ObjectDock Plus 2: Changing Background Themes
Thursday, February 24, 2011 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing
There is another tutorial out there I wrote, but that was for the previous version of ObjectDock so I figured now is a good time to get a new one up. ObjectDock 2 had a major overhaul in its user interface, and with that came a few new ways to do things that people might not be familiar with.
If you don’t already have ObjectDock 2, then get it from here: https://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/
There is a free and Plus version, and the Plus version gives additional features such as multiple docks, tabbed docks, and much more.
Open up your ObjectDock configuration and you will see a list of docks you currently have on your desktop. Click Style/Color for the dock you wish to change, and then select Change Theme.
Now you will see all the background themes you have available. To change to another theme, simply click on one in the list.
WinCustomize has an dedicated gallery for ObjectDock Backgrounds, and there are tons available to download. You can open your backgrounds folder from the theme configuration to install them, or automatically if they have a .dockzip extension.
Reply #2 Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:26 PM
winstar,
See the link on the screenshot titled "Open backgrounds folder"? Click that.
By default you will have three folders there. Tabs, Tiles, and Zoomers.
Now. Take one of Webgizmo's backgrounds for example. He is very meticulous the way he packages the zip files. He clearly labels the folders of the zip by type (skinnameTab1, etc or skinnameZ1, etc)
Extract the folder to the appropriate Tabs, Tile or Zoomer folder.
So.. lets say you downloaded Canvas package. LINK and extracted it properly...
Your Tabs folder would have several folders called CanvasTab1R, CanvasTab1S etc..
Your Zoomers folder would also have variations of the CanvasZ1R, CanvasZ1S etc..
You should then be able to see them listed when choosing a background!
Using this method will keep things tidy for you in the long run.
Reply #3 Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:44 PM
New backgrounds are to be extracted to - C:\Program Files\Stardock\ObjectDockPlus2\Backgrounds
Reply #4 Thursday, February 24, 2011 7:29 PM
Yes, that will work, but sorting them in to their respective "type" folders keeps it tidy.
Reply #5 Thursday, February 24, 2011 10:32 PM
ID, Phoon, and Hankers, thanks for the advice, much appreciated. 
Reply #6 Wednesday, March 9, 2011 6:26 PM
Do you know how i can find the last one (ver. 1.00) because i don`t like the new one, Thanks.
Reply #7 Tuesday, May 7, 2013 10:20 AM
Hi,
I believe I followed the instructions on how to change the themes or skins in object dock2. But the only thing that shows up is the default ones so not sure what I'm doing wrong.
saving the download to the background folder, then I extract it but it never shows up where I can click on it to install it.
If anyone can make give me detailed instruction on how to do this, it would be really appreciated.
Thank you
Ramona
Reply #8 Tuesday, May 7, 2013 12:16 PM
These are detailed instructions, there isn't much to changing the background.
Just make sure you have placed them in the right directory.
Typically: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\ObjectDock\Backgrounds
Reply #9 Tuesday, May 7, 2013 4:11 PM
Thank you, I did try your suggestion but I'm still having the same problem, the only thing that is showing up is a default folders. Could you tell me in the background folders there are three other folders, is there any particular folder that I should be putting the this download to? Unless there is a glitch in the program itself at this point I'm not sure.
Thank you
Reply #10 Tuesday, May 7, 2013 5:03 PM
What have you downloaded? Can you post a link so I can see if we're on the same page?
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Reply #1 Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:09 PM
Island Dog ODP 2 has never worked for me. Even with these instructions, and making sure NEW themes are in their proper folders, still I only see the default themes. I could never get a new theme (other than the default ones included) to apply. I gave up and went back to the previous version.
Can you please give a screenshot showing other themes in the option as illustrated above, and then details (once again please) as to where any new downloaded themes go (proper folders).
I REALLY would still like to use ODP 2! Thanks