Post Your Suggestions For Our V5.6 F A Q (Q & A) Here

[Panta]

Here all seasoned XWD users can post their suggestions for our FAQ in the form of complete, concise, singly addressed Question & Answer pairs.

It's advisable that non-experienced users refrain from answering questions that they are not yet prepared to, as this is a moderated collaborative work and nothing assures that a given post will be carried to the FAQ thread, but if many nonsensical posts get posted here, this will only get the FAQ being delayed as a consequence.

For you collaboration, thanks in advance!

[matonga]

Q: My icons look blurry.

A: Default icons are usually low-res. Get bigger icons at places such as DeviantArt (link) and use option to change icon.

(this answer needs... I feel it is not a complete answer)

[Panta]

Thanks buddy!

This one is certainly one of the top ten! Don't worry, we can always further elaborate it.

ps: I hope your suggestion regarding icon extraction helps bobah sending this question to the archive...

[AndrewYY]

Q: I get something like the following error, what should I do?

"Access violation at address 004d9b18 in module "XWindowsDock.exe". Read address 00000010."

A: Various things could be causing this. If the error renders XWindows Dock useless, try a clean reinstall, or delete all of your preference files. Otherwise, post the error in the Help thread with exactly what you were doing at the time of the error (what apps were open, what system you're running on, if you were changing settings in XWindows Dock, etc.) If you are a Vista user, try disabling UAC for XWindows Dock and see if that fixes it.

Edited February 20, 2009 by AndrewYY

[Panta]

C'mon folks, 17 days long and only two entries? Where are those who said would contribute?

[technosinner]

I had to add something, I felt bad for Panta

Seriously what I did is go through the help topic and tried to get some common/recurring questions from there. I also put a few common things you usually see in a FAQ. You guys can chop down if some of them are unfit; I just figured a FAQ usually spans over a whole whack of stuff, including things people often oversee or forget. Oh and my poor humor can also be put to rest...

I don't take credit for the solutions, because this comes from a lot of different peeps who deserve all the credit for actually figuring what was wrong in the first place. I just gathered the info here. Please review the answers to make sure I didn't skrew it up

So here goes.

Q. I migrated from v.5.x to the most recent one and now my dock doesn't work as it should. What should I do?

A[incomplete]. Try these solutions in order to try and resolve your issues: 1) remove docklets that were not updated since the change of version 2) backup and remove all configuration files and restart XWD. Once this is done copy and paste the 'contents' of the .xml files, excluding the references to docklets and restart XWD again 3) completely uninstall and reinstall XWD and manually reset your preferences.

Q. Why aren't my videos showing thumbnails?

A. Most video related problems can be traced back to the codecs installed on the computer. Please ensure you have all required codecs to preoperly view the faulty video type, and subsequently that this codec offers thumbnail preview possibilties.

Q. I have a weird "invisible icon" and I can't get rid of it. What the heck?

A. This usually happens when the file or folder to which XWD was pointing was moved, renamed or deleted, or otherwise inaccessible by the system. At this time, the easiest way to fix this in XWD is to do either of these two solutions; 1) reinstate the missing/renamed file at it's previous location if possbile, then restart XWD to remove it normally, or 2) manually edit the DockItems.xml configuration file to remove the faulty entry, then restart XWD.

Q. The cool, fancy, wicked icon I used for "x" program/file/folder disappeared and it went back to the default crappy icon.

A. The png file used to replace the icon probably is inaccessible. Try placing the images in a locally accessible (at boot time) folder, or manually replace the image file and restart XWD.

Q. I can't get magnification to work and/or labels to show. What gives?

A[not 100% sure of accuracy]. Please ensure there are no applications currently running that might interfere with XWD. Among these, AveDesk 1.4 and some antispyware applications have been known to interfere with the dock's proper functionning.

Q. My icons suck, and I know I should get new ones, but I don't know where (and I'll commit suicide if I can't find a cool icon for uTorrent, I really will!)

A[needs more good sites]. Ok, put down the razor blade and head out on the internet. Many, MANY sites offer free icons and .png icons. Very good ones can be found on DeviantArt.

Q. I used another dock application that could do this awesome thing where the icons spun around and sang the Macarena while making me coffee. Does XWD do that?

A. Uhm, well no. But if you think XWD is missing something, please let us know here (inserting a link of course)

Q. I think I found a bug you didn't cover in this FAQ.

A. Head on to the Help section where users can try to help you. If it is a bug, you can also put a note up in the Bug report Center.

Q. I think this app is stellar and I want to help. How can I do this?

A[not 100% sure especially the last part]. You can do a few things. First you can say thanks (link to thank you thread). Also try to be an active member of the AS community as this is how a lot of the development is done. If you are a skinner and/or coder, you can share your themes and docklets with the community. Finally you can donate to BOBAH13 to help him continue his work.

Q. Ok that's great, but I have a great website where a gazillion people come every week. Can I distribute XWD?

A. Well, thanks but no. BOBAH13 reserves himself the exclusive distribution of XWD and it's source.

Q. How can I create skins?

A. I totally need that course myself...

Ok so that's what I could find. Panta I'd suggest we could set up the FAQ and make it grow with further input...? I understand your point when you say you don't want to put a FAQ up with 2-3 answers, but XWD is very intuitive so really, we might not find all that much to put in here. Just IMO, don't hit me

[Panta]

@technosinner: Hit you? Buddy, if you were a beautiful woman I'd kiss you, even marry you! (though my wife would either kill me or at least sue me... )

Seriously, this is the kind of contribution I'm eager to see, not for my own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community! You took your time, did a research and gave back topics that will directly map to entries in our FAQ with just minor adjustments; I really appreciate your efforts, thanks alot!! Now we already have enough 'meat' for starting the pinned FAQ thread and then hope it'll grow as needed. I'll start working on it ASAP.

@all: If anyone else is willing to contribute too, other sources of invaluable info are the Bug Report Center (as many so called 'bugs' are, in fact, things some users were unaware of) and both Help and Bug threads of previous versions, among others. Your contribution will be very appreciated and welcomed too!

[technosinner]

any time

Oh and here's another basic one:

Q. I just downloaded a Docklet and I put it in the 'Docklet' folder, but I still can't add it to XWD. Oh the pain!

A. Follow these steps: 1) Restart XWD and try to add the docklet again (most changes and additions to XWD require a restart) 2) Ensure that the docklet is compatible with your version of XWD 3) Make sure you followed the author's installation instructions as some docklets require special components to be installed/extracted as well. If after doing this the Docklet still fails to add, contact the author first to make sure the package is complete and functional.

Edited February 27, 2009 by technosinner

[firecracker6]

This post relates to XWD: v5.6

Question: Upon Startup of XWindows Dock, there is a 'gap' where a dock icon should normally be. (see screenshot)

*Image courtesy of Heatmaker

Answer:

When might you experiencing this issue:

An example of when this would happen (missing item in the dock,) for instance would be if you added a shortcut to the dock which points to something like:

• a folder/app which is no longer accessible, when the dock was launched. Think USB Thumbdrive folder, where the Thumbddrive is now removed.
  
• (not confirmed) a network folder while that network location is no longer accessible.
  
• (not confirmed) something that was deleted from your system, but the dock still has a shortcut to.
  
• The PNG image used with the dock shortcut, (which is now missing,) is no longer accessible to XWD. (for instance, the PNG location on your HD was moved or deleted.)
  

Please note that the above list might not be inclusive of all possible problem scenarios, if you have experienced other faults, let me know by PM and I will update this post.

How to recover from this condition (Potential Corrective Actions):

• Go to your XWD installed folder. Locate the file: "DockItems.xml" (Suggestion: make a backup copy of this file, incase something goes wrong,) Open and Edit this file to remove the problem entry. (read through the file until you find the dock item before and after the entry which is missing. Remove the text of that missing middle entry (which is causing the 'gap' in the dock.)
  
• Another fix would be to simply plug in the External HD or network location, or restore the shortcut's assigned PNG file to it's original location, etc. your dock item will reappear, then you'll have the option to remove the dock item while you have access to it.
  

[Panta]

Many thanks to both of you!

I'm facing some severe health problems by now but I promise I'll work the new pinned thread ASAP.

[Panta]

Will be a double-post but a well deserved one:

First implementation of our FAQ is up and running!!

Please, keep helping to make it even better!

[AndrewYY]

Q: When I put my Microsoft office icons into the dock, they don't work, and when I go to edit it, the path looks like a bunch of random letters.

A: This is because XWindows Dock can't handle the type of shortcut you used. Try navigating to your program files directory, then into the install directory of Microsoft Office on your computer. Then just drag "winword.exe", "msaccess.exe", and so on for any other Office programs you can find in that folder to the dock. These shortcuts should now work. All that's left to do is to right-click on each one, edit, and change the caption and icon to what you want.

[XxReViLexX]

Hi, XWINDOWS DOCK USERS!

This dock is awesome!

Here are some suggestions:

1. When moving/hovering through the icons on the dock, they should be able to animate like the mac's dock which makes the icon increase size.

2. There should be a update option in the preference, so that users would not need to go to the website.

3. Skins can be easily inserted

4. There should be a plugins library and a link that the user can go to, to download the plugins through the preferences option

Thanks xwindows dock! awesome work BTW.!

[Fatezoom]

^{it would be nice to drag an icon to the dock.}

^{easier to create skins, allot easier,}

^{no maskfiles, and no packaging, just a folder with everything}

[keivan]

It would be nice to have an option to put the dock on top. also it would be interesting to have categories like dell dock (image).

[thatguy009]

It would be nice if you clicked on the opened application in the dock and it would minimize. Like on Snow Leopard

[fido]

I can't drag & drop icons to change the position on the dock. For example if i want to move an icon to the left, before another one...

Edited October 17, 2010 by fido

[melovwow]

I am going to make a tutorial on creating skins but should I start a new topic on skins where everyone can post their XWD 5.6 skins and NOT their 2.0.0 skins????

Btw I made a mac lion skin

Download link: http://melovwow.deviantart.com/art/Mac-Lion-Skin-for-XWD-5-6-302437614?q=gallery%3Amelovwow&qo=0

Edited May 16, 2012 by melovwow