Surreal Start - Start Menu replacement - goes public!

[Guest spacemonkey]

good ideas on the t9 stuff...

I am thinking of restructuring how it does t9 because it's not the quickest or most flexible. The ideas I'm having could well make what you are asking for a very practical option. Not a quick fix tho.

[Guest Coucou]

I never said it would be easy :)

[Guest scott2eyes]

This looks like an excellent application!

#Digs out wallet. Moths flutter away#

Just one question though- does the background image have to be a GIF file? (ie. only 256 colours.) The skin I've got at the moment uses a jpeg background image, but I can't get it to show up on the menu- the background of the menu is just coming up as plain white (I've deleted the default.gif- which, by the way, looks a bit odd when it's squashed to fit with the "unregistered" bit at the top.)

[Guest spacemonkey]

Default.gif needs to be a gif unfortunately (although you could try renaming a jpg as gif??? who knows) However, if you apply your skins the old fashioned way with reg entries Surreal Start will skin as expected even with jpegs.

The main reason I include the default.gif is to get that stripey effect that is actually done with colours on the normal start menu.

This looks like an excellent application!

#Digs out wallet. Moths flutter away#

Just one question though- does the background image have to be a GIF file? (ie. only 256 colours.) The skin I've got at the moment uses a jpeg background image, but I can't get it to show up on the menu- the background of the menu is just coming up as plain white (I've deleted the default.gif- which, by the way, looks a bit odd when it's squashed to fit with the "unregistered" bit at the top.)

[Guest scott2eyes]

However, if you apply your skins the old fashioned way with reg entries Surreal Start will skin as expected even with jpegs.

Wow- I never even knew that an old fashioned way existed!

:shock:

I don't suppose you'd happen to have the relevent registry entry handy?

[Guest spacemonkey]

The reg entries you are looking for are

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Shell/Rai/:MSStart

The values are

BKBitmapFile

BannerImage

You don't need a banner if you don't want one. Also in the other keys under Rai you can set backgrounds and banners for other screens like dial, error, etc, etc

This is how the full "skins" as opposed to normal homescreens change the entire look and feel of your phone.

Wow- I never even knew that an old fashioned way existed!

:shock:

I don't suppose you'd happen to have the relevent registry entry handy?

[Guest hawpunch]

hi, i just bought and registered the program but i have a questions i should have had answered before purchase. are updates free for non modaco plus members who have purchased the program? thanks.

[Guest spacemonkey]

Yes, once you've got a code then any updates should work with that code.

If I change the code scheme in the future or you change your owner name (plausable requests only) I'll happily provide replacement codes.

[Guest peekie]

just installed the prog and the only thing that as change in my start up is that i do not have numbers and have to press the * to change the page ( i have an e200) any ideas?? :wink: :wink: :wink:

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Try typing a name peekie!

P

[Guest spacemonkey]

Peekie, it's in T9 mode... try it out. If you want old fashioned mode just go to the menu and switch T9 Mode off.

[Guest blewer]

T9 mode rocks :)

[Guest Ravis]

Just me being cheeky, but in the t9 mode could you add the ability to Search by the start of any word?

Heh - I was just logging in to ask exactly this :-)

[Guest MadSci]

Does this work on the MPx200? Seem slike a killer app!

Thanks,

MadSci

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

It does indeed...

P

[Guest nikjensie]

So, how do you get the reg code? Paid through PayPal about 24 hrs ago abd no code yet.... did I forget to do something?

Nik

[Guest spacemonkey]

Paying through paypal is exactly it.

Sorry nikjensie I was a little slow responding to your payment. Unfortunately I am not always 100% on the internet but I endevour to respond to all pms/payments as soon as possible usually within a matter of hours.

[Guest Howski]

I'm sorry I'm really dumb can some one go threw step by step how to arrange the start menu using this

thanks

-how.

[Guest Coucou]

You don't use it to arrange the start menu, you can do that using explorer type prgorams or through activesync on your pc. The start menu is located in IPSMWindowsStart Menu. You can do what you like with it, make extra folders, put shortcuts into different folders etc.

The beauty of surrealstart is that you can search using t9. This means that when you press the "Programs" button (in sp2002, "Start" in wm2003) it doesn't matter what you see immediately. If you want a program beginning with "t" then press the button for "t" and all programs starting with that letter will be seen. You can carry on with other letters to narrow it down further. Have a play, it's dead easy! The other thing about surrealstart is that all the icons are available immediately, unlike the normal start menu.

[Guest hawpunch]

how do you set the background for this prog? is there a way to select which image we would like to use for the background in the program? thanks.

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

how do you set the background for this prog?  is there a way to select which image we would like to use for the background in the program?  thanks.

From spacemonkey's website:

2      Backgrounds, if the phone is skinned then the skin background is used. Otherwise if a gif called default.gif is present in "IPSM/Program File/SurrealStart" then this gif is used as a background. Otherwise the background of the menu will be the background colour as defined in the current colour scheme. SurrealStart by default installs with a default.gif present that replicates the look of the stripey background settings in some colour schemes (as in the first screen shot above).

[Guest hawpunch]

thanks moreflez :)

[Guest Coucou]

Spacemonkey, any way to get this to use the font tweak? Please :?:

[Guest Jackpot]

SpaceMonkey... I ordered and Payed You via PayPal for this, sent You emails,

sent You a PM here on this board with NO RESPONCE re:emailing me with the registration

code that I Paid You For...?

What Gives my brother...Are you Going to eMail me this info, Refund my payment

either way will be fine, but ignoring me Wont Suffice.

Thanks for your help and concern... :D

Jackpot