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Visual Styles

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When you start WindowBlinds for the first time, the default tab at the bottom of the screen is set to "Visual Styles". When you click on each menu tab (bottom) it will change the area under the preview area to options related to that tab. This section will detail the options related to selecting and applying a visual style (skin). Additional pages will cover the other tabs and top menu options.

Visual Style tab.

Below the preview area are options to "Filter by" the following:

 Action

 Description
Filter by - rating of skin. Each visual style has a rating and by clicking on the number of stars next to "Filter by ... and higher" WindowBlinds will only show you thumbnails matching your preference. So for example, if you selected four stars, you will only see thumbnails of skins with four or five stars. By default, each visual style is given a rating of three stars when WindowBlinds is first installed. You can change the rating of a skin by clicking on the number of stars in the thumbnail.
Search by title, and author.

The Search box allows you to type in a word and the results will be displayed immediately. This is a quick way to find the desired skin(s). This will search on the following fields: title, and author. Clicking X will clear the search box and display all thumbnails. This is helpful as you accumulate a lot of skins.

Under the filter options, are thumbnails of available visual styles (Windows Aero is shown selected (default)) displaying a small sample of the skin.

Underneath each thumbnail is a caption with the title of the visual style (i.e. Corporate), author (i.e. daniloOc for Stardock) and rating (i.e. 3 stars by default). You can change the rating by clicking on the desired star (i.e. 2nd star for two stars, 5th star for five stars). Clicking on a thumbnail will select it, which changes the preview to a larger sample view of the skin. The selected thumbnail appears brighter, so you know which skin is in the preview. You can change the settings of the selected skin, before applying to your desktop.


Thumbnail of the Corporate skin.Unselected skin.
Corporate skin shown selected.Selected skin.

To view more thumbnails, either move the cursor anywhere over the thumbnails and hold down your left mouse button. Then drag the horizontal display of thumbnails to the left or right. You can also drag quickly & release and the thumbnails will briefly slide by (if more thumbnails are available in that direction). Or left click & hold on the gray scroll bar under the thumbnails (seen when you move the cursor over the thumbnails) and slide to the right or left.

How to Apply a Skin

To apply a new visual style (skin), with the "Visual Styles" tab selected, scroll to the desired skin and click on it to preview. Once you find the skin you want to apply to your desktop, you can apply in any of the following ways:

  • Double-click the thumbnail for the desired visual style.
  • Click "Apply changes" in the upper, left corner of the top menu bar.
  • Click on "Skin Options" (top menu) and select "Apply changes".

Any of these will apply the selected visual style to your desktop. When it changes, you may see your screen appear blurry, lose color and a Stardock logo or other graphic appear in the center while the change occurs, this is normal. After the skin has been applied to your desktop, you will see the WindowBlinds title bar, frame, Windows taskbar, etc. change to reflect the selected skin.

Sublime visual skin shown applied to Start Menu and taskbar.

Alternative Skin Styles

On the tab to the right of "Visual Styles" is an alternative skin styles tab (i.e. 1 Style, 8 Styles). Each visual style may have additional skin styles (also known as sub-styles (or compound skins)), with different colour choices.

Styles tab for Aero Wood showing 5 of 8 substyles.

Clicking X (far right, under preview) will close the "Styles" tab and return to the "Visual Styles" tab.

 

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