Today, Nokia launched a new version of their theming tool for Symbian phones ‒ seems it has undergone considerable revampment. The new features:
QUOTE
- New content and look for Welcome Screen.
- New perspectives that make more efficient use of screen real estate that improve
the user experience.
- Integrated installer and updater, which will simplify product updates.
- Component view:
- Better handling of the display of graphics elements and improvement to
how they can be selected.
- New partial skinning indicator for multi-piece elements.
- New text colour representation for round cornered rectangles.
- Improved component filters with support for Show All, Show Modified,
Show Unmodified and Show Partially Modified criteria.
- Preview Tabs: (Previously known as gallery view)
- Tabbed preview, providing meaningful grouping of all supported preview
screens.
- User preferences screens can be added to "Favourites" tab.
- Resize support for tabbed preview screens.
- Backward compatibility with all released platforms and device plug-ins
available from Forum Nokia.
- Editor (WYSIWYG) with new tool bar buttons such as Zoom, Zoom to fit enable and
disable, Switch between landscape and portrait and resolution drop-down list
for quick selection.
- Enhanced properties view
- Combines previous layer view and properties view.
- All text colours, icons, multi-pieces, backgrounds, multimedia, frame
animation elements editing is support from Properties view.
- Improved method of handling optional background graphics.
- Multi-pieces element stitching into a single piece.
- Support all types of bitmap image dithering.
- Fill colours and gradient colours editing support.
- Improved image selection dialogue from component, editor and properties views
- Multi parts selection of multi-piece elements in one go.
- Real time preview of the multi-piece element, shown for each of the
selected part(s) in the dialogue.
- Correct suggestion for multi-part selection with proper suffixes.
- "Try slicing" feature to slice single SVG to multi-pieces (9- and 3- Pieces)
- All new "Colour Dialog" for text colours and graphic elements:
- RGB and HSL colour editing support.
- Fill and gradient colours editing support with add/delete stop point
features.
- Recent colours support.
- Real time elements colouring preview, with invert colour support.
- Colour picker support.
- "Export screens to PDF" button, on the tool bar, exports all portrait or landscape screens
of the active theme into a PDF which contain embedded preview bitmaps in 100% resolution
with Screen names and other metadata included.
- "Switch background colours" button, on the tool bar, provides for improved viewing of
graphics in editor, component view, and other views by enabling the skin (underlying
background) colour of the tool from white to default the system colour.
- Component store has been renamed to component gallery.
- Navigation, outline and component gallery views were not part of default perspective as
per user feedback.
- Updated Symbian ^3 and 5th edition plug-ins.
- Carbide.ui is migrated from Eclipse version 3.5 and Java 5 to Eclipse version 3.6 and Java 6.
- New perspectives that make more efficient use of screen real estate that improve
the user experience.
- Integrated installer and updater, which will simplify product updates.
- Component view:
- Better handling of the display of graphics elements and improvement to
how they can be selected.
- New partial skinning indicator for multi-piece elements.
- New text colour representation for round cornered rectangles.
- Improved component filters with support for Show All, Show Modified,
Show Unmodified and Show Partially Modified criteria.
- Preview Tabs: (Previously known as gallery view)
- Tabbed preview, providing meaningful grouping of all supported preview
screens.
- User preferences screens can be added to "Favourites" tab.
- Resize support for tabbed preview screens.
- Backward compatibility with all released platforms and device plug-ins
available from Forum Nokia.
- Editor (WYSIWYG) with new tool bar buttons such as Zoom, Zoom to fit enable and
disable, Switch between landscape and portrait and resolution drop-down list
for quick selection.
- Enhanced properties view
- Combines previous layer view and properties view.
- All text colours, icons, multi-pieces, backgrounds, multimedia, frame
animation elements editing is support from Properties view.
- Improved method of handling optional background graphics.
- Multi-pieces element stitching into a single piece.
- Support all types of bitmap image dithering.
- Fill colours and gradient colours editing support.
- Improved image selection dialogue from component, editor and properties views
- Multi parts selection of multi-piece elements in one go.
- Real time preview of the multi-piece element, shown for each of the
selected part(s) in the dialogue.
- Correct suggestion for multi-part selection with proper suffixes.
- "Try slicing" feature to slice single SVG to multi-pieces (9- and 3- Pieces)
- All new "Colour Dialog" for text colours and graphic elements:
- RGB and HSL colour editing support.
- Fill and gradient colours editing support with add/delete stop point
features.
- Recent colours support.
- Real time elements colouring preview, with invert colour support.
- Colour picker support.
- "Export screens to PDF" button, on the tool bar, exports all portrait or landscape screens
of the active theme into a PDF which contain embedded preview bitmaps in 100% resolution
with Screen names and other metadata included.
- "Switch background colours" button, on the tool bar, provides for improved viewing of
graphics in editor, component view, and other views by enabling the skin (underlying
background) colour of the tool from white to default the system colour.
- Component store has been renamed to component gallery.
- Navigation, outline and component gallery views were not part of default perspective as
per user feedback.
- Updated Symbian ^3 and 5th edition plug-ins.
- Carbide.ui is migrated from Eclipse version 3.5 and Java 5 to Eclipse version 3.6 and Java 6.
Reads like much new stuff to play around with.