Working with Stack/Stickies

Hi folks I'm back again. 

I worked a lot on creating a skin and stack a few months ago and all has been working well.
The problem is that I have forgot a lot since then. 

I now would like to make two main adjustments; one to my stack and one to my stickies.

Currently there is a small icon in the bottom left corner that opens/closes the stack.
You click on the Up arrow and the stack opens.
You click on the Down arrow and the stack closes.

I would like to expand the arrow greatly, so that I would not be limited to selecting the tiny arrow.
I would like the surface area to click on, to be at least 8-10 times bigger.
Same for closing the stack.

The other change I would like to make is similar. Currently there is a tiny arrow at the top
right of each sticky. Clicking on it opens/closes the sticky.
Instead, I would like to be able to open/close the sticky by clicking anywhere on the top header
of the sticky (except for clicking on one of the icons in the header).

Another problem I am having is figuring out how to load and work with my .ssk files.
My .ssk file has a stack.ini, a main.ini and a stack.bmp.
Lord knows how I got it to a .bmp instead of a .png that is required.

If my thinking is correct, the .png/.bmp file must contain all the symbols for BOTH
the stickies and the stack?

That's where I'm having problems now.
I like the image file that is working now (it is a .bmp file).
But I don't know how to modify it to add my new stack images to it?

I hope you understand what I have said.

The Width and Height defines the dimensions of the click area of the button , changing it can have side effects . You will need to change the position too .

I strongly recommend to make the demo skin in the tutorial made by Tom Revell , you will find it in skinner.chm just double click the filename it opens as a helpfile . As you know skinner already it will take 30 minutes and it will answer " all " your questions

The skin file only contains one image file for both stack and skin icons . The name stack.bmp is confusing , i guess better to name it background.bmp or something like that .
It used to be a .bmp file but recently it was changed to png to allow transparency .  If you want some additional icons in it you have to use a image editor to add them to the image and expand the " canvas " if there is no room . Make sure to leave the upper corner at 0,0 because the existing parts are referenced to that and otherwise you will have to change all values !

Have a nice weekend .

Sooyke wrote:
I strongly recommend to make the demo skin in the tutorial made by Tom Revell , you will find it in skinner.chm just double click the filename it opens as a helpfile . As you know skinner already it will take 30 minutes and it will answer " all " your questions

The skin file only contains one image file for both stack and skin icons . The name stack.bmp is confusing , i guess better to name it background.bmp or something like that .
It used to be a .bmp file but recently it was changed to png to allow transparency .  If you want some additional icons in it you have to use a image editor to add them to the image and expand the " canvas " if there is no room . Make sure to leave the upper corner at 0,0 because the existing parts are referenced to that and otherwise you will have to change all values !

Have a nice weekend .

Thanks Sooyke for helping out again, I appreciate it!

I will definitely go through the tutorial this time.
Although I know pretty much where I need to focus.

Here's what happened in more detail.
After thinking about it for a day or so, I quickly realized that
I would have to make some changes to the .bmp file that was being used in
my working .ssk file.
I figured out that I'd need to add an area somewhere to it (bottom section)
where icons were not being used for the stickies etc.

So I launched GIMP and came up with what I thought would work.
After I saved it as a .PNG file I tried to launch it into skinner.exe

That's when I started having lots of problems.
I would open skinner and then try two things.
I would go the File/Open menu and choose my old
working main.ini file.
Right away it would notice something was wrong and give
an error message, asking if I'd like to proceed.

I think it noticed that my .bmp file wasn't there and now there
was a .png file in its place.

So to try to fix this, I converted my .png file (around 25k) to a .bmp file (450k).
skinner still didn't like my image file and gave an error message when opening.
The image it showed at the top right of the screen was nowhere near my working
stickies.

Now I was in a quandary.

I kept trying different things.
I would open skinner and instead of opening my main.ini file,
I would go to the bottom right of the screen, click the three dots
and choose either my stack.bmp or stack.png.

The files would open but...
The .png would be color as should be, but there was no image at the top
right, meaning I would be forced to RE-CREATE my stack again!

The .bmp would be B&W, and there was no image at the top
right, meaning I would also be forced to RE-CREATE my stack again!

Also when I view my working .bmp image and my new .bmp/.png
outside of skinner, I notice that my working .bmp is around two
times the size of  my new .bmp/.png images!
I didn't change the size of the .bmp image when I worked
with it in GIMP.

...continued

A thought just occurred to me now as I worked through the skinner.chm
and then onto my files.

I thought there was just ONE image file associated with an .ssk complete skin.

BUT...

Clearly there are in fact two image files, if you have a skinner setup like mine(stickie + stack).
My stickie looks like a typical one, yellow background with various button on it. That's one image.

My stack looks totally different. A big blue box with a title top left, number bottom right (indicating sticky numbers)
and an arrow button bottom left that allows for opening and closing the stack.

So I'm left scratching my head. Where is this stack image coming from?
And, how did I manage to somehow integrate the two into my current skin?

If I can figure that out I might be on my way to editing my stack image the way
I want my new stack to look like.

"  Where is this stack image coming from? "

If stickies does not find a " usable " stack inside the ssk it uses a default hardcoded one inside stickies.exe . You can download a ssk file of this default skin here:

https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/skins.pl?a=show&s=stickies9

To convert bmp to png or create a bigger canvas , you can use a sticky , just drag and drop the bmp file from explorer into an empty  sticky and you can save it as png.
To have more space to add icons to easy way :




If you have a stack.ini you need to enter the name in skinner titlebar menu " Edit /Note Skin Properies " , otherwise it is not used !

Sooyke wrote:"  Where is this stack image coming from? "

If stickies does not find a " usable " stack inside the ssk it uses a default hardcoded one inside stickies.exe . You can download a ssk file of this default skin here:

https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/skins.pl?a=show&s=stickies9

To convert bmp to png or create a bigger canvas , you can use a sticky , just drag and drop the bmp file from explorer into an empty  sticky and you can save it as png.
To have more space to add icons to easy way :




If you have a stack.ini you need to enter the name in skinner titlebar menu " Edit /Note Skin Properies " , otherwise it is not used !

Sorry you lost me.

"To convert bmp to png or create a bigger canvas , you can use a sticky , just drag and drop the bmp file from explorer into an empty  sticky and you can save it as png."

It is not clear what to do here.
You say "use a sticky'. Which one?
My sticky.ini  or my stack.ini?

Drop the .bmp from which explorer?
Windows explorer?
Sticky explorer with 'File open'?
Sticky explorer when you click on the three dots to open a .png file?

"into an empty  sticky and you can save it as png."
How do I save the .bmp as a .png?
Still not clear how to do this?

I don't see anywhere where it says save as .png.

"To have more space to add icons to easy way :"
I don't see "size image" in my Stickies Skin designer.

If I open my sticky.ini it opens my .bmp file (the page shows "Source PNG" of course)
and displays it on the left side of the 'Source PNG' box. The full image is shown.

If I then click the three dots and open my new stack.png that I created in GIMP,
the .png opens on the RIGHT side of the 'Source PNG' box.
The image is now cut off in the middle !!!

I know if I work with this, my sticky.ini will get all screwed up because the .png is
cut off and not centered properly.

" You say "use a sticky'. Which one? "

Sorry for the confusion , just create an image sticky by copy/paste your bmp into an empty sticky or drag/drop the file from file explorer into the stticky.
An image sticky has a lot of image edit tools , just rightclick the image . The resize is under  " transform " menu .

The size you can see in skinner is limited . On my 1360-768 resolution monitor it is about 500x250 for the background image . I think you should be able to cram all icons in such dimensions ? The default skin who has a triple set of icons is only 480x98 !

You can use the zoom button that creates a floating image but it is not very convenient , it will be always in the way .....

Unless you use transparency it does not really matter to use bmp or png , ssk is zipped so it will compress the bmp.

Sooyke wrote:" You say "use a sticky'. Which one? "

Sorry for the confusion , just create an image sticky by copy/paste your bmp into an empty sticky or drag/drop the file from file explorer into the stticky.
An image sticky has a lot of image edit tools , just rightclick the image . The resize is under  " transform " menu .

The size you can see in skinner is limited . On my 1360-768 resolution monitor it is about 500x250 for the background image . I think you should be able to cram all icons in such dimensions ? The default skin who has a triple set of icons is only 480x98 !

You can use the zoom button that creates a floating image but it is not very convenient , it will be always in the way .....

Unless you use transparency it does not really matter to use bmp or png , ssk is zipped so it will compress the bmp.

If I just open Stickies Skin Designer and try to EITHER copy and paste an external .bmp file or drag/drop a .bmp file into
the program nothing happens.

The only way I can get a .bmp file into the program is by clicking in the three dots (...) on the right of the screen and select a file.

But if I do that the only .bmp file that will load properly is one that I managed to get into the program back in Nov 2021.
Any other one will not load properly.

Interestingly, I just opened MS Paint and was able to Paste the .bmp into that app !

On a hunch I decided to open Win Paint and see if I could open my working .bmp file there and edit it.
I was able to edit it adding a much larger pad area to click on for (open/close stack).

I saved the file and successfully loaded it into an .ssk file.

Strangely the .bmp file was accepted into Sticky using Paint but not GIMP.
It accepted the GIMP .bmp but messed it up!

Now I'm almost finished part one of my task.
One weird side-effect has happened.
The stack look fine BUT, now my sticky has changed at the top!

The border area at the top section of my sticky has been colored with the
same color as my pad section on the stack!

Would you know how to fix this? Remove that added color?

My next task is to be able to click ANYWHERE on the sticky header to roll/unroll it.

There are a number of formats of BMP file.  I think Paint is pretty good with them all, but other apps might choke a little.  They all use .BMP as the file extension, but internally the file is different.

As Sooky says you can use Stickies to convert the file, or I'm sure GIMP can do it just fine.  I can also 100% recommend Paint.NET - another awesome free image editor - I've used it for years.

I suggest you switch to using a PNG file - they're smaller, and more capable than BMP files, and the format is more locked down.

A full SSK will contain three files - one ini for notes, one ini for stacks, and a BMP/PNG file which is shared between the two.  If you pull apart the default SSK file you can see how it's set up.  Incidentally you don't Skinner to create SSK files for you, they're just renamed .zip files.

If you're still working on this project and want me to take a look, mail me where you've got to and I'll see if I can help

Tom

Admin wrote:There are a number of formats of BMP file.  I think Paint is pretty good with them all, but other apps might choke a little.  They all use .BMP as the file extension, but internally the file is different.

As Sooky says you can use Stickies to convert the file, or I'm sure GIMP can do it just fine.  I can also 100% recommend Paint.NET - another awesome free image editor - I've used it for years.

I suggest you switch to using a PNG file - they're smaller, and more capable than BMP files, and the format is more locked down.

A full SSK will contain three files - one ini for notes, one ini for stacks, and a BMP/PNG file which is shared between the two.  If you pull apart the default SSK file you can see how it's set up.  Incidentally you don't Skinner to create SSK files for you, they're just renamed .zip files.

If you're still working on this project and want me to take a look, mail me where you've got to and I'll see if I can help

Tom

Thanks very much Tom for helping out.
I was quite persistent and managed to work out my problems.

I now have the two main changes working well.
1. A large pad area on each of my stacks where I can click on to Open/Close them.  (See Stack image below)
2. I can right-click almost anywhere on the top bar of my stickies to Open/Close them.
    I accomplished the right-click part by using an AHK script that interprets
    a right-click as a left double-click. 


Stack image