QUESTION:
Win2K - Many WB skins don't show the start button correctly, and fonts of titlebar buttons often look very skinny,
barely readable. How can I fix this?

Thank you.

#48 by Cyberjack - 1/11/2004 5:33:55 PM
QUESTION: Is there a trick to get that task panel showing, i am makin a new skin, all shows fine in SS, but when apply the skin, no task panel at all

.Answer # 48.That is a windows setting.In tools,folder views,show common task.

Question: Where is the option to set the text colour for the menu items of grouped apps (I forget the term MS invented for this)? i.e. when IE rolls up 10 windows into one task bar item it uses a different menu to the other task bar items and it has a separate font colour too.

#53  by Skinner Sput - 2/11/2004 10:56:25 PM

Left Tree.... Taskbar > Taskbar Group Menu > Background
Right Tree... Text Settings   

Question: Where is the edge of a tool bar defined? I've set the vertical separator, but as you can see in the picture below, there is a different vertical seperator being used at the start of a tool bar when they are on the same line and I'm stumped to find it.



Oh, and thanks for the answer above...I didn't want to pollute this thread with thanks till I had another question

#55 by Skinner Sput - 2/15/2004 8:53:43 PM

That line is defined in (Left Pane)Miscellaneous>Colors
(Right Pane)3D Controls>Button-Light and Button-Dark Shadow

Tip: Annoyed by the all programs solid background on mouseover? brewman's StetZ ported by Snidely ( https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=1&SkinID=3921 ) demonstrates how to use an oversized more programs arrow to cover the entire area - note that the arrow also allows the use of animation . . .

Question: When I (had) skinstudio 3, I could import .png images all day long and skinstudio would automaticly change them to .tga images. After upgrading today, skin studio 4, will only change .png images to .bmp images.
What am I doing wrong or is there a setting in skinstudio that I'm overlooking?
Also, I have checked all 3 options after importing, with no results.
(I have PaintShopPro 7 at home).

#58 by Z71 - 2/19/2004 1:23:44 AM

Are you saving your png files with transparency? If not SkinStudio will see them as bmps.

TIP : Since a while i found a little graphic bug on almost all skins : it's about how the Menu Item Image is displayed in the case of "Favorites".
In section "More Programs Menu" there's two sub sections: the image background and the item. In all skins the item is well displayed when you scroll "All Programs" (i mean left side and right side of it), but when you scroll the "Favorites" link, generally the right side of the item doesn't feat well with the background image.
So i discover (thanks Pixtudio and Zippo skin ) ) what is the correct setting to do : it comes with the "Content Margins" of it (sizing margins are supposed to be correct). If, for example the left content margin has to be 10, the right content margin has to be -10 (and not 5 or 10 or anything else) and with this setting the item is feating to the background image perfectly well.
Hope it will be usefull.


/me opened another thread for this Tip as i did'nt noticed this one was already in use

QUESTION:

How do I go about automatically removing the user icon from the user panel? I remember seeing a skin which, I think, did this automatically.

I believe if you set the LEFT CONTENT MARGIN of the StartPanelUserPane to -48 (negative48), that will push the Icon off screen leaving only the User Name visible

Oh, that sounds easy enough. Thanks.

TIP: When using Roll-up, you will often have a bit missing on the bottom left. Sometimes you can fix this
by adjusting the sizing margins on the left and/or bottom frame, or by adjusting the height of the roll-up. But this doesn't always work, and you may have to alter your design........... or... you can create a "fake titlebar button" to cover the missing bit, and set it to "show if window is rolled up" in Visibility Settings, "Add area to border" in Painting Options, and "Do Nothing" in Actions

QUESTION:

Who can tell me what's going on here...? http://members.iinet.com.au/~sojeda/images/FrameProb.jpg

See the right window frame? The transparency is being tiled for some reason. I've checked all the settings and found no cause for this.
I'd love some help on it.
[Message Edited]

TIP:

Be careful with transparency use in top window borders. Apps with MDI windows have problems. When you minimize an MDI window, it 'inherits' any transparency from the normal amximized window. Also, if the MDI window is exceptionally small to begin with, the resulting minimized bar will be clipped, chopping buttons.

Possible bug? Clipping problem does not appear when WB is unloaded.

SkinStudio 4.20, Build 900 Beta
WindowBlinds 4.29 Build 136 Beta

TIP: In SkinStudio...The Hide User Picture attribute under User Pane when enabled, now works I don't know when this was fixed. Previously I would set the left Content Margin to -60. Can anyone else verify that this works or at least let me know I'm not crazy in thinking that it didn't work before.

TIP: To make the User Name invisible on the StartPanel User Pane. Set the font to one that contains in alpha-numeric characters. A good one is FreeHand 9 Symbols 9,12 FreeHand9Sym.FON. Also make sure to add it as a font to be installed.

QUESTION:



Is this a bug? Top image is from when I first open the Display Properties by right-clicking on the desktop. Bottom image is from after hitting one of the other tabs then going back to the first tab. Seems to fix itself and display the Tabs Border TabPane.bmp and Tabs Page TabsPage.bmp correctly.

RESPONSE TO #68: The same thing happens here, so yes, it appears to be a bug.

SkinStudio Professional 4.20, Build 908

TIP:

If you Delete the Taskbar QuickLaunch images in a skin the QuickLaunch Buttons will use the same images for the Taskbar Buttons. The benefit of this is that you don't end up with half-funky shaped buttons for the ">>" button. Instead, the ">>" isn't skinned and looks much cleaner. essorrant's Grift WB available at the GUIOlympics is an example of this.

QUESTION:

This might be an obvious one but how does one specify a shadow in a WB skin?

QUESTION:This might be an obvious one but how does one specify a shadow in a WB skin?

RESPONSE:

The only shadows that you can specifically set in a WB skin is for text. Any other shadow effects a skin might have are done by the author through how he creates his images using tga files in the areas that allow them. To add shadow effects to window frames you need to run WindowFX. This info is to the best of my experience correct

QUESTION: What is the difference between .png and .tga and why has stardock chosen tga over png?

QUESTION: Using the "Titlebar - Front Caption Text" and "Titlebar - End Caption Text" features causes there to be an unknown character box after the text I put in each of these values. Example: "Front(character box) (windowtext) End(characterbox)"

Anyone else seen this?
[Message Edited]

QUESTION: What is the difference between .png and .tga and why has stardock chosen tga over png?

I don't know the technical differences between the two.
I believe it was Nakor that once explained that png would use more resourses to be rendered in WindowBlinds.