NAME¶
Pager - AfterStep module for virtual desktop navigation
BASE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS¶
The following two configuration options are in the
base file:
- *DeskTopSize Columns x Rows
-
Defines the number of view Columns by the number of view Rows
of the desk(s) in proportional units, i.e. 2x1 would show 2 views of one
desk, one beside another.
- *DeskTopScale number
-
If the geometry is not specified, then a desktop reduction factor is used to
calculate the pager's size. Things in the pager window are shown at 1/
number of the actual size.
MyStyle DEFINITIONS¶
Starting with version 1.7.60 Pager supports definition of most of it's visual
parameters in look file as MyStyles. Styles can also be defined in pager
config file, but main contents of the look file will override them. Include
them in your pager config to make sure that you get nice looking Pager even if
styles are not defined in look file. The following standard MyStyle names are
used :
- *PagerUWindowStyle
-
(defaults to "unfocused_window_style") - unfocused window
representation's style. Background pixmap and gradient can be used here.
- *PagerFWindowStyle
-
(defaults to "focused_window_style") - focused window
representation's style. Background pixmap and gradient can be used here.
- *PagerSWindowStyle
-
(defaults to "sticky_window_style") - sticky window
representation's style. Background pixmap and gradient can be used here.
- *PagerActiveDesk
-
active (selected) desk's label style. This style - defines only look of the
desk's LABEL - to define how your actual desk window will look like - you
should use *PagerStyle option - see below. Background pixmap,
gradient and transparency can be used here.
- *PagerInActiveDesk
-
Same as above, only for inactive desk's label. Background pixmap, gradient
and transparency can be used here.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS¶
- ActiveDeskBevel
-
Defines how border around Pager desk representation of the current desk
should be drawn.
See Also: Bevel flags for further details.
Example :
*PagerActiveDeskBevel Left,Top
# draws thick bevelled lines at the top and left of the desk
- Align
-
Defines how Pager's desk title should be aligned on desk titlebar. See Align
options for further details.
Example :
*PagerAlign Center
# places title in the center both vertically and horizontally
- BalloonBorderHilite
-
Defines the bevel to be drawn around balloons - replaces the BorderWidth
setting.
See Also: Bevel flags for further details.
- BalloonCloseDelay number
-
Specifies the period in milliseconds to delay the disappearance of the
balloon when leaving window with the mouse.
- BalloonDelay number
-
Specifies the period in milliseconds to delay the appearance of theballoon.
- BalloonStyle MyStyle
-
MyStyle to be used to draw balloon. Note that balloons could be shaped
(BackPixmap 125 and 126).
- BalloonTextPaddingX size
-
width of the border around the text in balloons.
- BalloonTextPaddingY size
-
height of the border around the text in balloons.
- BalloonXOffset offset
-
Specifies the horizontal offset (in pixels) to use when displaying balloons.
- BalloonYOffset offset
-
The balloon window is positioned to be horizontally centered against the
application window it is describing. The vertical position may be set as
an offset. Negative offsets of -N are placed N pixels above the pager
window, positive offsets of +N are placed N pixels below. Defaults to +2.
- Balloons
-
Turns on the balloon feature. A "balloon" is displayed showing the
name of the window the pointer is resting on in the Pager .
Currently only the window's icon name is shown. Note that balloons are not
shown for the iconified pager. The balloon background and text are
configured with the MyStyle "*PagerBalloon".
See Also: MyStyle definition for details.
- Columns
-
Tells afterstep how many columns of desks to use when laying out the pager
window. Set to 1 for vertical Pager and define PagerRows.
- Decoration param1[,param2[,...]]
-
Allows you to decorate your pager to your liking. The following parameters
can be specified : NoDeskLabel, NoPageSeparator, NoSelection,
SelectionColor, GridColor, DeskBorderWidth, DeskBorderColor,
LabelBelowDesk, HideInactiveLabels, VerticalLabel.
See Also: Pager Decoration options for further details.
- DontDrawBg
-
If specified, will not display background image, use this with xearth or
xfishtank.
Please note that this is deprecated, use DontDrawBackground (Look option)
instead.
- Geometry
-
Completely or partially specifies the pager window location and geometry, in
standard X11 notation. In order to maintain an undistorted aspect ratio,
you might want to leave out either the width or height dimension of the
geometry specification.
- IconGeometry
-
Specifies a size (optional) and location (optional) for the pager's icon
window. Since there is no easy way for Pager to determine the height of
the icon's label, you will have to make an allowance for the icon label
height when using negative y-coordinates in the icon location
specification (used to specify a location relative to the bottom instead
of the top of the screen).
- InActiveDeskBevel
-
Defines how border around Pager desk representation of the inactive desk(s)
should be drawn.
See Also: Bevel flags for further details.
- Label
-
Assigns the text label to desk desk in the pager window. Useful for
assigning symbolic names to desktops
- MyStyle
-
Styles for different Pager properties are called from the file
"pager", and the associated MyStyle definitions are located in a
selected Look file. Fonts, foreground and background colors, gradients,
pixmaps, and transparencies can be specified for Pager's components.
See Also: MyStyle definition for further details.
- NoBalloons
-
FIXME: add proper description here.
- Rows
-
Tells afterstep how many rows of desks to use when laying out the pager
window. Set to 1 for horizontal Pager and define PagerColumns.
- ShadeButton "unpressed_image"
["pressed_image"]
-
You should be able to "shade" row or column of desks by pressing
special Shade button on desk's title. Define images to be used for it with
this option. If no images are defined - then there will be no button and
feature will be disabled.
- SmallFont
-
Specifies a font to use to label the window names in the pager. It overrides
font specified in Focused/Unfocused/Sticky window style in look file. It
also displays text on background color - which can be useful if BackPixmap
is specified in window style. Window labels seem to be fairly useless for
desktop scales of 32 or greater.
- StartIconic
-
Causes the pager to start iconified.
- StickyIcons
-
Specifies that icons should stick to the screen's glass and follow it from
desk/view to desk/view.
- Style desk style
-
Sets the style to be used for the desk desk representation in the Pager.
Where style can be the name of any style definition in the look file, and
desk is a number coresponding to the desktop number: 0,1,2,3,N.... Use it
if you want to specify a different style for Pager background other than
the default; which is the scaled down *PagerDesktopImage.
USAGE¶
Although
Pager can be run from the command line, it is normally spawned
by afterstep in the
autoexec file, in the following manner:
Module "I" Pager beginning_desktop# ending_desktop#
Wait "I" Pager
In case you use Pager to switch your root backgrounds
Wait can be used as
shown above. This will insure that the
Pager has set the root
background before you start any furthur apps (like transparent aterms and
Eterms).
or from within an afterstep menu file by 'Pager':
% cat "~/.afterstep/start/Modules/Pager"
Module "Pager" Pager first_desktop last_desktop
MiniPixmap "mini-as.xpm"
To stop the
Pager module, a menu item can be used:
% cat "~/.afterstep/start/Modules/Pager_Stop"
KillModuleByName "Stop Pager" Pager
MiniPixmap "mini-as.xpm"
DESCRIPTION¶
The
Pager module shows a miniature view of the Afterstep desktops which
are specified in the command line. This is a useful reminder of where your
active windows are. Windows in the pager are accordingly to MyStyle
definitions "*PagerUWindowStyle" - for unfocused windows,
"*PagerFWindowStyle" - for focused windows and
"*PagerSWindowStyle" - for sticky windows. If you never defined
those MyStyles, Pager will default to same styles as used for actual windows.
The
Pager can be used to change your viewport into the current desktop,
to change desktops, or to move windows around.
Pressing mouse button 1 or 2 in the
Pager will cause your viewport to
change to the selected page of the selected desk. If you click with button 1
in the desk-label area, you will switch desks but not pages within the desk.
Clicking and dragging with mouse button 2 on a miniature window in the
Pager will cause that window to be move to the location where you
release the mouse button, but your viewport will not change. If you drag the
window out of the pager and onto your desktop, a full size image of the window
will appear for you to place. There is no way to pick up a full size image of
the window and move it into the
Pager , however. Since some mice do not
have button 2, provisions have been made to drag windows in the
Pager
by pressing modifier-1 (usually Alt) and dragging with button 3.
When iconified, the pager will work as a fully functional current page only
pager. Windows and viewports can be moved within the icon of the pager. Users
will want to make sure that they have no lines similar to
Starting with version 1.7.122 Pager no longer loads background images into the
memory. Module asetroot should be used to accomplish that task. But Pager will
still be able to switch backgrounds as you switch between desks, after you've
run asetroot to load images. Use *PagerDontDrawBg option in pager config file
to TURN background switching OFF.
See asetroot man page for more information.
Style "Pager" Icon myIcon.[xpm|jpg|png]
in their feel files.
INITIALIZATION¶
During initialization,
Pager will search for a configuration file which
describes the images, locations and actions to take. This file will be the one
specified by the-foption (if given). Else, the ~/.afterstep/pager file will be
used if it exists. Else, /usr/local/share/afterstep/pager will be used.
If the
Pager executable is linked to another name, ie ln -s
Pager
OtherPager , then another module called
OtherPager can be
started, with a completely different set of configurations than
Pager ,
simply by adding
*OtherPager options following the same
*Pager
configuration options below to the
pager file. This way multiple Pager
programs can be used.
KEYBOARD FOCUS CONTROL¶
You can direct the keyboard focus to any window on the current desktop by
clicking with button 2 on its image in the pager. The window does not need to
be visible, but it does need to be on the current page.
INVOCATION¶
Pager can be invoked from the
autoexec file or from a menu item
as shown in the Synopsis section above.
AfterStep will search through the directories specified in the
ModulePath
configuration in the
base (where # is your colordepth) to attempt to
locate
Pager .
CONFIGURATION FILES¶
Pager reads the
base file and
pager file when it starts up
and looks for its configuration options.