Customizing application menus etc

[MuddyMole]

I was just wondering if there's any way to customize the standard menus and controls of applications created in MMF2, instead of them always having to be the same boring light grey? (and without having to recreate them from a bunch of actives or system box objects)

eg. A lot of graphics apps use a dark grey interface...
expression.jpg

Thoughts / suggestions?

[Jahkri]

I also often wondered how some Programms have some very special and Creative GUIs but still "compatible" with the Windows-Look and Feel. After some Research i' ve found "Swing (Java)".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_%28Java%29

On the Wiki-Site, when You scroll down to -> Architecture -> Customizable, you can see three Screenshots that show some Possibilities of this Framework.

But not sure if it' s possible to implement it "directly" into MMF2. A good Developer would probably have to develope this Swing-Extension.
What brings me to a Idea i have for MMF3 (because it' s probably not possible to implement it in 2.5 already).
Here' s my Idea: I' ve read that MMF2.5 would be "skinable". It would be Great if the Programms that we export from MMF2 could also be "skinable" (fixed Skin by the Developer or changeable Skins by the User).

With kind regards,
jahkri

[MuddyMole]

Thanks. I suspected as much...
I was hoping maybe it would be possible using CallDll with one of the standard windows .dlls (user32.dll or something?)

[Jahkri]

Hi MuddyMole,
didn' t thought of that. That may be possible too, but i' ve never used the CallDll-Extension so far. Another Developer with more insight into that Extension could probably answer this.
Anyway, it' s nice that You brought up that Topic because i' m creating more Applications than Games in MMF2 and it would be a real nice Feature to have more abilities in Customizing
the Look and Feel of Your Application-Window.

with kind regards,
jahkri

[Jahkri]

PS: The "Advanced Menu Object" already allows You to change a lot more Properties for Application-Menus and Application-Pop-Up-Menus.
Perhaps that Extension might give You some more Control over the Design of the User-Interface.

[MuddyMole]

Sounds useful - I'll take a look
Thanks