AutoHotkey Community

[leo]

Hi,

I've started experimenting with Autohotkey and I think it is great!

I was wondering if it would be possible to read a text file and then place the content on my desktop background. I have a todo list and it would be really helpful to always be able to see it.

I have a script that allows me to enter text into a text box and this is then appended to my todo.txt file. I can read and manipulate the data just fine with Autohotkey.

I have just found a program called Samurize that will do exactly what I want, but I would prefer to do it with Autohotkey! More fun this way : )

Any pointer to get me started?

Again, I'm fine with reading and manipulating the data. I just don't know where to start when it comes to putting it onto the desktop.

Thanks
leo

[Guest]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but this might be related.

[dmatch]

There are many AHK tools at your disposal that you might apply to your task, depending on the exact results you are looking for.

If you want your desktop to show thru except where there are text characters then:

WinSet, TransColor, Color [N], WinTitle

might be useful, especially if you create a Gui window with no Border and no Title bar ( Gui, -caption ) and choose a text color and font that contrasts well with your desktop (Gui, Font [, Options, FontName]). The text would just float on your desktop. TransColor command won't work on some early Windows OS's (from help file - "has no effect on Windows 9x and NT4"). It works on my XP system. Also, the text characters might be on top of any icons that are on the desktop so it would depend on where you put your Gui window and your desktop icons as to whether they get in each others way. I have all my icons on about 1/4 of the screen to one side so in my case I would have plenty of room for something like this on the right side of my desktop.

I hope you enjoy your experimenting. I certainly have enjoyed mine.

dmatch

[engunneer]

related free tool:
http://lifehacker.com/software/plain-text/geek-to-live--incorporate-text-files-onto-your-desktop-213280.php
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[leo]

Thanks for the feedback!

@dmatch: That's not quite what I had in mind. The effect I am after is something akin to a text replacement for the desktop image. This is not a big deal - just part of my exploring Autohotkey and something that I thought could be cool to do. I'm amazed by how much can be accomplished by this software! I normally code in php, so having a scripting language that interacts directly with windows is fun.

@engunneer: yip, I think that samurize is probably the best tool for this job.
Another great piece of software.

Thanks
leo

[dmatch]

You're Welcome.

I guess I don't see the difference between the transparent window background concept and the Samurize concept. I looked at the web page regarding Samurize (as posted by Engunneer) and it appears to be text displayed on whatever wallpaper/desktop image you have chosen. The same as this concept? (You can run the script below)

[leo]

I see! Yes, the end effect does seem to be identical to what Samurize produces. Thank you very much for this script. It taught me a lot!

[dmatch]

You're Welcome.

Now go break it and fix it and break it and .....

Let the experimenting begin

dmatch

[nickromano]

thats really cool but how do i hide the taskbar button?

[HugoV]

If you add this:

[nickromano]

thanks that helps a lot

[TotalBalance]

Nice idea. If interested, modified one of my scripts to do same with a few bells and whistles added, with more to do.

Desktop GTD To Do List

Let me know what you think.
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Lars

[tic]

this could be done easily with gdi+

[fsnow55]

Lars, I tried your GTD todo script, and liked it. Only problem (mine) was that it doesn't behave well with my tiling windows script, i.e. the background todo list
is not really background and got tiled just like any window.

I like dmatch's solution since the bg todo list does not tile i.e. behaves like an inactive wallpaper (as it should).

Dmatch, I added this line to make it refresh the screen whenever the todo file is updated:

Run, todos.ahk

;just before the
return
;line

thanks for the useful script.

fsnow55

[TotalBalance]

Thanks & understand.
As part of another project, this script needs to act as a window, not wallpaper. I'm working up a mod to this virtual desktop poc to display virtual desk specific lists. Easy as window, don't know how to do it as wallpaper.
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Lars