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HELLO FROM CHESHIRE UK , AND A LITTLE HELP,PLEASE ! ! !

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 9:07 am
by mike_b1954
Hello everyone ! I would like to introduce myself !!

I have been skinning Desktop Sidebar for a while now , and have just discovered this amazing little application ... and wow ..I am impressed ... Its about time something like this was made ,the developer certainly gets my thanks for a great prog!!

~ and I like the fact that the whole Xion Player can easily be skinned .. so I am looking forward to having a go myself ..

As a "Silver Surfer" things may have to be run by me a few times to sink in ... so please be patient , folks !!

I look forward to contributing to the Xion Community , ... but ~ for the moment ~ please expect a truckload of newbie questions as I find my way around ...ok ? !


So... here we go with the First question(s)/problem ... :

Having just downloaded the program , I had a look at the skins available ...and downloaded a couple to start me off ... However , when I go to the "CHOOSE SKIN" OPTION IN THE RIGHT CLICK MENU , I do not see the skins that I have downloaded in the window that appears ... Just the Default ones ... and in the downloaded skin folder all I see is a psd file - whatever that is ... and a font file

So I am not quite sure what is happening here ... Any takers ? !!

Regards.

Mike

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 10:12 am
by BoXXi
Hi Mike, welcome to the xion forums....... O.K., this is how it works...... Xion uses .psd files to display skins. These are native Photoshop files (PhotoShopDocument) complete with all the layers etc. If the files that you have downloaded end in .psd, you can just put them in C:\Program Files\r2studios\xion\interfaces and they should show in the skin list.
If the files you have end in .xsf, then these are basically .psd files that have been zipped up and renamed. with .xsf files, all you have to do is double click them and they should automatically install the skin in the interfaces folder.
I hope this helps. If you have any more problems, come back here and someone will help you. :)

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 10:36 am
by mike_b1954
Hi Boxxi ! Thanks for that,mate ..I truly appreciate it !! I managed to get your BlackGloss skin running .. I like the dancer !!

I have another question ... I cannot afford Photoshop ( I hope to soon ! ~ )
~ ~so I do a lot of my skinning, especially for Desktop Sidebar , in paintnet ... will there be a problem if I begin to make a Xion skin with this ? File mismatch or summat else ?

- - Just wondering !!

Once again thanks for your help !!

Regards

Mike

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 2:24 pm
by I.R. Brainiac
Should be fine if it supports layers and naming layers...and can save as .psd. :)

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 6:22 pm
by BoXXi
Hi again Mike, I took a look around and I found that you CAN save layered images from Paintdotnet as .psd files, but you need a plugin to do it. You can get it here..... http://frankblumenberg.de/doku/doku.php?id=paintnet:psdplugin I'm not sure if it will save ALL the information in your layers accurately, but it's worth a try. Remember, when you skin for Xion, ALL the layers have to be intact when you put the .psd into the Interfaces folder, as Xion reads all the individual layers and builds your skin from them.
So don't think that you have to flatten the image or merge the layers when you are finished, because you don't.

I hope the plug-in works for you. :)

PostPosted: July 12th, 2007, 6:29 pm
by SLoB
welcome to the Xion forum :)
don't forget Gimp is also free and can save native psd

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 1:14 am
by mike_b1954
Thanks very much , Boxxi ! ! I will d/l that plugin right away ..

@SLoB and I R Brainiac : Hello ! I have also d/loaded Gimp and I am checking it out too ...

Finally .. for now ,anyway ... How do I make Xion play my WMP music ? :?:

I have checked all over the forum , but no luck (yet ! ) I do not have any mp3 files in my library just plain music taken directly from my original CD's ...Mostly Classical !!

Once again , to both of you ... thanks for your help ( and of course , patience !! )

Regards

Mike

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 5:00 am
by SLoB
you mean wma? the pl should load the formats that are on the homepage

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 9:21 am
by mike_b1954
Hi again ... sorry to be such a nuisance , folks ... I can assure you it's not intentional !!

What I would like to see is the playlist/library that I have in WMP11 so that instead of opening wmp11 to play my music , I would like to have the Xion Player doing it ...

~ Is there a special combination of buttons that I am missing here ...as the playlist does not show at all .. ? ? :?:

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 12:41 pm
by Cliff Cawley
mike_b1954 Wrote:Hi again ... sorry to be such a nuisance , folks ... I can assure you it's not intentional !!

What I would like to see is the playlist/library that I have in WMP11 so that instead of opening wmp11 to play my music , I would like to have the Xion Player doing it ...

~ Is there a special combination of buttons that I am missing here ...as the playlist does not show at all .. ? ? :?:


Hi Mike,

You will have to add your songs to Xion as currently Xion doesn't have access to anything within Windows Media Player.

Most of your music will probably be in your 'My Music' folder on your computer.

If you use the Xion playlist and click Add->Add Directory and then navigate to your My Music folder and click Open, Xion will add all of the music that is held there.

Cliff :)

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 1:00 pm
by mike_b1954
Hello Cliff , and thanks for taking the time out to reply , I appreciate it, mate !!

I have followed your tip and at last my Xion plays Beethoven - hehehe !!

Congrats , by the way ,on a brilliant little application , Once I can find my way around it without any hiccups I hope to send up a few skins - might be a bit of time before that happens , but all good things are worth waiting for !! :!:

Once again , cheers , Cobber !! ~ and a zillion thanks !! ( break open a cannie !! )

Regards

Mike

PostPosted: July 13th, 2007, 5:07 pm
by Cliff Cawley
mike_b1954 Wrote:Hello Cliff , and thanks for taking the time out to reply , I appreciate it, mate !!

I have followed your tip and at last my Xion plays Beethoven - hehehe !!

Congrats , by the way ,on a brilliant little application , Once I can find my way around it without any hiccups I hope to send up a few skins - might be a bit of time before that happens , but all good things are worth waiting for !! :!:

Once again , cheers , Cobber !! ~ and a zillion thanks !! ( break open a cannie !! )

Regards

Mike


Great to hear Mike! We'll look forward to some skins from you in the future!

Cliff :)

PostPosted: July 15th, 2007, 4:10 pm
by skryingbreath
*twitch*