To reduce the number of spammer, we have changed from phpBB to SMF backend.

Panda X can tell you all about it 

I'll try to make a small tool to convert hex-sequences to vista style builder lookups.

And if there is anyone into phpBB, please let me know, since I don't know much about it

In my ignorance, I disabled the sign-up captcha, since, after a server upgrade it was broken. I re-enabled it again now.

[But I do not provide support on VSB when this flag is set, the image ids are updated for a reason]

You can start up vsb with the following commandline parameter:

Code:

-noupdateimageids

But I do not provide support on VSB when this flag is set, the image ids are updated for a reason

I typed in "menu" in the searchbox and found it almost instantly: Lists, Menus & Tabs > Menu .

I've put up version 1.1.0.1 which fixes the bug you mention, the BcMap could get corrupt on some instances. Whoops! Available at the usual download link.

I've added a BcMapFixer tool in the installation to fix the Bcmap of your MsStyles file, in case you need it.

Btw: the TRANSITIONDURATIONLIST:INTLIST should be set to 1 instead, 0 generates a division-by-zero error inside uxtheme.

Confirmed, subtle bug that occurs under some conditions. Expect a Fix ASAP.

[Technical Nature of the bug]

I've uploaded version 1.1.0 already, which fixes this bug. You can get it at the download link mentioned in your activation e-mail.

I'll put out a mailing with changelog later tonight.

Technical Nature of the bug
VistaStyleBuilder incorrectly flagged classes which subclassed another class (e.g. StartBottom::Button) as having a parent class. This way, they actually started to inherit all properties of their parents, including mouse-hover animation (the sluggish mouseover feeling).
A correct child->parent class relation, for instance, are the Button -> ButtonStyle classes.

It might be that Photoshop is playing wrong and is using the wrong way to draw the menubar.

Using a tool like Winspector (http://www.windows-spy.com/) you can find out what Class the menu bar is by target-selecting it with the targetting tool. I would do this myself, but I don't own a copy of Photoshop.

I have found and fixed the bug, you can expect a release today.

I have found and fixed the bug, you can expect a release today.

This appears to be because of the incorrect inheriting of TRANSITIONDURATION:INTLIST, I'm looking to see if this is a Windows thing or a VSB bug.

In the meantime, you can fix this by adding TRANSITIONDURATION:INTLIST with value 1 to each element having this behaviour.

Yeah, just revert the colors.

[nine-grid-drawing]

MARGINS are a quadtuple of left, top, right, bottom. They define an inner portion of a rectangle;
the left-margin says how many pixels counted from the left border you go into the rectangle, the right-margin says how many pixels counted from the right border you go into the rectangle, etc:

Illustrates pretty ok what margins are.

Sizing margins define how an image is stretched using nine-grid-drawing. For indepth info, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189722.aspx .

Content margins define where the content is placed inside a control, regardless of stretching it (since we define how many pixels to go from a border using margins).

caption margins are the same as content margins, but for title/captionbars.

none-margins is a VSB thing to display the exact borders of an image by using (0,0,0,0) as a margin structure.

http://www.vistastylebuilder.com/wiki

That's a nice idea, I will look into it shortly.

How did you do it?

2 is a regular editfield

VSB renumbers the images for technical reasons, this is something that is required for VSB to work correctly. There cannot really be given any indication on which image gets what image number, since it depends on the order of classes and properties in your Visual Style.

There is a parameter (-noupdateimageids) that you can add to the VSB commandline: c:\program files\aveapps\vistastylebuilder\vistastylebuilder.exe -noupdateimageids
However, this is not compatible with StyleHacks, ImportXP themes or adding new images.

Maybe it has something to do with this:

Window <WindowStyle>.RESTOREBUTTON.<default>:OFFSET:POSITION
   file1: 49, 5

Window <WindowStyle>.RESTOREBUTTON.<default>:OFFSETTYPE:ENUM
   file1: TOPRIGHT (1)

that actually is argb(a, r, g, b) For example, to search for all red colors do: argb(255, 255, 0, 0)

You could use the diff tool to find out the differences between this theme and aero, for example

I'll add an option for that soon

This might be an unwanted side-effect of the auto alpha-fixing algorithm. Could you try to import the image using the IMPORT button while holding shift?

[A list of images can already be generated easily tho]

We've had that suggestion before, and it's just of solving some issues with things like:

• VSB changes the image resource numbers for technical reasons, so you can't use those, unfortunately.
• How to integrate it in the current UI

A list of images can already be generated easily tho, just follow these steps:

• Click the dropdown next to the search bar and select Values
• In the search bar, type IMAGE
• You'll now have a collapsed list of all elements using an image

The next version will have an "Export whole tree" option

Update: We only need translators now, the application is fully supporting localization at this point.

We are looking into translations, can't give a date yet tho.

That should be possible, just give it a try

You could export a stylehack with all classes you want, right clicking on a class gives you the option to export it to a stylehack, you can export multiple classes before creating the stylehack.
In the other theme, you can then import this stylehack.

Undo: that's really really hard to implement.
Image list: VSB changes the image numbering with every save for technical reasons, how should they be listed then since you cannot list them by number/name. By the way, a quick way to list all images is to do a propertyy-search on IMAGE.

[Reload Test]

I've added a Reload Test button to the next build
[attachment=0:3vw9g6o4]reloadvsb.png[/attachment:3vw9g6o4]

[What is it?]

What is it?
VistaStyleBuilder comes with a small utility that can compare two MsStyles files and output all differences between the two files in a text file.

This can be extremely handy if you are trying to figure out how something is achieved in a particular Visual Style.

How does it work?
The tool is a bit crude to work with, but it does it job. When you launc the difference tool, you will the following:

• 1 You will be asked to select the first MsStyles file
• 2 After clicking OK, you will directly be asked to select the second MsStyles file
• 3 After clicking OK, the tool will ask you if you want to ignore difference in images. You usually want to do this,so click on YES.
• 4 Now, the Difference Tool will compare the two files and find the differences.
• 5 When the tool has found all differences, it will ask you the file to save the differences in. Just pick any location.
• 6 The tool will write the differences to the text file and automatically open it for you.

Example output:

Code:

FILE 1: C:\Users\ave\Desktop\aero.msstyles
FILE 2: C:\Users\ave\Desktop\ave.msstyles

PROPERTIES FOUND IN FILE 1, BUT NOT IN FILE 2
=============================================

sizevariant.LargeFonts.<default>.<default>:DISPLAYNAME:STRING 
	file1: Large Fonts

sizevariant.LargeFonts.<default>.<default>:TOOLTIP:STRING 
	file1: Large Fonts

colorvariant.NormalColor.<default>.<default>:DISPLAYNAME:STRING 
	file1: Glass
ROPERTIES FOUND IN FILE 2, BUT NOT IN FILE 1
=============================================

globals.<default>.<default>:TEXTGLOWSIZE:INT 
	file2: 0

globals.<default>.<default>:GLOWINTENSITY:INT 
	file2: 250
PROPERTIES WITH DIFFERENT VALUES BETWEEN FILE 1 AND FILE 2
==========================================================

documentation.<default>.<default>:DISPLAYNAME:STRING 
	file1 : Aero style
	file2 : Aero-stijl

The stylehack adds everything in the Taskbar & Tray Notify > Taskband > Aero > Toolbar element.

At the moment it is not easily possible to change StyleHacks. It is possible to create your own or use the Difference Tool to find out what a stylehack did.

[SearchBox]

Thanks for the suggestions!

SearchBox
Can you give any details on how you think it should work? Stuff like:
 + should it work on property values only
 + should it work on classname/elements (like a filter search as in itunes or vista explorer)
 + VSB re-numbers all image numbers for efficenty, so they will have been changed after you save once, how to deal with that?
 
Refresh
Should be possible, I need to think of a way to incorporate it into the UI

[Aero & Fonts]

Aero & Fonts
If you are using the transparency / blur features of Aero on a part, make sure you have added the TextGlowSize:int and Composited:bool properties to the element, otherwise you'll get non-antialiased fonts.
If you don't want a textglow on the element, simply set the TextGlowSize to 0.

TextGlowSize:int
Composited:bool

Technical Explanation
Vista will only render fonts alpha-aware if they have a glow applied to them, even if the glow is 0. If the element doesn't have TextGlow, the non-alpha-aware text-renderer will be used. This will result in non-antialiased texts on partial transparent backgrounds, since there will be no alpha-blending done.

[Taskbar Shadowed Text]

Taskbar Shadowed Text
[attachment=0:18x0kybg]shadow.png[/attachment:18x0kybg]
This little StyleHackes simulates a dropshadow under the taskbar text by using the TextGlow properties.
The glow properties can be found and changed in: Taskbar & Tray Notify > Taskband > Aero > Toolbar.