Hello, everyone, and Happy Easter & Passover.
I'd like to ask a question about the Pop Up Notification plug-in, please.
I was wondering if there is a way to keep it fixed on screen indefinitely, until I choose to close it. I see there is an option in the settings, in the bottom right, for DELAY in seconds. But I don't see an option to keep it on screen, if I so choose to have it there.
So, is it possible to configure the pop up notification plug in to stay in a fixed position on my screen, until or unless I choose to close it? If it is possible, could you please tell me the procedure, or provide me with a link to instructions?
Thank you very much.
J. Danniel
Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Hi jdanniel,
While waiting for other members of the Esumsoft team support who will know more about this -- I'll post my 2-cents on the subject.
There is the default "Desk Top Alert" (aka: DTA) and other various POP skins (of which you are using one of them).
As far as keeping the POP-Up skins fixed until dismissed by the user -- I'm not aware of a way to do this. The best thing I can suggest is to increase the "seconds" setting you referenced to a very long time to accomplish something close to what you want.
As far as the default DTA is concerned it will do what you want (that is keep it displayed until you dismiss the alert).
As far as why the two types of notifications work the way they do I can suggest one reason.
Looking at the screen-shot below -- I've described what occurs for each of the two types of message alerts. As you can see both will provide the number of messages however when it comes to displaying the specific messages you can see that the DTA will continue to display ongoing accumulated messages in its dialog interface as opposed to the POP skin that will only display the last message retrieved.
As I see it the POP-Up skin is intended to alert that messages have arrived but in the case of leaving the alert displayed there is less of an advantage because not all subsequent messages will get displayed anyway for the POP-UP skin as is the case for the DTA.
So it seems to me that the DTA lends itself better to keeping the alert displayed over a period of time when numerous Mail Checks would occur as opposed the the function of the POP-Up skin that does not provide as much information regarding multiple messages that get retrieved while the alert remains displayed.
I'm personally not that familiar with the various POP-Up skins. There may be other POP-Up skins that other members of the support team can recommend that can serve you better to keep displayed over time.
Because the DTA defaults in the lower-left position of the desktop (DTA can be alternately positioned anywhere) and the POP-Up skin you are using will display in the lower-right of the desktop you can use both of the alerts at the same time to make a comparison as far as what each alert provides as far as your preferences are concerned. The DTA can be enabled under Tools>Options>Notifications in the "Visual" section of the window, which is btw -- the alert I use myself -- because like you, I do prefer the alert to remain visible until I dismiss it and with that I prefer a list of all retrieved messages to be displayed in the alert over a period of numerous Mail Checks (this way with the DTA -- I am able to easily observe all new messages retrieved in the alert in cases where I'm away from the computer over longer periods of time).
Example:
While waiting for other members of the Esumsoft team support who will know more about this -- I'll post my 2-cents on the subject.
There is the default "Desk Top Alert" (aka: DTA) and other various POP skins (of which you are using one of them).
As far as keeping the POP-Up skins fixed until dismissed by the user -- I'm not aware of a way to do this. The best thing I can suggest is to increase the "seconds" setting you referenced to a very long time to accomplish something close to what you want.
As far as the default DTA is concerned it will do what you want (that is keep it displayed until you dismiss the alert).
As far as why the two types of notifications work the way they do I can suggest one reason.
Looking at the screen-shot below -- I've described what occurs for each of the two types of message alerts. As you can see both will provide the number of messages however when it comes to displaying the specific messages you can see that the DTA will continue to display ongoing accumulated messages in its dialog interface as opposed to the POP skin that will only display the last message retrieved.
As I see it the POP-Up skin is intended to alert that messages have arrived but in the case of leaving the alert displayed there is less of an advantage because not all subsequent messages will get displayed anyway for the POP-UP skin as is the case for the DTA.
So it seems to me that the DTA lends itself better to keeping the alert displayed over a period of time when numerous Mail Checks would occur as opposed the the function of the POP-Up skin that does not provide as much information regarding multiple messages that get retrieved while the alert remains displayed.
I'm personally not that familiar with the various POP-Up skins. There may be other POP-Up skins that other members of the support team can recommend that can serve you better to keep displayed over time.
Because the DTA defaults in the lower-left position of the desktop (DTA can be alternately positioned anywhere) and the POP-Up skin you are using will display in the lower-right of the desktop you can use both of the alerts at the same time to make a comparison as far as what each alert provides as far as your preferences are concerned. The DTA can be enabled under Tools>Options>Notifications in the "Visual" section of the window, which is btw -- the alert I use myself -- because like you, I do prefer the alert to remain visible until I dismiss it and with that I prefer a list of all retrieved messages to be displayed in the alert over a period of numerous Mail Checks (this way with the DTA -- I am able to easily observe all new messages retrieved in the alert in cases where I'm away from the computer over longer periods of time).
Example:
- DTA vs POPUP skin.png (19.44 KiB) Viewed 3443 times
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
^ You're welcome -- note: my DTA matches the PP Theme I'm using. In PP v5 there will be numerous themes available (over 150) and the DTA colors will correspond with the theme used.
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
In general, the skin notifier has more options available to it than the desktop notifier, but different skins provide different features.
To answer your original question -- yes, it's possible:
1) In the skin settings, you want to enable "override slider"
2) Set the mode to one of:
- fade in
- slide in
- disable
For the first 2, you need to select a corner. For "disable" you'll be able to drag & drop the skin wherever you want and you can use the "test" button to position it immediately.
To answer your follow-up question, you can't really test the DTA in v4. The "reminder" feature (which I believe the skin notifier also has) allows you to dismiss the popup until later; ie. to remind you that you have new email.
btw, whether you use the Desktop Alert of the skin notifier is mostly personal preference. I personally prefer the skin notifier over DTA and lakrsrool prefers the DTA. The DTA got some improvements in v5 and the screenshot that lakrsrool posted is not very representative of what you'll see in v4 (I see lakrsrool clarified that now).
To answer your original question -- yes, it's possible:
1) In the skin settings, you want to enable "override slider"
2) Set the mode to one of:
- fade in
- slide in
- disable
For the first 2, you need to select a corner. For "disable" you'll be able to drag & drop the skin wherever you want and you can use the "test" button to position it immediately.
To answer your follow-up question, you can't really test the DTA in v4. The "reminder" feature (which I believe the skin notifier also has) allows you to dismiss the popup until later; ie. to remind you that you have new email.
btw, whether you use the Desktop Alert of the skin notifier is mostly personal preference. I personally prefer the skin notifier over DTA and lakrsrool prefers the DTA. The DTA got some improvements in v5 and the screenshot that lakrsrool posted is not very representative of what you'll see in v4 (I see lakrsrool clarified that now).
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Thank you for your prompt and detailed reply.
The DTA does precisely what I want, and I thank you for mentioning it to me. I wish I could adjust its size, and I wish it could be color-coded.
I can't tell which accounts are which from a distance. If it were color-coded, that might help. But these are minor complaints. I enabled the screen saver, and that is a big help.
Anyway, thank you once again. If you know of a way to enable some sort of color coding for the system tray icon or DTA, please let me know at your convenience, if you're willing. The system tray icon blinks, but any color-coding in it is far too small for me to see.
If you are familiar with ePrompter, that's the sort of thing I'd be interested in. ePrompter is no longer being updated or supported. It still works, but I'm interested in something still in production, so to speak. Thank you again. Jd
The DTA does precisely what I want, and I thank you for mentioning it to me. I wish I could adjust its size, and I wish it could be color-coded.
I can't tell which accounts are which from a distance. If it were color-coded, that might help. But these are minor complaints. I enabled the screen saver, and that is a big help.
Anyway, thank you once again. If you know of a way to enable some sort of color coding for the system tray icon or DTA, please let me know at your convenience, if you're willing. The system tray icon blinks, but any color-coding in it is far too small for me to see.
If you are familiar with ePrompter, that's the sort of thing I'd be interested in. ePrompter is no longer being updated or supported. It still works, but I'm interested in something still in production, so to speak. Thank you again. Jd
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Jeff,
Thank you for replying. I've spent the past few minutes dabbling with both the DTA and skins. Your instructions worked perfectly. Now, I have to decide which I prefer...the DTA, or skins. I'm leaning toward the DTA because it's a little bit easier to read, but I'm also going to experiment with more skins. I'm sure I'll find a combination I'm happy with.
Thank you once again. Jd
Thank you for replying. I've spent the past few minutes dabbling with both the DTA and skins. Your instructions worked perfectly. Now, I have to decide which I prefer...the DTA, or skins. I'm leaning toward the DTA because it's a little bit easier to read, but I'm also going to experiment with more skins. I'm sure I'll find a combination I'm happy with.
Thank you once again. Jd
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
^ jdanniel -- as you can see above -- Jeff has provided the steps to accomplish what you wanted in regards to the alert remaining displayed until you dismiss it. So if this is the only thing that you needed from the POP-Up skin you were previously using then you can return to using this method of getting message alerts if you prefer. 
Edit: I see you've got the message from Jeff.
As to other Skin options -- there are of course a whole slew of them (not sure what exactly would be your preference) -- You've probably already looked into this link: POP Peeper Notification Skins.
Btw -- let us know what you decide upon (and why).
Edit: I see you've got the message from Jeff.
As to other Skin options -- there are of course a whole slew of them (not sure what exactly would be your preference) -- You've probably already looked into this link: POP Peeper Notification Skins.
Btw -- let us know what you decide upon (and why).
Last edited by mjs on Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Edited to include additional comments
Reason: Edited to include additional comments
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Neither of the 2 options support color coding, but the skin notifier would allow a larger font to be used. If you can't find a particular skin, it's not too difficult to make your own. If you're interested, I could even provide a starter skin.
I don't really remember what ep did that you're referring to. PP has an "account mode" which, iirc, was somewhat similar to something that ep had (ie. main menu: View / account mode), but I don't remember their new mail notifications.
I don't really remember what ep did that you're referring to. PP has an "account mode" which, iirc, was somewhat similar to something that ep had (ie. main menu: View / account mode), but I don't remember their new mail notifications.
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Jeff and Lakrsrool,
Let me take a moment and explain what I mean by color coding. I think it might be a poor choice of words.
When you set up an account in Pop Peeper, you can select a color for it. Each account can have a different color. When e-mail appears in the main Pop Peeper screen (which I have set to Normal mode), each e-mail is the color associated with that account.
Now, let me talk about the system tray icon. With ePrompter, when you get e-mail, it displays an icon for each account that has mail. That icon is displayed with the corresponding color for the account, along with the number of e-mails received by that account.
If more than one account receives e-mail, then the system tray icon rotates every couple of seconds, to display each account with e-mail.
The good news is, I somehow managed to configure POP Peeper to do this. I've settled on the DTA, rather than skins. So, now, whenever I get mail with Pop Peeper, the system tray icon displays the same thing ePrompter displays. A round icon whose color corresponds to the account. The icon rotates accounts, as well.
I'm not sure if this happens automatically when I choose DTA, or if I selected something in the Options area to enable this. But it does what I want.
Take a look at the image below. The grayish-green icon on the left is Pop Peeper's. That's exactly what I want. The red icon in the middle is ePrompter's.
Let me take this a step further…the screen saver does the same exact thing. So, that's basically what I'm trying to say, when I use the term "color coding." I was really referring to the system tray icon and the screen savers.
One last thing: I do not yet know if Pop Peeper has this option, but if not, please let me add it to any Feature Request list you may have. If it's possible, I'd like to be able to change the text color in those icons, as well. For example, in the image, the number 1 is white. If I could change that to black, or any other color, that would be fantastic. ePrompter does permit this.
But the more I use Pop Peeper, the more I like it, and the more I want to replace the now-unsupported ePrompter with something that is still being updated.
Thanks for reading this. I really appreciate your responses and help. Jd
Let me take a moment and explain what I mean by color coding. I think it might be a poor choice of words.
When you set up an account in Pop Peeper, you can select a color for it. Each account can have a different color. When e-mail appears in the main Pop Peeper screen (which I have set to Normal mode), each e-mail is the color associated with that account.
Now, let me talk about the system tray icon. With ePrompter, when you get e-mail, it displays an icon for each account that has mail. That icon is displayed with the corresponding color for the account, along with the number of e-mails received by that account.
If more than one account receives e-mail, then the system tray icon rotates every couple of seconds, to display each account with e-mail.
The good news is, I somehow managed to configure POP Peeper to do this. I've settled on the DTA, rather than skins. So, now, whenever I get mail with Pop Peeper, the system tray icon displays the same thing ePrompter displays. A round icon whose color corresponds to the account. The icon rotates accounts, as well.
I'm not sure if this happens automatically when I choose DTA, or if I selected something in the Options area to enable this. But it does what I want.
Take a look at the image below. The grayish-green icon on the left is Pop Peeper's. That's exactly what I want. The red icon in the middle is ePrompter's.
Let me take this a step further…the screen saver does the same exact thing. So, that's basically what I'm trying to say, when I use the term "color coding." I was really referring to the system tray icon and the screen savers.
One last thing: I do not yet know if Pop Peeper has this option, but if not, please let me add it to any Feature Request list you may have. If it's possible, I'd like to be able to change the text color in those icons, as well. For example, in the image, the number 1 is white. If I could change that to black, or any other color, that would be fantastic. ePrompter does permit this.
But the more I use Pop Peeper, the more I like it, and the more I want to replace the now-unsupported ePrompter with something that is still being updated.
Thanks for reading this. I really appreciate your responses and help. Jd
Re: Pop Up Notification: Can I Keep it On Screen?
Ok, that setting is unrelated to DTA, and is found here:
main menu: Tools / Options / Tray Icon
The color of the text depends on the background color and it will try to select the best color (either black or white) accordingly. Based on your screenshot, the white on yellow (or grayish-green as you call it) is -- imo -- much more legible than the black on red. You could force a black text color by changing the accounts' colors ie. make the account colors lighter. There's a setting under Tools / PPtweaker / Interface that allows you to set the background color of the account/message list to a different color in order to facilitate this (to be honest, I probably wouldn't recommend this as a solution based on your question, but I'm throwing it out there as a possibility).
btw, the "best color" is not a simple light/dark algorithm. For example, a color with more blue in it is more likely to use white text because black on blue is very hard to read.
main menu: Tools / Options / Tray Icon
The color of the text depends on the background color and it will try to select the best color (either black or white) accordingly. Based on your screenshot, the white on yellow (or grayish-green as you call it) is -- imo -- much more legible than the black on red. You could force a black text color by changing the accounts' colors ie. make the account colors lighter. There's a setting under Tools / PPtweaker / Interface that allows you to set the background color of the account/message list to a different color in order to facilitate this (to be honest, I probably wouldn't recommend this as a solution based on your question, but I'm throwing it out there as a possibility).
btw, the "best color" is not a simple light/dark algorithm. For example, a color with more blue in it is more likely to use white text because black on blue is very hard to read.