Skinstudio - Your likes & dislikes » Forum Post by Neil Banfield

CerebroJD

Join Date 01/2003

+9

I know that Nail/Adam were working to tame the 'blizzard' of tooltips. I'm in favor of nuking them entirely, and providing the information in a seperate box that changes as you mouseover stuff. Same as the tooltip, just stuffed in a box that you can either show or hide as wanted/needed.

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

When can we expect an update ?

Nail

sorry JD couldn't help that one

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PurrBall

Join Date 02/2003

+23

I edit the code to remove unnecessary PerPixel=0 and Trans=0 lines that make the image not show on Pre-XP machines.

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

I would like an option to turn off the auto-renaming of imported images. Nothing more frustrating than searching for images in a mirage of images with 45 letter filenames.

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I agree with just about everything that was said. But the thing I would love to see most is better preview options so exactly what you see is what you get! Also maybe a per-pixel and non-perpixel mode because there is tons of options for skin elements that only work with non-pp items or that just don't work at all. For example, some items with animation attributes don't really animate. Checkbox and radiobutton glow don't work. And that's just a few... Oh, and content margins are so inaccurate. I hate messing with content margins a bunch of times and previewing the skin to see if it's correct. What would be sweet is if there were content and stretching margins in real-time previews of what your editing. I also think being able to have custom preview elements by just drag and dropping items over to you window, or just click on one item and thats all you see, with additional options to show/hide text or different elements.
Oh, and one more thing that would be awsome (if it at all possible) would be the abillity to use Photoshop or Corel files directly in SKS. Then all you'd have to do is pop open the file in PS, do a little editing, and vuala! No more saving .pngs then importing, then going back to edit them, then save and import again. And when the skin is finished and ready to be packaged, SKS just converts all the files automatically. Again, I don't know if thats possible, but it would be SWEET!

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The progress of SKS is a work of art. I have always loved it and its updates. There have been some good suggestions made for even more. I would like to see more done in the area of WMP. Also there are some definite Vista changes that need to be incorporated into SKS. Would love to see a new update soon. You guys are doing a stupendous job and keep it coming. Looking forward to the outcome.

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BONEHEADdb

Join Date 10/2004

+108

Brainiac - you can kill the tooltips by pressing alt.

Thanks for the tip, that was one of my biggest beefs. Now how the heck did you know that?

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PixelPirate

Join Date 07/2003

+17

Thanks for the tip, that was one of my biggest beefs. Now how the heck did you know that?

I can read minds.

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My Prob with SS is the fact that half the services don't work on some of the Computers I install it on. It nags me too much. Slightly too slow, and it's layout is not all that great either. Although it does the job with no problems, the skin eventually comes out right. Oh and not all of the utilities are easy to find.

I haven't used it much, but as far as I know it's progress is good - and it's coming a long way.

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I.R. Brainiac

Join Date 05/2003

+281

code checking could use some updating...it returns errors occasionally for non errors.(things that work or are neccessary like perpixel=1 for perpixel logoff/shutdown images)

And whats the prob with mismatched window top metrics...windowblinds seems to run fine with skinned and unskinned top metrics mismatched but SKS will nag you with a big bonk sound if you set them diff.(this is necessary for larger tops(skinned)so that dialog menus dont have the buttons pushed down at the bottom)

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danioc

Join Date 07/2001

+121

1 - A button to clear the skin cash files (.wb4, BLOCK files).

2 - A button to browse the skin folder in Windows Explorer.

3 - A way to save the skin with it's sub-styles together (this could be a very useful feature).

4 - Better UI icons (32 bit ones)

5 - A way to export the skin code as XML or something like the actual "Generate Documentation" feature but with a HTML that works in Firefox and other browsers than IE.

6 - A button to backup the working skin (just zip a copy of the skin folder), this
could help the skinners when they are experimenting unusual things (graphics or code
tweaks).

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Well, I spent countless minutes/hours viewing (why does wincustomize only put 8 skins on each webpage...biased towards high-speed users

?), and downloading/installing skins only to be disappointed and annoyed by something (either its design, hard to read text, or something doesn't work).

Yes, I will only be happy if I create my own skin. Problem is, there are no good tutorials/guides. Why not? I spent all day trying to customize, only to get errors or something simply doesn't work.

Is it like this for all new people?

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

only to get errors or something simply doesn't work.

What wasnt working? What errors are you getting?

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Well, I spent countless minutes/hours viewing (why does WinCustomize only put 8 skins on each webpage...biased towards high-speed users ?),

Great link to get you started HERE
Subscribers get up 100 skins per page as well as many other goodies

Click on The Shop button to get all the info on subscribing

It's My Secret

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How does that link help me skin?

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Bebi Bulma

Join Date 04/2004

+209

Different aspect of skinning...that link is to help new users apply downloaded skins to their machine. Tutorials on how to make those skins, on the other hand, seem to be harder to find, as you've noticed.

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DigitalCHET

Join Date 05/2001

+27

2 - A button to browse the skin folder in Windows Explorer.

Dani, it already has a button that does this. On the toolbar, it's the folder icon to the right of the Find & Replace button (the magnifying glass), Browse Skin Folder.
I did, however, notice that when it loads up the folder in Windows Explorer, the folder name is truncated using the older (Windows 95, etc) style FOLDER~# naming convention, i.e. D:\Stardock\WINDOW~1\Acrylic. I checked the installation folder to make sure it was wasn't mislabeled and found everything to be ok with the name in Explorer, so I'm wondering if it's a minor SKS bug.

3 - A way to save the skin with it's sub-styles together (this could be a very useful feature).

Indeed. That would be very useful and helpful.

6 - A button to backup the working skin (just zip a copy of the skin folder), this
could help the skinners when they are experimenting unusual things (graphics or code
tweaks).

Yes, this would be great as part of the Apply the Skin Now or Save Current File processes.

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Daiwa

Join Date 07/2001

+351

There are a number of things that SKS could be more explicit about.

The Help pane: Describing the image tile orientation (horizontal vs. vertical); there is no rhyme or reason why most are horizontal but some vertical & SKS doesn't clue you in. Certain images need to be specific &/or minimum or maximum sizes & SKS could tell you, but doesn't.

The Preview: It currently fails to render many elements as skinned (e.g., font colors in Taskbar Buttons) and previews some things skinned when they can't be (depending on the OS) or not as they are actually displayed when skinned (e.g., Panel Content & Special Pane Content images). If you were limited to fixing just one aspect of SKS, generating true WYSIWYG previews would be it.

The Classic Colors section does not use the same naming conventions as Windows Display Properties and uses a preview image that is bassackwards from Windows DP. I've never understood why it needed to be different; using the same names for GUI elements would avoid a ton of confusion because SKS doesn't have translation guide (which it shouldn't need, anyway).

An OS-specific preview would really be a boon. It would allow us to more easily create substyles specifically for Win2k, for instance, using images that the OS supports (transparency issues mainly).

I'm sure there are more things I've run across but can't think of just now. More will follow as I recall/encounter them.

Thanks for asking, Neil.

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1 - A button to clear the skin cash files (.wb4, BLOCK files).

2 - A button to browse the skin folder in Windows Explorer.

3 - A way to save the skin with it's sub-styles together (this could be a very useful feature).

4 - Better UI icons (32 bit ones)

5 - A way to export the skin code as XML or something like the actual "Generate Documentation" feature but with a HTML that works in Firefox and other browsers than IE.

6 - A button to backup the working skin (just zip a copy of the skin folder), this
could help the skinners when they are experimenting unusual things (graphics or code
tweaks).

You're a GENIUS!

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Vampothika

Join Date 07/2006

+590

I just thought of 2 more things that I think would look great skinned and also give that extra element to the skinning of wb. When you double click the time in the task tray the window comes up that shows you the time, date year ect... what about skinning that horrid ticking clock that is in the 'time' section. i think that would be great. and another thing i would like skinned is the
computer icon in computer properties, GENERAL section.

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2of3

Join Date 10/2006

+816

I think the classic colours could have more explanation exactly what they are used for ect......

Yeah!

content margins are so inaccurate. I hate messing with content margins a bunch of times and previewing the skin to see if it's correct. What would be sweet is if there were content and stretching margins in real-time previews of what your editing. I also think being able to have custom preview elements by just drag and dropping items over to you window, or just click on one item and thats all you see, with additional options to show/hide text or different elements.

second that!

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