how do i use community skin? i can't change different skins

[tunanugget]

attached is a few more screen shots, as well as the skin.xml from main menu directory and basemenu.xml

changes:

-bumped most fonts to at least 18
-changed # of rows in tv guide to 5
-made selected title description in tvguide yellow
-edited main menu's xml to allow for larger font, centered=false
-change some colors (forgot what)

-i didn't have a systematic way of doing things...trial and error .
-i think i put "yellow" in some parts where it should be "Yellow"

things i'd like to modify in tv guide:
-make background of selected show green rather than a lighter blue (i.e. "Today" is a light blue/purple color while rest of grid is a darker blue/purple)
-make the word "TV Guide" and the clock a transparent blue color?

Seems like the only two files that change the appearance of skin the main menu's skin.xml and baseskin.xml.

[Fatman_do]

attached is a few more screen shots, as well as the skin.xml from main menu directory and basemenu.xml

changes:

-bumped most fonts to at least 18
-changed # of rows in tv guide to 5
-made selected title description in tvguide yellow
-edited main menu's xml to allow for larger font, centered=false
-change some colors (forgot what)

-i didn't have a systematic way of doing things...trial and error .
-i think i put "yellow" in some parts where it should be "Yellow"

things i'd like to modify in tv guide:
-make background of selected show green rather than a lighter blue (i.e. "Today" is a light blue/purple color while rest of grid is a darker blue/purple)

Edit the baseskin.xml file very top is the colors for the TVGuide.

-make the word "TV Guide" and the clock a transparent blue color?

Try the baseskin.xml file line like this:
<NamedColor name="ScreenName" color="#2562b0" />

Seems like the only two files that change the appearance of skin the main menu's skin.xml and baseskin.xml.

That was the intention, make it as easy as possible. Also, use the skin plugin and select something for TextBackgrounds and it will improve the search plugin.

[Fatman_do]

Good job so far.

The search plugin isn't very skinnable, sub has to do some changes for that.
Select a TextBackground other than Transparent using the skin plugin to add backgrounds around text in the search plugin.

[Fatman_do]

here's the supersized hi-vis mce2 skin.

-the search guide's fonts are still small. i don't like how it looks so empty compared to the regular blue skin which has some darker boxes.

Much of the Search plugin is hardcoded and not very skinnable.

-On main menu, would like to increased the font size of the date/time/next recording.

You will find that in the \Panels folder..Clock.xml and NextRecording.xml

-don't like the up and down arrow appearance after i put centered=false.

If you want them removed..in the main menu move
<SpecialElement name="MoreUp" loc="700,150" />
<SpecialElement name="MoreDown" loc="700,500" />

to some "off-screen" value.

-in music libary, i'd like to make the background transparent bluish box a bit taller on the song list (doesn't completely show the "p" or the "g"

Yeah, the sizes are optimised for 16pt.
In the baseskin.xml file find this...

Code:

    <!-- list view -->
    <CompositeImage name="ListViewNormalItem" size="470,30">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="470,30"/>
        <DrawText text="@fileName" loc="10,0" size="500,30" textStyle="ListTextNormal" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewSelectedItem" size="470,30">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="470,30"/>
        <DrawText text="@fileName" loc="10,0" size="500,30" textStyle="ListTextSelected" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewNormalFolder" size="470,30">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="470,30"/>
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Folder.png" loc="10,7" size="16,16"/>
        <DrawText text="@folderName" loc="30,0" size="500,30" textStyle="ListTextNormal" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewSelectedFolder" size="470,30">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="470,30"/>
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Folder.png" loc="10,7" size="16,16"/>
        <DrawText text="@folderName" loc="30,0" size="500,30" textStyle="ListTextSelected" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

To this,

Code:

    <!-- list view -->
    <CompositeImage name="ListViewNormalItem" size="470,[B]33[/B]">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="470,[B]33[/B]"/>
        <DrawText text="@fileName" loc="10,0" size="500,[B]33[/B]" textStyle="ListTextNormal" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewSelectedItem" size="470,[B]33[/B]">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="470,[B]33[/B]"/>
        <DrawText text="@fileName" loc="10,0" size="500,[B]33[/B]" textStyle="ListTextSelected" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewNormalFolder" size="470,[B]33[/B]">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="470,[B]33[/B]"/>
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Folder.png" loc="10,7" size="16,16"/>
        <DrawText text="@folderName" loc="30,0" size="500,[B]33[/B]" textStyle="ListTextNormal" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

    <CompositeImage name="ListViewSelectedFolder" size="470,[B]33[/B]">
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="470,[B]33[/B]"/>
        <DrawImage filename="..\_CommonImages\ListView_Folder.png" loc="10,7" size="16,16"/>
        <DrawText text="@folderName" loc="30,0" size="500,[B]33[/B]" textStyle="ListTextSelected" align="Left" valign="Center" />
    </CompositeImage>

To this, it may work...(note, changed "xxx,30" to "xxx,33" in several places)