[Claritin]

UI_Builder is not the only tool for editing EQ2 UI.

Notepad is an excellent tool for the job... IMHO it's more stable and results in cleaner code and better positioning most the time.

Also... to me... it's eaiser to understand also... I look at a line... it says it has MitigationPercent and it's location is 270,42 and it's size is 70,18 and I know that at location 270,42 until 340, 60 there is a rectangle with a % value of my mitigation there.

I can then change the location of this item to someplace more suitable.... like up 20 pixels. (250,42) and change the size of the field to something more relaistic (50,18) and use the room below or to the right of it to add additional data.

What data would I add?

Well... I'd look at another piece of my UI default or someone else's Custom UI parts for a piece of data I find important that I want elsewhere.... I would look for a string like PowerPool or something of that nature... and I could copy the line out of that note pad window into the other one I have my current project in... then start to change the location & size to land in the empty spot I mad... and font type would be changed to match the other UI info on that page.

Anyway... this is more for Sinister than for these other guys... because I think notepad is just an eaiser way to see data and grasp what it is going to accomplish without the 50 "fluff details" like "Visible yes/no" type junk all over the place.

In notepad what I love the most is when I want 4 lines of stat titles all in a row about 10 pixels in from the left... I don't drag and drop and end up with one at 9 pixels and two at 11 pixels and the last at 10... I simply type 10,5 10,15 10,25 and 10,35 for locations... everything is lined up and evenly spaced.... if it isn't I change margin= or alignment= sections on that XML line and fix or delete... more often than not I delete.... stupid sloppy UI tool sneaks that junk in. ;-p