documentation Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to Theming Cakewalk

[Starship Krupa]

4 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

I see an under-stated note about Plug-in menu enhancements

Understated indeed. They finally dumped the XP-era code for the fly-out plug-in menus. No matter how many folders and plug-ins one has, the menus fit on the screen without the need for scrolling.

[User 905133]

Re: recent EA Release: I noticed a difference when I used the right click track context menu to start the Insert wizard.  Will take a while to get used to columns.  I like the readable letters over the previous images, but I am worried that the dark grey on light grey (at least in my Mercury based theme) for VST2 is foreshadowing they greying out of VST2s.  I know some people hate VST2s and don't even bother to install them any more, but I'd be very sad if CbB gets rid of them entirely.  ?

Maybe they can be changed in the theme editor? UPDATE: YES!!!! [See 5th post below this one.]

Edited April 23, 2021 by User 905133
(3) some customizations no longer seem to work any more; (2) to update based on additional research; (1) to add an image and reword the post to clarify that this references a recent EA Release

[User 905133]

On 4/16/2021 at 4:46 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Understated indeed. They finally dumped the XP-era code for the fly-out plug-in menus. No matter how many folders and plug-ins one has, the menus fit on the screen without the need for scrolling.

I didn't check today--are these changes listed in the list of changes (you know, the ones when we click on the link in the new incompatible theme warning box)?  I only checked on that yesterday and don't remember seeing the change; but maybe the changes are just additions, resizings, etc. not this type of change.

Edited April 17, 2021 by User 905133
to add a link to the list of changes

[User 905133]

On 4/17/2021 at 2:52 PM, User 905133 said:

Maybe they can be changed in the theme editor?

Maybe they will be changeable when the EA is released along with an updated theme editor?

Or maybe we are seeing place holders pending additional changes that are forthcoming?  I seem too recall that sometimes there have been changes planned for the official that were not included the EA release. 

In any case this is probably relatively trivial for the UX of most users.

Edited April 23, 2021 by User 905133
some customizations that previously worked no longer work

[User 905133]

NOTE: I was not planning to bring the issue up in the EA thread thinking it was too trivial, but then I saw others commenting on visibility issues.  So I brought it up here.

I made a mistake a year or so ago not bringing up how (at the time), the Basic Workspace forced a specific theme only to learn later on that it was an error in the release (fixed shortly thereafter) and I should have mentioned it when I stumbled onto it.  

I assume @Colin Nicholls will be interested in the answers as they might necessitate changes to his still amazingly awesome and much appreciated guide.

[Colin Nicholls]

Possibly only theme-breaking changes are listed, and when an image is no longer used (as in the add synth/plugin lists) and is obsolete, it probably isn't worth high-lighting.

I like the new look of these selector lists and I hope they stay this way, and are not placeholders.

[User 905133]

NOTE: Customizations that used to work seem to no longer work. So it is unclear if these kinds of customizations will work in the future.

So far:

Addendum: As Colin notes in the Theme Guide, sometimes changes don't occur until a Cakewalk reboot. Today, I got this with the same theme elements as above:

                                                                                         

In case it doesn't stand out, today the VST3 / Plug-in Tree text color/colour (Green) now shows up in the Plug-in Browser.  (No change in the new and improved soft synth list. Also, not sure where the "DX" color/colour is coming from.) 

Edited April 26, 2021 by User 905133
(2) to fix a couple of typos; (1) to add additional info

[Colin Nicholls]

Document v.2021.04.18 updated and uploaded.

It reflects recent comments made on this thread since the last document update, and also changes in the 2021.04 EA release.

[Starship Krupa]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:21 PM, Colin Nicholls said:

I like the new look of these selector lists and I hope they stay this way, and are not placeholders.

I like them too, mostly because they all fit on the screen at one time and they're easier to read. The thing of listing the type (VST2, VST3, DX) would be good to have everywhere, not just on the last 5 plug-ins I've used.

Showing me the type of plug-in it is only after I've used it seems kinda....backward.

[User 905133]

58 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

The thing of listing the type (VST2, VST3, DX) would be good to have everywhere, not just on the last 5 plug-ins I've used.

Maybe I don't understand this, to me the type is shown, though you do have to expand the folders/categories to see them (at least with the manufacturers).  

[Starship Krupa]

10 hours ago, User 905133 said:

to me the type is shown

Somehow disappeared for me on one system, but it seems to have sorted itself, so a glitch I guess.

[Colin Nicholls]

Updated 2021.04.25

Minor changes relating to obsolete theme items; console EQ plot backgrounds; and Tempo View.

[Colin Nicholls]

The work-in-progress continues to, um progress.

Updated 2021.04.27

Refactored the introductory chapter to include a section on Preferences > Color Customization and how they interact with customized Theme elements. This is preparatory work so that we can start including references to un-themeable UI elements that are customized only through color preferences.

[Colin Nicholls]

Updated 2021.04.28

I've incorporated documentation on Color Preference values that are not included in the Theme Editor, but may still be useful to folks who want extra "fit and finish" in their theming.

• Bus Pane
• Clips & Clips Pane
• Piano Roll View
• Staff View
• Event List

[sjoens]

Curious what they'll do when the Inspector Header is no longer big enough to add icons for all the stuff they keep adding to it. ?

Maybe it's time for a 3rd collapsible view.

p17: According to the PURPLETRATOR test, "Export" will always be written in White. So we are constrained somewhat in our design choices. Also, even though there are 5 slides in the element, only the first one is used. The button does not change when clicked, only the menu appears.

There's a few like this. Not sure why they don't carry thru on some of these buttons. They did fix one a while back after I mentioned it's spring had sprung. 

I think any new function should also be color customizable now that it's a thing.

Edited May 1, 2021 by sjoens

[Colin Nicholls]

8 hours ago, sjoens said:

Curious what they'll do when the Inspector Header is no longer big enough to add icons for all the stuff they keep adding to it. ?

[..]

I think any new function should also be color customizable now that it's a thing.

I'm experimenting with this look for Mil-Spec Alpha R3:

 

As for color customizing, you can tell from the latest new features that the Bakers are doing their best to deliver functionality without impacting theme designers or requiring supplemental work on supporting theming, and I can't say that I blame them. It's a fine line and I applaud it, so far.

[Colin Nicholls]

Updated 2021.05.18

Revised for the changes in 2021.04 Update 1 (build 175).

The Add/Delete/Properties buttons from the old Tempo View that were re-used in Meter/Key, Markers and Events views are now under Meter/Key. Images and documentation revised to match.

[Billy86]

On 12/14/2019 at 9:25 AM, Colin Nicholls said:

Thanks, guys.

The title is a riff on Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" which is a pretty cool SF book; recommended.

It seemed to be a good time to prepare the document, as it is clear that the Theme Editor is pretty stable in the development cycle. The bugs and inconsistencies aren't going to be worth the time the skeleton dev group would need to spend, so documenting seems reasonable.

I'm not expecting anyone to go through this line by line looking for errors; and there's definitely more useful stuff that could be added. All suggestions welcome! If you have any theme-ing tips or tricks that you know of, let me know and I'll add them in.

I'd like to make this a community effort and of course I'll adjust the credits to suit.

Just found this gold mine of information and want to add my kudos and thanks. This doc is incredible! Wow. 

[Starship Krupa]

Got another color use ID: Time Ruler/Markers/Markers.

Aside from the obvious one, it affects the color of the 0dB and channel divider lines in the Loop Construction View's waveform display. Behold the purpletration (the menu backgrounds are normally purple, it's EVA 01):

[sjoens]

On 5/1/2021 at 7:35 AM, Colin Nicholls said:

I'm experimenting with this look for Mil-Spec Alpha R3:

Aye, matey. I see ye've included a panic button fer us pirates in distress... hmmm.