Version 4.1 Update Document

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SkinStudio is a program that enables users to design their own graphical user interfaces. Don't like how Windows looks? Wish the Start button was smaller? Maybe a different color? Don't like the big blue title bars? Wish Windows Media Player's skin was different? SkinStudio gives you the tools to create your own "skins".  These skins are then applied by programs such as Windows Media Player, WindowBlinds, ObjectBar, and more in order to give Windows its own look and feel.

What's new in SkinStudio 4.1

The challenge of SkinStudio has always been to make skin creation easy for novices but still have enough power user features so that anything can be done. SkinStudio 4.1 continues on that path of making it easy for beginners but adding new features for power users.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Microsoft's visual styles can be directly imported into WindowBlinds:
  

Find an unsigned .msstyles

Double click on it and this dialog will come up. 

If you choose options, you will get more options.

Click on Okay and the visual style is imported into WindowBlinds and applied.

There are a number of .msstyles available on the net. Most of them are just the Windows XP style tweaked. While limited in what they can do, some of them are rather nice. The problem with .msstyles is that if you want to use them directly you have to find a program that patches system files to remove Microsoft's digital signing protection on visual styles which violates Microsoft's EULA and poses potential problems when adding new service packs.  With SkinStudio 4.1, you can import them into WindowBlinds which can apply them.  WindowBlinds is Microsoft certified for Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP.

• Shell Integration for .msstyles.  Microsoft's visual style format can be edited from the shell.

• Additional Support for bundled Truetype fonts.

• Support for MDI buttons in UIS1.

• Seamless support for .PNG files. WindowBlinds only uses TARGA files but SkinStudio will automatically turn the .PNG into TGA when saving them.

• Lots of tiny bug fixes.

Build History since previous release

2004.02.03 (4.0.0 Build 867 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- Skinstudio - workaround for WB not suporting MDI buttons transparency for UIS1 skins. the button now painted on the background of color of the menu bar.
- Skinstudio - fixed problems With Gigatexel's azure that defines theme name in a weird way - resulting empty theme name and image files landing main WindowBlinds folder.
- fix for the "Browse for skin to add as substyle to this style" problem not copying files and not changing references proporly - broken while adding the file normalization for WB.

2004.02.04 (4.0.0 Build 867 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- there were some massive issues with transparency detection conversion - exploited heavily by Fierce msstyles. I belive I've taken care of most if not all of them.

2004.02.06 (4.0.0 Build 868 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- virtual sections had the action bar shown and clicking on them caused an error, It's now hidden.
- greatly improved support for msstyles with 32-bit png's (like Fierce)

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2004.01.16 (4.0.0 Build 854 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fixed USF titlebar on New skin to appear as "Skinny"
- fixed the titlebar buttons not converting right on some skins due to disregarding the sizing margins.
- increased the font size multiplication factor to produce bigger fonts.
(current ones seems too small)
- fixed problem with first font having shadow effect.


2004.01.18 (4.0.0 Build 856 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- image opening dialogs in some places replaced with regular dialogs for stability and speed sake.
- completely redesigned the gui for Hyper convert and importing from mssstyles in general. Took whole day but I hope it was worth it. it nowremembers all user's settings and is greatly simplified.
- fixed a problem with the disappearing sybstyle selector toolbar.
- slightly decreased the font size for imported msstyles.

2004.01.19 (4.0.0 Build 857 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fixed final problemw with VelvetWaves using multiple images for Windows caption and the titlebar buttons.
- fixed problem with tool windows frames beeing transparent in Eclipse msstyles.
- fixed problems with variuous other Eclipse msstyles images not beeing coverted over due to excessive use of alpha channel in the original theme.
- some additional checkups and asserts for images with really badly designed margins (overlapping or leaving no space between them) and weird images having frames heights or widths of just one pixel.
- fixed problem with the top combo box sizing on the margins adjustment panel.
- fix for some shellstyle images having per-pixel setting enabled even though they should not support it.

2004.01.20 (4.0.0 Build 858 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- Skinstudio - fixed issue with TrueSize items conversions for XP stuff (e.g. All Programs arrow for OpusOS).
- Skinstudio - more accurate preview for XP start pane More Programs arrow and text.
- Skinstudio - fix for wrongly imported shellstyle titlebar arrows (reversed up/down).
- Skinstudio - fix for wrongly created new skin's shellstyle titlebar arrows (reversed up/down).


2004.01.27 (4.0.0 Build 862 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- tool for normalizing WindowBlinds skin filenames - a perfect tool for when the image files have too long names and WB has problems with them, or when the skin has toubles recoloring due to long filenames.
- File-> save as now automatically normalizes the filenames if a prefix is specified so that the recoloring always work smoothly and the thole Save as will the fully filepath length Safe.

2004.01.28 (4.0.0 Build 863 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- attribute groups expansion is now remembered across the sections of the same type - e.g. if you have a group expanded in one titlebar button, then if you enter enother button it will be expanded there too. I find that more usefull then remebering the expansion on per-section basis - since I often have to compare titlebar buttons to see if they're alike or not.
- attribute grouping is now reset with every update - to assert the compatibility with latest definition files.

2004.01.29 (4.0.0 Build 864 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fixed an error in the bootskin image preparing tool making it unable to create new image but only to overwrite an existing one.

2004.02.01 (4.0.0 Build 865 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- SkinStudio - small tweaks to filters for bugs discovered with 6Pack msstyles.

2004.01.10 (4.0.0 Build 849 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- fix for Start Button being stretched. while it should always be TrueSize
- fix for Msstyles->UIS2 import not creating compound file.
- user pane content margins not beeing brought over to uis/usf - fixed (this caused the user text and icon beeing positioned wrongly).

2004.01.12 (4.0.0 Build 850 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- next - hopefully last attempt to make grouped taskbar items menu transparency sorted.
- fix for some non stahdard shellstyles causing "List index out of bouds error". (Longhorn Aero).
- fix for shellstyles with transparent titlebars not showing properly in the preview.
- added separator creation to the conversion.

2004.01.13 (4.0.0 Build 851 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- mdi buttons functionality added to UIS1 format.
- mdi buttons functionality added to UIS1 previews.
- mdi buttons functionality added to UIS1 templates and new skins.
- mdi buttons functionality added to UIS1 conversions.
- filter now adds a mechanism to assert minimal image extents on convertion of certain images (other then making sure combobox shows properly - it now allows for a better menu separator image painting in some cases and better performing windows frames).
- increased accuracy of Start button painting (for small buttons).
- fix for shellstyles conversion errro for USF saving the files in the USF root folder instead of the skins folder.

2004.01.14 (4.0.0 Build 852 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- completely redone conversion of scrollbars thanks to report by Judge and KOL's Milk theme. Interesting that this have remained dormant for so long.
- added support for left most tab and right most tab (Pahther theme imports required it). Reported by Judge.
- now SkinStudio makes sure msstyles are not running prior starting WB and if running shuts them down first. Skinstudio first applies Windows XP classic style.

2004.01.15 (4.0.0 Build 853 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fix for various glitches occurted for VelwetWaves msstyles.
- fix for some shellstyles not defining special arrows but using regular arrows instead.
- fix for some shellstyles having transparent titlebars for panes by just not placing any image there. I think shellstyles are now as close as i can get without chaning anything in WB.
- now Top tab items are imported instead of bottom tab items since that's what XP really uses (most of the time and wb does not allow bor the bottom line to be different.
- completely rebuilt substyles enumerating routine - now even more compatible with Windows XP then StyleXP or StyleBuilder are since they not always notice all the substyles.
- taskbar preview now reflects the height of the actual taskbar when applied.
- fixed non hyperconvert conversion asking for overwriting duplicates when actually the style has never yet been converted before.


2004.01.06 (4.0.0 Build 845 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- more accurate Window Frames conversion
- selecting fonts should newer cause a " '' is not an integer value' error any longer.
- improved font conversion accuracy
- skinstudio now takes over msstyles extension association.
- doubleclick on msstyles now performs hyperconvert automatically and opens display properties.

2004.01.07 (4.0.0 Build 846 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fix for conversion of msstyles not having shellstyles - not to show black background underneath shellstyle titlebar buttons
- fix for tray clock not converting to proper color
- hyperconvert front-end added - now allows to select whether user wants to import to USF or UIS

2004.01.08 (4.0.0 Build 847 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- SkinStudio now allows for multiple populating threads in Skin Browser, so you no longer has to press refresh to stop populating skins for one node if you accidentally expanded wrong node. Skinstudio can now populate all nodes at once too.

2003.12.11 (4.0.0 Build 836 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- Overlies -> Overlays, thanks Kris.
- fixed Skin Validator leaking memory on every skin analyze.
- I had a dream that WB once supported PNG files. But WB does not support them and for memory reasons it will not. TGA support sucks in image editors generally. The only editor that could do it properly was Photoshop.
Unfortunately... it WAS. Read on for more info:
http://adam.joeuser.com/articles.asp?AID=2574

2003.12.13 (4.0.0 Build 837 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- fix for icons with flawed icon structure (ther pixel format is now taken from bitmap header not icon list).
- fix for Skinstudio crashes on Skin close after editing skin code. As reported by Dave Elliott.
- fix for Skinstudio/IconDeveloper freeze on image editor launch. Reported by Dave Elliott. Now the lunching and preprocessing is made in the separate thread, so it should never "hang" the main thread any longer. This should also cure another bug reported by GreenReaper some time ago, concerning preview to disappear sometimes on image editor launch.

2003.12.14 (4.0.0 Build 838 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- fix for "code view" scrollbars flickeding on Save and Save as - reported by Dave Elliott.

2003.12.15 (4.0.0 Build 839 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- import button for avi files.
- fix for subskin selector not opening the new skin on combo select.

2003.12.16 (4.0.0 Build 839 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- fixed problem with making icons in IconDeveloper (and importing files in
Skinstudio) out of JPG files.
- fixed reversed order of images prerssed/mouseover on start panel logof buttons.

2003.12.23 (4.0.0 Build 840 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- fixed crash on new skin creation when it had a space (perhaps any blank
character) at the end or the beginning of the name. Reported By Greenreaper.
- fixed Skinstudio allowing user to Press on on creation of new skin with a blank nake or one that has only blank characters. Reported By Greenreaper.

2004.01.02 (4.0.0 Build 843 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio Private)
- compound file creation for HyperConvert
- fix - conversion now possible if at least one substyle checked (not selected like before)
- fix for broken pre-loading of definition files. Curtesy of report by Robb Kimmer.
- fix for Standard version complaining for uff.def file lack in the Standard/Free version. if a skin was loaded on startup. Curtesy of report by Robb Kimmer.
- fixed a deadlock that coulkd occur while pre-populating definition files in background, just after startup.

2004.01.05 (4.0.0 Build 844 - IconDeveloper/SkinStudio SDC)
- fix for a few final glitches in the MSStyles->UIS filter and the import routines. Getting read of validation errors for converted skins.
- Shell integration for MSStyles (2 menu ites entry for msttyles in the right mouse button click).
- brought back the font for status bar since i noticed it actually works.
- some new technologies brought back to the previous MSStyle->SF filter so they can share more acurate conversion too.
- fix for IconPackager calling Icondeveloper with resource number even when launching it as
- Skinstudio now allows for association with msstyles. (which will automatically convert them to USF