Tips and tricks for skinstudio

Thursday, July 10, 2003 by I.R. Brainiac | Discussion: Skinning

My best tip is about shellstyle glyphs(those images at the lower right of my pictures,my music etc...)After hours of frustration at having them disappear mysteriously I found that if the top left pixel in the image didnt match EXACTLY with the explorer window background color they would not show.As long as that one pixel was the same they reappeared.
crissy14
Reply #1 Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:33 AM
WOW! Is that why they sometimes not show? That's been very frustrating. Good tip I.R. Brainiac!
I'm too new to skinning, so unfortunately, I don't think I have any tips to share yet, but certainly would like to hear others' tips.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #2 Thursday, July 10, 2003 12:02 PM
Welcome to the WB crissy!
eieio
Reply #3 Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:19 PM
I think you just answered why my shellstyles don't show in the skin I'm working on, Brainiac!
crissy14
Reply #4 Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:34 PM
Thanks Brainiac.
[Message Edited]
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #5 Thursday, July 10, 2003 4:14 PM
Was wondering if you were working on something new pictoratus.Looking forward to seeing it.Crissy you need to post a picture of yourself in your nurses uniform in the spot where your desktop image goes or in the new skinners album.
crissy14
Reply #6 Thursday, July 10, 2003 5:46 PM
Brainiac
Thanks for the suggestion (you must have guessed Im a nurse from my last skin .. ) But unfortunately, at present, I'm an unemployed nurse. I was forced to leave my job of 20 years due to a new supervisor who wanted to drastically rearrange (get rid of is a better word) our nursing staff ...anyway in all those 20 years, I never wore a uniform cause I worked in a home-like environment and we felt our patients would feel more "at home" not seeing uniforms. Maybe soon though, Ill post a picture of myself
crissy14
Reply #7 Thursday, July 10, 2003 5:47 PM
OMG ....I think I just hijacked this thread with another subject. Sorry
eieio
Reply #8 Thursday, July 10, 2003 6:51 PM
@ Brainiac
Slowly working my way through a new skin. Click on my name for a preview.
The shellstyle glyphs were giving me trouble so I kinda went past them for a while.
Finally got them all working except the 'no modify ...' one.
Puzzling!
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #9 Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:03 PM
I dont even know what that one is for.I've never seen it.Like the colors in your skin.Status bar and titlebar look interesting.
eieio
Reply #10 Friday, July 11, 2003 4:02 AM
The 'do not modify' glyph shows when you go to the C drive, Windows, System32, etc. in Explorer. I usually tell Windows to let me see the files, though.
Kind of presumptuous for Windows to think I shouldn't see my files!
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #11 Friday, July 11, 2003 7:19 AM
Ooooooh.I didnt skin that one.Guess i dont ever go there.Thanks for the info.
joetheblow
Reply #12 Saturday, July 12, 2003 12:11 AM
Cool tip. I have to remember that one.

One pixel huh? sheeesh
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #13 Saturday, July 12, 2003 8:11 AM
Joetheblow you wouldnt believe how long it took me to figure that one out.Oh,wait a minute you've used SS so you probably would. I love SS but my biggest problem is remembering which settings on which branch dont have any effect.Especially with respect to text settings.Probably a third of my time skinning was wasted dealing with useless or unsolvable issues.Hopefully future builds will deal with some of these probs.Most of us are spending a great deal of our spare time at this(and some not so spare time I bet)It would be nice if it could be spent more productively.This skinners section is great step in that direction .In SS's defense tho they probably dont have a lot of money to spend on development.
Keila
Reply #14 Sunday, July 20, 2003 7:43 AM
I have noticed with a few WB that the designer is using the same color for the Button Face and the Background Highlight. This causes a problem in PSP because you cannot see what layer you are working with because of no highlight.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #15 Thursday, July 24, 2003 7:57 AM
That would be a problem Keila,thanks.
Pensive Chimp
Reply #16 Friday, July 25, 2003 4:39 PM
Here are what tips I have gathered and problems I've run into. Let me know if you have more correct information on any of these items.

Hover background color of the All Programs item on the Start Panel is controlled by Miscellaneous->Colors / Menus->Menu - Highlighted background (XP Only), also known as [Colours]->MenuHilight=R G B in the UIS file.

Hover text color of the flashing task bar button will always use the same color as defined by the normal task bar button.

Can't change the active task bar button's hover text color.

Can't change the text color for the Log Off, Shutdown, or Please Wait system dialogs.

The Log Off Flag is shared on the Please Wait system dialog.

Can't change the text foreground color of the sub-pages of the Control Panel.

The hover and pressed images for the Log Off, Shut Down, and Undock buttons on the Start Panel are not used.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #17 Friday, July 25, 2003 9:21 PM
That last one is true if you are using a logoff background button.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #18 Monday, July 28, 2003 8:09 AM
You can make the user text go away if you set the text angle to 180 degrees from forward to backward.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #19 Friday, August 1, 2003 9:38 AM
Titlebar buttons give me haell!Sometimes I cant get them to accept new images thru the import feature.I found that directly editing the code would work everytime.Works for deleting buttons too.

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