A few questions

Sunday, May 11, 2003 by JohnnyC243 | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

Hello everyone, I'm new here and I just got SkinStudio so I'm working on my first skin. I've run in to some things that are giving me trouble, I was woundering if you guys could help me out.

1. I can't seem to save any skin as a substyle. I follow the directions in the SkinStudio Save As dialog but it never turns out right.
2. Sometimes two pixels down the entire right hand side of any window disappear. If I minimize then maximize the window they come back but that gets annoying after a while.
3. It seems like more of my windows are being opened in a non-maximized way ever since I've been using windowblinds, why is this?
4. In the windows XP right click menu there is a little seperator between groups of items. I can't figure out how to skin that with SkinStudio.
5. Start>All Programs there is a little horizontal seperator, I can't figure out how to customize that either.
6. How come the picture of the WindowBlinds skin "OSXP NG" has different icons and a skinned Task Panel in the picture here: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=1&SkinID=2906 but not when I download it and use it on my computer.
7. Adobe Elements doesn't skin very well with windowblinds so I tried to exclude it in the settings by saying "Ignore this application and do not skin it" but that ended up making it worse and gave it no skinning whatsoever, not even the default Windows XP skin. How do I get it so Elements gets the Default Windows XP skin but everything else gets the custome windowblinds skin?

If anybody knows anything about these issues, please let me know.
22 Reply 2 Referrals
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knatzz
Reply #1 Sunday, May 11, 2003 9:28 PM
1. That never works for me either, copy the skin and paste it in another folder, then rename to "whatever.sss" and then move it back, go to tools, create compound skin and add the new one then save.
2. under window borders, there is a "screen edge clip" attribute for top, bottom, left and right images, set that to zero and see if that helps.
3. ?
4. That should be the first state of the menuitem image
5. ?
6. He is probably using YZ's toolbar to replace those icons, WB doesn't do that. You can find it with a google search
7. when WB ignores an app, it is skinned "classic style" WB doesn't use the visual styles at all so you won't see luna when an app is excluded.

Hope that helps, elaborate on the ones I left ?'s at and maybe I can help you more

JohnnyC243
Reply #2 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 3:24 AM
Thanks for the help, they should fix what ever is wrong with the issue in #1.



2. I can't find this, although it sounds like it might work

3. This is probably nothing

4. Thanks I found that, but now it still doesn't work. I'm still working on the why but right now it isn't making much sense.

5. If you go to the start menu then to all programs in the pop up menu there is a seperator that keeps most of your folders at the bottom and some of your icons at the top. Some programs install a link to their program in this sectioned off area. I know that when I first installed XP they put a link to Windows update up there. Anyway I can't figure out how to skin that seperator. I think that it might also be associated with the menuitem image, but is not the same as the seperator I'm talking about in 4

6. Would you recommend using YZ?

7. That sucks, they should make the default skin be Luna, it looks so much better.



New

8. In Windows XP luna whenever a program has an alert the button on the taskbar turns orange and flashes. How do I get a similar function in my skin?

9. How come my scrollbars don't scroll smoothly anymore, they only jump into preset positions?



Thanks again
[Message Edited]

JohnnyC243
Reply #3 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:16 AM
What are the advantages of TGA over BMP and what exactly does Black do in a TGA file?

MadIce
Reply #4 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:30 AM
TGA allows you to have an alpha channel. So you can do per pixel alpha blending. Black is just a color. It does not do anything special.

JohnnyC243
Reply #5 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 6:26 AM
Actually could someone just explain to me how TGA files work. For some reason Whenever I make one of my own in adobe elements the black ring doesn't become translucent when I use it in windowblinds. I have the alpha level set to 255. I have the translucency on. What else do i have to do? Also whenever I edit a TGA file that someone else made, it doesn't show up correctly in windowblinds. I edited one so that amoung other things the black areas where in different places so that the translucentcy would be in a different place. The editing part went fine but when I put it in windowblinds, my new image was there, but the previous transparency areas where still there, not the new ones that I thought I put in. What's with that, is there some special program that I'm supposed to use to edit TGA files?

JohnnyC243
Reply #6 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 6:58 AM
also sometimes issue number 2 does not go away with minimizing and maximizing the program. I have a picture of what I'm talking about, I can email it to anybody that wants and I'm going to try to post it later today. I can't figure out why it happends

MadIce
Reply #7 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 7:04 AM
[MenuBar]
UseCustomBackground=1
Image=MotherOfPlastic\MenuButtons.tga
TopHeight=9
BottomHeight=8
LeftWidth=8
RightWidth=8
Tile=1
Trans=1
PerPixel=1

The above is a sample of a section that does work.

Notice the use of Trans=1 and PerPixel=1

MadIce
Reply #8 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 7:07 AM
AFAIK translucency (per pixel alpha blending) does not work for title bar buttons.

JohnnyC243
Reply #9 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:05 AM
Image=OSXAquaXP-NG\parrowsystray.tga
UseCustomBackground=1
TopHeight=0
BottomHeight=0
LeftWidth=0
RightWidth=0
Tile=1
Trans=1
PerPixel=1

My code looks to be about the same, it still doesn't work.
Here is mine, do you think that it isn't working because the image i'm trying to change is in the system tray?

Also in that code there is no alpha value, does that matter and what does that do? The default is 255 does that mean white or is that just a random number?

JohnnyC243
Reply #10 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:25 AM
Also I accidently closed the code tab in skinstudio and can't get it back. I can get it open again, just not as a tab. Has anyone else had this problem?

MadIce
Reply #11 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 9:00 AM
"Here is mine, do you think that it isn't working because the image i'm trying to change is in the system tray?"

Yes. Images on the taskbar, system tray and start menu do not support translucency.

[Message Edited]

JohnnyC243
Reply #12 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 9:17 AM
Doh!

I've noticed something else. Sometimes the default button has a dotted rectangle around it. Is this customizable?
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]

JohnnyC243
Reply #13 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:15 AM
I put those pictures up dealing with issue #2
these are screenshots of two different windows. One with the problem and one without. The problem isn't inherent in the window itself because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

http://www.geocities.com/masterajk/GoodRightSide.bmp
http://www.geocities.com/masterajk/MessedUpRightSide.bmp

knatzz
Reply #14 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:57 AM
2. sorry forgot to mention you should be in skin studio, in the windows borders section, there will be an attribute called "screen edge clip" for each image (Top, Bottom etc) set that to zero to get it right.

4. Check the 3rd image state, that might be the separator, I know it's one of them

5. It should be one of the image states, your on the right track. IN skin studio, if you have the image highlighted, there will be a dropdown box which shows the different states

6. I have used Yz, and would reccomend it, hasn't given me any problems and it's free

7. oh well, can't have your cake and eat it too!

8. there is a section called "Taskbar flashing button" I think its in the same section as the taskbar button, just 1 image state

9. I dunno! never seen that before, mine work just as they always have

Quick note on targas, I have no idea how they work, but they are great to use. Translucency does work for the taskbar buttons and system tray. the only places you will find it doesn't work are in the titlebars, and a few others. Anywhere you see the translucency option you can use a targa. Try setting the per-pexel level higher than 1, somewhere in the 200 area and the image should show up. I think you have made it invisible with that low setting I'm not sure cause I'm still pretty new here myself

JohnnyC243
Reply #15 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 11:30 AM
Thanks for the info the only thing is that I'm pretty sure that #2 doesn't have anything to do with screen edge clip cause it only happends intermittantly and when it does happen it will only happen to one window leaving all the rest unharmed.

knatzz
Reply #16 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 12:38 PM
Hmmm... sry, I haven't ever seen that problem. You might want to check out the stardock newsgroups.

MadIce
Reply #17 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 1:01 PM
Knatz you are wrong about the places in which PerPixel can be used. PerPixel is a switch. PertPixel=200 is nonsence. PerPixel=0 means off and PerPixel=1 means on. Do not confuse this with the Alpha=X setting. That is totally different. The Alpha setting works in combination with Trans=1. Typically it is used to set transparency as Trans=1 and Alpha=254. Other values of Alpha indicate uniform translucency (i.e. alpha blending).

knatzz
Reply #18 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 1:13 PM
Ah, your right, I got them confused thanks for correcting me!

MadIce
Reply #19 Tuesday, May 13, 2003 1:34 PM
Well, I just asked Neil Banfield (lead programmer of WindowBlinds). He says that it should work as long as it has a bitmap below it. So taskbar buttons can use it, but the taskbar image itself cannot. Otherwise it will be blended against black. If Neils says it should work then who am I to tell it doesn't. Never seen it working, though.

He also tells me that PerPixel is a switch indeed. So it can have the values 0 (off) and 1 (on).

[Message Edited]

JohnnyC243
Reply #20 Wednesday, May 14, 2003 11:33 AM
Would you say that Object Dock is a good and stable program? How come I can't find it in my Component Manager?

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