Graphic Box Attached to String Meters

[bill98]

This weekend black squares started attaching themselves to two of my meters. If I comment out the meter, the box moves to the next meter. Is there a simple explanation/fix for this?

[balala]

What you mean by "started attaching themselves"? Are they always visible, or just when you move the cursore over the meters? And what action is the "comment out the meter"? Maybe you could post a screenshot?

[bill98]

By attaching, I mean the top left corner of the black rectangle or square is displayed on the screen like it is part of the screen field. ie., _________
! 16 !
! !
!_________!

Always visible.

By commenting out, I just mean Putting a ";" in front of the code line.

Attached is a screen shot of one box attached to the value today's date(16). If I remove the date, the box will get very large and attach itself to the Month field.

[bill98]

Attachment

[bill98]

Moved the date meters so I could lose the rectangle and now I have this:

[balala]

I'd like to see your code, because I can't imagine what this could be.

[jsmorley]

Almost certainly there is a SolidColor=0,0,0,255 somewhere that is getting added to whatever is the "last" meter.

Something like:

Code: Select all

[MeterOne]
Meter=String
Text=Hello World

[MeterTwo)
Meter=Image
ImageName=SomeImage.png
SolidColor=0,0,0,255

If you look closely, you will see there is a typo in the section header [MeterTwo). Since that is not a valid section header, it is ignored. Any options that are in that incorrect section will just look to Rainmeter like they are in the preceding one. Rainmeter will always use the "first" option if you have duplicates, and will just ignore any invalid options like ImageName on a String meter, but SolidColor is valid on any meter type, and it will cheerfully add a black background to [MeterOne] in this example.

So while your code may be something like that above, all Rainmeter actually "sees" is:

Code: Select all

[MeterOne]
Meter=String
Text=Hello World
SolidColor=0,0,0,255

That explains why as he moves, removes or comments out meter sections, that black "box" just moves to the next one... This may not be exactly what your issue is, but I'll bet if you look carefully you will find a SolidColor option that is either in an invalid [Section], or even more likely, that you thought you commented out but really didn't.

Here is another example:

Code: Select all

[MeterOne]
Meter=String
Text=Hello World

;[MeterTwo)
;Meter=Image
;ImageName=SomeImage.png
SolidColor=0,0,0,255

That will have exactly the same effect...

Find the rogue SolidColor option and the problem will go away.

[jsmorley]

Extra Credit

Code: Select all

[MeterOne]
Meter=String
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text=First Meter

[MeterOne]
Meter=String
Y=5R
FontColor=255,255,255,255
SolidColor=47,47,47,255
Text=Second Meter

Question: Will that also cause SolidColor to be added to the first meter?

Answer: No... A "duplicate" [SectionName] is not the same as an invalid or commented-out section header. In the case of a second duplicate [SectionName] the entire section, and all options in it, are ignored.

[bill98]

Thanks! I had several commented-out meters that had a solidcolor line

[jsmorley]

Thanks! I had several commented-out meters that had a solidcolor line

When you comment out a meter or measure, you must comment out the [SectionName] and ALL the options in it. Any options in a ;[SectionName] that you don't also comment out just become "orphans", looking to see if they work in the last [SectionName] before the one you commented out. Maybe they are duplicates of option names already in that earlier section, or maybe they are invalid for the type of the earlier section, and in either case are ignored. Just as good a chance though, that they cause all kinds of problems.