Shoot! All this time I've been looking at the carbon fiber part, and I ignored the metal part! Thanks John!

I'm actually seeing it now on the equivalent part of the far left side now too...

I know what the problem is, now back to the good 'ol trial & error.

Ok. How's this?

Much better.. and did u check diff SM sizes?

Okay. So at this configuration, the default size looks great, but off-sizes have a 1-pixel or so redraw problem.

I tried a slightly different configuration that seems to work for off-sizes, but not for the default size.

Do you think there's a way to fix it to work both ways, or should I end up creating a substyle for off-size start menus?

Like I said at the outset...

Okay. Here's another idea--

I figure most people don't resize their Start Menus.

But for those who do, I thought about making an alternate menu where there wouldn't be a tiling issue involved.

one way to "fix" the misalignment is to create a glyph for the panel and align it over the screwup.

If that works with the design and depending on where the issue is visible.

Like V says...a sizing margin set to the exact edge of a sqare will allow it to tile from that edge and look fine(like your brushed aluminum bottom edge)...the right side is where you will encounter oddities because Start menus dont expand and shrink in even increments(especially XP's)because of the dividers between the sections.(and different size icons)

In Vista you might get lucky (because I think it only uses 1 size icons right?)if you set the amount of pixels tiled to exactly what it grows or shrinks when programs are added or taken away.(which means the texture has to be made for that exact size)  Again,its the dividers that are likely to give you fits because the mess up the calculation...trial and error man...mostly error.

XP is much tougher I think because of the different ways it can be configured.

Hope that makes sense...brain good not work all time.

With Neutronium DM I wanted the texture bad enough that I just ignored the odd occasional alignment.It only showed some of the time and was just a single doubled line of pixels.It was a compromise and they always suck.

Something to note Start Menu size is also affected by..... System dpi & Start Menu icon size

IR you beat me to it !I am a slow typer!

" alt="" />oh well...............dang my name dosnt fit anymore since I ascended to MASTER...heheehe.

I agree !!!!!!!!! 100%

My laptop came set at 125 I did not know what was messing up my start panels for awhile!

Note:That actually is what gave me so much problem with the STmenu in the Haloween blind

I remember...hehehehehee

Affirmative.. check the screenshot galleries, almost everyones start menu's are diff sizes, diff icon sizes also makes a diff and number of programs\ places shown.

I was beginning to think along the same lines. Then for those who are bothered by it, there would be an alternate start menu. Right now, it seems that may be the best.

Thanks everyone for all the help and input!

Can you provide a start-to-finish tutorial (or atleast a few images) to show how to create a PATTERNED start panel and taskbars? Its kind of hard to follow some of the suggestions mentioned here. Also, I've tried using the Layers option but no matter which blending mode I chose, it doesn't seem to effect the image at all (there's no difference when I add a layer or not). Can you also explain this feature? I'd really appreciate it.

I'd better wait and see how this turns out before I create a tutorial. Besides, this blind I'm working on is only my second attempt. Surely there is someone else out there with far greater experience than I who has mastered such a thing and is far more qualified to write such a tutorial.

But thanks for thinking I am capable.

Brian this is going to be a cool blind man! I like it!

ablebodied..... I know you have had a couple of posts about some of these things ,SKS6 is constantly updated so up to date tutorials just aren,t out there very much you kinda find them 1 at a time.The best way to understand SKS6 is to download a skin from a WC Master or at least a highly rated skin similar to your taste open it in SKS6 and look how it was put together this is how most of us started.More recent the skin the more likely to have all the features.

Here is a link to a layering tutorial I did maybe it will help at least on the layering LINK

WHat AV said. Trial and error.. better be willing to put in the learning hours if you plan to make WB skins.. its very time consuming.

I second all of it!

Thanks for the tutorial link. I'm alittle confused tho. On the section where you discuss the vertical tray layer.

My question is: Is the vertical tray a completely seperate image from the main image you were using, or did u simply add it to the main image in photoshop (thus creating a new single image with the vertical tray added to it? I ask because i've tried adding a seperate image on top of the main image in the Layers tab, but there's no option in that tab to choose a different image to add to the main image. It only offers Blending Modes as layers.

I would post pics of what I mean, but tho I uploaded pics to imageshack, I cant insert them to this site (for whatever reason).

ablebodied.. goto that tutorial and I will explain! I don,t want to hijack Mirsguy's thread

ok, going now