Manage Custom Skins

About Skins

A dark skin (Figure 1.) can help prevent eye strain in a darkened theater or venue. However, the Windows standard appearance is the best choice for sessions when you are creating and editing Sound Lists because buttons and input fields will provide enhanced feedback (selection highlighting, mouse-over hightlight, etc.). Use the dark skins on event night when you are not doing intense editing/designing. There are a few infrequently used pop up dialogs that do not render with the custom skins colors.

Figure 1. Black Skin (click for larger view)

Adding or Editing Custom Skins

Open the Skins List by clicking View -- Skins -- Edit Custom Skins . Click Add or Insert (Figure 2.) to create a new custom skin (adds to the bottom of the list or inserts at the selected position). Select a skin in the list and click Edit to pop up the Color Group Editor to change its colors. Reorder the skins (Up or Down arrows) if you want your favorites to appear at the top of the 'Use Custom Skin' selection list. Remove will delete the selected skin. Undo Remove will restore only the last removed skin. If you Remove All skins, the list will be repopulated with the four default skins when you click OK . See the Color Group Editor page for more detail.

Skin Color Editing

Note: Opacity is not allowed for Skins colors (a Windows restriction).

Use the Color Group Editor (Figure 3.) to set a skin's colors. The Name you specify will appear in the 'Use Custom Skin' menu so using a name that describes the skin colors is helpful. Set a Foreground (used for text color) and Background color (used for the window background) . White is not an optimal choice for foreground color because Windows will highlight selected menu items with a white background. And white text on a white background is invisible. But you can use white if you don't that mind that minor annoyance.