“Jorge man, you need to give your apps more publicity, otherwise you'll fade into oblivion”, I said a couple of weeks ago. Not to the man personally, but it seems he got the message anyway, for he announced the new WorkShelf at WinCustomize.

WorkShelf is a tabbed dock. But whereas apps like Y'z Dock and ObjectDock are derived from OSX' dock, OSX' dock is ripped from NeXT's dock and WorkShelf just happens to have started as an emulation of that same NeXT dock. Hence, it's been around longer than the aforementioned apps and has (or used to have) quite a following.

“Intended as a multi-leveled desktop replacement, WorkShelf is equally at home functioning as a tabbed program launcher. Like a dock, but better. It enables you to organize your most often used applications and documents into categorized shelves while taking as little screen space as possible: when not in use, WorkShelf can automatically collapse into a small strip of tabs.

Version 1.71 is a major update introducing several important new features: new modules that provide a mind boggling array of statistics, balloon tooltips that provide as much information about files as standard Explorer tooltips, image and video file thumbnails, full drag & drop support, dynamic width tabs that can be left, right justified or centered, and many other visual and functional enhancements.”

WorkShelf is shareware ($29.95) and weighs six and half meg, or three if you grab the update. || craeonics | comments (4)

Premiere windowskinner and StarDock's flagship application, WindowBlinds, has just given birth to a new baby and its name is 4.51.

Well, ‘just’, a couple of days ago. So by now the kid is probably already up and running and prowling the streets, robbin' old folks and makin' tha dash.

“The most significant new feature in WindowBlinds 4.51 is support for Windows XP 64 (for both AMD and Intel chipsets). So now users with 64-bit Windows can skin their Windows user interface. It also includes enhanced support for MSStyles (imported via SkinStudio).

Other changes include:

• Skins more elements of .NET apps

• Shellstyle (explorer views) performance improved

• Better support for skinned windows being viewed via Remote Desktop

• Tweaks for Yahoo Messenger, Photoshop, and a few other apps

• Increased performance acceleration for theme aware programs

• Added Portuguese (Brazil) support”

Portugese support means that skin mastermind treetog can finally use his own skins in his native tongue. As for that MS Styles import, remember boys and girls, don't port without permission.

You know the drill by now, WindowBlinds comes in two flavours, etcetera. || craeonics | comments

The sryan one posted another enigmatic link in our soapbox. This time it turned out to be the 2.0.x beta version of nrLaunch, a skinnable tabbed program launcher.

To filter the wanabees from the truly inquisitive: it's in Japanese only.

Screenshots for the 2.0.x beta (top one) are a bit cryptic, but combined with those from the non-skinnable 1.x version of 2001 (bottom one), things rapidly become clear.

Anyhow, it's under 700k, so give it a spin. || craeonics | comments

Following a typically ignored week old post by CareBear at WinCustomize, I stumbled onto this skinnable, shareware, seemingly quite advanced email client, WikMail 2005.

Were I to shamelessly copy/paste the marketing-speak from its front page, it would look like this:

“WikMail 2005 is an advanced email client program that handles all your email needs with style. It's fast, compact and stylized and easy to use.

• Multi-Language support

  You can change language on the fly. Currently English, French and Deutsch are included. More languages will be add soon.

• Express yourself with style

  Send emails by using stylized Stationeries to beautify your messages, add postcards with your own embedded text and photo, use graphical emoticons to add moods to your messages, send voice msg, add personalized graphic signature, and more…

• Once and for all… say ‘Goodbye!’ to Unwanted email

  A fast and powerful Anti-Spam feature is included. By using a Bayesian statistical approach to filter Spam and Junk emails and Regular Expression filters, WikMail detect all Spam/Junk emails sent to yours mailboxes and drop them to the dedicated mailbox. Automatically!

  These advanced Anti-Spam features are really easy to use.

• Add fun and pleasure!

  WikMail is a skinned application. You choose the way the program look. Color schemes are available to display your messages in the grid according to email addresses and/or date.”

Skins, stationary, greeting cards and what not, can be found on WikMail's sister site, WikGraph.

Never heard of this app before, but apparently Scarebear has even written a tutorial on skinning it, so it can't be that obscure.

Shareware download weighs in at 7.7 meg. Registering is $24.95. The advantage of registering, or alternatively, the disadvantage of not registering, is ads in the client and a ‘Made with WikMail’ tagline at the end of your emails in the trial version.

Ack! Stationary, bane of my existence. Email is one of those parts of the 'Net which have long been free from markup pollution. Stationary, AKA html email, has been around for quite some time, but fortunately my circle has always been free of those with the desire to imprint upon me their dreadfull lack of taste.

Keep my emails plain and ASCII, people! || craeonics | comments (3)