Hello everyone,

I am new to Litestep and I have already managed to learn how to install themes. I have already updated to the latest Litestep releases and modifications, but now I am seeking more. I would like to make my own themes, but I have not been able to find any helpful sources for making my own themes. I look through sample theme.rc files that I download, but they all make no sense at all. There are so many complications and .rc files that I have no idea where to start. I would like to become "pro" at this like many of you, but to do that I would REALLY need some help from everyone here on the litestep.net forums.

In this sense, for any of you reading my post, please help me out by showing me all your knowledge and from where on the internet did you exactly learn all of your Litestep skills. Don't take me as some lazy person who doesn't know how to use a search tool, because the "search" option on these forums are down, and so are the "docs." I am not a noob because I am just like any of you where when you first started litestep, a beginner looking for help. A noob is someone who doesn't even care.

The more sources and links you give me about making your own themes, the more I will thank you! Please understand that I want to learn a lot about Litestep. Thank you!

Note: I have been to
http://www.xdocs.ls-universe.info/pie.php?page=HTMAT
and that seems to be too basic. How do I advance beyond that and learn how to apply my own colors/textures or make animated taskbars, for example. Where are the "real deal" tutorials??

Well...that is the "real deal" tutorial. Once you learn those things you apply those learnings to a new module. So take that basic theme and start replacing graphics and moving things around. Then add something new and so on and so forth.

Hmm..., I guess I can go with that. By the way, does anyone have any access to the Litestep documentation files?

http://lsdocs.shellfront.org

They are also stored locally on your machine in the docs folder.

Thanks, but I have seen that site before:^ I am still wondering, is that all there really is for Litestep documentation? I mean, where did you, for example, or others who are making such great themes, learn how to make themes? Please, there are so many things!

That is all the documentation for what WAS core to LiteStep. Since then all of the modules were ripped out of the core distribution. Beyond that information you have documents that come with each and every module that tell you how to manipulate it. I learned how to do everything I know with LiteStep through trial and error and the deconstruction and manipulation of others themes. There really isn't much out there that goes into ultra high level configurations. You can check out some of the things in the Code section of the forums, there are some good snipits in there from time to time. Basic rule of thumb though is don't make it more complicated than it already is. LS is a big puzzle where you control the finished picture.

For making themes, take a look at http://o-t-s.sf.net/

The complete documentation for LiteStep is "release_notes.txt" in the 0.24.7 Final archive on http://www.lsdev.org/. All other documentation is module specific and included with each module archive.

I've posted a LiteStep from Scratch comment in the forums here somewhere. Can't seem to find it right now.

Hey, thanks a lot everyone! Well, I guess I'll go with what I can find.

Oh and one quick question. Can any of you explain how to assign colors to text, for example, works? I don't understand how you get transparent from FF00FF. How do the F's and the 0's work? Help!

Uhh...those are RGB color codes...just like you would see in HTML.

http://www.pitt.edu/~nisg/cis/web/cgi/rgb.html

Oh sweet, thanks!Oh and how can I find out what all the *Label commands are? For example, when you label something, you can put down many things for it, like X or Y, or Image path, or OnRightClick..., how do I find out what the complete list of label commands are? thanks again!

Read the docs for label or xlabel depending on which you are using? $LiteStepDir$modules\docs Come on man...I thought you said you were doing some looking and reading.

hmm thats rough...

Also to see which modules are loaded and what bang commands are
available use the !about bang command.

it is in the popup menu also!
Rock on!

hello. thank you for your comments, I haven't posted in a long time. Well which installer would you guys recommend? LOSI or Omar's? and tell me why and what's the difference between the two? Thank you all so much!

LOSI is up to date, and has several more install options. i highly recommend LOSI. omar's installer was the installer of choose before LOSI came out though, and has a decent installer. the only problem with the omar installer is that you have to get the updated files, and it is slightly more complicated to use.

I recommend LOSI.

My understanding is that LOSI is still being developed and is considered a beta distribution. Omar's installer is old and does require some updating, but is the most widely used install.