I got a support request for Time Out, my popular break reminder tool, asking to display a fixed image during the break.
Time Out uses HTML pages as break themes, so it is possible to have a fixed image as a theme — in fact the default theme, Icon, does just that, with the app icon.
So one way to have a fixed image is to:
- Choose the Reveal Themes command at the end of the Theme pop-up menu to open the Themes folder in the Finder.
- Duplicate the Icon theme folder and give it a new name.
- Replace the icon.png file with your chosen image.
- Edit the index.html to adjust the name and size of the displayed image.
- Edit the Info.json file to give the new theme a unique identifier etc.
- Pretty easy. You can edit those files in TextEdit or any other text editor.
If the image is available on some website, it’s actually a little easier. I have created an example theme on the Time Out extras page:
Download the Ducks & Fish theme
You can edit a copy of this theme to use a different image:
- Choose the Reveal Themes command at the end of the Theme pop-up menu to open the Themes folder in the Finder.
- Add the Ducks & Fish theme, if not already.
- Duplicate that theme and give it a new name.
- Edit the Info.json file to give the new theme a unique identifier, and change the URL to the desired image.
(This got me thinking, and I spent an hour or so writing up notes on ways to make adding image-based themes even easier in a future version. I’m always trying to improve the app.)
While I was at it, I also added four themes to display my four blogs; these are all included with Time Out by default:
- Dejal Blog: a theme that simply shows the Dejal blog, so you can read it during your break, to see the latest news about Time Out and other Dejal apps (doesn’t update very often, though, so probably not that exciting for a regular break).
- Dejus Blog: a theme that shows my personal blog, where I post photos and comments every day. Could be good for a short break a once or twice a day.
- Sinclair Trails Blog: a theme to show the Sinclair Trails blog, about my travels around the US in a motorhome, including photos and timelapse videos of driving days, photos of places we stay, and of attractions we visit.
- Yellow Cottage Blog: a theme to show the retired Yellow Cottage Homestead blog, about the chickens, ducks, feral cats, bees, and other homestead topics of my former homestead. Could be good for a lunchtime break.
If you try those, you might want to set the Opacity to 100% on the Break Appearance page.
Time Out isn’t a web browser or feed reader, but since the themes are just web pages, these show some of the interesting things you can do.