What is it ?

Finally we made it, this is the BeTheme 1.0 rc1.

BeTheme the first theme manager for The BeOS .

It 's a very easy to use and fairly functional application even if all the groovy stuff we would like to have isn't implemented yet :).

Why a release candidate?

It has been released for many reasons (but we will explain only main ones):

- Since the first beta of BeTheme a lot of features and enhancements have been added.

 

- As the development has progressed a lot it seems to us that it is high time to test the application on a huge scale.

- Most of the possibilities to modify the "look and feel" of the BeOS has been used in BeTheme 1.0 rc1.
Indeed the BeAPI is a bit limited to allow more options in a theme.

- We are French student and we are about to come back to the university so we will be really busy.
Despite this we will have enough time to keep working on BeTheme but the development will be slowed down. 

- Most theme that should have been send to us are included in the BeTheme 1.0 rc1 distribution.(there is not need for us to wait more )

- We know some people that are really impatient to try it

 

How to use it in everyday life?

  • Choosing a theme :

As you can seen on the screenshot below, there is a list of themes on the left side of the BeTheme 1.0 rc1 window.
To choose a theme, you have to proceed two steps.

First click on a theme name in the list.

Secondly double click on the chosen theme's name after having check that
it is the one you want to use.

Indeed as you can see on the right side and right down corner there are
informative areas.

On the right site of the application's window the is a preview of the theme
you have selected( it is useful to choose the theme).

On the right down corner there is a text area which provide some information
about the selected theme (e.g. the autor, the theme's title, the icon set,
the deskbar position, if it require the use of windowShade or not, etc ...).

Instead of double clicking on the chosen theme's name in the second step
you can also use the 'Activate the Theme' button located in the down left
corner. Both actin will result in installing the selected theme on you computer

  • Saving you current theme

BeTheme 1.0 RC1 provide a simple to save you current theme. For instance just imagine that you have modified the current theme and you want to back up it: it is exactly what the 'Save current Theme' button allow.

The save option curently create a "Saved" theme, you can of course change the name of the theme Later (Theme right now have to be spaceless) .

If the save options fails, try removing your background image via the background addon before saving (this should not happen anymore with the 1.0 RC1,
see the bug report section to tell us that it happen ).

I would like to create Themes for the BeOS

The themes are located in Betheme/Themes and are directories.

- The "Settings" File :

It's a text file that define the settings for the desktop (color and way the background image is displayed).
You have to edit it. R G B stands for red green blue and define the desktop color. ex: R:0 G:0 B:0 will display a black desktop.
BGM stands for background mode and define the way the background image is displayed.
There are 4 modes : CENTERED,SCALED,TITLED,ORIGIN(in this mode x y set the point of origin)

ex : BGM:ORIGIN x:0 y:0 will display the background image from the point(0,0).

- The "TrackerTheme" File :

This file must be modified with QuickRes and you must change all the icons you want to change =) (see provided themes for exemples)

- All the other files :

You must change the icons of those file in order to chage the icons in the mime type database
For exemple audio|x-mpeg will change the audio/x-mpeg type in the mime database.
You are free to change whatever type you want but I recommend not changing other types than the ones I changed in the exemples Themes

You said "BUG report, contribution" ?

For now, no bug has been found but please if you find one make a report.
A simple mail saying, “when I do that there is a malfunction” is enough to achieve the repport.
We need people to send us some themes (mmelloff@cybercable.fr) so We can release them in a distribution with lots of themes =))).

We are planning to set up a website for BeOS Themes.
(people will be able to see preview online so that they can choose which Theme they like)
So, feel free to contact us (mmelloff@cybercable.fr) !!! 

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS!!!

Copyrights Zteam 2000 BeTheme is a Zteam product, for the BeOS community