar folders must be named the same as your bitmaps that you are using. If you name your desktop bitmap, scarydsk.bmp, then you would name your desktop folder, scarydsk. Generally i choose to name the taskbar, Taskbar, and the desktop, Desktop for the sake of not being confused in the future.
A Screenshot Via Activesync:
For each Virtual Page of your user interface the taskbar and desktop are configured seperately, meaning that if you want you can mix and match desktops and taskbars at your leisure and that when you tap and hold on the taskbar or desktop, a different menu will come up to configure features and slots for either section. If you are creating your own, or want to mix and match you load a new desktop and taskbar using the following method.
First you tap on the startmenu and goto Settings, then PPX. Here's a Screenshot:
The main PPX settings menu will open and you want to tap on the Settings tab along the bottem. You will see the following screen:
Tap on either the grey tab with the "..." on it, to the right of Taskbar or Desktop, depending on which you want to set. For this i will choose desktop, but the process is identical for the taskbar. Once you tap that button a file explorer will open on your screen showing all the directories and folders of your device. In the lower left corner of the screen you can choose three different views for this screen, but i prefer the split screen with the folders appearing on top and the files they contain appearing on the bottem.
A Screenshot:
You want to go through, tapping on the plus sign to the left of each folder that contains more folders to expand and show all the folders inside until you locate where you placed your folder for your user interface. I keep mine on a storage card to save space, but you can keep them in program files as well. In the PPX folder, your installed user interfaces are placed inside the folder named Themes. When you tap on the main folder for your user interface it will highlight and your desktop and taskbar bitmaps will appear in the second half of the screen.
If you are choosing the desktop, simply tap on the bitmap of your desktop to highlight it, then tap the ok button in the upper right corner of the screen. If you have not setup your ok/close button on your current taskbar yet, then simply tap on the keyboard in the lower right corner and tap the enter key. If you are choosing your taskbar do the exact same thing, except choose your bitmap of your taskbar.
A Screenshot:
Upon tapping on the ok button or hitting enter on the keyboard, you will be sent back to the settings screen with the location bitmap of your new choice in taskbar or desktop appearing in the small text area below Taskbar and Desktop. A Screenshot:
Once you have chosen your taskbar and desktop or just one or the other for mixing with the current user interface, simply tap on the ok button in the lower left corner of the screen and a popup will come up asking to save settings and apply. If you are happy with your changes tap on yes, if you want to do more or cancel, then select no. Here is a Screenshot:
After you tap on yes, PPX will save your current settings and reset itself with the new choice for taskbar and/or desktop in place. I only chose the new desktop with the default user interface taskbar at the top. The settings for the taskbar are the same as the default ui, while the desktop is configured differently for the astroboy user interface, but i think they look good together. Feel free to mix and match any user interface desktop and taskbar to your own liking.Here is a Screenshot:
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