Skinning Tutorial - Basics
Hello good friends of thy!
I have had many requests and constant nagging from many people to teach them how to skin
and I do try but without a full tutorial it is pretty unless don't you think?
Therefore, I decided to write one up giving the ins and outs of skinning as well as a few inside tips
and I am sure this topic will be helpful to many people.
Basically skinning Messenger is easy with the right tools. All the data and images we need are stored in one file in your Messenger directory in main and infamous file, "msnmsgr.exe" or "msgsres.dll" if you are skinning Windows Live Messenger. In here, you have the PNG images, the GIF images, the bitmaps, icons, cursors, and uifiles. I will go into more detail about them a little later.
I first have to say skinning is not easy, there are many images to edit, and you need to have basic CSS and HTML knowledge to succeed, as the uifiles will reveal later. So let me explain what is what in skinning:
GIFS: They are mainly the animated images and very few at that plus it contains the image when you view the about box.
Bitmaps: Not too many bitmaps either, the system tray images and the scrollbar images are found here.
PNGS: This is the main place to find all your images, in PNG32 format. You probably be editing this section a lot. Please note Windows Live Messenger contains a new extension known as .rle which replaces the PNG format. Click here to find out more.
Cursors: Well you can customise the rollover cursors if you truly want to although most skinners do not.
Icons: Contains the main icon for the program well as the various ones we see here and there for example some of the system tray is icons.
Uifiles: Now this is normal text but allows you to add/ remove certain things like the advertisement, add images, take away content move things around, and I will try to explain these as much as I can later.
Now these are the basic things you have to edit to make a successful skin. In future lessons you will learn about each one of them.
Any skinner needs to be ready, ready for the battle ahead. You need an image editing program e.g. Photoshop, Fireworks. You need an icon-editing program e.g. IconXP or Icon workshop. You may want to search for bit strip or a hex editor. However, our most important tool, which we need to know and use inside out, is "Resource Hacker". Don't worry the name has nothing to do with hacking but replaces resources in .dll and .exe files. There are many resource editors but this is a great one to use and is free.
[Download Resource Hacker]
I also suggest that you download the skinning resources which contains all the images you can edit as well as the uifiles.
[Download skinning resources for MSN Messenger 7.5.0306]
Basically skinning Messenger is easy with the right tools. All the data and images we need are stored in one file in your Messenger directory in main and infamous file, "msnmsgr.exe" or "msgsres.dll" if you are skinning Windows Live Messenger. In here, you have the PNG images, the GIF images, the bitmaps, icons, cursors, and uifiles. I will go into more detail about them a little later.
I first have to say skinning is not easy, there are many images to edit, and you need to have basic CSS and HTML knowledge to succeed, as the uifiles will reveal later. So let me explain what is what in skinning:
GIFS: They are mainly the animated images and very few at that plus it contains the image when you view the about box.
Bitmaps: Not too many bitmaps either, the system tray images and the scrollbar images are found here.
PNGS: This is the main place to find all your images, in PNG32 format. You probably be editing this section a lot. Please note Windows Live Messenger contains a new extension known as .rle which replaces the PNG format. Click here to find out more.
Cursors: Well you can customise the rollover cursors if you truly want to although most skinners do not.
Icons: Contains the main icon for the program well as the various ones we see here and there for example some of the system tray is icons.
Uifiles: Now this is normal text but allows you to add/ remove certain things like the advertisement, add images, take away content move things around, and I will try to explain these as much as I can later.
Now these are the basic things you have to edit to make a successful skin. In future lessons you will learn about each one of them.
Any skinner needs to be ready, ready for the battle ahead. You need an image editing program e.g. Photoshop, Fireworks. You need an icon-editing program e.g. IconXP or Icon workshop. You may want to search for bit strip or a hex editor. However, our most important tool, which we need to know and use inside out, is "Resource Hacker". Don't worry the name has nothing to do with hacking but replaces resources in .dll and .exe files. There are many resource editors but this is a great one to use and is free.
[Download Resource Hacker]
I also suggest that you download the skinning resources which contains all the images you can edit as well as the uifiles.
[Download skinning resources for MSN Messenger 7.5.0306]