LiteStep.net Forums

Before I dive into litestep in attempt to make the desktop I've always wanted, does it support PNGs or am I stuck with aliased bitmaps like everywhere else but the new hoverdesk, at which I shudder?

I also want to move the start button and menu to the top center, will that be difficult?

It supports PNGs, that's a fairly new innovation for LiteStep apparently but it's there now.
There is no start button as such, but you could easily put a button at the top centre that pops up the programs folder listing like the start menu does...

Interesting, where is the best skinning tutorial around these parts?

there doesn't seem to be one. I'm new too and I've been asking around a bit. Oh and by the way it's themeing not skinnig with LS. You don't just change the look of things but how they work too.
As far as I can gather it seems that you learn LS by looking at other themes and seeing how they do things, and by reading the documentation for the modules.

i agree...the best way to learn to skin is to analyze other themes, thats how i learned.

Yeah, thats how I learned talisman, but it requires almost no coding, I'm not a programmer so I need things spelled out for me. Tahnks for the input.

there is a sticky thread with tutorials. Take a look at them, although the best way to learn the ways of LiteStep is probably to start with a simply structured theme and modify bits and pieces of it. omar's themes are great looking and all, but I think you'd better start off by tweaking a less advanced theme, which have less files to edit and uses less modules and stuff. good luck.

if you have a look, most module documentation is written in a manner that the easiest to use commands are at the top, with the more complex ones towards the end.

i suggest browsing a good module site such as http://www.loose-screws.com, and reading the module descriptions on those which interest you.

i know learning litestep is strange, but when you get to know it you'll realise just how hard it would be to write a comprehensive "how-to" tutorial.

spiritofcat: PNG support was added in 2001. Dunno if that still counts as "fairly new". :)
Anyway, the LS core itself can't provide support for the PNG alpha channel. Modules have to implement it themselves, but only a few such as layercut do. PNGs without the alpha channel are supported by all modules.

actually, if you take into account murphy's builds, there has been support for png in litestep since 1999.

hehe...

I guess the best way to begin a theme is to only load a desktop module (jdesk), hotkey, lsxcommand and popup2. Then, you are really free to say to yourself: "And now ?"
That's the way I made all my themes; even when I was a newbie.