|
TEKNIDERMY - ISSUE 8: February/March 2002 Themebar
2.0 Innovation is the mother of invention, in some cases. The new themebar program takes the modding of MSIE to a whole new level. Doreen gets the lowdown from the source. Tek: Hello John & Eric thanks for the time for the interview =) Eric: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk with you. Tek: When was the first version of Themebar released? Eric: If my memory serves me well, I think it was released in the Spring of 1999. Tek: What features did that particular version support? John: Version 1 allowed you to change the background skin, toolbar button icons, and animated logo in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and other windows that used the Internet Explorer shell, such as the Control Panel, Search, and My Documents. Tek: What is new in this version? John: In addition to supporting all version 1 features, version 2.0 allows you to change the background skin, toolbar button icons, and animated logo in Outlook Express. But, the main feature of Themebar 2.0 is called WebPanel. WebPanel is a technology designed and developed by us that allows you to completely replace the toolbars in Internet Explorer with HTML toolbars. This opens up a whole new realm of toolbar skinning. Now, creators can make the toolbars exactly how they want, with virtually no limits. One of the things that we didn't like in the original version of Themebar was that creating buttons was so tedious. In addition, everything had to be correctly placed in order for the customization to work. With WebPanel, you can create anything you want and put it anywhere you want. Tek: How do these WebPanels work (from a skinners point of view)? John: Skinners can use any HTML editor to create a WebPanel. There are no limits. Sending commands to Internet Explorer, such as Back and Navigate, can easily be done with scripting in HTML. Eric: We have several WebPanels that are installed by default. Each of these WebPanels showcases a different technique in creating a WebPanel toolbar. Our hopes are that skinners can easily use the existing WebPanels as templates to do something great. Tek: Aren't you afraid that people will find making WebPanels too hard, now that there is scripting required? (assuming here that you need to know how to script in order to make WebPanels) John: Not at all. We thought about ease of use when we designed WebPanel. WebPanel authors only need to know basic scripting. The WebPanel API (application programming interface) is made to be as user friendly as possible. Take a look at the WebPanel developers guide at http://www.microgarden.com/themebar/tbdev.htm for a look at how easy it is to create these. If you want to issue the "Back" command to Internet Explorer, all you need to do is use the statement "window.external.WebPanel_GoBack". That's it. All of the functions are that easy and are listed in the developer's guide. We provide many examples, but we encourage users to look at the WebPanels that we included with Themebar. The reference panel is about as easy as it gets. You can have a basic WebPanel up and running in minutes, literally! Eric: In some respects we had hoped that WebPanels would open doors to the scripting community rather than close doors on all of the skinners out there. Tek: Can you give some ideas as to the possibilities that this build can support as far as creativity in skinning it goes? John: Well I won't go into too much detail, because we've got more plans for WebPanel, and I don't want to give them away! Creativity is endless with WebPanel though. The beauty of WebPanel is that you can create your toolbars any way that you want; no holds barred! You can have a panel that links to an external Website, have images in your panel that link to external Websites, anything that can be done in a Web page can be done in WebPanel. If you're tired of the limited space that the animated logo gives you, WebPanel lets you animate anything, wherever you want. You can make the entire panel animate if you like. It's that flexible. Websites can create panels to match their sites. How about a Teknidermy WebPanel that has the look and feel of Teknidermy? A WebPanel with your family or favorite pictures on it? A WebPanel that is easy to use for your kids to learn on? All of this can easily be done with WebPanel. There are so many possibilities with WebPanel, that I could go on an on. Eric: I agree. I never once created a toolbar with the original version of Themebar because it was just too tedious for me. With WebPanel, however, I've been creating new toolbars nearly every week. They're fun and addictive to create. Unfortunately, my graphic skills leave something to be desired. That's why we hope to see this technology embraced by people with a bit more artistic talent than we have. Tek: What are your favorite skins for it that are available now? John: The Galactic WebPanel is my favorite. But, I switch back and forth. The great thing about WebPanel is that no two look alike! With Classic mode, supported in Themebar 1 and WebBlinds, you still have the basic look and feel of your toolbars. With WebPanel, you don't. That's what's fun about this tool. Whenever I get used to one panel, I simply switch to another. I even like the Kiddie WebPanel. As I said, I find myself using the Galactic panel the most, but I love all of them. The Aquarium panel is cool, Winter, the Menu panel---I love them all! Eric: I'm definitely hooked on WebPanel. Usually, the WebPanel that I'm creating at the time is my favorite. So, right now, I'd have to say that the "Menu" panel that I recently made is what I am currently enjoying. Tek: What kinds of "future skins" would you like to see some of the skinners possibly make in regards to showing off more of the newer features of this build vs the old build of Themebar? John: I'd love to see some of the skinning Websites create WebPanels that match their sites. That would be cool! I'd love to see some panels of my favorite sports teams too. Eric: I'd like to see something really hi-tech, like a car stereo or a futuristic computer. Tek: Can we expect more builds and more features to Themebar in the future? John: Definitely! Some of the features you can expect are the support for WebPanel in Outlook Express, an automated install option for skin packages, so you'll no longer have to unzip files to the appropriate folders, and lots more. Eric: We really love to hear from our user base. They are ultimately the ones who determine what new feature we'll add. Tek: Why are you charging a license fee for Themebar 2.0 when version 1 was free? John: Good question. We are charging a fee for this release because we put much more time and effort into version 2. In addition, we had to purchase all versions of Windows, development tools, and hardware to test with. We wanted Themebar to be as stable as possible, and we hope that the license fee will help pay for these costs and the support that we offer. The price is not much more than the price of a weekend meal, and registered users will get free upgrades up to version 3.0! Eric: Yeah, our goal here wasn't to make a killer profit or anything. We offered the first version of Themebar for free for over two years. And, we supported it. We still want to create free tools, but we have to recoup some of our costs in order to dedicate the time. I mean, it costs us about $50 per month just to keep the site online---and that's not counting any labor, support, or the costs of licenses and hardware. Tek: Why did you choose a 20 minute timeout rather than say, a 30 day trial period for Themebar? John: The good news is that the 20 minute timeout is on it's way out! We'll be releasing a new version soon that will not timeout at all, but will simply popup nag screens. We evaluated giving Themebar a 30 day trial with only some of the features enabled, but we were too uncomfortable with this approach. We want you to be able to test Themebar with all features on. That way, you know exactly what you get with the registered version. Eric: Our original intention was to give users something that they could use for free for a long time, without having to purchase a registered copy. Since many of the users that we know don't surf for too long, we thought this would be great, rather than setting a hard date at which the tool would expire. It was something that I would prefer to see in a tool, rather than a limited demo life. But, apparently, we were the only ones who thought this was a good idea. The rest of the skinning public seems to resent us for this, so we're going to change it very soon. Tek: What are your thoughts on WebBlinds? John: WebBlinds is a good tool, but I prefer Themebar. I'm the type of guy that won't put bumper stickers all over his car but will definitely tint the windows. To me, that's what Themebar offers; not too much and not too little. Eric: I really haven't used WebBlinds. Tek: What are the most drastic differences/features between Themebar 2 and WebBlinds? John: Both of these applications allow you to change the toolbar and logo of Internet Explorer. Themebar, however, allows you to skin all of the buttons, rather than the 16 that WebBlinds skins. Also, Themebar 2 skins other applications, like Outlook Express. The most drastic difference, however, is WebPanel. WebPanel was an original idea that we dreamed of, designed, and created. But, unlike WebBlinds, Themebar does not skin the entire window, nor will it ever in the near future. Microgarden is not in the business of Window skinning, so we'll leave that to the folks at Stardock. Tek: Any (skinnable) program you'd wished you had developed? John: No, we're happy with what we have created in Themebar. Eric: Creating WinAmp would have been nice. [grin] Tek: What does the future have in store for Microgarden and Themebar? John: We have tons of new tools in the works. As for skinning tools, Themebar is probably it. Most of our other tools will be designed for corporations and home users. Tek: Is there anything else that you'd like to say to our readers? John: Yes. Give Themebar a try. Try creating your very own WebPanel. They are fun and addictive. Once you've used WebPanel, going back to your old browser is boring. I've been using WebPanel since it was in beta, and I can tell that I won't go back. Eric: I don't think users quite "get" the whole WebPanel concept just yet---possibly because there haven't been a whole lot of panels created, and it is a very new way of doing things. There's a mistaken view that using WebPanel somehow limits IE's functionality, but it really doesn't. In fact, it is just the opposite. I think that once people realize and understand the full potential of WebPanel, there will be no stopping their creative flow. Tek: Teknidermy thanks you guys again for your time and wishes you the best with Themebar 2.0 and also looks forward to seeing it's future versions! =) And for more info about Themebar 2.0 please click here |