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[creal]

Hello,

I just noticed that I can't close MC (most recent version, full screen) putting my mouse at the extreme top right of the window. The cross icon is not highlighted, so that when I click, nothing happens. Same thing to the other side, top left click does not open "file" menu.

It's been years that I am using MC and I am surprised I don't noticed that weird behaviour before. Please note that I am running Win 11 with a 200% custom scale factor, and that I don't have issues with other apps.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for helping,

creal.

[JimH]

Could be another window open behind the application.  Try Alt-Tab to cycle through what's open.

[creal]

Nope, it's not related to other apps/windows in the background. But maybe I am not explaining well. Here are 2 screenshots:
- https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=22/07/uu6z.png
- https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=22/07/i16i.png
In the case the pointer is placed at the extreme top right of the window, the cross should be highlighted but it's not. And I can't close quickly the app that way.
Same problem on win 10, with a 175% custom scale factor.

[JimH]

Does it work with 100%?

Under MC's View Menu, there is a Size option.

[creal]

Yes, MC is running at a 100% size. I tried to change this value but the problem remains.

[Matt]

Most skins have the close button indented a little from the top right for a border.  So you'll need to highlight the button, not just the top right.

[creal]

Okay, but why is there a border? It's frustrating because all the other apps don't have this. By the way, it's seems like all the skins provided by a fresh install of MC have this border.

[EnglishTiger]

creal - MC is a Multi-Platform Software Package that runs on the Windows, Mac and Linux Platforms, which use different styles and locations of Windows Control Buttons.
But the one thing it has never used are Microsoft or Apples Windows Control Buttons. The skinning engine allows Skin Creators to be very creative, including allowing them to put a border around everything the user sees, which includes the Window Control Buttons.
That is why with MC you will see Buttons, including Windows Control Buttons, that actually look like the 3D buttons you find on things like Hi-Fi equipment and probably most of the other Domestic Equipment in your House, including the light switches and power outlets.

[creal]

Thanks for the explanation, now I just don't understand why is there a border by default (I never downloaded any extra skin, I am just using the Modern Cards dark edition).

[HPBEME]

Many of the skins are developed by MC users, including the default Modern Cards dark version you are using.  Why a "skin creator" does anything a particular way is typically a design choice, but can also be attributed to the way they specifically use MC. For example, if the skin designer only clicks in the middle of the close button, it never manifests in their testing that when the cursor is pushed into the extreme top-right corner of the monitor the close button does not activate (due to the button "offset" they specified). I am not saying that is what happened here, just speculating on a possible reason. 

In any event, you can easily "fix" this - just edit the skin's main.xml file and change the button offsets yourself. In the original XML, the close button is offset 1 pixel to the left , i.e., OffsetX=-1 (but OffsetY=0 for the close button which is why it activates along the top edge, but not the right edge).  The min/max/restore buttons however, are all offset 1 pixel down (OffsetY=-1), which means that running your mouse all along the monitor top edge will not activate those buttons. Instead of walking you thru the necessary edits, I just did it for you and attached the modified main.xml. I only changed the input parameters for Windows OS (Win10/11) - I did not edit the Win8, Linux, or Mac parameters for these buttons.

NOTE: The Modern Cards skins all have OS specific parameters for all the window sizing/control buttons (most skins do not), so you only need to adjust the parameters for the OS you are currently using.  You can change the offsets for all the other OS parameters if you wish, but they will have no impact on the "active" OS.  If you want this button activation to work the same on another machine with a different OS, you will need to edit the corresponding OS parameters for each button.

You first need to copy the entire Modern Cards Dark Skin folder and name it to whatever you want - I recommend Modern Cards Dark (modified). Then copy the attached main.xml and overwrite the existing main.xml file in the NEW folder.  Creating a new/modified skin folder is necessary to preserve these changes, as MC overwrites the default skins/folders every time you install an MC update. After you complete all the above, the skin menu will show choices for Modern Cards Dark Version and Modern Cards Dark (modified).  FYI... that will be the name of the skin in the menu regardless of what you name the new folder - the skin name you see in the menu is driven by the first line in the XML file, NOT the folder name (change the folder name to whatever you want to verify this).  If you want to change the name you see in skin menu list while using MC, you will have to modify the XML yourself to change that.

FYI... the forum does not allow uploading an .XML file, so I changed its extension to TXT.  You can download the file and edit file properties to change the extension back to XML.  Or you can open the new main.xml in the new folder, and then copy/paste the entire text file contents over the XML contents. Either way will work.

And finally, be sure to reload the skin after making any changes.  You do not have to restart MC... just go to the skin menu and choose the same skin again for the changes to take affect.

[creal]

Thank you very much HPBEME, for your explanation and the .txt file. Now the buttons work the way I am used to. However, I tried to do the same for the topbar menu but it does not work. I set the offset X at -1 (so far so good) but can't change the Y offset to a negative value (the current 0 value does not allow me to access the menu when the mouse is at the extreme top of the monitor, as is the 0 X value). I don't understand why. Do you have an idea?

[EnglishTiger]

The topbar menu can display icons as well as text and that is probably why it's Y-offset can not be less than  zero

[HPBEME]

Short answer: moving the cursor along the top edge will not activate the menus - no skin does.

I agree that would be highly preferable, but there are no XML input settings that will make that happen, and as users, that is all we can control.  JRiver would have to modify the skin code to make that possible.  I will second your motion if you put in a feature request for this in a new thread.


Much Longer answer, in the event you (or anyone else following this thread) are intrigued enough to perhaps pursue creating a skin someday yourself:
In the skin XML file, some parameters/inputs are absolute, and some are relative - and there is no visual distinction that tells the person editing the file which type a given input is.  You just have to experiment and figure it out based on what happens.

If negative values are recognized (i.e., it actually moves the skin element you are editing), then it is a relative skin element. If it does nothing when you use a negative value, it's position is absolute from the monitor's coordinate origin at (0,0) defined as the extreme upper left.  If negative absolute values were allowed, you could end up positioning skin elements off-screen, which is obviously no bueno. 

So all that said, you can conclude the Top Toolbar OffsetY is absolute (as negative values would start to push the toolbar offscreen upward, and thus negative values are not honored), while OffsetX is relative to the Alignment setting you have chosen.  And if you not already figured this out, the Alignment parameter is not a pixel value - it defines a general position as follows: Left=0, Center=1, Right=2.  Change the alignment setting to 2 and the toolbar will move to the right side and overlap the window control buttons, which then requires changing OffsetX values. You can play around with various alignment and offset inputs to move the toolbar and window control buttons about the playerbar. 

[EnglishTiger]

Thanks to the flexibility/complexity of the skinning engine if the  Alignment is set to 2 (Right Aligned) the 0,0 Origin Point switches to being the Top Right Corner of the Skin or Form which means that the X offsets normally use  Negative Numbers.

[creal]

Thank you very much for your detailed replies.

Now, I am just facing a little problem, when I launch MC with the mod skin, my pointer reaches the cross at the top-right corner ONLY if I reduce and maximize the window before. Really weird. Do you have an idea to fix it, please?

Thanks.

[HPBEME]

I cannot reproduce the issue you are seeing.  Whether I start with a max window or maximize the window after starting, my close button activates with the cursor at extreme top-right.

Perhaps it has something to do with display scale?  Since this situation is dependent on literally a single pixel being recognized correctly (for the skin settings we modified to), I imagine that even a tiny discrepancy could mess things up.  Do you have an oddball monitor size?  My monitor is 3840 x 2160, and my windows scale is set to 200%.  In addition, MC has its own scale setting (View Menu/Size/x%) - I would change it to 100% if it is not that already.

My monitor is my TV, and it has a setting to periodically shift the screen a few pixels up/down/left/right to mitigate burn-in... If your monitor has this same sort of feature active, perhaps that could cause what you are seeing.  That said, it seems like the problem would persist while the display is shifted and not be rectified by simply maximizing the window.

Those are the best guesses I can offer.  Maybe others will have some better ideas.

[creal]

Thanks for your reply, HPBEME. I solved the problem by closing MC when it was minimized. I don't know what happened internally but it works now.