Following Latte and a "Shared Layouts" dream, today I am going to present you all the new settings pages for upcoming v0.9 and the approach used for them. In following screenshots you can find Basic and Advanced pages for docks and panels.
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| Basic Settings |
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| Advanced Settings |
Flexible Settings
Latte v0.9 changed the approach between Basic/Advanced settings. Following the Deepin paradigm our advanced mode is now using all the available screen height by taking into account surrounding latte dock/panels in order to not overlap. At the same time advanced settings window is moved at a screen edge in order to free up main screen area for the user. All settings windows now follow a more flexible design in order to provide different width/height scales at per screen basis.
Changes:
- Above free areas in settings window you can use Meta+Scroll wheel to alter window width scale
- Above free areas in settings window you can use Ctrl+Scroll wheel to alter window height scale (only in Basic mode)
- If you click Latte trademark you can access Latte Global Preferences window
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| Advanced Settings in 64% width scale |
Edit Mode is Split at "Live Editing" and "Configure Applets"
From earlier Latte versions it was obvious that users wanted to be able to alter settings and check runtime how things behave and look afterwards (including the parabolic effect). This is why Latte Editing mode was split in "Live Editing" and "Configure Applets"
"Live Editing" mode
In this mode users can check settings in runtime. This state is active when "Rearrange and configure your widgets" button is not pressed. At the same time users can adjust the edit background opacity when scrolling above empty areas.
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| "Live Editing" with fully transparent edit background |
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| "Live Editing" with 50% transparency for edit background |
"Configure Applets" mode
In this mode users can delete/configure and move applets around. This state is active when the "Rearrange and configure your widgets" button is pressed. In this mode edit background is solid at all times. Applet tooltips that appear on hovering provide you the following options:
- Configure applet from its own applet settings window
- Colorize monochromatic or not this applet when needed
- Disable parabolic effect for this applet
- Delete this applet
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| "Configure Applets" mode and Application Launcher applet edit mode tooltip |
Popup improvements
In order to improve the settings experience a little more, some of the ComboBoxes popups have gained icons/tooltips and enhanced their behavior
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| Dock Actions popup |
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| Indicators popup |
Global Preferences
Layouts page has also been improved a lot and its comboboxes should behave a lot better now. Most notable addition is Shared Layouts support for Multiple Layouts mode.
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| "TopPanel" layout shared to "My Profile" and "Unity Dream" |
Global Preferences page provides new options for Meta key behavior and global outline width for panel backgrounds
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| Global Preferences options |
Command Line
New options have been added in command line in order to enhance interaction with Latte, import layouts or settings/clear qml cache etc.
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| command line options |
Latte v0.9 Release Schedule
- End June 2019: last stable release for v0.8 [0.8.9]
- Mid July 2019: v0.9 Beta release
- End July 2019: bugs / translation strings fixes and improvements
- Start August 2019: v0.9 will be released officially as the new Latte stable version
How Can You Help
- As you may noticed plenty new settings are added and bugs in their combinations may exist that have not been reported yet
- For complicated settings I use tooltips in order to describe them better. If you find such option that has not any tooltip OR its tooltip text can be explained more or be simplified feel free to report it (I am not a native english speaker)
Donations
You can find Latte at Liberapay if you want to support,
or you can split
your donation between my active projects in kde store.
