Design Evolved Community Forum

I really love your skins as I was looking for a skin just to put the display icon on the right side again. and after looking for a bit on the plus! skins website. I found your skins. and I am currently using the Zero-G skin. There is no problem with the skin I was just wondering if You could take your evo skin, default WLM skin and zero-g skin and incorporate them into one. What I think would be the best skin is to make a skin that has the option in evo(like the old messengers) that allows you to choose your own background image. As well as the display pictures on the right from zero -g and evo.

From the original skin of WLM 2009, The Scenes, if possible,
and the[^] -[] X buttons from vista would be nice to have back, as I like everything in zero-g but that. It just looks alot better to me(not like zero-g I mean like normal vista windows, just put them in but in black, looks tons better to me.

One other thing I think would be nice is like other skins I have tried out. I seen an option to change the background of the contact list,IM background, and the Sign-in background. I was wondering if you could also somehow put that in this new skin, as well as an option to customize these screens, just like the IM background you can already change, but the Sign-in you can't, so really just an option to change the background to any picture you want,(mostly the sign-in screen,contact list and IM).

so basically, the hideable toolbar from zero-g,the scenes, the display pictures on the right, and the customizable background on Sign-in, IM, and contact list. (like the old WLM, and evo)

also worth mentioning, I like the top menu in zero-g. but I like the default WLM2009 search,icons like the windows(show menu) button and everything else looks great, just the search and icons above it could go on the same line, or just put them on the bottom(below the 'What's new' box), and leave the search and inbox icon on the same line. would also be nice if you included an option to hide the "What's New" box. as it does take up more space than it needs to.

Much Appreciated,and thanks.

NOTE: This message is mostly directed at Willz. Unless anyone else has his permission to edit his skins. I would only like a reply from him. As his skins are the only ones i've seen with some of these things.

From the image alone, I can tell you a few things about what you want to do:

- The contact search and icons on the same line is, I think, perfectly possible, but will most likely not happen.
- The What's New area can already be removed, without using a skin, or in fact Messenger Plus! at all:

Tools -> Options -> Layout -> Show the what's new list
- I'm pretty sure there is a registry tweak for the Zero-G skin to put the DP containers on the right again. It might even be a visible option, so you should check both the Zero-G options panel and its skin folder in %ProgramFiles%\Messenger Plus! Live\Skins\.
- A background changer such as what you have shown in the image is not possible. It is possible however to have a background option on the options panel, but it would not be very user-friendly when attempting to use your own images as backgrounds. For this reason I don't think Willz would ever include such an option in his skins (Windows Aero Messenger does allow you to change backgrounds, among many other elements of the skin, but it does not allow you to use your own images unless you replaced an existing background with it).

I found the what's new box thanks. I think i'll be fine I guess. it's a pretty good skin and I have already had the right DP container. that's how I did that pic. but it's fine. I just seen how in evo willz had a background changer for your own images.thought somehow he could create some sort of update for it. so I just said all that stuff to make sure it was all included in the skin.
if it's not possible to create the skin i guess it will be fine.
thanks anyways

(06-15-2009 11:40 AM)JosephX Wrote: [ -> ]I found the what's new box thanks. I think i'll be fine I guess. it's a pretty good skin and I have already had the right DP container. that's how I did that pic. but it's fine. I just seen how in evo willz had a background changer for your own images.thought somehow he could create some sort of update for it. so I just said all that stuff to make sure it was all included in the skin.
if it's not possible to create the skin i guess it will be fine.
thanks anyways

As ryxdp pointed out, the stuff you have outlined there isn't technically possible. We are under a lot of restrictions when it comes to moving things around Messenger. I had tried some of those design ideas myself ages ago and yeah I can tell you that they do not work. I suppose the main thing to take from this is that Messenger was never meant to be skinned in the first place. So we are under a lot of restrictions in terms of what we can do. Although Messenger Plus! eases that on some fronts, there still is a lot that we can't do unfortunately.

The min, max, close thing is a matter of personal taste. I have never changed a visual in a skin simply because some people don't like it. It's a given that there will be people who don't like certain parts of something. Trying to make everyone happy is virtually impossible and isn't something I plan to try and do. I just don't have the time

As for the backgrounds thing. I think you are referring to scenes. The problem with scenes in Messenger 9 is that we don't have as much control over them as I would like. One of the main issues that we have is that scenes tend to override some of the formatting rules we apply which throw things out of whack sometimes (for example, scenes lay backgrounds of solid colors over certain parts of Messenger automatically, overriding custom backgrounds).

It is for this reason that they have been excluded out of skins such as Zero-G and Phunk'n. It is simply because I could not find any middle ground where you could use scenes and it would not detract from the design I have created or create issues.

I take my design work pretty seriously and if something looks out of place I tend to change it or remove it (at least if I can, Messenger is picky sometimes). In this case, scenes fell into that category.