Taskbar skinning issue

this is what i would be checking (even if its to just double check)

margins

png or bmp value

in painting options, that none of the tile options are checked

the code for the taskbar in sk6 (sometimes you can find strange stuff in the coding section)

make sure that in my art program ive saved it as the correct format (i know its silly, but just in case)

and lastly i would check the height of it...... cant think of much else for now.

if this all fails, you can just wipe the code for it and reinstall the image and hopefully that should kick it into gear.

*sometimes a reboot helps as well *

 

Thanks Vampothika.  I checked all those things, and it's still not cooperating with me.  

It's gotta have something to do with a part that's not even related to the taskbar.  Since I noticed in one of your posts, you used Diamond as a template, I thought I would give that a go when I started this blind, and it just failed me when it came to applying the blind.  (I thought Diamond would make a good template, since it already has both XP and Vista substyles, and I really want to do a good job this time)...and the taskbar goes AWOL when I apply it.  So, having driven myself into a frenzy trying to force it to obey me (on a day when I started a brand new job, on top of everything else...was actually skinning to relax a little, LOL), I decided screw it...slick and modern template is for people with slick and modern skills...YOU, my friend, must color with the big fat toddler crayons, and imported all the images into a new skin, with the UGLY, ugly blue Microsoft XP style template...and now it applies like a charm.

Somedays I think I'd like to upgrade to Vista, because it seems to be slicker to skin, but, my new job I just started today...although their platform is Vista compliant, I would have to go through a WHOLE bunch of wonky steps to get it to play nice with the platform, so...XP for me. (I DID freak the trainer out, though, because she THOUGHT I had Vista when she remotely took control of my desktop and saw Object Dock, and how pretty everything looked.)

If you like you can email it to me and I will have a look !audiomasters at mail dot com

 

Vampothica is probably on track it looks like a sizing margins problem but I will be glad to look!

I'm going to take you up on your generous offer.  I need to learn about these sizing margins! 

New Wba  Karen you will have to re make the Horizontal Taskbar buttons that file was corrupt but keep them the size I changed it to 30 pix tall.

The problem was in the code I could not fix in SKS had to do it in note pad but you should work from here ,delete the folder in windowblinds ex...my computer\shared docs\stardock\windowblinds   then install the new skin by double clicking the new file then choose open current skin in skin studio

Repost when you are almost done there are a few files i will show you how to clean up!

AV

CODE?!!!...code that has to be fixed with notepad?!!    Oh man...this sounds a little more complicated than anything I've gotten into before.  I won't even get a chance to look at until Tuesday, and my head is totally spinning already because I started working for a new company and have to learn a new platform.

I really appreciate this.  I will definitely post ongoing progress with this one.  Thanks for holding my hand and showing me the ropes on this.

1st dont worry the note pad thing is not such a big deal!

2nd Crongrats on a new job (client)

3rd NP I will help all I can!(got some other tips when you are ready!)

Okay - I think I have this pretty much complete.  I'm going to need someone to beta test for Vista.  I really wish I had the financial resources to purchase a newer computer that had Vista on it, but that dream is completely impossive for my foreseeable furture, so I had to skin the Vista parts blindly.  If somebody finds something messed up, please post a screenshot so I  have some clue on what/how to adjust it.

Harley, if you could please take a look at it and give me the tips on cleaning it up and anything else you may have that you think I could benefit from, I would greatly appreciate it.  

WBA file can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/?zxz2nim2ndg

One of my goals with this one was to make it so that it would recolor nicely, and I'm very pleased with that aspect of it.  I kept the colors fairly close to each other, and skinned all the little explorer icons from scratch with the color closeness in mind, so they won't come out looking wonky if someone wants to go from Caribbean blue to hot pink, or anything in between.  If you bring down the brightness of the skin, it makes a really nice dark skin, too.

I will take a look!

some basic reasons why an image might not display properly...or at all.

If its a bitmap...its not 24bit.

If its tga...not 32bit.   Never get these backwards...dont save your tga's as 24 and dont save your bitmaps as 32.

If its a 24 bit bitmap...never check this image has an alpha channel...they dont,only 32bit images have alpha channels.

If your sizing margins overlap(like cross each other)...this can sometimes cause them to display incorrectly.

I see from the pic you checked transparent but the image dosnt APPEAR to be transparent(or translucent)IF an image is never transparent or translucent just use a bmp and uncheck those 2 options(trans and alpha)The reason I say this is bmp is always more stable than tga if your having problems with problem images...windowsXP just plain handles 24 bit images better than 32.

BUT...32bit images give you much more freedom in your skinning because of the alpha blending.(truthfully,they should rarely give you issues if your settings and bit depth are correct)

 

To avoid possible image corruption...do not let Skinstudio automatically convert images for you.If your image editor isnt handling the tga format properly...find a patch for it or use something else.

Skinstudio has many times corrupted images(almost unnoticeably but still degraded)during its tga saving and resaving.Plus your skin folder gets filled up with png's it created in the conversion.

The subframe builder is a cool feature but it degrades image quality with each save.

Thanks I.R. Brainiac - that's very useful information for me.  It will cut down on my "why in the heck is this doing this" posts.  I'm grateful. 

Karen

I have found a few things . Would you rather me do some work or tell you what to do?

If you could do the work, then tell me what you did so I can go back and see for myself, that would be awesome. 

Karen give me a few days

1st WB Preview is not working cause UIS2 frame are what show and they have to be a bmp riht now your are tga

2nd There is a conflict Diamond that you used as a template is still showing in place probably a wb4 file issue

I will get straightened out though

Cool skin though!!!

Oh THAAATS why that wouldn't show up!  I've had that problem with a few other skins I tried making that I aborted because they weren't making me happy.  Well, there's a mistake I won't make anymore now that I've been enlightened.



I don't think I'll use Diamond as a template anymore, but instead start from scratch with icky Windows XP, since it's easier for me to spot what's not suppose to be there when what's loaded from the start is stuff I can't stand.

I've also noticed a few things myself since I've been working with it  full-time for the past 24 hours.  I've changed the text color on the buttons since they were unreadable on the disabled buttons, and a couple other really small tweaks where I wasn't completely satisfied.

Thank you, Harley.  It's not real flashy, but it's something I think I'll use for a long time.

Karen when completely done make it a wba and send it to me!

I would love to do that Harley, but as per my thread about having to factory restore, I've lost ALL my work on that blind.  It's just gone.


Edited to add: I had a DOH moment there -- fortunately for me I uploaded it at Mediafire for others to download and investigate my problems, because now I have that copy of it, and will just have to make the adjustments again.  I'll get it back to you when I've finished tweaking it.

I am sorry Karen!

Just send it to Me when you are ready!

Alright Karen I am checking in to it but we have an issue.

If I apply the skin right after Dloading it applies correctly , HOWEVER as soon as I open it in SKS5 or SKS6 it shows 50% diamond images

SKS must be readind some of the older UIS files but I am looking for a way around it with reimport ever image sorry it is taking so long I have never see it do Quite  like this (close) but it is just kinda odd Wblinds reads it SKS does not?

Holy crap!  I wonder what in the world is going on, for it to do that.  It didn't do that to me.  I had to redownload it after my factory reinstall and I've opened it in SKS6 and everything is exactly as I had it.

Well, I'm glad you're working on it, and I hope it can be fixed.  I surely appreciate your time and effort, because honestly, most days I totally wonder what exactly it is I'm doing in Windowblinds, and I SURE don't get any of the coding.

 

possibility...it is looking in a specific location(that just happen to have the same name) for images to UPDATE from...like if you import an image from the desktop and then change that image(possibly for another skin)...SKS grabs the new version.