General Meter Options

Options available for use with all meters.

Options

Meter

Type of the meter (e.g. Bar or String). This option is required and may not be changed dynamically.

MeterStyle

Specifies one or more sections as MeterStyles from which option values are inherited. Multiple MeterStyles are delimited with pipes (|).

MeasureName, MeasureName2, MeasureName3...

"Binds" the meter to one or more measures. This means that the meter displays the values of these measures in some way. The exact form of the display depends on the type of meter. See each meter type's page for details about what kind of values are valid for that type, and how the values are displayed.

X, Y Default: 0

Specifies the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) position of the meter in pixels relative to the top-left edge of the skin.

Relative positioning: If the value is appended with r, the position is relative to the top/left edge of the previous meter. If the value is appended with R, the position is relative to the bottom/right edge of the previous meter.

Examples:
X=150 : Meter begins 150 horizontal pixels from the left edge of the skin window.
Y=75 : Meter begins 75 vertical pixels from the top edge of the skin window.

X=10R : Meter begins 10 horizontal pixels to the right of the previous meter.
Y=0r : Meter begins at the same vertical position as the previous meter.

W, H

Specifies the width and height of the meter in pixels. The W and H must be defined for all meters except the following: String, Shape, and meters which can display an image file. These meters can determine the width and height automatically.

Padding Format: Left,Top,Right,Bottom

Adds padding in pixels around any or all sides of a meter. The width and height of the meter will dynamically be adjusted to the new size. The padding will be drawn using the Color defined with SolidColor / SolidColor2.

Format: Padding=Left,Top,Right,Bottom

Example: Padding=5,10,5,10

Hidden Default: 0

If set to 1, the meter is hidden. The visibility can also be changed with the !ShowMeter and !HideMeter bangs.

Note: This is done by setting the width and height of the meter to zero, so some care should be taken when using the R relative positioning suffix on X or Y on any following meters. While in effect a "singularity", the hidden meter still exists and occupies a position in space.

Container

Define a meter to be used as a "container" for the "content" of this meter.

Example: Container=SomeOtherMeter.

See the Container option for details on this functionality.

UpdateDivider Default: 1

Frequency at which the meter is updated. The Update option in the [Rainmeter] section of the skin is multiplied by the specified value to determine how often the meter is updated.

Example: If Update=1000 (in the [Rainmeter] section) and UpdateDivider=30, the meter is updated every 30 seconds.

If UpdateDivider=-1 or any negative number, then the meter is only updated once when the skin is loaded or refreshed.

OnUpdateAction

Action to execute each time the meter is updated.

Note: This may be based on the values in Update in the [Rainmeter] section and any UpdateDivider on the meter, or if the meter is updated with a Meter Bang or other relevant bang.

SolidColor, SolidColor2 Default: 0,0,0,0

Color of the meter background. If SolidColor2 is also specified, the background is a gradient composed of SolidColor and SolidColor2.

Hint: SolidColor=0,0,0,1 can be used to make transparent areas of the meter clickable.

GradientAngle

Angle of the gradient in degrees when both SolidColor and SolidColor2 are defined.

BevelType Default: 0

If enabled, draws a bevel around the edges of the rectangle specified by H and W. Valid values are:

  • 0: No bevel
  • 1: Raised
  • 2: Sunken
BevelColor, BevelColor2

If BevelType is set to other than zero, allows setting the colors for the top/left and bottom/right bevels.

For BevelType=1, the BevelColor will represent the color on the left and top edges of the meter. BevelColor2 will represent the colors on the right and bottom of the meter.

For BevelType=2, the BevelColor will represent the color on the right and bottom edges of the meter. BevelColor2 will represent the colors on the left and top of the meter.

AntiAlias Default: 0

If set to 1, antialising (edge smoothing) is used when the meter is drawn.

DynamicVariables Default: 0

If set to 1, the meter is dynamic.

See also: Dynamic Variables

TransformationMatrix Default: 1;0;0;1;0;0

Defines a 3x2 matrix which can be used to transform the meter. Transformations include: scaling, skewing, and translating (ie. moving). There must be exactly 6 values separated by semicolons ;.

TransformationMatrix={scale x};{skew y};{skew x};{scale y};{move x};{move y}

Combining these can have drastic effects on the meter it is applied to.

See also: Transformation Matrix

Examples:

  • TransformationMatrix=-1; 0; 0; 1; 40; 0: This will flip X along the line X=20.
  • TransformationMatrix=1; 0; 0; -1; 0; 100: This will flip Y along the line Y=50.
  • TransformationMatrix=0.5; 0; 0; 1; 25; 0: This will scale X by 0.5 at X=50.

Note: All transformations are relative to the top left corner of the window and not to the meter itself. So if you want to rotate the meter by its center the translation component in the matrix must be relative to the top left corner of the window.

Also note that the even if the meter's visual location and orientation is changed by the transformation the place where it would be located without the transformation will still be used to define the window size and register the mouse clicks. This might change in the future though.

Group

Defines a group or series of groups that the meter belongs to. For more information please see the Groups page.