i suggest, Panda knows, but if still not sure:

for the Previewpane> 1 > 1 : it's the HorizontalShineLayer
Previewpane > 1 > 2 : it's the VerticalShineLayer (which - i assume - is completely unused meanwhile, i take it for Save-DialogPane Shinelayers in Shellstyle.txt)

oh, i've seen you tested it to set it to 11 etc..

so i believe it has to do with the padding in shellstyle.. (possibly)

i guess the padding (similar to the contenmargins) in the shellstyle.txt have to be set larger to allow larger fonts.
but this also will enlarge the commandmodule-height.

or try to set the font to 11, 12, etc and look what happens..

for your -well known- problem with transparent gradients i highly recommend MS Expression Design 3.

Check the 60day Trial..

it's all vectorized here (which is at last a great advantage), the exported images have smooth gradients.

For UI design it is much better than photoshop (which is still needed for some parts, e.g. for cutting images an some recolouring etc)

Search/Button Toolbar/SplitbuttonDropdown

it's made to fit with IE8, but the VSB Box is kinda weird, because it uses another search box than the rest

try styles/textstyle/bodytext

hey Panda, good ideas for 1.6!

i only miss 2 more functions:

an optional image export function  with "back to original" alpha.. (if technically possible)
because exported images stay darkened, i want to change a small part, but it doesn't work anymore..
(i need this for previewpane-shinelayers etc)

When starting VSB, it should load the last saved theme or opening a concerning dialog.
Often it happens, when working on a VS, saving it with new buildname, then starting vsb next time it loads a previous version, which i start to work on and just later i see, its an older build..
(yes i know, i have to look in the titlebar  )
but that was better solved in 1.4...

the rest is perfect for me...

well if you still have your email when you bought it than you will still have the download links
cause I have my email still and I have both the links for 32 bit and 64 bit and they still work
and it is not my place to post them
and even if I did you would still need your info to even download them

good news.. they were down awhile..

I tried to make it myself but i got this :



As you can see, some black pixels shouldn't appear in the center of the two bottom squares. Any idea ?

i don't know if it's fixed in 7, but under vista exists a "transparent start button bug".
when you take a transparent button, a smaller copy is drawn under the orignal button, which destroys the appearance..

 

never seen that..

without testing the theme i have just following suggestions:

1. explorerframe images are saved on false image parts (forward button on dropdown arrow)

if the explorerframe isn't edited, then:

2.some wrong DPI settings in the theme or in your system
3.Rebar/Navbar/Basic/Base/Band Contentmargins

too bad, the caption textcolor in 7 is now the same in aero and basic.. 

this is difficult for dark basic frame..

(i know it's in the wrong category, but the topic is discussed here atm)

which navigation pane? best is screenshot..

Basic / contentmargins?

<if id="atom(PreviewShineLayer)"> <TemplateBackground background="themeable(dtb(MusicPreviewPaneControl::Edit, 3, 1), window)" /> </if> <if Vertical="true" id="atom(PreviewShineLayer)"> <TemplateBackground background="themeable(dtb(PreviewPane, 1, 2), window)" /></if>

</style>

I'm probably doing something wrong, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Great! i see, you did it right, so you only have to find the right passages in the shellstyle txt for documents, generic, music, photo.
the only thing i can recommend is, not to put it in the shinelayer, but in the background (in 7 its directly before the shinelayer with background="(ARGB(0,0,0,0))"
so you can still use a transparent shinelayer over the pane (if you don't want to, then place in the shinelayer (previewpane,1,1) a clear image, but the shellstyle is edited once, and later you can change your Style by using only in VSB..

when the shellstyle.dll once works correctly, place a copy in appdata/roaming/temp/shell (or similar, the temp folder is somewhere in appdata), so you can test your theme directly in vsb. vsb uses a standard shellstyle in test mode.

Hopefully I can explain this right, but is it possible to say, add an image with reshacker and have it show up somewhere in VSB? I would like to try a couple things with my theme that references images in the msstyle, and don't want to use bmp's in the shellstyle. Basically, I would like to add something under say, Explorer & Shell \ Explorer and add a new item called images or something. Is this possible?

Yes this is possible... but not by Reshacker, only by VSB

you have to trace the pane background in shellstyle.dll > 1.txt to a unused part (for example PreviewPaneControl) in msstyle and put a graphic in it via VSB.
Even fonts, fontcolors etc are possible..

i recommend the DirectUIXML notes from panda here in the forum or take a look in my Firedance Vista themes on dA
(there are the panes in msstyle and the shellstyle takes them out from there by following syntax: background=themeable(dtb("part in the msstyle", 0, 3801)) etc,etc plz take a closer look

it also works on 7..

Explorer & Shell > Explorer > CommandModule > LibraryHeaderBackground
Explorer & Shell > Explorer > CommandModule > <11>

Is that it?

No, this is the Library Pane.. but thx for helping..

i'm very sure, it's a gradient, not an image.

it's not in msstyle.. the are only a few gradients left..
i guess it's in shell32 or something..

so i'll leave it, i don't want to change any dll for my theme (except shellstyle.dll, which installs automatically)..

i just thought, when gradient background is possible here, it may work on ItemsView explorer background ;-)

but still enough other topics to do.. 
(btw expression design works very very good for Aero Frames, i'm stunned every day i work with it)

has someone located out this color gradient?

WHHOOAAA!!!

Absoluter Hammer!

Du hast es drauf wie kein Anderer, ohne Witz!!

Besonders die Previewpane und die Scrollbar sind der Wahnsinn.
Das guck ich mir mal genauer an!! 

Kleine Kritik:
Ich fänds nur gut, wenn Du anstelle eines dunklen Unicolor Theme mal eine Farbkombination nehmen würdest, die einem herstellerseitigen OS-UI nahe käme, sprich wie Windows oder Leopard, aber mit deinen genialen Grafikdesign aufgemischt.
Weil viele Programme haben ihr eigenes UI (z.B. Nero, MS- Office, Corel-Draw, Adobe uvm.)
Solche Programme wirken dann wie Fremdkörper auf dem Desktop. Genial wäre es, wenn diese Programme laufen und die Gesamtoptik passt aber nach wie vor.
Oder wie Savoury es in seinem Blog sagt: "The ambition of good design: to go unnoticed"

Aber das ist nur meine unwesentliche Meinung..

Weiter So!!!

I need your permission and the permission of Panda-X and PAP3RCLIPS to release the theme.
I have your permission?

  Tanks man,
I worked hard on this theme.

for sure!!

cool !!

without the theme to test, it is difficult to say.

do the left and right border in NormalWindow and Aero Peek have the same width and the same margins?

Thx man !

i've bought it even twice for my pc at home and at work..

Andreas doesn't react on emails..

i'm not happy about this form of "support"

if someone can mail me the 64Bit version (the original download-zip without any activation data, i have it on my own as mentioned before) to michael.mille@gmx.de, i would really appreciate it.

yep, PS can't handle 32Bit BMP's. Use Gimp and overlay your PNG, set the old Layer to 0% Opacy and save it again as BMP

i suggest some Apps use different msstyle parts for their UI-Apperance (Nero, Corel etc).

in this case they probably use Bodytextcolor (or anything else) instead of StatusBarFontColor for their Status Bar.

In Standard Aero-Theme you don't recognize it, but with custom themes get some problems..

it's not your fault, but the Skinners of the Apps.

What happened to AveStyler??

i purchased it and want it download again as 64Bit, but the site is down??

the BMP's have to be saved in 32Bit to display correct transparency.. best program for it is GIMP.

1. pic: there is no background image in adressband anymore, so it goes black in IE8 (IE8 uses several msstyle parts in some weird way (The scrollbar is buggy, too))

2. pic: Your header image is transparent, you have to make it opaque. i've experienced this only in live mail, but i guess there are some more apps..

sumbeam, I want you to test my theme,
check your e-mail.

got it!! Thanks for letting me test it.
it looks great, i only found some minor pixel bugs in active DWM (Top (Right part) and Bottom / check small wmpplayer )

the startmenu with the longhorn-flag is awesome, too bad you made the programslist and the right part of the taskbar with samurize for the sidebar  (i'm not a friend of 3rd-party UI tweaks and tested it only without samurize)
but only with msstyles it won't be able, so it's okay

Also the Shellstyle, especially the folderband, is great. Multicolor would be awesome

Unfortunately i've lost your email-adress, because you've got me right at HDD partition moving for preparation to switch to 7, which will be delivered next days...
(which costed me some nerves changing the boot-options and the c:-drive letter on another drive, but now it works)

you can send me the final theme when finished, and i will make a further test, if you want..

The only authenticity would be if the theme looked like:

okay okay, don't judge too hard
i think it's a welcome interpretation.

i like it because it comes near to the 4074 style http://fishy-fish.deviantart.com/art/Windows-Longhorn-4074-Desktop-89321931 or LH reloaded style http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/longhorn-reloaded.jpg

so let's see how the finished theme will be..

Ok,
The right side of startmenu is impossible to increase?

great Progress!!!! i'm really impressed!!

the placeslistpane is to increase, you have to size the log-off panesize and the placeslist-pane (which is placed above the log-off pane) in x-size.
(search for Aero and basic parts, sometimes it's only in one of them, i've no VSB here atm, so i can't describe it exactly)

for the folderband you can make it bigger by the padding value in shellstyle.txt (in my 4074 shell it's made smaller than standard by using values -3 on the y-axis),
so the image isn't displayed completely)

and i like the Aero "bug" above the command bar, even it was a bug in original, it gives the theme a "authentic look" 

the horz-pic has the white to grey change not exactly in the middle, you've set the margins to 11, so just one left white pixel still stretches from 11 to the shown place.

Looks really great and very close to the Original!

Everything in the Theme or 3rd party apps involved (especially for the startmenu)?

I'm curious to test..

There is a small programm named GDI++ (google it), which replaces the complete cleartype system with an own font smoothing system,
screenshot: http://savouryspacemonkey.deviantart.com/art/Clean-138670068

i've tested it, and it works very fine. some fonts are rendered very nice.
but i did not find the perfect settings for everything yet. so i deactivated it again..

maybe you'll find the best way.

looks like an transparent image with shift-hold import

good explanation!!!

just two suggestions:

i would prefer to set the textcolor in msstyle and not by ARGB

and

set the Previewpane background in Background and not in Shinelayer, so you can lay a (transparent) Shinelayer over it..

but that's only my opinion...

about 3. : i don't think you have to edit the shellstyle.. (when using the original one)

it should be indeed in commandmodule/1, maybe some margins?

i'm not really in to 7themeing atm, but with AveStyler i don't need .theme files, 
it works exactly like in vista..

btw, for themers i highly recommend it, because you can install and uninstall visual-styles directly from your work folder (you only have to place a "Shell" folder in the work folder)
This is useful for shellstyle concerning testing.

Toolbars,Headers+Rebar>Rebar>Rebar is where it is in my computer anyway

http://vistastylebuilder.com/forum/index.php?topic=622.0

in vista basic not addressbar but the colour around it..

BBToolBar Basic Active/Inactive Backgrounds, it think

The Rebar is the Menubar, when Menu activated