Thursday, June 25, 2015

Beautiful Plover Skin for Rainmeter

Shayne from the Google Group writes:
I've created a little (Windows-only) desktop widget to show Plover's status (running/stopped) in a more aesthetically pleasing way than keeping the window up all the time to watch the big "P". After a few months of working out kinks, I think it's working well, and wanted to share it with you all:



It's a Rainmeter skin with three variants (left to right: bubble, icon, letter), with an AutoHotKey script included that needs to be running to alert Rainmeter.

How it works: the AHK script registers with the Windows shell to get messages whenever windows redraw; any time the Plover window does this, the script checks the window title ("running" or "stopped") and, if it's changed, sends a message to Rainmeter to refresh the skin, changing the colors.

Note that it requires both Rainmeter (http://rainmeter.net/) and AutoHotKeyAutoHotKey (http://ahkscript.org/) to run.

Available for download: http://monochromatope.deviantart.com/art/PloverStatusIndicator-1-01-541857076
Source available, too: https://github.com/shayneholmes/PloverStatusIndicator

How to install it: Download and install the .rmskin file, then run the .ahk file in the installed folder (and put a link in your startup folder so it runs on boot).

It is especially nice if you have a second monitor. Hope some of you find something useful in it.
Isn't it gorgeous? If you run Windows and you want something beyond the blocky and admittedly uninspiring Plover "P" box, go give it a try!

1 comment:

  1. The new skin sounds great, but have a question about Windows 10. Plover is working in Windows 10 as far as auto loading, but I cannot access editing the writer or dictionary. It seems to reside in the bottom panel (taskbar) and running mouse over it shows Plover is running, but I cannot access any of the controls. Weird. It writes just fine, but should I want to add an entry or change the writer, I seem to not be able to access in Windows 10 (recent update). I can only run Plover. Ideas?

    -- Mark Crossley (signlaw@gmail.com)

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