Vista WB skinning shared knowledge and tips thread
Don't keep us in the dark.......make us wise!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by 2of3 | Discussion: Skinning
As many have learned, Skinning for Vista has presented us with new challenges/limitations.
My hope for this thread is that skinners will send me tips and "rules" for building a Vista blind.
I can update this post (with credit to the sender) if skinners want to PM me with tips. That way they will be easier to find instead of people having to search through thread comments .
I'll also divide these tips into sections as more content gets added
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- Make sure to make the programslist (starpanel left side) wide enough for the application text's if you plan on having it animated. Failure to make i wide enough for the content and mouse over the to long text will repaint the startpanel and trigger the animation from the beginning again.
- the two small images that make up the bottom corners and bar in the IE7 tabs have to be saved as Indexed .bmps.
In Photoshop > Menu > Image > Mode > Indexed color > Save.
- Skin the right and left tab images. It looks much more refined when complete.
- The bottom bar content margins are based on your Start Panel's left and right pane margins. You cannot adjust the size of the Vista log off buttons. Trick it out with transparency.
-For the start menu search icon. Take a look at the size of your bottom image. If it's over 58 px tall, you need to bring it down below. 58 is the magic number before the search icon aligns properly.
- The favorites menu can't be transparent but the typical drop down menu can be. Make separate images for those menus.
- The Forward and Back IE7 navigational arrows are a nightmare to skin. We are currently limited as to what we can do due to different icon sizes.
- Use glyphs on buttons when possible to avoid stretching issues on buttons. The new layer feature will help a lot in this regard.
-The default white text on the command bar buttons is controlled by the 'windows background' color in the skins 'basic' color section.
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Color legend:
Night Train
Skoriginals
PixelPirate
Vstyler
Voidcore
Articles of interest:
The Blur feature and effecting Shadows
https://forums.wincustomize.com/319751
SKS6 - 'Edit Vista Part Colors'
https://forums.wincustomize.com/313381
http://wiki.wincustomize.com/wiki/SkinStudio_Help:_Edit_Vista_parts_colours
Learn together with I.R. Bainiac:
https://forums.wincustomize.com/319865
Start Menu Open help thread:
https://forums.wincustomize.com/337992
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Reply #22 Saturday, August 2, 2008 5:43 PM
found out so far:
1-copy
2-move
3-make shortcut
4-forbidden (not possible) ??
5-?
6-?
7-?
I replaced 5-6-7 by "5" "6" "7" but never meat those so far...
Reply #23 Thursday, August 7, 2008 6:13 AM
Reply #24 Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:58 AM
I think I might be able to explain that one. I rarely maximize windows. Why? Because chopped off frames ruin the look of a nice skin IMHO. If I didn't care about my windows appearance, I wouldn't use WindowBlinds. Perhaps I'm not alone.
Reply #25 Friday, August 8, 2008 5:55 AM
Reply #27 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 12:45 PM
Quick tip - the two small images that make up the bottom corners and bar in the IE7 tabs have to be saved as Indexed .bmps.
In Photoshop > Menu > Image > Mode > Indexed color > Save.
Reply #28 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 12:59 PM
Can anyone confirm this before I add it:
To avoid streaching on the brand in the control panel sidebar the canvas size should be 200x331 pixels. Your image can be any size as long as you stay within those parameters.
Reply #29 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 1:51 PM
In Photoshop > Menu > Image > Mode > Indexed color > Save.
Thanks, John!
added to the OP
Reply #30 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:37 PM
This one you know Tim 
Make sure to make the programslist (starpanel left side) wide enough for the application text's if you plan on having it animated fail to make i wide enough for the content and mouse over the to long text will repaint the startpanel and trigger the animation from the beginning again.
Reply #31 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 3:32 PM
I just disovered this thread! Good idea! Thanks! 
Reply #32 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 3:40 PM
how true..........added to OP
Tack! 
Reply #33 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 3:52 PM
how about also stating that diamond template is CORRUPT and we need a decent template to begin skinning with, atm i currently try to use anything from a master or stardock skin..... i would like some tips on how to rename a skin to my own name, I still cant do this.
Reply #34 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:02 PM
That's very odd, Kitty. I've never had a problem with that. I have renamed skins several times without problems. I just choose "save as" , give it a new name, and delete the old one. What happens to your skins?
Reply #35 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 1:21 AM
the skin name changes, but the uis in the skin name wont change....especially for xp, (when it has xp and vista as default style) if you like, can you please download the new aero frost and rename it to "intoxica" for me? atm my pc is shot and will be going to the shop tomorrow......when i have it back, ill pm you, and you can send me the skin and tell me how you did it?
id be very greatful.......techy stuff just isnt my line......
Reply #36 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 4:43 AM
It's true, kitty. When I renamed aero frost to intoxica, it didn't work. I suspect that it's not a good method to rename a skin that already has a substyle. I noticed that when I went into the skin folder, there were a lot of images that were named AeroFrost(imagename).tga while some images were just (imagename).tga. There were also AeroFrost.UIS files as well as intoxica.UIS files in the folder.
When I start a skin, I always just click on new skin and give it the name rather than using another skin as a template. Then I complete the vista version and add a substyle. Next, I create a .wba and move the skin to my xp machine, make my adjustments, and complete the xp shellstyle, animations, etc.
That's how I did the ZubaZ blind and I'm not aware of any issues with the skin.
Reply #37 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:06 AM
and you're not putting this kind of information in the wiki because...
Reply #38 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:10 AM
......I haven't collected enough yet. It will be added to the wiki when I have enough and have sorted the info into sections.
Reply #39 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:20 AM
To avoid streaching on the brand in the control panel sidebar the canvas size should be 200x331 pixels. Your image can be any size as long as you stay within those parameters.
In case this question was missed..........
Reply #40 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 12:26 PM
that's great, I'm happy to hear this. thank you for wanting to do that, it's much appreciated.
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Reply #21 Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:17 PM
LOL I was thinking the same thing.
Or...
ENGAGE
BY YOUR COMMAND
AYE AYE CAP'N
and so on