"nudge" items in Skintool

[Ashman]

So, I'm starting to figure out the Skintool.

So far, the most tedious thing is trying to get things lined up properly using the mouse.

In PowerPoint you can make an item active and then while holding down Shift (or maybe it's Control, I forget), you can use the arrow keys to nudge the item in the direction of the arrow one pixel at a time.

Something like that would be incredibly helpful when positioning items in the Skintool.  So, for example, I click on a button and then can hold down Shift and hit the right-arrow key 3 times to move the button 3 pixels to the right.

Trying to move things one pixel at a time using the mouse is driving me insane...

[Barcrest]

You know you can use the align X and align Y for most things right?

[Ashman]

Yes, and no.   

I figured that was what those buttons were for, but for the life of me they don't seem to do anything.

I see in your new documentation where it states:

"Align X/Y: This will align all associated items (Buttons, Labels etc) on the X or Y axis."

However, I'm not sure how to "associate" two buttons.

I click on one, then Align Y, and then the other, nothing happens.
I click on the first one, click on the 2nd one, and then click Align Y, and nothing happens.
I hold down SHIFT and click on each one, then click on Align Y, and nothing happens.

I guess it's the "association" part that I can't figure out...     

[coffee]

"Align X/Y: This will align all associated items (Buttons, Labels etc) on the X or Y axis."

However, I'm not sure how to "associate" two buttons.

I click on one, then Align Y, and then the other, nothing happens.
I click on the first one, click on the 2nd one, and then click Align Y, and nothing happens.
I hold down SHIFT and click on each one, then click on Align Y, and nothing happens

You can use the "top" and "left" boxes to align your buttons.
Align X will work on a group of buttons, so it depends on if the buttons you want to align is grouped together by the skintool. On some pages the buttons are not grouped correctly.
You can also go straight to the INI file and edit the possition values there. This is the way I do it.

[Ashman]

Yeah, I found that doing it in the INI files was easy enough.

I just had to spend some time figuring out what was where in the various files.

I'm getting there and my skin is coming along.

On one hand, I'm glad that e-touch is skinable at all.  On the other, I'm wishing it was a bit more straightforward.

I guess the way I'd describe it is that it's "doable" but not without a fair amount of pain...

[coffee]

I'm wishing it was a bit more straightforward.

Dude, if you do a lot of graphic work you will come to see that Freebox's skintool is actually very easy.

On the other hand, I'm glad to hear you are getting along with the skin, just remember to give us a teaser(screenshot) now and then. There's a lot of users that can help you out and give some ideas.

Happy skinning Dude
Coffee

[Barcrest]

I made the skintool to be as easy as i could with the amount of time i can devote to it. Hopefully you will get your head around it and my tutorial can be of some help.

[Ashman]

I'm getting it.  It's just taking some time.

I completely understand that work on it is secondary to work on the actual e-touch application, and I'm fine with that.

I need to work on the images for my buttons and then I'll be ready to post some pictures of what I'm working on.  I started with the "blue & gray" skin so I've still got those button images.  Most everything else has been changed though...

[Ashman]

Well, it's coming along...

Like I said earlier, stole some layouts from the Blue/Gray skin, but reworked the layout for the album screen and worked up mostly new graphics.

Feedback is welcome.

[Barcrest]

That is one nice looking skin there dude, i like the guitar theme. The only think i am not sure about is the font. The font looks a bit 1920's while the rest looks modern.

[coffee]

Very very nice Ashman.
See, now that wasn't as hard as it looked? The skintool is very easy and nearly anyone can create a nice skin.
I hope this will not be your last skin as we need more guys to help build skins like this and take freebox forward.
+1(applaud) for this.

[Ashman]

Thanks guys.

One question for you.  If you look closely at the Album screen you'll see some pink areas around the corners of the buttons.  (For example, the Most Popular or Most Played buttons.)

The hot pink is the color I used in my GIFs as the transparent color.

I'm wondering if these corner areas are showing up because of the button type that was selected for those.  I haven't changed any of that from the Gray&Blue skin so I'm wondering if those buttons have a different type than the buttons on all of the other screens but I haven't looked yet.

Would the button type/shape make those pink corners appear?  It's a bit weird because the majority of the corner is transparent.  There's just this one pixel wide outline in the corners.

As a side note, I did double-check to make sure that there was only one hot pink color in the 256 color palette, and it is set as the transparent background color because the rest of the corner is transparent...

Oh, and I agree about the Font.  I was planning on selecting something different in the end.  I also need to move the firey trebble clef away from the "back" button and change the text from "Hot hits" to "most popular" on that screen.  But it's getting there...

[coffee]

If you look closely at the Album screen you'll see some pink areas around the corners of the buttons.  (For example, the Most Popular or Most Played buttons.)This is caused by the graphics enjin freebox uses.
You need to make your background of the button as close as you can to the page background and that colour can't appear the the buttons as well for it will cause more problems. You need to play with these settings in the skintool.

Would the button type/shape make those pink corners appear?

You need to play with these settings in the skintool.

[Barcrest]

How are you creating your GIF images? The GIF images do need to be proper transparent GIF's i think they have a back colour on them and the button is removing that to make it transparent which is why they do not look how you would expect. Coffee could probably help you there i am not a graphics guy. The best settings are style 7 or 8 on the left box and style 5 on the right box in the button settings in skintool.

[coffee]

The GIF images do need to be proper transparent GIF's

You can do it like this but it isn't neccesery. You will see from the image files of the skins I did that my buttons normally have a background.You must just match your colours correctly.
Making the background completely transparent may cause your button to look fuzzy. So it all depend on the skin you are doing but you need to play with the buttons you create to see what looks best.