Custom Theme locations, etc.

I think ED also was talking about this somewhat awhile back... not sure... anyway: OK, so for us custom theme makers, as it stands right now, there are two folders where we need to get and modify various theme elements and icons... One is in the Color Themes folder and is the folder by name for the custom Theme... right? The other, is toolbar_icons in the Data folder. Actually that is the folder I work with the most since I have many custom icons for various toolbars, etc. What I don't understand is why we can't just have one complete folder, and only one folder... which would be the named theme folder... and be able to tell Reaper to look for EVERYTHING it might want there? Whatchathink?

Me too, and if anyone understands the concept of a Theme in one zip file it ought to be Justin from his Winamp days. I'd even venture further - say hopi makes an incredible theme (that's hopi), maybe not only one zip file but an option where hopi could insert sws extensions, toolbars and all that. Whoah, I just had the epiphany (whoah). If you make a multitrak project that others will open, have an 1. Author view (to hopi's specs, the exact visual scheme evrythingess ) and erm... 2. Person-Opening-it-View, or call it Generic View (you get the point)... so a person with (say) a default Reaper style will see it in that context, but if you wanted to really see what hopi was seeing, then switch to Author view. Another thing, lets say you export a multitrack file, you have an option to embed Author view if desired. That dosen't pay MY bills or get ME laid, but just sharing an idea...

interesting idea Joey... I like them... at the same time, for today, I'd settle for just the one folder for all png's...;) one small step for mankind... or as we say at my house, "even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single trip"

You CAN pack your custom icons inside your ReaperThemeZip. It's just that all custom icons have to be called toolbar_custom_whatever.png So Reaper will NOT recognize WTs set of custom icons (a2, a3, a4... x2, x3, x4) if those names are found in your ReaperThemeZip. If you rename them to toolbar_custom_whatever.png and move them to the ReaperThemeZip, they will get recognized. Now, there needs to be some kind of naming standard for WT's 90-something icons that are so horribly named, so that all themers for v3 can use that same name to represent the same icon they want to theme. Since the installer automatically installs the messy names, this would mean you'd have to delete those icons every time you update Reaper (or - delete the InstallData folder inside your Reaper folder after you update but BEFORE you run Reaper after update). It is tricky, but it can be done already. Themers just have to agree about a naming convention for the default Reaper custom icons - and that won't happen natively before v4. Still, I suggest that themers DO work out a naming solution for v3, so that a2, a3, a4... icons are renamed to something more sensible, and so that every themer can include his version of those icons in his ReaperThemeZip. In this case Reaper would recognize those icons and switch to them when switching skins.

a bit confusing... I can live with or without the names... I have that worked out... more what I'm talking about is what you point out in your other thread... I have many more custom icons that I use that currently have to be in the toolbar_icon folder. I would like them to just all be in the Theme folder and still show up in the menu editor where we build the various toolbars. As long as Reaper would find them there and let me choose them, then the menu set should take care of the rest. One 'ALL Menus' imported and it's done. So the problem for me, is just having to use two folders. In other words, besides choosing a theme file, importing the ALL menuset brings in the icons to the right places that I have used them no matter what they are named. OK... there could be a prob. with this method if someone wanted to use differnt context menus... but they could always save their own menu sets for each of the various context menus and import those over the ALL [since the ALL takes care of the toolbars]...