SkinStudio 6 Beta Feedback

By Neil Banfield Posted August 7, 2007 14:43:09

Please post general feedback about SkinStudio 6 here.

You must have WindowBlinds 6 beta installed to use SKS6, but any skins made with it should work with WindowBlinds 5 as well.

This is a beta so you should expect missing sections and bugs. If you find SKS is missing support for a specific section, please let us know!

If you are working on a new skin it would be best to ensure it is backed up before using SKS6. Remember in this beta all changes are saved instantly!

+22 Karma 157 Replies 24 Referrals

I'm sold and first edit was a breeze - the images are in Diamond for what I wanted [I can figure who's they are also...heheheee]. Just got to do some image editing with what I have and may even start a new style for this area too. Looks very promising as to what one can do with a skin now. This is it Team - You all have done very well- more like excellent.
Thanks a Ton!
SGT

I posted this in the "New Era" thread. Didn't see this one, until now, so I'll post it here also.

I like it so far.

Only one (1) issue so far.
In 5, when I want to edit an image, my paint program opens up "full screen".
In 6, it doesn't. It opens in a small window every time.
I hope there's a fix to this. It could get annoying after awhile.

Like that but:
How to change transparency settings anywhere ? (1-255)
On vista, starpane searchbox settings not see( position, bg image or color, margins etc.)

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bilbo1930: What section are you trying to alter transparency in?

Neil: perpixel frames: top.tga..
horiz taskbarimage.tga..
I'm not see this option..

When using PSP8 as my default editor, clicking the Edit button when previewing an image fails to launch the app, when either Open or Edit is the selected action. Haven't gotten very far with shaking it down as a result.

bilbo1930: I am confused as to what you are looking for. If you want to use alpha in a bitmap, make it a tga and you can set alpha as you want.

Daiwa: It sounds like the explorer associations with .bmp and .png are corrupted on your PC.

From the SKS preferences page (2nd tab) point sks to your editor and make sure custom app is picked rather than open or edit.

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM AS DAIWA ON PHOTOIMPACT 12 AS WHEN I CLICK ON EDIT BUTTON IT DOES LAUNCH THE APP BUT FAILS TO OPEN IT FOR EDITING THIS IS SAME ON PS7

Daiwa: It sounds like the explorer associations with .bmp and .png are corrupted on your PC.

From the SKS preferences page (2nd tab) point sks to your editor and make sure custom app is picked rather than open or edit.

Thanks, Neil. I initially pointed SKS to PSP8 as my default editor (same as in SKS5) and left it on the default "Custom App" setting, but the Edit button wouldn't launch the app, which is why I tried the Open & Edit settings, which also didn't work. In SKS5, the default editor launches regardless of file association settings - .bmp has always been associated with MSPaint here but .bmp's still open in PSP8 via SKS5. Do we have to change the default associations for all file types we want to open with the default editor now?

I'll see if I can get it working.

Hey Neil: my OS is XP SP2, I made a copy of Diamond to playing around with the beta, disabling blur works ok for window frames, still have trans frames, when disabling blur for taskbar and start menu it also kills the transparency, when skin is applied it paints black behind them

The font import when you browse for it does not work, when you select the font in explorer, it does not accept the selection, you cannot bring the font in. Also, I can find no place to change the mouseover highlight color on the start menu, nor the mousoever text color on the start menu. I thought I had found it, but it does not work.

Also, why does it now take 4-6 steps in SKS 6 now what you could do in 2-4 steps in SKS 5? Having to close the window on the area you are working on before you can apply skin changes is very annoying. Then when you find a few more minor changes need to be made in the area you were working on, you have to open the area again and select the item you were working on to make the changes. It is a vicious cycle, and very upsetting to an experienced skinner. SKS 6 may be great for newbies/beginners, but it is a nightmare to someone experienced in skinning.

LightStar: There has been a request for an apply button on the editing window which we are looking into.

Regarding the mouseover colours on the startmenu, if you use a mouseover bitmap (vs a plain colour), WB on XP will not show the mouseover text colour. On Vista it will.

I can find no place to change the mouseover highlight color on the start menu, nor the mousoever text color on the start menu. I thought I had found it, but it does not work.

Large Preview

Thank you Z71! That solved some of my problems, I really appreciate it.

Uhhhm, OK, is that going to be fixed for XP at some point then Neil? The mouseover text color on the Start Menu issue?

The mouseover colour not being used when you use a startmenu item mouseover bitmap is an unfortunate limitation of that feature. It is unlikely this will change on XP in the future.

Thanks Neil, for some reason after I rebooted the problem with the MO text remaining as Luna went away, go figure!

First, kudos on the new version. I was one of those had many negative experiences with the previous version (corruption, crashes, black-box descriptions, cluttered interface, etc.) so I never put the work in to get over the hump. BUT, this version is phenomenal. So much easier.

Only the Xion player skin system (layers in a single PSD become the skin elements, with the names of the layers connecting X element with Y feature) rivals the new v6 of SkinStudio. BRAVO!!!

I got so into it that the first thing I tried to experiment with stopped me cold. There seems to be no way to make the explorer backgrounds (active/inactive) transparent (semi/full). Am I missing something? Is this coming?

It's really essential to one of the ideas I have. Thanks.

Explorer backgrounds cannot be transparent.

...yet. Any explorer replacement could, of course, etc. etc.

Why didn't they make this possible with DWM? It's the whole point of the thing to bring everything into the hardware accelerated GPU space...doh.

I can already hack an inelegant solution by just clipping my desktop wallpaper and making it the bitmap of the explorer background. That's useful for my day to day proof of concept, but it doesn't work for everyone else...sigh.

Lookin good guys, In the edit tool windows screen I can only find close button how can you add the minimise button for apps like Photoshop

Kind of peeved by this app. I spent ages making a skin - having clicked the 'new skin' button... only to have it rejected because 'it contains elements of other peoples skins'. OK I know I did not skin every single last bit- it was a first effort for gods sake- but surely the default skin should not be made up of 'elements of other peoples work'... I mean if I click on new skin I expect it to be a blank slate- not to be accused of stealing for using some of the default settings!!!

kin242: what was the name of the skin you submitted?

Jonep: Toolwindows do not support minimize buttons. Any minimize buttons you see in apps are manually added by those apps by using the minimized window button images instead.