This still doesn't invalidate the fact that, after more than 10 years, Stardock has no excuse for not having detailed skinning tutorials and detailed skinning documentation available.

Over 10 years ago, my very first message on the Stardock WB newsgroups, complaining about the lack of a skinning tutorial, got me flamed by Brad himself, lol. At the time Brad claimed WB was still in beta (it wasn't even version 1.0 then) and that was the reason why documentation wasn't available.

Well, been a long time since that, and skinning documentation is *still* not officialy available, hehe

The real issue is that we developers are all tech oriented people, and writting documentation for us sucks, it's very hard to do properly, and takes time away from other things - not to mention that skinning documentation needs to be updated constantly. 

AFAIK, you won't find detailed skinning documentation for any Windows customization applications, Stardock or otherwise. Even Winstep is now guilty of that same sin, in that Winstep used to have a very detailed User Guide and now, since the new UI, it has only a FAQ (in fact, and until the individual Winstep skinning app is ready, you can't even make new skins for Winstep unless you use the older v9.x version, which is what WebGizmos does).

Whatever the reasons, this is not conductive to introducing new blood into skinning. We (developers and companies) keep complaining that skinners are now few and far between, forgeting all the time that it is mostly our fault for not making clear and detailed tutorials in the first place. Winstep is now as guilty of this as Stardock, so, yes, I'm pointing the finger at myself too. 

Funny how that works. lol

This might sound dumb but if you want to start skinning a blind why dont you just start with a copy of the standard windows skin ( maybee the basic standart thing and start on skinning - all you basically have to do for the first time is change parts of it sure you cant say hey thats my skin if your done) but it should give you a clue about the basics so you should be abe to do some parts on your own then try to get as far as you can with your skin and if you cant go on because of a problem ask here for help.
To be honest i dont do blinds i honor the "ones" that do them.
Also complaining wont let you finish your task...concentrate on the making is far better and if your stuck write a post about it here get yourself a peanutbutter toast and something to drink and as soon as your finished refreshing yourself you will find an answer to your problem.
and keep in mind Skinning is like science you never finish learning.

So far I've not posted in this thread. Now I will. He he ...... I make calendars. You know ... those things with days and numbers and names of months and such. The first one I made looked like it wanted to run away and hide. Then I made some more and more on top of that not knowing what I was doing. Then I got this insane idea to ask somebody. You'd be surprised how many answers I got both good and not so good. I learned as has been often quoted here by trial and error. Basically it is the only way to learn how to skin. Now I do sysmetrix. Which shows how far I've progressed. A long time ago I actually tried to make a windowblind. I got as far as skinning one window, just one. I put it up and it showed on my screen and it was, not good to put it mildly. It was all over the place. I stuck to Rainlendar after that because it was easy. Now ... I 'build' skins not just make them. I've got three smx's under my belt and those were done to match windowblinds. I did one on my own just to see how much I could put into it. Know what ... it works. Not very useful but that isn't the point. The point is I proved to myself that I can do it. Olivia17, if you're still out there, listen up ... If I can do it then anybody can. Now I got me two more to do for not just windowblinds but for a DX (DesktopX). Imagine that! Back to work.          I feel better now.