Shoutbox

quote:

---

Originally posted by Keikonium

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aardvark
That's almost the same of another idea I had. I was thinking of some sort of program which would display a picture of WLM and it's separate windows, and when you hovered over something it would give you the ID, and then it would be possible to double click on that element and the folder containing the file/element, or the file/element itself would open up to allow editing.

---

Exactly. Kind of like the "live preview" presented in A-Patch showing the customizations as you enable/disable the options. It would make skinning a lot faster/easier if a skin editor like this was constructed.

I don't know if anyone has ever used the program by Stardock called "Skinstudio" that is used to make windowblind skins, but I was thinking that something like that (altho a LOT simpler) would be a nice idea. You click the element in a preview picture, and then the possible modifications would pop up that you could edit. For example:

You click the dashboard background in a preview image. Options pop up to change the image itself, the dimensions, foreground, background, transparancy, etc etc. Then there is still always the way we skin now (editing the text files) for more advanced options and such.

---

well then what your essentially asking for is you have a virtual display of the messenger interface you click on say the dashboard and up pops an options window in there you can tiock boxes for the buttons you want displayed on the dashboard unticking the ones you dont and then say theres a picker option for background and text for that element, etc, there would be fields there to type in the path of a customer image for the dashboard background or even for custom button images and each path field could have a browse button etc and youd basically have this same kinda options screen for every element of every window in WLM thats what it sounds like your after right?

personally i dont know how someone would go about doing a project like that but i bet its not easy and that it will be very time consuming for whoever dared take it on.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Keikonium
Have an interactive contact list where you hover over the display picture and it tells you the ID to look for to modify that element. Then hover over the wordwheel, and it tells you the ID to look for, etc. etc. It would be easier than searching through text documents for the elements you need.

---

this can be made as a skin itself

(just the tooltips I mean)

quote:

---

Originally posted by CookieRevised
this can be made as a skin itself (Smilie)

---

Indeed, but it would be nice if it was done by Plus! so that it would be compatible with future version too...

How does a tool that allows you to select an element with a drag and drop target sound? (Similar to the Spy++ Window finder)

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheSteve
How does a tool that allows you to select an element with a drag and drop target sound? (Similar to the Spy++ Window finder)

---

Haven't you already done something like this? However the drag and drop sounds pretty cool.

quote:

---

Originally posted by vikke
Haven't you already done something like this?

---

There is an element viewer here:
http://memskin.fanatic.net.nz/?page_id=6 (MSNCoreFun is the name)

It doesn't support drag and drop yet, and I don't recall if the uploaded version supports WLM 9.0 correctly.  If I find the time and people think the feature is useful enough, I'll put a nice drag/drop selector/highlighter in.

On a separate matter, the Element documentation linked from the same page may prove to be useful in creating skins. Be aware that it requires Internet Explorer to work correctly

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheSteve
There is an element viewer here:
http://memskin.fanatic.net.nz/?page_id=6 (MSNCoreFun is the name)

---

Very nice program but it would definitely be excellent if it was converted into a Spy++ style drag/drop program (preferrably which placed a border around the selected element for clarity).

If you really wanted to go the whole way you could do something where you select the element (using drag/drop), change the property in a Visual Studio-type property manager then select the UIFILE and have it export changes, but I think that may be a bit over the top

I think it would be a very useful tool.it is tiring to sign in and out every single moment just to test the details!I wish someone could create a tool like that!