Shoutbox

yeah the contact page sends email to a newly created shared mailbox which me and jason both have access to, we have had a suggestion to implement 9.0 compatability, we will provide this in a future release however we havent decided whether to have seperate versions say one copy for 9.0 and another for 8.5 or whether we will have both versions made compatable in a single file.

we have already decided on a few new things to do in the next version, more details will be given soon.

We have made a few changes to the skin pack and another version may be released soon

Is there any suggestions we can add before we release our next version

well i did a fair bit of work this weekend but theres still a fair bit to be done it is looking good though. we will keep you posted on how things are progressing but as jason said any ideas will be welcomed, we acknowledge a need to add 9.0 compatability at some point but arent sure whether to do that in the next release or wait until 9.0 is released as a finished product which i heard rumors i think from willz that it might happen about 2009 we will let you know what we decide.

EDIT:

i have done a whoile load of work to the skin this weekend and last weekend and its really starting to take shape now, we are now left with 2 major tasks to add before we can release.

code in Blessed Pack Options (created by blessedguy)
add 7 new themes

we have created a screenshot for this new version and version number is going to be V2.50.

while you wait patiently i have decided to give you a screenshot of our now completed skin options panel so you can see just what we have been working towards.





enjoy

EDIT:

i have received feedback about my options panel regarding what do the abbreviations mean so here is what they mean.

Skin Options Abbreviations:
    (LW) = Login Window
    (CL) = Contact List
    (CCL) = Compact Contact List
    (DCL) = Detailed Contact List
    (BP) = Blessed Pack
    (CT) = Chat Toolbar
    (MCT) = Mobile Chat Toolbar
    (FT) = Formating Toolbar
    (HFT) = Handwriting Formating Toolbar
    (IB) = Input Bar

thats everything i use in there so far i hope that clears everything up for everyone.

as you can see from stuarts screenshot our skin is coming along in leaps and bounds, we have now implemented an early version of auto-theme technology, this means whenever the theme is set to "365 Auto-Theme" it will automatically set itself to the right theme based on the date range restrictions.

we are close to being ready, i am working on modifying a few of the options so as to make a new graphics pack feature, this will mean things like scrollbars, dp's and buttons etc will come in an array of colours or in their default states, we are also making and option to choose between different sets of FLW Buttons (min, max & close) and to choose between sets of buddy images.

i hope to have all that done by end of the first week in april, once thats all done i plan we plan to release it as version 2.50.

we had planned for 7 new themes to be added but those will need to be added in a later release due to unforeseen circumstances, also we have a few ideas we want to implement but the current technology in plus 4.6 doesnt yet make it possible to do everything we ultimately would want to add, stuart will shortly be updating the screenshot in the post directly above so as to let you see how things have progressed.

Maybe add a preview option for every single one of them options if possible, as that is going to be one hell of a task for someone to look at and say ermm, ok i was overwhelmed by simply looking at it.

i'd change flw description only skinners will know what it is and even i forgot what they were

and tidy up your graphics those are nasty

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eddie
Maybe add a preview option for every single one of them options if possible, as that is going to be one hell of a task for someone to look at and say ermm, ok i was overwhelmed by simply looking at it.

---

beleive it or not at an earier point of developement i did want to have a live state preview that when a theme was selected it would show you a preview of what that theme would look like, however to the best of my knowledge its not currently possible.

to to do that you would to have plus build some kind of skin tester program that messenger could run as a kind of demonstration applet and that add an additional control for the options panel to add hat applet thing into the panel.

when i originally asked if my original idea was acheivable i was told it wasn't atleast with the way messenger itself presently works, so to summarize it may be possible to do this some day but only after major changes are made to both windows live messenger and to messenger plus!.

quote:

---

Originally posted by aNILEator
i'd change flw description only skinners will know what it is and even i forgot what they were

and tidy up your graphics those are nasty

---

ok i see your point about calling it an FLW Pack, any suggestions for a beter name? which graphics are you refering to? and what do you mean by tidy up exactly?

i am always willing to take criticism and act upon it so please keep your suggestions coming.

quote:

---

Originally posted by stuartbennett
? which graphics are you refering to? and what do you mean by tidy up exactly?

---

The UK Skins United and blessedguy images don't look too good in the screenshot, pixellated / compressing artifacts.

oh ok, ill work on fixing those

I am hoping to get as many images done as possible I am in an akward position as my laptop screen seems to be dodgey I have to hold the right side of the screen or apply pressure to the back of it so once I get the images done I can send it off so may not be on here for a while

Also I have been very busy with my life lately so that has delayed a few things but I am hoping the planned 7 new themes will be added before the new release