Info about Glided - Discussion

[Big_Berny]

Hi morten,
wow, you really did a great job! I'm sure that most users who install MM3 will be impressed by the new design!

But you're right. On big wide-screens there is a bit too much room left. I have a 24" with 1920x1200 for example. Some ideas how to fix this a little:
-I think that on the right there are a lot of elemtens, like the icons, albumart, spectrumthing, tracknumber bitrate and volume. All these things are in the last 15% of my screen. So I suggest that make a little bit more room between them. It would be even nicer if this would happen regarding the vertical size of the player. So if you resize the window not only the gray field in the middle will change.
-Another thing I just noticed is, that the words "Title", "Artist" and "Album" are a little bit too small. It's difficult to read.

Some other things:
-IMHO a stop-button is important (also for new users of MM) but it don't have to be big. I really like how it's done here:

-It would be nice if there would be a semitransparent white 1px-frame around the album art.

But again: Great work, morten! I think this new skins is something very important for MM3.

Big_Berny

[julzcompufreek]

Great Work! Glided is an absolutely AWESOME theme, makes MM really look modern and up there with the likes of WMP and iTunes (in looks only, we all know MM already kicks butt in features and organization )

I am however finding that somethings are a little too big for lower resolution screens (1024x768), with the column headings for the library a little too big, wasting space. I was also thinking that the player was too big, but it has grown on me, and I have changed my mind, I LIKE IT!

Also, can we please still have a STOP button, I really hate the way that MM might be going the same way as iTunes with no stop button. For some of you it may be an unnecessary option, but I believe there has to be a time when people do need to stop (not pause) their music.

Apart from that, this is probably the best MediaMonkey skin to date, and I congratulate you. Keep up the awesome work!

[DaledeSilva]

it does need a stop button in my opinion also...
I could live without it except for the way MM handles next and Previous..

if you want to go to the start of the track and start it playing again... you have to stop it and then press play again...

you cannot click previous, because that will take you to the previous track (not the start of the playing track on first click).

plus, if you pause it and then click next or previous, it jumps next or previous and starts playing again...
- the only way to jump next or previous without playing again is to 'stop' it not pause it.

I actually think that MM should change this as it's not how other play controls usually work... however, till they do, we need a stop button.

Dale.

[rovingcowboy]

the default skin i believe was to look like that with out all the buttons crowding it up. to make it look new and sleek.

the extra buttons are needing to be added by the third party skinners. which is what we are all doing.

mortens skin will give more realestate for those that want to use his size and just overlay new images on it and add the needed buttons.

but i think everyone should realize that morten did what the default was ment to look like in the way of less buttons.

the way everyone looks at this skin and swoons over it should tell you it is good to draw in users.

morten should add the needed buttons to the skin but make them only on the mini player where he does not have to leave room for the list's on the screen.

then just move on to a new skin and let the default be the default.

[Trower]

I really love this skin! It's a very good default one to display your great software. The only thing I'm not a Huge fan of is the non rounded corners on the bottom of the player (se image below) and the lack of a stop button. Keep up the good work, Nick

[Blake]

For those who don't have vista and therefore don't have Calibri, the font used for Glided.

Calibri.zip

To install:

1.Extract
2. Go into Control Panel --> Fonts
3. Click: File --> Install New Font...
4. Point to the folder you extracted to
5. Click select all
6. Click OK

[demm]

Great skin morten, it's the best default skin MM has ever had.

One big issue though: when maximized, the pixel in the top right corner should belong to the close button! The button doesn't have to be visually in the corner, but the top-right pixel has to be a part of the hitbox of the button.

Just look at every default Microsoft skin: the old grey one, Luna and Aero - ALL that skins behave that way: even though the button seems to end a few pixels before the top-right corner, if you click there, the window will still get closed.

The behavior of glided is like so many badly skinned apps, that, in order to look cool, round all the edges and forget about usability along the way. It's just silly, because if you have MM (or any other badly skinned program) in the foreground and click on the top-right pixel of your screen, you close the program that is BEHIND the current window.

PLEASE fix this.


PS: Glided has this "vista-feel", like you wanted, but the default icons in MM look like "pre-XP" (eg. no alpha channel). Somebody should redesign all the icons in order to fit to the more modern look of MM3. Maybe the devs should hire a professional icon designer.

[Big_Berny]

Another suggestion abaout the big grey bar in the middle on large screens:
How about moving the "played time" to the right where the tracknumber is and use the font and size of the tracknumber? IMHO it would look very nice, also because it is bigger. The tracknumber could then be moved to the left, somewhere near the artist and title without changing the size/font. This yould also make sense because tracknumber also belongs to the track-information.

[Blake]

The behavior of glided is like so many badly skinned apps, that, in order to look cool, round all the edges and forget about usability along the way. It's just silly, because if you have MM (or any other badly skinned program) in the foreground and click on the top-right pixel of your screen, you close the program that is BEHIND the current window.

Yes, it is pretty annoying, and I agree with what you are saying but MM doesn't yet have the capability of doing that with the difference between being maximized and restored, and it would look pretty crappy if the edges were all straight when it wasn't full screen.

[demm]

Yeah, I know it's more an issue with the code than with the skin, but since morten pushed the devs for a more capable skinning engine, he probably can push them for this important feature too.

Also, a workaround would be possible with the current limitations of MM: just make the hitbox of the close button larger, so that it incorporates the top-right pixel. This would solve the problem in maximized window state and wouldn't be too disruptive in normal window state.

[Morten]

I agree with you demm. These issues will be adressed asap.

[Eminent]

I really love this skin! It's a very good default one to display your great software. The only thing I'm not a Huge fan of is the non rounded corners on the bottom of the player (se image below) and the lack of a stop button. Keep up the good work, Nick

I like the non-rounded corners, but would be open to alternatives.

[Big_Berny]

Hi Morten,
I jsut found a 'bug' in your skin. The color of progressbar is green. As green doesn't fit to the other colors you probably just forgot to change that color. Right?

[Morten]

Actually, no. This is Vista's standard loading-bar and I don't think I'll change it.

[Big_Berny]

Ah ok, I didn't know that. I thought that it can easily be changed.