Skin Tool Basics

[Tekman]

I'm new to Freebox and I'm having a real difficult time learning the skin tool. I can't seem to find any skin tool documentation. Just trying to resize a simple button seems impossible as the button just dissapears on me.

Here's what I'm doing.
1. I created a new skin folder called TEST with a copy of the existing default skin.
2. I changed the background graphic and replaced the graphics for a few of the buttons. Note that I kept the same file type (e.g. bmp and jpg).
3. I opened the Skin Tool to the TEST skin.
4. My new buttons (in jpg format) are sized incorrectly. It looks like the tool assumed the height would be the same though it's not.
5. I clicked on the button in question (Albums) and went to the Tools screen in the Skin Tool.
6. I changed the value of the Height field, and my Albums button disappeared.

Am I not following the correct procedure to apply new button graphics? Thanks for your help.

[Barcrest]

Problem is with the buttons is you need to resize them when they are not set to graphic mode. So resize them when they are mode 0 then apply the graphic or switch to graphic button. This is a limitation of the control and not freebox itself.

[Woody]

Tekman,

Barry said it right, when you change any buttons the style switches must be set to "0" first, you can then change them to any style you want. The size of the button specified in freebox is the area the art will be fit to so if you import a graphic that is larger or smaller than the button the size will be wrong as well as the aspect ratio because of the scaling, This is true for any button or background or graphic.

Woody   

EDIT: Actually I think the background art is not scaled so any background that is larger than the freebox window spec will be cropped starting at upper left corner of screen. 

[Tekman]

That was it!

Thanks.