Mike-Ward.Net

Vista Weather Gadget Updated

Last week saw an early release of my Vista Sidebar Weather Gadget. Not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I’ve updated it with some new formats and styles. There are 3 additional formats. Here’s what they look like:

The first format is just the current conditions. The second format is the original format that crams the current conditions and a 3 day forecast into a compact form. The third format shows the current conditions and the next day’s forecast in a more verbose form. Finally, the fourth format shows the current conditions and the 3 day forecast in a larger and more readable form.

Switching between the formats is done by holding the “Shift key” and clicking on the gadget.

There are four color backgrounds, black, blue, green and gray. The screen captures above show square corners. The actual gadget has rounded corners and a thin border that looks more graceful and matches the style used by other gadgets. I’ve also cleaned up the anti-aliasing of the bitmaps to blend seamlessly into the desktop.

Double-clicking on the gadget launches a web browser with the page of your choice. You can set the page in the settings dialog. This allows you to use the weather service and page view of your choice.

I’ve also discovered that the Google API works with locations other than zip codes. Canadian postal codes, City,State and City,Country combinations work as well. For instance, you can type in “London,England” as a location. Keep in mind that the combination must be unique. Canada has more than one city named Victoria so Victoria, Canada does not work but Victoria, BC does.

I’ve also renamed the gadget to Simply Weather because that seems like the most descriptive name.