Customizing Stardock Fences

Thursday, July 28, 2011 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing

People send us messages every day via Twitter and Facebook telling us how much they love using Fences to organize their desktop.  One thing I have noticed when talking with people is some don’t realize how you can customize Fences with a variety of options available.

If you don’t already have Fences, grab the free download here: https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

I would suggest upgrading to the Pro version as it has some valuable options like automatic sorting, fading effects, and more.

Customizing the Labels of Fences

As I said, Fences has a variety of options to tweak the look of the actual Fences on your desktop.  When I find a new wallpaper or WindowBlinds skin I like, I will adjust my Fences to fit in with the overall look I am trying to achieve.  Clicking the appearance button in the Fences configuration is where we will start.

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The first way to customize Fences is choosing the layout of labels.  The label is the name displayed on your Fence, and the screenshot below shows my Links fence.  In the Fences configuration you can choose not to display the label, have it always displayed, or only display on mouseover.

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Adjusting Transparency

Adjusting the transparency of Fences is probably what I do most option.  I do this to make the Fences either more or less visible on the desktop, depending on what wallpaper I am using at the time.  Adjust this is really simple, just move the slider left or right to adjust the amount of transparency given. 

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Coloring

If you want to really change the look of the Fence, you can use the color, tint, and saturation sliders to adjust the coloring of Fences.

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Misc. Tweaks

There’s a few more options available in the Appearance section to tweak Fences even further. 

  • Change label text color
  • Outline the Fence area
  • Fade scrollbars when inactive
  • Hide shortcut arrows on icons

A feature available in the Pro version of Fences is having Fences being faded until mouseover.  Right-click on a Fence, select View, then Opacity.  Select the transparency percentage you want, and then your Fence will be faded until mouseover.

I hope this helps you customize Fences a bit more, and be sure to show us how you are using Fences on your desktop!

az0th
Reply #1 Friday, July 29, 2011 2:05 AM

Objectdock takes care of my shortcuts but if the Pro version can do all that, its definitely worth another look. Very useful article.

frankendreads
Reply #2 Friday, July 29, 2011 10:04 AM

when is the customised skinning going to be released as promised since 2009

it was was one of my main considerationss wheni bought the pro version and its now 2011 and still no sign of it appearing

any idea if at all this is gonna transpire?

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