Aligner release notes

Aligner 2.0 is the Dungeon Helper 5 version of Aligner. It does the same job as Aligner 1.4 on Dungeon Helper 4, restoring each account’s window position and size, and has the same four controls. What changed is when it decides to act and what it tells you. For how to use it, see the Aligner guide.

The Aligner window

A status line is new. After Save Now, Restore Now or an automatic save, the window shows what happened, for example the position and size that were saved or restored. When Aligner does nothing, it says why: DDO is not in Windowed mode, nothing is saved for this account yet, or the saved position is not on any connected monitor. In Dungeon Helper 4 these cases did nothing and showed nothing.
Save Now is always available. In Dungeon Helper 4 it was greyed out while Auto Save was ticked.
Auto-Restore is always available. In Dungeon Helper 4 it was greyed out, with the message “Aligner only works in Windowed mode”, when Aligner had decided the client was not Windowed.
The tick boxes are now labelled Auto-Save and Auto-Restore, with hyphens.

The controls are described in The Aligner window.

Windowed mode is checked per client

Aligner still only handles clients in Windowed mode, not Fullscreen or Windowed Fullscreen.

In Dungeon Helper 4, Aligner read DDO’s saved display setting once, at startup. That setting is shared by your clients, so it described whichever client saved it last. One client in Windowed Fullscreen could switch Aligner off for all of them, and Save Now could then store an empty layout.

Aligner 2.0 looks at each client’s own window instead, and checks again every time it saves or restores. A Windowed client is handled no matter what mode your other clients are in.

Restoring a layout

Windows against a screen edge now restore. Dungeon Helper 4 only checked whether the saved top-left corner was on a connected monitor. A window pushed against the left edge of the desktop has a corner a few pixels off-screen, so it was quietly never restored. Aligner 2.0 restores the layout if any part of the saved window is on a connected monitor.
Missing monitors are still safe. If no part of the saved window is on a connected monitor, Aligner leaves the window where it is. The difference is that it now tells you so in the status line.
A move is just a move. If the window is already the saved size, Aligner only moves it. When the size does change, DDO lays out its interface again, as before.
Empty layouts are ignored. A saved layout with no width or height is treated as nothing saved, and the status line asks you to use Save Now first.

Auto-Save

Auto-Save keeps the saved layout up to date as you move or resize the window, so you don’t need Save Now. Ticking it also saves the current layout straight away. It is a carry-over from Aligner 1.4, with these differences:

Aligner saves once, about half a second after the window stops moving, not continuously while you drag.
Nothing is saved while the window is minimized.
The status line shows each automatic save.
Auto-Save starts unticked for an account with nothing saved. In Dungeon Helper 4 it showed as ticked on a new account.

Auto-Save did not work in the first Dungeon Helper 5 beta builds of Aligner. It works from version 2.0.0.26.

Coming from Dungeon Helper 4

Settings. The settings file is unchanged: it is still AlignerConfig.json in Aligner’s own plugin folder, with one layout per account. Dungeon Helper 5 keeps its plugins and settings in %LocalAppData%\DungeonHelperData, separate from Dungeon Helper 4. If the Aligner window says nothing is saved for an account, arrange the window, press Save Now and tick Auto-Restore again.
Nothing was removed. Save Now, Restore Now, Auto-Save and Auto-Restore are all there, and layouts are still one per account, shared by every character on it.
Defaults. Auto-Restore is still off until you tick it. Auto-Save now starts off as well.
Renamed. Auto Save and Auto Restore became Auto-Save and Auto-Restore.
What might surprise you. A layout that Dungeon Helper 4 silently refused, such as a window against the left edge of the desktop, is now restored at startup if Auto-Restore is ticked. A client that Aligner ignored because another client was in Windowed Fullscreen is now handled.

Aligner guide and download · ← Dungeon Helper 5 release notes