Opps.  Sorry the betas are sometimes time limited and it seems we all forgot that this one was set to 2008.

I will see about getting a new build up later today.

Thanks Neil I was just about to ask !
A/V

Thanks Xiandi - it does work till the team gets things back up again.



Thank you Neil! Hope everyone is having a good New Year already!!!

SGT  

The new beta is up on SDC   

Well, now Skin Studio 6 does not show in SDC....only V5.
Trying to start up my current install results in a search for the program...It is not installed anymore??

Have tried updating SDC and nothing shows for V6.

Casperrr make sure you have the box at the bottom of SDC to show pre-release versions marked.

Cool got it...
Thanks Neil !

SGT  

I am getting the expired message. Is it back? I am using Vista Business x64.

I think a great idea would be to add a "open current windowblinds skin" link to the main front page of SKS 6 instead of having to access it via the file menu.

Plz   

You mean like SKS5? HeHe. Did you quit smokin' or sumthin?

got a question and I dont know if this is the right spot to do it I have already bought windowblinds pro and I am going to buy skinstudio 6 when it comes out of beta (it wont let me buy it now) my stardock central keeps telling me there is an update to skinstudio I have skinstudio 6 v5.96a and it tells me there is a v5.96(b).016 but when I go to update it say your skinstudio professional is invallid but it wont shut up I can not have it set to ignore it (got someone else paying for computer) I would like to beta test the versons or go ahead and buy it witch it wont let me do that eather I dont want object desktop I have attached a screanshot that has all the info if you can help me

SK6 is a complete pile of waste compared to SK5.

Loosing the tabbed, MDI based environment in favor for a locked focus popup wizard is just plain a BAD idea.

BAD IDEA'S / BUGS
-------------

Controls Tree View
- Poorly labeled
- Bad Sorting
- No Right Click menu

Popup Windows VS MDI
- Can't open more than one section at a time.
- Focus is locked to newly created popup frame.

Can no longer right click, Delete a section.
- You have to change selected image drop down to the "No Image" manually

Sub Styles Loose Support
- Can't Save As, New SubStyle in current skin.
- No sub style selector, you must manually open a new instance of SK6 then open the skin and select the sub style.

Preview of Skin
- No longer can you click on an object in the preview to jump to editing that object.
- Can't look at complete preview while editing an object, you are limited to the preview of the section you are editing. Since the popup frame is locked you can't alt-tab to the main frame where the complete preview is located.

Object properties
- now multiple tabs, instead of the DevEnv style Properties frame.


The bottom line is go to SK5 and count the number of clicks it takes to get something done, then go do the same thing in SK6 and it will take 2x or 3x as many clicks. Less information is displayed to you at once thanks to the loss of the MDI form.

If Visual Studio came out showing you less information about your program and taking you twice as long to accomplish tasks, it would be thrown in the trash and never used again. Everyone would just stick with the superior previous version.
Which is exactly what should happen here.

Everyone just stick with SK5.

Well, I don't agree with you there. It does take more clicks, but it's way easier to use than SKS5. And way more extensible. Imagine that in two years Windowblinds could skin really everything in your OS. How would that be possible to fit in the skinning environment?
Visual studio is build to be extensible. SKS5 wasn't. SKS6 is. It's now easier to skin, and the program is able to grow with windowblinds without getting too complicated. What more would you want?

Well, it's been 6 months since I asked this.
Is it going to be an option?

Really needs to have a button for "Open current skin running" or "Open Previous Skin" (which will open the skin you were just working on "XP or Vista").

syonin:

It is true you can only open one section at a time, but even in SKS5 you could really only edit one section at a time.  Yes you could scroll around in the tree and find values, but you would then need to go back.  SKS6 does have a similar tree option (see the second preferences page) if you wish.  The release version of SKS6 also adds next and prev links so you can quickly switch between the SKS6 'pages'.

To delete a section just select the image drop down and press space.  SKS6 will then delete that section and all values relating to it.  If you have SKS6 pro then you will see the code tab is then empty.

If you want to create a new substyle from the current substyle, you can do this from the File Menu.  Pick substyle management and then click add.  You can then name the substyle and pick which of the current substyles you want to base the new substyle on.

To switch substyles just use the Tools menu.  It has a handy switch substyle entry.  It is true that you can also open a second instance of SKS6 if you wish.  SKS6 is very memory efficient and this works well.

It is true you cannot click on the previews to open up that part, but SKS6 does have the Theme part details screen which shows you pictures of various theme parts and double clicking on these would open up the correct section in the skin.

SKS6 is different to SKS5 and it may take some time for users used to SKS5 to adjust to it, but new users should find it much simpler and easier to use and hopefully more logical too.  Nobody is stopping you using SKS5, but remember that it does not support the new Vista sections in WB and it will remove any startmenu animation if you edit the skin.  Also don't run the skin checker as it can seriously break a skin.

One of the major advantages to SKS6 is that it is developed by the WindowBlinds team rather than a seperate team.  This means new features in WB can be added into SKS much quicker.

Constructive criticism is always welcomed.

Is this really taking up that much time?

Wow! Sorry I asked. Didn't mean to bother you.

Z71: That was a genuine question as when I edit a skin I just open it up and edit it and apply from within SKS6, so I do not reopen the skin often.

Do you do something different?

Yes, I open it every time, then close to apply. On XP, it uses to much ram, leaving it open.
I'll have to see if it does it differently on Vista. I might have to just change my ways.

Oh, and I just wanted to know if it was going to be an option.

It should be using about 30MB with a large skin with startmenu animation open.

OK, I can have skin studio open, fix things, etc. all day long, with no problems. I meant it slows my computer down (on XP), when I apply the skin with it open.
That's why, for all these years, I've closed it, then applied the skin.



Also, I wasn't the only person who asked. I know it's a very, very minor thing, but maybe you could give us some reassurence, that you might look into it in the future.
That's all I'm asking.

Z71: Have you seen this slowdown with SKS6?

I rarely close SKS.. get way more done with it open   

but.... when i do..   would be nice to see a button\link for open current skin as it is ALWAYS the only option I choose.

I've spent a little time with SKS6 now. Hats off to the dev team for a very handsome product. Unfortunately, in some respects form has trumped function in SKS6.

There is one very annoying drawback to SKS5 which has survived to live on in SKS6 - if I open more than one image for editing, SKS6 forces a new instance of my editor for each image. I work with multiple images simultaneously when skinning and I suspect most skinners do - that SKS6 doesn't 'see' that the editor is already open is odd (when I open multiple email image attachment one at a time in Outlook, only one instance of the editor is invoked).

One drawback new to SKS6 is the absence of the Zoom Color Picker ('least I can't find it if it's there) - I use that all the time in SKS 5 when I'm skinning, and I mean routinely - it's one of SKS5's best & most useful features.

Maybe it's just the particular way I work when skinning. SKS6 is OK, but it somehow feels like the 'Skinning for Dummies' version, as opposed to SKS5 which by comparison feels more like the 'PowerUser' version (and I'm most definitely an 'amateur' skinner). Since I don't have Vista & probably won't for some time, and therefore can't skin for it anyway (no ability to see the 'final product'), I see no compelling reason to abandon SKS5.

Perhaps future versions of SKS could have an 'Advanced Mode' that would give you the ability to use the Preview Image as an image navigation tool and include the Zoom Color Picker. I understand the idea was to make it easier for the novice to get into skinning, but at some point more experienced skinners should have the ability to get rid of the training wheels. 0.02

Thanks for the response Neil.
The sub style stuff just takes some getting used to, and my multitasking ways are not necessarily the norm.

Couple more suggestions/complaints I still have after playing more in SK6.

- I wholeheartedly concur on the missing Zoomed Color Picker. I realize you have a generic zoom, but still I used the old one ALL the freakin' time because of how it worked.

- I miss the auto zoomed in preview of image while setting Margins. Seems like you can manually stretch the preview out, but my small button images start as a tiny little preview instead of auto zoom to fit.

- Again, I have to say it really hurts having to switch back the buttons tab then back over to the position, visibility, or action tab. Back and Forth, Back and Forth, all day long. It would be so much better to be able to click on the button in the preview and have it stay in the current tab.

- I also had an issue with the "Roll Up Size". You can have it set to zero and it uses Caption Height, but no matter what value I set to either variable (Roll Up Size or Caption Height) the roll up size does not seem to be effected.

- Again I am gonna go on about all the missing Right Click Menu's on the tree view. Sure clicking space while having the image drop down selected is faster than scrolling to the top manually. But really, would you rather:
1. expand "Window Frames"
2. expand "Borders"
3. select "Caption"
4. select the image drop down
5. press spacebar
6. select "Left Border"
7. select the image drop down
8. press spacebar
9. select "Right Border"
10. select the image drop down
11. press spacebar
12. select "Bottom Border"
13. select the image drop down
14. press spacebar
- OR -
1. expand "Window Frames"
2. right click on "Borders"
3. select "Delete"
4. confirm "Yes"


Thanks for listening.