How do I make the start menu wider?

[foxdenvixen]

Hi,
I am attempting my first customization after getting lots of inspiration here. I am currently tweaking a theme called Egypt because I like the light backgrounds (my eyes are getting older!) The theme I am working on is based on Pirates of the Caribbean. I want to make the start menu wider than the default when not in extended mode. I have a feeling that it has something to do with the margins but I have not been able to get it work no matter how much I tweak it. Attached is how I want it to look. Any guidance on this process will be greatly appreciated.

BTW, just to let you know, I am female and a web designer and love learning how to make my own customizations. I also want to learn how to make my own docks and icons but that will come later.

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[Mr GRiM]

The main thing you need to change is the DefaultPanelSize:RECT property for the PlacesList and LogOff, if you want a perfect fit then make the size of the panel the same as your image, I think yours is 240 for both sides, so what you need to do is set all the panels to be that size by default.

PlacesList > DefaultPanelSize:RECT > 0, 0, 240, 332
PlacesList Extended > DefaultPanelSize:RECT > 0, 0, 240, 332
LogOff > DefaultPanelSize:RECT > 0, 0, 240, 54
LogOff Extended > DefaultPanelSize:RECT > 0, 0, 240, 54

Those values will make it the right size for normal and extended, the height of the menu is different though, that will depend on how many programs you have pinned to your start menu, so you will always have the problem part of your image being stretched and that's when you use your sizing margins to set the parts of the image you want to remain unstretched/untouched.

Content Margins are also important as they determine where the content will be placed on the image, the larger the border on the image the more you will need to increase the content margins so they do not go into your borders.

You will also need to set the DefaultPanelSize:RECT for the ProgramsList, MorePrograms and the OpenBox for the left side of the start menu and make the width for all those 240 as well.

[foxdenvixen]

Thanks for the help, Grimm. I am currently using 1.4 version but am thinking about updating to the 1.5 version. Do the instructions you gave apply to both versions?

[nofx1994]

yes those instructions work for both 1.4 and 1.5 versions

[foxdenvixen]

Ok I took the plunge and upgraded to 1.5. I am looking at the sections where Grimm said to tweak. They are all under Start Menu - Panels. However, there are some in Aero and some in Basic. Since I am using an existing theme and tweaking that to learn from it, I see pieces from that theme in Aero and pieces from some other theme that has black graphics. Once I get comfortable with what I am doing, I will start from scratch but which section do i change? Both or just one? Or should I start all over and use the original Aero style to tweak? I don't know if the author of the Egypt theme left remnants of another theme or if the Egypt theme inherits remnants of other installed themes. Also can you give an example of the marginsize that I need to tweak to get the contents to fit better over the images. Thanks.

[Mr GRiM]

Ok I took the plunge and upgraded to 1.5. I am looking at the sections where Grimm said to tweak. They are all under Start Menu - Panels. However, there are some in Aero and some in Basic. Since I am using an existing theme and tweaking that to learn from it, I see pieces from that theme in Aero and pieces from some other theme that has black graphics. Once I get comfortable with what I am doing, I will start from scratch but which section do i change? Both or just one? Or should I start all over and use the original Aero style to tweak? I don't know if the author of the Egypt theme left remnants of another theme or if the Egypt theme inherits remnants of other installed themes. Also can you give an example of the marginsize that I need to tweak to get the contents to fit better over the images. Thanks.

You only need to skin the parts for Aero really, I like to do both but that's just me, a tip for you with the places list, make the image 1 pixel wider then you need, make the image 241 pixels wide and then with your sizing margins set the first 2 numbers 0, 240 and that will stop your image being cut off like it is in your preview :smile:

[foxdenvixen]

Just so I understand you, go into Fireworks and make the image 241 px then in Style Builder increase the sizingmargins for PlacesList to 0, 240, ?, ? - correct? Also on the contentmargins:margins I currently see 3, 5, 0, 5. Should I increase these to get the text to fit better? I saw another post here that shows 0 0, 0, 0 being left, right, top, bottom....does this work like it does in CSS where you increase the margins so the text is centered more? Thanks again for your help.

[Mr GRiM]

I decided to be nice and do some of the hard work for you lol, here is how I made it look for you, I included a style hack as well you can use to apply it to your theme, just put the style hack in the style hack folder in C:\Users\"Your User Name"\AppData\Roaming\VistaStyleBuilder\StyleHacks and then aply it from the style hacks menu in WSB :smile:

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[foxdenvixen]

Thanks Grimm. I appreciate your help on this. :happy:

[Mr GRiM]

Thanks Grimm. I appreciate your help on this. :happy:

Your welcome, just one little bug I just found though that needs to be corrected after you apply the style hack, in Start Menu > Panels > Aero > Top > PlacesListExtended change the content Margin to 20, 20, 50, 0

I just noticed there was a invisible box showing when you have the start menu extended.

[foxdenvixen]

That invisible box could be left over from another theme. I applied the stylehack and this is what I get. I may have to start from scratch to eliminate any residual theme pieces. I am also trying to get the wood darker to look more like the Black Pearl but still look like wood. I may have to switch over to PS instead of FW.

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[foxdenvixen]

I just wanted to let you know that I am starting over from the beginning. I am using the basic Aero style and using the tutorial here on VC and going through each section. I think it will be a lot easier to learn that way and not have residual graphics that could mess up what I am trying to create. I will be posting questions as I run across problems. This should be fun and hopefully I won't run across too many problems that are present from another theme.

[foxdenvixen]

The start menu is looking good now and I see how you helped me out, Grimm, with slicing the left side of the menu bar so that it can expand properly with the addition of more programs. I also did some looking around at other themes that have background images in the start menu that seem to have programs having half an image and places having the other half of the image. This is a cool way to do this. I have also seen some menus with an image attached to the right side so I am sure that the places portion needs to be widened to handle this, correct? That is something I may play with in another theme. I don't have that many programs on my laptop at this time to see how moreprograms works but will check out the tutorial to see how to tweak this. I am also in the process of upgrading my desktop from XP to Windows 7 so I can play on it but have to move several terabytes of data from several HDDs first. :sigh:

[Arkrothe]

I'm trying to do the same thing, the picture i have put for PlacesListExtended is showing only the portion within the sizing margins which can be stretched so i tried to set defaultpanelsize. However this property was not there in any of the fields so i added the property to each field. and set the defaultpanelsize to the size of each pic. However when i try to test it an error pops up saying "You may have added or edited a property incorrectly". I tried to change the defaultpanelsize however the error still came up.

I've tried to add the content margins to each field and change that too but i'm still getting the same error. I just don't understand whats happening here. :idk:

Edit: I found out how to get around that error - copy the property from a vista theme opened directly in Vista Style Builder and paste it into the windows 7 theme in the windows 7 style builder. I don't know if there's a fix for this but this method works.