The Un-Official WindowBlinds/SkinStudio Documentation Project
Thursday, September 11, 2003 by Koasati | Discussion: Skinning
The Un-Official WindowBlinds/SkinStudio Documentation Project
Documentation for skinning WindowBlinds using Skinstudio is sorely lacking. The intention of this thread is to gather as much info as possible about the subject. I think a few rules need to observed, to keep this thread on track.
1. Keep the chit-chat to a minimum.... any comment that doesn't contribute to the purpose of this thread, and threatens to hijack it, will be deleted.
2. If you have a question, begin the comment with QUESTION:
If you have an answer to a Question, begin your comment with ANSWER to #xx: (#xx being the post number of the question)
If you have a tip, start the comment with TIP:
You get the idea.
3. Please do not post a solution if you're guessing. Be sure you know what you're saying is correct, otherwise you're not helping anyone.
4 I would like to see images in this thread only when that would help explain the problem or solution, BUT optimize your images before you post them here.
Use jpg, and compress until it hurts.
Learn to use the image insertion feature before you post the image. (I don't want to see a bunch of red X's) (You can't uploaded images from your harddrive)
Your image should only show the relevant parts of the skin, or SkinStudio interface. (NO FULL DESKTOP IMAGES!) Some of us are on dialup.
If you don't know how to use the feature, or how to optimize jpgs, don't ask in this thread, start a new one in the HELP section.
Hopefully we will have most of our top skinners contributing to project... you know how you are.. 
LET'S DO IT! Who will be the first to contribute?
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Reply #62 Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:24 PM
Reply #64 Monday, March 15, 2004 5:33 PM
TIP: When using Roll-up, you will often have a bit missing on the bottom left. Sometimes you can fix this
by adjusting the sizing margins on the left and/or bottom frame, or by adjusting the height of the roll-up. But this doesn't always work, and you may have to alter your design........... or... you can create a "fake titlebar button" to cover the missing bit, and set it to "show if window is rolled up" in Visibility Settings, "Add area to border" in Painting Options, and "Do Nothing" in Actions
Reply #65 Saturday, April 3, 2004 10:17 AM
Who can tell me what's going on here...? http://members.iinet.com.au/~sojeda/images/FrameProb.jpg
See the right window frame? The transparency is being tiled for some reason. I've checked all the settings and found no cause for this.
I'd love some help on it.
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Reply #66 Sunday, April 4, 2004 5:46 AM
Be careful with transparency use in top window borders. Apps with MDI windows have problems. When you minimize an MDI window, it 'inherits' any transparency from the normal amximized window. Also, if the MDI window is exceptionally small to begin with, the resulting minimized bar will be clipped, chopping buttons.
Possible bug? Clipping problem does not appear when WB is unloaded.
Reply #67 Sunday, April 4, 2004 7:04 AM
WindowBlinds 4.29 Build 136 Beta
TIP: In SkinStudio...The Hide User Picture attribute under User Pane when enabled, now works
I don't know when this was fixed. Previously I would set the left Content Margin to -60. Can anyone else verify that this works or at least let me know I'm not crazy in thinking that it didn't work before.TIP: To make the User Name invisible on the StartPanel User Pane. Set the font to one that contains in alpha-numeric characters. A good one is FreeHand 9 Symbols 9,12 FreeHand9Sym.FON. Also make sure to add it as a font to be installed.
Reply #68 Sunday, April 4, 2004 7:22 AM
Is this a bug? Top image is from when I first open the Display Properties by right-clicking on the desktop. Bottom image is from after hitting one of the other tabs then going back to the first tab. Seems to fix itself and display the Tabs Border TabPane.bmp and Tabs Page TabsPage.bmp correctly.
Reply #69 Sunday, April 4, 2004 11:57 AM
Reply #70 Sunday, May 9, 2004 7:54 PM
TIP:
If you Delete the Taskbar QuickLaunch images in a skin the QuickLaunch Buttons will use the same images for the Taskbar Buttons. The benefit of this is that you don't end up with half-funky shaped buttons for the ">>" button. Instead, the ">>" isn't skinned and looks much cleaner. essorrant's Grift WB available at the GUIOlympics is an example of this.
Reply #71 Saturday, May 15, 2004 5:47 PM
This might be an obvious one but how does one specify a shadow in a WB skin?
Reply #72 Sunday, May 16, 2004 12:41 PM
| QUESTION:This might be an obvious one but how does one specify a shadow in a WB skin? |
RESPONSE:
The only shadows that you can specifically set in a WB skin is for text. Any other shadow effects a skin might have are done by the author through how he creates his images using tga files in the areas that allow them. To add shadow effects to window frames you need to run WindowFX. This info is to the best of my experience correct
Reply #73 Wednesday, July 7, 2004 4:04 PM
Reply #74 Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:32 AM
Anyone else seen this?
[Message Edited]
Reply #75 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:15 PM
| QUESTION: What is the difference between .png and .tga and why has stardock chosen tga over png? |
I don't know the technical differences between the two.
I believe it was Nakor that once explained that png would use more resourses to be rendered in WindowBlinds.
Reply #76 Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:31 AM
Answer: The alignment of the all programs button is related to the font size used in the all programs background. The larger the font, the higher the left margin value should be.
In windowblinds configuration there is a setting to increase font sizes. I think this is causing the oversized all program arrows to align differently on some systems.
Reply #77 Monday, August 23, 2004 1:41 PM
| Citizen DanielMD - 8/23/2004 3:26:40 AM TIP: If you want to change the height of the taskbar in XP, try adding/editing the top and bottom content margins on the taskbar buttons (And also quicklaunch ones too if you use them). |
Reply #78 Thursday, September 30, 2004 9:45 AM
QUESTION: there is no way os skinning the two arrows ">>" is tehre ?
QUESTION: I have problems with some of the progress bars, the ones in windows like copy files, download files etc. show up just fine but some don't work fine - like the ones when an installer extracts - it just gets black or like this one in cute ftp
. what's wrong?Reply #79 Thursday, September 30, 2004 10:06 AM
| QUESTION: i can't get the common tasks to show in my skin..they preview just fine in SS but does not appear in explorer, although everything seems to be fine |
ANSWER: If you're using translucency on anything other than the Up/Down arrors, this could be the cause of your problem.
| QUESTION: there is no way of skinning the two arrows ">>" is there ? |
ANSWER: They can't be skinned.
Reply #80 Thursday, September 30, 2004 2:17 PM
thanks anyways
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Reply #61 Wednesday, March 10, 2004 11:24 AM
How do I go about automatically removing the user icon from the user panel? I remember seeing a skin which, I think, did this automatically.