Once you've listened to the wonderful surprise I setup for you whenever I was bored and your hate for me is at the highest point, I suggest you start by loading an existing theme. You can do this by selecting File -> Open Theme.

Don't forget only the panels under the 'Dock' root will have anything.

If, in the Open Theme dialog, you change 'Winstep Xtreme (All)' to 'Nexus', only Nexus themes will be shown (native and 3rd party). When you press Ok in that dialog only the Dock nodes will be visible then, so this will make it easier for you guys if you actually want to change an existing Nexus theme. The other nodes are only there at this point for you to get a feeling for how it will work.

Don't forget to fill the Settings under the Theme Builder node with the paths to your favorite image and icon editors, etc...

Ah, yes, but did you try it already? lol

No. I hate you already though......

 He he......I are grabbin' it up......

On top? = stupid question. Lol

I have the theme builder open and something strange happened. I was viewing the different settings and just out of curiosity I clicked on preview. The dock changed to a light grey, tiled it looked like, and it also changed the clock to a kind of stop watch. I clicked restore and they went back to normal.

What are the dimensions...height, width, etc for endcaps and body.

I just get a white screen on the right pane when selecting sections of each category 

You get those white, blank, screens because this build is an Alpha and those sections are not ready yet. What is ready is the section for the Nexus dock, albeit limited. Again, this is a pre-Beta build and everything could change at any time. Its basically for testing.

I Love it! So much easier!!

Not even for testing yet... for playing, this is more like a demo.

And talking about playing... have you already tried clicking on the water when in the About screen?  And you can click and drag too.

Anyway, play a little more so I can pick your brains later on muaaahahahhahhaha

P.S. regarding the dimensions of the endcaps and body: there isn't one, that's the point. The bitmaps can be as small or as large as you want, they will then be automatically stretched (or squished) to fit.

Stretched/squished endcaps aren't gonna look very good.  This is an area that I usually have the most problems with in creating.

Background skinning mode doesn't need (or use) endcaps, so we're talking about making a dock based on individual tiles here (i.e.; a single tile bitmap).

That same body tile bitmap is also going to be stretched/squished as needed, depending on icon size, icon reflection size, etc..., so any endcaps tiles will end-up going to the same process as the main tile itself, which makes it ok. It's like if they were holding invisible icons (assuming we are talking about *extended* endcaps here, of course).

Also, endcaps have their own non-stretchable sections. Just tell the software not to stretch horizontally the first or last half of the endcap bitmap.

Too see how endcaps work (both in the main body and in overlays) I suggest you load the Nexus Nx-WaterBath theme.

Something else that might help for this:

The Theme Builder uses a 'temp scrap' folder named '$ThemeBuilder.~TM' inside the normal Themes folder. Whenever you load a theme into it it copies bitmaps and configuration files into this temp folder. When you drop image files into the picture boxes in the UI, it copies those images into this folder too, renaming them appropriately in the process.

Only when you actually 'Save' a theme using the File menu does it go into its own folder.

Me too.

Ok, let me know when you've used it a little bit and give me your first impressions (yes, even about that About screen, and feel free to be brutally honest lol), so I can start asking some questions.

For instance, the Edit button will allow you to open the image in your pre-selected image editor, but it will open the copy saved to $ThemeBuilder.~TM (and I haven't implemented a way to refresh the bitmap you see in the Builder yet, but I will), not the original image you dropped into the picture box. So, the question is, which of the images should the Edit button send to the Image Editor? The original or the copy in $ThemeBuilder.~TM ?

Although editing the original source image might make more sense, that would open a can of worms. It's easier for me if, once the image has been dropped, if all remaining work is done in bitmaps inside the $ThemeBuilder.~TM folder. On the other hand, if you're using .PSD files to generate those images, editing the resulting PNG image is useless (but might be handy otherwise).

There are other questions I would like to make regarding a possible Undo feature, but, as I said, I'll wait for your initial feedback first.

If the .psd's are finished, meaning the ones to be used by Theme Builder, there will be no need to edit them......right? Also...I was thinking about the number boxes. Are those the values used by Theme Builder or do you edit them?

I was speaking of endcaps like on the NextStart start menu. Not docks. I'll send some feedback, Jorge, once I get the chance to run the alpha.

Been really busy of late, and haven't skun much.  Losing the urge to skin.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................

I'll help you look for it. 

Those do not get stretched except horizontally, since menu endcaps (and titlebars) are fixed height. And even then you can set the menu to be fixed width (even though you shouldn't).

Then on the docks you can set them to stretch either horizontally or vertically depending on where you put them. Nice!

I have the hardest time with the NextStart menu. I want to make them sometimes where the top and bottom (endcaps, are wider than the main menu (buttons). Never can do it, tho I see others do. Mine always seem to have to be straight, rectangular, I can't get any other shape to work. Even tried adding transparency to the button ends, still no go.

Sorry, this should be in another thread, probably in the Winstep forums. 

Adding transparency to the button ends is the way to go. You have to think out of the box, it's not the endcaps that are wider, it's the *menu buttons* that are narrower!

So, imagine you want to make a menu endcap 200 pixels wide, but the menu buttons are only supposed to be 150 pixels wide. You make the actual bitmaps for the menu buttons and endcaps have the same width (i.e.; 200 pixels) but, for the menu buttons, the first and last 25 pixels (25+150+25 = 200)  are completely transparent.

Now, imagine the first and last 8 pixels of the endcap and menu buttons are NOT to be horizontally stretched. For the endcaps you define the Left and Right sections as 8 pixels, for the menu buttons you define the Left and Right sections as 33 pixels (the 25 transparent pixels + 8 pixels margin). You then add 25 pixels to all the horizontal offsets for the menu button text, icons, etc, to make up for those 25 transparent pixels.

Simple, eh?

Yeah, clear as mud.

Copied to a notepad for future use, or at least my alibi for my temporary insanity, in the murder case after I kill you......

LOL! I'm happy I'm not the only one.

Seriously? lol

Look:

See? Menu endcap and titlebar are (apparently) wider than the menu buttons. But the actual bitmaps are not, they are all 180 pixel wide.

Get them all together and you get something like this:

Clear as mud! Skinning 101! Tsk tsk.