Introduction
SkinStudio is a program that allows users to create visual styles for Windows XP and Windows Vista. These visual styles are applied by the popular GUI skinning program, WindowBlinds. A fully complete visual style will change the title bars, borders, push buttons, scrollbars, Start bar, Start menu, and virtually every other part of the Windows GUI.
SkinStudio 6 represents a complete rewrite of previous versions of SkinStudio. The new version is designed to make it much easier for new users to get into skinning. Skinners can change as much or little of the GUI as they choose and SkinStudio will fill in the rest for them. A new skin can take a matter of minutes or weeks depending on how sophisticated the skin is.
The new interface of SkinStudio
The old interface of SkinStudio
A Tour of SkinStudio 6
SkinStudio 6 takes on a much more task-oriented design. Rather than the user being overwhelmed with information by seeing all elements of the visual style at once, SkinStudio 6 instead takes the user step by step through the skin.
Editing controls
Each element shows either (or both) a Windows XP logo or a Windows Vista logo to let the skin author know which features are supported under which operating system. Moreover, when editing a particular element, the interface is clean and to the point.
What can and can't be changed is very straight forward.
Moreover, each section will be tied to a particular part of the SkinStudio portion of the Customization Wiki. In this way, users can instantly get help making skins from not just Stardock but the entire skinning community.
Editing the IE7 tabs & Vista Controls
SkinStudio 6 is being designed with the upcoming WindowBlinds 6 in mind. All the new Windows Vista controls, Internet Explorer 7 controls and more will be easily editable. No more trying to figure out how to support the latest/greatest features.
Elements available to be skinned are now easily accessible
One of the most common complaints about WindowBlinds skins is that many skins didn't support many of the features. This was often because the previous SkinStudio was designed at at time when WindowBlinds was much simpler and as more features were added, the newer features began to get buried in the UI. The new SkinStudio design makes these new features much more accessible.
We're going to need your help
Because SkinStudio 6 is such a radical departure from the existing SkinStudio design, we are going to need a lot of feedback on this. SkinStudio 6 will be available in beta form on Object Desktop on July 18th (2007).
