Shoutbox

can someone help me with this please?
tearsare.unspokenwords@hotmail.com

m4rt1n4 what exactly is the problem your having and ill try to help.

so my problem is i have nooo idea how to do it...
can u tell me the "for dummies" version?

quote:

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Originally posted by m4rt1n4
so my problem is i have nooo idea how to do it...
can u tell me the "for dummies" version?

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sorry, but skinning isn't "for dummies".....there is no easy way of doing it.

Read through the skinning documentation (found on the skins tab of the customize section of messenger plus preferences) and try going from there.  If you don't understand it, then sadly there's not much we can do

that wasnt too friendly thx anyways

Most people here are new to skinning like you and its best to read through the skinning documentation and look through the how to's to try and make your first skin if you do need help just ask and people will help you where possible

Oh once you have read the skinning documentatio n you may want to have a look at willz guide he is writing

What he's trying to say is that if you're new to computer development and techniques skinning is very advanced. And you don't really learn by having an example you don't understand, so start asking questions.
But I agree with you, this tutorial is pretty bad written, I'm sorry. It requires basic knowledge about skinning. Take my advice, read the documentation and start off with a more simple example. There's a dummies-proof chapter in the documentation on My First Skin.

m4rt1n4, i have added you to my contact list on messenger, i am lylatwars19 [at] hotmail [dot] com, as stated above we cannot write one of those "xxxxxxx for dummies" books on skinning its too vast and some things are just so complex that you cant really dumb them down easily.

however if your having trouble doing something specific then we can of course try to guide you through it, now then our conversation on messenger you said you wanted to change the background image in your skin, now im answering on here as its easier to control the layout on here than on msn.

in your skininfo file you need it to look roughly like this.

quote:

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<SkinInfo xmlns="urn:msgpluskins"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsichemaLocation="urn:msgpluskins PlusSkins.xsd">
    <Information>
        <Name>test Skin</Name>
        <Description> A skin that has themes for all of your favourite TV Shows that you would put on your Sky+ Planner.</Description>
        <Version>1.00</Version>
        <Compatibility>
            <MsgVersion Major="8" Minor="5"/>
        </Compatibility>
        <TraceFile>true</TraceFile>
    </Information>

        <ResGroup>
            <Restrictions>
                <MsgVersions>
                    <Version Major="8" Minor="5"/>
                </MsgVersions>
            </Restrictions>
            <Resources>           
                <Replace>
                    <Graphics>
                        <Pictures>
                            <Picture Id="20061">
                                <File>Atlantis\Atlantis.png</File>
                                <Metadata>
                                    <UMLeft>5</UMLeft>
                                    <UMTop>5</UMTop>
                                    <UMRight>5</UMRight>
                                    <UMBottom>5</UMBottom>
                                </Metadata>
                            </Picture>
                        </Pictures>
                    </Graphics>
                </Replace>
            </Resources>
        </ResGroup>
       
    </MessengerSkin>
</SkinInfo>

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that code gives you a basic skin which all it test is change every background in messenger to the picture Atlantis.png, all you need to do is compare the above code to your own and see which bits you dont have yet and add them in, for your skin itll be the bits between <Replace> & </Replace> from the above example.

if you get stuck let me know and ill try to help.

quote:

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Originally posted by keikonium
Is it possible to make the contact list have a transparent background?

EDIT:

Nevermind, I figured it out after A LOTTTT of trial and error replacing strings and such. Finally I found out you need to:

1001 Style
Element[ID=Atom(ai558)]
Change to "Background:argb(128,255,255,255);" for a transparent white background ^_^.

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I did that and all I got was a white background. I changed 255 to 120 and it turned gray. So what you mentioned just changes the color. Anyone know how to make it transparent?

Probs can't do transparent, hence the grey (adds black behind the white)