Thank you for your kind reply. I feel I 've certainly been kinda misinterpreted... I didn't want to start a rant or being a complainer, I just wanted to express my opinion on how things SHOULD be, or picture in another way, I didn't suggest that things in place weren't right, that we should change them because of this or because of that, I just pointed out that things weren't in place. At all ! That leads me to this conclusion : either stardock feel so empowered that they just don't give a damn about how things are or they know how empowered they are and they just don't care to set things right. And I'm beginning to think they are both ways.

Let's face the reality : how big is stardock ? How big is the community ? How many are the users ? I've been using some pieces of stardock software, on and off, since maybe 10 years now and apart form the fellow membershippers that everybody is talking about here (just relate them to the whole majority of windows users) stardock users are near where they were : a little niche ! Why ? Lack of commitment from stardock ? Absence of knowledge, both from those who support stardock with their efforts in making skins available and end users maybe... I've tried establishing partnership with stardock to emphasize their presence here in france by creating a better distributor than the one they kept talking me about : their answer was money and the distributor name reputation. Nowhere near 'we'll be trhilled to size up our market share". So, how things are in the "community" are related to how things are on the market about stardock. Maybe stardock isn't near what it should be, maybe they aren't what we supposed they are because of a real partnership with us, sorry with you as I'm not finished, just started in fact, with my skin, so I'm not really an useful asset.

I'd like to point an excerpt of yours "it's like an initiation", sorry... an initiation is always by a master's side, not alone asking in forums ! ..smile....

Sure, but re inventing the wheel every day isn't really a productive way I'd say.

And to end my 'rant', I'd like to quote 

I certainly agree here because so far, beside Vampothika's effort in the matter of this post, I just didn't find a centralized/organized answer in skinning process : the well and talented skinners seem to thing that their knowledge should belong to themselves. Too bad.

Anyway, thank you all for your time on this thread, maybe I'll try to work the skin on my mind or I'll keep using the one working on my desktop for a while now, I've called Sirus by Mike Bryant. Thanks for your work !

You make it sound like we intentionally keep knowledge from you.

Perhaps some skinners have real jobs and kids and.......life? I don't work for Stardock.

I don't understand why certian people feel like it's my (or others) responsibility to create in depth tutorials. I help out on the forums when I see a specific problem that I know the answer to. I just don't have the time to do anything else if I intend to stay married and employed!

I'm not being mean, it's just the way life is.

When I first started skinning Windowblinds, I read ONE tutorial on how to make a start panel. I had questions about it, so I asked them in this forum....and I got help from MANY people. I dove right in and figured most of it out by myself. I worked for it because I wanted to be able to do it. Trial and error, over and over. There is no better way of learning something inside out than by trying/doing it. You may even do something that others thought was not possible, or that others never even thought of.

There are many people here who will help you when you get stuck or have a question. Saying that skinners want to keep the information to themselves is just flat out wrong. I have never met a more helpful bunch of people than I have here.

Start making your skin and keep at it until you got it, and ask questions. Look at other skins to see how they makd a particular part. No one can help you unless they know what it is that you need. 

This still doesn't invalidate the fact that, after more than 10 years, Stardock has no excuse for not having detailed skinning tutorials and detailed skinning documentation available.

Over 10 years ago, my very first message on the Stardock WB newsgroups, complaining about the lack of a skinning tutorial, got me flamed by Brad himself, lol. At the time Brad claimed WB was still in beta (it wasn't even version 1.0 then) and that was the reason why documentation wasn't available.

Well, been a long time since that, and skinning documentation is *still* not officialy available, hehe

The real issue is that we developers are all tech oriented people, and writting documentation for us sucks, it's very hard to do properly, and takes time away from other things - not to mention that skinning documentation needs to be updated constantly. 

AFAIK, you won't find detailed skinning documentation for any Windows customization applications, Stardock or otherwise. Even Winstep is now guilty of that same sin, in that Winstep used to have a very detailed User Guide and now, since the new UI, it has only a FAQ (in fact, and until the individual Winstep skinning app is ready, you can't even make new skins for Winstep unless you use the older v9.x version, which is what WebGizmos does).

Whatever the reasons, this is not conductive to introducing new blood into skinning. We (developers and companies) keep complaining that skinners are now few and far between, forgeting all the time that it is mostly our fault for not making clear and detailed tutorials in the first place. Winstep is now as guilty of this as Stardock, so, yes, I'm pointing the finger at myself too. 

Funny how that works. lol

So? When's the tutorial coming out? And when are you translating it to French, German, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian, etc.?

I'll bet WebGizmos could write  dictate a fantastic tutorial and you could have someone like Karen (k10w3) type it (serious suggestion).

This might sound dumb but if you want to start skinning a blind why dont you just start with a copy of the standard windows skin ( maybee the basic standart thing and start on skinning - all you basically have to do for the first time is change parts of it sure you cant say hey thats my skin if your done) but it should give you a clue about the basics so you should be abe to do some parts on your own then try to get as far as you can with your skin and if you cant go on because of a problem ask here for help.
To be honest i dont do blinds i honor the "ones" that do them.
Also complaining wont let you finish your task...concentrate on the making is far better and if your stuck write a post about it here get yourself a peanutbutter toast and something to drink and as soon as your finished refreshing yourself you will find an answer to your problem.
and keep in mind Skinning is like science you never finish learning.

   That is so funny.... Didn't notice the date...

So far I've not posted in this thread. Now I will. He he ...... I make calendars. You know ... those things with days and numbers and names of months and such. The first one I made looked like it wanted to run away and hide. Then I made some more and more on top of that not knowing what I was doing. Then I got this insane idea to ask somebody. You'd be surprised how many answers I got both good and not so good. I learned as has been often quoted here by trial and error. Basically it is the only way to learn how to skin. Now I do sysmetrix. Which shows how far I've progressed. A long time ago I actually tried to make a windowblind. I got as far as skinning one window, just one. I put it up and it showed on my screen and it was, not good to put it mildly. It was all over the place. I stuck to Rainlendar after that because it was easy. Now ... I 'build' skins not just make them. I've got three smx's under my belt and those were done to match windowblinds. I did one on my own just to see how much I could put into it. Know what ... it works. Not very useful but that isn't the point. The point is I proved to myself that I can do it. Olivia17, if you're still out there, listen up ... If I can do it then anybody can. Now I got me two more to do for not just windowblinds but for a DX (DesktopX). Imagine that! Back to work.          I feel better now.