Need help with ports

msstyles to WB

from Stardock Forums
I have been learning how to use Skin Studio the hard way. Have figured out most of my problems but there is one problem that I totally do not understand.
When I port some msstyle skins to WB I don't have any problems with the menu bar, even in Opera. With some skins however, in skin studio I can click on the menu bar and the menubar button area and nothing happens. I cannot find anywhere to skin the bar or the buttons. This has a disasterous effect with Opera in that with some skins the menubar is a very light grey and no words are readable.
Yhe reason I have learned how to use Skin Studio is so that I can skin all the elements, usually rather dark, and when I come up with skins that I cannot skin the menubar it is unusable. I found a new VS at DA called my Saxon and spent all afternoon working on it only to find out the menubar is a light grey with no letters shouwing until I do a mouseover and then I get white text in a dark box background.
I hope I have explained my problem sufficiently and would really appreciate someone taking the time to help this old man out. Saxon is one of the best vista style skins I have come across and the buttons etc have been coming out great. I really hope I can use this skin.
I do this for my personal use only and have never gave anone even one skin. I am not a skinner and I respect them and the work they do to much to undercut them.

TIA
Ghery
skinstudio
7,472 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
With some skins however, in skin studio I can click on the menu bar and the menubar button area and nothing happens. I cannot find anywhere to skin the bar or the buttons


Controls > Menus > Bar Background & Bar items.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the try Koasati, but no luck.
On the skins I have trouble with, Bar background and Bar items are not there. I have no idea how to get those two attributes(?) there. Why are they missing in some skins? If the author of the skins can but those entries there then I should be able to, but how?
On skins that use per pixal there is a problem with skinning the menubar and I am aware of that one, but this is something different. Just forgot to mention this before.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
How about a link to one of the problem skins?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Here's a link to Saxon VS at DA.


With the work they are doing on the site, I hope the link stays good.WWW Link
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I understand now..... when you import the msstyle, click the Options button > Parameters tab > select "WindowBlinds Visual Style - optimize for maximum quality"
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I was in a hurry earlier, I'll try to explain what I learned.....

When I first imported the Saxon msstyle, I left the setting on autodetect the best format, and the skin was imported as a UIS1 skin. UIS1 skins don't have all the features of UIS2 skins, and the menubar is one of the areas that are different. By choosing optimize for maximum quality, I got the UIS2 format, and viola!
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
and viola!


Hey Koa, did that come with a bow and rosin
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
When I converted the msstyle from theroot's link i got a UIS2, has been so long since I set the parameters to optimize for maximum quality that I forgot about those settings.

Hey theroot, you should leave it set at this setting, as Koasati said a UIS2 skin has many more sections skinable and due to how images are converted for it compared to a UIS1, UIS2 is more flexible to work with.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hey Koa, did that come with a bow and rosin

dOH! ... I mean voila ...

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you times a thousand. You have made me a happy camper today.

Too many times when I am trying to self teach myself, I fail to check out all the options. Obviously, I pay the price for that.

Thanks to both of you to take the time to help. I really appreciate it.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Glad to help.

Too many times when I am trying to self teach myself, I fail to check out all the options.


I know what you mean...