Wisbar Advanced vs. Icbar, a review - Page 2

Double-Trinity · 06-22-03, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Axim5
Trinity, excellent review. Usually it is hard to find a comparison like this one for any products.

This review made it easier for many to decide between "WISBAR" and "ICBAR".

I have a question to any one who already has done this. What is the procedure to use skins/themes for the bottom bar? I think in "ICBAR" this can be done by using the background option (although I haven't done it) but how this can be accomplish in the new "WISBAR ADVANCE". Usually all the skins I ahve seen so far for ICBAR/WISBAR do not seems to have any thing for the bottom bar.

Axim5

Setting images in Wisbar is the same, the only difference is you can download skin files, whihc are folders full of images, with a text file (extension ".skn" I believe) with paths to the appropriate images, and what icons/bars they pair with. Also, it is located in a different place themes -> customize I believe.

enob · 06-22-03, 03:54 PM

Great Review Double-Trinity
Thanks this information is very useful.

shdytxmn · 06-22-03, 05:44 PM

Quote:

ok.. wisbar > icbar, this is after using wisbar and looking at the options. it has more features, looks better, so i switched to wisbar

I too tried wisbar, comparring it to icbar that I had been using. I saw nothing in wisbar that would cause me to embrace it. I'll keep icbar.

06-22-03, 06:37 PM

I love the Aesthetics of Wisbar Advanced. The pop-up menues look much better as does the shadowed text. I also like the ability to have the ok and close buttons have a "down" state. I design lots of skins (mostly alterations of other's work) so it is a pleasure to the eyes to use Wisbar Advanced.

But I have become too accustomed to having two functions to every button (i.e.: IcBar). I also like that IcBar gives me the ability to change the function of ANY button to what I see fit.

Now if only we could have one product that combines the Aesthetics of Wisbar Advanced and the function of IcBar. Then I would be in heaven!

Double-Trinity · 06-22-03, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rbg08

Now if only we could have one product that combines the Aesthetics of Wisbar Advanced and the function of IcBar. Then I would be in heaven!

This is where my "ping-pong' comment came in... a lot of the aesthetic features of Wisbar are propsed to be in the next Icbar, as far as I've heard, so the Next Icbar will probably take the cake until the next Wisbar version, when it will probably add some OTHEr awesome thing we all want...

Scylla · 07-05-03, 12:54 AM

Downloaded Wisbar yesterday, already uninstalled it tonight.

I guess I thought it had more functionality. Maybe I just didn't fully understand all of its uses? It seemed to be mostly a utility to allow changing the appearance of the Today screen and menu bar. As far as knowing which programs are still running, I couldn't find an easy way to do that; had to go to Settings>Memory>Running Programs to find out. I like the Switcher more.

Some of the themes had bottom menu bars, but didn't show how to add any functionality to them.

Am I missing something here? Or is Wisbar mostly for appearance changes?

Thanks,

Double-Trinity · 07-05-03, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scylla
I couldn't find an easy way to do that; had to go to Settings>Memory>Running Programs to find out. I like the Switcher more.

Some of the themes had bottom menu bars, but didn't show how to add any functionality to them.

Am I missing something here? Or is Wisbar mostly for appearance changes?

You are missing a few things, however, in general, icbar is better if you want funcitionality, wisbar is bette rif you want appearance changes.

If you activate running task icons, that will show the programs that are running as icoins, and you can click to switch between them. On icbar, there is the additional functionalty of being able to tap-and-hold them to close them.

To see a list with them actually named, simply change the button mapping of one of the buttons, on Icbar, ALL have tap and hold support, rather than just some. if you map wisbar or icbar to a button, say, record, then pressing that will actually activate the pull-down menu with the lists of running tasks, and so on, for no-tap switching. I personally have this menu come up when I hold the start menu, on icbar.

The whoel reason I like it is BECAUSE of those features, especfially the running task icons, it, to me, is easier than the switcher bar which lags for who knows why...

Oh, and so far there is no added bottom-bar functionality, that is just appearance on both.

Scylla · 07-05-03, 12:40 PM

Thanks for the reply, DT.

I thought I did have the running tasks option checked, but didn't see any change. I might have had a faulty installation.

When I went to the Wisbar website and forum, I really couldn't get any answers (or responses in the forums) about functionality; Everyone was talking new skins, buttons, neat looks, how it works with Facelift, Dashboard, etc. The major interest was all focused on changing appearances. No one at all replied (still haven't!) to my posts with questions on making it work. Not that I'm against making the UI look good. I was just looking for more of a utility.

I may give Icbar a try.

Thanks,

lukas44 · 11-10-03, 06:32 PM

Ok, as a side note, In my testing on a Audiovox Maestro a few months back, & re-testing this summer, I have noticed that ...
when combining either of these 3 taskbar skinners with "pocket Facelift", the original wisbar worked best. the other two (ICbar & WisbarAdvanced) both made problems in operation, with error in shell pop-up dialogs (more so with ICbar).

Main reason for "facelift is the well integrated & skinned cascading menu.
So if you really want/need "Pocket Facelift", plain wisbar works best.

As an alternative that is not as fancy, but is smaller & faster, use "small menuplus" program for the cascading startmenu, and combine with ICbar or wisbar advanced.

Although with "smallmenu" you cannot have today theme in the cascading menu background, you can change it & plain system backgrounds, with freeware prog called: "ColorPicker", which works with 2k3-OS at:
www.newmad.se

11-10-03, 09:55 PM

ICBar, Wisbar and Wisbar Advance are all based from the same original code, and essentially all do the same thing, albeit sometimes in their own way. I started with ICBar, absolutely loved it, but have since moved on to Wisbar Advance. It has all the features I liked from ICBar (obviously) with an easier-to-use (for me) Settings interface, and the use of a single .skin file to make skin changes, instead of forcing me to change each item one at a time as with ICBar/Wisbar.

11-11-03, 05:47 AM

Wisbar Advance rox!

blatty · 11-11-03, 07:53 AM

I wish there were more Wisbar Advance skins available. I know of a few sites, does anyone have a new URL to share with downloadable skins for WA?

11-11-03, 08:46 AM

Have you seen this:

http://www.pelmarinc.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi

blatty · 11-11-03, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wyrlys1
Have you seen this:

http://www.pelmarinc.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi

Yeah, I've been there, but thanks anyway.

11-11-03, 01:30 PM

There are a couple in our Skins/Themes forum here, and I'm working (slowly) on a few more...