Circle Dock Changelog

What's new in Circle Dock 1.5.6.30

May 12, 2010
  • Added an option to prevent the mouse-click that toggles the Dock's visibility from being passed-on to other applications. This prevents ugly side-effects.
  • The Toggle Button can display the mouse's status and the name of the application under the mouse pointer.
  • Added options to the actions for a left-click on the top level Centre Button.
  • Repaired the bug that failed to load the "About" text correctly for languages other than English. (For English there was no problem).
  • Change the "Loading Settings" graphic to one provided by "Archon of Fate" - for which, many thanks!.
  • New object delete animation included ("Laser").
  • Added a new German translation by Eric Hoffman: "German (Hoffman)" - for which, many thanks!
  • Added alternative translations for Hungarian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Turkish.
  • Fixed a problem with language detection.
  • Tuned the "ellipse" routines to make it easier to configure. I've also added a new routine to calculate dock item positions using different formula: you can test this by selecting "Ellipse 2" as a Dock Shape. "Ellipse 1" uses the pre-existing calculations.
  • Dock Item Labels can now contain more than one line of text. Press Ctrl+Enter in the text entry box to start a new line.
  • Circle Dock requires to restart itself if either the Z-Order or UI Language settings are changed in the main configuration dialog. This happens automatically when the Settings dialog is closed.
  • Drag-and-Drop operations for Dock Items have been enhanced.
  • dded the ability toggle the display of Desktop Icons and, for Windows Vista and Windows 7, the Sidebar gadgets.
  • The wrong colour appeared for "Add" sub-menu for the Centre Button and Background context menus; this has been fixed.
  • Modified the Help Browser to select downloading new versions by Operating System. Choices are "Auto-Detect", "32-bit" and "64-bit". A check-mark appears next to the correct download for your OS and will be the version downloaded if "Auto-Detect" is selected.
  • New included Applet: Wallpaper Auto-Changer.

New in Circle Dock 1.5.5.16 (Mar 6, 2010)

  • Major coding updates
  • New installation instructions developed for this release
  • Standalone Stack 2 recoded
  • Closing Dock settings Issue resolved
  • Drag and Drop of Folders into folder issue corrected
  • Standalone Stacks 2 remains in Memory issue corrected
  • 64 bit Circle Dock full version now available
  • Mouse Handler updated (There is known issues with regards to Windows 7)
  • Code compression and usage increased should utilize less system resources.
  • Improved overall stability
  • Additions to settings
  • Updated help files

New in Circle Dock 1.5.4.0 (Mar 6, 2010)

  • Creation of Test Beta 64 bit made available
  • Minor interface adjustments
  • Minor bug fixes

New in Circle Dock 1.5.2.3 (Feb 11, 2010)

  • Major flaw in Portable maker corrected!
  • Standalone Stacks 2 now integrated
  • Graphical bug fixes
  • Context menu improvements
  • Mouse Button enhancements added
  • Additional lockdown (anchoring) feature added.
  • Legacy Support re-established.
  • Help file integration. Help file can now be accessed directly or via help buttons that will direct you to the appropriate subject
  • More keyboard and mouse control
  • Additional Arguments can now be implemented for cleaner shortcut interface.
  • Added command Line parameter to show a hidden instance
  • Adjusted Settings window load time.
  • New Language added: Haitian (Creole). Our thoughts and prayers are with you. recovery and success in the future is our hope for you
  • Settings load faster
  • Updated Help File system

New in Circle Dock 1.0.2.3 (Jan 11, 2010)

  • The long-waited Ellipse Dock Shape has been added. To enable this shape, change the Shape setting (Properties dialog, Dock Shape) to "Ellipse". This is explained here.
  • Text and graphics rendering quality has been improved. However, rendering may be noticeably slower on older PCs - or on a PC without a decent graphics processor. You can modify this behaviour on the General Settings Other tab.
  • If Fast Draw was enabled (which shows Dock items as they are created), Dock Items were not always shown in their correct sequence. Now they are.
  • Added an option on the General Location tab to control where the first Dock Item will be placed when the Dock is shown.
  • Added an option on the General Other tab to enable silently deleting Dock Items whose target file no longer exists.
  • Replaced the Class Identifiers (CLSIDs) with Net Framework known locations for some of the Special Folders (Microsoft changes some CLSIDs on a version by version basis).
  • Fixed the bug that created an empty Dock Item if no target was chosen for Add File, Folder or Special Item.
  • Completely changed the mouse handling DLL. All mouse handling is now handled within one library (before it required two) and the file "Orbit.Hook.dll" is no longer required. This also means that Circle Dock can now, at last, correctly differentiate between XButton1 and XButton2 found on mice with 4 or more buttons.
  • Added new Download button to the Help System: this allows you to download the most recent (full) release of Circle Dock.
  • The ability to counter-rotate rings has been added.
  • Added an option to save the current Dock level when the program exits and to display that level when the program is restarted.
  • Added Kiosk Mode.
  • Added ability to hide the Windows Taskbar (including the Start Menu button).
  • Changed the format of the configurations file to XML. In addition, the new configuration files are encrypted - this is necessary to ensure that Kiosk Mode is secure. If an existing XML file is not found, it will be created from an existing INI file (the previous format), or, if the INI file is not present, then a (XML) file with default settings is created.
  • Main Properties Dialog now has an Inspector tab which allows you to save a backup copy, view (and print) both the program's properties and those for all the Dock Items.
  • Circle Dock has an Issue Tracker where you can get more detailed information about the current status of the program as well as technical issues with it. This too is kindly provided by DonationCoder.com and you'll find it on the 3rd Tab of this help browser.
  • Circle Dock's configuration data files are no longer necessarily stored in a sub-folder (which was "Program FilesCircle DockSystemSettings" because this can cause User Access Control Problems, especially if the user is not logged-in to an administrator class account on his computer. If Circle Dock is installed to and run from a Folder on the same disk drive as the operating system, it will store its configuration data files in the Application Data Path - under Vista and Windows 7, this is normally "C:Users{UserName}AppDataRoamingCircleDock". This folder, although it is on the System Drive, is not User Access Control-protected and therefore has full and unrestricted access. On the other hand, if Circle Dock is installed to a non-system drive, its configuration data files will continue to be stored in its SystemSettings sub-folder (this ensures it continues to work as a Portable Application).
  • In view of the foregoing change, it will be more difficult for users to create Portable Application versions on removable media. Circle Dock has a new option to create a Zip file (containing the portable version) or a ready-to-run copy in the chosen folder.
  • The "AutoHide" property was not being saved and was therefore not persistent between runs. of the program. It now is. You can also now specify the length of time the mouse is outside the dock boundary (delimited by the background) before the dock hides itself.
  • Circle Dock now supports over50 languages, many have alternative translations. These are "natural language" translations provided by Google Translate and Microsoft Live Translator (Bing).
  • Circle Dock recognises languages that are written right to left (eg Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew) and adjusts itself accordingly.
  • Language file format changed to XML due to a bug in INI file handling (inability to support Unicode (UTF8) properly).
  • Help System pages have online translation service available (powered by Google).

New in Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha Preview 8.2 (Nov 26, 2008)

  • A minor release that includes an important bug fix, some new language files, and a set of new icons.
  • New language files are included (ie: Spanish, German).
  • A new set of "Planet" icons are included with the release, created by Nelson Muñoz. They look really good and are very realistic.

New in Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha Preview 8.1 (Oct 10, 2008)

  • Circle Dock 0.9.2 Alpha 8.1 is made available.
  • This is a minor update and the only changes are some new backgrounds and updated language files for Chinese, French, Serbian, and Croatian.