Well, I can't believe that I didn't think of this before... I'm sure that some of you figured this out and are already using this feature.
I have been constantly looking for widgets that can be used as "tiles" with notifications, toggles, clocks, etc. ever since I started this theme. Some worked... a lot didn't. I would usually end up using APK Manager to skin someone else's widget. But I had en epiphany the other day that is so simple yet effective.
If you're using ADW Launcher (I'm not sure if LauncherPro has the same capability) there is an option to "Overlap Widgets" when resizing:
Here is an example of overlapping widgets:
Uploaded with
ImageShack.us
I used
Make Your Own Clock Pro for the clock/date/alarm/battery combo, placed it first, then placed a corresponding size of
Desktop Visualizer widget, stretched and then shrunk the size in two-steps to drag the blue widget onto the same space as the clock... and, voila! I did the same thing to the
Beautiful Widgets Beautiful Weather 1x1 widget as well. This easy process works well with any other widget that has (or can be altered to have) a transparent background.
The main thing to keep in mind is how things are placed on the homescreen. There is a hierarchy that must be followed in order for the correct widgets to overlap each other. The above procedure merits an ease of creation but poses problems with a reboot. Although the widgets are placed with the first one behind the second one, they will reverse when the device is powered down. The following example shows pretty much the same setup as above, but places the blue tile Desktop Visualizer widget on top of the clock:
Uploaded with
ImageShack.us
Doing it this way looks like it doesn't work at first, but after rebooting the device the widgets load in the order they were placed. The first procedure at the top of the thread shows immediate results, but will need to be fixed after each reboot.
It's strange but I think it makes sense now. Needless to say, let me know if anyone has any questions.
Hope this helps! Happy theming!