Skinning WeBuilder

[davenz]

I know this will be sneered at as completely inane and useless, but I would like to be able to add my own icons and toolbar styles to WeBuilder, much as one can do with Firefox, Opera and tons of other programs. I imagine the ability to skin a program is something that has to be coded in right from the start, so I initially considered this an impossible ask without completely recoding the software and therefore not worth even mentioning, however I thought that since the toolbar and GUI styles can be switched between Modern, Classic and Standard anyway that perhaps this might not be so tough to achieve after all.

I am sure many users would come up with nice skins (not to say the editor doesn't look great anyway) and the community could share and swap ideas and images.

Just my two cents,

Thanks

[FrankC]

I agree, and if this is difficult, a new - really modern - skin would be a sales booster. Although WB offers the option to switch between Modern, Standard and Classic, in reality it is between Standard, Classic and Ancient.

[davenz]

I agree, and if this is difficult, a new - really modern - skin would be a sales booster. Although WB offers the option to switch between Modern, Standard and Classic, in reality it is between Standard, Classic and Ancient.

The 'ancient' look is kind of retro, and it also uses a lot less CPU than the others with their shadows and fancy gradients.

I might get adventurous one day and make up my own icon set for it then find which .exe or dll contains them all and swap them out one by one just to customise the look of it. Like I said, it isn't that it doesn't look good already, I just like personalising things and skinning is a good way of doing it.

If the developers didn't want to consider skinning, they could ask for user-submitted ideas for GUI designs and pick the best five (or whatever) and offer them as optional downloads to keep the basic editor slim and fast. This involves the user-base (not that they have any issues with bonding with their customers) and makes us feel more like we are part of the whole process, rather than just end users. Winning design authors could get a free Lear jet, a holiday complete with a tour of the Blumentals offices to met the team or maybe a copy of the software at 10% off or something like that.

Just an idea....

[garethjmsaunders]

Also, are there any plans or considerations to use the Microsoft Ribbon UI for WeBuilder? I know that some people either love it or hate it, but I wondered if it was being considered? I for one really like it and can see how it could really benefit the usability of WeBuilder.

Gareth

[JSpav]

I know this will be sneered at as completely inane and useless

To the contrary. Titivated interfaces are why we have Mac fan bois who can't see past the way their pixels are organised compared with Microsoft.

I doubt that I have the patience (or talent) to complete a skin but I would sure download them and admire them while I belted the keyboard. I change my editing colour scheme every few months just to freshen the visual appeal.

Here's my current. Not anywhere as good as a new skin but it's refreshing to the eyes to swap between dark/light backgrounds.



I think interchangeable colour schemes would complement skins nicely.