The graphics for the Tool Window Borders (the top window in your linked graphic) and the Minimized Window Caption (the bottom window in your linked graphic) are separate items in WB, although the Minimized Window Caption item is very rarely skinned in most WB's. Possibly it's a new feature in WB that wasn't able to be skinned before, I'm really not sure since I'm relatively new to skinning for WB. But the MWC and the buttons for it are mandatory items according to Skin Studio, so if the images are not provided, they are normally drawn from the default skin.

The only thing I can guess from your screenshot is that you possibly had the same name for the graphics as the default item, which I believe is WindowFrameMinCaption.bmp. I can't think of any other reason why the transparency would show up, but even then, it's still an obvious glitch since only the transparency shows up, and none of the rest of the graphic.

As for the middle bit of your graphic being cut off when the tool window is small, I would suggest that you adjust your sizing margins for that graphic so that the tiled/stretched area of the graphic is between the transparent bits. That area can be as narrow as a one-pixel wide band if necessary for the appearance. I'm pretty sure that would solve that part of the problem, at least.

OK, I've done some experimenting, and I am beginning to believe that this problem is unique to PSP. Have you been able to duplicate the problem in any other program? I have tried about a dozen programs that have MDI windows, and PSP (v7 & v8) are the only programs which will let me resize a window down to 100 pixels in width. And it is only when I resize the MDI window that small that the Minimized Window Caption graphic is the corresponding width. In PSP, if the MDI window is at least 142 pixels wide before minimizing, then no buttons are clipped or distorted.

The good news is that the button which remains is the restore button, which is the one button you would really want to have show. I also found that using my own graphic for the MWC window does work in preventing that problem of transparency being inherited, by the way.

The bad news is that nothing else I tried will prevent PSP from resizing an MDI window down to 100 pixels wide, which seems to be the minimum JASC has set. I tried making a graphic 150 pixels wide (per frame). And I played with every option I could think of for both sizing margins and content margins. I also tried changing drawing methods using different combinations of tile and stretch, and I even tried enabling things like Smart Small Margins and setting a Minimum X-value for text. All to no avail.

So, I guess I don't have much to offer that's helpful to you, and I hope Stardock comes up with something for you. Sorry, man... I tried.

PS> Have you emailed anyone at Stardock about this or posted anything on the newsgroups? The reason I ask is that if you haven't and don't intend to, I think I will make a report myself. If you have posted anything on the newsgroups, could you please leave a post here saying on which group you posted? Thanks.
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Hmmm, seems that creating ones own graphic doesn't solve this...not for me with the latest WB build anyhow. The minimised window still inherits it's transparency from the non-minimised window frames. Since I want the minimized frame to be non-recrangular I've tried using magic pink etc but to no avail (the magic pink bits show up as black instead)...so, for now I've "fudged it" by using a shade of grey similar to the MDI background image.

However, it still has the problem that a small window when minimized crops the MDI minimised image....hopefully this will be picked up through someone having raised this on the newsgroups or direct to stardock?

Yep, I've duplicated it in every app I've found that uses MDI - including Skin Studio itself, which is perhaps the best thing for Stardock to test it on as it's their software too