"Turning On Your Boring Browser with Themebar"
Article by Doreen

First I would like to say Thank you for taking the time to give the readers of Teknidermy some insight to the folks behind Themebar, I myself use Themebar and absolutely love it!

Tek: Who was the person who thought up Themebar? One person or a combination of people?

Microgarden: Themebar was a collaboration of ideas from all of us (John, Chad, and Eric). We all had different ideas for an Internet Explorer add-in, and Themebar was the result. Originally, Themebar was going to be a skinning tool for Internet Explorer. While in development, tons of features were added, like toolbar and animated logo customization.

Tek: How long did it take you to design develop and get themebar out to the general public for download?

Microgarden: It took three months to design and develop Themebar. We started in February 2000 and released the first version in May 2000.

Tek: I personally have to ask this next question since I am one of your biggest pest, are you enjoying the users feedback on Themebar for new additional features to be added to the future builds or has it become a full time job trying to please all the people and the new requests?

Microgarden: We're definitely enjoying the requests. Themebar was developed for the public. We want it to be a useful tool that everyone can enjoy. Therefore, it is critical that we listen to the Themebar user group. We've gotten much more feedback than we ever anticipated, though. Sometimes it's difficult to provide quick responses to all of our users, especially since there are only three of us. We are continually striving for the perfect balance between our support and development efforts.

Tek: What do you see in the future for Themebar?

Microgarden: We see Themebar growing every month. We add features as we design them and will continue to add features based on user requests. Currently, we are working on a professional suite of tools for Internet Explorer. This suite will include Themebar and many other useful tools. Our plan is to make it a shareware product and offer it for a low price. Themebar, as a seperate component, will always be free.

Tek: Does the vast competition of GUI become bothersome to you in regards to keeping up the rebuilding of the original version or is this something that motivates you to keep revising themebar more and more?

Microgarden: We certainly don't mind the competition, and it does motivate us.  We enjoy adding new features to Themebar and seeing positive user feedback.  Actually, we like to see Themebar used WITH other tools rather than competing against them.

Tek: What kind of changes in the future builds can we look forward to seeing and how long before we begin to see newer builds appear?

Microgarden: We would like Themebar to support GIF and JPG formats for it's images. Other than that, we are working on user requests, like having the mail button change when new e-mail has arrived. We will also be working on Themebar to make it more compatible with non-American versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. A new version will be released by the end of November, if not sooner. Currently, we have no set timeline for Themebar releases. We like keeping it dynamic like this so we can get user requests and bug fixes out quickly.

Tek: Can you tell us a little bit about the person or persons behind Themebar?

Microgarden: There are three of us, actually, behind Themebar. We all collaborate on ideas, but John is really the driving force behind Themebar's development. He is a very meticulous person by nature, so he really has a knack for developing quality tools, with excellent user interfaces. Additionally, he really appreciates honest feedback, be it good or bad, so he actively participates in user discussions on sites like http://www.skinz.org/.

Okay now what in the world is Themebar?

These two Themebars were created by them as well and can be downloaded at skinz.org. The first Themebar is by Koasati and it is called "Koa" and the second Themebar was created by Paxx and it is called "Skewedbar" 

But first here is a "Before Themebar Screen Shot" (which was very painful for me having to turn "off" Themebar just to take the screen shot)... 

"Before Themebar"

"After Themebar"

  Koasati's Koa Themebar…

Paxx's SkewedBar Themebar…

Okay! Okay! now where can you get Themebar at???

I'm not gonna tell ya.... hehe  just kidding!

You can get it from www.microgarden.com/themebar/

Enjoy!