ObjectBar skinning problem - importing XP skins

from WinCustomize Forums
Come on now - I'm sure some of you young skinners out there can help a senile old fella...

I'm having a problem with OB when it use an XP WB skin to create an object bar on Win98/W2k (i.e. a non-xp system). I'm confused as to how it decides how tall the taskbar is.

I have a taskbar image of 30 pixels and a resize bar of 6 pix, but on my snapshot the actual taskbar is 34 pix tall (including the resize bar). Another thing is that the systray is overlaid at the right end of the taskbar and shows up at the correct height of 30 pix - overlapping the resize bar at the top by 2 pix.

Now, in the .xp skin ini file, the task buttons have settings for content 'padding' which, when altered, seem to make a difference in the height of the taskbar. However, when I adjust these values and reload both the WB and OB skins on my Win98 system, the changes don't seem to make any difference.

...any ideas?
2,514 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
there are some known problems with the OB conversion. it works fine on some skins, but not so well on others.

there is quite a bit of information on the objectbar newsgroup, if you are interested in looking there.

what are you trying to do? are you simply trying to fix the OB skin, or to modify the WB skin so that it imports correctly?

if you are simply trying to fix the OB skin i may be able to help. i am not an expert, but i have done some experimenting with OB skins.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The resize bar gets combined into the taskbar which can make for some strange effects. The best way to go is make a stand alone version in Skin Studio. You can open the imported one and add new graphics, change the button's dimensions etc. but you'll get all the WinXP skins stored with it. I had to do this to get an OB skin for SETI green because it didn't import well.
After you save the skin as an OBpack you can go in manually and delete all the extraneous stuff and manually rewrite the OBtheme & OBskin files to make it work as a stand alone theme. You'll also have to make a screenshot for the list in the theme changer. Look at a theme that wasn't converted from an XP skin but still has the XP look to see what files you need to keep and which ones you need to delete. The directory structure is a little weird. The SETI green OB theme would be a good example for how it should end up. The OBtheme and OBskin files are text files just like a UIS file, so you'll need to setup the paths after you change it from a converted skin.
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