You need to leave transparent gaps at each end of your seperators so that they don't run into the edge of the start panel.

Aaah yes thats a great idea why didn't I think of it lol Thanks alot

Ok I'm starting on Control Panel Section and I applied the background one from someone elses skin to see where it would popup as Im not familiar with where to look for these images to show up and well it doesnt appear where I see in when I'm using the other skin no clue what to do now totally lost a visual image of each part of the control panel would be very helpful to get me familiar with this if anyone can help me out of my confusion lol

Thanks Lisa

You're on XP, right?  I'm on Vista right now, so I'm trying to remember on XP, where to get the control panel to look correctly....On Tuesday I'm going to be booting up my geezer machine to refine some of the XP parts of the blind I'm working on right now, but I know if I were you I wouldn't want to wait that long for an answer to your question.  I think you have to set your control panel off of Classic View to see the parts correctly?  Which part in particular were you having questions about?  What does Skin Studio call the part?

Yes XP its under xp specific > Shellstyle > control panel those areas in there 2 are images background and do not modify then the other 2 I changed are header and vertical separator which are just colors nothing is showing up Im using 2 images from another skin that do show up inder the view Ive been using which isnt classic view but I thought classic view was only the start menu guess I'm not to familiar with the areas and lingo.

So I guess I'm a bit confused as to why the other skin does change those areas with the exact same images and color adjustments and not change to the view.

I only know how to change the start menu view which when I do change to classic view makes my start menu I made disappear not so under my current view whatever the name is of it I have no idea where to look to change that one.

Thanks Lisa

The only change I have found is in the mouseover in the control panel but I still cant find what area the images are applied to if they even are working when applied.

The Background and Do not Modify images show up on the control panel in the 'catagory view'. They are the large icons in the bottom right of the screen. The Do Not Modify image occupies the same place as the Background, but only shows at certain times. It's best to use .bmp images here.

I have never seen the header in action, but there are 2 colors to change there. Check the dropdown in that section.

The vertical seperator is the 1 pixel line the runs between the main part of the window and the left section. There are 2 colors to change here as well. If it is similar to your window color, it will blend in and you wont see it.

Check all the dropdowns in all the sections. There are lots of colors to set in them. Your best bet if you can't find where a color is changed, is to make that color lime green or hot pink and then look for it.....it will jump out at you then!

Hope that helps a little.

I had problems with that on my old computer that I gave to my husband when I bought my laptop -- I've skinned all those areas, and only once did it show up, and then I had some blue screen issues and factory reformatted and those sections would never show up again, but I'm hoping on Tuesday when I apply this skin to HIS old dinosaur of a machine (that he gave to me simply for XP windowblind creations), the skinned sections will apply.

I know it's suppose to show an icon (do not modify image).  I think the background image usually has a picture in it, too, I believe to show up in the bottom corner.  The time that I DID have those images applied, I remember I had to change the setting to not show classic view.

I may be readressing this myself on Tuesday, when I see what happens with the skin I'm making on XP (and then I might get brave enough to install my Windows 7 upgrade disc to my laptop and get rid of Vista).

Wow thanks for the visuals it helps yes I did change the color to a dramatic one black well maybe not dramatic but a color the opposite of white and I see it in skinstudio when i do this but not applied the only change is the mouseover color and the the vertical wont show because my view doesnt have that side panel for the vertical and the image doesnt appear either I read somewhere that the shellstyles are dll files dont know if it has something to do with this maybe if I save the whole thing as a wba and apply it if that will do the trick I will try that next.

Can you go back to Vista if you dont like Windows 7? I know upgrades go smooth from what i've read never did it myself I did a recovery once or twice but I read that downgrading is sometimes not possble at least from vista to xp.

Goodluck if you do get brave.

Thanks Lisa

Yeah even tried the windows frames sections and my applied images don't showup not sure what to think.

Yeah I'd love a new computer and use this as my spare but moneys tight I'm very lucky to have this one its my 1st and only its a little over 3 years old been running good for the most part I've learned a lot about PCs sometimes more then I care to let me know how it goes I'm sure you will be happy with 7 I've heard many good reports on it.

do not modify is hardly ever seen,  the background image for the control panel will show BUT you must make sure that the controlpanel background is exactly the same colour as the windows background colour, if it is not, it will not show up.

you will have to be very precise and get it correct. you can put whatever image or design you want on top of the control background image (for example.... a shape of a spanner), but just make sure that its background is the same colour as the windows background colour.

the windows colour by default is white, go to  change skin colours (which is just above the change skin fonts) tab and

you will see an explorer box that says " show me the skin colour presets" click on the arrow beside it and choose the option below which says: "show me the skin defined system colours"

this is where you see your window colour and its called " Window background"  this is the colour you have to match with the control panel background image. if not, it wont show up.

hope this helps.

ps. you dont have to have it white, (white is 255, 255, 255) i personally choose 240 ,240, 240, its not white, not to dark, but just right for me. sometimes white can be toooo white if you know what i mean....your choice, you can adjust it to how you like for your own usability ect. but if you do change it, remember to change the otherstuff to match  xx

I have the control panel background image a different color than my windows background in my blind and it is working fine. I verified this by changing my window background color to lime green. The control panel image is still showing, the shell style large icons are not.

been awhile since i used xp my bad.......but still a good tip for the shell images.. im sure with all our help diva will pull off a wb for sure.

Ok I will give it a whirl thanks so much for the help I will be back with my progress.

Yep it worked Kitty the color changed now to get the image to display.

Ok I changed the image format to bmp still won't display no big deal at this point I did manage to get the background color soreted out now I'm on to the next area which is probably gonna be the title bars if I can locate it .

Ha I can't find it must go under another name and I'm assuming I will need to make changes to all the title bars in different sections that it won't be an across the board thing.