WHAT’S
HOT
This new version of ThemeMaker McDeb includes
support for changing the colors of the Start Menu text. This way
you can create themes with darker start menu colors and lighter text
that remains readable. It also has screen capture capabilities for highly
simplified uploading to the
Pocketnow Themes Library.
SETUP
Setting up ThemeMaker McDeb is just the same as
installing anything else on Windows, except the dialogs are flourished
with colorful Debbie McCormick artwork.
PROGRAM
FEATURES
The first thing you’ll notice about ThemeMaker
McDeb is the beautiful user interface reminiscent of Metacreations software
design. While much better looking than other versions of KAMware
ThemeMaker software, the pastel colors clash a bit with my personal
Windows XP GUI Theme preference. However, it is an excellent match for
Debbie McCormick’s
website.
The Theme menu gives you commands to open existing themes, start a new
one (which really open’s McDeb’s
Seabreeze 2 theme), save themes in different color bit depths (16
million or 256), and transfer themes to a connected Pocket PC. The Image
menu allows you to load the background image and start menu image.
You can also save these images if you want to extract them from an existing
theme. Another great feature in the Image menu is the ability
to save Screen Captures. You can create screen capture images
for the main view, a view of the start menu, as well as a thumbnail…
which happens to be practically perfect for posting Pocket PC Themes
to the
Pocketnow Themes Library. The only thing that would be better would
be direct upload capabilities.
The underscores in front of certain menu items mean that you can turn
on these items (the underscore will turn into an X) though this is not
immediately apparent. The Dither items don’t seem to do anything
in the main view. I assume they only have an effect after you save the
theme with 256 colors.
The Colors menu allows you to choose colors for each property of a theme.
You can also turn on the color selection syringe, reset colors, and
reset the transparency here. Most of these commands are also accessible
via the beige rectangular interface in the lower left.
If you turn on the Color Selection tool, when you click on a customizable
area of the theme, or choose the area from the Colors menu or pop-up
menu, it will turn into a syringe icon which you can hover over any
part of the main image and choose the color that you click on.
This is a great feature because it allows you to easily sample colors
from the primary image so as to match colors in the Pocket PC interface
to colors in your theme imagery. In the menu it’s called a Color Selection
tool, while in the lower left beige interface it’s called the Color
Pick tool. Both are the same despite the different names. It should
be noted that the Color Pick tool only works within the application
window and there’s no Undo. It also doesn’t work when the start menu
is activated.
The Transparency slider in the lower right part of the user interface
lets you make the main image or Start menu image fade into a solid background
color. This is especially useful for the Start menu graphic on
Pocket PC 2002 themes since a more faded back image will make the menu
items more readable. On Windows Mobile 2003 however, you can make
the Start menu text more readable by changing the text colors.
The Settings dialog lets you change some of the information that is
displayed on the today screen for visualization and screen capture purposes.
Settings are only accessible via the button on the right (there is no
menu item.)
The Theme Transfer button will bring up a dialog window where the top
pane allows you to browse for Themes on your Pocket PC and the bottom
pane allows you to browse for Themes on your Desktop PC. It doesn’t
automatically transfer the current theme you were working on to your
Pocket PC. You have to browse to where ever you saved it and then
click the blue button to transfer it to your Pocket PC. Opening Windows
Explorer and just copying the file to your Mobile Device is probably
easier. Also, this Theme Transfer dialog makes it way too easy to delete
themes inadvertently.
HELP
SUPPORT
After installing, I would receive a "Run-time
error ‘339’" after clicking the Theme Transfer button. This would
shut down the entire application leaving your theme unsaved. However,
an hour after emailing Debbie McCormick about the problem, KamWARE had
a new version available which fixed the problem (on a Sunday evening
no less!) There’s some definite points for support!
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
ThemeMaker McDeb doesn’t appear to list system requirements on the website,
but I should think it would be similar to the KamWARE versions which
will run on Windows 2000/XP, Windows ME, and Windows 9x. You also
need ActiveSync installed for theme transfer to work.
BUGS
AND WISHES
A minor annoyance
is that there is no standard "File menu" like all other Windows
applications have. Instead there are pop-up menus that appear
on MouseOver. Conventionally it is expected that Windows Applications
open menus with an OnClick event.
While ThemeMaker McDeb does have support for changing Start menu text
colors for Windows Mobile 2003 devices, it lacks support for changing
internal colors such as the stripes in the background of folder views
and the animated Tap-and-hold indicator. It would’ve been nice if those
features were part of the application as well.
I should hope future versions might include support for variable resolution
themes such as those that might be used in Landscape mode or alternate
resolutions on future versions of Windows Mobile.
I wish the Color Picker could work on any pixel on the screen as opposed
to just the pixel colors in the main image area. Also, an Undo
command would be nice.
PURCHASING
You can purchase this program from
McDeb’s website for $14. or download a free demo who’s only limitation
is that it will show a watermark on any theme saved.
PROS
High
quality image retentionWindows
Mobile 2003 Start menu text supportEasy
creation of screenshots for posting on websites
CONS
No
support for internal Windows Mobile 2003 colorsCan’t
undo mistakesTheme
Transfer too complicated
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
While I was disappointed that ThemeMaker McDeb
did not include the ability to set internal colors on Windows Mobile
2003 themes, it’s still a great Theme creation application. The
interface looks great and the theme creation quality is excellent.
The screen capture capabilities will make posting themes to Pocketnow
a joy rather than a chore.
Originally published on Pocketnow on March 19, 2004. More Reviews articles from the Pocketnow archive.