GDesk for UIQ 3 by Gary Leach (garymleach@hotmail.com)
Note: GDesk is beta
software this is not considered to be bug free!
GDesk is a customizable and extendable desktop system.
Icons can be placed on the desktop representing
applications, page links and plug-ins; these can then be launched by tapping
them.
Plug-ins can be added at any time and as required;
further plug-in functionality will be provided over time.
Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome;
however, this software is written and maintained in my spare time so response
is not guaranteed.
Disclaimer
By using this software you are indicating your
acceptance of the following terms:
Use of GDesk is at your
own risk. The author is not responsible for any type of loss or damage
caused directly or indirectly by the use of this software.
This software can expose system applications which
might be dangerous to your phone and data.
This software is copyright Gary Leach.
Translation
by
Credit where credits due!
Thanks to Olicf for the application icons + more
Thanks to Z. for undertaking the PC based theme
editor.
Thanks to
everyone who has donated its all really appreciated!
Thanks to
everyone who has added to the Wiki.
And thanks to
everyone for the constant supply of ideas and bug reports these are making
this product the best it can be!
GDesk can be used in
flip-closed or flip-open mode (where applicable), using pen (in Flip Open) or
keypad/keyboard.
Clicking the X
icon on the left of the screen closes GDesk
completely.
Menus are
activated by tapping an empty area of desktop or pressing the right soft-key.
Icon menus are
activated by clicking and dragging a short distance (flicking), or pressing #
on the keypad.
Icons are
activated by clicking with the stylus or using the select button inside the
four-way control.
Icons can be
selected by clicking, or using the four-way control or jog-dial.
In design mode
they can be positioned by dragging or using the numeric keypad.
The safe mode choice menu is automatically activated
when the program did not shut down correctly during the previous session.
There are two choices; either run safe mode or run
as normal.
Safe mode takes you to a clean desktop from which
you can bring up a menu with just three options:
1) Leave safe mode attempts to return to normal
operation
2) Delete desktop retains the clean desktop and
returns to normal operation
3) Save design saves the design useful for
sending crashing designs to the author, or for attempting a reload after
delete.
If you get repeated crashes then you could try
e-mailing your desktop theme to the author garymleach@hotmail.com
- (see Save design) - remember to include details about your phone, which mode
crashes (flip-open or closed, if you have those) and anything else you feel
might be relevant.
The main options
menu (accessed by tapping an empty area of the desktop) has the following
options:
1) Run
This runs the
normal main screen.
2) Run
This brings up a
menu of applications; tapping one of these immediately launches it.
3) Options
This leads to a
further set of choices:
a) Replace main
this makes the application a system application (which means the OS wont close
it down when memory is tight), and also replaces the main screen. Note
that this is specified separately for flip-open and flip-closed mode.
b) Flick launch
this toggles between tap-to-activate and flick-to-activate modes. In
flick mode, icons are activated by dragging a short distance from the icon in
any direction. The icon highlight changes colour when the flick is ready,
and changes back if the drag movement goes on past a certain distance,
indicating that the flick is cancelled.
c) List system
apps this determines whether application list menus should show system
applications. These might be dangerous and caution should be used in
order to avoid losing data or damaging your phone.
4) Design
This switches to
design mode (see Designing a desktop)
5) Help
Brings up this
help
6) Quit
Quits GDesk
To start designing a desktop tap the background to bring up the main
menu, and tap Design.
The title bar will go blue to indicate that design mode is active.
In this mode application and other icons can be added, moved and
deleted; various colours can be set and a background image can be chosen.
Tapping the background brings up the design menu (see The Design menu)
Tapping on an icon brings up a menu of options specific to that item.
For standard application icons the options are:
1) Delete deletes the icon from the desktop
2) Replace with app replaces the icon with another application
3) Replace with other replaces the icon with something else
4) Small/Medium/Large icon chooses between three icon sizes for this
icon
Custom Icons
Icons (and GUI elements) can now be replaced with custom icons.
Custom icons come in two parts, the icon itself and a mask.
The mask should be the same size as the icon and represents how
transparent the icon should be at each point.
A white pixel means completely opaque, black means completely
transparent. Grey values give a blend of
original and icon pixel values (semi-transparent)
Be careful not to use icons that are too big theyll fill the screen
and make it hard to see anything!
This menu gives the following choices:
1) Set Desktop
A further set of options:
a) Background options Max fit image (fit image to leave no borders)
and No fit image (dont rescale the image note that this will use more memory
than other modes)
b) Set Colour this brings up a colour picker to determine the
background colour
c) Set Image this brings up an image selector; choose an image to use
on the desktop background
d) Remove Image removes the image from the background
e) Set Highlight RGB sets the colour that will be used to highlight an
icon
f) Set Drag RGB sets the colour that will be used when highlighting an
icon that is being moved or activated
2) GUI
A further set of options:
a) Button set the icon and mask for buttons (see Custom Icons in
Designing a desktop)
b) Selected Button set the icon and mask for selected buttons
c) Dialog
for dialog backgrounds
d) Menu
for menu backgrounds
e) Menu Select
for menu selection
f) Menu Scrollbar
for menu scrollbar
g) Menu Thumb
for thumb (slider) on menu scrollbars
h) Menu Sel. Thumb for selected thumb
i) Menu text set the colour of menu text
j) Menu Select text set the colour of the selected menu item text
k) Menu Grey text set the colour of disabled menu item text
3) Refresh Icons
Reloads and caches all icons
4) Page
This presents a sub-menu allowing pages to be selected, created and
deleted.
Page links can then be added to switch between pages (see Add Other,
below)
The current page is shown with a tick.
5) Set default page
Set the default page used when returning to GDesk
can be a specified page or last page the last page in use before leaving GDesk
6) Add App
This brings up a list of applications.
Selecting one drops an icon representing that application onto the
desktop.
7) Add Other
This brings up a list of installed GDesk
plug-ins. In addition it has the option
to create a page link. Page links can
only be used when more than one page has been created (see Page above)
8) Use Grid
This shows the icon grid and snaps icon movements to it.
9) Align to Grid
This aligns all icons to the grid.
10) Set Jog Order
When selected each icon displays a small number in the bottom right.
These numbers can be changed by pressing 2/8 on the numeric keypad (Z/C
on the keyboard).
Pressing 5 (X) toggles between blue and red.
These numbers are used to define the order of icon selection using the
jog dial.
Red numbers are never selected; this can be useful with icons that have
a key shortcut.
Note: If you find all of the numbers show 0 then move
the jog dial once to initialise to default values.
11) Delete Desktop
This clears all icons and deletes all pages, reverting to the default,
blank, desktop.
Make sure you save before deleting!
12) Load Design
This loads a desktop from a previously saved desktop file, including
designs supplied by other parties.
This will overwrite the current desktop so save before doing this.
13) Save Design
Saves the current desktop state to a selected file.
This can be restored later, or sent to another GDesk
user.
14) Export App List
Export a list of applications and their Id values for importing into the
PC based theme editor
15) Done
Returns to normal mode, ending the design.