Vista skinning questions.

Help me,help you...God help us all.

Thursday, July 31, 2008 by I.R. Brainiac | Discussion: Skinning

Vista,WB and me got off to a rocky start but after some super tweaking help and finally getting WB installed correctly...my hatred of Vista has cooled to merely annoyance with some of the gui decisions microsoft made.With the right tweaks it runs fine even on my mediocre system.(turn off LOTS of stuff,all animations,popup thumbnails,superfetch and on and on...)

WB now does some pretty neat stuff on Vista and thats what finally won me over...well,at least I dont leave Vista at the earliest opportunity.  

SKS6 still cant touch 5 for ease of use(and never will in its current layout),but to skin Vista you have to get over it and dig in.You may click yourself silly but it DOES have some nifty features.It supports all the latest tricks now and the subframe builder is pretty cool.Vertically stacked images are back!YAY Neil.  

So I'm gonna use this screeny to ask some questions while I test different areas to see what they do.If you KNOW the answer please chime in.If you have a question,please fell free to ask.

My first tip for the counterintuitive section is...User pane icon would not move DOWN on the pane til I used NEGATIVE top content margins in the text tab.

 

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2of3
Reply #21 Saturday, August 2, 2008 10:32 AM
Push buttons when used in the example below don't support transparency (at least no skins on my system do). This is ugly in the ugliest. The push buttons look fine everywhere else.


Another place I had to compromise

I really wanted a nice rounded button there

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #22 Saturday, August 2, 2008 4:24 PM
I.R. where did you change the text color for items on the right side of explorer (01 - Gnaahh, green)?


In the custom backgrounds section...once you have a background graphic you can set a color other than the system colors.

Push buttons when used in the example below don't support transparency (at least no skins on my system do). This is ugly in the ugliest. The push buttons look fine everywhere else.


I've been seeing occurences of this too on some popups...was wondering how to fix.  


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #23 Saturday, August 2, 2008 4:29 PM
The tray arrow expnder could use some more control. When switching to double taskbar, all it does is center itself on the taskbar. I really could use the ability to lock it where I want it.


Gets old skinning around that.If all the alignment settings actually worked in WB...this could be 'align top'and it would stay put.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #24 Saturday, August 2, 2008 4:44 PM
In my opinion, Vista is easier, cleaner, and more complete to skin. I hope you soon discover this as well IR.


In some ways this is true...except that the only tool available is SKS6 and that isnt easier than 5...no amount of familiarity with it will ever bring it above its limitations.

Vista skinning adds some new capabilities but also brings its own limitations...just when you think you have something finished...up pops something that dosnt work well with your decision...because WB has allowed the OS to call the shots on it.So we still end up only being able to design skins that follow certain parameters or they are unusable. ( 

Same old story,different OS.  

vogliadicane
Reply #25 Saturday, August 2, 2008 5:24 PM
I.R. I love you! Thanks

Always used the Non-Glass Background so I missed that.

vogliadicane
Reply #26 Saturday, August 2, 2008 5:44 PM
I never used SkS 5 so I thought that anything buggy is just Skinstudio itself, but from this thread (and others)...

another thing, that bothered me is, that pixels with alpha=0 are replaced with black in popup menu background. As a workaround I add a background layer 50% grey 1% opacity which is almost invisible.
Anyone an idea?

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #27 Saturday, August 2, 2008 7:47 PM
Some menus(according to vStyler)are either using trans wrong,doubling up,or just plain screwed.Wrong text colors,mouseovers messed up etc...

We need Neil to help us out with this one.I dont think its anything we can fix.(I havnt got into the menus yet other than the ones that imported from XP into the substyle,so things MAY get better...but vStyler says we are stuck with some of the ugly for now)



Nothing about this menu is correct.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #28 Saturday, August 2, 2008 7:53 PM
I never used SkS 5 so I thought that anything buggy is just Skinstudio itself, but from this thread (and others)...


SKS in either version isnt so much the issue...Adam finally drilled this into my head(the old SKS developer),SKS just writes the code...code can be added by hand if need be...its up to WB to implement the code.Something it sometimes cant do.

Such as entering a content margin for text,SKS will put the numbers there for you but WB cant always implement it.You can add sizing margins for any graphic by hand...but unless WB supports sizing in that section...nothing will happen.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #29 Saturday, August 2, 2008 11:40 PM
Push buttons when used in the example below don't support transparency (at least no skins on my system do). This is ugly in the ugliest. The push buttons look fine everywhere else.


I'm seeing this all over Vista...Neillllllllllll!We need you!  

Now I'm seeing it around tabs too.WTH?  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #30 Sunday, August 3, 2008 12:11 AM


They are showing the classic button face color around them.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #31 Sunday, August 3, 2008 3:50 AM
Anyone know what button type two is and what its used for?6 states but no reference to it in the preview.  

NightTrainthedark
Reply #32 Sunday, August 3, 2008 4:19 AM
Anyone know what button type two is and what its used for?6 states but no reference to it in the preview.


I never skin it and I haven't seen a skin yet that skins it. Possibly for future?   

vogliadicane
Reply #33 Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:09 AM
Anyone know what button type two is and what its used for?6 states but no reference to it in the preview.


it´s used for the menubar of explorer (press Alt)

PixelPirate
Reply #34 Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:38 AM
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. Why beats me, but (iirc) 58 is the magic number before the search icon aligns properly.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #35 Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:44 AM
it´s used for the menubar of explorer


The "toolbar style menubar button" is the correct image to skin for those buttons but they probably do the same thing.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #36 Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:45 AM
If it's over 58 px tall


If I go over 40 pixels tall the icon misaligns.   
I suppose I'll spend some more time exploring this new info.

PixelPirate
Reply #37 Sunday, August 3, 2008 6:02 AM
I had the issue when I did the Pirate theme. The bottom image is 57 pixels high on that one. And it appears Brainy added extra transparent space to his bottom image on the screenshot to lift it over the huge start button. Content margins have nothing to do with it. It's the physical size of the image itself. It shouldn't mess it up, if your bottom image is below 58 pixels.

NightTrainthedark
Reply #38 Sunday, August 3, 2008 6:09 AM
It all works as Lasse says now. Perhaps something was reworked cause I spent an entire day a couple of weeks ago trying to understand what I can and can't get away with.   

vogliadicane
Reply #39 Sunday, August 3, 2008 6:24 AM
The "toolbar style menubar button" is the correct image to skin for those buttons but they probably do the same thing.


hmm strange, for me only the images of "button type 2" (in Vista) show up there (I use a blank image for TSMB).

here´s my memo image for some things in vista explorer...


2of3
Reply #40 Sunday, August 3, 2008 6:30 AM
It all works as Lasse says now.


I hope you don't mind, Lasse that I added this tip to my Vista WB skinning shared knowledge and tips thread

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