Table of Contents |
| Home Screen Layout - Overview

You can copy themes off your phone on the WinterBoard page and then modify them; however, WinterBoard themes can be quite complex, and iFuntastic may not handle all the files properly. You can experiment with this, but the preferred way is to create new themes. Also, keep in mind that all active themes are searched by the phone when deciding what images to show (or sounds to play) so when working on a new theme, you may want to deactivate all others to avoid confusion.
A Home Screen theme is made up of different layers; you can achieve many interesting and sophisticated effects by combining these layers, especially with images that have 'holes' or transparent areas. iFuntastic lets you edit and compose each layer and replace it (make it active in the theme,) ignore it (do nothing to it,) or suppress it (make it active, but invisible, thereby blocking other themes.) You can edit each layer separately. Use the mode menu to switch between layers. The Summary page lets you make the final decisions about which layers your theme should affect.
A related page is the Display Order - the arrangement of icons on the Home Screen. It cannot be part of a theme, but it may affect the images you choose for the theme. In that case, start by arranging the icons to your liking, write the display order to the phone, then continue with your theme.
The default Home Screen background is the familiar and boring black area. You can add the following layers on top of it - the corresponding file(s) in the theme are given in parentheses. The layers show up the same on all pages of the home screen - except the background images: these can be (excitingly) a different image for each page. From bottom to top:

- Movie (Wallpaper.mp4) - you can play an endlessly repeating movie. The movie should have no sound. It will be a drain on your battery.
- Wallpaper (Wallpaper.png) - an image instead of a black screen! If this image has holes, any movie you pick will play through them. Try the 'MovieWindow.png' image that comes with iFuntastic.
- Slideshow (Wallpaper.html) - this is actually a web page that can display anything you want; iFuntastic creates a slideshow from two or more images you select.
- Background (Page0.png ... Page8.png) - like the wallpaper, except each page can have a separate image!
- Status Bar (StatusBar.png) - the 20 pixel strip on top of the screen with the carrier logo etc. in it (this image is actually the background for the status bar)
- Dock (Dock.png) - well, you should know what the dock is
- Application icons - the icon layer floats on top of everything else; you can change the icon for each application and web clip

This is a lot to play with, and a lot to learn. Bear with me - it's a lot of fun, too!
Most layers work the same way: you pick images and drag them into the work area. Then you edit them if desired or necessary and position them the way you want. Each layer displays its images regardless of the 'replace', 'ignore' and 'suppress' settings. The 'preview' function however, will take these settings into account.
Theme Menu
New asks for a name and creates a new WinterBoard theme on disk.
Save saves the current (or temporary) theme; creates the final files that make up the Home Screen theme.
Save as asks for a name and creates and saves the current images as a new theme.
Reset clears all assigned images and resets to the temporary theme.
Select one of the listed themes to load and edit it - these themes are on disk. You can copy themes off the phone on the WinterBoard page.
Mode Menu
The mode menu switches between layers as described above.
Command and Options Menu
Each layer has its own set of commands and options. They are described in the documentation for that layer.
Common to all are the Rebuild Application List and Fix Application Icon Names... options. Use the first one whenever you add or delete applications or web clips on the phone or you change the display order or, simply put, when what you see on the phone does not match what you see in iFuntastic (but should.) Some applications use unusual names for their icon file. WinterBoard may have problems with that. If you notice some icons not changing to your custom icon, then that is most likely the reason. Check the list on the applications icons page - unusual icon names are displayed in blue. Use the 'Fix' function to change them. Unfortunately these changes will get lost after a Sync in iTunes.
Snap to Guides when you click and drag images in the work area, they snap to the nearest boundary (or center of an application slot.) Hold down the option key to temporarily switch this off (or on.)
Preview
If this checkbox is clicked, iFuntastic shows you the final composition, including the application icons as best it can (it won't play slideshows.) The preview involves a lot of computation and will slow down editing, so to more easily compose a layer, switch off the preview.
View Menu
Page Guides display the page, the status bar and dock boundaries.
Row and Column Guides display the slots for applications.
Show Gaps you can add gaps between applications when setting the display order. This option makes the gaps visible with a gray dot.
Wiggle when rearranging when changing the display order, apps will wiggle similarly to the phone; this is just eye candy and may slow things down. You can switch it off with this option.
Display At Least: set the minimum number of pages to display at once. This affects the size and therefore the zoom level of the work area.
Work Area
The phone screen is your work area. Its size adjusts to the size of the main window. It displays up to nine pages at once, but you can set the desired number of pages in the view menu. If there is room for more pages, then they will be displayed, otherwise you have to use the scroll bar. Drag images from any source into this area. Once placed, you can click and drag them. You can change their front-to-back ordering by rearranging the order in the list of assigned images on the bottom left. The work area displays page guides and row and column guides. Images optionally snap to these guides when you arrange them (but not when you initially place them.)
Device Menu
Install Temporary Theme saves the current theme, then installs it as 'iFuntastic-Temporary' and activates it. This replaces any previously installed temporary theme.
Uninstall Temporary Theme removes the temporary theme.
Install/Update saves the current theme and installs it on the phone. Use WinterBoard on the phone to deactivate it or change its position. You can delete it on the WinterBoard Theme page or in the File Manager.
Images
Drag images from any source (Web browser, Finder, iPhoto, Image Browser, File Manager) into the work area. Images are placed where you drop them and are drawn in order. This means you can combine many images on the home screen. Images can have 'holes' in them - other images and any background coming from WinterBoard (such as a movie) will be visible. This allows for some very cool effects and arrangements. Images can span all 9 pages (2880 pixels wide.) You can assign different images to each row or column, and you can use the same image repeatedly.
Assigned Images List
Displays the images in the work area. The last added, or top image, is first. You can rearrange the front-to-back ordering by dragging the images within this list. Click on an image to toggle its selection status on or off. Selected images are displayed on top of all others, and when you click and drag, selected images are 'grabbed' first. Click on the pencil to edit an image and on the 'Delete' icon to delete it (without confirmation - images are kept in the image list, so you can re-add them if necessary.) The eye icon determines whether the image is displayed (and used in the theme) or not. This allows for easy experimentation with different combinations of images.
Image List
This is your image library. It displays all images in the 'Wallpaper', 'Dock Images' and 'Theme Resources' folders on disk. Whenever you add an image to the work area, it gets copied into one of these folders (depending on its size.) Drag images from here into the work area. Click on one of the buttons above the list to display only that folder. Click again to display all images. Use the File Manager to delete images from these folders.
Glitches
Currently there are a couple of minor glitches with the background image functionality on the phone. If you tap and hold to rearrange icons, the dock image and dock applications disappear - this is only visual - all is still there, and you can still rearrange the icons in the dock. During rearranging, the background images sometimes jump below the status bar and stay there; launch any app to restore the correct position. Also, SpringBoard restarts seem to take longer. Slideshows and Movies may substantially (and negatively) affect the energy consumption (and temperature) of your phone.