Addons 101: The basics of customization
by Mathew McCurley 
Jul 21st 2010 at 2:00PM
Finally, we reach the end of our beginner's journey. We have learned a lot so far, from what addons are and how they affect the WoW gameplay experience, to some of the categories of addons and some examples. For the final installment, Addons 101 will discuss the basics of user interface customization, where to find customization options, and some addons that can be very helpful when building your user interface. In addition, part 4 will be riddled with tips that I have found useful over the years working with my own UI.
The zen of UI
There's something really special about building your user interface that way you want. The preconceptions of what is right and wrong go out the window and you have the freedom to make the control scheme you want to, within reason. The zen of user interface customization, therefore, lies in understanding what you want, which also happens to be the hardest part.
The first step is to think about the pieces of the user interface you use the most and for what functions. Play with the default user interface first. Do some quests, run some instances and just be natural about it. Begin thinking about your experience and what you wish you could do more naturally. Do you wish to have a smaller bar for your potions above your chat channels? Are the buttons too small for you to effectively click in a hurry? Are you having trouble targeting group members because the default group frame is on the far left, as opposed to below your character to the right, where you'd like it?
The worst part about building a new user interface is not knowing what you want, much less what the user interface is capable of. To solve this problem, look for inspiration in some of the user interfaces from Reader UI of the Week, people's posted user interfaces on sites like wowinterface or Curse, and UI compilations. You don't have to use the compilation, but seeing how others set up their mods might give you a good idea or two.
Pencils out
One tip I give you many newcomers to user interface design is that drawing out what you want your user interface to look like can give you an added visual roadmap that you might not be able to pull together in your head. In a previous Reader UI of the Week column, I had shown some pictures of a sample UI drawing that I made for someone a while back. You can never go wrong with drawing out what you think you would want and then using that as the building blueprint to put addons where you want them. It could help you out in ways you didn't expect.
One at a time
The last thing you want to do as a budding UI creator is to become overwhelmed after a few minutes of tinkering around. Addons can be enabled and disabled at will without losing their settings. Use this to your advantage and only deal with one addon at a time. Pick one area of your user interface to configure and work around it.
What to expect
Let's take the chat box, for example. The chat box usually takes up a good portion of people's UI area allotment and is customarily placed in a similar spot in most user interfaces. Start with the chat box. Install your chat addon of choice and, upon starting up the game, you will notice your new chat box running. It might not be in the same position, the same size or even look the same as your old chat box. When you load in a new addon, expect there to be a bit of confusion. Some addons by default throw everything they can do on screen. Some addons are more spartan and only show a minimum amount of what they are capable of.
Your first stop should be the options pane that your addon has for its configuration. Some addons' configuration utilities can be accessed by typing in the addon's "slash command." This command is unique to the addon you are setting up. For instance, one chat mod, Chatter, makes its options available through the command /chatter, for instance. The other place to find addon options is in the interface menu on the ESC menu when in game -- click the tab named Addons.
Optional options
One of the most frequent emails that I receive from players new to addons is that they are lost after addon installation. Many people ask if there is a simple way to understand the options that many addons have as customizable. The short answer is "not really." The longer answer is that each addon is unique in its configuration and options, and the only way you truly get a handle on any addons ability is by tinkering. Tinkering takes time and patience, however, which is why we recommend doing one addon at a time. One set of variables and options is much easier to deal with than six or seven at a time.
Addons options, for the most part, are locating in the menu > interface > Addons tab while in game. Addons with a GUI (graphical user interface) option panel have their options displayed in this window. Some addons are text input only, meaning you enter all commands to control the addon through the chat box. Most addons come with an FAQ file in their folder that explains most of the options available, but it is usually best to go read the addon's page on Curse, WoWInterface or the addon's own home page if one is available.
I won't lie -- options are scary sometimes. Remember, though, that there is a cardinal rule. You aren't performing open heart surgery. If you screw up an option, you aren't going to lose the patient. You can always delete the addon and start over. I bet heart surgeons wish they had that kind of do-over available. If you do want to "nuke it from orbit," as it were, and start completely from scratch, you can do this easily by deleting the WTF and Interface folders from your WoW directory. This will get rid of all of your saved information, including button macros and keybindings, so it is only to be used in the direst of circumstances.
What's the bottom line of all of this? Here's a simple list of what you should know going into addon customization.
- Learning how to configure your addons is easier than you think.
- Addons can be tricky sometimes, but don't let that stop you.
- Take your time and configure one at a time. Turning on one addon at a time saves you from scaring yourself and lets you concentrate on one interface element at a time.
- Do not be scared of the addon's options -- you can always set an addon back to its defaults or delete the addon and start over. You aren't in danger of losing anything.
- If things go wrong, you can always delete and try again.
Here are three addons that can help you out a bunch when configuring your user interface.
eAlign Commonly referred to as Align, this addon's simple purpose is to place a non-interactive grid over your user interface to aid in spacing out addons. It works great for centering and sizing things! Use /align to activate it after you install.
Download eAlign at [Curse].
Addon Control Panel This awesome addon replicates the functionality of the addon enable/disable menu on the character select screen, but in game. This allows you to enable and disable addons by just reloading the user interface rather than heading back out to the character screen to manage your addons.
Download Addon Control Panel at [Curse].
Addon Profiler This profiling addon shows the user the CPU and memory footprint of the addons currently running in World of Warcraft. Addon Profiler is especially effective at finding problem addons that are wrecking your performance, allowing you to easily pinpoint the problem and disable the troublemaker.
Download Addon Profiler at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
I truly hope that you have all enjoyed Addons 101. I promise that there will be more -- and for all you user interface junkies out there who have been asking for a 101 article on actually building the UI, we might have some cool stuff in the pipeline. (As long as you love addon content, of course.) Feel free to also email me any time you have some 101 questions. I hope I've demystified addons just a tiny bit for those of you hesitant to jump into the fray. Remember -- go slow, have fun and remember to always /reloadui.
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. This special edition of Addon Spotlight is aimed at you newcomers out there, to learn a little bit about addons. We are so happy to have you! If you have any questions or suggestions for Addons 101, email Mat at mat@wow.com. Filed under: Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Faith Trust Jul 21st 2010 2:16PM
Eagerly awaiting the "cool stuff in the pipeline"
Faith Trust Jul 21st 2010 2:17PM
Aside from that Im givin eAlign a try :D
Kyol Jul 21st 2010 2:21PM
The thing that's been driving me up the wall the most recently is how some addons default to an account-wide configuration, and some default to character wide, and some just don't seem to really care either way. Case in point, my healbot is always jumping around on me because my leveling shammy healer needs an XP bar across the bottom of her screen, but my tree doesn't any more. But HB seems to be kind of 50/50 on which profile it loads. Quartz seems to want to be account-wide, even if I define profiles, and I think xperl picks up quirks across characters. *sigh* I've grown to accept a certain amount of vagueness in my layouts. Maybe I'll just give every toon a XP bar or a rep bar, and put healbot on my DPS toons...
Mike Jul 21st 2010 2:28PM
I use Healbot on all my toons as my party/raid frames. For healers, the use is obvious. For tanking, allows me to see very quickly if anyone's got threat or taking damage, etc. For everyone, including DPS, it helps me keep track of buffs, even self-buffs. I've found it especially useful levelling my Hunter for quickly switching between Aspect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Viper.
Pyromelter Jul 21st 2010 2:29PM
That is one of the frustrating things about addons. I wish every addon was simply character specific, and then you can load settings from your other characters if you want to keep them uniform (Dominoes is great for this, when you start an alt at level 1, your bars look messed up to heck, then you load from another profile and in 3 seconds you have your beautiful action bars set up). I think it's most raid frames addons that don't allow you to save character specific profiles, although it's been a while since i've used grid, xperl, or shadowed unit frames.
logicalfundy Jul 21st 2010 4:41PM
I'm fairly convinced that the "profiles" system is too confusing to use, and may be in need of a unified UI instead of a UI for each addon.
BTW - the "profiles" system is actually a third party feature, not provided by WoW. All WoW provides is per-profile and per-character settings.
logicalfundy Jul 21st 2010 4:42PM
aack, need EDIT!
I meant to say all Blizzard provides is per-account and per-character settings.
Jamie Jul 26th 2010 11:28AM
I wish the healbot automatically gets disabled for DPS characters. May be the author will do that in next upgrade
Pyromelter Jul 21st 2010 2:25PM
Excellent summation to this series. As an avid UI person myself, getting my interface set up just exactly as I want it is so very satisfying. When you become a real UI master, you can find addon combinations that you don't normally see other people use, but they work fantastically for your individual purposes. For me, it's a highly customized Pitbull + Clique.
I'd like to add one thing: A lot of addons have very poor default settings (Pitbull is a big offender of this). Other addons are highly complex to be useful (see: Power Auras). A good thing to do is if you like the looks of a certain addon, but can't for the life of you get it set up like you want it, do a search on google or curse or whatever for specific settings. You can import other people's settings into your wtf folder, or in the case of power auras, copy and paste codes right into the addon to get that really cool effect. This is a good way to ease yourself into getting neat effects with more complicated addons.
Mike Jul 21st 2010 2:26PM
Suggestion for an Addons 101 article: list of useful addons (or methods of skinning addons) that look like they actually belong in Blizzard's UI. They exist (iPopBar is one that's awesome), they're just hard to pick out of the masses.
Pyromelter Jul 21st 2010 2:39PM
Here's a short list:
Prat/chatter (chat addon)
Satrina Buff Frames (can make buff/debuff icons very similar to blizz icons)
Quartz (to replace the cast bars)
TidyPlates/ThreatPlates
Grid (because the default raid frames are just terrible, and grid easily can fit into any UI setup, including the default)
bozzomg Jul 21st 2010 2:36PM
Viewer pickiness:
"Download Addon Control Panel at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]."
////////// s h o u l d b e ////////////////
Download Addon Profiler*** at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
(The link is working though)
Great series, tyvm.
Alchemistmerlin Jul 21st 2010 2:56PM
Also it's a great benefit to your UI if you make it look like something out of Microsoft Office instead of a fantasy roleplaying game.
Or at least that's what most of the Reader UI's of the week tell me.
Rhüarc Jul 21st 2010 3:15PM
One thing I would definitely have to recommend for anyone attempting to set up their own UI, get the addon "Ampere". This could quite possibly be the greatest tool for setting up a UI one addon at a time as it allows you to enable/disable addons from within the game without having to bounce back out to the character select screen.
It's also very small and lightweight, so people who are worried about footprints don't have to debate adding a huge addon to the list.
cidninja Jul 21st 2010 4:12PM
that sounds a lot like addon control panel...
which the article does say to get.
Andromyda Jul 21st 2010 3:44PM
Can anyone tell me if there is a way to used Xperl raid frames to click heal from?
EBGreen Jul 21st 2010 4:39PM
You can use either Clique or Mouseover macros to heal from pretty much any raid frame.
Lyrd Jul 21st 2010 4:32PM
No joke, I use the following script on each toon and spec when creating UI's when they hit level 80.
/run for i=1,120 do PickupAction(i) ClearCursor() end
It removes all abilities from all action bars so you can start fresh. Someone else may find this useful too.
At times I also post it in trade chat with no explanation...
zhaharik Jul 21st 2010 4:42PM
One simple piece of advice I feel you should have included:
Make backups of your WTF and Interface folders, *before* you start messing around.
Otherwise, if you decide you need to delete those folders, you're starting from scratch again, and you've lost any data which builds up over time (Auctioneer, Gatherer, etc.)
It's also worth making clear that you can delete only the folders within WTF and Interface that relate to the addon you just screwed up. More precisely, deleting the folders within WTF will set you back to default for that addon, while deleting the folders within Interface/Addons will delete the addon entirely.
I'm not sure if it's the same on all systems, but on Windows 7, the addon-specific settings are stored in WTF/Account/"accountname"/SavedVariables
Tirrimas Jul 21st 2010 5:34PM
A suggestion is to install TooManyAddons as an assist for turning addons on and off within the game. It allows you to set up profiles and quickly reload your UI.
For example, I have a Raid profile with the minimum addons needed, a normal profile with things like Auctioneer, and a None profile for when I train (yeah, I've got that bug - no idea where it comes from). A quick /tma, select profile and load - I'm ready to go on a raid after a round of dailies.
Each character has its own profile (sometimes a couple), as well as the account-wide default.
It made my playing around with Grid, Clique and Stuf much easier.