Some time ago I would have enthusiastically said "Yes, by all means!" but now we are really close to the Winstep Theme Builder, so I fear it would be a HELL OF A LOT OF WORK for nothing, as once the Theme Builder is out meddling directly with INI files is not only no longer necessary as it is not advised (a GUI can filter for wrong values/ranges).

If I understood correctly, then any user can create their own theme by selecting different modules in the constructor (clocks, baskets, disks, weather, etc.)? A very interesting solution! Will the constructor be like a separate program? Paid or free?

Separate, free.

There is a lot of work ahead that will require a lot of time and effort to create the program. Good luck to you!

And your reply is exactly why I asked out of respect as I had a feeling you were that far along.
I am happy to do any additional screenshots etc or anything that may share the load though it seems like you have it all covered.

I changed this post due to a conscious decision.

For everyone who has downloaded my themes from the Gallery - NOTICE:

As of the next major Winstep update, there is a facility to ensure that the main menu will not transfer to the submenu's. What this means for you all...

There are around ten themes I have never uploaded due to them having very creative menu's that do not vertically stretch, and this addition overcomes that avoidance. ALL themes that have menus that do not stretch well will have these. This means most if not all of the 25 Music theme's I recently did and at least 70% of all themes currently in the Gallery.

When this occurs I will do ten at a time which will take a little while. Apologies for any inconvenience but I believe you will all enjoy the ones you have a little more, because they will work exactly as I originally intended them to.

P.S. I have already done a 200% menu rescale in preferences in the ones I will be adding to and even before the addition in the next update, the rescaling works well.

I would have to when I first started looking at themes on Nexus - it always annoyed me that those .ini files (and the effects of their settings) weren't documented!

Anyway now that the 'thing which can now be named' is back in the frame, do we have any projections on when it will be with us?

From what I gather and Jorge is always going to be the best source of accuracy, the next update will include a facility for Menu balancing and alternatives for lack of a better phrase. I imagine from what he has said that is getting closer on a weekly basis.

If I was to make an educated guess, because I have a decent idea of just how much work he has done and is likely still working on, next update only, not the builder, should be sometimes in around a month and the Theme Builder around Christmas. Ultimately, only Jorge can be more precise and this is just an educated guess, nothing more.

- I can also see why he wants people to dispense with directly editing the configuration files. from my own personal experience I'll give an example that I catch myself out on regularly.... Centering.

The numbering, depending on which file you are working on can vary slightly. for example 0=left, 1=Centered, 2 = right. Not only is it really easy to forget to adjust which causes its own alignment issues with displayed numbers that move from 0-100, in a couple of other files, they do not mean exactly the same thing. That says more than enough.
In other words, it is really easy to mess it up manually editing config files, no matter how careful anyone may be and that can be from a small messup to a big one. This I believe is the main reason he is doing a GUI interface for skinning with full explanations on what each choice will do. It is a shitload of work what he is doing. I imagine more than 50 pages if he intends to cover every possible setting in Nexus, workshelf and every module and the Menu's.

They weren't documented because initially all skinning options were handled directly through the GUI. Nothing required manual editing, so documenting the INI files wasn’t necessary - in fact, editing them was discouraged.

This changed after v9.5, when I removed the old NeXT‑style controls, modernized the interface, and added proper multi‑language support. Because the UI was already overloaded with settings and the skinning options added significantly to the clutter, while only a tiny percentage of users ever created skins, I therefore decided to remove those options from the main GUI.

That was a good decision, but suddenly the only way to tweak certain theme elements was through the INI files, and that’s when documentation became important.

The long‑term plan wasn’t “edit INIs forever”. The idea was to replace the old GUI skin settings with a dedicated Winstep Theme Builder capable of creating full Winstep themes - docks, shelves, desktop modules, NextSTART menus, everything. The goal was a unified, modern tool for building complete themes across the entire suite.

I did build an alpha version, but it only got as far as supporting Nexus dock themes. Even at that early stage, it already handled native Nexus skins with overlays and advanced compositing effects that other docks didn’t support.

But… nobody used it.

At the time, most skinners were comfortable editing INI files, and Nexus supported RocketDock skins out of the box. That format was familiar, easy to port, and had a huge existing ecosystem. So instead of adopting the more powerful native Nexus format - or demanding full Winstep theme support - everyone stuck with RocketDock‑style INI editing.

Existing Winstep skinners were few and far between at the time too and they were all pretty comfortable editing INI files, and so I lost all the wind on my sails for the Winstep Theme Builder. The alpha version is still available somewhere.

Even after all this time only a couple of Winstep themes use overlays for the docks, which is a pity since it allows for some very unique styles (one of the reasons I found it amusing when Andrew and Picco asked for menu overlays). One of the few themes that does (it uses a frosted glass overlay for docks) is the old Paint On Glass theme, for instance.



Ahah, this reminds me of the endless references to and requests for the "mythical Nexus" back when WorkShelf was only a single shelf with a few desktop modules.

One day it simply happened. It will be the same thing with the Theme Builder, and I can feel it in my bones that day is very, very, close. But I cannot give you an actual date - if you have read the multiple "What's new after..." threads you already know what happens.

I was also going back and forth between integrating the Theme Builder back into the applications themselves or having it as a separate application, started working on the former and stopped because it became apparent that a separate application was indeed the best solution.

I cannot speak for Picco but for myself, I was completely unaware that Nexus had an overlay system. Sounds like that was more in Mindy, RND and Webgizmos time? I also need to work more on NEXUS, I have neglected it a bit. I'll check it out.

Thanks for the module overlay info. I have so far only used it for gauges and other objects related to making moving objects appear more static or placements and the Disks. I should have thought of that but it never occurred to me. Of course it does... great... Thanks !!!
I am going to play with that. So there is no Overlay for the weather module? I ask because there is for mail, net, CPU, RAM, Clock, Trash, Battery, Disk and Wanda, with the Moon having the Zodiac overlay.

I gather you will give details of the Overlay mode in Nexus in the theme builder based on what you have said.

Themelovers should have a look on Skinbase.
Some lesser mentioned skinners who did some really great things have themes there. like Kittycat670 and several others. There are some really clever and creative ideas on there. Worth a look if nothing else even though some themes are older.

Many theme developers have created themes for other programs, such as Aston and Talisman, which offer a wealth of interesting design options. Is it possible that their creators are no longer in touch (by phone or email), and we've lost their creations forever? Too bad!

Life happens to for all of us. While some people might say "You're on a roll"... the thing is we all have a life. At some point and I have no idea when, it will be my time too.

When I first got Winstep Extreme I did dig that out and install it to try and help figure out how to make Theme changes, but I was trying to modify Nexus and Workshelf so it was of limited use.

Anyway it will be interesting to see the new Theme builder when it arrives!

Working on a simple and so far, effective theme. It is simply called "Scenery".
I have selected basically a neutral color and tested with around 15 varied wallpapers of cities, waterways, beaches, sunsets, open grassland, mountains, waterfalls and more.

Some it works better than others. The idea is anyone can put their favourite scene as the wallpaper and it will work without interfering. Not happy yet and surprisingly it is more difficult than it sounds to get it sitting with everything. I have concluded that there is a middle ground and when I find it, I'll put it up. I am going to try the 75% transparent theme idea I have wanted to for some time next. Simply put, it means menus, workshelf, everything with be equivocally transparent. It'll work or it won't.
Cheers

Something like this - early days...

The advantage is there are a pile of free and paid Transparent systems for Windows, Glass2K, windhawk etc etc so it is possible to make every single window transparent to match.